Category: 2012 Eylul Dogruel

Transcript for Third 2012 Candidate Chat

Webmasters

The following is a transcript of the OTW Board candidates’ chat held at 1500 UTC 6 October 2012. Elections officer Jenny Scott-Thompson moderated the discussion; candidates Eylul Dogruel and Andrea Horbinski attended.

Eylul has entered the room

Jenny S-T has entered the room

Kristen M. has entered the room

hele has entered the room

Nele N. has entered the room

Andrea H. has entered the room

hele

hihi

Andrea H.

hey

hele

like they say over here, I saw light and came in

Kristen M.

hi!

hele

but can’t find what it’s actually being held over here <_<

Jenny S-T

We’ll start officially in about 5 minutes

Jenny S-T changed the room’s topic to Election chat now! For Org-Wide meetings and more

hele

isn’t it too early for election chat? I’m probably reading BC all wrong

Andrea H.

the light was my cell phone getting me out of bed early

Nele N.

Hey all

hele

actually, nm, just located the little hour that is on my time as per BC calculus

Nele N.

It’s midnight here so I hope this will be very interesting

Eylul

*waves*

Ira G. has entered the room

hele

that sounds ominous, Nele

Eylul

*is totally trying to get some blog post answers in*

hele

it sounded like it had an ‘or else’ appended at the end 😛

Andrea H.

how’s the weather in Kyoto, Nele?

Nele N.

I have very little power to make any “or else” happen

for now >:)

Finally cooling off!

Congratulations on the A’s

Andrea H.

うらやましいだよ。戻りたいよね

it was pretty awesome! no one booed our side 🙂

Nele N.

遊びに来て！３月末までいるよ

Andrea H.

分かっている

Nele N.

sounds like a roaring success

Jenny S-T

Let’s get started

Hello, and welcome to our third and final elections chat. I’m the OTW Elections Officer and board secretary.

We have a couple of questions left over from last time, and then we’ll open up to the floor. Raise a hand if you’ve got something to ask.

If we run out of time, you can ask more questions on the blog posts – there have already been questions answered there. And that’s true year-round – the board have a contact form on the OTW website, and Communications check for comments on all the blog posts and pass them on to the right team to answer.

Sam’s original question (last chat) was:

“One of the biggest impediments to the Org, from both an internal and an external perspective, is that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, and neither are really aware of the existence of the left foot, let alone its actions. Having documentation scattered across the forums, wiki, dreamwidth (for one committee in particular), campfire, mailing lists, and basecamp makes it nigh impossible to find anything. What are your thoughts for opening and encouraging inter-committee communication to functional levels?”

His follow-up is:

“Regarding Basecamp: that solution would work well for committees composed entirely of staff, but what of Tags, Translations, Coders, or Testers, who are composed of volunteers, or Fanlore, composed of all-and-sundry? Would an actual, working forum with organized subsections (such as a phpBB or similar board system) be a solution?”

Andrea, Eylul, go for it whenever you’re ready

Eylul

okay long question with a lot of good points but I’ll take a shot at it 🙂

I do agree with the all org comment a while back that forums would be a great replacement to mailing list. Easier to follow different threads, old records easy to see for newcoming members. Sections can be locked in to staffers, to volunteers or individual communities. The only thing I cannot solve in my brain is how you would do cross committee discussions that currently happens over multiple emails but I am sure there is a solution to that.

bleargh has entered the room

Jenn Calaelen has entered the room

Andrea H.

I think people who’ve proposed OTW Forums aren’t necessarily thinking of using it as yet another platform for internal volunteer communications – although I have seen people raise the notion of some kind of spot where organizational FAQ are listed with answers, which is a notion borrowed from support forums. But there’s no reason an OTW forum couldn’t be used in that way, certainly, if certain committees wanted to do so. The point about Basecamp from last time was, on a larger level, that knowing where to go can be half the battle. And on the point of Fanlore, it seems to make sense that Wiki does what it needs to do in light of its project purpose.

Eylul

phpBB as far as I know as a system is not very accessible (I think the main concern is that it uses tables, which is not very screenreader friendly). However I know we are testing other forum software, so I am sure there is a solution out there.

Andrea H.

if that makes sense? it’s 08:00 here

I don’t think that last sentence made sense. Let me try again: not every committee may have the same solution. /done

Eylul

About wiki/basecamp however, that one is trickier… I think that at some point one size doesn’t fit all, and the best solution is to have a centralized place to indicate which committee keeps which documents where, and to be organized.

/done

Jenny S-T

thank you, both

mrsscribe has entered the room

Jenny S-T

the other question emailed in advance was from Ira – Ira, do you want to go ahead, or shall I paste from your email?

Ira G.

could you paste?

