geni wrote:
On 3/21/07, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
Does he own any part of servers, software, intellectual property?
like any editor he holds the copyright on his edits and uploads.
The hardware is owned by the corporation.
- What is Jimbo's legal position with respect to Wikipedia?
he is a board member.
...and chairman emeritus.
- What is Jimbo's position as an editor on Wikipedia? Does he have
the right to ignore consensus? What happens if people disregard his right?
Formally, he has no such rights. Such actions are recognized on the basis on an historical moral right. Outright attacks on his positions are not likely to succeed. Where Jimbo has taken a peculiar stand on an issue diplomacy is warranted.
Can he confer this right on others?
That wouldn't make sense. This is not a question of rules, but of charisma. God-kings are uncreatable.
How do we distinguish between Jimbo as normal editor and Jimbo as editor with godlike powers?
You guess. :-)
- Does Jimbo have a leadership position, and if so, of what? Whom
does he lead? In what way? Is that leadership contestable?
Jimbo's power is due mostly to the community accepting his pronouncements
The restructure of the Board has played to Jimbo's strong suit: promoting Wikipedia in all corners of the world. This is bound to affect his ability to be online at any given time. Others are much better at maintaining financial records, or keeping members informed, or doing those other mundane tasks that keep a large organization functioning.
- What concrete changes have taken place as a result of Jimbo being
succeeded by Anthere as chairman of the Wikimedia Foundation Board? What is the day-to-day effect of these changes?
The board doesn't normally get involved in day to day matters. It is of course impossible to say what would have differed if jimbo had stayed as chair. Changes since the switchover are basically the foundation becoming far less ad-hoc.
That's very important in such a large group of people.
- What is Jimbo's position as a spokesperson for Wikipedia or the
Wikimedia Foundation? What does it mean when Jimbo tells the press that some change "will probably be going ahead"? Are we to interpret that as an order to be obeyed?
Up to you. You may find yourself rather outnumbered if you don't but not always.
Having had the experience some years back of working for a flamboyand person who loved being in the media, I quicly learned not to give too much weight to what is said to the media, and to give even less weight to what people thought was being said. Much of what is said to the media in a first instance off the cuff and not necessarily supported by a broad consensus.
- Are the answers to any of these questions different for the
different language Wikipedias, or other Wikimedia projects?
Other projects tend to be more independent of the board and the like anyway. This extends to Jimbo.
The fact that AFAIK Jimbo is unilingual is a big factor in that.
Ec