It is probably best for me not to get into a long count/counterpoint here but I couldn't avoid not responding at all.
As Ori hinted at I hope that everyone can reflect on the idea of causation vs correlation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation. The fact that good things have happened is not necessarily because of, but despite of, current leadership. There is no doubt that there have been a lot of good things to occur in the past while but those are, very frequently, because people have been freed up some to do what they want. A lack of direction or clear strategy can, in fact, have good side effects if you have amazing people on board because they're able to make decisions they've wanted to make for a while. However at the same time it can drive them insane as they strive to keep it on that track and to avoid the taking crazy routes or stop leadership from making decisions they feel would disrupt the projects and the movement too much or go against our morals.
We have a lot of great new hires but much of that was driven by the good people who already existed since it's the older ones who got into more management type roles either officially or unofficially). Even at the executive level it's telling that the 3 most long standing and solid C-levels we have are all pre-lila appointees: Katherine (just before Lila but still before), Lisa and Geoff. Our cycle of c-level replacements since then have been both hires and departures (with, unfortunately, less hires then departures still) including multiple short term hires (in roles that are traditionally very long term).
I am not going to pretend I agreed with Sue at all times, or that every decision she made was right however I at least felt like I knew what they were (In fact I strongly disliked her strategy believing it bad for the org and the movement, but again, I felt I knew what it was/understood it). However I am also not going to accept the idea that Lila has made this place so much better. As someone who saw them happen internally I don't think her finger prints are really on any of the things you mention, they were all 'despite' not 'because' of her and so much more could have been done and wanted to be done. Slight exception possibly for the FDC bit but that happened after all of this started exploding internally in the past couple months and so she knew that she had no trust left internally and all of the staff close to it basically said "we can not defend you on this if you don't go the FDC" so I still don't really see it as a proactive choice on her front.
James [[User:Jamesofur]]/[[User:Jalexander-WMF]]
Personal capacity, as signaled by my email address, but since some complain I don't make it clear my role in WMF when I send this type of email: I am also the Manager of Trust & Safety
On Sat, Feb 20, 2016 at 3:18 PM, Anthony Cole ahcoleecu@gmail.com wrote:
I know.
Anthony Cole
On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 7:17 AM, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
On Sat, Feb 20, 2016 at 2:56 PM, Anthony Cole ahcoleecu@gmail.com
wrote:
- The Community Resources Team is in place - it surveyed the community
and
discussed with them their technical priorities, and tailored their Idea
Lab
Campaign accordingly.
FYI, the head of that team is one of those who resigned last week:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-February/081809.html
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