Since I obviously think it was a good suggestion, I think it is good to
provide a link
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikicouncil/Resolution
Cheers
Yaroslav
On Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:54:35 +0100, Lodewijk <lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org>
wrote:
While reading the detailed "Legal and Community
Advocacy/LCA
Announcement",
on
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/LCA_Announcement , I stumbled
upon the following sentence: "We would like to build a community
advisory
board to reinforce our commitment to a global
perspective while
understanding and promoting communities beyond English Wikipedia". This
was
quite a big news for me - and something worth much
more than a simple
side
sentence in the details section of a department
reshuffling
announcement,
so I'll be starting this thread.
As many will know, I have always been a supporter of the Wikimedia
Foundation asking more structural feedback and active input from the
community. I don't believe myself that this 'Foundation-l' is the best
venue for that, nor any of the other communication channels we have at
our
availability right now. In the past I have proposed a
"Volunteer
Council"
which the board did not want to back up and died in
silence. In the past
several other mechanisms with similar goals have been proposed.
So, at this announcement I see a good side - this 'community advisory
board' could bring us exactly that: a more structural approach to
getting
continuous community input on Foundation governance
decisions - other
than
having a board member election every two years. If we
were to call it
'community advisory board' (who cares about the name) and still give it
the
same rights (right for information, right to be asked
for its opinion
before certain decisions are being made, right to give unasked advice,
right to veto certain decisions even?) then it would be great news. But
somehow I don't have the feeling that this department is aiming for
that.
So I hope it can be elaborated a bit what is a) the authority of this
advisory board (who decided to build it - board, ED or team), b) what
will
be the purpose and c) what will be the rights. I know
you won't have all
detailed answers yet because you need to enter a consultation process
with
the community before setting such steps (which I am
grateful for) but I
would like to get a little more insight in the direction you want to aim
for.
Finally, I hope that in case this 'advisory board' is indeed toothless
and
very topic centered, I hope that this is being made
obvious in its name
as
well. And I hope too that this wouldn't hold back
people from keeping
asking for a 'real' volunteer council.
Best,
Lodewijk
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