[Foundation-l] Where we are headed

[Elisabeth Bauer]

Michael R. Irwin schrieb:

> I have wasted more time than I care to remember wandering around meta 
> and various mailing lists looking for agendas, results of votes, 
> minutes, budgets, audit reports, expenditures, etc.   All the typical 
> data that an organization should routinely produce and publish in a 
> timely manner to operate efficiently.
> 
> Little to none of it is published in an organized meaningful manner for 
> the simple fundamental reason that we have a stacked Board and what 
> matters is what Jimbo decides.  In organizations where meaningul 
> delegation is the rule the data gets produced because everybody needs 
> it!  Nobody needs it at the Wikimedia Foundation because only Jimbo's 
> opinion or stated position has any final standing on anything.  So it 
> does not get routinely produced and posted publicly.

Sorry, this is nonsense. The data is not produced because we rely almost
entirely on volunteers and reporting is not an especially fascinating or
rewarding activity.

I admire for example how Walter produces a wikizine edition week after
week so reliably - but how many people are willing to pick such a task?
Look at the english signpost which consists now mostly of regular
columns filled automatically ("Seven users were granted admin status
last week") instead of original news reports.
 > Your committees and people participating in the process are to a large
> extent hand picked from the select group are known to get along with you 
> on the mailing lists.

Yes, they are hand picked - as soon as I have found someone suitable and
volunteering for a task, I grab him and don't let him go anymore ;-)
Most other people in the foundation act similarly (Anthere dragged
Delphine into the Wikimania organization team when she was just three
weeks with Wikipedia)

> When those volunteers get interested in a topic and go looking for the 
> information and cannot find it without querying a wide range of poorly 
> organized sources the organization does indeed look "opaque".

I agree but this is hardly the board's fault. Did I hear you
volunteering for the task of cleaning up Meta?

greetings,
elian