[ Split from "Results of 2015 WMF Board elections" ]
2015-06-06 13:19 GMT+03:00 Chris Keating <chriskeatingwiki(a)gmail.com>om>:
2) There is nothing in the process to produce any
diversity in the result.
Indeed. I don't see much active effort to encourage diversity in gender,
professional skills, economic background, language or region.
Though I'm sincerely happy about the results according to the current
system, I'm not happy at all about the system. I would love to see a Board
that is more diverse in the above points. I'd love to see a board with
people who speak languages that are important, but weakly represented in
Wikimedia projects (e.g. Hausa, Indonesian, Hindi[1]) and who are closer to
the social, cultural and economic realities of the areas where they are
spoken.
Unless I'm missing something,[2] in the whole history of Wikimedia, there
was one board member from India, one from China, and zero from Indonesia,
Russia and *all of Africa*. This doesn't seem quite right for a movement
that is supposed to be global. Efforts to encourage editing outside of "the
global North" bore little fruit till now - maybe it has something to do
with such a low board representation? Maybe board seats for representatives
of different regions could be reserved for more diversity and less
self-selection?
I know very little about non-profit management, so maybe I'm naive, but it
bothered me for a long time.
[1] I would also argue for Russian and Arabic even if Wikipedias in them
are quite large.
[2] Please correct me if I'm missing something!
--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore