Hi everyone,
As is customary, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met right before Wikimania and appointed new trustees and elected its officers.
This is a rare occasion as I will not need to write a farewell email. The two Board members that were finishing their terms, María and Dariusz, were re-elected after the recent community election. And as of today, James Heilman has formally rejoined the Board of Trustees.
Today the Board also elected the officer positions. I am pleased to report that the Board has reiterated its trust in the current officers, and both María and I will continue serving as Vice Chair and Chair of the Board, respectively, for another year.
It feels a little weird to write this email as there's not much change from last year. But I believe that stability and continuity are more than welcome!
So please, join me in "welcoming" María, Dariusz, and James as trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation Board.
María Sefidari began contributing to the Wikimedia projects in 2006 and has since served in several roles across the Wikimedia movement. She was a founding member of Wikimedia España and Wikimujeres Grupo de Usuarias, and she also helped create Spanish Wikipedia's LGBT Wikiproject. She has served on several Foundation governance committees, including the Affiliations and Individual Engagement Grants committees. María is a professor in the Digital Communications, Culture and Citizenship Master's degree program of Rey Juan Carlos University at the MediaLab-Prado in Madrid, Spain. She has previously served on the Board from August 2013 to July 2015, and most recently joined the Board once again in January 2016. She has been selected for a second term which will conclude at Wikimania 2020.
Dariusz Jemielniak has held a variety of roles on Wikimedia projects, including administrator, bureaucrat, checkuser, steward and ombudsman. He served as the chair of the Wikimedia community’s Funds Dissemination Committee for three terms and is the author of “Common knowledge?: An Ethnography of Wikipedia.” Dariusz is a full professor of Management, the head of the Center for Research on Organizations and Workplaces, and a co-founder of the New Research on Digital Societies (NeRDS) group at Kozminski University. Dariusz has been re-appointed for a second term as a Trustee after first joining the Board in July 2015.
James Heilman, M.D., has helped to found both Wikimedia Canada and WikiProject Med Foundation. As an emergency physician in Cranbrook, British Columbia, and a faculty member of emergency medicine at the University of British Columbia, James is an active member of the medical community on Wikimedia projects. James has also been involved in establishing collaborations with several organizations, including Translators Without Borders and the World Health Organization, to improve Wikimedia’s coverage of medical content. James previously served on the Board of Trustees from July to December 2015.
Christophe Henner has been a leader within the Wikimedia community for more than 12 years. Prior to joining the Foundation Board in 2016, he served as Board Chair of Wikimedia France, and had been a member of the chapter’s Board since 2007. During this time, he spent nearly three years in Vice Chair and Chair positions. Christophe is currently the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Blade Group, a cloud computing company headquartered in France. At Blade, Christophe is scaling up operations to support the company's transition from a start-up to a global company.
Thanks for the update, Christophe. Wishing the board a productive, fruitful and smooth year!
And Happy Wikimania, everyone, especially to all the Wikimedians who couldn't make it this year. So great that we have live-streaming this year (thanks again, Melody & Eddie!) and can participate and support from all ends of the world.
Best, Shani.
On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 6:16 PM, Christophe Henner chenner@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi everyone,
As is customary, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met right before Wikimania and appointed new trustees and elected its officers.
This is a rare occasion as I will not need to write a farewell email. The two Board members that were finishing their terms, María and Dariusz, were re-elected after the recent community election. And as of today, James Heilman has formally rejoined the Board of Trustees.
Today the Board also elected the officer positions. I am pleased to report that the Board has reiterated its trust in the current officers, and both María and I will continue serving as Vice Chair and Chair of the Board, respectively, for another year.
It feels a little weird to write this email as there's not much change from last year. But I believe that stability and continuity are more than welcome!
So please, join me in "welcoming" María, Dariusz, and James as trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation Board.
María Sefidari began contributing to the Wikimedia projects in 2006 and has since served in several roles across the Wikimedia movement. She was a founding member of Wikimedia España and Wikimujeres Grupo de Usuarias, and she also helped create Spanish Wikipedia's LGBT Wikiproject. She has served on several Foundation governance committees, including the Affiliations and Individual Engagement Grants committees. María is a professor in the Digital Communications, Culture and Citizenship Master's degree program of Rey Juan Carlos University at the MediaLab-Prado in Madrid, Spain. She has previously served on the Board from August 2013 to July 2015, and most recently joined the Board once again in January 2016. She has been selected for a second term which will conclude at Wikimania 2020.
Dariusz Jemielniak has held a variety of roles on Wikimedia projects, including administrator, bureaucrat, checkuser, steward and ombudsman. He served as the chair of the Wikimedia community’s Funds Dissemination Committee for three terms and is the author of “Common knowledge?: An Ethnography of Wikipedia.” Dariusz is a full professor of Management, the head of the Center for Research on Organizations and Workplaces, and a co-founder of the New Research on Digital Societies (NeRDS) group at Kozminski University. Dariusz has been re-appointed for a second term as a Trustee after first joining the Board in July 2015.
James Heilman, M.D., has helped to found both Wikimedia Canada and WikiProject Med Foundation. As an emergency physician in Cranbrook, British Columbia, and a faculty member of emergency medicine at the University of British Columbia, James is an active member of the medical community on Wikimedia projects. James has also been involved in establishing collaborations with several organizations, including Translators Without Borders and the World Health Organization, to improve Wikimedia’s coverage of medical content. James previously served on the Board of Trustees from July to December 2015.
Christophe Henner has been a leader within the Wikimedia community for more than 12 years. Prior to joining the Foundation Board in 2016, he served as Board Chair of Wikimedia France, and had been a member of the chapter’s Board since 2007. During this time, he spent nearly three years in Vice Chair and Chair positions. Christophe is currently the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Blade Group, a cloud computing company headquartered in France. At Blade, Christophe is scaling up operations to support the company's transition from a start-up to a global company. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Congrats to all re-elected!
JP
On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 11:30 AM Shani Evenstein shani.even@gmail.com wrote:
Thanks for the update, Christophe. Wishing the board a productive, fruitful and smooth year!
And Happy Wikimania, everyone, especially to all the Wikimedians who couldn't make it this year. So great that we have live-streaming this year (thanks again, Melody & Eddie!) and can participate and support from all ends of the world.
Best, Shani.
On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 6:16 PM, Christophe Henner chenner@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi everyone,
As is customary, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met right before Wikimania and appointed new trustees and elected its officers.
This is a rare occasion as I will not need to write a farewell email. The two Board members that were finishing their terms, María and Dariusz,
were
re-elected after the recent community election. And as of today, James Heilman has formally rejoined the Board of Trustees.
Today the Board also elected the officer positions. I am pleased to
report
that the Board has reiterated its trust in the current officers, and both María and I will continue serving as Vice Chair and Chair of the Board, respectively, for another year.
It feels a little weird to write this email as there's not much change
from
last year. But I believe that stability and continuity are more than welcome!
So please, join me in "welcoming" María, Dariusz, and James as trustees
of
the Wikimedia Foundation Board.
María Sefidari began contributing to the Wikimedia projects in 2006 and
has
since served in several roles across the Wikimedia movement. She was a founding member of Wikimedia España and Wikimujeres Grupo de Usuarias,
and
she also helped create Spanish Wikipedia's LGBT Wikiproject. She has
served
on several Foundation governance committees, including the Affiliations
and
Individual Engagement Grants committees. María is a professor in the Digital Communications, Culture and Citizenship Master's degree program
of
Rey Juan Carlos University at the MediaLab-Prado in Madrid, Spain. She
has
previously served on the Board from August 2013 to July 2015, and most recently joined the Board once again in January 2016. She has been
selected
for a second term which will conclude at Wikimania 2020.
Dariusz Jemielniak has held a variety of roles on Wikimedia projects, including administrator, bureaucrat, checkuser, steward and ombudsman. He served as the chair of the Wikimedia community’s Funds Dissemination Committee for three terms and is the author of “Common knowledge?: An Ethnography of Wikipedia.” Dariusz is a full professor of Management, the head of the Center for Research on Organizations and Workplaces, and a co-founder of the New Research on Digital Societies (NeRDS) group at Kozminski University. Dariusz has been re-appointed for a second term as
a
Trustee after first joining the Board in July 2015.
James Heilman, M.D., has helped to found both Wikimedia Canada and WikiProject Med Foundation. As an emergency physician in Cranbrook,
British
Columbia, and a faculty member of emergency medicine at the University of British Columbia, James is an active member of the medical community on Wikimedia projects. James has also been involved in establishing collaborations with several organizations, including Translators Without Borders and the World Health Organization, to improve Wikimedia’s
coverage
of medical content. James previously served on the Board of Trustees from July to December 2015.
Christophe Henner has been a leader within the Wikimedia community for
more
than 12 years. Prior to joining the Foundation Board in 2016, he served
as
Board Chair of Wikimedia France, and had been a member of the chapter’s Board since 2007. During this time, he spent nearly three years in Vice Chair and Chair positions. Christophe is currently the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Blade Group, a cloud computing company headquartered in France. At Blade, Christophe is scaling up operations to support the company's transition from a start-up to a global company. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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On 11 August 2017 at 16:16, Christophe Henner chenner@wikimedia.org wrote:
As is customary, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met right before Wikimania and appointed new trustees and elected its officers.
Yes; the board /appointed/ new trustees...
María and Dariusz, were re-elected after the recent community election.
This is not correct. There was no "community election"; the community is only empowered to /nominate/ candidates, which the board may or may not appoint, at its whim.
Please be more careful to use accurate terms on such points, in the future.
[The above not withstanding, congratulations to new - and returning - trustees and officers; and thank you for your service to them and those departing]
** Personal views follow **
On 22/08/2017 20:10, Andy Mabbett wrote:
María and Dariusz, were re-elected after the recent community election.
This is not correct. There was no "community election"; the community is only empowered to /nominate/ candidates, which the board may or may not appoint, at its whim.
Please be more careful to use accurate terms on such points, in the future.
Multiple people put themselves forward for the community considerations. The community then voted on it, resulting in a ranking by who got most votes based on the voting system used. By definition, that's an election. The electoral consisted of members of the Wikimedia community. Ergo, there was a community election.
That the winning candidates does not automatically become a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees as a result due (at least partly) to legal reasons does not make it any less of an election.
"A vote by the Wikimedia community for X numbers of winners to be considered by the WMF BoT for appointment as its members" is still an election.
Regards,
Katie
"On 22 August 2017 at 23:07, Katie Chan ktc@ktchan.info wrote:
On 22/08/2017 20:10, Andy Mabbett wrote:
María and Dariusz, were re-elected after the recent community election.
This is not correct. There was no "community election"; the community is only empowered to /nominate/ candidates, which the board may or may not appoint, at its whim.
Please be more careful to use accurate terms on such points, in the future.
Multiple people put themselves forward for the community considerations. The community then voted on it, resulting in a ranking by who got most votes based on the voting system used. By definition, that's an election.
By definition, no, it is not. "An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office." In this case the choice of who holds office is made by the board, not the community who "vote". At best it's a nomination process.
On 23/08/2017 00:33, Andy Mabbett wrote:
By definition, no, it is not. "An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office." In this case the choice of who holds office is made by the board, not the community who "vote". At best it's a nomination process.
Let's go with the broader definition from (en) Wiktionary - "A process of choosing ... or other representatives by popular vote.", or even beyond the first sentence from en Wikipedia - "To elect means "to choose or make a decision", and so sometimes other forms of ballot such as referendums are referred to as elections, especially in the United States.".
