[Foundation-l] Notice of the results of the WMF Board ofTrustees election

[Ray Saintonge]

Florence Devouard wrote:

>Brianna Laugher wrote:
>  
>
>> Philippe, my message was about the Board (WMF) and the not the
>>
>>Election Committee, which I think did a very good job in difficult
>>circumstances.
>>    
>>
>So, if I read you well, you consider that the fact the notices were not 
>translated in languages such as arabic and chinese, should be blamed on 
>the board.
>
>I do not agree with that in the least, but in the spirit of making 
>things better next time, I would like to ask you to go beyond the 
>criticism and the blame and tell us what we should do in the future to 
>improve that.
>
Absolutely.  There are certainly observations of things that didn't go 
right in the elections.  Translations into Arabic, Turkish (not 
Chinese), and other languages are clearly something worth looking at, 
but not with a view of blaming anyone for whatever might have gone 
wrong.  Some interesting problems have already been mentioned.

>The board delegated organizing the elections to a committee. The 
>committee begged to have more translators, and the COMMUNITY (not the 
>board) failed to provide appropriate translators. The elections are to 
>populate the board, but these elections are to elect people from the 
>community. Just how much is the community responsible to make sure 
>everyone votes ? to make sure everyone is informed ?
>
There are some very important but somewhat subtle points at play here.  
Last summer Brad made a very important point about the relative roles of 
the WMF and the projects.  There needs to be a decent separation between 
the two, and it makes me cringe when the community expects something 
from the Board that it should be doing itself.

We've come a long way from the time whenWMF was firs set up and only two 
of five Board members were from the community, and the situation was 
stacked so that the community representatives could not change this by 
themselves at all.

Just before this election finished some people expressed concern that 
the Board might not appoint  the elected candidates, but it did.  
Whether the candidate that concerned so many people would have been 
appointed doesn't matter because he was not one of the top three.  This 
really is a matter of fundamental trust.  For now I would prefer to wait 
until there is more reality behind the idea before becoming overly 
concerned about this.

>I find it a little bit too easy here to blame it on the board. You are a 
>responsible citizen yourself. Why did not you go yourself ask arabic 
>wikipedians to translate the notice ? Why is it necessarily the job of 
>the board ? Don't you think that ANY wikipedian who knows arabic editors 
>is more appropriate and efficient to ask help locally ?
>
I don't think it was the Board's job either. This doesn't diminish the 
challenge of the task.  No other website operates in so many different 
languages.  As a whole we face challenges for which there is no 
precedent.  The democratic growth of a community depends on its 
population accepting full responsibility for what happens within it, and 
if that requires translation, some member of that linguistic 
sub-community is going to pick up the ball and do what needs to be 
done.  It may not be necessary to reproduce every bit of drivel which 
the candidates produce as a part of their campaign, but one does one's 
best while exercising judgement about what is important.

>What do you suggest that the board does in the future ?
>
Leave it for members of a linguistic sub-community to find their own 
translator.

>Delegate organization of the elections to another group of people, with 
>better abililites to beg ?
>
No.

>That the board goes itself begging for more translators in Arabic (a job 
>that has been delegated to the election committee) ?
>
No.

>That the board learns arabic and chinese before next elections in order 
>to translate itself ?
>
No.

>That the board pays translators ?
>
No.

>Delegate translation to Brianna ?
>
If it's so important to her, I'm sure she can do her share.

>Please, if you blame, provide suggestions of how things can be improved 
>next time. As a board member, I would consider totally excluded that I 
>learn arabic to provide translation. I would also consider totally 
>excluded that I go to EACH language in turn to beg for translation. 
>Already overworked, I am not sure it is making the best use of my time. 
>I also think that if the board makes the decision to hire translators, 
>there will be a HUGE uproar of complaints, because we indeed have the 
>resources internally.
>
Anglo-centrism can be a giant problem, both here and elsewhere.  We also 
have many people dedicated to the prionciple that we are creating a free 
encyclopedia  in every language that wants it, but not to the extent 
that we will foist it upon them whether they want it or not.  The harsh 
reality with some of these languages is that if the people directly 
concerned don't do anything it ain't gonna happen.  This may even mean 
that some languages will become extinct; that's life.

Ec