Dear Wikimedians,
Thanks to those of you who have already registered for the Wikimedia
Conference 2016 – we are already very excited to welcome participants from
across the world in Berlin in April.
You have not yet registered for the conference? Your affiliation is
eligible [1] to attend the conference and you have been selected to
represent your affiliation in Berlin?
Then please be kindly reminded to register until Friday, January 15, 2016.
You have only one and a half weeks left! Please note that WMDE and WMF
teams will only be able to proceed as planned with regards to travel
booking and program design with all participants registered in time.
To register for the conference, please find the link to the registration
form here [2].
Please do not hesitate to reach out to us via wmcon(a)wikimedia.de should you
have any questions or comments. Daniela will be back in the office on
Monday (January 11) and will then get back to your requests and emails.
Best regards,
Wenke on behalf of the organizing team
Wikimedia Deutschland
wmcon(a)wikimedia.de
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Eligibility_Crite…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Registration#Regi…
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Daniela Gentner <daniela.gentner(a)wikimedia.de>
Date: 2015-12-01 13:06 GMT+01:00
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Conference 2016: Registration now open
#WMCON16
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Dear Wikimedians,
We are delighted to inform you that the registration for the Wikimedia
Conference 2016 [1], which will be held in Berlin from Friday, April
22, through Sunday, April 24, is now open!
Following Christian’s invitation and Nicole’s email regarding the
Program Design Process [2], we would like to provide you with
important information regarding the eligibility for participation,
participant number regulation, registration procedure, specifics in
regards to the travel and hotel booking as well as the visa
application process.
== Eligibility criteria ==
The eligibility criteria for participating in the Wikimedia Conference
2016 are aligned to the Affiliates’ Agreements with the Wikimedia
Foundation. Chapters, Thematic Organizations and User Groups must have
been officially recognized by the Wikimedia Foundation by today
(December 1, 2015), must have shown signs of recent activity and be
up-to-date on their reporting, latest by January 1, 2016 to be
eligible to participate.
Before registering, please check the eligibility and status of your
affiliate[3]. Only affiliates with the status “ready to register” can
proceed with the registration process. For all others, we recommend to
catch up on your reports before January 1, 2016.
==Participant number regulation==
Chapters and Thematic Organizations can send two delegates; or up to
four, if they have paid staff; User Groups can send one delegate. The
eligibility table on meta lists each affiliate and the respective
number of delegates that can be sent to the Wikimedia Conference 2016
[3].
==Registration information==
To make the conference a success, it will be essential for the invited
affiliates to deliberately choose their delegates. We recommend to
follow the “How to select the delegates” information, which is
published on meta [4].
Persons who are selected by their organization to represent them at
the conference need to register via the registration form [5]. The
registration deadline is Friday, January 15, 2016. Please note that we
won’t be able to accept and process registrations after this deadline.
We also hope that several members of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of
Trustees and staff, the Funds Dissemination Committee as well as the
Affiliations Committee will participate in the conference. We see a
huge advantage in having their representatives on site and encourage
them to take part in a range of talks and discussions. Please also
register via the registration link.
In addition to the core-conference, pre-conference workshops on
program design, evaluation, and community learning on Wednesday and
Thursday, April 20-21, are organized by the Learning and Evaluation
team of the WMF [6]. Should you be interested in participating in
these workshops, you can indicate your interest in the registration
form as well.
For the purpose of helping affiliates to check that only their
selected representatives have registered and enable participants to
connect before the conference and stay in involved afterwards, we will
publish all participants’ names on the meta page [7] shortly after
registration.
Further information on the registration process can be retrieved from meta
[8].
==Hotel and travel booking==
WMDE has blocked a number of hotel rooms at Motel One Leipziger Platz,
which is in walking-distance to the conference venue as well as the
WMDE office.
Representatives of affiliates with an annual plan grant (group 1) will
need to book and pay for their hotel rooms as well as travel
individually. The hotel booking form and price information can be
found on meta [9].
Affiliates which don’t receive funding via an annual plan grant (group
2) will be supported by WMDE for their hotel needs and WMF for their
travel booking.
Members of the WMF Board, FDC, AffCom or WMF staff (group 3) receive
travel and hotel booking support by the WMF Travel department.
