[Foundation-l] Where we are headed

Tue May 30 04:44:48 UTC 2006

Gavin Chait wrote:

>The most immediate concern for the Wiki Foundation is less the idea of an
>office with furniture and windows, or even the difficulties of
>collaboration, mostly it is continuity.
>
>At the moment the founders are involved.  They have an idea of what they
>want and how to achieve that.  There are now thousands of regular
>contributors who are influencing that direction.  There are millions of
>occasional contributors who muddy the edges.  How do you ensure continuity?
>
This is a question with profound implications.  Accomodating these 
segments of our society without losing focus is no trivial problem.

>One of the first development organisations I worked in 15 years ago was a
>student-run endeavour at the University of Cape Town.  Every year hundreds
>of students volunteer and contribute to different projects.  Each project is
>run by older students.  Continuity is difficult where students graduate and
>leave each year.  Sometimes entire projects vanish when the students who
>know how to run them fail to come back.
>
Students enrolled in a programme of finite duration are more likely to 
make provision for their successors.  If a project vanishes when they 
leave maybe it has outlived its value.  Our senior people are here for 
an indefinite period, and may find it more difficult to envision their 
project mortality.

>The solution was to employ a small band of professionals whose task is to
>make sure that projects are properly budgeted and accounted for, keep track
>of how the different projects interact, and ensure that the overall emphasis
>of the organisation remains focused.  The professionals ensure consistency
>while the volunteers contribute fresh ideas, fresh thinking, new directions
>and lots of enthusiasm.
>
>It has worked well for more than 50 years for this organisation.
>
>Offices are far less important than continuity.  And the more you rely on
>volunteers, the more important it is to have a solid base of professionals -
>where-ever they may be. 
>
Your conclusion is well taken.  But before this can happen there needs 
to be a fundamental understanding about the role of the professional and 
the role of the volunteer.  Larry Sanger was good for Wikipedia at the 
time that he was here, but someone like him would be totally unsuitable 
to the present circumstances.  Decisions often _must_ be made without 
waiting around debating like the Paris Commune.  The questions that then 
arise are What do we want our professional to do?  What do we want him 
not to do?

Ec