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

[James Hare]

A "much-expanded board", or having many boards of similar size! If the idea
of the Board of Trustees is cultural preservation, then perhaps we could
have a Board of Visionaries, or an Advisory Board.

On 9/24/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
>
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at wikimedia.org
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>