Wikimedia Board of Trustees

The Wikimedia Board of Trustees is often claimed to be a false front which advances the views of a majority (3 out of 5) of board members who are employees, founders, or close associates of Bomis corporation.

Two elected representatives of the sysop power structure, both female, neither from the USA, were appointed after an "election" which is conducted by MediaWiki approval voting code. It is expected to mute dissent and claims to want to be democratic. However much Wikimedia corruption continues.

Jim Wales has claimed that he wants to further democratize this Board with less direct involvement by Bomis. This seems to acknowledge at least the potential for corruption or appearance of dominance by a small clique or cabal.

The Consumerium Governance Organization should watch the failure or evolution of this Board structure with interest, as either failure or evolution proves wiki governance tends to democracy. What stagnation would prove, is unclear. Obviously the CGO should be no LESS democratic than other projects with less demanding wiki missions, such as Wikipedia itself.

Consumerium:Itself is a very much more demanding project with much higher performance standards and liability problems, so it cannot afford to repeat errors made elsewhere in wiki governance.