Jenny S-T

“What do you think are the org’s biggest issues in terms of distribution of resources? This can be about either the resources themselves (e.g. Project X needs more of Y) or about how resources are allocated/the process by which we determine where resources go and how to get them there. Are there specific resources — money, personnel, general attention — that you feel are particularly well or poorly distributed? What would you do to address this?”

While Andrea and Eylul are typing responses, for those who’ve just joined and can’t see scrollback, welcome. I’m the OTW Elections Officer and board secretary, and host for this chat. Raise a hand if you’ve got something to ask, and I’ll call on people in order. If we run out of time, you can ask more questions on the blog posts – there have already been questions answered there. And that’s true year-round – the board have a contact form on the OTW website, and Communications check for comments on all the blog posts and pass them on to the right team to answer.

Eylul

I think everyone knows in part what I think about this question (http://eylul.dreamwidth.org/353.html)

essentially I think one of our biggest inequalities is the amount of training and support (mentoring and physical) that is available for AO3 project vs other projects the organization has.

hele

(0/ for follow up question)

Eylul

Basically we have this issue right now that our technical volunteer management is fused with AO3 project management and that is causing a lot of inefficiencies of addressing of technical needs (in case of cases like Fanlore or Journal), or in prioritization of features even related to AO3 sometimes (translation, OD, tag wrangling etc). I think that is the biggest inequality issue we have.

pluck has entered the room

Eylul

Basically for that I propose splitting of project management from technical volunteer management. /done

Andrea H.

Let me start off by saying that I’ve been thinking more in terms of personnel and attention when I’ve said ‘resources’ in these chats. I do think that there are some committees and projects that seem to draw more of the OTW’s attention than others. I don’t necessarily think it’s a problem that we have one project that’s umpteen times more popular than the others (AO3), but I do think it’s a problem that that one project get the lion’s share of internal focus, too. We do a lot of awesome things! The question about personnel is trickier, because of course we’re not a company where we can just assign paid employees, but I do think making sure that every committee has effective leadership is part of this, and in making sure that volunteers and Chairs are effectively trained across the Org. Which Volcom has been working on, and which as a process needs to continue.

On that note, I’m very interested in Eylul’s proposals in that post, too, so that’s a specific thing.

As for process, I think this unequal distribution is in some ways a relic from the OTW’s early years, so I’m not sure there even has been a process that got us here per se.

/done

Jenny S-T

Ira, any follow-up, or does that mostly answer it?

Ira G.

thank you both

would it be okay if hele went while I think?

Eylul

(OD -> Open Doors btw)

Ira G.

since she raised hand for followup

hele

(if you’re asking me, I’ve no problem)

Jenny S-T

yep, go for it, Hele

hele

ok, Eylul, you said ‘inequalities is the amount of training and support (mentoring and physical) that is available for AO3 project vs other projects’

to what do you think that’s due?

i.e. is it down to actions from the board, specific process, only a structural thing, what the volunteers want to do…?

and, if it’s both the last things (which partly my experience, partly what I understood of your post — which may be misunderstanding, of course), how do you think we should allocate volunteer interest?

/done

bleargh has left the room

hele

(I can clarify if I expressed myself in a non understandable manner!)

Eylul

I think that it is a structural thing. AD&T from what I see was intended to become technical volunteer management committee, and has the structure and resources for that. Vs Fanlore and Journal or other committees are more structured on management of these projects in non technical aspects and they are clients of AD&T, so to speak. However as AO3 management fused with AD&T AO3 took priority which left other committees to either try to find a way to request help in a way that nobody has specified the how to of, or to hire technical staff themselves who often work alone or small teams. From what I know right now webs and systems are the ones

who do the helping, and especially in systems’ case it is already making a committee that already has a lot to do doing a job that is not their responsability (even through I do hear only good things about systems about this so awesome job there)

I think that it is less about allocating volunteer interest. We do get people interested in building the wiki the same way they want to build ao3, but they don’t get training, mentoring, webdevs, they often work in a vacuum. These things will affect people’s drop out rates and their willingness to come and work in a project. It is important to realize that there is a lot of OSS enthousiasts out there

who would want to work in OTW projects, any of them. We have a culture of building skill rather than expecting it, a safe environment (which is rare in tech circles)

hele

So we both have interested trainers and trainees but the resources like webdevs aren’t being allocated?

Eylul

visibility. All of these are important.

Curtis J. has entered the room

hele

(I ask because that hasn’t been my experience in translation. Most or a lot of the translators really only _wanted_ to work on the Archive, back when I knew about it.)

Eylul

Hele I think that there is a lot of thought process going into what AO3 coders need, but designers and testers, as well as technical volunteers working on other projects don’t get same level of focus and energy on thought to make their lives and tasks easier.

