Hi Pete and Gerard-
I just wanted to give my thoughts on restricted gifts. Like most things,
there are both good and bad restricted gifts. They can be bad if a funder
is making a well-intentioned gift that none-the-less pulls the organization
in direction that they were not planning to go. Or even worse, when a
funder pays for something outside of an org's plans that has ongoing
maintenance cost that are not covered in the grant.
This is why the WMF board reviews all restricted grants per our gift policy
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Gift_policy>. Those are the types of
dynamics that the board considers when they review a restricted grant.
Structured Data on Commons was in our product roadmap, so this grant is not
diverting our attention. The grant simply enables us to accelerate the
work we were planning to do. In terms of restrictions, we have to follow
through with the plan we submitted. In other words, do what we said we are
going to do. I think that accountability is a good thing. And the Sloan
Foundation is a great long-term funder of WMF. If something changes as the
work progress, I have no doubt we could have a reasonable conversation with
them about adjusting the plan.
Best,
Lisa
On Mon, Jan 9, 2017 at 1:03 PM, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Hoi,
Maybe restricted but the subject matter is exactly what we want anyway.
Where I have my reservations is that Wikidata will be set in stone and
stuff that just is not right will be with us for forever. With more money
it does not need to be a huge problem because it makes it more manageable.
Thanks,
GerardM
On 9 January 2017 at 21:52, Pete Forsyth <peteforsyth(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Structured data on Commons is a huge and
important area -- for one thing,
the whole Media Viewer project would have gone much more smoothly if
there
were underlying structured data to rely on. Kudos
to WMF and Sloan for
the
focus on this issue!
If I'm not mistaken, this is by far the most extravagant restricted grant
in the history of the WMF. I believe the Stanton Foundation's usability
grant ($890k in 2008)[1] and Public Policy Initiative grant ($1.2 million
in 2010)[2] are the only ones that comes close. In the past, WMF board
members have expressed great skepticism about -- specifically -- the
Sloan
Foundation's influence, when it sought to
place an observer in WMF board
meetings. A former WMF Executive Director has written at length about the
dangers of restricted grants.
It appears there is a new theory in play around restricted grants. Will
somebody be expressing it publicly? Will the past practice of publishing
the details of the grant expectations be followed?[3]
-Pete
--
[[User:Peteforsyth]]
[1]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/12/03/improved-usability-
in-our-future/
[2]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/May_
2010_Wikimedia_Foundation_will_engage_academic_experts_
and_students_to_improve_public_policy_information
[3]
https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Public_Policy_
Initiative_project_details
On Mon, Jan 9, 2017 at 11:48 AM, Wes Moran <wmoran(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hello Wikimedia community,
>
> It’s our delight to inform you that we received a US$3,015,000 grant
from
the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_P._Sloan_Foundation> [1] to
expedite
development of structured data on Commons. The
grant will be given over
the
course of three years, and will allow us to
develop a team, in
collaboration with the Wikidata team at Wikimedia Deutschland, that can
focus on integrating the structured data features of Wikidata into
describing the media files on Commons.
This work will allow us to expedite features both on the Wikidata
development roadmap, and in other products supported by the Wikimedia
Foundation. The grant also provides funding to ensure that movement
stakeholders, like Wiki Loves Monuments and GLAM-Wiki program leaders,
and
external partners who contribute heavily to
Commons, such as GLAMs, can
be
involved in the development.
We have drafted a high level overview of the grant and its scope,
available
> on Commons
> <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Structured_
data/Sloan_Grant>
> [2]. A blog post about the grant is also
available on the Wikimedia
blog
>
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/01/09/sloan-foundation-
structured-data>
> [3].
>
> We are currently in the process of identifying the technical lead for
the
> project. If you have questions, Alex
Stinson, the Foundation’s
GLAM-Wiki
strategist, will be leading the community engagement and communications
for
> the project until we hire a community liaison as part of the grant.
Stay
tuned for
more details about the project in the coming months.
We’re excited to be able to support this project, and look forward to
your
participation in its development.
Thank you,
Wes Moran and Maggie Dennis
*Wes Moran, Vice President of Product*
*Maggie Dennis, Interim Chief of Community Engagement *
*Wikimedia Foundation*
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_P._Sloan_Foundation
[2]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Structured_data/ Sloan_Grant
structured-data
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