Talk:Wikimedia Foundation Report, August 2008

Advisory board use

Mike.lifeguard wrote:
> I recall that in the interview Sue gave with the Wikipedia Weekly at
> Wikimania, she mentioned that the Foundation staff and Board haven't
> used the advisory council in a systematic way, and that strategies to do
> so should be sought. Has any thought been put into how we can better use
> that expertise, or if rethinking the advisory council is necessary?
> Looking at the wiki, we have a good team of people, but they're only
> useful if we tap that resource, instead of simply having blurbs on
> advisory.wikimedia.org.
>
> I don't know whether this should be addressed in the context of the
> Wikimania postmortem or not, I was simply reminded as that's where the
> interview was given.

The advisory board was one of the major topics of discussion at our board meeting. It hasn't been used systematically partly because it wasn't organized systematically, being more a collection of people with some public profile who would be sympathetic to our objectives. The board and staff have benefited from the help of a number of individuals on the advisory board, however, and hope to strengthen that by a selection process designed for that purpose. - Michael Snow