Gatto Nero wrote:
2006/12/28, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org:
How communities can express their opinions about Foundation choose? Directly? (Oh My God, don't answer "Yes")
By electing Board members, and by participating in community decision processes (demanding more of those from time to time helps).
By electing some of the Board members, who are really few. Really: how much member there are? Seven? I don't think they're representive at all, especially cause there are no regular elections (zum beispiel, once a year).
Sorry, but I really do not get it.
We are currently 7 on the board. Amongst those 7 people, 5 are community members. Jan-Bart and Michael are the only "outsiders", and god, are they precious !
Jimbo, arguably, is a community member. He has been the heart of the project since the very begining of Wikipedia, nearly 6 years ago.
Erik joined the project in 2002. I joined the project in early 2002. I am not sure when Oscar and Kat joined, but I would say they have been there for at least 2 years. Erik and I were elected to be on the board. Kat and Oscar were appointed, but they were candidates number 2 and 3 of the last elections, which make them imho, half-elected, half-appointed members. In any cases, Kat and Oscar are both people you know and who have received huge support at last elections.
That makes 4 people amongst 7 as being the nearest thing we can think in terms of representation. Plus Jimbo, who frankly, does not deserve to be told he does not listen to community feedback.
Elections are not frequent ? Of course they are not. It takes a lot of time and effort to organise an election, and being elected for 1 month does not make ANY sense. So, there is no way we can make elections more frequently than once a year.
I would like to add that the board recently took a very bold stance, written in the bylaws themselves, to garantee there will ALWAYS be a majority of community people on the board.
These people are meant to be your representants.
Anthere