The community has heard a lot from the WMF about courage, honesty,
integrity and leadership – and rather too much of the latter of late: let's
remember that the Wikimedia Foundation's values[1] speak of *community-led*
projects.
---o0o---
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.
---o0o---
Instead of peacock statements about courage, integrity etc., it would make
a nice change to hear about competence and ability from the WMF, and to see
*that* demonstrated, along with a readiness to listen and serve rather than
*lead*.
[1]
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Values
On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 2:02 AM, Nathan <nawrich(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello and welcome, Damon.
One thing I've long appreciated about the Wikimedia movement is that it is
not political, and indeed the flagship project is explicitly neutral. This
distinction has become a little more nuanced as the movement has taken
political positions that are congruent with the overall mission, but I
think it remains the case that Wikimedians have been able to avoid
entanglements with general political issues. This has been especially the
case with most deeply controversial and current political debates.
So while I agree with your sentiment, that leaders must model values such
as courage and integrity, I think it would have been better expressed
without the ringing endorsement of Che Guevara. As you say, we should
choose our words carefully and ensure that our language is positive and
inclusive. This is obviously an area where we can all make progress.
~Nathan
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