[Foundation-l] Transparency

[Brianna Laugher]

On 10/01/2008, Robert Rohde <rarohde at gmail.com> wrote:
The
> WMF mostly provides a behind-the-scenes service to keep the servers running,
> and many people would be perfectly happy if the WMF never, ever got
> involved in the governance of individual projects.  When the WMF does get
> involved, many participants wonder: "Why are you messing with MY work."

And yet at the same time, the Foundation is also called upon to
intervene in many controversies and issues, sometimes appropriately
but often inappropriately. For example I have seen several critics of
English Wikipedia culture chastise the Foundation for not acting in
some way to improve it, but few Wikimedians would consider that
appropriate, I think.
Also copyright issues. They are a bit damned if they do and damned if
they don't.

BTW I can not think of too many occasions where the Foundation *has*
intervened with the governance of individual projects. The only one
that comes to mind is the closure of fr.wq and I didn't even see a
single person criticise the way that was handled. There was a lot of
discussion about the licensing policy but I didn't see anyone suggest
that it was inappropriate for the Foundation to do what it did.

> As I write that, it occurs to me that there isn't even a clear point of
> contact for project participants who want to contact the Foundation with
> questions or requests.  As far as I know, there is no prominent page
> anywhere that amounts to "Instructions on Contacting the Foundation for
> Help", so when "Foundation Issues" come up people are mostly left to guess
> on what to do.  Eventually very experienced hands get a sense of when to A)
> call the office, B) post to foundation-l, C) email Jimbo/Anthere/Brion,
> etc., but as far as know there isn't any place that actually tries to
> explain best practices for interacting with the Foundation.

I would start with the Volunteer Coordinator
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Volunteer_Coordinator>, and as a
bonus Cary is as a rule very helpful. :)

regards
Brianna


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