We advise you to check meta [3] to which group you belong to.
==Visa information==
In case you are in need of a visa, WMDE will assist you with the
application process. All relevant information and necessary steps to
undertake are described on meta [10].
Wikimedia Deutschland is looking forward to welcoming you in Berlin in
April!
Please do not hesitate to reach out to us any time via
wmcon(a)wikimedia.de should you have any questions or comments.
Best regards,
Wenke and Daniela
--
Organizing Team WMCON
Wikimedia Deutschland
wmcon(a)wikimedia.de
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Program_Design_Pr…
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Eligibility_Crite…
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Program_Design_Pr…
[5] http://wmde.org/WMCON16-registrationform
[6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation/News/Pre-conference_for_W…
[7]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Participants%27_L…
[8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Registration
[9]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Travel_and_Hotel#…
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Dear Anthony,
The community elected Denny knowing that he worked at Google
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/Board_electi…>
.
If this was an additional conflict of interest taken on after his election
then things might be different, but this looks to me something better
resolved by declaring the interest and recusing from relevant votes and
discussions.
I'm not entirely happy with the current board and especially the loss of
Doc James. Unless I've missed it neither the GLAM nor Medical sectors now
have an advocate on the board, but removing an elected board member for a
conflict of interest that was declared in his election statement would not
make sense to me.
There is a wider issue that we also have people who have previously been
connected to various other organisations whose strategies might impinge on
ours. Do we or should we have some sort of break requirement such
as requiring directors to recuse from decisions involving recent former
employers?
~~~~
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Pierre-Selim asked: "Are you suggesting the removal of another communitee
> selected board member?"
>
> I'm sure Denny would make a fine adviser. But having a voting board member
> who is paid by Google, who in turn is almost the (and would like to be the)
> monopoly commercial vendor of knowledge to the world, strikes me as wrong.
> That's much too close an embrace.
>
>
> Anthony Cole
>
>
>
Are both members of the community? I see no username.
From: slien(a)wikimedia.org
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2016 17:27:30 -0800
To: press-release(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Wikimedia Announcements] [PRESS RELEASE] Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri join Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
This press release is also available online here:https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Kelly_Battles_and_…
And as a blog post here:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/01/05/new-wikimedia-foundation-trustees/
Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri join Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
New Trustees bring deep financial, operational, and organizational development expertise to Wikimedia’s free knowledge mission
San Francisco -- January 5, 2016 -- Today the Wikimedia Foundation announced two new members to its Board of Trustees: Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri. The new Trustees bring deep expertise in strategy and financial oversight, and diversity and organizational development, as well as a commitment to advancing Wikimedia’s vision of free knowledge for the world.
“We considered dozens of candidates from all over the world, with not-for-profit and technology experience, and the highest professional standards.” said Dariusz Jemielniak, Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee and Board Trustee. “Kelly's finance and auditing skills will be essential to the Board’s oversight and budgeting responsibilities. Arnnon's expertise in talent development and cultural diversity will be indispensable for the development of the Wikimedia Foundation, and communications and transparency within the Wikimedia movement. We look forward to partnering with them.”
A veteran financial executive, Kelly brings more than 25 years of experience in financial management and administrative oversight for leading technology companies and non-profit organizations. She currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Bracket Computing, a cloud virtualization company in Mountain View, California. Her earlier roles included Chief Financial Officer at Host Analytics, Vice President of Finance at IronPort, and Director of Strategy and Corporate Development at Hewlett Packard.
“As a non-profit supporting one of the most popular websites in the world, the Wikimedia Foundation has a unique responsibility to practice transparent, effective stewardship of donor resources,” said Kelly. “I am excited to lend my financial and strategic experience to an organization dedicated to making knowledge more freely available to the world.”
Arnnon brings more than 20 years of experience in developing strong organizational cultures with diverse, passionate employees. He is currently the VP of Human Resources at Tesla Motors, where he shepherds Tesla’s unique culture and oversees all global people operations, analytics, and staffing. Before joining Tesla, Arnnon served as Senior Director of HR and Staffing at Google, where he built the company’s talent acquisition and diversity strategy, growing the organization to more than 20,000 people in five years. Earlier in his career, Arnnon served as Vice President of People Operations and Director of Global Staffing at E*TRADE Financial.
