[Foundation-l] Re: An other attempt for Announce-l; central info about wikimedia tech status and info

[Cormac Lawler]

On 8/17/05, Anthere <anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I am not certain Cormac, though open to any suggestion.
> The reason is simply that it will make appear that any communication
> issue is in the hands of the Foundation, rather than in the hands of the
> community itself. I think this is wrong for the following reasons
> 
> 1) some wikipedians do not want to be recognised at wikimedians, being
> somehow default members of the structure
> 
> 2) some wikipedians will feel this as an overbearing control of the
> Foundation over communication. This is wrong. In all "democracies"
> (using the word on purpose to reflect Erik Zachte mail), it is important
> that several medias report information. As such, as Michael best put it,
> it is important independant newspapers such as the one on the english
> wikipedia exist. Similarly, an independant announcement mailing list
> could exist, possibly to announce informations that the Foundation feel
> not concerned with, but that the community would
> 
> 3) as soon as the Foundation is concerned, I feel that there is
> something blocking people. Look at Quarto. To get it done, we have to
> contact people each time. I would love that people feel empowered to
> publish in it about something that matters to them. But they won't do
> it, for whatever reasons. I regret this. Similarly, for the announcement
> of last Quarto, why was it not done ? I still wonder if it was not done
> because nobody was interested in doing so (or had no time to do it), or
> if it was somehow that someone waited silently for me to say "let's go".
>   I do not know. But in no way announcements should have to be always
> pushed by a couple of people. So, if an announcement list have to be set
> up, I do not want people from the board to be involved in it, to avoid
> people saying again that there is no democracy at all. It is so far away
> from what my perception is what we are doing that I wish it to be fully
> independant.
> 
> ant
> 
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at wikimedia.org
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> 

That's a fundamentally good point, and I take it wholeheartedly
(although I don't understand wikipedians not wanting to be wikimedians
- am i being naiive or is it just them?)

I was just noting that one mailing list isn't being used at all - and
it's not clear, from the continual list of subscribers, that these
people are simply signing up for news of the Quarto, or something more
like what Walter is asking for, since that's how it appears to be
"branded". I'll leave specific references to the Quarto out for the
moment, because Walter's question is one we all have and was voiced at
Wikimania and so we should answer it. So do we need it, or is it
duplicating something we already have?

Cormac