[Foundation-l] 2011 elections - low turnout

[Stephanie Daugherty]

Sent from my mobile device.
On Mar 20, 2011 12:16 PM, "Fred Bauder" <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
> 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
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> foundation-l mailing list
>> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l