Jimmy Wales wrote:
Brian wrote:
I disagree with this and think it is wrong that
it is possible to be
a Board member or Foundation employee with no editing experience and
no involvement in the community. It will always be the case that
their first inclination was not participation, but was rather money
or power.
I do not agree. There are more types of people in the world than
Wikipedians and people whose "first inclination" is "money or
power".
As a fine example, consider Eben Moglen, longtime attorney and board
member for the Free Software Foundation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_Moglen
Eben would bring a wealth of experience to our board, and anyone who
imagines that his motives for taking part in this would be "money or
power" simply does not know Eben and his long history.
Well, there are two types of external candidates who have been suggested
at various points: 1) people with strong credentials related to our
mission, but not specifically in Wikimedia projects, such as Eben
Moglen, Lawrence Lessig, etc.; and 2) people with experience in
non-profit administration and management, but not related to our mission.
I personally have much more of a problem with #2 than #1. I think some
of #1 would be valuable, but probably not as a /majority/ of the board.
I would object to any of #2.
-Mark
P.S. - See also
<http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/12-non-profit-organizations/>,
and especially the hilariously defensive comments from the
nonprofit-industry rent-seekers.