[Wikimedia-l] Democratizing the Wikimedia Foundation

[Patricio Lorente]

2012/11/2 Lodewijk <lodewijk en effeietsanders.org>:
> Dear all,
>
> I have set up a brainstorming page on metawiki (
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Democratizing_the_Wikimedia_Foundation)
> where I would like to invite you to think about ways to democratize the
> Wikimedia Foundation.
>
> This doesn't mean that the Wikimedia Foundation is totally undemocratic,
> but it does mean that in my humble opinion, improvements are possible. This
> was triggered by me after the third time in my memory that the Foundation
> board has changed the bylaws of the Foundation without even consulting the
> community - but this doesn't have to be the only possible improvement.
>
> This is not intended as a huge complaint 'moo, the WMF is evil and
> dictatorial' but rather as a constructive exercise. I invite you to
> approach this also constructively, and think about possible improvement to
> current procedures - to ensure that there is a large community involvement
> in the governance of the Wikimedia Foundation - directly or indirectly -
> and that processes are transparent.
>
> I hope that our community selected board members will take this up as well,
> think along and bring the proposals to the board when the time is there
> (Alice, Kat, Patricio, SJ, and Ting: I'm looking at you) but of course I'm
> counting on it that also other board members will support the thought
> behind this. Any input on how to make this process more constructive would
> be appreciated. I also hope that the legal team will be watching the page
> and advise when something is legally impossible and how it could be made
> possible.

Hi Lodewijk! I really appreciate this initiative -although I think the
subject does not make too much sense: it would be better "Improving
governance", perhaps-. Anyway, it will be an important input for us.

                                                        Patricio

-- 
Patricio Lorente
Blog: http://www.patriciolorente.com.ar
Identi.ca // Twitter: @patriciolorente