WikiLearn - Introduction to Partnership Building (computer-graded exercises) - video: The Importance of Informing or Consulting the Community

@metadata	sourceLanguage "en" priorityLanguages "es" "fr" "ar" "ru" "zh" allowOnlyPriorityLanguages true description "video in Introduction to Partnership Building (computer-graded exercises) - Basics of partnership building for Wikimedia volunteers, with computer-graded exercises." label "WikiLearn - Introduction to Partnership Building (computer-graded exercises) - video: The Importance of Informing or Consulting the Community"
display_name	"The Importance of Informing or Consulting the Community"
subtitle-210-2430-1	"Okay. I want to move on."
subtitle-4860-7770-2	"To our material for today."
subtitle-8220-15780-3	"I hope this gave you some sense of the kinds of things that are useful to include in an"
subtitle-15780-16950-4	"evidence toolkit."
subtitle-18450-22080-5	"There may be some other great examples coming up from people who haven't submitted"
subtitle-22080-27630-6	"their homework yet. If I see really great ones, maybe I'll include them next week."
subtitle-28710-33660-7	"Anyway, today I want to talk about involving and informing the community."
subtitle-36420-42480-8	"The partnerships that we've been discussing, all absolutely depend on the"
subtitle-42480-43740-9	"editing community."
subtitle-44130-48510-10	"It doesn't matter if the partnership is focused on Wikipedia or Commons or Wikidata"
subtitle-48510-53850-11	"or elsewhere, whether it's about producing content or editing content or protecting"
subtitle-53850-59250-12	"content, the community is essential to achieving the partnership goals."
subtitle-59550-63990-13	"If it's just me doing some editing, then it's just me doing some editing."
subtitle-63990-65160-14	"It's not a partnership."
subtitle-65190-68970-15	"The moment we're really talking about a partnership with an external partner, we are"
subtitle-68970-74940-16	"absolutely counting on some cooperation by the community, and it can be just by a"
subtitle-74940-76560-17	"handful of people. That's enough."
subtitle-76560-83580-18	"But we're counting on some cooperation on the community side, and on being at least"
subtitle-83580-86850-19	"tolerated by the rest of the community."
subtitle-86850-88120-20	"That's also important."
subtitle-88140-92040-21	"It's not enough just that a handful of people work with us on this partnership."
subtitle-92040-98970-22	"It also needs to be that the rest of the community is at least passively okay with us"
subtitle-98970-100380-23	"doing this partnership."
subtitle-100500-101850-24	"And that's important."
subtitle-102900-108270-25	"And when we, like I said, when we partner with an external partner who is not a"
subtitle-108270-115650-26	"Wikimedia partner, we are almost unavoidably doing it on behalf of the Wikimedia"
subtitle-115650-119820-27	"community. That's how the partner will think about it."
subtitle-120490-125560-28	"But, can we actually speak for the community?"
subtitle-127450-131110-29	"And I want to suggest that the answer is yes and no."
subtitle-131740-140320-30	"Yes, we can and should represent the community's overall norms and our Wikimedia"
subtitle-140320-142480-31	"mission. And we've already been talking about it."
subtitle-142690-145450-32	"We need to be able to explain Notability."
subtitle-145450-148030-33	"We need to explain how Wikipedia deals with controversy."
subtitle-149290-151680-34	"We need to be able to explain something about copyright."
subtitle-153490-156520-35	"But we represent the norms."
subtitle-156520-161770-36	"We don't really get to talk about what we think the Notability policy should be."
subtitle-161770-165880-37	"When we talk to our partner, we need to represent consensus."
subtitle-165880-172090-38	"We need to represent what our whole community actually thinks overall, broadly,"
subtitle-172090-176370-39	"even if privately, we think the policy should be slightly different."
subtitle-176370-185940-40	"When we are talking to the partner, we need to present these norms to our partner on"
subtitle-185940-187770-41	"behalf of the entire community."
subtitle-189000-192070-42	"And yes, that's an excellent suggestion."
subtitle-192090-197190-43	"It's not so much that we represent the community, but we present the community."
subtitle-197490-202710-44	"We communicate the community to our partner."
subtitle-203220-209910-45	"What we can't and shouldn't do is commit to any particular piece of work on behalf of the"
subtitle-209910-214800-46	"community. We can never commit that this many articles will be written or that this"
subtitle-214800-217890-47	"article will be written, or that this image will be used in this article."
subtitle-217890-219660-48	"We can never, ever commit to that."
subtitle-219720-224280-49	"At most we can commit -- excuse the typo here."
subtitle-224760-229800-50	"That should be "you" -- we can commit ourselves, we can commit on behalf of"
subtitle-229800-235980-51	"ourselves, and maybe on behalf of our affiliate, if we are leaders or board members"
subtitle-235980-240420-52	"at our affiliate, or if we have been explicitly empowered to make commitments on"
subtitle-240420-241710-53	"behalf of the affiliate."
