the board
has the power to introduce adds without any consultation?
Derrick Farnell
It is a good question.
Probably best to mention right now that the WMF board has not decided to
add advertisements :-)
But, I think the Wikimedia Foundation staff has technically the power to
introduce ads. Then the Wikimedia Foundation board has the power to
request that ads be removed. If the board decides not to remove the ads
placed, the community has the power to elect new members in may, and
then vote the ads to be removed. Or the community can decide to shame so
much the board members that they will resign in disgust and be replaced
by new community members, who can then vote the ads to be removed.
"Power" is a complex notion. It is different if approached from a legal
perspective, from a technical perspective or from an ethical
perspective.
I am against putting advertisements on the articles. This has been my
position since 2002, when I joined the projects. I will never agree to
this.
Now, it may be, this year, or next year perhaps, that we will realize
that in spite of our efforts, only relying on altruistic gifts will not
be sufficient. I do not know if you realize, but our current revenue is
quite significantly below what we will need this year. And in front of
such a situation, we probably have three paths (other paths exist, but
require investments, additional human resources or will take too much
time).
Path 1 is diet. As in "serious diet". Diet will mean that the websites
which have been working very smoothly for the past 18 months or so, will
not work so well. Sluggish, perhaps even down sometimes. A sluggish
site will automatically lose audience, which will lighten the pressure.
Diet will also mean losing some staff. I am not quite sure which one we
can really afford losing right now.
Path 2 is business deals. Such as advertisements. If ads on articles is
too controversial, perhaps a consensus position will be to put ads on
the search pages.
Path 3 is relying on big donors. But big donors have a serious drawback,
which is called "loss of independence". There is no mystery, when a
donor give you 25% of your annual revenue, it is quite expected that
they will try to influence you. Perhaps will it be light, or perhaps
will it be much heavier. Perhaps big thank yous on the website, perhaps
pushing so that the board accepts as its treasurer someone of big donnor
staff, perhaps asking for exclusive use of our trademarks, perhaps
asking that "annoying" board members be removed from the board, perhaps
suggesting certain partnerships rather than others. Loss of independance
would be a terrible thing to happen. Much more dangerous than
advertisement actually, because it may not be reversible at all.
I am not *presenting* you with a *decision* of non-radical transparency.
I am telling you that we can not provide radical transparency anymore.
As for the good old regular transparency, I wish there was more
willingness to provide it.
Ant
The problem is the slippery slope one. It is assumed that if there is
advertising we would go whole hog. A limited program could raise enough
money, but not overdo it. For example, the Foundation could accept
advertising from selected non-profits and charities.
Fred