[Foundation-l] Community Assembly

[Geoffrey Plourde]

See comments in blue


----- Original Message ----
From: Dan Rosenthal <swatjester at gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2008 7:20:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Community Assembly

We have trouble gaining consensus when less than a dozen people are  
involved. 
What makes you think a massive organization like this will  
work? 
The British House of Lords at its peak had over 1200 members. The US House of Representatives has 435. Bills are still passed.  As is done in other legislative bodies, the lions share of the work of the C.A. will occur in smaller subgroups. 
What job will it perform? What authority and power does it have? 
The Community Assembly will the unified voice of the Wikimedia Community. It would set community policy on a global scale and administer community processes. The exact powers given to it shall be determined by the community in its Charter. 
   
What makes it any different than any current list or page? 
As of this point the Community has no leadership body. This would step in and fill the void without disenfranchising the collective voice of the community.
 
What about it addresses the problems with the Wikicouncil?

The Wikicouncil was too exclusive. The VC would have given power to a select few, not the many diverse members of the Community. Also no agreement could be reached for selecting members. This issue is rendered moot by the structure of the C.A. 

-Dan

On May 11, 2008, at 9:11 PM, Geoffrey Plourde wrote:

> The Wikimedia Community Assembly is a proposed leadership body for  
> the Wikimedia Community. This proposal is is designed to be  
> significantly more straightforward, inclusive, and less bureaucratic  
> than the Wikicouncil or Community of the Wikimedian Projects. The  
> impetus for this proposal is the void that currently exists in  
> community governance. This gap is prohibitive to the full  
> realization of the potential of the community as an asset to the  
> Foundation. To address this gap, its most important task would  
> providing a unified community voice to the Board and the world.
> In accordance with the principles of the open source movement,  
> membership in the Assembly would be granted to any Wikimedian who  
> requests it. By doing so, this would prevent this body from becoming  
> a elitist cabal, by insuring that all are heard, not just a  
> privileged few. To prevent this body from being dragged down by  
> size, which does not allow for business to be conducted in an  
> orderly and efficent fashion, subgroups (Committees/Commissions/ 
> Working Groups/Task Forces) specializing in specific issues would be  
> created. Any 5 members with a specific issue or topic would be able  
> to create a subgroup to work on that issue or topic. Membership in  
> these issue specific subgroups would be open to all, but if  
> necessary due to size, another group might be formed.
> The Assembly would run according to a community written charter,  
> that would be revised at least once every calendar year. Decisions  
> of the Assembly would be made by consensus, as with most other  
> Wikimedian projects.
>
> Can I get some thoughts on this?
>
>
>      
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