[Foundation-l] Notice of the results of the WMF Board ofTrustees election

[SJ Klein]

> Brianna,
>
> We BEGGED for translators.  Aphaia worked hard to find translators.  If 
> the community doesn't step up, there's not a great deal we can do.

You all and Aphaia in particular did a fabulous job.  But we, including 
you and those reading your main, are an important part of the community 
:-)  so we can step up; and if the community doesn't step up, it is not 
totally divorced from us.

We have an [[embassy]] and [[translators]] network problem; some groups 
explicitly committed to helping them work, and thousands of multilingual 
editors who care about the project.  There is a social network and 
coordination problem here, but it is not insoluble.  Blaming the
community for its lack of organization isn't helpful -- and it allows
gaps in communication to grow (since the groups that don't step up
often have the worst communication, and so don't step up again...)

One way to tackle a translation gap:

  * Translate the basic fact of an election, one sentence

  * Translate a sentence w/link describing how to request a translation

  * Translate a sentence w/link describing how to add a translation

  * Link to people who are known to be able to provide said translations, 
whether or not they are currently active or reading a specific wiki or 
mailing list



>  From: Brianna Laugher
>
>  > Democratic institutions are not about the responsibilities of the ruling
>  > structure, but about the responsibilities of the citizenry.  Do
>  > countries which make voting obligatory get any better results?
>
>  Well, as a citizen of such a country, I've never felt that anyone
>  could argue the result wasn't actually representative of people's
>  will.
>
>  * re eligible voters: perhaps the edit requirements should be
>  restricted to have occurred within the last year. that would stop old
>  eligible accounts artificially inflating the number of eligible
>  voters.


I wouldn't take this route.  Instead, how about this proposal:

(1) Require that at least one edit have been made in the two months before 
the election.


(2) Institute the following invitation/registration/reminder policy:
Every editor on their 400th edit, or six months before an election is to 
take place, gets an automated talk-page message inviting them to 
participate in community and project governance.  This includes

  * Candidating for a post
  * Volunteering to help run / promote / localize the election
  * Registering to vote ('registering' means making at least one edit in 
the two months before the election)
  * Setting election-related account preferences.


(3) add account preferences related to elections.

  * Set reminder options for voting/election updates : 2 months out, 1 
month out, day of.
  * Set whether you want updates on your talk page, by mail, or both
  * Set language preferences for election notices


This would both set the frame for determining whether people care about 
the election (some will still not vote), allow those who want active 
reminders to get them (some highly-active community members didn't 
remember to vote until late in the season), and at the same time offer
a concrete way to help make the elections run more smoothly.

SJ