Yes, Jimmy is effective in his board role - unfortunately, well, have you
seen the threads about his behaviour in that role? If you instead mean he
is only valuable as an icon or media figure because of it you'll need a
better argument than a statement as if the claim is fact.
Also, no, the United States is explicitly not a democracy. It's a republic.
And no, the Wikimedia movement is not a democracy - but it's *also* not a
dictatorship or a banana republic with a President For Life. Senior
movement figures with zero substantive accountability is a recipe for
madness.
But thank you for making the good faith claim that anyone who disagrees
with you on this is just making a power play. What was it you were saying
about taking an approach that achieves turmoil, again? ;)
On Monday, 18 April 2016, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hoi,
Do you really think that democratic processes produce a best result? Do you
really think that the Wikimedia Foundation or the United States deserve
that label?
Many may request democratic processes but I prefer a greater deal of
transparency. When you talk about accountability, it is not so much to
people but more related to the extend we achieve what we aim for. When you
consider where people are and where we have our audience, I find that our
results are lukewarm, maybe improving. There are some stellar projects and
there are some that are in need of an overhaul. The good thing of our
movement is that up to a point people can work towards solutions and make a
high impact without getting sidetracked by "democracy".
What our movement needs is more recognition for what works. More room for
experimentation helps. More trust in the good intentions of the people that
make things work helps.We need less Wikipedia think and more result think.
It is a travesty for instance that the great work in Wikisource is not
recognised as a generator of traffic. That is what they do in India and it
is why I as a non elected member of a committee have a deviant idea: in my
strong opinion we need both more wikisources as a tool to generate content
and a platform to bring that content to a world audience. I am thrilled
that Wikidata will improve the functionality of red links in Wikipedia even
though it is only a subset of what is possible. There will be a small
conference on sources and quality and that is something I applaud.
I have found that consistently this noisy crowd clamoring for "democracy"
is not really interested in results. It feels too much like a power
game.that is being played.
Finally; Jimmy is effective. Removing him from the board will disable his
ability to function. Think about it in terms of what we aim to achieve and
forget all the self serving rhetoric about democracy. Democracy is
secondary.
Thanks,
GerardM
On 18 April 2016 at 20:28, James Heilman <jmh649(a)gmail.com <javascript:;>>
wrote:
If Jimmy was to stand for community election and
not be elected it will
not
decrease his ability to be an ambassador for the
movement one bit. If he
stands for election and wins it will increase his legitimacy.
What I think many are requesting is democratic processes and
accountability. Our movement does not need anyone sitting on the board
for
life. Our current situation is a disheartening
for many within the
movement.
James
On Sun, Apr 17, 2016 at 10:30 PM, Gordon Joly <gordon.joly(a)pobox.com
<javascript:;>>
wrote:
> On 17/04/16 20:55, Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> > Arguably the latest
> > crop of board members have shown how hard it is in the first place to
> make
> > a meaningful contribution.
> > Thanks,
> > GerardM
> In particular?
> Gordo
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James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
www.opentextbookofmedicine.com
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