[Foundation-l] Volunteer Council - A shot for a resolution

[Andrew Whitworth]

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 1:38 PM, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  Regarding smaller wikis.  If the Council members wish
>  to make such communities feel heard they can do so
>  without being from that community themselves or
>  reserving seats for that community.  I don't like
>  describing the Council in terms of representation,
>  because then people will vote for personal
>  representatives and this in my mind should be more a
>  working body than a governing body.

This is, I think, the point that I agree with most. We don't need to
have per-project or per-language representation, direct representation
for all projects and peoples. Trying to do this will create a group
which is unmanageably large, and the added bureaucracy will make
things worse then they are now.

We don't need direct representation in such a council. A diverse
cross-section of users can effectively represent the entire WMF
"community". For example, I dont need to be a member of project Y in
order to communicate with them, empathize with their problems, or to
take actions on their behalf. What we need most is a group of
individuals who can communicate with all our diverse communities,
filter and funnel those communications, and ensure that the important
points are brought to the proper people. 50 people who are willing and
able to interact with communities to which they do not belong are far
more valuable then 500 users who are only concerned with their home
project.

--Andrew Whitworth