[Foundation-l] Transparency

Thu Jan 10 02:31:52 UTC 2008

On Jan 9, 2008 3:16 PM, Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I would disagree. In general, many members of the sister projects have
> a strong sense of disconnect and disenfranchisement when it comes to
> the WMF. This is especially true of the smaller projects and the
> smaller non-english projects. The lines of communication are virtually
> non-existant for these small projects. If it appears that the only
> time the WMF cares about a small project is when something is wrong
> and "action" needs to be taken.

<snip>
>

While it may be worse for small and non-english projects, I think many
participants in many of the larger projects also feel disconnected with
WMF.  Project participants are usually there because they enjoy creating
something, but from the point of view of project participants the WMF is
almost never directly involved in creating anything.  The
WMF mostly provides a behind-the-scenes service to keep the servers running,
and many people would be perfectly happy if the WMF never, ever got
involved in the governance of individual projects.  When the WMF does get
involved, many participants wonder: "Why are you messing with MY work."

Frankly, the WMF needs better communication all around.

As I write that, it occurs to me that there isn't even a clear point of
contact for project participants who want to contact the Foundation with
questions or requests.  As far as I know, there is no prominent page
anywhere that amounts to "Instructions on Contacting the Foundation for
Help", so when "Foundation Issues" come up people are mostly left to guess
on what to do.  Eventually very experienced hands get a sense of when to A)
call the office, B) post to foundation-l, C) email Jimbo/Anthere/Brion,
etc., but as far as know there isn't any place that actually tries to
explain best practices for interacting with the Foundation.

-Robert Rohde