[Foundation-l] New project proposal

Mon Jun 6 23:23:10 UTC 2005

Jan Ulrich Hasecke:

> I think that this is a temporary project. We cannot debate about a  
> constitution for years, but need to come to an end in two or three  
> years. If the project will run successfully I foresee much traffic  and 
> great organizational work, which I cannot do by myself. So I  would be 
> glad, if the project would be a temporary wikimedia-project  and if some 
> more experienced mediawiki-users will join the team.

This is a very interesting idea. I'd like to ask you to write a more 
detailed proposal about the project. You have started it independently, 
which is fine, but if it is meant to become a Wikimedia project (I don't 
think such a decision can be temporary, BTW), we need to know better 
what we're dealing with. Here are some questions I'd like to see answered:

- Are there risks of perception if Wikimedia gets involved in political 
issues and publishes a proposal for a constitution, when all our 
projects so far follow the Neutral Point of View policy?

- Is there a potential slippery slope here if we establish a precedent 
for a political project?

- NPOV alone doesn't cut it if you're trying to be prescriptive rather 
than descriptive. How are you ever going to achieve consensus on 
questions where fundamental differences of opinion exist (e.g. reference 
to God in the preamble, right to work, sexual rights) -- what kind of 
policies and decision making processes do you want to use?

- Why can't this be part of Wikibooks?

- Why can't this be generalized into a larger project for similar documents?

My personal view, right now, is that this project might be interesting 
from the perspective of funding for Wikimedia, similar to Wikispecies. 
That might be a reason to pursue it, but I believe the aforementioned 
issues need to be answered in a satisfactory way for the Board and the 
community.

Erik