I'll post more on the RFC, but I wonder if an entity within WMF would be more
appropriate and realistic. Utilizing the existing operations structure would be far
easier. Perhaps setup something like FDC to oversee priorities and funds.
My hunch is WMF would be far more likely to sign off on something they retain a sense of
sign-off on for the sake of maintaining the WMF projects than having to deal with an
independent entity that would have the legal right to go rogue one day and not do
what's in the best interest of the WMF projects. I recognize to some extent that's
the point, but looking down a 5 year road of possibilities, is that something we'd
ever want to happen? My feeling is no and allowing WMF to maintain some level of
authority in the development of MediaWiki is in our collective best interests. From
project management, fundraising, usability, system resources and paid developer support
perspective.
I would instead propose a MediaWiki department or collective (insert your favorite term
here).
-Greg aka varnent
____________
Sent from my iPhone. Apologies for any typos. A more detailed response may be sent later.
On Sep 1, 2012, at 10:42 PM, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:
Daniel Friesen wrote:
Thank you for this! This is exactly what I had in mind.
It's interesting, with a lot of (proposed) non-profits, the biggest concerns
are engaging volunteers and generating income. With this proposed
foundation, I think most of the typical concerns aren't in play. Instead, as
Nikerabbit so deftly commented on the RFC's talk page, the big question is:
What projects would a MediaWiki Foundation work on and how would those
projects be chosen?
This seems to be _the_ crucial issue. Getting grants from the Wikimedia
Foundation or Wikia or others doesn't seem like it'd be very difficult.
Assuming there was broad support for the creation of such a foundation from
active MediaWiki developers (and related stakeholders), getting the
Wikimedia Foundation to release the trademark and domain also doesn't seem
like it would be very difficult. But there's a huge unresolved question
about how, out of the infinite number of project ideas, a MediaWiki
Foundation would choose which ideas to financially support.
As you command oh great catalyst[1].
[1] Hope you don't mind. I found it amusing. And it kind of fits in a
positive way.
Cute. :-)
MZMcBride
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