Ah. I do think that preference is a symptom of the fact that we don’t put emphasis on those projects. I do think that those who wants to work on AO3 should still work on it, but that if the other projects gets the same attention, perks etc, there will be people interested in working in these projects.

hele

Idk, fanlore doesn’t have a good structure for pages in other languages, for example, nor would it be, in my opinion, good to, say, move all argentinian fanzines to a college in USA, if that were even possible

Andrea H.

To stick my oar in, the thought process about what coders need clearly doesn’t always consider what the rest of the OTW needs out of the Archive, either.

hele

so the other projects don’t cater to the international fans the same way

Eylul

I think there is also other solutions if the problem still persists like building a culture of community and taking projects (less wanted and more wanted) as a team to encourage people to work on it but… /done because I feel like I hogged the chat and want to let Andrea speak.

hele

thanks!

Andrea H.

I need more caffeine.

I’m not sure I have much to add on this subject right at the moment – see above re: caffeine – although I do want to note that I take your point about the international appeal of other projects, Hele, and it’s something to think about, for sure.

Eylul

*thinks on what hele says* (actually hele I would like to discuss with you more on translations and the issues you guys run into, when you or other staffers have time.)

hele

I’m not a translation staffer!

anymore, that is

I actually am only sure about our chair, and that’s Aga

the staffers have been fluctuating, so ask there

Eylul

ah my bad. *embarrassed* all the same, and I want to hear more about what you just said about the international appeal of the projects as well.

hele

sure! whenever you want

Jenny S-T

Ira, or anyone else with a question?

Andrea H.

A question about how to talk about certain aspects of Japanese fan cultures came up in reference to Fanlore earlier this year, for example, and the point about not sending Argentinean fanzines to Iowa is valid, too – although at the same time, it’s fairly normal for archives holding a lot of really diverse materials to be located in seemingly strange spots. (For instance, I need to put together funding to go read a bunch of Taisho/early Meiji manga that’s out in Ohio at some point this year.) So, just to say that the internationalization is something we need to keep thinking about, and working on, because I don’t think in principle that any project is less international than the others. I hope not, anyway! /done

Ira G.

I’m done — rather let other questions/topics in =)

Andrea H.

Wait!

hele

(it strikes me as a sort of cultural theft, though I guess them being preserved _somewhere_ is still good.)

Jenn Calaelen

\o

Andrea H.

I should follow that up by saying that I don’t have a secret agenda for the OTW to become the single monolithic organization for all of fandom everywhere. 🙂

Agnieszka S. has entered the room

hele

heeh, and I didn’t mean _from the OTW_ really

Andrea H.

(yeah, some people do say that, and it’s definitely a concern! with archives the choice is often between preservation and destruction, but that’s another chat.) /done

Jenny S-T

Go for it, Jenn

Jenn Calaelen

How much of a say in the directions of projects (etc) should users get?

(as in not volunteers, staffers, etc)

Andrea H.

can you be more specific?

Jenn Calaelen

archive features and the like?

Eylul

I think that they should be able to point out problems, or suggest features, and comment on how they use things. Occasionally it is alright to offer a solution but I think that it goes through the process of participation into development of the software project(design, coding and QA). I think right now our processes for participating into software development is a still bit too rigid to allow that so that is a drawback. (there is work on that done)

Jenn Calaelen

mostly around Yuletide areas I’ve been hearing a lot of why hasn’t x been fixed yet? why ins’t the Yuletide old archive import happening soon etc…

Andrea H.

Well, archive importing as a whole isn’t ready yet, so it’s not just Yuletide shuffling its heels, for sure!

Eylul

Now, what I think is not okay, is polling. I do think input allows inclusivity, but blindly just going after most popular issues and such sometimes means not catering to smaller communities that are in minority, or not active in feedback yet. So it is a balancing act.\

/done

addendum: I mean yes from a software design point of view yes we should prioritize largest user base but we are also a non-profit with principles, so we cannot just do that /really done

Leela has entered the room

Andrea H.

There is a mechanism currently by which users are able to suggest features – somewhat counterintuitively – putting in a Support ticket, and I know that the tickets are an important source of user feedback and suggestions. Obviously though those tend to be on the reactive rather than the proactive side, and probably aren’t as well-known as they could be.

Leela has left the room

Andrea H.

I agree with Eylul that the AO3 can’t just follow the crowd – or the vision of single developers – because of the fact that we do have principles that we have to do our best to uphold, as an Org. But yes, users definitely should have a say, but it’s important to recognize that our users aren’t monolithic. /done

Jenny S-T

thank you, both

Does anyone else have any questions? We have about 15 minutes left

hele

(Andrea, don’t want to interrupt, but can I get you two seconds on crosscom or here, after this?)

Andrea H.

(sure!)

