OMG. I've just committed a rightclickcide.

Vito

Il giorno gio 13 gen 2022 alle ore 06:07 Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org ha scritto:

To make sure, is this the same guy?

https://twitter.com/luisatlive

-- brion

On Wed, Jan 12, 2022, 9:20 AM Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Dear All,

Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in November 2021 [1].

Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin American-based startups.

Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development, software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials manage and automate their finances.

His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors. Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico.

Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a proud father and dog lover.

I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or shared their experiences.

You can find an official announcement here [2].

PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janua...

[1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%9...

[2] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedia...

Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!*

---

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Dear Dan,

Thank you for the feedback!

The search for a trustee with an expertise in product and technology began a few months ago. One of the problems we identified was that the Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not staying for a long period of time, and then there was also a CPO (Chief Product Officer) transition. It was also important that the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.

The other critical factor was diversity – the search was prioritizing candidates with experience outside of Silicon Valley, in non-English speaking countries, preferably from the Global South.

And, of course, we also needed a commitment to spend enough time on the Board work – to be engaged and present. For example, Luis met online and offline with Wikimedia volunteers from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities, he is eager to help us with his knowledge and experience. Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things Luis brings to the table, the needed expertise, diversity and commitment.

I personally am not particularly fond of cryptocurrencies, even though I appreciate blockchain as a technology, and support e.g. decentralized science (https://decentralized.science/). We as a movement have not had a uniform stand on this, and I’m not sure if we should, though.

Best regards, Dariusz (chair of the BGC)

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 1:40 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) djgwiki@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks for the update, Nataliia. Knowledge and expertise in product and technology is a skill set that has been lacking on the Board, and it's great to see the Board addressing this by co-opting product and technology leaders. Luis's experience, such as his time at reddit, will likely be very applicable to our movement.

However, I'm surprised that the Board chose to co-opt someone who seems to have such a public focus on technology like blockchains and cryptocurrency, and that this focus of his was omitted from this announcement.

It would be helpful if we could hear from Luis how he intends to use his knowledge and expertise to contribute to the movement as a Board member, and to what extent he considers blockchain and cryptocurrency to factor into that.

Thanks, Dan

On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 at 17:20, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Dear All,

Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in November 2021 [1].

Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin American-based startups.

Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development, software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials manage and automate their finances.

His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors. Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico.

Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a proud father and dog lover.

I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or shared their experiences.

You can find an official announcement here [2].

PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janua...

[1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%9...

[2] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedia...

Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!*

---

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Crypto + NFTs + {tech startup + disrupt + housing market} sounds like *just* the kind of person WMF needs on its board!

Luis Bitencourt-Emilio might be a great person, and just who we need on the Board right now, but the optics seem terrible. Maybe I've been spending too much time in the wrong parts of the internet, but this collection of attributes seems like a cherry-picked collection of what's wrong with the world.

Ian

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 10:05 AM GorillaWarfare < gorillawarfarewikipedia@gmail.com> wrote:

Thank you for the further details, Dariusz. What is his experience with free software or open knowledge communities such as ours?

I would also love to hear from him directly to know more about whether he feels cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and such technologies have a place in the Wikimedia mission. Do you know if he plans to join the conversation?

Sincerely, Molly White (User:GorillaWarfare) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:GorillaWarfare she/her

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 8:41 AM Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@kozminski.edu.pl wrote:

...

Dear Dan,

Thank you for the feedback!

The search for a trustee with an expertise in product and technology began a few months ago. One of the problems we identified was that the Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not staying for a long period of time, and then there was also a CPO (Chief Product Officer) transition. It was also important that the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.

The other critical factor was diversity – the search was prioritizing candidates with experience outside of Silicon Valley, in non-English speaking countries, preferably from the Global South.

And, of course, we also needed a commitment to spend enough time on the Board work – to be engaged and present. For example, Luis met online and offline with Wikimedia volunteers from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities, he is eager to help us with his knowledge and experience. Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things Luis brings to the table, the needed expertise, diversity and commitment.

I personally am not particularly fond of cryptocurrencies, even though I appreciate blockchain as a technology, and support e.g. decentralized science (https://decentralized.science/). We as a movement have not had a uniform stand on this, and I’m not sure if we should, though.

Best regards, Dariusz (chair of the BGC)

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 1:40 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) djgwiki@gmail.com wrote:

...

Thanks for the update, Nataliia. Knowledge and expertise in product and technology is a skill set that has been lacking on the Board, and it's great to see the Board addressing this by co-opting product and technology leaders. Luis's experience, such as his time at reddit, will likely be very applicable to our movement.

However, I'm surprised that the Board chose to co-opt someone who seems to have such a public focus on technology like blockchains and cryptocurrency, and that this focus of his was omitted from this announcement.

It would be helpful if we could hear from Luis how he intends to use his knowledge and expertise to contribute to the movement as a Board member, and to what extent he considers blockchain and cryptocurrency to factor into that.

Thanks, Dan

On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 at 17:20, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Dear All,

Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in November 2021 [1].

Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin American-based startups.

Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development, software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials manage and automate their finances.

His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors. Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico.

Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a proud father and dog lover.

I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or shared their experiences.

You can find an official announcement here [2].

PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janua...

[1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%9...

[2] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedia...

Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!*

---

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​​

prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak kierownik katedry MINDS https://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/, Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego

członek korespondent Polskiej Akademii Nauk https://pan.pl/

faculty associate Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society https://cyber.harvard.edu/, Harvard University Ważniejsze książki: Collaborative Society https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/collaborative-society (2020, MIT Press, z A. Przegalińską), Thick Big Data https://global.oup.com/academic/product/thick-big-data-9780198839705?cc=gb&lang=en (2020, Oxford University Press), Common Knowledge? https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24010 (2014, Stanford University Press) *Ostatnie artykuły:*

• Jędrzej Chrzanowski, Julia Sołek, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech

Fendler (2021) Assessing Public Interest Based on Wikipedia’s Most Visited Medical Articles During the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26331/, *Journal of Medical Internet Research*, 23(4)::e26331

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech Pędzich

(2021) Intercessory Rote Prayer, Life Longevity and the Mortality of Roman Catholic Bishops: An Exploratory Study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10943-021-01214-9, *Journal of Religion and Health*, doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01214-9

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Maciej Wilamowski

(2021) Psychology and Wikipedia: Measuring Psychology Journals’ Impact by Wikipedia Citations http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Psychology-and-Wikipedia-measuring-psychology-journals-impact-by-Wikipedia-citations.pdf , *Social Science Computer Review, *doi.org/10.1177/0894439321993836

• Agata Stasik, Dariusz Jemielniak (2021) Public involvement in risk

governance in the internet era: impact of new rules of building trust and credibility http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Public-involvement-in-risk-governance-in-the-internet-era-impact-of-new-rules-of-building-trust-and-credibility.pdf, Journal of Risk Research, doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1864008

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On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 7:40 AM Guettarda guettarda@gmail.com wrote:

Crypto + NFTs + {tech startup + disrupt + housing market} sounds like *just* the kind of person WMF needs on its board!

Luis Bitencourt-Emilio might be a great person, and just who we need on the Board right now, but the optics seem terrible. Maybe I've been spending too much time in the wrong parts of the internet, but this collection of attributes seems like a cherry-picked collection of what's wrong with the world.

Ian

This kind of community reaction to a board appointment from the tech sector has happened before with Arnnon Geshuri. We should have looked at that history and treaded more carefully.

The community has always been super skeptical of the tech industry and people associated with it, and we should have been able to anticipate that, and develop a communication plan to show everyone what a new board member’s values and mindset are by having them, like… send an introductory email immediately after their announcement? Otherwise all we have is their twitter. Maryana’s hiring as CEO was a good example of a positive introductory approach that has helped the community assume good faith about her, for instance.

