Florence,
This is a very commendable email, and I admire its simplicity. The values you suggest are instinctive to anyone who has been involved in the projects for a while, but as Wikimedia grows, it is important to reiterate them again and again for new staff and new project members, who have not been raised on them.
That said, I do have a couple of questions and hope that you can clarify.
In a message dated 1/29/2008 5:06:37 PM Eastern Standard Time, anthere@anthere.org writes:
Our community is our biggest asset We are a community-based organization. We must operate with a mix of staff members, and of volunteers, working together to achieve our mission. We support community-led collaborative projects, and must respect the work and the ideas of our community. We must listen and take into account our communities in any decisions taken to achieve our mission.
Question: "Community" has always been a mantra of our projects. As such, I was a bit surprised by an email exchange with Jay Walsh last week, in which he said: "I'm hesitant to use the word 'community' as much as I'm hesitant to call people 'audience.' In reaching out to communicate, so far at least, I'm more inclined to speak of users, editors, stakeholders, casual readers etc - but this is my personal interpretation." I found his comment counter-intuitive, given the nature of the projects to date, and wonder if you might clarify your opinion on "community" and the terms used to describe it.
of service is a priority We will try our best to give access to high quality Wikimedia project content 24 hours a day and 7 days, as well as provide access to regularly updated, user-friendly, and free dumps of Wikimedia project content. To insure world-wide, unrestricted, dissemination of knowledge, we do not enter into exclusive partnerships, with regards to access to our content or use of our trademarks.
Freedom We make extra efforts to use only free software on our own servers, and to support open and patent-free media formats that are viewable and editable with free software.
Question: This was the subject of some debate last week, also on this mailing list. Are we committed "exclusively" to open and patent-free media formats that are viewable and editable with free software?
Transparency We must communicate Wikimedia Foundation information in a transparent, thorough and timely manner, to our communities and more generally, to the public.
Independance As a non-profit, we mostly depend on gifts to operate (donations, grants, sponsorship etc...). It is very important to us to ensure our organization stays free of influence in the way it operates. For this reason, we strictly follow a donation policy, reserve the right to refuse donations from a limited number of sources, and try to multiply the number of sources.
Question: As a charitable organization, it is easy to become dependent on the largesse of major donors, who could hold considerable sway over day-to-day operations. The answer is either to find an independent revenue stream or to create an endowment to ensure that basic costs are covered in perpetuity. Frankly, I am biased. I believe that "Independence" is the most important of these values--without it we will not be able to withstand challenges to all the other values. As such, what steps are being taken to ensure the Foundation's financial independence?
I believe in the values as you expressed them, and I am confident that the Board will vote unanimously in support of them. I am just curious about some of the practical implications, and eager to hear your thoughts on them.
Danny
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