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WALRUS/May 2022

< WALRUS

WALRUS meeting, on Mon May 30, at 9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific:

Attendees

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  1. Lane Rasberry / bluerasberry
  2. Julie
  3. Megs
  4. Dan / Enterprisey
  5. Benjamin
  6. David T
  7. Rae Adimer
  8. Xeno (WMF); Facilitator - Movement Strategy and Governance
  9. Rosie Stephenson Goodnight
  10. James Hare
  11. Ryan / Rhododendrites
  12. Peter Meyer
  13. Clifford_Anderson
  14. joehoover / Myotus

Agenda

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Updates from WMF Liaison

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2022 Board of Trustees Election timeline
late April - early May: select North America affiliate representative for Analysis Committee
Mid-May - early June: members of the Analysis Committee rate candidates.

Updates from WMF Liaison

  1. 2022 Board of Trustees Election timeline
    1. There is a Wikimedia Foundation trustee election in progress!
    2. Xeno: Where we are right now is selecting a person to sit on the analysis committee. I know it is a tough decision to select someone. The committee will be reviewing the skills of the candidates to assess their compatibility with the needs of the board this round. The intent of the committee is to reduce the cognitive load of voters who would later be reviewing these candidates. The process brings a 12 candidate slate to 6 seats before going to broad Wikimedia community vote.
    3. Question: What is the analysis committee doing?
      1. They will be reviewing the candidate statements and compare them against the desired skills and experiences published by the board.
      2. Xeno says that in February 2022 there was community feedback that led to the community seats and the affiliate selection seats being edit, to clarify: merged into one election selected in this manner (the community and affiliate seats were merged in 2020; the Call for Feedback helped inform the structure of the current election)
    4. Question: so the analysis committee will be giving advice to Wikimedia affiliate organizations about the qualifications of the candidates?
      1. Xeno: Yes, and each of the 120 affiliate organizations will have one vote to cast to make the
    5. Megs: Did you say that the affiliate representatives will be voting by email?
      1. Xeno: The representative for each Wikimedia affiliate organization will get a ballot to cast in Securepoll on the voting wiki.
    6. Megs: Can a person sit on the analysis committee and be the voter for their affiliate?
      1. Xeno: There is no rule against that if the affiliate wishes. The affiliate will know the vote anyway. If the person who would cast the vote likes, they can pass voting permission to another person.
    7. Rosie: Thanks Xeno for joining the call and helping us understand how all this is supposed to work. I looked at the timeline as it appears on Meta, and it looks like time has passed for North America to cast a vote. I also understand that the analysis commitee has convened to plan their work. Does North America still have time to join the analysis committee and meaningfully participate? Are you expecting that we do it tonight, or are you expecting that they will join tonight? Can you clarify how this should work?
    8. Xeno: I do not think we need to have an answer tonight because people may be absorbing the nature of this discussion. We could have a provisional person if that is useful. The meeting which has already been held was introductory, but this Friday there will be a meeting for production. All the meetings should end in early June.
    9. Richard: We are behind the timeline, but it seems that most regions are also behind the timeline. For Western Europe there was one candidate, two people voted for them, then that person withdrew. Then in Central Europe there was one candidate and one vote.
    10. Rosie: Can you tell us what regions are participating in the analysis committee?
      1. Xeno: Europe may be taking the route of South Asia by not participating in this work. I do not think North American affiliates would be unduly prejudiced by the progress. I do think that North America should join "storming forming norming before they start to perform" (?). I do not think what is happening is confidential so if someone in North America got on the email chain then I think that would be suitable.
    11. Megs: is there an already set schedule of meetings for the analysis committee?
      1. Xeno: Let me see if we have anything like that yet. I will update you later. (later) https://wudele.toolforge.org/uvV4tdta8bK4OBur