Jenny S-T

If not, I’ll pull one from the latest blog post, but do feel free to interrupt if you have anything

Eylul

*looks both at staffers AND guests*

Jenny S-T

Okay, a question from Que on the blog: “And lastly, one of the problems that seem to have been plaguing the OTW board is low attendance of board members. What are your thoughts on this situation, possible solutions or affects to the Org and the productivity of the board?”

Andrea H.

I was just about to post this as an answer to the blog

let me c&P

It’s definitely a problem when Board members have high rates of absence at Board meetings, particularly with a six-person Board – I’m hopeful that increasing the seats to nine will mean that more meetings have a quorum of attendees in 2013, and definitely the more meetings there are without a quorum, the less productive Board is. I said this in a blog post, but I don’t actually expect that every Board member will be able to show up to meetings 100% of the time – we have lives, other commitments, and since Board doesn’t get a salary, we have to do something to keep a roof over our head in our spare time, too. 🙂 And, because Board does a lot of its communication over email and Basecamp, missing the occasional meeting doesn’t mean you’re automatically completely out of the loop. I also think it’s important for Board members to acknowledge when life is such that they won’t be able to fulfill their responsibilities, as Jenny S-T has done by deciding to resign at the end of this term 🙁 (we’ll miss you, Jenny!) and Julia Beck has done by going on hiatus until 2013, and as Ira Gladkova did earlier this year for medical reasons. So, in the end, open communication is hugely important for Board too.

Curtis J. has left the room

Claire O. has entered the room

Er has entered the room

Eylul

I know there was a solution in part to make the meetings rotate to accommodate more timezones. Beyond that however I think is defining an attendance rule that is reasonable and holding board members accountable for it. I think the big issue as Jenny mentioned in her second post on the topic was not that the board members was missing the meetings but that the asynchronous conversation over emails and tasks as being a liaison was also suffering. The solution I think, again, is to set up expectations, to make these expectations clear to incoming members, then hold board members accountable in it. I do also think that there is however things that can be done to gradually lower the time expectation from board members which is frankly huge.

Board has to do a lot of mentoring and decision making that again is appropriate for a newly founded small non-profit, and not appropriate for our current scale. The whole issue of building new structures that is suited to a larger and more mature org ties to this too. (I think the board has been discussing this and beginning to work on solutions over past year)

/done

Andrea H.

Agreed. /done

Eylul

*also agrees with andrea’s points*

Jenny S-T

thank you, both

Any other questions in our last couple of minutes?

pluck has left the room

hele

(since this is quiet, Andrea, I’m going to jump to crosscommin parallel and leave you my message there)

Jenny S-T

If not, thank you all for coming. We will be posting transcript shortly, and you are welcome to ask further questions there.

hele

the meme already has it

Agnieszka S. has left the room

hele

I’m only sad the real mrsscribe is not in the room

I was about to ask for an autograph

Ira G.

Thank you for hosting, Jenny, and thank you Andrea and Eylul!

Andrea H.

thanks everyone! have a good weekend. 🙂 Ira, like half an hour from now?

Eylul

thank you everyone for coming and for thoughtful questions, and thank you Jenny for organizing this!

Nele N.

Thank you all

hele

yes, thanks candidates/future board for coming and answering!

Kristen M.

thanks, Andrea, Eylul, and Jenny!

Kristen M. has left the room

hele

and Jenny for organizing and doing being an excellent moderator

2012 Candidate Manifesto – Eylul Dogruel

Elections Staff

Why did you decide to run for election to the Board?

1) I have a lot of ideas on what is going right and what is going wrong with OTW, and I do find myself often expressing these opinions to fellow staffers, volunteers and public. At some point, I realized that there is only so much you can do with backseat driving. Also, OTW being in the middle of a transition it is an important time to bring forward ideas and start dialogues.

2) There are board members and staffers that I work with that I respect, who are doing amazing work. I’d like to support them better, and help making the structure that supports them better.  

These two are the main reasons why I put my candidacy for the board.

 

 

What skills and/or experience would you bring to the Board?

I have a background that combines art, design and computer science. My technical knowledge includes web technologies, usability, aesthetics and customer support. In terms of managing experience, I have been part of online communities from an early age, occasionally taking managing roles. In the OTW I have been the AD&T, QA lead in 2010, and I just took over Survey co-chairing.

In addition to this, my switching between several fields as well as my experience living in different cultures gave me the ability to translate and synthesize. I don’t mean translating literally languages but cultures and mindsets. I can think like an artist, then switch gears and think like a computer scientist or an usability designer. I can put my middle eastern hat on, but also combine that with my experience of living 7 years in USA, and with an even longer experience of interacting with western fandoms online. This allows me to sometimes help reformulating ideas from one side to another as well as bridge ideas to find out of box solutions to problems.

 

 

What is your vision for the direction of the organization over the next year and how do you see working with your fellow board members to accomplish it?

I want to see an OTW that structurally transitions from the equivalent of a start-up as a non-profit to one that is a larger organization. I think that we outgrew our structure and that it is causing a lot of symptoms, everything from some of the transparency issues to volunteer burnout.

Recently, in a blog post, I suggested a reorganization of the AD&T committee. I suggested splitting project managements away from volunteer managements, and to divide the volunteer managements into role based groups to ensure all of our technical volunteers were supported. The idea here was to identify and propose a solution to a problem, and to start a discussion on any concerns and alternatives. I do plan to continue this work as a board member collaborating with the rest of the board and the affected committees.

Another initiative that I plan to support toward a better org structure is the Strategic Planning Committee, which is already doing a fantastic job, and to ensure their findings and results are applied.

In addition to tackling structural problems, I’d like to support and initiate solutions to our transparency and diversity problems. More on that on the related questions.

 

 

What is your experience of the org’s projects and how would you collaborate with the relevant committees to support and strengthen them? Please include AO3, TWC, Fanlore, our Legal advocacy work and Open Doors, though feel free to emphasize particular areas of the org you’re interested in.
 
As a former staffer of AD&T, and currently as a member of the category change workgroup the primary project I have worked with as a volunteer is AO3. The rest of the projects I have interacted mainly as a user/reader, or followed their work through the news outlets.

I mentioned in the previous question some of my ideas on how to strengthen and support technical committees. I think it is crucial to better support technical volunteers that work for AO3, and also crucial to ensure Fanlore, TWC, Open Doors or any other projects that needs technical resources are equally supported. However, beyond that, this is a question I’d ask right back at the committees. My first action once I decided to run to the board was to begin talking to volunteers around the org, especially people working on projects and committees that I didn’t have a lot of interaction with. I chat with them informally about the work they do and asked what types of challenges they run into. I do plan to continue to do that through my role as a liaison and independently, so my IM and email is always open.

 

 

What does transparency mean to you personally, both inside the organization and between projects and between the organization and fandom? How do you value it and how would you make it a part of your service?

My approach to transparency is the same as my approach to design: iterative and user/audience centric.

It doesn’t matter if it is a feature, a layout, or an internal policy: ask early, ask often. Start and end with your audience whenever possible. This is why I’d like to see a better design process for OTW projects. This is why the open board sessions was a great idea. I’d like to see the organization that gets better at actively asking and seeking commentary, and at figuring out ways to accept internal and external criticism. We have already done some progress on these points, but we can get even better. This is partially an issue of organizational culture, but it is also an issue of inefficiencies that makes communication look like one extra hurdle in the middle of a sea of emergencies. This is why in part why reforming our structure and to make our work more efficient is important.

 

 

What does diversity mean to you personally, both inside the organization and between projects and between the organization and fandom? How do you value it and how would you make it a part of your service?

As a middle eastern fan I do notice first hand how US and Western centric OTW can be at times. It is why I decided to join I&O. It is not that OTW doesn’t want to be more diverse and that there isn’t any effort toward it. Quite the opposite. The problem, what it boils down to, is a mistake in approach. Diversity is not something one can add on top once the US-centric or western-media centric default is set in place or something the organization should only prioritize when noise becomes loud enough to become bad PR. Instead the focus to stay in equal distance to as many cultures and communities as possible has to be there from day one. It is tough but we need to start somewhere.

I do plan to continue to advocate for all forms of diversity in the organization whether it is regional, fannish or other in the organization as a board member and prioritize supporting any initiatives that comes from committees toward this goal.

 

 

What do you think the key responsibilities of a/the board are? Are you familiar with the legal requirements for a US-based nonprofit board of directors?

The key responsibilities of the board is to set overall course and goals of the organization, keeping in consideration its role as a non-profit serving fans. Another key responsibility is to oversee and support the work committees do toward these goals. One place of improvement would be are the decisions of when to intervene with a committee, when not to, and to clarify goals, expectations and accountability so that it is more clear which case is which.

I am familiar with legal requirements for a US-based nonprofit board of directors.

 

 

How would you balance your Board work with other roles in the org, or how do you plan to hand over your current roles to focus on Board work?

Right now my current works include Survey workgroup co-chair, I&O staffer and Category Change workgroup staffer. Time requirements of my staffer roles are flexible enough to not cause conflict with board work. Thus, right now the main concern is my position as Survey co-chair. The situation is a bit tricky in that we only took over in August, and didn’t have a lot of opportunity to start mentoring anyone to replace us. I have been discussing the situation with my co-chair through and we are looking at our options. I do plan to gradually hand over my management role there, over the next few months if at all possible.

Transcript for Initial 2012 Candidate Chat

Webmasters

The following is a transcript of the OTW Board candidates’ chat held at 1800 UTC 29 September 2012. Elections officer Jenny Scott-Thompson moderated the discussion; candidates Franzeska Dickson and Eylul Dogruel attended.

