All,

As we approach the 25th anniversary of wiki and 20th of Wikipedia, I'm reflecting on the various lessons that can be drawn from the way our community has approached governance over the years. We've had a number of conflicts; many have had significant impacts on the structure and culture of the Wikimedia movement, perhaps even on the Internet and the world beyond wiki. Many of them are not very well documented.

I'm especially interested to hear success stories -- conflicts that ended in a satisfying resolution, where parties in conflict reached some shared understanding, or worthwhile policies or practices were put in place following a conflict.

I prefer to hear your thoughts off list, but I'll try to follow the discussion on the list too if people prefer to post here. You also may be interested to follow my notes on Meta Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Peteforsyth/governance

The Signpost just published an essay of mine, written for Joseph Reagle and Jackie Koerner's upcoming book "Wikipedia at 20," that touches on this issue. It's about the principles driving software development in the movement, and what lessons from the early days may have gone unnoticed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2020-04-26/Opinio...

Thanks in advance for any input on this topic. -Pete [[User:Peteforsyth]] on English Wikipedia, Wikisource, etc.