If we are having trouble retaining CTOs and CPOs, the first people for the Board and CEO to ask about why are *not* outside tech execs from venture-backed companies. It’s the tech employees of the Foundation (those past leaders in those roles and their entire reporting chain), community software contributors, other leaders of influential projects like Mozilla that have similar struggles, and potential candidates we liked for leadership roles who declined their offers. If we need advisors with tech skills for our incoming CEO, we have dozens of people (remember our long defunct advisory board? Or perhaps the long-tenured technical staff who have both expertise and Wikimedia values embedded in their bones?)

None of that work to strengthen our tech organization can be done by a single Board member alone and it most certainly doesn’t require giving someone a voting seat on our governing legal body. If we wanted someone so high profile and crunched for time that they need the board seat to justify the time spent on advising us, this guy is not it. You could find a lot of people who—from looking at his LinkedIn—spent two years at Reddit or ran an engineering team at MSFT who would gladly help us without being on the board.

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 10:05 AM GorillaWarfare <

gorillawarfarewikipedia@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Thank you for the further details, Dariusz. What is his experience with free software or open knowledge communities such as ours?

I would also love to hear from him directly to know more about whether he feels cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and such technologies have a place in the Wikimedia mission. Do you know if he plans to join the conversation?

Sincerely, Molly White (User:GorillaWarfare) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:GorillaWarfare she/her

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 8:41 AM Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@kozminski.edu.pl wrote:

...

Dear Dan,

Thank you for the feedback!

The search for a trustee with an expertise in product and technology began a few months ago. One of the problems we identified was that the Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not staying for a long period of time, and then there was also a CPO (Chief Product Officer) transition. It was also important that the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.

The other critical factor was diversity – the search was prioritizing candidates with experience outside of Silicon Valley, in non-English speaking countries, preferably from the Global South.

And, of course, we also needed a commitment to spend enough time on the Board work – to be engaged and present. For example, Luis met online and offline with Wikimedia volunteers from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities, he is eager to help us with his knowledge and experience. Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things Luis brings to the table, the needed expertise, diversity and commitment.

I personally am not particularly fond of cryptocurrencies, even though I appreciate blockchain as a technology, and support e.g. decentralized science (https://decentralized.science/). We as a movement have not had a uniform stand on this, and I’m not sure if we should, though.

Best regards, Dariusz (chair of the BGC)

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 1:40 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) djgwiki@gmail.com wrote:

...

Thanks for the update, Nataliia. Knowledge and expertise in product and technology is a skill set that has been lacking on the Board, and it's great to see the Board addressing this by co-opting product and technology leaders. Luis's experience, such as his time at reddit, will likely be very applicable to our movement.

However, I'm surprised that the Board chose to co-opt someone who seems to have such a public focus on technology like blockchains and cryptocurrency, and that this focus of his was omitted from this announcement.

It would be helpful if we could hear from Luis how he intends to use his knowledge and expertise to contribute to the movement as a Board member, and to what extent he considers blockchain and cryptocurrency to factor into that.

Thanks, Dan

On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 at 17:20, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Dear All,

Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in November 2021 [1].

Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin American-based startups.

Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development, software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials manage and automate their finances.

His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors. Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico.

Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a proud father and dog lover.

I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or shared their experiences.

You can find an official announcement here [2].

PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janua...

[1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%9...

[2] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedia...

Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!*

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​​

prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak kierownik katedry MINDS https://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/, Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego

członek korespondent Polskiej Akademii Nauk https://pan.pl/

faculty associate Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society https://cyber.harvard.edu/, Harvard University Ważniejsze książki: Collaborative Society https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/collaborative-society (2020, MIT Press, z A. Przegalińską), Thick Big Data https://global.oup.com/academic/product/thick-big-data-9780198839705?cc=gb&lang=en (2020, Oxford University Press), Common Knowledge? https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24010 (2014, Stanford University Press) *Ostatnie artykuły:*

• Jędrzej Chrzanowski, Julia Sołek, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech

Fendler (2021) Assessing Public Interest Based on Wikipedia’s Most Visited Medical Articles During the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26331/, *Journal of Medical Internet Research*, 23(4)::e26331

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech Pędzich

(2021) Intercessory Rote Prayer, Life Longevity and the Mortality of Roman Catholic Bishops: An Exploratory Study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10943-021-01214-9, *Journal of Religion and Health*, doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01214-9

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Maciej

Wilamowski (2021) Psychology and Wikipedia: Measuring Psychology Journals’ Impact by Wikipedia Citations http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Psychology-and-Wikipedia-measuring-psychology-journals-impact-by-Wikipedia-citations.pdf , *Social Science Computer Review, *doi.org/10.1177/0894439321993836

• Agata Stasik, Dariusz Jemielniak (2021) Public involvement in risk

governance in the internet era: impact of new rules of building trust and credibility http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Public-involvement-in-risk-governance-in-the-internet-era-impact-of-new-rules-of-building-trust-and-credibility.pdf, Journal of Risk Research, doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1864008

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On Thu, 13 Jan 2022 at 13:41, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@kozminski.edu.pl wrote:

even though I appreciate blockchain as a technology,

This is a common buzzword phrase. What *in particular* do you appreciate about them, that someone who knows what they are and how they work but isn't a fan would find a credible claim?

Dariusz, Chair of the BGC: "Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things..."

This is so wrong it's painful to read. The fundamental job of the Governance Committee is to ensure that appointed trustees do not come with the potential to cause harm to the Wikimedia 'brand' and the community.

A WMF trustee that promotes Bitcoin and NFTs? Compare with the WMF statement "We at the Wikimedia Foundation strive to ensure that our work and mission support a sustainable world" - now in the bin as it lacks any credibility from here on, as the governance committee and therefore the board of trustees does not believe in these values. This is not a successful appointment, Luis Bitencourt-Emilio is not welcome as they are a controversial and damaging addition to the board.

Ref: https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/09/19/how-the-wikimedia-foundation...

On Thu, 13 Jan 2022 at 13:40, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@kozminski.edu.pl wrote:

Dear Dan,

Thank you for the feedback!

The search for a trustee with an expertise in product and technology began a few months ago. One of the problems we identified was that the Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not staying for a long period of time, and then there was also a CPO (Chief Product Officer) transition. It was also important that the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.

The other critical factor was diversity – the search was prioritizing candidates with experience outside of Silicon Valley, in non-English speaking countries, preferably from the Global South.

And, of course, we also needed a commitment to spend enough time on the Board work – to be engaged and present. For example, Luis met online and offline with Wikimedia volunteers from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities, he is eager to help us with his knowledge and experience. Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things Luis brings to the table, the needed expertise, diversity and commitment.

I personally am not particularly fond of cryptocurrencies, even though I appreciate blockchain as a technology, and support e.g. decentralized science (https://decentralized.science/). We as a movement have not had a uniform stand on this, and I’m not sure if we should, though.

Best regards, Dariusz (chair of the BGC)

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 1:40 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) djgwiki@gmail.com wrote:

...

Thanks for the update, Nataliia. Knowledge and expertise in product and technology is a skill set that has been lacking on the Board, and it's great to see the Board addressing this by co-opting product and technology leaders. Luis's experience, such as his time at reddit, will likely be very applicable to our movement.

However, I'm surprised that the Board chose to co-opt someone who seems to have such a public focus on technology like blockchains and cryptocurrency, and that this focus of his was omitted from this announcement.

It would be helpful if we could hear from Luis how he intends to use his knowledge and expertise to contribute to the movement as a Board member, and to what extent he considers blockchain and cryptocurrency to factor into that.

