[Foundation-l] Re: Official Positions

[Anthere]

Jimmy Wales a écrit:
> Sj wrote:
> 
>>I would like to present a somewhat contra-OP argument that the core of
>>WP's success has not been its exclusive delegation of responsibility
>>to individuals, but rather its successful empowerment of /all/ of its
>>users, even new ones, to jump in and do what needs to be done.
> 
> 
> Absolutely.  This is key.  The official positions should be thought of
> as people who are co-ordinating and advising and communicating, not
> people who are solely responsible for doing things, or who are the boss
> of other people.

I totally agree as well.

I also think that Angela and I were somehow this year in one of those 
"official position", and though none of us is perfect (admittedly, we 
fail sometimes), I believe we were more on the side of co-ordinating, 
advising and communication (at least in the areas we could understand 
:-)), than just deciding it all with authority without letting room for 
others to jump in.

I do not see official positions as different. No official should be 
expected nor encouraged to take care entirely of an issue, nor should he 
  try to force volunteers. I doubt that would work well :-)

This said, there is what is written about a role... and human side...

To my opinion, what might limit the most people from "jumping in" is a 
mixture of miscommunication or lack of communication or restricted 
information. If one does not say what is going on, the new comer does 
not have any grip.

However, if we try to communicate the best we can (through Quarto, the 
irc channel, various mailing lists, the wmf website), there will always 
be some issues which will be privately discussed (and which will have to 
be privately discussed).

At this point, it is at the same time to role of the newbie to be bold, 
and the role of some involved persons to take care of babysitting the 
newcomer to get him involved.

It may sounds weird to say... but I think those already involved have 
little to fear from the multiplication of official positions. They are 
already part of the team anyway.

What there is to fear is that
* some editors leave, so should be replaced
* there is more and more work to do, so more help would be good
* some projects and some languages are badly represented. We should 
focus on these ones to get them involved.

Ant