[Foundation-l] Community Assembly

[Geoffrey Plourde]

The community charter would be written by the community.



----- Original Message ----
From: Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 12:16:27 AM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Community Assembly

Geoffrey Plourde wrote:
> From: Dan Rosenthal <swatjester at gmail.com>
>
> 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. 
>  
Neither of these legislative bodies came into being without a lot of 
history.  Their procedural rules took years to develop.
> 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. 
>  
Any such group becomes suspect when it begins by phrasing its mission in 
terms of authority and power.  It's all very romantic to speak of a 
unified voice, but the unification has to happen first.  Who drafts the 
community charter that is the basis for these powers?
> 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.
>  
I agree that existing community leadership is somewhat nebulous.  Still, 
there is more to leadership than just setting up an Assembly or Council; 
the community needs to develop a feeling of trust for that body.
> 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. 
>  
There was no question of power with the Wikicouncil.  If it sought to 
impose its will without due consideration of community opinions it would 
accomplish nothing
.
I find the proposal to be naïve.

Ec

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