Movement roles project/Initial Questions II/Rossini

Carol Rossini and Jon Huggett spoke by Skype on 2010-12-8

Wikimedia in Brazil is in a crisis: slow growth of articles and editors on Portuguese Wikipedia, impolite language, lots of parallel channels
Huge lack of patience in receiving new editors; more experienced editors not helping newer editors; many new articles blocked because not well done; newcomers left Wikipedia because they were blocked
Elections did not happen because of lack of candidates
There are no technical people at the Wikimedia Foundation who speak Portuguese. Only one steward speaks Portuguese, and people are not happy with his interventions.
Am leading a catalyst project, not part of Brazilian wikimedia community. People that go to Wikimedia meetings are not necessarily representative of community
Foundation has had contact with the same 3-5 people, who were playing the role of advocate
30-40 people engaged in discussions of roles in Brazil
~100 doing Wikimedia work in Brazil now
Takes a lot of time and effort to open a nonprofit in Brazil. There is also a certain prejudice against nonprofit organizations
Disputes with Portugal - 10-15 people working on wiki in Portugal now