Wikimedia Conference 2011/Documentation/International communication and coordination

International communication and coordination

Description: Effective communication and coordination inside a global movement is a difficult task and this issue comes up often in the Wikimedia movement. This session is aimed at discussing common principles and ways that lead to better, sustainable information sharing among actors.

Which experiences do you have?

• Question: Do we agree that there are problems in international communication?
  • Yes!
• Discussing this for a lot of time now, don't know how to fix that problem.

Reporting

• There are different kinds of reports
  • financial reports (annual)
  • activity report (just short facts)
    • The effort is high to publish this
    • The effort increases if you want to publish the report in different languages
    • frustration: Does someone read it? No reaction?

• How many chapters have someone who does writing the report as a job?
• In case we want to be attractive for members, we have to offer something special to the members: This is special information (WMFR: Publish these information via newsletter). For the public, there is a blog and the annual report.
  • Does the idea of the blog work for smaller chapters?
  • WikiPlanet!
    • SJ adds different wiki-blogs to Wikiplanet, but the process is complicated all in all – but is one possibility to bunch different chapter's report.
    • The accouncement-list is not be best possibility because you often do not have the chance to comment well.
• What about the effort to publish reports for smaller chapters with less personal ressources?
  • If you have less to report about, publish less often!
    • People complain about not being informed regularly.

• Questions about reporting
  • Where: Platform? Wikis, WikiPlanet?
    • Reports are all published in a different format...
    • Often, the problem is not the platform/format: We have to encourage people to speak.
    • Idea: Have a very basic template with a very few questions everybody can fill in?
    • More decentral?
    • Use social networks (e. g. Facebook?)
      • Social networks differ from country to country and their use differs in different cultures – a blog would be more common.
      • We want to have a medium which allows to publish reports only once and spreading on its own via social networks.
    • We should use the platforms people are comfortable with...
    • Difference: Information for the public and information for the members (just report shortly what happens in the chapter)
  • Whom?
  • What?
    • What are the basic information every chapter report must contain?
    • State-of-the-chapter-template (number of employees, budget etc.)
    • The monthly report of the Wikimedia Foundation → an example for chapter's reports?
    • Minimum information (template) vs. additional information for members and public
  • When?
• chapters should have a board member who really feels responsible for this.

• Problem of contact persons (international communication-partners) → "chapter aggregator"?
  • special e-mail-adress to contact the board?

• We discuss this topic for years now – we should do something now so we can discuss what we have done next year...