Conference updates

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  1. Wikimania 2022 global conference
    1. hybrid (virtual & regional in-person events)
    2. August 11-14
    3. affiliate local meetup grants due June 3
    4. this is the biggest of the upcoming conferences
    5. it is the international Wiki conference which most people know
    6. in person it used to be a 1000 person conference
    7. there will be some in-person meetups associated with the conference in August, and we hope to apply for funds to organize a couple of those in North America
    8. There is a proposal to meet in Pittsburgh by Tricia Burmeister, a Wikimedia Foundation staffer. She encouraged Wikimedia community members to write a grant proposal and have one in her town.
      1. comments: we have no known community organizers there
      2. it is a long train ride from our established communities
      3. sometimes organizing in new towns surfaces new community organizers
      4. a grant would rent a community center and pay for local housing for people to stay to convene in person
      5. perhaps Philadelphia would be better because it is a midpoint between communities?
      6. everyone is encouraged to apply for grants, there are enough available, anyone making an application would not take away from anyone else
    9. James Hare: Could it happen that the Wikimedia Foundation would fund two groups to host one event?
      1. Richard: I talked with some people involved and they were open to the proposal.
    10. Timing of Wikimania:
      1. Livestream times in US eastern time: (not including sessions in middle of the night)
      2. Thursday 7-9:30pm (Asia focus)
      3. Friday 7-9:30pm, (Americas focus)
      4. Saturday 9-11:30am (Americas focus)
      5. 5pm-8pm (Europe-Africa focus)
      6. Sunday 5pm-8pm. (Global focus)
    11. Rosie: Xeno, can you give some insight into what anyone should expect at any of these meetings. Are they repeatative, should anyone join more than one?
      1. Xeno: The IRC office hours ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours ) are organized by Maggie Dennis, who heads several times including mine. Maggie speaks on community develop and the new human rights team. As volunteer 'Moonriddengirl', voted neutral on my RfA and after that I reexamined my admin practices. I try to attend her office hours and like the conversations she is advancing. Regarding the hubs idea and leadership development, I like the Barnstar Country idea and hope it matures.
  2. Wikimedia Enterprise
    1. Xeno: this project is hosting office hours, I am not part of this team. If anyone is interested then please join.
    2. Megs: Wikimedia Enterprise is the shame of the Wikimedia community. Liam and the Wikimedia Enterprise are paid by the Wikimedia Foundation to advocate for it. They are not being paid by the LLC.
    3. Peter: I have not heard the criticism. If there is a controversy then we should discuss it.
  3. WikiConference North America (WCNA)
    1. partnership opportunities with OpenStreetMap for joint WCNA and Mapping USA conference, and with Hacks/Hackers to focus on disinformation
    2. grant application deadline: June 13
    3. proposed dates: Nov 4-5 and circa Oct 13
  4. WikiConference North America (WCNA)
    1. Last year's report is submitted to WMF Grants. Peter is making a slide show of key details of how we did organize; what we could or should replicate. This is relevant for WCNA 2022 and maybe the QW 2022 conference
    2. partnership opportunities with OpenStreetMap for joint WCNA and Mapping USA conference, and with Hacks/Hackers to focus on disinformation
    3. grant application deadline: June 13
    4. proposed dates: Nov 4-5 and circa Oct 13
    5. Peter: There is past collaboration between Wikimedia community groups and OpenStreetMap. Currently the president of OSM United States is Minh Nguyen, who is a Wiki editor and OSM editor.
    6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mxn
    7. https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Minh_Nguyen
    8. We need to apply for a grant by mid-June. We could do this but we need
    9. two people to sign the grant agreement and commit to fiscal oversight, and probably they should join a conference committee
    10. to write the grant
  5. Queering Wikipedia 2022
    1. this fall
    2. online and global
    3. US$30,000 available for paid project management - apply now QW2022/call for project management
    4. The organizing group has been meeting monthly for 10 years. Wants to have some translation between five languages in this online conference
    5. WMF and organizers hope to hire pro event planners/organizers
    6. Time is short to make decisions ; they've interviewed FIVE possible planners. They may end up with an unknown/nonwiki person
    7. If anyone knows anyone who wants to manage the conference for money then contact me
      1. budget - Grants:Conference/QW22/QW2022
      2. video about conference manager call - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM6dtu7DLas
    8. Peter: I am interested in helping somehow with QW2022 but can't run it on a large scale. We can replicate some of WCNA 2021
    9. Rosie: I’d be glad to be on the QW2022 Safety Committee if you need 1 more person.
    10. Rae: ^ Same. If there's any need for conduct/user moderation and safety, I'd be happy to help.
    11. Megs: [Queers Needed]
  6. Celtic Knot Conference 2022
    1. virtual
    2. July 1-2
    3. minority and minoritized languages on the Wikimedia projects
  7. Campaigns
    1. Editathon campaigns
    2. Local History Wikipedia Edit-a-Thons in Minnesota
    3. Joe Hoover: series of events with about 10 attendees
    4. for these small towns there is very little written about them
    5. Wiki events tend to happen most often in larger regional cities
    6. I have been talking with local outreach specialists about doing collaborations with tribal organizations and we want to do a pilot, as do these organizations
    7. question: have you been in touch with other wiki editors in Minnesota?
    8. yes I have been on Wikipedia for 10 years and know the local wiki community
    9. I have been looking for years at local museums, historical societies, and other cultural centers about collaborations
    10. comment: this lapsed, maybe revive? https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_of_Minnesota_User_Group
    11. I work with all kinds of people. Some of our group want them called "workshops" not editathon, so we speak to the audience.
    12. We just opened registration for some of our events yesterday. For several of the scheduled events we have 3 people signed up when 10 is capacity, so we are happy with the initial response.
    13. We have a local wiki https://www.mnopedia.org/
    14. we collaborated with the administrators to get open licensing for the content there
    15. (various discussions)
    16. Joe: Are there photo contests in Wikimedia?
      1. Yes!
      2. Ryan: We partnered with the Park Alliance, which is a NYC-based nonprofit which supports local parts. We organized a photo contest which resulted in hundreds of photo submissions. The partners wanted more and better photos of parks, and the Wikimedia platform provided the hosting, some judges and the rest. If you are interested in a photo contest then message me.
      3. Richard: There are also Wiki Loves Earth and Wiki Loves Monuments, which are photo contests.
      4. Peter: Wiki Loves Science is a nice photo contest!
      5. Women of District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia - May, 2022
      6. Photo campaigns
      7. Meetup/North Carolina Wikipedians/wikipixNC22 - May 22 to June 22

