[Foundation-l] Inviting some 'outsider candidates' into the movement in the way they wanted

[Samuel Klein]

This is a great point, Alec - something on my mind as well.   It is
great that we had such a diversity of candidates, and we need more
ways to invite people to participate in the future of the movement.

> To me, this question was prompted by the skills of  Jane S. Richardson
> (Dcrjsr) and William H. DuBay (Bdubay).   Both have special expertise,
> both propose specific projects that I think are utterly
> non-controversial and they don't necessarily need the 'full force of
> the office' to help the foundation with them.

Not only is it not needed, being on the Board of the Foundation may
not help such projects happen.  To realize a content-related project,
what is needed is a clear plan, and support from interested
participants.  Then you have something the Foundation can facilitate.
This is especially true in a movement like ours where the central
foundation plays a supporting role rather than a project-defining
role.

The closest thing I've seen to a specific request that talented people
help realize a project they care about is the advisory board for the
Public Policy initiative:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2010/08/06/announcing-the-public-policy-initiative-advisory-board/

That has been active and successful, and may be sustainable after the
initial WMF-funded project moves on.  I would like to see something
like this in many subject areas, to help us improve [for inetance, in
literacy & readability, and in science in general].

> These may not be the only two who we should consider actively
> recruiting post-election, the list may not be exhaustive.   These
> people volunteered to do an insane amount of work for us

It would be good to have ways to engage all participants -- and others
who were following the election but for whatever reason not interested
in running -- in acting on the issues that people think and care about
when voting.  Again, most of the issues that people care about are
driven by community project decisions and roadmaps more than by the
opinions of Trustees on the Board.  Perhaps a 'clerking' process
during election season could help pull out related strategic issues as
they come up in discussion, and make progress towards resolving them.

SJ