2010/9/7 Robert Leverington <rob...@rhl.me.uk>: > if so where are the > minutes and notes for these, because MediaWiki.org seems the obvious > place to put them?
Indeed, there are lots of face-to-face meetings / teleconferences where minutes are currently captured on EtherPad, but I don't think these are routinely visibly shared. I think it would be great, wherever possible, to post these to MediaWiki.org in standardized places so that folks can follow what's happening (and express interest in participating). And while we've stopped using usabil...@wm, there's still quite a bit of e-mail traffic that could be usefully directed toward wikitech-l or to lists that are, at minimum, publicly archived and have clear processes for joining and leaving. You and Ryan both right -- there's still too much of an in-group/out-group communication pattern, and too little explicit invitation of and collaboration with volunteers. As I hope recent communications demonstrate, that's slowly shifting, but it will take some time. And yes, it takes threads like this one. But, Ryan is correct that there's no pattern of deliberate secrecy here either, and if you developed an open source transparency/collaboration scorecard for WMF, you'd probably get a mixed result today. We're doing well in some areas like general corporate transparency [1], or making sure that all code goes into a public VCS, or granting commit access liberally, or being routinely and openly communicative in countless public spaces and at all levels. But there's no reason we shouldn't be best in every category. ;-) And that ultimately means seeing _everything_ as a shared responsibility. Everyone who works for Wikimedia, as a volunteer or staff member, is passionate about what we're doing, or they won't be here for long. We're here to build wonderfully useful information resources and the open source technologies to sustain and grow them -- and to be excellent at it. If we maintain awareness of the forcing functions that influence how people communicate, then I think that's eminently achievable. This includes, for example: - felt deadline pressure in the original usability project - problems with signal/noise ratio on existing lists / channels - in-group bias created by high proximity / peer relationships among WMF staff This isn't a game of assigning responsibilities or blame. Rather, it's about us collectively breaking out of the in-group/out-group pattern, creating constructive and healthy public spaces of communication and collaboration, remaining flexible about deadlines and targets where possible, reminding ourselves to be inclusive and open in how we work, etc. I'm confident that we can do it. :-) Erik [1] It's a fun exercise to research other organizations, non-profits and for-profits. I do so routinely as part of my work, and there are very, very few similarly funded organizations that even come close to the level of disclosure that WMF is currently at. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
