[Foundation-l] Growth vs. maintenance

[Bod Notbod]

On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 10:31 PM, Robert Rohde <rarohde at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've read a variety of things there though I haven't yet been inspired
> to make a proposal.  My impression though, and correct me if I
> overlooked something, is that the strategy development process has
> generally been framed in terms of individual projects,

A lot of the proposals are flawed precisely because of that. It's no
surprise because many editors focus on one project. That's certainly
true of me.

Nevertheless I've tried to make a proposal that could encompass all projects:

http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Reward_editors

Of course I'm inclined to "big up" my own idea. But there's 500
proposals so I hope there'll be a fairly large number that would work
across all the projects.

You said yourself:

" (I'm going to frame this discussion mostly in terms of the English
Wikipedia, though
I think it applies to most of the large, mature wikis.) "

OK. But what about the less mature ones? Huge opportunities there. *I*
can't add to anything that isn't in English. But I could conceivably
have an idea that would help. I mean, I doubt it in my case, but it's
plausible that an English speaker could have an idea that would impact
across the less mature projects. Strategy is your chance to come up
with an idea there. You don't even need an idea of your own, you could
build on one you find in the proposals and be a part of the process.

> but there has
> been very little discussion of general philosophy.  Should we be
> innovating, taking risks, and looking for new growth opportunities?
> Or, should be focusing on solidifying and maintaining our existing
> positions and projects?  One position or the other might be implicit
> in some of the proposals, but I haven't seen any discussion of which
> general path people might want to emphasize.

Take a look at:

http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Questions_that_need_answers

I'm sure you'll find those questions you're asking reflected there.