My questions
are: 1) Are you satisfied with the present organizational
structure of the Project, and 2) Are you convinced it will be able to guide
and maintain the Project as it grows?
on 6/26/07 5:00 AM, Thomas Dalton at
thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com wrote:
I don't think that's a fair question. As the
project grows, the
organisational structure will grow - it has done for the past 6 years,
and will continue to do so. So far that growth has been primarily
organic and not planned more than one step in advance. The real
question is whether the organic growth of the organisational structure
will be able to keep up with the growth of the project, or will we
need to develop a more pre-planned structure. It's a difficult
question to answer - looking at how things stand now, I'm tempted to
say no, but I've been surprised by the resilience of organic
structures in the past, and may well be again.
Thomas,
I don't understand why you think my question was unfair. I was merely asking
what was thought of the structure as it exists now. If it is, in fact
growing, there must be something in place now that is in the act of this
growth.
I persist with this issue because I am still concerned about the stability
of a project I have come to respect, and to believe in, very strongly. And,
even more importantly, the community of persons who are devoting so much
thought, time, and creative energy to it. If it fails, it will not be the
result of something that happens from without, but, rather, something that
does not happen from within.
This is basic organizational stuff. I have seen well-intentioned, wonderful
projects fail in the past for the very reasons I am trying to present here.
One more volley: Like it or not - threatening to some or not; what's needed
here is a strong leader.
The ultimate fate of the Wikipedia Project will a part of only one person's
legacy - not mine, and not yours.
Marc