From: Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Principle and pragmatism with nudity and sexual content
To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
<foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Date: Monday, April 20, 2009, 3:39 AM
On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 1:19 AM, private musings
<thepmaccount(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Here's a few questions about the
foundation's role in
ensuring the projects are responsible media hosts -
Can the foundation play
a role in discussing and establishing things like
what
it means to be
'collegial' and 'collaborative'
on the various
projects? Can the foundation
offer guidance, and dare I say it 'rules'
for the
boundaries of behaviour?
Is there space, beyond limiting project
activities to
legality, to offer
firm leadership and direction in project
governance?
I'm hoping the answer to all of the above is a careful
'yes'.
I believe the answer to the above, as worded, may be a
careful 'no'.
These are important decisions, and should be made and
improved over
time, but I believe it is the community's role to make them
- and the
foundation's to help provide interface or infrastructure to
support
the community's resolutions. Feel free to elaborate
if you disagree.
A strong and sustainable group within the community can
absolutely
work towards and establish the definitions and guidance you
suggest.
Past discussions have generally been useful, and not
spiteful, but
never pushed through to a resolution at least on meta and
en:wp.
I second this. Does anyone really believe it is even possible to set one standard of what
it means to be 'collegial' and 'collaborative' for all cultures? These
things are not absolute values and each community needs to work out what standards are
most pragmatic for it's members. There is no shortcut or appeal to authority that can
solve this for en.WP. en.WP has to do the work and find these answers from within.
Birgitte SB