subtitle-241710-242880-54	"What is the difference?"
subtitle-242880-247620-55	"Well, we can commit that the affiliate would run an editing workshop, for example."
subtitle-248040-254160-56	"We cannot commit that 200 other volunteers are going to show up and edit, that we cannot"
subtitle-254160-263520-57	"commit. And we should never, ever promise our partner anything that would limit the"
subtitle-263520-269100-58	"community's autonomy or its right to exercise oversight."
subtitle-269100-271200-59	"We can never promise that partner."
subtitle-271200-273600-60	""Oh, yeah, your articles will be set aside."
subtitle-273600-278070-61	"Nobody else will touch them." We cannot promise it because we won't get it right."
subtitle-278070-281210-62	"There's no way to guarantee that on wiki."
subtitle-281210-282330-63	"We can ask, right?"
subtitle-282330-286920-64	"We can put little templates on the page and say, "hey, this is part of a project, please"
subtitle-286920-290940-65	"let us edit this until we finish the training or whatever."
subtitle-290940-295290-66	"And don't interrupt." We can ask politely and usually it will be respected, and"
subtitle-295290-298230-67	"sometimes it won't be. But that's the most we can we can ask for."
subtitle-299610-305100-68	"So again, avoid creating the impression that you can commit the community to things that"
subtitle-305100-312090-69	"you actually cannot, because you don't want to be seen to be unable to fulfill your"
subtitle-312090-317340-70	"commitments. Now, it's not wise to surprise volunteers."
subtitle-318450-322230-71	"I didn't mean to rhyme, but maybe that's a good way to remember it."
subtitle-322230-323970-72	"Not wise to surprise."
subtitle-324480-330510-73	"When volunteers see unexpected activity in the context of an unannounced partnership,"
subtitle-330750-332580-74	"they may resist it."
subtitle-333600-340800-75	"And like a significant content donation, significant editing of certain articles that"
subtitle-340800-345870-76	"turns out to be related to a partnership that you didn't tell the community about,"
subtitle-345870-350160-77	"that can be perceived, rightly or wrongly, as an unpleasant surprise."
subtitle-350400-352620-78	"Now it's true that any edit can meet with resistance."
subtitle-353340-355440-79	"Anyone who's been around the wiki knows this."
subtitle-355950-360690-80	"Any edit can meet with resistance, but the quantity and the context does matter."
subtitle-360780-367050-81	"And some people may take it upon themselves to act on this unpleasant surprise and start"
subtitle-369060-376740-82	"obstructing or resisting your partnership's editing work, in ways that are avoidable."
subtitle-377640-385320-83	"To give you an example of an unpleasant surprise, years and years ago, Google wanted"
subtitle-385320-392580-84	"to create more content in other languages on the web -- languages like Swahili, for"
subtitle-392580-396390-85	"example, or Hindi -- which at the time were a lot less developed [on the Web] than they"
subtitle-396390-399580-86	"are today. And Google said: "I know!"
subtitle-399580-404140-87	"We have a machine translation engine, let's machine-translate really good articles from"
subtitle-404140-409270-88	"English Wikipedia into Hindi, and post them on Hindi Wikipedia!"
subtitle-409270-413690-89	"That'll be great, right?" That's what Google thought."
subtitle-415310-419030-90	"Those of you who have been around for a while know that that's a pretty terrible"
subtitle-419030-425330-91	"idea. And machine translation, even today, should never ever be just posted on wiki."
subtitle-425360-428810-92	"Certainly not the machine translation that was available ten years ago."
subtitle-429140-434840-93	"And indeed, people on Hindi Wikipedia woke up one day to discover thousands and"
subtitle-434840-441350-94	"thousands of new articles with very poor Hindi flooding their wiki and they were very"
subtitle-441350-446360-95	"upset. It was absolutely not welcome and they had to spend a lot of time cleaning up."
subtitle-446900-449270-96	"So that's an example of an unpleasant surprise."
subtitle-449870-451900-97	"Now, in this case, Google just did it."
subtitle-451910-455660-98	"They didn't consult, they didn't announce, they didn't talk to Wikipedians before they"
subtitle-455660-459860-99	"did it. It was obviously good from their perspective, and they just went ahead and did"
subtitle-459860-461960-100	"it, which was rude."
subtitle-463370-467840-101	"But even though you are not Google, you are Wikimedians, you are part of the community,"
subtitle-467840-473390-102	"you still don't want to surprise your fellow Wikimedians with any kind of large scale"
subtitle-473390-479750-103	"activity. Now, doing a training event and teaching five new people to edit is not large"
subtitle-479750-481400-104	"scale activity. You can just do that."
