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

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
A group of 12 maybe 20 would not be disruptive, their presence would be
something I welcome. The numbers of people said to be needed to represent
the communities was said to be around 500. Now THAT would be disruptive as
it would get the policy wonks out in great numbers. Not a good idea. The
good news of Wikimania is that it is impossible to see all the presentations
that are of interest in the first place.

When you complain that there is too little Wikimedia on the conference, you
have to appreciate that we are all invited to present or to do a whatever
session. It is just a matter of organising !!! (They call this "so fixit"  I
believe :D
Thanks,
    GerardM

On Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 8:54 PM, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:

> Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> > Hoi,
> > Wikimania is an event where we hope to get something like 300/400 people
> who
> > are really involved in Wikis to come together for the biggest Wiki event
> in
> > the world. It is an event that has proved itself important for the
> outreach
> > of the things we do locally. When you  weight it down with all the
> policy
> > tigers that represent something in the Wikimedia Foundation, there is no
> > longer the Wikimania as we know it. It will become a sad reflection of
> what
> > once was the state of the art, the cutting edge of wikidom.
> >
> > Please let Wikimania be its own thing and PLEASE do not burden it with
> what
> > should not even be a side show to the event.
> > Thanks,
> >      GerardM
> >
> >> When I was thinking about a large body, I was thinking about a virtual
> >> body. Maybe, some day in the future, when WMF would be able to pay
> >> trips for the whole body annually, it would be able to meet somewhere,
> >> possibly during Wikimania.
> >>
> Like you, I have attended all three Wikimanias, and hope to make my best
> efforts to attend in 2008.  What struck me most was the absence of
> opportunities to seriously share and work out policy issues.  In Boston
> there were even complaints that the number of people from non-Wikimedia
> projects was disproportionately high.  Of course it's important to know
> what everyone else is doing, but do we travel half-way around the world
> just to visit a trade show?  I would like to see more Wikimania time and
> effort put into improving the projects.
>
> One popular session in Taipei in which Kat represented the Board had a
> number of concerns raised about current problems.  There was a common
> thread to those problems, and yet one left with the feeling that there
> was no mechanism for taking those concerns any further.
>
> In Taipei there was also, before the main event, a meeting of the
> Advisory Board, a body composed essentially of people who are not a part
> of our volunteer communities.  In my mind it would be perfectly
> appropriate for a group of volunteers taken from our communities to meet
> in Alexandria under similar circumstances.
>
> The proposal for a Provisional Volunteer Council is based on having
> between 12 and 20 members.  (I would personally prefer something a
> little bigger, but that is not a point that is a critical issue.)  So
> let's say 20!  How could a meeting of 20 people have the disruptive
> effect that you predict?  While I believe the Provisional Council should
> have at least one person who is aware of technological issues, that
> person could have a conflict between attending Council and Hacking Days,
> but sometimes people just have to make those tough choices.
>
> Ec
>
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