Katie
On 23 August 2017 at 12:32, Katie Chan ktc@ktchan.info wrote:
On 23/08/2017 00:33, Andy Mabbett wrote:
By definition, no, it is not. "An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office." In this case the choice of who holds office is made by the board, not the community who "vote". At best it's a nomination process.
Let's go with the broader definition from (en) Wiktionary - "A process of choosing ... or other representatives by popular vote.", or even beyond the first sentence from en Wikipedia - "To elect means "to choose or make a decision", and so sometimes other forms of ballot such as referendums are referred to as elections, especially in the United States.".
The community does not chose the representatives. It merely makes *non-binding* recommendations.
The choice - as to whether *or not* to accept them - rests entirely with the board.
I think we all know the substance of this topic and have known for quite some time. Everyone may call the procedure whatever suits her/him best.
Regards Thyge - Sir48
2017-08-23 16:32 GMT+02:00 Andy Mabbett andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk:
On 23 August 2017 at 12:32, Katie Chan ktc@ktchan.info wrote:
On 23/08/2017 00:33, Andy Mabbett wrote:
By definition, no, it is not. "An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office." In this case the choice of who holds office is made by the board, not the community who "vote". At best it's a nomination process.
Let's go with the broader definition from (en) Wiktionary - "A process of choosing ... or other representatives by popular vote.", or even beyond
the
first sentence from en Wikipedia - "To elect means "to choose or make a decision", and so sometimes other forms of ballot such as referendums are referred to as elections, especially in the United States.".
The community does not chose the representatives. It merely makes *non-binding* recommendations.
The choice - as to whether *or not* to accept them - rests entirely with the board.
-- Andy Mabbett @pigsonthewing http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
On 23/08/2017 15:32, Andy Mabbett wrote:
On 23 August 2017 at 12:32, Katie Chan ktc@ktchan.info wrote:
Let's go with the broader definition from (en) Wiktionary - "A process of choosing ... or other representatives by popular vote.", or even beyond the first sentence from en Wikipedia - "To elect means "to choose or make a decision", and so sometimes other forms of ballot such as referendums are referred to as elections, especially in the United States.".
The community does not chose the representatives. It merely makes *non-binding* recommendations.
The choice - as to whether *or not* to accept them - rests entirely with the board.
The winners are still the chosen representatives of the community even if the existing board were not to appoint them to the board for whatever reasons or none, there were still an election.
In the 13 years and 10 elections that has taken place, all the winners has been appointed by the way as far as I can tell, why the focus on that one word? Maybe feedback or suggestion to the overall process [1] would be more useful?
Katie
[1]: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2017/Post_mor...
Perhaps we can agree it is, properly, a *nomination by community election* process, and lay this thread to rest. :)
A.
On Wed, Aug 23, 2017 at 8:01 AM Katie Chan ktc@ktchan.info wrote:
On 23/08/2017 15:32, Andy Mabbett wrote:
On 23 August 2017 at 12:32, Katie Chan ktc@ktchan.info wrote:
Let's go with the broader definition from (en) Wiktionary - "A process
of
choosing ... or other representatives by popular vote.", or even beyond
the
first sentence from en Wikipedia - "To elect means "to choose or make a decision", and so sometimes other forms of ballot such as referendums
are
referred to as elections, especially in the United States.".
The community does not chose the representatives. It merely makes *non-binding* recommendations.
The choice - as to whether *or not* to accept them - rests entirely with the board.
The winners are still the chosen representatives of the community even if the existing board were not to appoint them to the board for whatever reasons or none, there were still an election.
In the 13 years and 10 elections that has taken place, all the winners has been appointed by the way as far as I can tell, why the focus on that one word? Maybe feedback or suggestion to the overall process [1] would be more useful?
Katie
[1]:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2017/Post_mor...
-- Katie Chan Any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of any organisation the author is associated with or employed by.
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