[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia Leadership (was NY Times article on gender gap in Wikipedia contributors}

[Fred Bauder]

>
>> On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 6:54 PM, Marc Riddell
>> <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> [...]
>>> And if changes were proposed to this present system, who (or what
>>> entity)
>>> would approve and implement them?
>>
> on 1/31/11 10:14 PM, George Herbert at george.herbert at gmail.com wrote:
>
>> The community, by consensus, for approval.  Whoever chose to
>> participate and was allowed to do so, for implementation.
>
> This may have worked when the Community was the size it was in the
> beginning, but how, with such a enormous Community that has evolved, do
> you
> determine consensus?
>>
>> Part of the greater problem is that self-selection by interest (our
>> current mechanism for involvement in change and implementation) does
>> not select for competence or for agreement with the consensus (or with
>> what the consensus stands for).
>>
>> We lack a functional dictator (or president) to cut the knot and enact
>> efficiently; Jimmy might be able to do so, but burned a lot of his
>> "street cred" with the community writ large with the incident that led
>> to reductions in founder bit authority.  I personally disagree with
>> that, but I see a clear problem with community accepting his fiat now.
>> Facing any significant opposition his position would not be an
>> effective tiebreaker.
>>
> People stop trusting their leaders, when their leaders stop trusting
> them.
> It¹s a cautionary tale.
>
> I have lived in communes in the past; some still flourish today. Its
> members
> are the definition of anti-authority thinking. But the ones that succeed
> are
> led by persons just as anti-authority in their beliefs as the rest, but
> have
> the interpersonal skills and trust of the community to lead it toward
> achieving its commonly-agreed-upon goals. The needs and wishes of the
> Community must come first. A leader merely assures that every Member has
> a
> voice, and that that voice is heard as distinctly as all of the rest.
> That
> leader can also assure that, if there is a hole in the roof, the group
> stays
> focused on finding methods of fixing it, rather than spending countless
> hours arguing about why everything inside is getting wet.
>
> Given the size and complexity the Project has attained, such a leader is
> needed.
>
> Aaron Sorkin said: "Choosing a leader: If we choose someone with vision,
> someone with guts, someone with gravitas, who's connected to other
> people's
> lives, and cares about making them better; if we choose someone to
> inspire
> us, then we'll be able to face what comes our way, and achieve things we
> can't imagine yet."
>
> And I will add one more. The ability to separate their thoughts and ideas
> from themselves. When this is accomplished, the person can defend the
> former
> without feeling they must defend the latter.
>
> It's time.
>
> Marc

I stand ready to respect wisdom, but not authority. So if someone steps
up and proposes changes that make sense I'm behind them all the way. As
far as someone who thinks they can tell us all how to think, well, no.
We'll make any change that makes sense. What are your proposals? (Other
than having a great leader)

Fred Bauder