Advisory Council on Project Development Options

[Eva Destruction]

Surprised this hasn't already been mentioned here, especially since it seems to be composed of 75% WR members. While I'm more than willing to be pleasantly surprised, this looks like a very peculiar idea to me. (My thoughts on the matter are here).

[GlassBeadGame]

Why any group would want an "advisory council"consisting of the very people who are already endlessly inserting themselves into every dispute, policy discussion, gossip or miscellaneous wonkery that they happen upon is beyond me. The whole point of an advisory council is to provide new perspectives. Look outside yourself for once, Wikipedia.

[Kelly Martin]

The whole point of an advisory council is to provide new perspectives. Look outside yourself for once, Wikipedia.

Indeed, it is traditional for an advisory council to be comprised almost entirely of outsiders. The people on this council, some of them at least, are outsiders in the sense that they're not Carriers of the Holy Blessing of the Almighty Jimbo. But they're still very much insiders of the Wiki-Experience.

Surely there are online communities with expertise they're willing to share? Oh, wait, I forget: Wikipedia is unlike anything that ever came before and cannot possibly learn anything from the experiences of these other places. My mistake.

[Somey]

Surely there are online communities with expertise they're willing to share? Oh, wait, I forget: Wikipedia is unlike anything that ever came before and cannot possibly learn anything from the experiences of these other places....

Another very good point. What they really need, IMO, is an advisory group made up of people who were heavily involved in Social Web initiatives that actually failed, and figure out if some of the things WP is doing (or not doing) are similar to some of the things that caused those other sites to have problems. After all, many of the people who ran those sites have had considerable time to think about what they did wrong, or didn't do right, and it might even pain them somewhat to see others doing pretty much the same thing.

It's far more likely that WP'ers will want to consult only with people who run sites that are spectacularly successful right now, namely Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, because this will make the WP'ers feel more special and muy importante. But they won't learn much from those folks that they don't already know, since the extent of their wisdom is likely to be "come up with a popular idea and run with it."