Thanks, Dan

On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 at 17:20, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Dear All,

Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in November 2021 [1].

Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin American-based startups.

Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development, software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials manage and automate their finances.

His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors. Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico.

Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a proud father and dog lover.

I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or shared their experiences.

You can find an official announcement here [2].

PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janua...

[1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%9...

[2] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedia...

Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!*

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prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak kierownik katedry MINDS https://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/, Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego

członek korespondent Polskiej Akademii Nauk https://pan.pl/

faculty associate Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society https://cyber.harvard.edu/, Harvard University Ważniejsze książki: Collaborative Society https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/collaborative-society (2020, MIT Press, z A. Przegalińską), Thick Big Data https://global.oup.com/academic/product/thick-big-data-9780198839705?cc=gb&lang=en (2020, Oxford University Press), Common Knowledge? https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24010 (2014, Stanford University Press) *Ostatnie artykuły:*

• Jędrzej Chrzanowski, Julia Sołek, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech

Fendler (2021) Assessing Public Interest Based on Wikipedia’s Most Visited Medical Articles During the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26331/, *Journal of Medical Internet Research*, 23(4)::e26331

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech Pędzich

(2021) Intercessory Rote Prayer, Life Longevity and the Mortality of Roman Catholic Bishops: An Exploratory Study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10943-021-01214-9, *Journal of Religion and Health*, doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01214-9

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Maciej Wilamowski

(2021) Psychology and Wikipedia: Measuring Psychology Journals’ Impact by Wikipedia Citations http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Psychology-and-Wikipedia-measuring-psychology-journals-impact-by-Wikipedia-citations.pdf , *Social Science Computer Review, *doi.org/10.1177/0894439321993836

• Agata Stasik, Dariusz Jemielniak (2021) Public involvement in risk

governance in the internet era: impact of new rules of building trust and credibility http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Public-involvement-in-risk-governance-in-the-internet-era-impact-of-new-rules-of-building-trust-and-credibility.pdf, Journal of Risk Research, doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1864008

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I agree with Yair, here.

I understand this announcement was made at the time a RfC regarding WMF accepting cryptocurrency donations is ongoing.[1]

I think having someone with a sound knowledge of this area on the board would be a net positive in implementing the result of that RfC.

I see the appointment of Luis Bitencourt-Emilio as a good one and I want to thank Luis for accepting to join the board.

Welcome to the board, Luis.

Best regards

Isaac

[1]. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Stop_accepting_cryptocu...

On Thu, 13 Jan 2022, 21:02 Yair Rand, yyairrand@gmail.com wrote:

I'm going to strongly disagree with this.

People are allowed to have outside interests. Being incidentally interested in blockchain tech is not a disqualifying attribute. Having worked in large technology companies is not a disqualifying attribute. Neither of these things should even be counted negatively. If the Board has ascertained that the new trustee fits the relevant needs of expertise, experience, values, and level of commitment, as well as furthering the Board's goals of having a diverse set of backgrounds and competencies, then wonderful. The idea that a trustee's background interest in NFTs (which, if I may remind people, is something the general public has by-and-large never even *heard of*, let alone have strong opinions on) will affect Wikimedia's reputation is, frankly, beyond silly.

Welcome to Wikimedia, Luis Bitencourt-Emilio. Apologies for the less-than-ideal reception.

-- Yair Rand

‫בתאריך יום ה׳, 13 בינו׳ 2022 ב-13:53 מאת ‪Lane Chance‬‏ <‪ zinkloss@gmail.com‬‏>:‬

...

Dariusz, Chair of the BGC: "Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things..."

This is so wrong it's painful to read. The fundamental job of the Governance Committee is to ensure that appointed trustees do not come with the potential to cause harm to the Wikimedia 'brand' and the community.

