Based on a prompt from Itzik, I checked the archives of wikimania-l (which I was not subscribed to). There is a message from Stuart Prior there with a very brief summary of background of jury members which I was unaware of and it may have been intended as a response to my question. Refer to https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimania-l/2014-October/006418.html.
For those that do subscribe to wikimania-l, please keep in mind that most readers of wikimedia-l do not see your responses unless you post here, and that posts from non-subscribers to wikimania-l get bounced.
Thanks, Fae
On 10 October 2014 11:48, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
The conclusion in response to Itzik's original question "how the current jury was elected and by who", is that the Wikimania jury is not elected, it was selected by a WMF employee against unpublished and presumably undefined criteria. Sadly, there are no plans or commitment by the WMF to change or improve this process to make it transparent or volunteer-centric.
We also know that at least 5 out of 7 members of the jury have been employees. It may be more, but there has been no reply to this question.
It is disturbing that asking questions of governance is being parodied as referring to jury members as "second class citizens". Nobody apart from a member of the jury has made such a ridiculous statement.
Being an employee is not something that should be hidden or kept secret. The community should be free to ask questions about the balance of volunteers in an important jury with responsibility for how several hundred thousand dollars of donated funds gets spent in order to ensure a healthy balance of viewpoints. Having basic governance questions marginalized and parodied by the jury is a disappointing demonstration of how transparency and accountability will be handled for future Wikimania events.
It is obvious that improvement is needed. It would be great to see commitment to change, rather than just defence of the status quo.
Fae
If you're interested in discussing the future of Wikimania, perhaps it makes sense to do that on the dedicated list? Just a wild thought.
Best, Lodewijk
2014-10-10 13:25 GMT+02:00 Fæ faewik@gmail.com:
Based on a prompt from Itzik, I checked the archives of wikimania-l (which I was not subscribed to). There is a message from Stuart Prior there with a very brief summary of background of jury members which I was unaware of and it may have been intended as a response to my question. Refer to < https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimania-l/2014-October/006418.html
.
For those that do subscribe to wikimania-l, please keep in mind that most readers of wikimedia-l do not see your responses unless you post here, and that posts from non-subscribers to wikimania-l get bounced.
Thanks, Fae
On 10 October 2014 11:48, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
The conclusion in response to Itzik's original question "how the current jury was elected and by who", is that the Wikimania jury is not elected, it was selected by a WMF employee against unpublished and presumably undefined criteria. Sadly, there are no plans or commitment by the WMF to change or improve this process to make it transparent or volunteer-centric.
We also know that at least 5 out of 7 members of the jury have been employees. It may be more, but there has been no reply to this question.
It is disturbing that asking questions of governance is being parodied as referring to jury members as "second class citizens". Nobody apart from a member of the jury has made such a ridiculous statement.
Being an employee is not something that should be hidden or kept secret. The community should be free to ask questions about the balance of volunteers in an important jury with responsibility for how several hundred thousand dollars of donated funds gets spent in order to ensure a healthy balance of viewpoints. Having basic governance questions marginalized and parodied by the jury is a disappointing demonstration of how transparency and accountability will be handled for future Wikimania events.
It is obvious that improvement is needed. It would be great to see commitment to change, rather than just defence of the status quo.
Fae
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