[Foundation-l] wikicouncil

[Ray Saintonge]

?ukasz Garczewski wrote:

>I suggest we define issues and problems that would need 
>coordination/handling on meta-project level *first* and then try to 
>think of a way to deal with them. It may well be that some can be solved 
>simply by using the structures in place. For those that remain without 
>even the slightest idea on how to fix them we can move to actually 
>create something entirely new.
>
>One example that comes to my mind right away is this:
>* policy on sitenotice display (mandatory fundraising notices? or is 
>this up to each project?)
>
>This could simply be ruled by WMF but would have little or no impact on 
>projects which are not represented on the foundation level (this list 
>for example). A Wikicouncil ruling would probably work better.
>
>Try to think along those lines.
>
>And *please* do the defining on-wiki. That's why we have meta for.
>
>Note that I am a big fan of the Wikicouncil idea (i.e. a representative 
>body of some sort). But at the same time I believe that this is not 
>going to work properly unless we start out with the "whats" and not the 
>"hows".
>
Your response is remarkable for being totally unrealistic, mostly 
because it doesn't scale for such a large group.

There are a lot of very good ideas being presented in different places. 
Each person raises issues in the place where he most hangs out: a 
mailing list, a talk page, a village pump, meta, etc. There are many of 
these on different projects, and in different languages. Each of these 
pages is populated by different segment of the population. No-one can 
keep up to them all, even if he limits himself to his own language.

The "hows" are the problem that needs to be addressed. A proposal can be 
made on this list where all responses are very positive that a great 
idea has been raised. (Worse still, if there are no responses at all; 
does that mean that everyone agrees? I doubt it; more likely is that 
nobody has the energy to apply the thought that the idea requires.) If a 
dozen people respond favorably to an idea, and no-one objects how do we 
take it to the next step? Who takes it to the next step? There is no 
guarantee that if the same idea had been raised in another forum it 
would have received the same support. The "how" really is important, and 
a bigger challenge than the "what".

Ec