I just want to comment on one particular point made by Pete. On Wed, Aug 26, 2020 at 8:27 PM Pete Forsyth <petefors...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Institutional memory is important BOTH to staff of WMF, AND to the > volunteer community. > > I think both you and I, Michael, have blurred these two issues to some > degree. It would be possible for (a) WMF to fully and privately document > the relevant history (which could be a function of top-down leadership > and/or staff culture), and for (b) volunteers to fully and publicly > document relevant history (growing out of volunteer culture, presumably > with some input from staff). > > Whereas this is correct as a general statement, in practice, volunteers can not document the institutional history. This documentation can not be a bottom-up process similar to writing a Wikipedia article. For a very simple reason: There are many viewpoints at every particular event, and the documentation of volunteers will inevitably reflect one of the points. Sure, one person can write an analysis of a particular incident from their point of view, or even a book on the history of Wikipedia. This person can be a knowledgeable volunteer having general trust of the community or it could be a user under a site ban. However, a collective product will inevitably face the necessity of choice. In writing a Wikipedia article, we use reliable sources to select material (and when reliable sources clash, we usually face a disaster). Here, we are talking about the events which no reliable sources describe in detail. An organization can document them on a basis of performed investigation. A single person can document them on the basis of their memory and experience. But I do not see how any grassroot collaboration could be possible here. Any attempt to document these things from the volunteer side would lead to projects similar to V-ocracy (which already happened in some languages). Best regards Yaroslav > _______________________________________________ > 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>
