[Foundation-l] wikicouncil

[Erik Moeller]

On 11/19/06, Anthere <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> The issue has been raised often, the possible creation of a council.

Indeed. I'm not a big fan of the idea, but it is a nice buzzword that
many people seem to identify with, regardless of the fact that they
all seem to mean different things when they are using it. We already
have quite a lot of bureaucracy, and I'd like to avoid the creation of
new structures that are either redundant or potentially harmful. So
let's see what possible functions a council could serve:

* Advise the Board and CEO -- that's what the Advisory Board is for.
I'd be open to structuring it in such a way to allow experts from the
community an easy way in.
* Make project-level decisions -- why replace direct democracy and
consensus-based processes with a representative bureaucracy? I'd
rather see more project-wide votes.
* Act as project representatives to chapters and Foundation, to deal
with confidential information -- we already have the committees. We
still haven't figured out a way to make them work, especially the
SP-COM, which is exactly tasked with developing partnerships around
the projects. I'd rather restructure these existing groups than
inventing a completely new one.
* Raise awareness of the Foundation within the projects -- a group
that merely exists to raise awareness can form without the permission
of the Foundation. Indeed, such informal groups are probably far less
likely to cause trouble than a "Wikicouncil".

My biggest fear is that we start with something poorly defined, or
with a very narrow scope, and it evolves into a decision-making
structure that replaces existing community processes.Where these
processes are currently dysfunctional, I don't think replacing them
with a new system is likely to be a good idea. The causes of the
dysfunction may only be moved to a different level.

I suggest, as an alternative, that the existing committee and
subcommittee structures be reformed and surrounded with completely
open "Open Interest Groups" without legal authority. I will make a
specific proposal for that in the near future.
-- 
Peace & Love,
Erik

Member, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise stated, all views or opinions expressed
in this message are solely my own and do not represent an official
position of the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.