Claudia R. has entered the room

Eylul has entered the room

Lady Oscar has entered the room

Lady Oscar has left the room

Jenny S-T has entered the room

Franzeska D. has entered the room

Franzeska D.

Hi

Eylul

hey 🙂

Jenny S-T

Hi!

Lady Oscar has entered the room

Jenny S-T

As a reminder, transcript of this chat will be posted publicly. If you’d like us to exclude your name or a particular comment, please let me know.

We’ll start officially in about 5 minutes

Franzeska D.

No, no, anything off color, foolish, or off the wall I say should be preserved for posterity, clearly.

Eylul

actually Jenny, question. if that is the case. can we link our fannish info and real info here without worrying about google?

Franzeska D.

Hi Lady Oscar

Jenny S-T

yes, just make it clear which bits you want me to exclude

and remember that the full transcript will be visible to everyone in the org

Eylul

fannish side, if it happens.

Lady Oscar

Hi!

Eylul

I just don’t want it tied in google and public internet if it comes up. I think most of the people in org who know me knows my DW anyway 😉

Tuulia has entered the room

Franzeska D.

There are actually people here! Yesss!

Eylul

hee

Jenny S-T

So, welcome! I’m the OTW elections officer and Secretary of the Board. We’ll be using our usual in-org convention here of asking people to let me know if they have a question, I’ll let people know when to go so we can follow conversation easily, and please type /done at the end of any comment that spans multiple lines. We’ll have some more free-form chat at the end.

foxinthestars has entered the room

Jenny S-T

Does anyone have particular questions that they’ve brought? I’m aware the bios and manifestos aren’t yet up, so there will be more information when those are posted next week, but we’re open to questions in the meantime.

Either about the elections process or for our new Board members

Lady Oscar

o/

Jenny S-T

As a reminder, transcript of this chat will be posted publicly. If you’d like us to exclude your name or a particular comment, please let me know.

hele has entered the room

Jenny S-T

Franzi and Eylul, do you want to each give a quick introduction of yourselves as people arrive?

Eylul

sure 🙂 *typing*

Jenny S-T

and Lady Oscar, go ahead with your question when you’re ready

Lady Oscar

I just wanted to make sure that I understand correctly–there won’t actually be an election, in the sense of any vote being held, right?

/done

Jenny S-T

correct, yes

we have the same number of candidates as seats, so it’s uncontested this year

Eylul

Hi, I am Eylul Dogruel. I am an artist and a grad student from Istanbul, Turkey. I have joined the org about 3 years ago. I worked in AD&T and now currently am an I&O staffer and and work with 2 workgroups, as co-chair of Survey, and a staffer of Category Change. Looking forward to answering questions here, or feel free to poke at me later. 🙂

/done

Franzeska D.

Sure. I got into fandom on Usenet in the 90s. (Specifically alt.tv.x-files during the end of the first season, so that would have been early 1994.) In high school, I did a lot of reading in stuff like Highlander, but I wasn’t on mailing lists or active in those sorts of fandoms. At the same time, I got heavily into anime, and I was on a billion and one yahoo groups for every possible combination of gundam wing characters. (*sigh*) I was also in Harry Potter around that time, and while I moved onto LJ in 2002-2003, I really missed the big archive era and the kinds of megafandoms that have multiple archives like HP does (did? I have no clue these days). More recently, I’ve gotten into oldschool zine fandoms and vidding. I go by my real name online and always have. If you find a ‘franzeska’ blathering about fandom, that’s almost certainly me. (And I use my name as my username most places if I can get it.)

In OTW, I was on Content and then Abuse. (And Webmasters, but let us not speak of that dark time. Drupal: my nemesis!) I work in finance right now, but I’m hoping to go back to school.

Eylul

(AD&T -> Accesibility Design and Technology committee, that is responsible for AO3 development, and I&O -> Internationalization and Outreach Committee)

Franzeska D.

And the Tag Wrangling Committee (oh god, where is my brain). Yay, AO3 tags.

Eylul

*grins at Franzi*

Franzeska D.

…and the Category Change workgroup…

foxinthestars

::raises hand::

Jenny S-T

Franzi, you done for the moment or anything else to add?

Tiyire has entered the room

Franzeska D.

When talking about me, there’s always something else to… err… yes, I’m done unless anyone has a biographical question?

Jenn Calaelen has entered the room

sanders has entered the room

Jenny S-T

Foxinthestars, go ahead, then 🙂

Enigel has entered the room

Radka has entered the room

foxinthestars

Thanks. Since you’re both on the Category Change workgroup, could you talk about the problems you see there and what your priorities are in addressing it? /done

hele

:raises hand for after:

Lady Oscar

:question after hele:

Eylul

request for clarification about the question. foxinthestars are you asking about problems of the AO3 categories, or the workgroup or both?

