Hello folks, I was adding citations to an internal WMF page, and I went down a wiki- archaeology rabbit hole trying to find the origin of the WMF's Values and Guiding principles documents.
I'd like to reach out to the collective accumulated experience of this list to sort out a few questions and disambiguate the two concepts. I realize a lot is happening in the movement (and on this list) these days, and this isn't an urgent, important or groundbreaking discussion. This message is more like a message in a bottle, hoping to find knowledgeable people that can help me clear up the ambiguity :) This is what I've got so far (with some help from Tilman Bayer for a few bits): -o-o-o-o- * Florence Devouard (then-Chair of the WMF's Board of Trustees) started a discussion about the Foundation's values on the foundation-l list in 2007: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/19502 * The list of values was first drafted by the Board and the Advisory Board, and then discussed on Meta-Wiki with the larger communities: https://advisory.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meeting_August_2007/Notes#Values https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Values * The discussion was restarted by Florence in early 2008 on foundation-l. She presented a new, longer draft of six core values with explanations, and proposed "to the board to finalize (-> approve) the values of Wikimedia Foundation.": http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/25147/ * After some feedback from list members, she posted a modified version on the Meta-Wiki page, which is largely identical to today's text: https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?diff=858927&oldid=856985 * It is unclear whether those Values were officially approved by the Board. I couldn't find a resolution or meeting minutes indicating official approval. * In 2013, then-Executive Director Sue Gardner drafted a list of Guiding principles for the WMF, which were presented to, and approved by, the Board in May of that year. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Guiding_Principles https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2013-04-18#Guiding_Principles https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Wikimedia_Foundation_Guiding_Principles * That resolution indicates that the guiding principles "may come to replace the previous list of values", but I couldn't find any confirmation that they did replace them. * A conflicting statement from Sue on Meta-Wiki indicates that "This document isn't intended to supersede the Values document. It's actually intended to flesh out the values a little bit further, so it's more explicit how we live them on a day-to-day basis at the staff level.": https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?diff=5375389&oldid=5367067 -o-o-o-o- We're linking to the WMF's Values in a lot of prominent places, and they've also been brought up many times in recent strategy discussions. There seems to be an underlying assumption, in those discussions, that the Values are a document with the same origin and status as the Vision & Mission statements. My impression (and I'd like to hear thoughts from this list about this) is that the Values document was never "officially" approved by the Board, and instead is more the result of a soft consensus. This isn't to say that those Values wouldn't have as much weight, importance or authority as voted-on documents like the Mission & Vision statements, or the WMF Guiding principles. An unchallenged consensus seems like a valid way of validating rules and principles, especially in the context of our movement. I'm trying to get confirmation about whether this is the case, so as to remove the ambiguity and acknowledge the origin story. As I mentioned, this isn't the most important topic of discussion right now. I'll still be grateful if someone can help me understand the backstories :) -- Guillaume Paumier _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
