The Cunctator wrote:
On 6/19/06, Lord Voldemort lordbishopvoldemort@gmail.com wrote:
On 6/19/06, Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote:
Comments on these names are welcome... as are further ideas of course!
Hey, didn't I hear Bill Gates will be free soon. ;-) --LV
I'd LOVE to see Wikipedia used to force Creative Commons and FSF to work together. We're the 800-pound (or 800000-pound) gorilla in the category "users of the GFDL" and I'd really like to see formal license compatibility.
Using the Wikimedia Foundation board as a mechanism to do so would be wonderful.
Other suggestions (always interested in non-American equivalents):
- Michael Hart or Greg Newby, Project Gutenberg (Newby is *great*)
- Karen G. Schneider, kgs@bluehighways.com , (former?) Internet
Librarian for American Libraries Online, http://www.ala.org/alonline/and the Coordinator of the Librarian's Index to the Internet (LII), http://lii.org/ (IM: LIIchief)
- Roy Tennant, http://escholarship.cdlib.org/rtennant/ , creator and
editor of Current Cites, http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/
- Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Publishing (if we want to get into making a
dead-tree version)
- Larry Page / Sergey Brin
- Al Gore
I don't know the right names, but someone who's been really good at advocating for improved resources/outreach into the third world, third world civil rights etc. would also be a great addition outside of the "obvious" choices.
I'm reminded that when Steve Jobs wanted to start Apple Stores, he got the CEO of The Gap on the board--someone who knows nothing about computing, but everything about retail. So what would be the equivalent for the Wikimedia mission? I would think that, say, a former top UN official could be very good for Wikimedia; someone who would know everyone in all the countries of the world and know how to manage a multicultural coalition. Kofi Annan? Madeleine Albright? I'm sure people can come up with better ideas.
Nod.
One problem I have with your list and with Jimbo's list is that they propose very few great candidates from Korea or Madagascar.
ant