[Foundation-l] The Foundation is not a wiki (was Re: RfC: Key priorities for my work)

[Jimmy Wales]

Delirium wrote:
> Thus I'm wary of letting a 
> majority of the board, or even anything close to that, become comprised 
> of people who aren't on the board primarily because they care so 
> strongly about the project that they've decided to involve themselves in 
> it.

I agree with you about this.

But I think there is a good answer to this:
>  In fact it seems odd that we would want anyone not a Wikimedian on 
> the board at all, except to fill some very narrow role---why would 
> someone who has apparently chosen not to join our very-easy-to-join 
> project be a good choice for overseeing it?

The board is not and should not be viewed as a *management* body.  The 
board is about preserving our principles and values in the long term, 
helping the organization to prosper and thrive, etc.

There are people who are incredible and amazing people, people who have 
proven through act and deed in many different venues that they can be 
trusted to act as wise stewards of our heritage and who may have skills 
and connections which are entirely impossible to replicate within the 
community.

> Now of course the Board doesn't actually control the community, only the 
> legal foundations and servers, but if a group of essentially outsiders 
> became a majority and chose to take it in a direction the community 
> disagreed with, it would cause significant chaos as the community would 
> be forced to waste time either pushing back against them or 
> forking---always a possibility, but a disruptive one that results in a 
> lot of needless delay in progress.

Yes, I think that's right, but I consider this a very remote possibility 
to be honest.  There is no support from anyone in turning the board over 
to "a group of essentially outsiders".

> We have something like tens of thousands of Wikipedians (hundreds of 
> thousands?), so I'm skeptical that the skills we're looking for don't 
> exist anywhere in our community.

Larry Lessig is not a Wikipedian.  Mitch Kapor is a Wikipedian, but not 
very active.  There are other examples of people who are wild about our 
work who could be amazing board members, but who, because their careers 
do not involve editing Wikipedia, have not become members of our 
community.  But they have skills, contacts, connections, experiences 
that we do not have in our community.

Remember, we are considering a much-expanded board.  I think a healthy 
board should include a diversity of people, *including* some who are 
*deliberately* chosen to be from outside our community, to help us avoid 
groupthink and "not invented here".

--Jimbo