“I have always believed in the power of open, transparent knowledge. Wikipedia represents some of the best aspects of our changing world: deeper knowledge, collaboration, and, ultimately, understanding,” said Arnnon. “This opportunity is a true privilege for me and I am thrilled to help support this powerful mission.”
“Kelly and Arnnon bring a special combination of expertise, integrity, and love for our mission. From Arnnon’s people and culture expertise to Kelly’s strong financial management background, both members bring valuable skills to strengthen our Board and help grow the Wikimedia movement for future generations. Most importantly, they bring a deep commitment to making knowledge more freely available for people around the world,” said executive director Lila Tretikov.
Kelly and Arnnon were approved unanimously by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Both terms are effective Jan 1, 2016 and will last for two years.
Please see the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees for complete biographies.
About the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that supports and operates Wikipedia. Wikipedia attracts more than 15 billion page views each month. Every month roughly 75,000 people edit Wikipedia, collectively creating, improving, and maintaining its more than 35 million articles across hundreds of languages -- all of which makes Wikipedia one of the most popular web properties in the world. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.
Wikimedia Foundation Press Contact
Katherine Maher+1 415-839-6885 ext 6633press(a)wikimedia.org--
Samantha Lien
Communications | Wikimedia Foundation 149 New Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94105
slien(a)wikimedia.org
(To be unsubscribed from this press release distribution list, please reply to communications(a)wikimedia.org with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line)
_______________________________________________
Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
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Is there an explanation and a breakdown somewhere that puts the large
WMF travel budget in context? For example I have no idea if this is a
spend for employees & trustees only, or whether this might cover some
expenses for non-employee travel such as guest speakers.
If there is a published budget for WMF travel in 2016, this would be
an interesting comparison.
Ref: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1275679-donate-to-wikipedia-and-pay-for-wha…
Thanks,
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Dear Wikimedia colleagues:
In response to feedback about the grants process
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Reimagining_WMF_grants/Outcom…>
that identified a gap in support for organizations and groups with annual
plans that are not part of the FDC process
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG>, we on the WMF's Community
Resources Team created a new pilot process for Simple Annual Plan Grants
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Simple>. These grants are for
groups and organizations that need funds for operating and program expenses
up to US$100K (or its equivalent in another currency).
This process has been developed in partnership with a committee of eight
volunteers <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Simple/Committee>,
who make recommendations about each grant application, which are then
approved by WMF staff. I would like to recognize the outstanding work of
our inaugural committee: Addis Wang, Anders Wennersten, Kiril Simeonovski,
Kirill Lokshin, Ido Ivri, Nataliia Tymkiv, Pete Ekman, and Sydney Poore.
Besides producing four quality recommendations this month (found on the
discussion pages of the four applications
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Simple/About#applications>),
they've done invaluable work to define how this new funding option will
work, and offered constructive and supportive feedback to the applicants.
I also want to recognize and congratulate our first four grantees:
Wikimedia Czech Republic, Wikimedia Eesti, Wikimedia Espana, and Shared
Knowledge (user group in Macedonia). Each grantee did an outstanding job
engaging during every phase of the grants process, and we are confident
that each is preparing for an amazing year in 2016. Many thanks to all of
the dedicated volunteers and staff at each organization that made these
quality applications happen, including Bojan Jankuloski, Jan Loužek, Kiril
Simeonevski, Kaarel Vaidla, Luis Ulzurrun, Santiago Navarro, Vojtěch Dostál
and the volunteer boards and supportive community members at each of these
organizations.
Finally, thank you to our colleagues Janice Tud, Siko Bouterse, Stephen
LaPorte, and the WMF finance team, for supporting these grantees behind the
scenes. Thanks to Katy Love, Kacie Harold, and the entire Community
Resources Team, past and current Funds Dissemination Committee members,
current and past APG applicants, and particularly Ravishankar
Ayyakkannu, for sharing their ideas and experiences leading up to this
idea. Special thanks also to Tony Souter and Bence Damokos for their
substantial feedback during the early phases of the pilot's development.
