Wikimedia-l March 2016

wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

214 participants
116 discussions

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Open and recorded WMF Board meetings
by James Salsman 05 Mar '16

05 Mar '16

>.... we could start with a smaller step: get the agenda > published within 5 days after any meeting.... "I would support as best practice the public posting of agendas for routine board meetings. I would support that minutes be posted promptly - but before the next meetings agenda is finalized is not really practical because we normally vote to approve the previous meetings minutes at the next meeting - every board I have been on does this. I would not support that unagendized items be deferred until the next meeting - we are working board and we have long board meetings and such a delay would not be helpful in any way." -- Jimbo Wales (talk) 08:53, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

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Wikimedia Foundation Draft Strategy
by James Alexander 05 Mar '16

05 Mar '16

Hi all, The draft Wikimedia Foundation strategy is now posted on Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2016_Strategy/Draft_WMF_Strategy> for your feedback and comments[1]. This stage of feedback will be open between now and March 18, 2016. Please note that WMF Staff will not be able to start responding to comments until Monday (March 7th) so know that the lack of comments over the weekend is not a sign that you're being ignored :). We welcome and appreciate any translations you are able to give for the draft as well so that it can be read and understood by as many people as possible. *Next steps*: - During March, the Wikimedia Foundation will use this proposed strategy to finalize its draft 2016-2017 Annual Plan. - Between March 18th and April 1st we will review and integrate your feedback from the draft strategy into the draft Annual Plan as appropriate. - On April 1st, The Wikimedia Foundation’s draft annual plan will then be submitted for comment. 1, https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2016_Strategy/Draft_WMF_Strategy Thank you again for your feedback earlier that led to this draft and for your comments in this stage, James Alexander Manager Trust & Safety Wikimedia Foundation

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Leadership changes for Talent, Culture, and Team Practices
by Geoff Brigham 04 Mar '16

04 Mar '16

Hi everyone, I’m writing to let you know that our VP of Human Resources, Boryana Dineva, has decided to move on. Boryana joined the Wikimedia Foundation last fall and quickly began working with the HR team to build a recruiting team, hire a learning and development lead, support the creation of a comprehensive wellness plan for the upcoming year, and focus HR efforts on engaging with the findings of the engagement survey. Boryana connected on a personal level with many of you. She wanted me to pass along her strong support for the future of the Foundation and our mission. We thank her for her contributions and wish her well in her future endeavors. Starting today Joady Lohr will lead the Team Practices and Talent and Culture department as interim director, joining the c-team. Joady has been with the Foundation for 4 years now, and is known and trusted by many across the organization. We’re looking forward to supporting her and the rest of the team on ongoing projects during this interim period. The executive team plans to open up a search for a new executive head of HR to lead the Talent, Culture, and Team Practices teams right away. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to Joady. Kind regards, Geoff

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Armenia candidate for the board
by James Salsman 04 Mar '16

04 Mar '16

>... board meetings are confidential so board members under duress can > always claim they tried to do whatever they were told to but got voted down? Board votes are published.

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Meeting in Berlin (was: Executive transition planning)
by Tim Moritz Hector 03 Mar '16

03 Mar '16

Dear fellow Wikimedians, I have been closely following the developments of the previous weeks. A lot of things have been said, concerns and frustration have been raised, hope has been voiced, and many many questions have been brought up. It’s hard to keep up with all the voices on all the different digital channels these days, and hard to find solutions and agreement in an unfacilitated stream. The first chance for many of us to personally meet, vent, and look ahead will be the the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin. Wikimedia Deutschland is hosting the event, and welcoming movement affiliates, committees and board and staff of the Wikimedia Foundation from April 20-24. The movement is standing at a crossroad, but I am confident we can find the best path if we work together. Wikimedia Deutschland has gone through turbulent times in the past as well, and we would like to offer our experience and full support as host and facilitator of an essential part of this process. With your participation and contribution, Wikimedia Conference can be a platform for exchange and progress. Let us use this opportunity to jointly figure out how we want to move forward as a network of partners. The conference is the ideal platform to discuss and define next steps to find answers to questions like: How do we imagine a movement striving for free knowledge and what structure and framework best serve these needs? How do the WMF and affiliates define their role and responsibilities on a global and local level? How shall an revamped search process for a new executive leadership of the WMF look like, and what are the main qualifications new candidates should bring? How will the strategy process for the WMF evolve and how can affiliates contribute? How do we involve our stakeholders from within and outside of the movement in this process? How do we manage to look ahead rather than repeating the old narratives? How do we create consensus on all these questions? In light of the current situation, we would like to dedicate a whole conference track to these issues. Of course, the initial conference topics of impact and capacity building are still important and will be covered as well. We have set up a page on meta and encourage you to share your questions, ideas, and concerns[1]. We intend to work closely with WMF and affiliate representatives in the coming eight weeks and create the program along their input. Looking forward to seeing you in Berlin in April, Tim Moritz Hector [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Program_Design_Pr…: How to move forward -- Tim Moritz Hector Chair of the Board Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | D-10963 Berlin http://www.wikimedia.de

