[Wikimedia-l] Democratizing the Wikimedia Foundation

[Lodewijk]

Dear all,

I have set up a brainstorming page on metawiki (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Democratizing_the_Wikimedia_Foundation)
where I would like to invite you to think about ways to democratize the
Wikimedia Foundation.

This doesn't mean that the Wikimedia Foundation is totally undemocratic,
but it does mean that in my humble opinion, improvements are possible. This
was triggered by me after the third time in my memory that the Foundation
board has changed the bylaws of the Foundation without even consulting the
community - but this doesn't have to be the only possible improvement.

This is not intended as a huge complaint 'moo, the WMF is evil and
dictatorial' but rather as a constructive exercise. I invite you to
approach this also constructively, and think about possible improvement to
current procedures - to ensure that there is a large community involvement
in the governance of the Wikimedia Foundation - directly or indirectly -
and that processes are transparent.

I hope that our community selected board members will take this up as well,
think along and bring the proposals to the board when the time is there
(Alice, Kat, Patricio, SJ, and Ting: I'm looking at you) but of course I'm
counting on it that also other board members will support the thought
behind this. Any input on how to make this process more constructive would
be appreciated. I also hope that the legal team will be watching the page
and advise when something is legally impossible and how it could be made
possible.

With kind regards,

Lodewijk