[Foundation-l] Expert board members - a suggestion

[Thomas Dalton]

2009/8/29 Delirium <delirium at hackish.org>:
> I'd personally place myself on the "objecting to WMF expansion" side, at
> least in general sentiment. With larger organizations, you can indeed do
> more, but also run more risks. In particular, organizations with large
> staffs run the risk of bureaucratization; and community/volunteer-based
> organizations with large staffs risk capture of the overall project by
> the official organization, rather than the community and volunteers they
> ostensibly act as support staff for.
>
> It's not inevitable the outcomes will be bad, but it's worth thinking
> about, I think, especially as the track record of traditional non-profit
> organizations overall is quite poor in that department.

Those are certainly risks that should not be ignored. I think so far
we've done pretty well on that front and I am optimistic that we will
continue to do so (the community will simply not allow the WMF to
capture the projects). We mustn't be complacent, though - only by
keeping a close eye on things can we avoid them heading off in the
wrong direction. If we do allow things to go wrong it will be
difficult to get back on track.