>> Paid professionals work alongside volunteers in fire departments and >> hospitals throughout the world. Are there any essential >> characteristics which exclude such cooperation in Wikipedia?
> There is a difference, and that is the degree of professionalization. The > role of admin is not a profession because there are no stablished bodies > that have defined who is a professional admin and who is not. I'm not sure that's true. Whether it started as a game of Nomic or not, almost all of the admins have been elected through a certainly established process. On Fri, May 25, 2018 at 4:48 PM, David Cuenca Tudela <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, May 25, 2018 at 9:16 PM, James Salsman <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Paid professionals work alongside volunteers in fire departments and >> hospitals throughout the world. Are there any essential >> characteristics which exclude such cooperation in Wikipedia? >> > > There is a difference, and that is the degree of professionalization. The > role of admin is not a profession because there are no stablished bodies > that have defined who is a professional admin and who is not. And still it > would be difficult to professionalize since the distinction between > volunteer/paid professional could make some people feel excluded (as in, > "why is this person getting money for something I do for free?"). > > >> > the will to cooperate in our mission should have precedence over the >> will to make a profit out of it >> >> Does that exclude the financially disadvantaged? > > > The wikimedia projects assume that you have time to spare without any > compensation and that everybody can do the same. That is not true. In my > view the wikimedia projects are already excluding the financially > disadvantaged, because the people who are part of this project do not have > the direct experience necessary to understand that their reality is not the > same as the reality out there, and as a result they might find difficult to > take the perspective of a person who needs the financial means in order to > be able to contribute. > > However, if the doors of generosity were open towards volunteers and flocks > of people were attracted because of it, there wouldn't be enough resources > for everyone, then how could I tell who deserves it most? I would follow a > progressive approach by offering first little, and then more depending on > how much the community appreciates the skills and involvement of this > person in the mission. There are many ways to keep track of said > appreciation, but writing encyclopedic articles about each > community-supported volunteer (not on Wikipedia) could be very effective, > also to create community bonds and to understand better the person behind > the nickname. > > If anything, we would remove the financial barrier that is keeping some > (many?) people from contributing in the first place. > > The thing is that a project like this should start small in order to learn > from the experience what works socially/practically, and how it integrates > conceptually into our worldview. I believe that it should be totally in the > hands of the volunteer community, because appraisal of every day tasks can > only be done if you are involved in the project and understand the > challenges, the tasks, the pitfalls, and what it means to do a good job. > For instance I normally review property proposals for creation in Wikidata, > it requires a set of skills and dedication that only the handful of people > who understand the challenge could evaluate. And there is more, how do you > evaluate the time spent building community and creating a good atmosphere > unless you are part of it? > > I appreciate your questions because they are very interesting to examine. > Regarding the reputation tracking system I assume that it would only work > for the restricted use-case of direct article editing (cf. exopedianism), > but not for the whole range of tasks that volunteers perform. In any case, > thanks for bringing it to my attention. > > Regards, > Micru > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
