[Foundation-l] 2011 elections - low turnout

[Fred Bauder]

I don't think I voted, I seldom vote in any election. The reason is that
I seldom know much about the candidates, and have no reliable way of
finding out much. I could, together with others, seriously investigate
who the candidates are and what they stand for, but I don't think
publishing such information and talking about it would be welcome;
spending that much time and effort just to determine one vote, mine, is
not worthwhile.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Frankly, I think the combination of secret ballots and lack of
communication among disinterested voters will in short order put control
of both the Foundation and the English Wikipedia in the hands of people
with agendas who do communicate with one another, privately. That has
certainly been my experience in any organization I was in.

Fred

> I agree with Harel, there are huge numbers of editors who are entitled
> to vote and don't do so. I think we put some effort into welcoming
> newbies and forget that becoming part of the community is a process
> and state of mind rather than a single event.
>
> I think that a bot message from Jimbo or the foundation thanking
> people for their 500th edit and saying that they are now entitled to
> vote in trustee elections could be a very good way to build the
> community.
>
> You'd need to phrase it carefully though:)
>
> WereSpielChequers
> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 6
>> Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:32:35 +0200
>> From: Harel Cain <harel.cain at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] 2011 Board Elections: Input needed
>> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
>>        <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>> Message-ID:
>>        <AANLkTinno=BDmAcWEQSQwfDUWSPEGNOq0Yvwh7adPm8C at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> Before we start extending the right to vote to ever wider groups of
>> people,
>> we should ask ourselves how much this right is exercised by those
>> already
>> entitled to it, and how many of those proposed to be granted the right
>> to
>> vote are expected to really make use of it.
>>
>> The last elections saw a participation of a few thousand of voters,
>> just a
>> small proportion of all the people eligible to vote, and I guess these
>> could
>> be split roughly into those who really are into foundation-level and
>> meta-level issues and those who were (legitimately) recruited from
>> among the
>> home projects of the candidates without  too much real interest in the
>> elections. Whoever didn't fall into these two categories rarely voted,
>> and I
>> anticipate the same will hold true for the new groups you proposed in
>> your
>> mail.
>>
>> The real question we should ask ourselves is how to make these
>> elections
>> more relevant and important for those groups of people already entitled
>> to
>> take part in them.
>>
>>
>> Harel Cain
>> Hebrew Wikipedia / Wikimedia Israel
>>
>>
>
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