Are you interested in learning more about how the new funding option could
work for your group or organization? Please Email me to start a discussion
about your organization's application, and read more about how to apply
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Simple/Eligibility>.
Applications will be accepted throughout 2016.
Best wishes and congratulations to all our colleagues who received grants
in 2015, or helped to improve the grants process!
Winifred
Helpful links for Simple Annual Plan Grants:
*Apply here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Simple/Eligibility
*About the program: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Simple/About
*Committee: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Simple/Committee
--
Winifred Olliff
Program Officer
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi all,
Two important reminders concerning Wikimania 2016, which will be held in
Esino Lario, Italy on June 22–27, 2016:
The Submission deadline has been extended by the program committee to
January 17th. See:
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions
The deadline for applications for the WMF Scholarship program is
approaching! Applications are open until Saturday, January 09 2016
23:59 UTC.
Applicants will be able to apply for a partial or full scholarship. A full
scholarship will cover the cost of an individual's round-trip travel,
shared accommodation, and conference registration fees as arranged by the
Wikimedia Foundation. A partial scholarship will cover conference
registration fees and shared accommodation.
To learn more about Wikimania 2016 scholarships, please visit:
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships
To apply for a scholarship, fill out the multi-language application form on:
https://scholarships.wikimedia.org/apply
It is highly recommended that applicants review all the material on the
Scholarships page and the associated FAQ (
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships/FAQ ) before
submitting an application.
If you have any questions, please contact:
wikimania-scholarships at wikimedia.org
<wikimania-scholarships(a)wikimedia.org>
or leave a message at:
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Scholarships
Ellie Young
Events Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
Hello,
this is my first post to this list. I think Wikipedia is a great project
and am impressed by how well it works. It seems the (lack of) funding of
the project is one of the more severe threats to its continued success.
Since (I assume) the biggest cost is the maintenance of servers, I wonder
if there are there any plans of making Wikipedia decentralised.
Let me elaborate. I'm thinking of a system where many users each would
store a small part of the encyclopedia. A user wanting to look up or edit
an article connects to another user who has a copy of that article. When an
article is updated the update is sent to all other users (that are online)
responsible for storing that article.
Are there any efforts to accomplish this? Would it be feasible?
Best,
Erik
On Sunday, December 20, 2015, Brian Wolff <bawolff(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> If you want to get Dispenser his hard disk space, you should take it
> up with the labs people, or at the very least some thread where it
> would be on-topic.
>
The labs people are so understaffed that two extremely important anti-spam
bots recently had to be taken offline for much longer than in recent years.
I propose Foundation management allocate the necessary resources and
recommend the hiring of sufficient personnel and purchasing of sufficient,
non NSA-compatible (i.e., discount and homebrew style) equipment
to properly support both existing infrastructural bots and similar projects
such as Dispenser's reflinks cache.
I would also like to propose that the Foundation oppose the TPP provisions
deleterious to our interests, and that this position be endorsed on the
Public Policy list.
> Then by definition it wouldn't be a third-party spam framework if WMF
> was running it.
I am not proposing that the WMF take the bots over, just meet their
necessary service level requirements.
Sincerely,
Jim
Kevin,
==Re opinion==
I didn't mention anyone in particular, I was asking for people to
reflect on their contributions, and that more people contributing here
is better than the same people going around again. [I would prefer the
mature approach that each author review their own posts and honestly
reach their own conclusion, not to be told by others.]
Some respond as if their contributions are of primacy and immediacy,
and when that is done multiple times then it could be said to be
without consideration for other opinions.
Some bring in their gloom with the Foundation, or a part of their
history, and try to link that to some catastrophe/action/conspiracy,
which is all very shallow, in my opinion, and not helpful to the
discourse for this complex matter.
I gave my opinion on what I was seeing in the list, and hoped that it
was informative to such reflections. I would also think that numbers
of us have experience in non-profits around the world, though
indubitably not of the size and complexity. That said, whomever has
has had to deal with the principles of privacy, confidentiality,
by-laws, policies, fiduciary duties and it seems to me that these are
being used here as a shield to answering questions, so let us get
clarity on these statements. [1]
==My PoV==
We all wish for lots of things, but most importantly I think that we
all wish for the Board to note our disquiet of their operational
processes and outcomes. I wish to hear the answers of the Board,
though I will note that means their meeting in some form, and getting
through their official processes and that all takes time. I would
much rather here the right statements, rather than quick or
whitewashed statements. To me, speed of resolution comes second to the
right resolution.
