A Board meeting was held on IRC on August 14, primarily to discuss the
upcoming fundraising drive and the finances for this quarter. The full
notes from this are at
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Meetings/August_14%2C_2005>. The
following is just a summary.
The budget for the third quarter was approved. The total is
$198,000.00. See Meetings/August 14, 2005 for the details.
A fundraising drive will take place from August 19 to September 9. We
are anticipating donations of $200,000, which will be the first in six
months. Credit card donations should be promoted, the French chapter
is able to receive donations, and donations via transfer to a European
bank account can be made using the Belgian account.
A full time executive assistant for Wikimedia will be hired to work
from the Florida to help with paperwork and distribution of
information. A certified public accountant will be hired to review the
financial records.
Discussions with potential sponsors are ongoing with Apple, Best Buy,
Google, Logos, OSI, and Sun. We are finalists for a $100,000 grant
($50k in cash) from Saatchi and Saatchi. The winners are to be
announced on November 9. Yahoo servers are expected to go online in
South Korea this month.
Differences in the interpretation of the role of Chief Research
Officer were discussed. The outcome of this will be published on
August 17.
It was proposed that the Wikiversity pages on Wikibooks be not deleted
immediately, pending community discussion of where to move them, and
of the best way to incubate new projects. Please discuss this on this
mailing list.
A meeting for Board, Board Officials, and representatives of Local
chapters will be held on August 18. See
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_agenda>.
Angela.
I just wanted to draw broader attention to the planned board meeting 18
August, 18:00 UTC in irc.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_agenda#August_week_3
I want especially to invite the board members of the existing chapters.
--Jimbo
W. Guy Finley wgfinley at dynascope.com wrote:
>
> Now I spent some time in public service which is a bit similar to the
> Foundation now and there's things you do in public and things that you
> don't. As a board member criticizing one of your officers point blank in
> public puts egg on that officer's face and makes your organization look like
> it engages in open infighting. I would have suggested a more discrete
> method of discourse on this up front. Now, if that doesn't settle things,
> by all means, gore each other in public but as it stands this entire
> exchange and the constant back and forth makes the organization look bad. I
> think some need to take a step back, a deep breath, ask themselves exactly
> what this disagreement is regarding in the first place and try to go from
> there.
>
>--Guy (en User:Wgfinley)
Hear hear. I hope the board reads this and has a good long think about it.
Dan
Hi,
I exist. I am Sisay Fissaha.
Thanks
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Due to a major misunderstanding about the whole issue about the role of
Wikiversity on Wikibooks, I am doing a "Re-launch" of Wikiversity as an
ordinary new Wikimedia "sister project". I already added Wikiversity to
the new project proposal page:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_projects#Wikiversity
I think that the initial scope of Wikiversity can and should be toned
down to something realistic that can be accomplished with the current
set of tools available with MediaWiki software. Waiting a year or two
until "appropriate changes" to MediaWiki software are done is IMHO
totally unacceptable. I am proposing the following time table for this
project:
Now to 15 Sept 2005:
Discussion for modifying the scope of this project (done on meta and not
Wikibooks) will take place over the next month. *BE BOLD* and change
the goals to something that can happen realistically. I certainly will
be making changes/proposing new goals over this next month.
15 Sept 2005 to 1 Nov 2005:
Formal voting to accept/reject this project, as per
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_project_policy and general policies
adopted after Wikinews. The English version of the voting page has
already been written, but translations need to be done to other
languages before voting begins. Hopefully the german version can get
written quickly as it already has its own wiki run under the Wikimedia
server farm and semi-official status as it is.
1 Nov 2005 to 15 Nov 2005:
Formal submittal to the Foundation Board for acceptance/denial/rework of
proposal. This has been kicking around long enough that hopefully there
are enough opinions already about the value of this project.
15 Nov 2005 to 1 Jan 2006:
If approved, a transwiki to en.wikiversity.org from en.wikibooks will
begin. This will be a complicated process, and there is going to be
some arguing about what parts need to stay on Wikibooks and what parts
need to be moved. This may get ugly simply because the distinction
really hasn't been in place so far. Some discussion about this is more
than likely going to take place on Wikibooks, as it already has with
with the VfD discussion currently taking place. This e-mail is going to
be noted in that VfD.
