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

[Delirium]

Jimmy Wales wrote:
>> 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.
>   
I suppose I don't see what that has to do with anything.  Apart from a 
very small number of people, *none* of us have careers that involve 
editing Wikipedia.  The entire project is build on the premise that 
people will help create a free encyclopedia without being paid to do 
so.  Perhaps some people who don't want to participate in that still 
like the outcome---if someone else will do the work of making it come 
about---but that's a rather different level of commitment compared to 
being so "wild about our work" as to be willing to actually dedicate 
volunteer time to making it happen.

> 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".
>   

I disagree with that.  We have a huge body of people, and we're open to 
anybody who wants to join---there's no membership criterion except 
showing up (I'm not arguing for a "minimum 20,000 edits" or something).  
Excluding people who have deliberately chosen *not* to help us with our 
mission from being on the board seems perfectly reasonable to me.

-Mark