[Licom-l] Vote tallying and other procedural issues

Wed Apr 29 19:28:29 UTC 2009

Dear LiCom,

as we're nearing the closure of the vote this weekend, I want to do a
quick check-in on a couple of points. I've sent a separate note
regarding the SecurePoll and CentralNotice expiry - my primary concern
here is that we don't direct people to a vote that's no longer
running. Here are some other quick questions / updates:

1) Tallying the vote: As far as I know the only people with vote
tallying rights right now are Robert, Huib, and Andrew. With more than
15,000 votes already, do you need more people to help with removal of
sock puppets and other invalid votes? If so we need to line up the
identity checks and such, so it would be good to make a call for
volunteers ASAP. John: I don't see you in the list of users, but if
you're still active and able to help, we should make sure you've got
an account set up.

Also, please let me know if you think that completing the tally by May
10 is feasible.

2) Announcing the result: Somewhat arbitrarily, I suggested in the
timeline that the results will be shared with the Board before a
public announcement to give the Board an opportunity to provide
context and framing. I've just sent them a note to double-check that
this is what they want: If we should instead move ahead with an
immediate public announcement, I will let you know.

3) Implementing changes: If the Board asks us to go forward with the
licensing update, we'll need to implement changes across our sites,
supporting which is explicitly within the mandate of the LiCom.
Because this isn't as sensitive a process as the vote administration,
we can handle it very collaboratively, but it would be good if we
could start thinking about roles and responsibilities. If someone
wants to start a page for this process e.g.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update/Update_checklist ,
please be my guest, otherwise I'll take a first crack at it ASAP.

4) Open questions and feedback: I haven't been quite able to respond
as much on the talk pages as I would like to in the last couple of
weeks, but if you feel there are critical questions that need to be
addressed, please let me know. (I think the single biggest open
discussion point is how to deal with external CC-BY-SA content: I'll
try to formulate some additional thoughts on this, but I think the
Board needs to weigh in as well.)

Am I forgetting anything critical? Other than, of course, again
thanking you all for the time you've already spent supporting this
process. :-)

Thanks and all best,
Erik

-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate