On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 6:55 PM, Aryeh Gregor <simetrical+wikil...@gmail.com<simetrical%2bwikil...@gmail.com> > wrote:
> 2) Make sure that every paid developer spends time dealing with the > community. This can include giving support to end users, discussing > things with volunteers, reviewing patches, etc. They should be doing > this on paid time, and they should be discussing their personal > opinions without consulting with anyone else (i.e., not summarizing > official positions). Paid developers and volunteers have to get to > know each other and have to be able to discuss MediaWiki together. > [...] > > The basic attitude has to be that paid developers are treated > identically to volunteers, except that you can tell the former what to > do and expect them to put in more time. There should not be > communication between paid developers and the community, paid > developers should be an integral *part* of the community rather than a > separate group of people. > > I really agree with this sentiment, but it seems difficult to get staff to really be part of the community unless they're _from_ the community. The developers I've seen discuss their personal opinions on public fora (especially in ways that are accepted in an open community but not in a business environment—one example would be criticizing their co-workers) have been those who were recruited from the community. There's nothing wrong with having outsiders as employees, but communication is rather different in the outside world, and I get the sense that a lot of the people hired from elsewhere aren't necessarily familiar with the Wikimedia Way™ of discussing things—and even if they understand that it's there, I'm not sure they always understand that they're supposed to join in. I recall someone once suggesting that all employees be required to choose a Wikimedia project and get involved in it. I haven't thought through the practical implications, but it always seemed like a cute idea, at least. _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
