2016-03-17 22:54 GMT-07:00 Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com:
I agree that these options should be explored. I'm wondering what the best way would be to facilitate this conversation.
Perhaps, Erik, would you be willing to set up a page on Meta for discussion?
Hi Pine,
Thanks for the comments! I wanted to start here to get a sense if people are supportive of the idea(s) in general. In my experience a listserv is good for kicking things around a bit before getting too emotionally invested. ;-) And this list has a good cross-set of folks with different backgrounds including WMF and affiliates. If there's a general sense that this is worth exploring further, then I'd be more than happy to help organize pages on Meta, e.g. to think about specific spin-offs like the MediaWiki Foundation (if there isn't already an extant proposal for it).
On the WMF side, I'm wondering how this would fit into their annual planning. Their plan is supposed to be published on April 1. This discussion will need resources from WMF's end in the form of staff time, including Katherine's, as well as Board time. The required investment in the short term will be modest, but cumulatively through the year it may be significant, particularly if the discussions get momentum. So I'm wondering how, at this point, it would be possible to take these discussions into account in the WMF AP.
Unless WMF plans to dramatically expand in the next fiscal (which I doubt), I think this discussion can and needs to happen on its own timeline. I expect that if WMF suggests to depart a bit from what's written into a one-year plan, with good reasons, the institutions of the movement will have the flexibility to accommodate that.
I also understand WMF folks are very busy with the plan right now, and I don't think there's special urgency to this conversation, which is one with lots of long term implications. I do hope folks have a chance to weigh in, but if that happens over the course of few weeks/months in different venues, I personally think that's fine.
This series of operations, while complicated, may yield a more resilient movement in the end, possibly with more combined funding, more accountability and transparency, and more credibility.
Yes, I hope so. :) But let's take it slowly and poke at this from different angles to see if it makes sense.
Warmly,
Erik