[Foundation-l] [WikiEN-l] Jimmy Wales in the news

[Ben McIlwain]

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SlimVirgin wrote:
> On 3/6/08, Ben McIlwain <cydeweys at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  I'm unclear of what your point is.  Given that Wikipedia lacks
>>  confidentiality and any discrepancies will quickly become known, are you
>>  saying WMF Board members should never disagree even internally, or that
>>  they should be transparent with their agreements to the general public?
>>   The latter, which is the only alternative that I think makes sense,
>>  directly contradicts your first quote from some article that states "a
>>  Board should appear cohesive and act as one voice, even when it isn't
>>  behind-the-scenes."
> 
> It's quite common for organizations to adopt a policy of collective
> responsibility, meaning that even if people have disagreed in private,
> once a collective decision is reached, they all throw their weight
> behind it in public. It's particularly important to do this if you're
> trying to raise money, because people won't donate to a group that is
> fighting itself. That's why these leaks are so damaging. Board members
> have to be allowed to disagree with each other in private in order to
> reach the best decisions.

Unfortunately, because the Foundation isn't so good at communication, we
tend only to find out about these kinds of things through leaks.  And
they usually only ever get addressed after they are leaked.  So I think
the Foundation needs to start tackling issues in a proactive manner and
making announcements as such, otherwise the leaks by well-intentioned
individuals who see no other means of getting the problems resolved will
continue.

It's nice and all to say that there shouldn't be leaks, but as long as
they are, and as long as the Board is saying one thing to outsiders and
then another thing amongst themselves, it really looks bad.


- --
Ben "Cyde Weys" McIlwain    ( http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/ )
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