[Foundation-l] A Board member's perspective

[Guillaume Paumier]

Hi,

On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 4:52 PM, Stuart West <stu at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> - Due to the failure of the community process, something extraordinary had to be done. A small step was our Board statement we hoped would focus attention. A bigger step was the work by Jimmy and other individuals on Commons who took bold and decisive action. Clearly it is messy

Stu, thank you for sharing your thoughts in detail.

There are precedents in the Wikimedia movement's history where the
community process « failed » and the Board decided to take action.
They did so thoughtfully, by crafting a resolution that was refined a
lot (I seem to recall then-Board members who spent a lot of volunteer
time wording it carefully). The Board gave the community appropriate
time to implement the policy, and a deadline. The topic of this policy
was not very different from the topic we are discussing now, since it
was about Free and Non-free content:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Licensing_policy

>From what I can see, this process, based on mutual respect and «
guidance » of the community, was highly successful:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Non-free_content
And I would even say it is a model of collaboration between the Board
and local communities.

If I understand correctly, the reason why this approach was not
followed this time is because there was apparently a feeling of
urgency. I am not privy to the discussions between Jimmy and Fox News,
but I understand Fox's story is the source of Jimmy's « bold and
decisive action », as you put it.

It is not unprecedented for the Board to « guide » the community that
fails to address an issue (and we have processes for that that have
proved successful). However, I believe it is quite unprecedented for a
Board member to exercise editorial control under the pressure of
another organization (however « fair and balanced » it might be).

-- 
Guillaume Paumier
[[m:User:guillom]]