[Foundation-l] Board response on Volunteer Council

Sat Apr 26 05:39:22 UTC 2008

Thank you Michael for the clarification (both from the board and from
yourself). I thank Effe and others for the massive amount of work they
put into launching this proposal. If they want to pursue such a council
without the Foundation's official support, I wish them the best of luck
in that as well.

-Chad

On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 1:35 AM, Michael Snow <wikipedia at verizon.net> wrote:
> Michael Snow wrote:
>  > At this stage, the board has decided not to take action on the proposal
>  > to develop a Volunteer Council. We thank everyone who put the time and
>  > effort into formulating and discussing this proposal. Although the board
>  > did not find a clear fit for this proposal in the formal structure of
>  > the Wikimedia Foundation, we didn't rule out the possibility that the
>  > Wikimedia project communities might organize this or another type of
>  > council for their own benefit.
>  >
>  Not speaking on behalf of the board generally, I'll share some of my
>  personal opinion here. I can see some potential benefit to a volunteer
>  council or similar body, but more clearly in a function of
>  self-government for the community, where this may be lacking. That is to
>  say, not so much to be involved in foundation-level operations, but to
>  allow the foundation to avoid interfering where it is not wanted and
>  does not want to be.
>
>  For example, I don't think we as the board should really be approving
>  stewards, or new arbitration committees on projects. Those are affairs
>  for the community to handle on its own, other than that the foundation
>  may want to have those people be personally identifiable. I could
>  imagine that starting projects in new languages (as opposed to launching
>  entirely new projects) might fit under this heading as well. So I
>  encourage people to keep looking at the idea, and I would support
>  developments that allow the community to govern itself instead of
>  lapsing into anarchy.
>
>
>
>  --Michael Snow
>
>
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