Tuesday, September 23, 2014

#Wikimedia #Leadership and #Community


Sue wrote a wonderful blogpost. The subject is "leadership development", it is a great read; it reads true and at the end, the summation lists very much the kind of issues the Wikimedia Foundation has to content with,

The two things that stand our for me are:
  • How to create a strong, shared work culture without accidentally turning into a monoculture that doesn’t tolerate people who don’t fit
  • How to create an environment that enables the effectiveness of creative, talented people who have depression, ADD/ADHD and/or Asperger’s.
The notion of a "monoculture" is really pervasive; WMF IS Wikipedia it seems and, it takes another organisation to bring Wikidata into the fold. Projects like Wiktionary, Wikisource and even Commons are like Wikidata primarily seen as additional and there to provide the service that does not fit Wikipedia.

It is wonderful that Sue acknowledges how important the people who suffer from one or another mental health issue are. It is a great step forward as it acknowledges the relevance of this group. A next step would be some research into this phenomena. I am convinced that the number of people involved will prove to be surprisingly high for those who are not aware or prefer to ignore this,

I am confident that Lila is as aware about the issues Sue blogged about. My hope is that our community will become more aware about the leadership issues the Wikimedia Foundation and its communities bring.
Thanks,
       GerardM

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