[Foundation-l] few questions

[Marco Chiesa]

A N ha scritto:
> first i like to know how many people are actively involved in wikipedia.
> i like to know about its organizational chart if there is any.
> so who makes the big decisions and who has oversight.
>
>
>   
An important point to make is the distinction between the Wikimedia 
Foundation, which runs and hosts the projects, deals with the 
fundraising and a lot of other interesting activities, and Wikipedia, 
which is one of the projects (the biggest one). The Wikimedia Foundation 
has a board, some staff, and some volunteers involved in committees, 
stewards?, plus people involved in projects that give input for 
decisions. Talking numbers, maybe 50 people altogether? The projects, 
such as Wikipedia, on other hand, have a wider and less hierarchic 
structure. There are different levels of users (simple users, 
administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers), who may have access to 
additional functionalities. However, they do not have more power in 
taking decisions. Consensus is the mechanism to take decisions, and 
having more functionalities does not give more power (other than being 
possibly more respected because of experience)

Marco