Hi Maarten,
Sorry for the slow reply -- I've been in San Francisco this week
meeting with funders and platform partners.
Your comments are very helpful. Perhaps it's best if I share a
proposed approach, and let's find a model that works. Ideally, we
would translate and publish all page content at once. I will admit
that I had some assumptions about how the site works that are now
clearly not the case. For example, there is no staging server, so we
can't see things before they're live. If we want to translate these
strings offline, we'll need to set something up separately.
re: translation -- my approach to translation is more "localization"
or "adaptation" -- we don't have to literally say exactly the same
thing. In fundraising, I think that's important. So long as the
appeal carries the sentiment and the specific request to give, I
think there should be latitude for translators to adapt to
culture/tone.
Further, I'm happy to have discussion about the core content/ask,
and appreciate the comments we already received, which we're going
to incorporate into the site and test. However, to get statistically
valid test data, we'll have to run the language for several months,
less if donation rates pick up significantly (which is possible).
Here's my proposal, feedback welcome:
- I will share a document with the updated strings for translation
(including the "donate now" button).
- Affiliates will translate (within a week or two), but if there is
a local proposal to functionally change the content to adapt to a
local need, we discuss and agree together (this is important to me,
because we need to understand how they are changed if they do well,
or do poorly, and also because I want to understand the differences)
- CC publishes the pages, tracks data, and shares results at the end
of September (Q3) before we go into our year-end campaign planning
- We set up a separate mailing list and monthly office hours for all
those interested in working on donor strategy -- we have a lot of
work to do here in the next number of months, and I also want the
discussion to not be limited to cc-Europe -- nor do I want to fill
cc-affiliates with all that donor content.
I really appreciate all the feedback, criticism, and ideas. CC is
not good at this yet, but we have to become good at it. It's a
struggle with full-time people, a fundraising agency on retainer,
and volunteers who have deep investment in these pages. But I'm
confident we'll work it out, and I'm committed to doing it.
Best,
Ryan
On 2015-06-14 4:49 PM, Maarten Zeinstra
wrote:
770CD6DD-66D5-4CF6-985F-F818198EF419 AT kl.nl"
type="cite">
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for the nuanced response. I believe the
friction that we are experiencing is not about the necessity of
attracting funds for CC Global but a lack of involvement or
perceived restrictions of involvement from the European side.
For me this was triggered by needing to translate a
sentence that was so undutch in its way of addressing the Dutch
public. Now you said in a mail that you are open for all
feedback, you’ve got some for use about the wording of the
donation notice on the deed pages. I’ve not seen a response to
that or a structured way to discuss that donation message.
Also, and this is a pet peeve, but the response to
our initial concern was met with a mail by you stating you want
to restrict this to the English language for now. Should you
then make these messages available on other language deed pages?
Also if you want to enable translations please make them
available in such a way that we can at least have our languages
in the system before the change goes live. Also make sure that
all sentences are translatable. While Dutch is completely
translated according to Transifex, the dutch deed pages have a
English ‘donate now’ button: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.nl The
Dutch and Belgian team has spent many person months translating
the licenses and deeds and we pride ourselves of having a Dutch
translation. To us this looks unprofessional.
And this touches also a bit on the underlying
feeling I/we have here. The affiliates feel ownership over these
product because of the hard work we put into them. However we
also feel a loss of control over them, this frustrates.
Best,
Maarten
--
Kennisland | www.kl.nl | t
+31205756720 | m +31643053919 | @mzeinstra
Hi all,
Thanks for the discussion and comments -- I'm sorry to
not have engaged sooner. I wasn't on the CC-Europe list
and so didn't see it until John W brought it to my
attention. I am here now.
CC needs to seek donations from everywhere in the world.
By comparison, Mozilla receives over 40 percent of its
small dollar donor revenues from outside of the US, in
all the regions where CC also operates. About two thirds
of Wikipedia's funding came from outside North America
in 2013/14. Donation cultures are different everywhere,
but there are also people everywhere who are willing to
give to support CC (and many already do). We have to
figure out how to reach them and speak to them in a way
that will be most likely to inspire them to give. I
can't (and don't intend to) figure out how to do that
without all of you.