To me what is clearly needed here is a fulsome statement from the
Chairman to acknowledge the disquiet and to make a commitment to
review their process, their needs and this outcome. I see that his
previous statement as more troubling than enlightening.
To me (as an outsider observing only) the Board has taken on an issue
1) without understanding the consequences of the outcome
2) without a plan for what they were going to do if the resolution was
successful
3) thinking that their historic methodology is unquestionably the right method
4) that disruptive technology (aka James) was successful in his
candidacy due to exactly what they were railing against; and one would
think that our Board should clearly be attuned to community's messages
and aware of disruptive ideology.
To me, at face value, this is an appalling fail in terms of risk
management, and if nothing else our Board should be practising good
risk management. That fail sets off alarm bells for me. Now I am
wishing to understand whether I just don't have enough information, or
whether we have elements of either risk blindness or risk denial, and
the only means to understand that is clarity from the Board.
The Board's inability to respond in a professional manner (one voice:
a clear and timely voice) to this revolt from their informed and
experienced user base, speaks to one or more of: insufficient skills;
insufficient planning; unsuitable systems;, wrong processes; or
incompetent people.
And please don't start me on this call for involvement of the Comms
team and the right messaging. I have met them and hold them in great
regard, this, however, is not about their massaging a determination of
the Board. In plain man speak "you cannot shine a turd!"
Now having spoken, I will be quiet and go back to reading and
contemplating of (most) others' emails (and editing).
Regards, Billinghurst
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Patricio.lorente#Re_your_statemen…
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Kevin Gorman <kgorman(a)gmail.com>
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Cc:
> Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2016 22:19:33 -0800
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Over-opinionated
> Billing -
>
> I hope some of my earlier contributions were, well, contributions, since I
> do have fairly extensive training in the governance requirements of
> CA-based non-profits - which certainly aren't Florida-based nonprofits, but
> definitely share some similarities. One of the things that has concerned
> me is the public words of board members have pretty much entirely stressed
> a hope to move past this smoothly, rather than a desire to instigate even
> the sort of external review that the IEP resulted in. One thing that would
> make me pretty much shut up about the matter instantly is if, preferably
> the BoT as a whole, but even an individual board member, voiced a strong
> opinion/desire/committment to try to ensure that events that have
> transpired so far are subject to an outside review by a group without
> previous strong connections to the WMF that has a strong familiarity with
> Florida NPO governance, and is as transparent as possible.
>
> Best,
> KG
>
> On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 8:33 PM, Richard Ames <richard(a)ames.id.au> wrote:
>
>> Yes, please slow down the conversation and reduce the alarmist tones ....
>>
>> Regards, Richard (one of your moderators)
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 3, 2016 at 3:16 PM, billinghurst <billinghurstwiki(a)gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > The whole process of James sacking from and by the Board is disturbing
>> > to many of us. At this point there are many who have ... much to say.
>> <cut>
>>
Dear all
I have been accused of three things:
1.
Giving staff unrealistic expectations regarding potential board
decisions. I have always stated to staff that I only represented 10% of the
board and have never given assurances that I could convince other trustees.
I would be interested in hearing staff weigh in on this accusation but I
consider it unfounded.
1.
Releasing private board information. I have not made public, private
board discussions during my time on the board. I have however pushed for
greater transparency both within the WMF and with our communities. I have
made myself informed by discussing issues with trusted staff and community
members and used independent judgement.
1.
Publishing the statement about my removal on Wikimedia-l. I was not
asked by other board members at any time before its publication to produce
a joint statement or to delay publishing the statement I had put together a
few days prior. The first proposal to collaborate I believe was by myself
here
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2015-December/080502.html
I was also not informed that the meeting was going to continue for the
purpose of producing such a statement.
I have always acted in what I believe are the best interests of the
movement and the WMF.
--
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
www.opentextbookofmedicine.com