On 5/16/07, Sean Whitton sean@silentflame.com wrote:
I would like to act more as a chair than simply a co-ordinator, and I use this term because I refer specifically to other successful committees around Wikimedia: enwiki's Mediation Committee works very well with a chair and tight team and I think we could create a similar environment. However, I need to know that you're all okay with me trying to be more proactive before I do anything :)
I think this is an excellent idea.
I think that Cary is right in that we need to formulate a decent
mission statement or some form of structure that we can cycle through to get projects etc. completed. However, I think that before we work on that we first need to sort out a better method of communicating. As some of you know I'm a freenode staff member and we have all observed on multiple occasions that IRC isn't good enough on its own (despite the fact we're trying to run an IRC network) and must be complemented by other means. So, my proposition is that e-mail is used as a constructive discussion environment and then if certain people working on specific projects want to have an IRC session, they can then do so. I would argue that the current weekly meeting idea isn't working well enough. We could still have it, but I would like to make it of less importance. I know that Sandy wasn't keen on the idea of using the list in this way, but I would argue we need to change until she gets back, and then re-evaluate things.
I think that you are spot on about needing to communicate better. We have lots of options, but we should pick and choose what goes where. Since we're a Wiki based community, we should use that where we can, espescially for the longer and larger types of projects. IRC has it's uses, and we have a voice meeting option as well, when we have to get a number of people to hash stuff out or brainstorm. E-mail and mailing lists have their uses also.
Personally, I think we should formulate a strategy, and then pick a few practical projects that work towards this strategy.
Oh, and do we have an agenda for today's meeting?
Gerald.