/done

foxinthestars

The problems of the categories, but anything you want to say about the matter would be good. /done

Franzeska D.

Oh my. Well, let’s not beat around the bush: anime & manga is what we’re really talking about here.

Eylul

*lets Franzi finish speaking first*

Franzeska D.

The workgroup has mostly done setup stuff so far. We have not gotten into the meaty part of getting feedback or discussing our own views, but it looks to me like there is some support for tweaking things like what goes in ‘Other Media’, making one single RPF category, and so on. I doubt any of that will be hugely controversial, but the workgroup will be looking at lots of opinions, not just our own, so hopefully, we’ll be able to come up with something that pleases most people.

Anime & Manga on the other hand are a pain in the butt because we have groups who strongly prefer opposite solutions there. (If that weren’t the case, the Tag Wrangling Committee would have taken care of this a million years ago when the wranglers first discussed it.)

I think everyone, inside and outside of the workgroup, is pretty well aware by now that our one-tier system is an extremely poor way of capturing the fandom categorizations people use in fandoms of East Asian media. (Tokusatsu and kdramas and things also come up when discussing anime/manga fandom, naturally.)

That problem extends to other areas of fandom, but it’s extremely pronounced there. I really cannot say what we’ll ultimately decide on for the Anime & Manga category. It will depend on technical concerns too.

Personally, I think it would make the most sense to have a Sequential Art category and to have BD, anime/manga, manhua, komiks, Marvel, etc. under that.

If anyone wants my personal views on comics/sequential art and categorization, I have an endless ranty post in my DW from a couple of years ago I can dig out the link to. But I really have no idea where the workgroup will end up on this issue, and I may well leave it next year.

(Currently, the workgroup has representatives from various committees. Since I am planning to leave all committees to focus on board work, that would make me an awkward fit for the workgroup unless it’s decided that it will be a consistent team of people from now on rather than committee representatives. That’s not up to me though.)

done

Jenny S-T

thanks, Franzi

Eylul

I think that Franzi explained the summarized the situation. I do also personally think that Sequential Art category would be a good candidate as a final solution to this part of the problem.

Another reason I like this solution is because it can be generalized to the other categories that has issues. Basically my point of view on this topic as someone who focuses a lot on the diversity of the organization and its projects is that an ideal solution shouldn’t just firefight but find community-neutral and region neutral solution that will keep working.

What I am trying to mean here is that we shouldn’t just be US-centric and western media centric until causes noise enough to become bad PR. 🙂

Claudia R. has left the room

Eylul

Putting my category change staffer hat this is what I plan to push, but putting on future board member hat, I think that it is not the place of the board to just express opinions over a workgroup, so what I will do in that capacity is to support that workgroup as well as all other projects.

/done 🙂

Jenny S-T

thank you, Eylul

Jessica S. has entered the room

Enigel

q

foxinthestars

Thank you!

Enigel

(after people who’ve already registered to ask questions)

Jenny S-T

foxinthestars, does that answer it, or do you have any particular clarifications you want to ask for?

sanders

o/ after enigel

foxinthestars

No, that’s good. Thank you both!

Jenny S-T

okay, hele next

hele

ok! Self interest here as a staffer, but: what do you see as your role as board liaison for committees, and are there particular things you plan to change on that capacity?

/done

Eylul

I think it depends a lot on the committee

some committees are well established and has chairs who are experienced as staffers. With them I think the board liaison’s main job is to support the chair by being a sounding board, giving advice if asked, be also available to the rest of the staffers if they wish to discuss a concern or have questions, to be a resource. I think that a liaison’s job is also to be the link between the board and the committee, as obvious as that sounds.

If the committee is struggling through, especially a chair who needs more mentoring or needs help, board liaison can do that as well. (hopefully with the chair training the volunteer committee works on, it will be less necessary). I am not sure how to answer the part about changing because it seems so far different board members have different approaches to this. This would be my approach as a board member.

/done

Franzeska D.

I have found the liaison role less than ideal in the past because it’s all too easy for that board member to get overloaded or to be ill or away when they’re needed. I would like to see more of a split between general mentoring activities and the flow of information/requests (and maybe this is already happening elsewhere, but it’s not what I’ve done/seen as a committee member or chair). The current way of liaising is good for building social ties and for some kinds of mentoring. I would prefer to see more instances of committees sending a representative (not always the chair–more like whoever’s available/in the right time zone) to the open part of board meetings.

Or contacting the whole board directly if it’s really urgent.

(I’ve seen too many cases of urgent things falling into a black hole.)

As for what I personally will do, I think leaving all committees during my time on the board will give me the time to be a liaison.

Tiyire has left the room

Franzeska D.

It’s more time-consuming than people think. A lot more!

