[Wikipedia-l] Time to set up Wikimedia ProjectCommittees

[Elisabeth Bauer]

Alex T. wrote:

> My suggestion is to make it as
> minimal and egalitarian as possible, each wikipedia community can do 
> what it wants to do, if you want a lot of structure, o.k., if you
> want no structure, some minimal foothold for dealing with issues. I
> agree with you Brian, each project is independent but with so many
> people complaining that the Board of Trustees are a bunch of shills
> of Jimbo perhaps there needs to be a line drawn in the sand. This
> proposal is that line.

And IMO seems to be a good line.

>> Could these points be stated explicitly in the bylaws, please? I
>> got another impression by reading the bylaws.
>> 
> Why does everything have to be stated in the bylaws, the bylaws are
> just a general governing body document, they don't have anything to
> do with the day to day activities of the various Wikipedia projects,

The bylaws say otherwise at the moment - they give the board of trustees 
the right to interfere with the projects. And, giving you the same 
answer Jimmy gave the German wikipedians: this may be fine now, but we 
have to think of the situation in 20 years. Even in 20 years, it should 
be guaranteed that the welsh wikipedians decide over the policies of the 
welsh wikipedia, the wikibookists over wikibooks and so on.

The wikimedia foundation is for keeping the servers running, collecting 
funds and defending the projects against legal threats, but not for 
enforcing rules (or a however defined code of ethics) upon all projects.

greetings,
elian