Friday, February 26, 2016

#Wikimedia - time to recover

The crisis at the Wikimedia Foundation has reached a new phase. The crash happened and the car has to go to the body shop for repairs. It is a time of upheaval; what to do next / the interim and how do we mend fences.

It is a crazy time with crazy suggestions. Many of them brutally crash with what we and others expect of us. What to think of paying editors. What to think of it when we have not really sought to expand our editors particular in "other" languages. What to think of adding a "parliament" as if we should trust the people who are chosen. Our parliaments are full of politicians and they only preserve the status quo and special interests.

It is time to recover and at this stage we are all damaged goods. Crucial is to stem the exodus of employees. We need them and honestly, I would love to have many people back. We know them, trust them and if one thing is important it is continuity of everything that was good.

It is time to recover. There is plenty of craziness and this is not the time for big changes. It is first time to triage, to heal. As we right what went wrong, we gain a clue of what room there is for change. We gain a clue of what needs changing.

This is the time to recover, the time for change will come. Insisting on change now will tear at a body that is already weakened. It will alienate more, it will frustrate more. It is time to grieve for what went wrong who we lost, have a rest and then pick up the pieces and see what we are left with.
Thanks,
        GerardM

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