Category: Culture

Liaison, Community Liaison

I’m in my second week of joining the Wikimedia Foundation. So far, so good. I’m still in shock. 1 The first week was a whirlwind of introductions and meetings. The biggest thing I got out of the last week is that folks are at the foundation motivated by the movement, know things need to get better (culture and technology), and are there to make an impact – and I get to be part of that. Hot damn.

When joining a new organization my brain always tries to organize information. Mostly by comparing and contrasting to previous experiences. I’m really excited to have more peers in a similar role as mine. At my last employer I was a bit of an odd-man-out in relation to what I did on a daily basis. 2 At the foundation I have a near gluttony of folks with years of experience working with communities. They’re a pretty diverse group and I love every one of them.

They are all different in their approach to work and have been patient in sharing with me what works best for them in hopes of making my own time at the foundation a success. That’s a really great thing. I’ve been at other organizations where sharing information with peers was minimal – you shared what made your job easier, not job of the person you were sharing with.

This got me thinking about the different folks I work with and their approach to the work before us.

The role of community liaisons are like James Bond. Not 3 the debonaire, suave hero of over 24 films, but the character. Bond is played by a different actors across different generations, each a little different, each with their own take on the character. If you’re a Bond fan, some are your favorites, some never struck your fancy, some you might even dislike. Depending on when and how you were introduced to the character you have parts of each you like – and parts you miss when new Bonds come on-screen.

Like Bond, liaisons all have the same title (007). But each is a little different in their approach to the job. Some use stealth and subterfuge to take down wait, where was I going with this analogy? 🙂

True to form, some folks don’t like Bond. That’s ok.  Hollywood is still making movies! Still trying out new things. Trying to improve. That’s what all us liaisons have in common – all of us are trying to improve. Ourselves, and more importantly the communities we serve.

The Hallowed Glow of Digital Distraction

The brain’s craving for novelty, constant stimulation and immediate gratification creates something called a “compulsion loop.” Like lab rats and drug addicts, we need more and more to get the same effect.

Endless access to new information also easily overloads our working memory. When we reach cognitive overload, our ability to transfer learning to long-term memory significantly deteriorates. It’s as if our brain has become a full cup of water and anything more poured into it starts to spill out.

I’ve known all of this for a long time. I started writing about it 20 years ago. I teach it to clients every day. I just never really believed it could become so true of me.

The first step in progress is acceptance. From Addicted to Distraction from the NY Times. 4

Explaining Hard Things to Humans – My Small Part to Make WordPress More Welcoming

Fred Meyer from WPShout gave this really good talk on writing for technical knowledge at WordCamp US earlier this month. It really resonated with me. I work with a bunch of really smart people everyday who are savvy with technology. Some of the concepts Fred talks about seem like common sense, but are so often overlooked (even by myself from time-to-time).

In one particular example, Fred calls out the language in the WordPress installer itself. Currently, once the installation is successful you see a message:

WordPress has been installed. Were you expecting more steps? Sorry to disappoint.

This could be interpreted many different ways, but the potential to sound flippant or snarky during the initial steps of an interaction with your software is a bad idea. Not to mention, not all software installations go as smoothly as planned. The individual using your program could be at their wit’s end; frustrated.

I was inspired by Fred’s talk and took action. WordPress is open-source, right? So I did what all folks should do, I submitted a patch to change the wording.

WordPress has been installed. Thank you, and enjoy!’

A Few Notes on Barcelona and SMWCon

My trip to Barcelona was an adventure that I’ll never forget. The city was beautiful and the people I met and made friends with even more so. The conference was rewarding and invigorating.

I don’t know if I have the language to put into words what I experienced. I’ve been trying to write this post for a while and continue to be fruitless. I can say, that for a person who hasn’t traveled internationally much (until this past year) it remains one of my favorite things to do. You can travel alone, but if you do it right you’ll never be alone.

So maybe I’ll just try to be as succinct as possible.

Travel. Do it often. Take photos, but not too many. Make opportunities. If invited to go out – Go.

I’ve put together some perfunctory notes on the professional aspects of the conference on the MediaWiki Stakeholders’ Blog. Again, it doesn’t do the trip justice.

The Not So Narrow Slice

Also, as it turns out, the genre is often, maybe even always, political. Even when it’s not expressly so, fiction isn’t about some rote operational telling of stories. Science-fiction and fantasy, when operating well, serve as a bellwether for the world in which we live. It’s always been that way. Through history, we examine both the small books and films and comics and also the really popular ones to see what ideas and fears and yes even politics have seeped out of the public consciousness and conscience and into the stories that the public loves and shares.

Chuck Wendig on the stupidity surrounding the Hugo awards this year. See also Scalzi.