Welcome Esra’a!
And thank you Cristian for remming us all, about one of the (non-written :-) core values
of Wikimedia. From the very beginning of the movement the idea that people can participate
anonymously and that we respect privacy has been important. Lets keep it this way.
- Teemu
On 2 Dec 2017, at 6.31, Cristian Consonni
<cristian(a)balist.es> wrote:
On 01/12/2017 23:22, Michael Peel wrote:
Thank you, Esra’a, for volunteering!
Welcome,Esra'a!
However, I’m very concerned by this:
"P.S. Due to the nature of Esra’a’s work, sharing photos or videos of Esra’a may
endanger her safety or the safety of others. To help ensure the privacy and safety of
Esra’a and her colleagues, we are not sharing any photographs or videos of Esra'a. We
ask that you please join us in supporting this important safety consideration.”
This is security by obscurity (
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q133735) - which is at best
a temporary measure that won’t last, particularly in a high-profile position like this.
Aside from the potential media coverage, Wikimedia events are very well photographed by
Wikimedians who want to illustrate a rather well-read encyclopaedia… This leads to an
awkward situation where someone’s safety and Wikimedia’s openness are conflicting, which
is not OK.
Sorry, but I have to disagree, Mike.
Openness - as generally understood in Wikimedia - does not conflict with
respecting someone's privacy, much less so with not endangering their
safety. I believe that respecting the privacy and anonymity of our
editors (and readers, as well) is a value of Wikimedia.
Furthermore, I feel that Wikimedians value very highly their privacy and
anonimity, in fact, there are several Wikipedians with whom I have
edited pages for years now, and I still have no idea of their real
names, their age, their gender or where they live. All I know is their
nicknames on the projects and it's perfectly fine like that. There are
several rules that the communities have adopted to protect the privacy
and anonymity of every user.
Even at in-person events, there are usually ways to signal the fact that
one does not want to be photographed or have photos or recordings of
him/her, put online. You can also wear a badge with just your nickname
and not your real name, so that's not new even for our live events.
I agree with the idea that occupying a high-profile position and trying
to limit one's own exposure are conflicting goals, but I am sure that
this was very carefully.
So, I understand that this may seem different from the usual, but,
actually, it is not.
Ciao,
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