[Wikimedia-l] Lack of community involvement in WMF budget planning

[Tomasz W. Kozlowski]

Steven,
I am actually disappointed to see you bring such an example to back up a 
thesis that — that's the impression I'm getting — the community cannot 
provide valuable feedback on budget-related matters.

The experience that I have is quite opposite: as far as I am aware, 
community members have been providing fantastic feedback for all kinds 
of issues, including financial ones (with the GAC, which is a community 
committee, being the most prominent example).

> In this case I think the answer is that it would suck time and energy from
> budget planning and would not add much real value to the budget other than
> warm and fuzzy feelings. The amount of transparency would also not be
> substantively increased, because we already publish the WMF budget and
> annual plan, and respond to inquiries about it.

As I wrote in one of my previous e-mails, there is very little point in 
providing feedback/commenting on something that's already been adopted 
and put into motion. It would be much more inviting and empowering for 
community members if they could comment on an actual plan, with the 
feeling that their feedback might actually be put into consideration and 
make a difference.

Commenting on a budget for a fiscal year that starts in on July 1 in 
August does not give that feeling—let us just take this year's annual 
plan as an example: 
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=File:2012-13_Wikimedia_Foundation_Plan_FINAL_FOR_WEBSITE.pdf> 
was only published on July 28. That getting feedback on budget might 
suck time and energy from Foundation staff is probably of little concern 
for community members.

	-- Tomasz