---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org Date: 2012/11/2 Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Democratizing the Wikimedia Foundation To: Wikimedia Mailing List Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

Dear all,

I have set up a brainstorming page on metawiki ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Democratizing_the_Wikimedia_Foundation) where I would like to invite you to think about ways to democratize the Wikimedia Foundation.

This doesn't mean that the Wikimedia Foundation is totally undemocratic, but it does mean that in my humble opinion, improvements are possible. This was triggered by me after the third time in my memory that the Foundation board has changed the bylaws of the Foundation without even consulting the community - but this doesn't have to be the only possible improvement.

This is not intended as a huge complaint 'moo, the WMF is evil and dictatorial' but rather as a constructive exercise. I invite you to approach this also constructively, and think about possible improvement to current procedures - to ensure that there is a large community involvement in the governance of the Wikimedia Foundation - directly or indirectly - and that processes are transparent.

I hope that our community selected board members will take this up as well, think along and bring the proposals to the board when the time is there (Alice, Kat, Patricio, SJ, and Ting: I'm looking at you) but of course I'm counting on it that also other board members will support the thought behind this. Any input on how to make this process more constructive would be appreciated. I also hope that the legal team will be watching the page and advise when something is legally impossible and how it could be made possible.

With kind regards,

Lodewijk _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l