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

[Fred Bauder]

> (This is a repost for Marc since GMail helpfully sent the previous as
> HTML and mucked up the formatting)
>
> I think an (elected) council is a better form than a "benevolent
> dictator" position, but we still would need to be clear on what their
> responsibilities are, and how and when they should intervene.
>
> I would propose that as an election process for a council, we do an
> open comment page and secret ballot process for this position, with
> the same oversight as the historical Special:Boardvote process.
> Election officials would be selected for their neutrality - if we
> can't get sufficiently neutral election officials from within our
> project, find members of other projects that have minimal to no
> involvement in or connection to en.wiki.
>
> I would also propose that this is a good time to adopt a formal
> charter for English Wikipedia, as a statement of the core values on
> which we are built, and the form of governance with which we protect
> those values and steer our project forward. This should be a simple
> document - a framework for policy rather than a codification of all
> the policies we have, and when and if it's adopted by the community,
> it should be submitted to the foundation for their approval. I believe
> that they could approve such a document without taking on the
> oversight of editorial processes and of content itself, but I am not a
> lawyer, so someone else would have to comment on the legal situation.
> The argument for of a charter of this form is that certain sensitive
> aspects of policy, such as the meaning of consensus, method of
> governance, and other crucial issues should not change except through
> careful deliberation and consent of the entire community.

Seems Ok. Using the arbitration committee for this purpose is not good as
there are way too many chores involved with that.

Fred Bauder