Hi Phoebe,
You're right about the overlap -- there isn't a sharp clear line between the two
roles, which I may live to regret :-)
But basically, blur is unavoidable in our context. When I worked in an organization that
was very large and very stable, the right way to approach hiring was (frankly) to be quite
rigid about roles-and-responsibilities. You needed to be, because the organization was so
complex, and needed to operate at scale -- so clarity mattered, a lot.
The Wikimedia Foundation, by contrast, is young and growing, and what we require most
strongly is intellectual curiosity and flexibility. We know that
roles-and-responsibilities will change over time -- they'll have to, we are evolving.
And so in that context you want to hire people who are smart and adaptable and comfortable
with ambiguity.
So yes, there's quite a bit of blur. But I think both Zack and Barry are game for
that, and I think they will each bring real value in quite different ways. And we'll
evolve the roles as we go :-)
Thanks,
Sue
------Original Message------
From: phoebe ayers
Sender: foundation-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
To: foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
ReplyTo: foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Fwd: Announcing new Chief Global DevelopmentOfficer and new
Chief Community Officer
Sent: 2 Jun 2010 10:40 PM
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sue Gardner <sgardner(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: 2 June 2010 19:08
Subject: Announcing new Chief Global Development Officer and new Chief
Community Officer
To: WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Hi folks,
I am really happy to announce two important new Wikimedia Foundation
hires. Zack Exley will be Wikimedia's new Chief Community Officer,
and Barry Newstead will be our Chief Global Development Officer. Both
will start just before Wikimania, and will join us in Gdansk.
Congratulations to both Zack and Barry! Exciting indeed. I realize
these roles will be formed as they are taken on, but it seems that
there is quite a bit of (intentional?) overlap. I am curious how you
see that working... both roles seem to involve supporting & growing
the communit(ies), perhaps in new ways. There are lots of questions
that I have regarding these job descriptions too -- what does
supporting the chapters mean? What does supporting the reader
community mean? And so on :)
Also as I'm sure you're aware it's definitely time to update
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:Org_Chart_Without_Names.png !
(from [[wmf:staff]]
-- Phoebe
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