[Foundation-l] Policy modification (was possible reconsideration)

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
Jussi-Ville my question to you: are we a talking shop or are we to do what
we aim to do?
Thanks,
       GerardM

On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 2:40 PM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen <cimonavaro at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> > Hoi,
> > Ray as a candidate to the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation,
> you
> > are now in the race to win votes.  That makes you a politician and you
> have
> > to say and do the political things in order to win. I know and respect
> you
> > enough that I expect different shades of grey as a consequence.
> >
> > When you ask people to do a task, when you give people the responsibility
> to
> > do a job you either give the authority to do the job or you do not. The
> > language committee has as its task to be responsible for the process to
> > create functioning projects in new languages and new projects in existing
> > languages. The objective is to create new languages that are objectively
> the
> > language they say they are and to ensure that there is a reasonable
> chance
> > for these projects to succeed. As a consequence a policy was formulated.
> > This policy has clear benefits. There have been people pushing their
> point
> > of view to change the policy. Solutions have been proposed that have as a
> > consequence that people have to do things in order to have their POV
> taken
> > in consideration. When they do not want to do this, It is their choice
> and
> > it is for them to live with the consequences.
> >
> > It is exactly because the language committee has the authority to insist
> on
> > the implementation of its policies that it is a functioning committee.
> When
> > the community is free to discuss and force changes to the policy at all
> time
> > because they do not like that their exception will not be granted, then
> the
> > amount of time spend on endless talk will kill off the interest in being
> > part of what will become a dysfunctional committee.
> >
> > Ray my question to you: are we a talking shop or are we to do what we aim
> to
> > do.
> >
> > NB I am extremely happy and grateful that the new projects that have been
> > approved by the board have been created.
> >
> > Thanks Tim !!
> >
> > Thanks,
> >      GerardM
> >
>
> Without commenting on any of the contentions between Ray and Gerard
> apparent in this message, it does highlight a glaring omission in
> the relative powershareing definitions in bylaws of the foundation
> and committee and communities and projects and individual
> contributor relations.
>
> No one has ever clarified what the precise role of the committees
> is. Not as a general case. Each one seems to have been generated
> as a special case, with diverging operative assumptions. This
> confusion sorely needs to be clarified in the future.
>
> Yours
>
> Jussi-Ville Heiskanen
>
>
>
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