On 6/6/06, Anthere Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Still... it is significant that the candidate with the most votes is from the language wikipedia which is the largest. Then that the two next candidates were respectively from the second biggest and third biggest languages (as well as in both cases participants to the english speaking version). Would a great italian person, not participating to the english or the french or the german languages have a chance ? Unlikely.
I'd say it's pretty much a requirement that a board member speak the English language fairly well, since this is the language in which the business of the board is conducted. Location is enough of an issue, no sense adding language to the mix.
Of course this doesn't rule out someone who doesn't participate at all in the English language projects. In fact, I suppose it doesn't even rule out someone who doesn't speak English *if* the board wants to spend foundation money hiring a translator. But I do think it makes is "unlikely", as you put it, that someone who doesn't participate at all in the English language projects (or at the very least the mailing lists) would make the best board member.
Maybe if there was already a translation system in place... global-l@wikimedia.org, a tightly moderated mailing list (to keep the traffic low) where every message was translated into 20 languages or so? It's a ways off, at the least.
Anthony