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Wikimedia Armenia candidate for the board
by Andreas Kolbe 03 Mar '16

03 Mar '16

A number of nominations have now come in for the affiliate-selected board seats.[1] One of the people who have put their names forward to date is Susanna Mkrtchyan of Wikimedia Armenia. In her nomination statement[2] Susanna refers to the 2014 "One Armenian, one Article" Wikipedia campaign. The BBC reported[3] at the time that the campaign was government-supported. The related YouTube video (in Armenian with English subtitles)[9] features appeals for people to edit Wikipedia from (in order of appearance): 1. The Armenian Defense Minister, who says he's joining the "One Armenian, one Article" marathon by editing an article about the Armenian army 2. The Armenian Education and Science Minister, who says creating Wikipedia content in Armenian is part of Armenians' "duty toward our nation and country" and indicates he will personally participate too 3. The Head of Armenian Public Radio 4. An Armenian TV announcer 5. The Head of Matenadaran Archive Now, according to Freedom House,[4] all is not well in Armenia. Corruption is widespread in government and law enforcement. The press is not free.[5] Journalists have to "contend with violence and harassment", although "Independent outlets continued to take advantage of the country’s relatively open online space." Clearly, the Internet presently provides a platform for opposition voices that have trouble making themselves heard in conventional media, a fact that the government cannot be terribly pleased about. Returning to Susanna's nomination statement, she says that Wikimedia Armenia has signed a contract with the "Armenian Encyclopedia Authorities" to re-use their content. Western countries don't really have a tradition of state-published encyclopedias, but the Soviet Union had the Great Soviet Encyclopedia for about sixty-five years. It was an instrument of state propaganda. Trying to shoehorn national encyclopedias modelled on the Great Soviet Encyclopedia into Wikipedia is a thought that seems to occur quite naturally to politicians in ex-Soviet states, many of whom started their political careers and held office in the days of the Soviet Union. It is a good way of exercising control over the Internet, just like the Great Soviet Encyclopedia was designed to shape intellectual life in the USSR. According to her LinkedIn profile[7], in her professional life Susanna is a Sector Manager at the State Committee of Science, which is part of the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia.[8] Susanna further notes that she received an honourable mention from Jimmy Wales at Wikimania 2015's Wikipedian of the Year award, a fact duly noted at [[Wikipedia:Wikipedian of the Year]].[6] Now, why are we bestowing Wikipedian of the Year honours on government employees of repressive regimes? If we had the US Secretary of Defense writing Wikipedia articles about the US Army, or had employees of the German government running Wikimedia Deutschland, I'm sure there'd be an outcry, even though those are countries with quite favourable records on human rights, press freedom and so on. The idea of an award would not even arise. What is different about ex-Soviet countries that makes this a good thing to do? Andreas [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016/Nominat… [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016/Nominat… [3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-28588188 [4] https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2015/armenia [5] https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2015/armenia [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedian_of_the_year [7] http://archive.is/kmcEs [8] http://www.scs.am/en/home [9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zazVM3ldIuw

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] What it means to be a *volunteer* organization
by James Heilman 03 Mar '16

03 Mar '16

With respect to paid promotional editing, I have done a bit work trying to address it. For example I reached out to Upworks the company behind Elance and Fiverr and they are interested in working together on this. Have been a little distracted and not sure if there is sufficient community or foundation support to move forwards. With respect to using AI to detect paid editing, I spoke with Aaron Halfaker about the possibility in Nov 2015. What he needed was datasets of confirmed paid promotional editors. I have sent him some details. If others have details that would likely be useful. Things are in the very very early stages from what I understand. -- James Heilman MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine www.opentextbookofmedicine.com

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recording board meetings
by James Salsman 03 Mar '16

03 Mar '16

Wikimedia Australia has recorded their Board meetings, e.g. at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYnlRWxFpX0 If accurate minutes are too hard, this solution seems a lot easier.

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[Affiliate-selected Board seats] Osmar Valdebenito candidacy
by Osmar Valdebenito 03 Mar '16

03 Mar '16

Hi everyone, I would like to inform you that I have published my candidacy to the Affiliate-Selected Board Seats. You can see my declaration and résumé in https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016/Nominat… You can ask me some questions here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2016/No… I'll do my best to answer as soon as possible Thanks to all, Osmar V.

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Using this list to tear people down
by Keegan Peterzell 03 Mar '16

03 Mar '16

There's a quote popularly attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt: "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people."[0] Now, I'm not calling any particular people small minded, nor am I suggesting we stop talking about issues. What I am suggesting is that we talk about issues, and not people. The axe grinding and personal denigrations are being pushed further and further to the limits during this turmoil, and I humbly ask that it stop, and that moderation is used if needed to do so. I'll have no sympathy for those who wish to continue to go after fellow human beings for political gain. 0. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/11/18/great-minds/ -- ~Keegan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan This is my personal email address. Everything sent from this email address is in a personal capacity.

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Wikimedia-l March 2016