I just want to comment on one particular point made by Pete.
On Wed, Aug 26, 2020 at 8:27 PM Pete Forsyth peteforsyth@gmail.com wrote:
Institutional memory is important BOTH to staff of WMF, AND to the volunteer community.
I think both you and I, Michael, have blurred these two issues to some degree. It would be possible for (a) WMF to fully and privately document the relevant history (which could be a function of top-down leadership and/or staff culture), and for (b) volunteers to fully and publicly document relevant history (growing out of volunteer culture, presumably with some input from staff).
Whereas this is correct as a general statement, in practice, volunteers
can not document the institutional history. This documentation can not be a bottom-up process similar to writing a Wikipedia article. For a very simple reason: There are many viewpoints at every particular event, and the documentation of volunteers will inevitably reflect one of the points. Sure, one person can write an analysis of a particular incident from their point of view, or even a book on the history of Wikipedia. This person can be a knowledgeable volunteer having general trust of the community or it could be a user under a site ban. However, a collective product will inevitably face the necessity of choice. In writing a Wikipedia article, we use reliable sources to select material (and when reliable sources clash, we usually face a disaster). Here, we are talking about the events which no reliable sources describe in detail. An organization can document them on a basis of performed investigation. A single person can document them on the basis of their memory and experience. But I do not see how any grassroot collaboration could be possible here. Any attempt to document these things from the volunteer side would lead to projects similar to V-ocracy (which already happened in some languages).
Best regards Yaroslav
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