[Foundation-l] Are we a club?

[Mike Godwin]

Birgitte writes:


Birgitte writes:

> In another thread, Mike Goodwin said WMF can't be a
> club anymore and the concerned feelings come from
> those who miss the club.

It's "Godwin," not "Goodwin."  I make no special claim to goodness.

> I find this completely
> off-base.  WMF is *becoming* a club now.  In the past
> it was more like a trading center.

I think this criticism of my remark is fair. All analogies fail when  
you analyze them enough.  I do believe that, in some ways, the  
Wikimedia projects (and the Foundation) were like a club -- now they  
are less so.  I think it is a defensible argument that some people  
miss the club.  Nevertheless, p.rofessionalizing the infrastructure is  
an important, positive step.

That said, I would prefer it if the community felt like a club to long- 
time participants. I think it's important that community members feel  
that they are a member of something real (which is my belief), and I  
think the projects depend upon the communities in a fundamental,  
irreducible way.  So I think it's important that we continue to  
increase our engagement with community members in mailing lists and  
elsewhere. (I'm one of those who believes our engagement is actually  
increasing, not decreasing.)

I speak as someone who worked to develop other communities -- the  
WELL, cyberliberties activists, and others -- so I worry that Birgitte  
is interpreting my anti-club remark as an anti-community remark.


--m