Meeting is saturday.
But to avoid any disappointment Dan... I doubt very much that any sort
of announcement will happen in the subsequent week. Here is why.
As part of our growth, we must try to be careful to identify what is the
role of the board, and what is the role of the ED. And to convey the
difference to the community.
I'd say that it is within the role of the board to say
"we want a Wikimania every year. This should be a meeting of roughly
300-400 people, mostly wikimedians; an opportunity to participants to
meet face to face and share experiences, have fun, and bond. Also an
opportunity to push certain agendas, meet with the press, expand the fan
circle, hear big leaders in the free movement, in the wiki world, in the
educational system etc... Should propose scholarship. Should be in
various places around the world. As much as possible, should be a cost
free even for the WMF."
Then, the role of the ED is to make sure that this happens. It is her
job to ensure that the event is successful, financially sound... and
probably that security of participants is taken care of.
Right now, two situations may happen.
The ED herself might wonder if there might be problems because of
hersay, mails on the list, press, private emails, whatever...
Or the board might wonder if there might be problems.
If the board thinks there might be problems, the wise thing to do is for
the board to ask the ED to conduct a study, analyze the risks given the
latest circonstances, evaluate which steps may be followed to balance
the risk if there is one, do contingency planning, and estimate the
consequences of cancelling or moving the event elsewhere. Naturally, the
analysis is not fully conducted by Sue, but done with the help of many
parties.
Then, the ED will present her conclusions to the board, and provide some
recommandations. Based on the ED recommandations, the board may either
decide to delegate full authority to Sue to make the decision herself,
or the board will take a decision *with* Sue.
So, what I plan to do Saturday is to ask the board whether they consider
new circonstances are worth requesting a more straightforward study of
the situation and steps to ensure security. The board can either dismiss
the issue I raise, or agree to ask for a recommandation from Sue.
THEN, it will be up to Sue to act. And I doubt she will make any
suggestion in 2-3 days.
I'll forward this email to the board :-)
Thanks
Ant
Dan Rosenthal wrote:
Mark,
I thought about it, and given that at least Florence is aware of our
concerns now, there's probably not a whole lot more to discuss about
this until after the board meeting (or rather, after the board
meeting's results are published/announced). My hope is that they will
discuss it there, and it will address your final sentence ("IF and
WHEN..."), and we can resume the discussion then more productively. I
believe the board meeting is this weekend? So most likely we will see
some sort of announcement during the week immediately subsequent.
-Dan
On Feb 26, 2008, at 8:41 AM, Mark Williamson wrote:
I agree with Gatto Nero that this is an issue. As
a gay man, this all
concerns me very much. The way that peoples' concerns have been pushed
aside is inappropriate at best.
Peoples' concerns should be addressed in a respectful way. If it is
not possible or a reasonable suggestion anymore to change the venue,
people will understand this, IF and WHEN you show some care for their
safety and address it in detail.
Mark
On 26/02/2008, Gatto Nero <gattonero(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 10:48 AM, Ray Saintonge
<saintonge(a)telus.net> wrote:
> So we can just not go to Wikimania, or we can
decide that the
> benefits
> for us outweigh the risks. It is a tough decision, but we will
> have to
> make it. And if we don't go this year, we can show up next year, or
> the one after that.
Thank you for being realistic At some point a decision has to be
made,
and we can't afford to look back on the decision with regrets. We
can't
build a good conference if the organizers' time is so taken up by
rear-guard actions. The Toronto people could not have been very
happy
when Boston won with a late bid. The Turin people were upset when
they
lost to Taipei. I personally favour Buenos Aires for 2009, but
I'm not
going to make an issue of it if another city gets that Wikimania.
Don't combine apples and oranges (we say so in Italy): don't reopen
all the "other wikimanias" issues, it's better.
By the way, I'm sorry to read - again - that people complaining about
their safety (or the way WMF faced some problems like "freedom of
speech", "freedom of thought" or "freedom of sexuality") are
simply
"irrealistic".
Next step is "they're troll" (yet said by someone, thanks).
Is this respect?
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