Thanks for the reply! Especially from an official WMF Community and Audience Engagement Associate.
Can we take it from your defensive email it is a fact that the WMF has no known long term archive strategy? By the way, in your apparent opinion we may be unimportant people on an email list, but we have a long history of taking the initiative to fundamentally shape the WMF, and not that long ago took action that ensured a board member resigned and the WMF establish radically different good governance practices. Not a bad record for loner unpaid volunteers. Thanks in advance, Fae On Tue, 14 May 2019 at 18:38, Joseph Seddon <[email protected]> wrote: > > Because the Wikimedia Foundation doesn't make long term strategic decisions > based off of a 4 person discussion on a mailing list. > > I really don't know why people keep being surprised by this. > > Seddon > > On Tue, May 14, 2019 at 6:11 PM Fæ <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I saw a recent size estimate of Wikimedia Commons of just over 200 TB. > > That's large but not astronomical. > > > > With a bit of guesstimation, the hardware only cost of creating a > > Wikimedia projects digital tape archive might be around $2,000 per > > archive set, a cost that probably would only be once a year. Using > > off-the-shelf kit, a similar archive on a set of 10 TB hard disks > > might end up being double that cost. Archives like this are good for a > > few years, but in practice a plan would have them periodically tested > > and refreshed, unless they are being replaced every year with the > > latest archive. > > > > It is unclear to me why the WMF would not want to make a hearty > > transparent and public commitment to off-site archives. At least with > > an independently managed archive in another country, that at least > > makes it possible that in some bizarre scenario where an extremist US > > government makes it a federal crime to fail to either 'amend' the > > Wikimedia database against the values of the WMF, or legally orders > > the WMF to take down its websites in order to control certain > > publications, videos or photographs, that WMF employees can > > appropriately comply with US federal law, but are not be required to > > do anything about the public archive hosted by a different > > organization in another country. If such an unlikely scenario came to > > pass (and the unexpected seems to becoming something to realistically > > plan for these days), at least the archive could be resurrected for > > public access within a few weeks by open knowledge organizations who > > have staff that would never be subject to federal law in the US. > > > > If the WMF honestly does not already do something like this already, > > and wanted to earmark the relatively trivial sum of $10,000/year for > > remote archives, us volunteers would be happy to approach a couple of > > suitable national-level partners in Europe that could easily > > physically host the archives each year and would probably like the > > idea of blogging about it, as protecting open knowledge fits their > > values and commitments. > > > > Any WMF board members interested in asking some questions internally, > > if the WMF senior management are unwilling to answer this rather > > simple question publicly? > > > > Thanks, > > Fae > > -- > > [email protected] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae > > > > On Tue, 14 May 2019 at 14:36, Pine W <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > I think that raising the question here is fine. I also think that it is > > > more WMF's responsibility to be responsive than community members' > > > responsibility to guess where and how to ask questions. > > > > > > In general (this is not intended as a criticism of you, Dan) my view is > > > that WMF has a very mixed record on responsiveness. Some employees and > > > board members repeatedly go above and beyond the call of duty, while > > other > > > employees and board members ignore repeated questions, and some people > > are > > > in between. The first group seems to me to deserve a lot of credit, while > > > second group comes across to me as disrespectful and lazy. I have > > > previously complained about problems with responsiveness to multiple > > > managers in WMF, and unfortunately that has not resulted in widespread > > > improvements that I have observed. I think that the problem may have more > > > to do with organizational culture and lack of will than with lack of > > > capacity. Let me emphasize that unresponsiveness is not a problem with > > > everyone in WMF, but I think that it is a significant problem and I know > > of > > > no excuses for it. > > > > > > Pine > > > > > > ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) > > > > > > > > > > > > On Tue, May 7, 2019, 10:50 Dan Garry (Deskana) <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > > > On Tue 7 May 2019 at 11:04, Fæ <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > I am sure this Wikimedia wide community run list is a perfectly good > > > > place > > > > > to check whether the WMF has any commitment to long term public > > archives, > > > > > or not. > > > > > > > > > > Thanks for your advice as to where to go, but the strategy process > > groups > > > > > are undoubtedly a worse place to ask this question and expect a > > > > verifiable > > > > > answer. > > > > > > > > > > > > I see! Then I will defer to your clear expertise in getting definitive > > > > answers. I look forward to seeing the outcome! > > > > > > > > Dan > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > 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> > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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> > > > > -- > Seddon > > *Community and Audience Engagement Associate* > *Advancement (Fundraising), Wikimedia Foundation* > _______________________________________________ > 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> -- [email protected] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae _______________________________________________ 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>
