<DIV><BR><BR><B><I>Erik Moeller <erik_moeller@gmx.de></I></B> wrote:
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<P>Anthere-<BR>> I do not think that putting officially the<BR>> responsability in the hand of *one* person<BR>> specifically is the best option. It is not empowering<BR>> people. Rather, people will tend to rely on the *head*<BR>> to do things.<BR><BR>We also need to be careful not to let too many people speak in the name of <BR>the Foundation whenever they feel like it. This is after all a community <BR>of several thousands of members, and I think some screening needs to take <BR>place before we decide that person X can be an official press contact, or <BR>person Y can be a content partnership coordinator -- because our <BR>reputation may be hurt, because people may make deals which the Foundation <BR>does not want (and later has to undo), because people may neglect their <BR>position and fail to respond to inquiries (hurting our reputation), <BR>because people may fail to sufficiently communicate about what they are <BR>doing, and so forth.<BR><BR>I don't think our
positions are that far apart, though, especially since <BR>you yourself mention that people would have an opportunity to object. So <BR>if they object, what happens then? Will the person be unable to hold the <BR>position they are interested in beacuse of a single objection? At this <BR>point the natural solution is again to have a vote. I believe that at the <BR>very least, any assumption of an official title needs to be prominently <BR>announced, with a certain timeframe to raise objections, and a defined <BR>process for resolving them.<BR><BR>I also tend to believe that such an assignment shouldn't cover very short <BR>periods of time, to avoid communication problems of the type "I'm not the<BR>content coordinator, anymore, try contacting Paul." - "Sorry, I resigned <BR>last week, try contacting Amy." etc. If one only wants to assume an <BR>official title for a *single* transaction, it is better to contact <BR>whomever is currently holding that title.<BR><BR>I have no problem
with multiple people filling a certain role, in fact I <BR>support it, but the number of people should be limited. For example we <BR>could say "one press officer for every country, or for every 40 million <BR>inhabitants of a country", so the US would end up with 6 press officers, <BR>Germany with 2, etc.<BR><BR>Regards,<BR><BR>Erik<BR>_______________________________________________<BR></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Thank you Erik and Mav for the feedback.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Erik raises fair comments. Yes, screening should be done. Yes, reasonable duty time is necessary. Yes, proportionality of representation seems correct.<BR><BR>A couple of comments</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">I think we should be very careful not to change drastically the business model upon which Wikipedia is built. Currently, what makes it work is<BR><BR>* that it is open and fair. Ie, anyone is free to participate, and help in any area he feels like helping. Currently, if we are now known,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>it is also because any editor may at any time contact a newspaper for example, and make an article on Wikipedia. Evidently, some articles are not so good, some are buggy. But most are helpful nevertheless. Anyone is empowered PR activities. They won’t be fired in case of a mistake.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They learn to improve each time. We do not have to wait for an official PR to decide for us what we should do. This results, perhaps, in a bit anarchic PR activities, but not so bad all things considered :-)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">* it is not (too much) bureaucratic. Anyone can do PR activities without having to require an authorization from anyone.<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Let us be careful not to change this too much. Voluntary PR works because users have freedom to do so. If authorization becomes required, or worse, if spontaneous activity is not welcome any more, than PR activity will drop tremendously.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">I would like that we separate those holding somehow the role of a coordinator or a legal position (such as treasurer) from other roles which may perhaps not “officially” speak “<B>in the name</B>” of the Foundation, but are trusted by the Foundation to conduct a collection of activities.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">The Foundation needs official positions, but what I was suggesting was not so much <BR>PR Coordinators<BR>France : Yann<BR>Germany : Erik Moëller</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><BR>US : Maverick<BR>etc…</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Than </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><BR>PR activities<BR><BR>French language</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><BR>Coordinator : Yann</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><BR>Delegates (or whatever name is fit) : Anthere, Semnoz, Ryo<BR><BR>German language</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><BR>Coordinators : Erik Moëller, Elian</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><BR>Delegates : Fantasy, Fire</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><BR>English language</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><BR>Coordinator : Maverick<BR>Delegates : Fuzheado, Jtdirl, Eclecticology etc…<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">The first group (coordinator) has to be officially approved (or appointed) by the Foundation, while the second group is more a collection of people trusted to send press releases, and approved (or not opposed) by their respective project.</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"><BR>Even if these people should try to coordinate with their coordinator(s), they are trusted to do PR activities.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB">Now, no big deal about PR things. But transpose this to looking for funding.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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