[Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

[Jimmy Wales]

Brian wrote:
> I disagree with this and think it is wrong that it is possible to be
> a Board member or Foundation employee with no editing experience and
> no involvement in the community. It will always be the case that
> their first inclination was not participation, but was rather money
> or power.

I do not agree.  There are more types of people in the world than
Wikipedians and people whose "first inclination" is "money or power".

As a fine example, consider Eben Moglen, longtime attorney and board
member for the Free Software Foundation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_Moglen

Eben would bring a wealth of experience to our board, and anyone who
imagines that his motives for taking part in this would be "money or
power" simply does not know Eben and his long history.

Eben is a lawyer, in many ways the foremost lawyer dealing with free
licensing issues.  He has, in his career, negotiated important deals
with major corporations.

> Further, in my experience, the best leaders are those who have also
> served on the front lines.

And there are more front lines in our mission than the editing front lines.