[Foundation-l] My 10 wishes list for 2008

[Brianna Laugher]

Florence, this is a fantastic list, thankyou for writing it. I don't
know what has prompted your recent series of thought-provoking posts
to foundation-l but I am certainly grateful it has happened. :)
I would be interested to read any similar lists by other board members
or interested staff as well.

On 02/01/2008, Florence Devouard <anthere at anthere.org> wrote:
> 2. Promotion of lesser known projects
> Whilst Wikipedia has probably reached the top of its fame in the press
> of many nations, and enjoys the largest communities, other wikimedia
> projects are being increasingly successful. Commons has now over
> 2.000.000 free objects and is a unique case of multilingual
> community-based project. The largest Wiktionary is not english speaking,
> but french-speaking, a unique situation in wikimedia project and
> probably a showcase for the francophony. Wikibooks now hosts several
> high quality books, and also receive as donations, books originally
> under regular copyright protection and released under a free license,
> again, showcases of the interest of the educational world for the free
> movement.
> I would like these projects to be shown more attention by the
> Foundation, including more promotion efforts in conferences, press
> release and promotional leaflets, more interest to their specific
> technical needs, and more representativity of their communities.

I am really happy to hear this. :) Mostly about the Foundation being
more responsive to their needs.

> 3. Software development
> I am pretty sure it is an evidence to anyone that our software
> development is much behind, not because of a lack of great ideas, but
> rather of human power.
> I would like to see this year a system implemented to collect technical
> wishlists from each project; outreach to developer open-source
> communities; a well-outlined technical roadmap, with goals, resources
> and deadlines. And yeah, results. It might be worth also seeing how the
> Foundation could help on the tool server side.

This is the best news I have read all week! Really, really fantastic.
No one has any complaints about the work our devs currently do, the
only problem is the volume (or lack of it).

I would also like to see a dedicated MediaWiki development fund that
people could choose to donate into rather than a general WMF fund. It
is strange how entwined WMF/MW are when MW is extensively used outside
WMF and WMF has no special dedication to only using MW.
There are many large companies and businesses that use MW. It seems to
me a lost opportunity if we don't give them the chance to donate to MW
if they are not prepared to donate to WMF-all funds.

Using software that doesn't receive substantial ongoing improvement
is, in the long term, potentially just as dangerous as some dramatic
unwelcome act (like placing advertisements). While in the latter case
the damage and loss would be fast, in the former, people and
enthusiasm just slowly wear away... like rot.

> 4. License, international laws and compatibility
> In the past year, new policy regarding media object has been
> implemented, but I still see many questions coming in from communities,
> which do not always know how to implement our policies with regards to
> different laws. It seems that often, the answer proposed is "as long as
> it fits the american law, all is fine". I do not consider that a valid
> answer, unless we are trying to build a freely-licensed content for
> american citizens.
> My wish would be that these communities receive clear and constructive
> answers, in a timely fashion.

Yes, in the past there have been calls for legal advice on some issue
or another from the Foundation and to date they have always been
denied. There is a lot of uncertainty.

> 7. Chapters and general assembly
> The relationship between chapters and Wikimedia Foundation has improved
> over the past year. There are now guidelines for creation, some chapters
> have received the permission to use trademarks within certain limits,
> several chapters were created etc....
>
> However, it is still not sufficient. My wishlist is that further work be
> done to clarify relationships and lines of authority, and that a meeting
> be held annually with the chapters. I had hoped this assembly would
> occur in winter 2007, but this was delayed. I would like the board to
> agree to a meeting with wmf and chapters in spring 2008.

I had an idea that there was going to be some sort of consultation
thing with the chapters (and potential chapters) about what they saw
as their role and relationship to WMF? Did that happen or is it still
planned?

> 9. Financial sustainability, controls and independence
[...]
> My second wish is related to financial sustainability and independence.
> I would like that no decisions be taken on the paths to follow to
> achieve sustainability, without the involvement of the board and of the
> community.

"The community" in some ways has very limited vision. I wonder if we
are able to make tough decisions when they are called for, or if we
would rather cling to our ideals while nonetheless the ship sinks. Win
the battle but lose the war.

Thankyou again Florence for this mail.
Think where we were in Jan 2007; so far away now. I remember the
search for an ED seemed rather hopeless. :)
Imagine where we may be in Jan 2009...

regards,
Brianna

-- 
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/