2 Jan 2006 to 30 Jan 2006:
(If approved) Cleanup of Wikibooks to remove links/redirects/other left
overs from Wikiversity. The current group of admins/users on Wikibooks
can easily handle this issue.
----
If you think this sort of discussion is out of order, and that no new
Wikimedia projects can or should be adopted for the next year or two,
please state so **boldly** on this mailing list, specifically why, and
what the fate of new projects like this ought to be. This is a new
project proposal that has clearly been done on a stealth tactic and not
submitted through normal channels. I am trying to change that approach,
but I also know that significant resistance has been mentioned from
earlier discussions about new project proposals.
What the fate of Wikiversity ought to be if it fails to become a
Wikimedia sister project is up to further discussion, but I don't think
it ought to stay on Wikibooks. In that vein the VfD discussion on
Wikibooks is totally in order. As can be seen, at least from my
viewpoint I am not trying to make a rash decision to kill Wikiversity
from Wikibooks, and I think the above time table can be acceptable from
most parties involved.
--
Robert Scott Horning
Hi,
To everybody who is wondering why he's not on wikimania-planning
anymore: in the aftermath I cleaned up the list of subscribers. When we
start preparations for next wikimania, this list should be ready for the
organisation team.
For public discussion, exchange of infos about wikimania there is now a
mailing list at http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
to which I'd like everyone.
greetings,
elian
I recently discovered a program called "TKO" (Technical Knockout) on a
Canadian television channel called CH. It was fairly well produced, and it
was my first discovery of the afternoon program. I contacted them, and
they're enthuasiastic about doing a segment on the project, provided they're
renewed for a fourth season.
I imagine they TKO films during the week, it would be tough to find a
qualified Calgary (or at least Albertan) Wikipedian to attend. However, I'll
start considering every possible rep. Alternatively, could Jimmy or any
other Wikimedia board member, schedule a stop in Calgary? If anyone was to
travel long-distance to the saddle city, I doubt one TV segment would be
enough.
I could ask Pyramid if they employ any camera people in Toronto or Hamilton,
in which case I could be the interviewee.
If nothing else, they might just have a segment on the project, with
narration from the hosts.
Nick Moreau
"Zanimum"
Christopher Mahan wrote:
> Jimbo, let me remind you how wikis work: you see something that needs
> doing, and you do it. The details gets sorted out later. (I never
> thought I would have to say that to you.)
Yes, of course, but that is not the issue here as I see it.
The Wiki way is that you trust people, you listen to people, and you
don't engage in power plays when you're criticized.
> If Erik is going to be micromanaged in his daily goings and comings
> about this, that, or the other, then, he's not an Officer of the
> Foundation.
I think this is not really where the problem lies. This isn't about
Erik being micromanaged, it is about him responding to questions and
very mild criticism by accusing people of micromanaging and suggesting
Anthere resign from the board.
That is not the wiki way of trust and co-operation.
I agree completely that we should reward people for boldness, and that
we can not and should not micromanage. I think having a discussion
about the exact parameters of that can be worthwhile, but I also do not
think it is particularly relevant to this particular case. The problem
as I see it is unprofessionalism in terms of cutting off such a
discussion by turning it instantly to questions of who should resign.
--Jimbo
> left the project if they had been treated the same way. My side of
> the equation is that this needs to stop for any future cooperation to
> be viable. Conflicts should be resolved in private first before they
> are carried out on a public mailing list.
>
Usually conflicts become public because one of the sides feels he
doesn't have to respond privately. Same like the conflict between me and
GerardM which raged on privately, it didn't get solved. I took it public
and unfortunately it still isn't solved.
Waerth/Walter
The next fundraising drive is scheduled to start on Friday 19 August and last
until Friday 9 September. Much work needs to be done to make this a successful
event.
See the coordination page here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fund_drives/2005/Q3_planning
Translation work is especially needed, but first we need to figure out what
needs to be translated. I'll send an update on this point tomorrow.
Any help will be greatly appreciated given the amount we are shooting for:
$200,000. By far the largest increase in expenses is the amount we need to
spend on new servers.
Daniel Mayer,
Wikimedia CFO
PS - A budget of $198,000.00 for this quarter was approved of during the Sunday
board meeting. It will be posted to the foundation wiki sometime during the
next day or so.
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