subtitle-481400-482990-105	"Nobody, nobody would mind."
subtitle-483470-489160-106	"But [for] anything larger, you may want to give people notice, a heads-up."
subtitle-489170-495140-107	"And so my next slogan for you is that "informed is better than surprised"."
subtitle-495860-497930-108	"Community members like to be informed."
subtitle-497930-501800-109	"They like to be informed really about anything that affects the mission, and"
subtitle-501800-505040-110	"specifically anything that affects the mission on-wiki."
subtitle-505910-511310-111	"And the more it affects the wiki, the more crucial it is to at least keep people"
subtitle-511310-516710-112	"informed. Informed means they know that it is happening or is about to happen, and they"
subtitle-516710-522470-113	"know who is doing it, and why, and they know whom to talk to, if they have concerns or if"
subtitle-522470-526010-114	"there are some problems, maybe technical problems with what's going on."
subtitle-526640-529690-115	"That means that they are informed."
subtitle-529690-535190-116	"And consulted is even better than informed."
subtitle-535970-541400-117	"Wikipedians like to be consulted about work that affects the wiki, not about everything,"
subtitle-541400-545030-118	"and not all the time. But overall they like to be consulted."
subtitle-545030-552140-119	"They like to have the ability to have a say, to have influence, on how things happen on"
subtitle-552140-557900-120	"the wiki. And I want to stress that people expect to have a say, they expect to be"
subtitle-557900-563660-121	"heard, and to feel heard, not necessarily to have a veto."
subtitle-563660-568130-122	"Not every time you say, "Hey, what do you think?" Not every time you're inviting people"
subtitle-568130-573350-123	"to just say, "Well, I don't like it, so you must not do it." It's okay to ask people for"
subtitle-573350-575090-124	"an opinion, and then do it anyway."
subtitle-576020-581600-125	"But having had the chance to have an opinion, to voice an opinion, really matters"
subtitle-581600-588170-126	"to people. On the other hand, never ask a question that you aren't willing to hear the"
subtitle-588170-593810-127	"answer to; if you are, for whatever reason, already committed and dead set on doing this"
subtitle-593810-598880-128	"thing and you're not willing to hear any problems or any concerns about it, don't ask."
subtitle-598880-603530-129	"Because if people tell you, "Hey, there's a huge problem here and there", and you don't"
subtitle-603530-607760-130	"do anything about it and go ahead anyway, you are just creating resentment and"
subtitle-607760-614360-131	"alienation. So it's good to consult, but only consult when you mean it."
subtitle-615320-621020-132	"And some of you who've been around for a long time, maybe are thinking bitterly, "Oh,"
subtitle-621290-626360-133	"someone from the Foundation is telling us to only consult people when they mean it." Yes,"
subtitle-626360-628350-134	"I'm painfully aware of the irony."
subtitle-628370-633590-135	"The Foundation, in truth, has been guilty in the past on a number of occasions of"
subtitle-633590-639860-136	"effectively creating false consultations, the appearance of a consultation when in fact"
subtitle-639860-645170-137	"a decision has already been made and was not really subject to change, was not really open"
subtitle-645170-648380-138	"to to having our minds changed."
subtitle-649280-655760-139	"I was a sad witness to some of these processes that were unfortunately beyond my"
subtitle-655760-661910-140	"control. But this makes me all the more eager to teach you the principle of never,"
subtitle-661910-664790-141	"ever do a false consultation."
subtitle-664790-671090-142	"If, for whatever reason, you're not actually able to do a proper consultation, then don't"
subtitle-671210-672980-143	"! Then just inform people."
subtitle-673250-677520-144	"And one reason you may not be able to do a consultation is the last bullet here:"
subtitle-677540-679700-145	"Consultations take time!"
subtitle-680750-683720-146	"If you do a consultation, you say, "Hey, what do you think?" And some people have a"
subtitle-683720-686300-147	"lot of a lot to say, and then other people have a lot to say."
subtitle-686300-687470-148	"And there's a discussion."
subtitle-687470-691670-149	"And suddenly you say, "Well, okay, anyway, I met with the partner and now it's done." Then"
subtitle-691670-693440-150	"again, people will feel cheated."
subtitle-693470-696050-151	"People need time to have that discussion."
subtitle-696560-700130-152	"At the very least, a week or two, at the very least."
subtitle-700130-704480-153	"And again, depending on how complicated it is, it may be good to consult three months in"
subtitle-704480-708860-154	"advance. But make sure that you consult for real."
subtitle-709250-710960-155	"If you consult, you consult for real."
subtitle-710960-715820-156	"And running a consultation is like a whole art and is a little outside our scope for"
subtitle-715820-721280-157	"today. But we can talk about it separately, if you like."