We're working to develop the right messages and tactics
for creativecommons.org,
and my intention is to pilot those attempts in EN first,
and then work with all of you to localize. Based on the
Mozilla and Wikipedia experience, the three biggest
factors that drive international donation rates up are
localization, payment methods, and currencies accepted.
The last two are much harder to implement than the
first. On localization, we can work together to design
and test (and re-test), and I hope that we will. If
you're interested in working with me on that now, please
send me an e-mail. Otherwise, there will be a more
general call as we refine the EN strategy and prepare to
consider other markets.
I'm committed, and happy to commit as you ask below, to
working with affiliates and to consider the
recommendations. As I mentioned in my previous e-mail,
we will ensure all of you are aware of what we're
planning in advance, and engage you in the discussion on
how to do it.
CC has no choice but to become good at fundraising. It's
my first priority, because it gives us what we need to
support you, maintain the licenses, and execute our
projects. This year, CC's direct investment and support
in the community will be over a half a million dollars
(travel, co-ordinators, Summit), and our budget is
$3.2M. Last year's fundraising program was our most
successful ever, raising $200k USD. So even with strong
growth, we still have a ways to go.
I like Lisette's suggestion, and I'll gladly lead and/or
participate in a discussion at the summit about
fundraising and collaboration and design of programs
along with affiliates.
Best,
Ryan
PS - One small point that I think is important. CC HQ's
activities and policies are not being developed for the
US market only. I'm also not American. I still accep the
points about CC HQ having its own strategy, and that
there are local affiliates with their own programs
(including CC US), but I would ask that we attempt to be
precise about CC HQ rather than calling it the US org.
On 2015-06-10 4:12 PM, Alek
Tarkowski wrote:
3083501D-A794-40CE-B983-DAD714A1E3E4 AT creativecommons.pl"
type="cite" class="">
Dear all,
Maarten, I agree with what you write,
especially the part about ownership. I think the
whole issue is about us having a sense of not having
a say in an issue that we have some stake in, build
over the years.
John, it would be great if next time we
could have an inclusive process and a consultation
on funding-related matters. This has been mentioned
for years. I still think it's a pity this current
issue will be left as is. I like LIsette's idea
about a workshop at the Summit - but this will only
work if the HQ makes some commitment to be in this
process and consider / adopt the results.
But there is a broader issue of
governance behind all this. I think it's up to us as
affiliates to come up with some proposals of issues
about which we believe that we should have a say,
and a proposal for a method to conduct this.
Best,
Alek
On Jun 10, 2015, at 15:36, Lisette
Kalshoven < lk AT kl.nl>
wrote:
Hi John,
That is good news, looking forward
to the digest of the call.
Perhaps we can organise a session
during the Summit where we can discuss the
diversification of the messages per region? CC
NL would be happy to contribute.
Cheers,
Lisette
--
Kennisland | www.kennisland.nl |
t +31205756720 | m +31613943237 |
@lnkalshoven | skype: lisette.kalshoven
Hi Maarten et al,
as a result of the pop-up
issue and the discussion here on the
list, we discussed in yesterday's
staff-call the inclusion of the
affiliate network in future
donation-related tests and tinkering.
I'll send the digest of the call in a
separate email. The message was well
received by all incl. the rather new
staff members, so I think we're making
progress here for everybody's benefit.
I also mentioned the next
State of the Commons Report as a
central focus point to get staff and
affiliates working together on overall
funding. There might even be potential
in diversifying the donation messages
for different parts of the world, for
which the regional/local Affiliates
could also offer their unique
expertise.
Best
John
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--
koordynator, Creative
Commons Polska
European Policy Fellow,
Creative Commons
Twitter: @atarkowski / @ccpolska
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Ryan Merkley
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ryan AT creativecommons.org
+1 416.802.0662
@ryanmerkley
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Ryan Merkley
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+1 416.802.0662
@ryanmerkley
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