[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimania-l] Creating a Wikimania Committee

[phoebe ayers]

On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 10:42 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.ayers at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 10:17 PM, James Forrester <jdforrester at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> > A small group of long-time Wikimaniacs have been working on the
> > perrenial plan to produce a "Wikimania Committee" - a community group
> > who would help steer Wikimania from year to year, advising each local
> > hosting team and ensuring that the processes are open, transparent and
> > community-led.
> >
> > Here are our drafts of what we think we'd want the committee to be
> > like, a charter, and the resolution which we're submitting to the WMF
> Board:
> >
> > * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_Committee
> > * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_Committee/Charter
> > *
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_resolutions/Wikimania_Committee
> >
> > Comments are very welcome; we're trying to get this done fairly
> > quickly, and of course we will iterate these plans as we get feedback
> > and hopefully more forward on the oft-stalled next steps.
> >
> > J.
> > --
> > James D. Forrester
> > jdforrester at gmail.com
> > [[Wikipedia:User:Jdforrester|James F.]] (speaking purely in a personal
> capacity)
>


I've been working on these documents as well, and am glad that we're
once again moving forward on this idea. It's been discussed for a long
time -- for at least the last five Wikimanias!

And from the conversations I've been in over the years, I think
there's been pretty broad consensus that having a community-driven
oversight committee for Wikimania, as proposed here, is a good idea.
The idea is that the committee would ensure continuity and planning
from year to year as well as help provide oversight of annual
conference planning; and it would be a more formal and representative
mechanism than we've had in the past. After long discussions, I think
we are finally (!) in a good position to make the committee happen
now. Please add your feedback and questions, and help make this
proposal better.

I'm also happy to propose James as the initial chair of the committee,
and also very happy that he's willing to do it :) He's been working
hard at  keeping the Wikimania process generally on track this year
and for the past several years, has helped shepherd many ideas into
this proposal, and is in my opinion the best person to get the
committee off the ground.

best,
Phoebe