2008/11/29 Andrew Turvey <raturvey(a)yahoo.co.uk>uk>:
I wanted to answer one of the questions I put with a
suggestion regarding
minority languages.
Most of the people active in Wikimedia UK seem to be active in the english
Wikimedia projects. However, there are some other smaller Wikimedia
languages where UK editors form a vital part of the editing and readorship
base. I'm thinking particularly of the native languages of the UK such as
Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and maybe Irish, Scots/Ullans, Cornish, Manx etc.
As well as recognised the diversity of the Wikimedia community, there are
also significant public funds available for promoting these languages which
could be used by us to support these projects.
The Board has already reached out to these projects by asking if the
newsletter could be translated into these languages. My suggestion is we set
aside two reserved seats on the Board for people who actively contribute to
at lease one wikimedia project in a minority language of the UK.
I don't like it - the number of reserved seats (even if it's only one)
would be way out of proportion to the number of contributors that are
out there.
I'd be much happier with the idea that if only the English language
happens to be represented after a round of elections, then the Board
could co-opt a minority language speaker (and if such a person is
elected in the normal scheme of things, than it doesn't need to).
[Trying to contribute here more - but my life is too chaotic!]