Please Peter. If the WMF was based in either of those places, it would be a very different organization. And in neither case would it be focusing its annual report on some other country's political system.
Risker/Anne On 3 March 2017 at 01:20, Peter Southwood <peter.southw...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > Let me put it another way, > If the WMF was based in Reykjavik, or Abidjan, would the response be the > same? > Cheers, > Peter > > -----Original Message----- > From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On > Behalf Of John Mark Vandenberg > Sent: Friday, March 3, 2017 7:47 AM > To: Wikimedia Mailing List > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] More politics: "WMF Annual Report" > > On Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 11:49 AM, Peter Southwood < > peter.southw...@telkomsa.net> wrote: > > If the format was compiled before Trump was elected, then this argument > is either irrelevant or becomes that the foundation must avoid offending > politicians in power by changing public statements to be uncontroversial at > the time of publishing. > > The arguments being made here are not that WMF should avoid offending > politicians or be uncontroversial. > > Understanding how a message will be received is the core of > communications, and should be reviewed and rechecked by the communications > team throughout a project, and even re-evaluated as the final 'publish' > button is clicked. > > In this case I feel the message of the Annual Report is that WMF is quite > U.S. focused, and is overly anti-Trump. The selection and order of the > first few facts mostly aligns with the key issues in U.S. > politics. Those stories/examples/photos used to justify including these > first few facts in the WMF Annual Report seems occasionally strained. e.g. > How did WMF support Wikimedian Andreas Weith taking photos of polar bears? > > If the WMF wants to project that image, those fact pages need beefing up > to support the WMF staking out a claim to get involved in those fights. > Like others here, I dont think this is the right direction for the WMF to > take, but I agree with all the positions and appreciate the significance of > those issues. The cynic in me feels that the WMF projecting that image > will resonate well with a large percentage of the typical "Wikipedia" > donors. > > Given the facts (in the Annual Report) that most of the worlds population > is still not online, and those coming online or yet to come online usually > do not have access to education resources online in their own language, an > International focus would highlight those facts as critical for the WMF's > mission. Those facts can also very uncomfortable for politicians across > the world, of all political leanings, who spend more on guns than on > books. Those facts are also very uncomfortable for a lot of liberals who > have had a good education and very comfortable lives, with a high quality > Wikipedia in their own language. Those facts also underscore how far we > are away from reaching our mission, and encourage us to re-focus on the > mission and make us pause before getting too involved in problems that are > not clearly on mission. > > -- > John Vandenberg > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2016.0.7998 / Virus Database: 4756/14048 - Release Date: 03/02/17 > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
