My Candidate Statement
So, today I took a leap and submitted my name for the board of directors of the WikiMedia Foundation. Yikes! Sounds like a challenge, but one I'm up to.
This is a summary of the candidate statement I submitted ...
I am continually amazed by the things I see at wikipedia and its sister projects. My first experience with computers was programming simple games using punch tape, and the on an Apple_II_Plus. I got my first email account in 1986 and started poking around on newsgroups, MUDs and the Internet shortly after. I see the wikis as a great example of the possibilities of the Internet to disseminate knowledge and to build civil society. As a board member, the issues I would focus on issues in three broad areas:
1. Building community
- Peer review is what makes wikipedia great. Petty infighting is aggravating and drives people away. I would work on ways to prevent conflicts
- Admins and sysops are a great group of people. We need to promote their work by improving the ways they are selected
- Promote communities of individuals with interest and expertise in specific topics. This in turn will improve article quality.
2. Promoting articles that expand knowledge, are accurate and fair
- Promoting interlanguage coordination  reducing the difference between articles in different languages and strengthening the projects with a smaller number of articles by making translations easier.
- Building partnerships with verified resources (encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.) to improve the accuracy of articles and improving the reliability the information
- Promoting groups of technical experts in key areas (like copyright issues). Improving the brain trust involved in key issues will help with reducing conflicts between contributors.
3. Building a strong financial base for the foundation
- Increase the financial stability by expanding the donor base of the foundation. This includes promotion of an endowment.
- Work to recruit volunteers and donors to the foundation and acknowledgement of those donors.
- Explore ways that we can use technology to improve how information is delivered.
- Build our technical infrastructure
I have the experience in non-profit management and the technical knowledge to contribute to the wikimedia foundation.
Vote early, vote often and let your friends know!
Labels: internet, wikipedia
