[Wikimedia-l] Strange, surprising, bold and unnecessary - reply to the WMF board statement

[James Heilman]

Okay usually when one comes up with a new idea for something the
expectation is that it will be stated clearly what problem this new
idea will solve and how it will solve it.

Here is the list of potential tasks set for the WCA
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Tasks

Why do any of these need paid staff to complete them rather than
volunteers? Why do they deserve paid staff any more than the dozens of
other issues that we have that are at least equally important? In fact
no paid staff is requested for any of the tasks set forth.

A lot of "facilitating and promoting said work and idea"s of volunteer
is done by volunteers. And IMO should continue to be done by
volunteers. So am not conflating the two.

With respect to "The law firm is supposed to look over contracts,
documents and agreements of 40 other organizations" Only 21 have
signed up. Where does the number 40 come from? And why do all these
organizations need documents looked over more? We have managed to find
free lawyers for both Wikimedia Canada and Wiki Project Med Foundation
and we managed to incorporate both as volunteers.

With respect to "If you employ someone on a daily basis" This is the
issue. I am not convinced we should employ someone on a daily basis
for this work as it is presented. Wikipedia is not a fancy shiny
project, we are not Google or Microsoft. We are a rag tag group of
"amateurs" trying to do something amazing. We do not need shiny
offices, in cities of global importance, we do not need to fly around
the world with important titles.

So with respect to a budget I would consider in the range of $25,000
to me more appropriate. No actual office. No paid staff. Some funding
to cover limited travel for volunteers interested in taking on this
work. Collaboration taking place on meta. Efforts to improve meta.
Some free google accounts. The use of skype for meeting (which is also
free). Most work taking place virtually. The use of volunteers and
google translate to translate stuff. This organization of volunteers
acting as a consultant as I know my chapter is not looking for anyone
to tell us what to do.
-- 
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian

The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
www.opentextbookofmedicine.com