[Foundation-l] Policy governance ends

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
Do not put artificial constraints in. When an extension is realistic in 
that it provides a service that will benefit a particular project or 
even language, it may be that an investment in developer time of more 
that three months is worth the effort. When a project is expensive, 
there are all kinds of grants possible to gain either developer time or 
money to pay for the development of this code. Often it is not only a 
WMF project that does benefit from an extension. When such parties are 
found and when the development becomes a shared effort much more becomes 
feasible.

Thanks,
    GerardM

Birgitte SB schreef:
> The WMF provides the essential infrastructure and an
> organizational framework for the support and
> development of multilingual wiki projects.  Wikimedia
> wikis must be able to technically adapt in an
> individual manner to succeed.
>
> Needs to be met?
> Local extension requests must be evaluated by a
> developer with the ability to implement them within
> three months.
>
> For whom? 
> Wikimedia communities
>
> At what cost?
> Not sure; at the cost of other bugs I suppose.  On the
> waiting side, three months seems like a long time to
> find out if an extension is acceptable or needs more
> work.  But if it is not realistic to people on the
> developer side, please adjust to any set time period.
>
>
> Birgitte SB
>
>
> --- Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> Dear all,
>>
>> In the past few days, I have explored more
>> systematically the policy 
>> governance model, and how it could be implemented.By
>> the way, I found a 
>> short article about it on the english wikipedia : 
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_Governance
>>
>>
>> One of the things the board has to design is what is
>> called the ENDS.
>> In each ends, the board defines which needs are to
>> be met, for whom, and 
>> at what cost.
>>
>> Let me give you two examples of ends.
>> *******************************
>>
>>
>> The WMF is the host provider of several websites,
>> referred to as 
>> Wikimedia project.  Wikimedia websites must be up
>> and running 
>> efficiently, 24/24 hours, 7 days a week. That is the
>> priority of WMF.
>>
>> Needs to be met ?
>> Information must be accessible anytime.
>>
>> For whom ?
>> Any person with internet access
>>
>> At what cost ?
>> Well, within limits reasonable with the revenue we
>> have. If we had 
>> figures to mention, we could say max 1 million per
>> year.
>> *******************************
>>
>>
>> Another example
>>
>> The WMF is the organiser of an annual conference,
>> Wikimania.
>>
>> Needs to be met ?
>> Both a scientific conference and a community event,
>> Wikimania brings 
>> together members of various Wikimedia projects in
>> order to exchange 
>> ideas, build relationships, and report on research
>> and project efforts.
>> It also provides an opportunity for Wikimedians and
>> the general public 
>> alike to meet and share ideas about free and open
>> source software, free 
>> knowledge initiatives, and wiki projects worldwide.
>>
>> For whom ?
>> Primarily for Wikimedians. Secondarily for the
>> general public
>>
>> At what cost ?
>> No cost. WMF should find sponsors to cover Wikimania
>> costs by large.
>> *******************************
>>
>> Now, these are two easy ends to define.
>> What I would like to ask you help on, is to define
>> more ends, which 
>> describe what you think the WMF is about. The two
>> ends I mentionned 
>> above a "long term" ends, they would be listed this
>> year, and then next 
>> year and probably the year after. Not all ends are
>> this way. We could 
>> also have an end valid only one year, or only 3
>> months.
>> Let us say we want a BIG technical meeting around
>> Mediawiki to occur in 
>> the next 6 months, it would be one END.
>> Or we want to produce a DVD of the english high
>> quality content, it 
>> could be another END.
>> Actually, hiring an ED could also be an end :-)
>>
>> Now, before you tell me "eh, we elected you guys to
>> think of that for 
>> us", my answer will be "no, you elected us to
>> represent your dreams 
>> about WMF, and to make sure your dreams happen".
>> So, what I am currently asking you is
>>
>> "What do you want Wikimedia Foundation to focus its
>> attention on in the 
>> next few months, few years or more".
>>
>> Whether you are members on the "paper" (bylaws) or
>> not, morally, you are 
>> the owners of the organization. I do not think the
>> editors represent the 
>> only owners, but the editors definitly are part of
>> the owners. So, I ask 
>> you your opinion as owners.
>>
>> What do you think we should achieve ? If you had 5
>> points to list, what 
>> would they be ?
>>
>>
>> ant