[Foundation-l] Community Advisory Board / Volunteer Council

[Yaroslav M. Blanter]

Since I obviously think it was a good suggestion, I think it is good to
provide a link 

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikicouncil/Resolution

Cheers
Yaroslav

On Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:54:35 +0100, Lodewijk <lodewijk at effeietsanders.org>
wrote:
> While reading the detailed "Legal and Community Advocacy/LCA
Announcement",
> on  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/LCA_Announcement  , I stumbled
> upon the following sentence: "We would like to build a community
advisory
> board to reinforce our commitment to a global perspective while
> understanding and promoting communities beyond English Wikipedia". This
was
> quite a big news for me - and something worth much more than a simple
side
> sentence in the details section of a department reshuffling
announcement,
> so I'll be starting this thread.
> 
> As many will know, I have always been a supporter of the Wikimedia
> Foundation asking more structural feedback and active input from the
> community. I don't believe myself that this 'Foundation-l' is the best
> venue for that, nor any of the other communication channels we have at
our
> availability right now. In the past I have proposed a "Volunteer
Council"
> which the board did not want to back up and died in silence. In the past
> several other mechanisms with similar goals have been proposed.
> 
> So, at this announcement I see a good side - this 'community advisory
> board' could bring us exactly that: a more structural approach to
getting
> continuous community input on Foundation governance decisions - other
than
> having a board member election every two years. If we were to call it
> 'community advisory board' (who cares about the name) and still give it
the
> same rights (right for information, right to be asked for its opinion
> before certain decisions are being made, right to give unasked advice,
> right to veto certain decisions even?) then it would be great news. But
> somehow I don't have the feeling that this department is aiming for
that.
> 
> So I hope it can be elaborated a bit what is a) the authority of this
> advisory board (who decided to build it - board, ED or team), b) what
will
> be the purpose and c) what will be the rights. I know you won't have all
> detailed answers yet because you need to enter a consultation process
with
> the community before setting such steps (which I am grateful for) but I
> would like to get a little more insight in the direction you want to aim
> for.
> 
> Finally, I hope that in case this 'advisory board' is indeed toothless
and
> very topic centered, I hope that this is being made obvious in its name
as
> well. And I hope too that this wouldn't hold back people from keeping
> asking for a 'real' volunteer council.
> 
> Best,
> Lodewijk
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