[Foundation-l] Board-announcement: Board Restructuring

[Delirium]

Jimmy Wales wrote:
> 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.
>   
Well, there are two types of external candidates who have been suggested 
at various points: 1) people with strong credentials related to our 
mission, but not specifically in Wikimedia projects, such as Eben 
Moglen, Lawrence Lessig, etc.; and 2) people with experience in 
non-profit administration and management, but not related to our mission.

I personally have much more of a problem with #2 than #1. I think some 
of #1 would be valuable, but probably not as a /majority/ of the board. 
I would object to any of #2.

-Mark

P.S. - See also 
<http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/12-non-profit-organizations/>, 
and especially the hilariously defensive comments from the 
nonprofit-industry rent-seekers.