[Foundation-l] Opinions/suggestions for "outside" members of the board?

[Robert Scott Horning]

Jimmy Wales wrote:

>Anthere wrote:
>  
>
>>One problem I have with your list and with Jimbo's list is that they 
>>propose very few great candidates from Korea or Madagascar.
>>    
>>
>
>I agree with this concern, but how to address it?  I do not know of any
>prominent leaders either "outside" or "inside" Wikipedia from either
>Korea or Madagascar... or similar places.
>
>It is not hard to find community leaders in France and Germany and
>Holland and Italy and... all of the countries where the "international
>crowd" has good connections.  It is harder to find community leaders in
>Japanese and Chinese... we know a few but there is unfortunately not as
>much communication there as we would like, etc.
>
>In terms of well known outsiders to bring into the board for oversight
>and vision and specific talents, again, Korea and Madagascar and
>similar, hmm, we lack knowledge.
>  
>
This is where contacts from within Wikimedia projects are very valuable. 
 zh.wikipedia has a great many contriburors and interested participants, 
many of whom have "credentials" that I believe are exactly what you are 
looking for as well.

You seem to have discounted that Wikimedia users have a single mindset 
or background, but from my experience there is such a huge diversity in 
backgrounds and environments that there shouldn't be too much difficulty 
finding a few people from other places to be involved.

How about this list as potential "leaders" to represent Wikimedia 
projects from a chinese perspective:

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Listusers/sysop

I'm sure the list can be narrowed, but it would be a place for me to at 
least start from.

I would argue that it would be very difficult to find a greater variety 
of individuals on this planet than lists of admins on the various 
Wikimedia projects.  Indeed I would issue that as a challenge to anybody 
who might want to suggest any other group of approx 10,000 individuals 
that has more diversity in terms of languages spoken, political and 
religious backgrounds, and economic status.

-- 
Robert Scott Horning