[Foundation-l] Wikimedia movement roles project

[Austin Hair]

On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 11:36 PM, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 22 September 2010 13:26, Austin Hair <adhair at gmail.com> wrote:
>> This process will be transparent, and open to input from anyone
>> interested.  It's planned to take approximately one year, with regular
>> milestones along the way.
>
> How do we stop it?
>
> Apart from the usual issues this looks like a textbook way of killing
> innovation.

Well, to be blunt, the goal of the process isn't to foster innovation.

The goal is to codify the roles and responsibilities of the various
organizations, groups, people, what have you in Wikimedia—everyone
who's already working to make the "Wikimedia movement" the awesome
thing that it is.

I could personally sit down in a weekend and write down what I think a
chapter should be, what the WMF's role should be, what to do with
Brazil/Catalonia/NYC/Kansai/Whatever.  You'd probably disagree with me
on at least one point, and you'd be right when you said that there's
no reason whatsoever to listen to me.

The reason it's meant to take a year is that everyone's thoughts,
everyone's opinions, everyone's—dare I say it—"input" is incorporated
into the final outcome.  A Wikimedia Charter is useless if people
aren't willing to accept it, so everyone with an opinion needs to
weigh in and make sure it's heard.

The reason it's meant to have milestones is that without them, very
simply, the process just drags on indefinitely.

If you have better ideas about how to go about the process, great!
Leave a note on the talk page where everyone can see it, and we'll go
from there.

Austin