User talk:Siko (WMF)

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-- 19:39, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

Camera grants

Please get in touch with Beria User talk:Beria#Cameras for Commons Photographers grants. Thanks! --Pine^✉ 20:17, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Please comment here where this idea is being discussed. Thanks, --Pine^✉ 06:32, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Looks like I didn't get there in time, sorry - not really sure how/where to comment now that the discussion is archived, Pine. But I do agree with most of the participants in that discussion, don't see any reason it would need to be an admin, no special permissions seem to be required. The important thing would be making sure whoever was involved (1 person or group) had good knowledge of the Commons community to facilitate good decisions and outcomes. OTOH (and somewhat related to the question of who would organize this), I'm also not seeing much evidence of actual proactive enthusiasm from folks in the Commons community to indicate the project has real legs yet, are you? Siko (talk) 08:49, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

I think there are indications of interest, because people are making comments about the proposal itself, and not just who coordinates the distribution. A Commons administrator has asked me to discuss the proposal on IRC, Fae has added an endorsement on the proposal's Meta page, Bluerasberry has added a comment on the Meta talk page, and Jee and Crisco indicated their interest at Commons talk:The Commoner#Story ideas. The only difficulty is getting someone on Commons who is willing to run the on-wiki side of the program. Otherwise I think with a little more work the proposal would be a good fit under Travel and Participation Support. --Pine^✉ 23:35, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

Coming back around to this subject. My understanding is that Anasuya wanted to run a program like this out of WMF directly with WMF staff time, but the program never materialized. Do you know if there are any plans for this? Or is the plan de facto for affiliates to have cameras that they lend to their members? Thanks, --Pine^✉ 07:04, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

Hi, Pine. There wasn't ever a formal plan from Anasuya to run this program via WMF, and putting staff time towards setting it up isn't in our current annual plan...it also didn't come up as a strong identified need in the recent resources consultation, so I expect I'd have difficulty prioritizing it above other things in next year's annual plan. Affiliates are, at present, probably the ones best placed to hold and lend such equipment, so I guess in that regard it is the current de-facto option. That said, from what I can see, running the program you'd originally conceived of would still be best served by having an interested leader from Commons to help operate it, facilitate community decisions, etc. If/when the community is ready to move forward, we could look into what support would be needed from WMF. Cheers, Siko (talk) 22:34, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

• OK, it does make sense to me that, with the proliferation of user groups that can pool resources, granting equipment like cameras to user groups through WMF or loaning equipment from chapters or other UGs would be workable for low-budget cameras (and potentially higher cost cameras if appropriate insurance and/or contracts are involved). Thanks --Pine^✉ 01:53, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

That makes sense to me as well, Pine. Thanks for keeping me posted as your thinking/plans progress! Siko (talk) 16:23, 23 October 2015 (UTC)