Re: [Wikimedia-l] Concerns about WMF's "Manager of Community Development" job posting

[Pine W]

Hi Maggie,

Thank you for getting back to me. I would have been understanding if the 
response came next week, so thanks for the quickness.


I have some additional thoughts to which I hope that you can reply next week.


1. It sounds like WMF intends to centralize the training and leadership 
development work that in recent years has largely been done by affiliates and 
grantees, meaning that affiliates should probably expect budget cuts, and 
individual grants that have been used for outreach work would also probably be 
reduced as WMF moves to take over this type of work. Is that the plan, and if 
so, why? It seems to me that the wikiverse is well served by having wide 
diversity in training initiatives that are customized to individual languages 
and projects. I do not know what would be gained by centralizing these 
functions. I could understand WMF supporting research about effective 
practices, and supporting peer-to-peer communications among community members 
and affiliates regarding effective practices, but moving toward centralizing 
training and leadership development seems like it would do more harm than good.


2. In addition to the practical considerations that I mention above, for 
political and wikilegal reasons I am concerned about the idea of WMF 
centralizing community development work under itself. I am generally opposed to 
the idea that WMF should directly train community members, particularly on 
leadership subjects. I am aware that WMF provides financial support for 
training that affiliates and grantees do, and given the scarcity of non-WMF 
funding sources for this type of work I see little choice but to accept WMF 
financial support for this work. However, given the differences in culture, 
values, priorities, motivations, and ways of working between the WMF and the 
community, and WMF's previous demonstrations of its willingness to grab power 
from the community, I believe that WMF increasing the centralization of 
community development work under itself is inappropriate and unwise.


Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )


 Original message From: Maggie Dennis  
Date: 7/13/18  2:04 PM  (GMT-08:00) To: Wikimedia Mailing List 
 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Concerns about 
WMF's "Manager of Community
  Development" job posting 
Hi, Pine.

Sorry for my brevity. It's rather late on Friday, and I'd like to give you
a response. This position is output 1.2 of the CE "Strategy" program
discussed on Meta in Community Engagement's plan here
.
This role consolidates some of the work that is currently distributed in
Community Resources and some that is currently being done in Learning &
Evaluation and also plays a part in the Movement Organizers program. The
full scope of what this team is and what they do will be determined in
conjunction with phase 2 of strategy and subsequent Foundation plans. The
role is designated as "Manager" as they will have staff for whom they are
responsible, just as other manager positions in the Foundation do.

Best regards,

Maggie




On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 4:31 PM Pine W  wrote:

> Hello WMF folks,
>
> I have some concerns about this job posting:
> https://boards.greenhouse.io/wikimedia/jobs/1239209
>
> In some ways I appreciate that WMF wants to invest more money and time in
> identifying and developing potential volunteer leaders. However, I also
> have some concerns.
>
> * This role appears to have multiple redundancies with efforts that are
> already being done, or are planned to be done, in areas of WMF such as
> GLAM, Community Resources, and Audiences, plus activities that are
> undertaken by affiliates and grantees, so I wonder whether this position is
> adding unnecessary overhead expense and/or attempting to take over work
> that is already being done by community members. Can you clarify what value
> this position is adding, and whether WMF intends to take over scopes of
> work that are currently generally done by affiliates and grantees?
>
> * Was this position described in the 2018-2019 WMF Annual Plan? I was not
> able to find this position, or a scope of work that seemed to fit this
> position, in the Community Engagement Annual Plan. I was able to find a
> statement that talked about researching the needs of community organizers
> (which I think is a good idea!), but this position seems to have multiple
> objectives that are outside of that scope of work. Where is this specific
> position, or its specific scope of work, articulated in the Annual Plan for
> Community Engagement?
>
> * I have a more general concern. The idea of WMF placing itself in the
> position of managing community development is problematic. I generally
> would not want community organizers to learn directly from WMF how the
> Wikimedia community works and/or give new aspiring community leaders the
> idea that they should look to WMF for guidance. 

[Wikimedia-l] WikiConference North America 2018: Proposals and Scholarships now open

[Kevin Payravi]

On behalf of the WikiConference North America organizing team, I'm pleased
to announce that proposal submissions and scholarship applications are now
open! Both are due by August 15.

WikiConference North America 2018 is taking place in Columbus, Ohio, from
October 18-21. Our host is the Ohio State University Libraries, which
provides a great opportunity to work with the local libraries and cultural
institutions.

For submissions, we are looking forward to seeing proposals for
presentations, workshops, roundtables, panels, and more. We also have an
academic peer review track this year.

Scholarship applications are open to Wikimedians who live in North America
and actively contribute to a Wikimedia project. Scholarship awards are $500
USD. The Wiki Education Foundation is also providing their own scholarships
for presenters participating in the academic peer review option.

Visit our website for more information and to submit:
https://wikiconference.org/wiki/2018/Main_Page

Thank you,
Kevin Payravi
SuperHamster on Wikimedia
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Concerns about WMF's "Manager of Community Development" job posting

[Maggie Dennis]

Hi, Pine.

