The GUM is dead – long live the GUM

What many had predicted not one month ago, or even earlier, has finally occurred. The GUM, once the unchallenged authority in the MicroWiki Community and the apparent bastion of justice and reason, has emitted its last whimper, breathed its dying breath and sung its last song.

This slow and painful death of the GUM was correctly predicted by many during the failed OAM-GUM merger talks, with the general sentiment being if the GUM did not somehow merge or get taken over by the OAM, then it would die slowly and painfully. This has turned out to be true – whether for better or worse.

With the death of the GUM also comes the removal of the last large part of the legacy of ‘Robert Lethler’. He was effectively the GUM’s life support system during much of 2010, and with his disgrace and subsequent departure from the MicroWiki Community (at least in his previous alter ego), the death of the GUM seemed nigh.

But what has happened here needn’t have occurred, from an outsider’s point of view. Having kept an eye on the ‘New GUM Forum’ up until now, one can only deduce that this ultimate death could have been slowed to a more dignified pace, or even prevented altogether. The lack of activity beyond the usual flurry on a new forum was an obvious symptom of this decline, and credit must go to James Puchowski and others for recognising it early on and finally putting the GUM to sleep.

Another obvious symptom here was the enormous political baggage that the GUM carried around with it. In an ultimately futile attempt to save itself, the GUM tried a ‘reform’ approach, promising reform and a completely new GUM, free from the chains and shackles of the Lethler Era. The issue here was that none of this was ever properly outlined, beyond the general sentiment of ‘de-Lethleriasation’ of the Constitution and the organisation. The other problem was that while there appeared to be genuine interest in this reinvention and reinvigoration of the GUM, Puchowski failed to tap into this interest effectively. One may only conclude that had the GUM leadership been able to seize on this early interest, outline clearly what the new GUM stood for and maintain their own interest and engagement in the project, then the GUM may well still be alive and kicking.

Whether or not this would be a good or a bad thing is a matter for conjecture, but the change promised in the new GUM could have resulted in the organisation serving a purpose that has not yet been tapped in to. As mentioned previously, had these ‘reforms’ been properly and clearly mapped out by the leadership, then the GUM need not have died.

A factor that cannot be overlooked is the almost stubborn determination of the GUM leadership to retain as much of the old system as was possible became apparent during the OAM-GUM merger negotiations. The firm negotiation point of the GUM was that no matter what the merger/takeover talks resulted in, the GUM would continue to exist as a separate entity, with the leadership retaining their empty titles, under one of the proposals, without wielding any real power. It was largely this stubbornness that resulted in the GUM’s safe and dignified exit, by amalgamation into the OAM, being closed off. The world had changed, and the GUM did not change with it.

However, I do concede that the GUM leadership were certainly placed in a rather difficult position. This position was made difficult by the sudden wake-up call that the departure of Lethler gave to them and the organisation, in that it could not survive in its present form without him, and the chronic inactivity that had apparently plagued the GUM for much of this year. In the position that they were put in, they had the two basic options of either putting the GUM to sleep then and there in a dignified death, or attempt to reinvigorate the organisation in the hope of it still surviving, albeit in another form. In hindsight, it appears that the first option would have been the better one.

But whatever the reason, and whatever may be seen with the benefit of hindsight, the GUM is now well and truly gone, to the joy of some and the dejection of others. I don’t suppose that it will bring about any large change from how the MicroWiki Community operates currently, with the OAM prospering beyond anybody’s expectations and showing no signs of slowing down, but we will just have to wait and see.