[Foundation-l] Volunteer Council - A shot for a resolution

Fri Mar 14 14:16:15 UTC 2008

> Yaroslav M. Blanter wrote:
>> Hoi Gerard,
>>
>> I think actually that Milos and you are advocating the two extremes.
>>
>> I do not think we can form a board having a representative of every
>> (reasonably defined) big project.
>>
>> I also do not think we should leave these projects without
>> representation.
>>
>> Let us take again the hypotetical Maltese wikipedian (for definiteness,
>> a
>> male Wikipedian) who happens to mainly edit a project with 10 other
>> active
>> editors (I am not exactly sure what the actual  standing of the Maltese
>> Wikipedia is, let us discuss this as a hypothetical example). If he is
>> not
>> an admin on a larger Wikipedia (say English) and not a steward, he doe
>> not
>> get a public exposure outside his own small project. This typically
>> means
>> he stands no chance to be elected by a general vote, whatever brilliant
>> he
>> is. We can not help this. What we can do is to reserve say one Council
>> seat all (reasonably defined) small projects and design the procedure
>> how
>> these projects will elect their representative. The idea of such as seat
>> would be to ensure that (similar) problems of all small Wikipedias are
>> being heard. If we reserve zero seats, they are just not represented. If
>> wee select a seat for each project, there is no way the Council will be
>> operational.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Yaroslav
>
> And ?
>
> Even if we reserve a seat... who will elect the guy ?
>
> The 5 members of the Maltese wikipedia ? Why should I trust 5 members
> who approve one guy to be in charge of the governance of the Foundation
> ? For all I know, they might be his 2 brothers, 1 cousin, a friend and
> his lover.
>
> Or the 5 members of the Maltese Wikipedia + 2 members of the corsican
> wikipedia + 6 members of the volapuck and 7 members from the swahili ?
> 2+6+7 of those not knowing the candidate and maybe not even sharing a
> common language with him ? Why would the swahili guys vote for a maltese
> guy they have never heard about ?
>
> Ant
>
If you want me to elaborate, yes, in my proposal it will be 5 members of
Maltese wikipedia + 2 members of the Corsican Wikipedia etc. If they do
not share the common language with the candidate they are not going to
vote for him, that's simple. If they do not feel they are represented by
this guy - fine, they vote for somebody else. We can make sure there is a
rotation, for instance, if a representative of maltese Wikipedia takes the
seat, next year he is not eligible to run for this seat. And we can think
about the channels small Wikipedias would reach their representative. But
if it all goes to unrestricted general vote - none of these projects is
going to be represented. Then only stewards/active members of big projects
have a chance to be elected, and we are back to the countless lamentations
about insufficient representation of the community.

Cheers,
Yaroslav