Talk:Individual Wikimedians

supporting individual initiative

Some initiatives unintentionally privilege those who happen to be part of a group rather than working as motivated individuals. for instance, the grantmaking process currently privileges an individual who can submit a proposal or idea as part of chapter -- something which could be remedied (if any wikimedians who weren't chapter members cared enough to ask) by adding a provision for other groups to request the same sort of support.

If a change towards privileging work within formal approved groups is intended, its motivation should be defined more explicitly... so that anyone left out of the process can see how to fix that situation, rather than simply feeling disempowered. Sj 15:34, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, AFAIK the WMF intends to build a grant program also for individual wikimedians (maybe I read that on the annual plan?), but obviously it's simpler to start with chapters, since they do the initial work of selection. Moreover, I think that chapters are more suitable to manage grants to individual wikimedians (and in fact they've done so). Nemo 20:31, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

what is staff ?

Hoi, WMF staff are most definitely "individual Wikimedians" they are not "independent volunteers". People who work for the WMF have a defined role to play and are directed in the way in which to do so. A volunteer cannot be expected to do specific things and for a staff member it may be part of the job. You can change the words but they are not the same. Thanks, GerardM 12:45, 9 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it does not look to me that staff are "individual Wikimedians". Obviously they are "individuals", but they are there in the capacity of staff, and their actions will (and should!) reflect that. They are only "individual" in the sense of being personally recognizable, not in their actions. I rather like "individual Wikimedians", altough it will only be really useful if it also excludes those who have signed up for a Wikiproject (I am beginning to lean towards the point of view that Wikiprojects are the source of all the long-term problems of Wikimedia). - Brya 06:05, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]