Discussions/Submissions/Wikimedia Community Council

From Wikimania 2016 • Esino Lario, Italy

Wikimedia Community Council

Title
Wikimedia Community Council
Proposed by
User:Pharos
Description
An attempt to rethink community structures, and alternative/complementary aspects to Wikimedia movement governance.
Purpose
Peace, Progress, Pasta
Targeted participants
Metapedians
Preparatory readings or materials
meta:Wikimedia Community Council Compact (this is not the current proposal, just an illustration of the types of new institutions that are possible)

Questions and Comments 46

  • Hi User:Pharos, thank you for your proposal. Would you mind expanding it so we know what you want to discuss? Thanks, --Gnom (talk) 13:44, 17 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
    I think it would be good to discuss potential roles for the community in wider governance (potentially including greater participation on the WMF board), but principally the alternative model of a general community council, with quite separate functions from the board, and working out how such a new structure might be designed to best reflect our global community, online and offline. Think of it as a non-binding constitutional convention for the Wikimedia community.--Pharos (talk) 17:35, 18 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Pharos: I think I know where you want to be headed, and I would be supportive of having a discussion about the ways that the community can organise itself and influence decision making processes (in the widest sense of the word). We would have to rephrase the topic a bit though, because with this phrasing, it is unclear what would be the intended outcomes, what the purpose of the discussion would be, ideally. I would suggest to rephrase it to Wikimedia Community representation and focus on getting a clear overview of the reasons to get a community representation, and get some basic outline what it could look like (should it be proportionally representative or focus on representing diversity, should it be a body that speaks with one voice, or something like a forum, should it have a legal or moral authority, etc). I do see possibilities for this, as long as we don't get too many meta-topics. Effeietsanders (talk) 14:00, 22 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]