/done

hele

thanks both! (and yes!)

Jenny S-T

hele, does that answer it, or any follow-on questions?

hele

(and I don’t have any follow up questions)

Jenny S-T

LO, you’re up next. Enigel and Sanders, if we run out of time, drop me your questions in email and they’ll go first next time

Claudia R. has entered the room

Lady Oscar

That leads into my question (which I think Franzi’s mostly answered)–Since Board is obviously a huge time commitment, what are your plans for dealing with this with respect to your current Org responsibilities?

/done

Franzeska D.

I’ve already handed off Abuse. I plan to leave the Tag Wrangling Committee at the end of the year. I’ll probably continue to wrangle since that is quite flexible. And I don’t know about the Category Change Workgroup. I’ll *probably* end up leaving that, but we’ll see.

Eylul

*waits for franzi to be done*

Franzeska D.

oops

sorry

/done

Eylul

heh

I am currently an I&O staffer which in itself is manageable with board. The 2 workgroups I am part of: the category change is not a huge time commitment. My concern there currently is, as I mentioned above, is to not be influencing the group in a board member role. Survey… I am exploring solutions to drop it. It is a bit tricky because I took it over with my co-chair Aja in August, and we didn’t have a lot of time to think on successors yet. So work in progress? 🙂 /done

Jenny S-T

LO, does that cover it, or anything else you want to add?

Lady Oscar

I think that covers it, thanks.

/done

Jenny S-T

Enigel, you’re up 🙂

Enigel

for both candidates who are present: what are your top two priorities for the Org, that you will push for as board members? (top one is too restrictive, but top three is too wide 😉 I know it’s early so it’s fair to say that you want to think more about it, or that it will be in the manifestos)

/done

Lesann has entered the room

Franzeska D.

Ha ha ha. I am less technical than Eylul, so I am not a good person to give details in live chat, but I think the suggestions about AD&T and the general structure/workflow/management of improving AO3 and coding new features and such is worth looking at. That was a good post. My top priority is management in general. We are bad at it as an org (like most young orgs), and we spend too much time with our managers doing the work instead of managing. No finger pointing: it’s been everyone the whole time pretty much, as is normal. /done

Eylul

Yes it will also be in my manifesto but I see no harm in writing here a bit 🙂 1) Seeing the organization transition from an organizational equivalent of a start-up to one that is a larger organization. I think that we outgrew our structure and that it is causing a lot of symptoms, everything from some of the transparency issues to volunteer burnout.

I know some of you know the blog post I wrote few weeks back, that franzi also mentioned above. 🙂

that is part of that thought process.

Enigel

follow-up question

Eylul

2) Diversity. As a middle eastern, I do sometimes notice how US-centric and western media centric the org comes across, even when not intending to. My goal is that diversity doesn’t become some thing that is just

something we add after we get the US-centric default done, but instead that we stay at equal distances to many cultures and communities as possible. I am aware it is a tall order but we need to start somewhere right? 🙂 /done

Jenny S-T

We’re just about at our time limit

Enigel

thank you! 🙂

Jenny S-T

Sanders, can you mail me your question for next time, please?

Franzeska D.

WE CAN TYPE FAST

Jenny S-T

Enigel, do you want to drop your follow-up in here?

Franzeska D.

;P

Enigel

I’ll pack my follow up q in an email then

hele

heeh

Eylul

yes we can 🙂

sanders

i can, yeah.

Enigel

or ok

how do you plan on making this startup-to-big-org transition?

Scott S. has entered the room

Enigel

using existing – tutorials, i guess, or devising a process specific to this org?

to account for the fact that it’s still volunteer run, even if the size is larger

/done

Eylul

Enigel, I think some of that change is happening already. Several committees are going through documentation and revision of their processes. I do think that we do need to look at our committees and identify bottlenecks and find solutions. My blog post on AD&T (which concerns AD&T and web directly, as well as any other project that uses technical resources) was identifying a bottleneck and proposing a solution. This is less about people working more “professionally”, it is about setting in structures so that more detailed and fleshed out processes don’t depend on individual processes. I am not sure if that helps answering or confusing more /done

Franzeska D.

The first step is managing rather than doing. (Which is why I’m entirely leaving committee work.) I am definitely thinking more tutorials (or the published literature) than just making up something org-specific. We are different for being 100% volunteer, but we’re not *that* different. These issues come up with every organization in very similar ways. /done

Eylul

don’t depend on individual processes -> don’t depend on individuals.

Jenny S-T

thank you both

we’re at our time limit, but the transcript will soon be posted publicly

and in the meantime, you are welcome to continue discussing in the comments to the OTW election posts, on either the OTW site, DW or LJ – Comms will try and notify us of comments there so we can respond

or email me any questions for next chat – my contact form is on the OTW website

thank you all for coming!