[Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

[Samuel Henderson]

OK, I really must be misunderstanding something.  Here is what I think I
know:

1.  The proportion of seats directly elected by the editing community (i.e.
in an election where the only substantial requirement is based on edits) is
being reduced to 30%, more or less.
2.  This reduction is taking place, in part, in order to allow
representation of the chapters.
3.  Chapters are not directly tied to the editing community.  Indeed, one of
their strengths is that they represent (or seek to represent) a broader
population of stakeholders, significantly including non-editing users.  I
believe this was specifically mentioned on a parallel thread.

If the above are correct, it would seem to follow that the change is a
substantial reduction in the power held by the *editing* community, in favor
of chapters which are -- by design -- not directly linked to the editing
community.  What am I missing?

Let me stress again that I don't think this change is necessarily a bad
thing.  In the nature of a wiki, the editing community on each project is
self-selecting and frequently myopic, losing sight of the broader purpose of
the project.  Chapters may prove to be much more reliable stewards of the
WMF mission.  But whether good or bad, this change does seem to be a
historically significant shift in power away from editors as such, and
toward a somewhat more nebulous notion of "the community."  This simple fact
(if it is indeed a fact) should not be, and should not have been, obscured.

Cheers,

Sam

On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 10:45 PM, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:


> It absolutely is not a removal of power from the editing community.
>
> Full stop.
>
>
>