[Foundation-l] A discussion list for Wikimedia (not "Foundation") matters

[Tom Morris]

On 1 March 2012 09:14, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> That new list wouldn't be intended to replace foundation-l (which
> would continue to be used for matters strictly related to the
> Wikimedia Foundation) or to internal-l (which may have some legitimate
> uses, although I personally find it unnecessary and unsubscribed from
> it).
>
> The full proposal is here:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l_proposal
>

I think there's another way we could slice the cake:

(a) a mailing list for discussing Foundation, chapter and management
stuff, basically something like a replacement for Foundation-L but
broadened to include chapters and other "movement" stuff. Maybe just
rename Foundation-L to "movement-l", and perhaps encourage people to
take stuff from internal and use movement.

(b) a more practical discussion related to content issues, cross-wiki
issues and so on. Perhaps we could call this "projects-l".

I personally am interested in more cross-wiki coordination on positive
stuff: if we're working with GLAMs and other partners, and doing
educational outreach, we should be trying to find opportunities to
positively engage with the different projects, rather than splitting
them off into their own little ghettos. There's WikiEN-L and there's
Commons-L and Wikisource-L and so on, but it'd be nice if there was
some kind of meeting place where the focus is the people who sit at
their computers and press "edit" rather than Foundation/Chapter
politics, which is important but not necessarily interesting or that
relevant to a lot of Wikimedians.

I think a lot of people would be greatly interested in positive,
productive discussion about furthering the goals of the projects, and
a fair few of those people probably are not quite so interested in
getting into long and protracted arguments about chapter fundraising
and movement roles and all that jazz.

-- 
Tom Morris
<http://tommorris.org/>