[Foundation-l] [Announcement] Welcome to the advisory group

[Ray Saintonge]

Angela wrote:

>On 1/29/07, effe iets anders <effeietsanders at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>Actually I am somehow missing a bit more input
>>from the communities. Most of the users seem to me (except angela) relative
>>outsiders, please correct me if i'm wrong. Might it be worth evaluating the
>>idea that in some way we should have a user of several parts of the
>>wikimedia communities?
>>    
>>
>I think there is room for a separate body of user representatives made
>only of people from the community. Something like the WikiCouncil idea
>which has been proposed in the past.
>
>The advisory is meant to provide the Board of Trustees with some
>"outside" perspective which  is why most of its members are not a core
>part of the community  - though many of them have had some involvement
>with Wikimedia before, so it's not like they're complete Wikimedia
>newbies. :)
>  
>
While it might be a good idea to ad one or two thoughtful Wikipedians to 
the Advisory Board, particularly if it chooses to operate a series of 
committees where direct representation would be an asset.  Beyond that I 
don't see any urgency to having more community members on that Board.

I have always been positive toward the WikiCouncil idea, but I'm afraid 
that if we make sorting out the issue of democratic representation a 
precondition for establishing a WikiCouncil it will never happen.  If a 
WikiCouncil is set up finding a solution to that problem should be a 
high priority item on its agenda.  It may be necessary for the first 
members of the WikiCouncil to be appointed, but a more representative 
system could be used when it is time to replace these people.

Ec