Sorry for my brevity. It's rather late on Friday, and I'd like to give you
a response. This position is output 1.2 of the CE "Strategy" program
discussed on Meta in Community Engagement's plan here
.
This role consolidates some of the work that is currently distributed in
Community Resources and some that is currently being done in Learning &
Evaluation and also plays a part in the Movement Organizers program. The
full scope of what this team is and what they do will be determined in
conjunction with phase 2 of strategy and subsequent Foundation plans. The
role is designated as "Manager" as they will have staff for whom they are
responsible, just as other manager positions in the Foundation do.

Best regards,

Maggie




On Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 4:31 PM Pine W  wrote:

> Hello WMF folks,
>
> I have some concerns about this job posting:
> https://boards.greenhouse.io/wikimedia/jobs/1239209
>
> In some ways I appreciate that WMF wants to invest more money and time in
> identifying and developing potential volunteer leaders. However, I also
> have some concerns.
>
> * This role appears to have multiple redundancies with efforts that are
> already being done, or are planned to be done, in areas of WMF such as
> GLAM, Community Resources, and Audiences, plus activities that are
> undertaken by affiliates and grantees, so I wonder whether this position is
> adding unnecessary overhead expense and/or attempting to take over work
> that is already being done by community members. Can you clarify what value
> this position is adding, and whether WMF intends to take over scopes of
> work that are currently generally done by affiliates and grantees?
>
> * Was this position described in the 2018-2019 WMF Annual Plan? I was not
> able to find this position, or a scope of work that seemed to fit this
> position, in the Community Engagement Annual Plan. I was able to find a
> statement that talked about researching the needs of community organizers
> (which I think is a good idea!), but this position seems to have multiple
> objectives that are outside of that scope of work. Where is this specific
> position, or its specific scope of work, articulated in the Annual Plan for
> Community Engagement?
>
> * I have a more general concern. The idea of WMF placing itself in the
> position of managing community development is problematic. I generally
> would not want community organizers to learn directly from WMF how the
> Wikimedia community works and/or give new aspiring community leaders the
> idea that they should look to WMF for guidance. WMF's purpose is to serve
> the community, not to manage it, and generally WMF's idea of managing the
> community seems to go something like this: "We will decide what choices you
> get to make" (such as with Superprotect) and "We will decide what to fund
> and how the trademarks are used" (given WMF's centralization of funding and
> its legal monopoly on Wikimedia trademarks). If this position will be
> funded then I think that "Community Development Support Specialist" would
> be a much better title, and could be aligned with a scope of work that is
> more supportive of community goals and respectful of community autonomy.
>
> Thank you for listening to my concerns. I look forward to reading your
> response.
>
> Pine( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
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> 



-- 
Maggie Dennis
Interim Chief of Community Engagement
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
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[Wikimedia-l] Concerns about WMF's "Manager of Community Development" job posting

[Pine W]

Hello WMF folks,

I have some concerns about this job posting: 
https://boards.greenhouse.io/wikimedia/jobs/1239209

In some ways I appreciate that WMF wants to invest more money and time in 
identifying and developing potential volunteer leaders. However, I also have 
some concerns.

* This role appears to have multiple redundancies with efforts that are already 
being done, or are planned to be done, in areas of WMF such as GLAM, Community 
Resources, and Audiences, plus activities that are undertaken by affiliates and 
grantees, so I wonder whether this position is adding unnecessary overhead 
expense and/or attempting to take over work that is already being done by 
community members. Can you clarify what value this position is adding, and 
whether WMF intends to take over scopes of work that are currently generally 
done by affiliates and grantees?

* Was this position described in the 2018-2019 WMF Annual Plan? I was not able 
to find this position, or a scope of work that seemed to fit this position, in 
the Community Engagement Annual Plan. I was able to find a statement that 
talked about researching the needs of community organizers (which I think is a 
good idea!), but this position seems to have multiple objectives that are 
outside of that scope of work. Where is this specific position, or its specific 
scope of work, articulated in the Annual Plan for Community Engagement?

* I have a more general concern. The idea of WMF placing itself in the position 
of managing community development is problematic. I generally would not want 
community organizers to learn directly from WMF how the Wikimedia community 
works and/or give new aspiring community leaders the idea that they should look 
to WMF for guidance. WMF's purpose is to serve the community, not to manage it, 
and generally WMF's idea of managing the community seems to go something like 
this: "We will decide what choices you get to make" (such as with Superprotect) 
and "We will decide what to fund and how the trademarks are used" (given WMF's 
centralization of funding and its legal monopoly on Wikimedia trademarks). If 
this position will be funded then I think that "Community Development Support 
Specialist" would be a much better title, and could be aligned with a scope of 
work that is more supportive of community goals and respectful of community 
autonomy.

Thank you for listening to my concerns. I look forward to reading your response.

Pine( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
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