Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-07-09/Wikimedia in education


 * As an academic, I used to be highly  supportive of Wikipedia Educational  projects, but  the misfires and backfires over the past three years or so have left  me still  smarting today from the huge work  I  did to  bring  some serious issues to  light (which  in  the first  instances were vehemently refuted by the responsible staff), motivate a volunteer clean up  team, and spend hundreds of hours on  the actual  clean-ups myself -  all  without  thanks, and simply  resulting in more junkets for the paid staff. It's possible that  things have improved since - especially  in  the USA - and possibly  due to  some changes in  executive management  of the GEP, but  I  am still not  wholly  convinced that the management team is entirely  on  the right track and hence I withdrew my support from education projects some time ago. I  may  possibly  return to  Wkipedia educational  work  some day, but certainly  not  in  any  geographical regions where the Wiki Education Foundation in its current structure is active. --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 04:40, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
 * , This article is about the US/Canada education program. The education program that had the serious issues you refer to was the Pune Pilot in India. The Pune Pilot in India was cancelled and not restarted. It's wrong to imply that education projects in countries a hemisphere away run very differently than one failed pilot should be viewed with suspicion. It’s not fair to the volunteers who have put countless hours into making the US/Canada program successful — or to the volunteers successfully running education programs in 20+ other countries. And for the record, here's one discussion in which two of the senior staff working on the Pune Pilot acknowledged the burden on the community as a whole and you personally, and specifically thanked you for your work. We are thankful for all the volunteer time that goes into supporting educational efforts globally, which is why it’s so disheartening to see a comment like this about a failed pilot from three years ago in a different country casting doubt on the excellent work volunteers are doing today in the US and Canada. --LiAnna (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:56, 17 July 2014 (UTC)


 * . Thank you for reminding  me of that  thread -  indeed it  was so long ago and such  a disheartening  issue that  I had banished most of it from my memory. I do  recall  however that  I  worked literally  day  and night for over a month  on  that  clean up and during that time the actual physical support from  the Foundation appeared to be minimal or at best very slow. The Pune issue left  many  regular en.Wiki  regulars embittered, but  not  being  here in  Asia they  may  have been quicker to  overcome their disappointment  in  the GEP than I  have been. There have obviously  been some serious changes in  both  the Foundation's overall  education policy  and its involved staffs since that  time, and I'm sure that  projects in  North America are working  well. I no longer follow GEP  discussions and developments, but  there was one instance where I  was contacted around a year  ago  by  a staffer who  was touring  around Asia, including  Thailand, where I  was asked if I  could help  out  on an obscure education related project, unfortunately  it was at  very  short notice, and would also  have incurred personal  expense that  in  addition  to  my  volunteer time I  was not  prepared to  make. One cannot  ignore the fact  that  the Wikipedia volunteer community  may  at  times be skeptical  about  the deployment of donors' funds, especially  where staff  travel is concerned. Thanks is fine, and where I  don't  doubt  its sincerity for a moment, it  is very  easily  expressed; nevertheless, I  and many  others still feel that  in  its enthusiasm, the Foundation  might  not  always act  in  the best  interests of the volunteers who  in  spite of working  very  hard at  times, receive no  other recompense for their work. This is something  that Foundation  employees may  tend to  forget. I  know many  of the most  senior Foundation staff personally  and have excellent  relations with  them and my  comment  above does not  address any  individual  in  particular. I  do  hope that  if there are, or are to  be, any  Wikimedia educational projects in countries where cultural  dichotomies exist, that  responsible volunteers in  those areas may  be invited, rather than expected,  to join  in  with  the planning and execution, and perhaps with  some initiative to  help  them do  so. --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 01:52, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
 * , we're in agreement about that! As a former Wikimedia employee who was working on global education efforts, I can confirm that all education programs since Pune have been started by or in direct collaboration with local editors from the beginning of the planning stage, and I can say with confidence that was one of many lessons taken to heart from the Pune Pilot's failure. (I'm now with the Wiki Education Foundation, the independent nonprofit that supports the U.S. and Canada education program, so I can only speak for Wikimedia's global education efforts until March, when I left, but I think that lesson was well impressed upon the new education team, too!). --LiAnna (Wiki Ed)  (talk) 02:03, 18 July 2014 (UTC)