Campaigns

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  1. Other
    1. Next SWAN call June 5


Let's talk over the analysis committee

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    1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2022/Affiliates_regional_distribution_for_the_Analysis_Committee/North_America#Users_willing_to_be_an_Analysis_Committee_member
    2. It seems that the analysis committee is going to write a voter guide.
    3. comment: How much weight will any of this have?
    4. comment: Are they writing for affiliates or for the voters?
    5. answer: seemingly for the affiliates, not the voters
    6. comment: it did not occur to me that we can take a pass.
    7. comment: Yes, it seems that some regions are boycotting.
    8. Comment: We are evaluating people on metrics which were not developed by the community, and that rubric may not result in the intended diversity.
    9. comment: The community does not have the diversity problem that the Wikimedia Foundation has, which is mostly global north white dudes.
    10. comment: One of the criteria for candidates is explaining their diversity status, which is invasive. There are some people who would not want to be public about this and this is not something that applies to all board members.
    11. comment: it is a very mechanical diversity score
    12. comment: This committee seems like a big time commitment and we do not even know if the affiliates will respect it. Do we gain by putting someone on that committee or will it be a waste of time?
    13. comment: in Central Europe there was one nominee but no one voted for them, and someone declared them as winner.
    14. Rae: One of the person on the analysis committee has 17 edits and another is a steward. This is a broad range.
    15. There are 13 candidates for the WMF Board of Trustees and the analysis committee will narrow it down to 6, (if I heard correctly)
    16. comment: There is an issue that groups like ours (WALRUS) has extra information about candidates in the English speaking world, and we need to communicate that to other parts of the world who cannot evaluate the English speakers as well.
    17. comment: in the previous election I found the compass tool useful.
    18. comment: With only 13 candidates I wonder how useful it is to winnow it down to 6 anyway, rather than just proceeding to the election.
    19. comment: I find this process so directed by WMF rather than community. I know the board was involved somewhat but I think WMF is running this. I do not know why we are emailing WMF.
    20. comment: The candidates did not have space in their applications to give a platform or say what they wish to accomplish.
    21. comment: This is an incredibly overly-complicated election process that minimizes direct community input. So should be interesting to see how it all works.
    22. comment: I find it unfortunate that affiliates are supposed to vote only on this public information that we can see now and this voter guide, then after that, the campaign starts.
  2. Meeting concluded with decision to have a meeting this week with the candidates and hear out their visions or plans for the Analysis committee. That' s likely to be Weds or Thurs evening. A WCNA planning meeting is also a good idea but can wait a bit.

Join

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