[Foundation-l] Where we are headed

[Gavin Chait]

The most immediate concern for the Wiki Foundation is less the idea of an
office with furniture and windows, or even the difficulties of
collaboration, mostly it is continuity.

At the moment the founders are involved.  They have an idea of what they
want and how to achieve that.  There are now thousands of regular
contributors who are influencing that direction.  There are millions of
occasional contributors who muddy the edges.  How do you ensure continuity?

One of the first development organisations I worked in 15 years ago was a
student-run endeavour at the University of Cape Town.  Every year hundreds
of students volunteer and contribute to different projects.  Each project is
run by older students.  Continuity is difficult where students graduate and
leave each year.  Sometimes entire projects vanish when the students who
know how to run them fail to come back.

The solution was to employ a small band of professionals whose task is to
make sure that projects are properly budgeted and accounted for, keep track
of how the different projects interact, and ensure that the overall emphasis
of the organisation remains focused.  The professionals ensure consistency
while the volunteers contribute fresh ideas, fresh thinking, new directions
and lots of enthusiasm.

It has worked well for more than 50 years for this organisation.

Offices are far less important than continuity.  And the more you rely on
volunteers, the more important it is to have a solid base of professionals -
where-ever they may be.