On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 10:58 PM, Pete Forsyth <peteforsyth(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 10:27 PM, Sarah
<slimvirgin(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Sarah, the terms of use come from the
Foundation.
Sarah,
I know this is a tangent to what you're talking about, but I think it's an
important point. Last year's rewrite of the terms of use was guided by
Foundation staff, but in my view and that of many others was a model
project for how to follow the knowledge and wisdom that exists within our
community. There was draft text from WMF counsel, but in a two month+
period it was radically altered and expanded by a process led by numerous
volunteers and community members. WMF staff provided legal expertise, but
went out of itse way to express that the knowledge of how to align the TOU
with the movement's goals resided primarily within the community, and
created a space in which that could be explored and articulated.
While it does not do much to address concerns about gender, I believe that
the TOU rewrite was a big success, both in terms of modeling how the
volunteer community can lead and WMF can facilitate and play a support
role; and also in terms of the quality of the final document.
Of course, these documents can be rewritten, and I'm sure this one will be
rewritten in a few years. Before that, though, will be a rewrite of the
Privacy Policy, which actually may be a more suitable document for some of
these concerns. I encourage everyone on this list to participate when the
time comes for that, which I think will be a matter of weeks or months.
Pete
[[User:Peteforsyth]]
Thanks, Pete, that's helpful. Would you mind pinging us when the privacy
policy discussions begin? I'm sure there will be lots of notifications, but
it's really easy to miss the significance of these things.
Sarah