Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

It's a Q&A session. This is a very spotty report.

Q: How can we be assured that the elected board is truly representative?
A: (Jimmy) Choose wisely.

Q: The foundation charter is showing its age. Going to revisit it?
A: Yes. We're having a Board planning retreat.

Q: What about Africa and the African languages?
A: (Jimmy) Thoughtful, slow steps. Talking with people on the ground there.

Q: What do you do about potential board members who can't afford the travel, etc.? Pay them?
A: We'd cover travel, but this is not a paying position.

Q: Why is Angela leaving the board? She says it's become less collaborative. How?
A: (Angela) E.g., we vote on a wiki rather than having discussions.

Q: What is the real scope of Wikimedia? "Access to all the world's knowledge" is too broad and "Build an encyclopedia" is too small...
A: (Jimmy) Big question. Look at operationally at we're doing. [But what guides decisions about what projects to undertake?]

Q: Upcoming conflict between validating by experts and celebrating the read-write culture. Should the board push a strategy or let it be settled by the community?
A: (Jimmy) The conflict between quality and openness is an illusion. It comes about when our tools won't let us achieve what we want to. E.g., the stable version will remove almost all the need for semi-protection; we can leave the pages open while ensuring the public sees quality pages. The board shouldn't get involved in deciding detailed questions such as "What counts as a personal attack?"

Q: Most of us respect the neutral point of view while understanding there's no such thing as a neutral point of view. Maybe it'd be better to talk about respectful points of view?
A: (Jimmy) One of the great things about NPOV is that it's a term of art and the community fills it with meaning. It has been filled with the notion of respect. You should propose this on a mailing list...

Q: Will social sharing ever be more powerful than money? Can the Board start the campaign?
A: (Brad) People are more powerful than money or social sharing.

Q: We don't know much about the finances...
A: (Jimmy) They're looking good. The audit process is underway.

A: (Michael) For the first time, we've had a steady stream of donations from the "Please help" button. We're not as constrained as we used to be. We have a bit of a buffer in the bank, about $500K. Small donations are coming in at about $30K/month. We're getting more donations from corporate sponsors as well.