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492 points vladyslavfox | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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pessimizer ◴[] No.41896126[source]
The Internet Archive has a management problem. They seem to be more comfortable disrupting libraries than managing an online, publicly accessible database of disputed, disorganized material.

Despite all of the positive self-talk, I don't know if they realize how important they are, or how easy it would be for them to find good help and advice if their management were transparent and everything was debated in public. That may have protected it to some extent; as a counterexample, Wikipedia has been extremely fragile due to its transparency and accessibility to everyone. With IA being driven by its creator's ideology, maybe that ideology should be formalized and set in stone as bylaws, and the torch passed to people openly debating how IA should be run, its operations, and what it should be taking on.

I don't mean they should be run by the random set of Confucian-style libertarian aphorisms that is running the credibility of Wikipedia into the ground, but Debian is a good model to follow. Or maybe do better than both?

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mrweasel ◴[] No.41896794[source]
> Debian is a good model to follow.

While I have no idea how Debian is actually funded I'd agree. One issue might be that The Internet Archive actually need to have people on staff, not sure if Debian has that requirement. You're not going to get people to man scanner or VHS players 8 hours a day without pay, at least not at this scale.

The Internet Archive needs a better funding strategy that asking for money on their own site. People aren't visiting them frequently enough for that to work. They need a fundraising team, and a good one.

Finding managers are probably even worse. They can't get a normal CEO type person, because they aren't a company and the type of people who apply to or are attracted to running non-profit, server the community, don't be evil organisation are frequently bat-shit crazy.

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1. chambers ◴[] No.41906648[source]
I believe the monastic model would fit best. Tireless, thankless work for the greater good. Maintaining old records for decades and centuries for the sake of beyond ourselves. I imagine people who join up would eschew both profit maximizing (for profit) and moral adventurism (non profit/Internet Archive). a real vocation, not a career.

Sadly, SQlite is the only software organization I know of that has this spirit.