On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 10:59 AM, Florence Devouard Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
I'll ask you questions before the 22nd. I am travelling 6 days over 7 in the "ask a question" week, so it is not super practical in terms of communication :-(
Let me start by a small one... what is your feeling with regards to transparency and confidentiality ?
Thanks for the question, Florence. Not sure we want to start a full Q&A session at this stage and in this medium, but since you asked, I'll happily answer.
My experience with the Wikimedia Israel chapter has taught me that a careful mixture of transparency and confidentiality is what works best. I'll explain: the board (or WMF staff, for that matter) have to strive to work in a transparent, accountable manner. This means for example that (final) resolutions made, formal announcements, meeting agendas, budgets, bylaws and all other paperwork have to be published in a prompt and organized manner. The real motives behind decisions have to be clearly and truthfully explained. The board has to be very responsive to inquiries and suggestions from outside and actively seek them when needed. This kind of transparency is what the community and the general public expect from an organization with values such as ours. It's really a lot about learning how to communicate and explain yourself to your "clientèle" so that they learn to trust in you. On the other hand, for the board (and WMF staff) to function efficiently there has to be a certain sphere for internal exchange of opinion, criticism and brainstorming that does not necessarily have to be very transparent. As an example, detailed word-by-word protocols of board meetings do not have to be published, whereas agendas and meeting minutes are. In cooperating with other organizations for example, a period of keeping the matter secret is sometimes necessary. Some initiatives just float around and are then quickly found to be bad or even damaging. So there has to be enough "internal room" for this kind of experimenting to happen without full immediate disclosure. Immature release of information can sometimes result in failure, as things turn out to be less promising than initially thought and the foundation can be cast in a bad light. For sure, legal matters or ethical considerations sometimes warrant an amount of confidentiality. Needless to say, the board has to make sure the foundation abides by the law.
I hope this explains my basic views about the subject without going into excessive detail.
Harel