A WMF trustee that promotes Bitcoin and NFTs? Compare with the WMF statement "We at the Wikimedia Foundation strive to ensure that our work and mission support a sustainable world" - now in the bin as it lacks any credibility from here on, as the governance committee and therefore the board of trustees does not believe in these values. This is not a successful appointment, Luis Bitencourt-Emilio is not welcome as they are a controversial and damaging addition to the board.

Ref: https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/09/19/how-the-wikimedia-foundation...

On Thu, 13 Jan 2022 at 13:40, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@kozminski.edu.pl wrote:

...

Dear Dan,

Thank you for the feedback!

The search for a trustee with an expertise in product and technology began a few months ago. One of the problems we identified was that the Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not staying for a long period of time, and then there was also a CPO (Chief Product Officer) transition. It was also important that the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.

The other critical factor was diversity – the search was prioritizing candidates with experience outside of Silicon Valley, in non-English speaking countries, preferably from the Global South.

And, of course, we also needed a commitment to spend enough time on the Board work – to be engaged and present. For example, Luis met online and offline with Wikimedia volunteers from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities, he is eager to help us with his knowledge and experience. Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things Luis brings to the table, the needed expertise, diversity and commitment.

I personally am not particularly fond of cryptocurrencies, even though I appreciate blockchain as a technology, and support e.g. decentralized science (https://decentralized.science/). We as a movement have not had a uniform stand on this, and I’m not sure if we should, though.

Best regards, Dariusz (chair of the BGC)

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 1:40 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) djgwiki@gmail.com wrote:

...

Thanks for the update, Nataliia. Knowledge and expertise in product and technology is a skill set that has been lacking on the Board, and it's great to see the Board addressing this by co-opting product and technology leaders. Luis's experience, such as his time at reddit, will likely be very applicable to our movement.

However, I'm surprised that the Board chose to co-opt someone who seems to have such a public focus on technology like blockchains and cryptocurrency, and that this focus of his was omitted from this announcement.

It would be helpful if we could hear from Luis how he intends to use his knowledge and expertise to contribute to the movement as a Board member, and to what extent he considers blockchain and cryptocurrency to factor into that.

Thanks, Dan

On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 at 17:20, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Dear All,

Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in November 2021 [1].

Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin American-based startups.

Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development, software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials manage and automate their finances.

His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors. Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico.

Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a proud father and dog lover.

I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or shared their experiences.

You can find an official announcement here [2].

PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janua...

[1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%9...

[2] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedia...

Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!*

---

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prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak kierownik katedry MINDS https://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/, Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego

członek korespondent Polskiej Akademii Nauk https://pan.pl/

faculty associate Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society https://cyber.harvard.edu/, Harvard University Ważniejsze książki: Collaborative Society https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/collaborative-society (2020, MIT Press, z A. Przegalińską), Thick Big Data https://global.oup.com/academic/product/thick-big-data-9780198839705?cc=gb&lang=en (2020, Oxford University Press), Common Knowledge? https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24010 (2014, Stanford University Press) *Ostatnie artykuły:*

• Jędrzej Chrzanowski, Julia Sołek, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech

Fendler (2021) Assessing Public Interest Based on Wikipedia’s Most Visited Medical Articles During the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26331/, *Journal of Medical Internet Research*, 23(4)::e26331

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech Pędzich

(2021) Intercessory Rote Prayer, Life Longevity and the Mortality of Roman Catholic Bishops: An Exploratory Study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10943-021-01214-9, *Journal of Religion and Health*, doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01214-9

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Maciej

Wilamowski (2021) Psychology and Wikipedia: Measuring Psychology Journals’ Impact by Wikipedia Citations http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Psychology-and-Wikipedia-measuring-psychology-journals-impact-by-Wikipedia-citations.pdf , *Social Science Computer Review, *doi.org/10.1177/0894439321993836

• Agata Stasik, Dariusz Jemielniak (2021) Public involvement in risk

governance in the internet era: impact of new rules of building trust and credibility http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Public-involvement-in-risk-governance-in-the-internet-era-impact-of-new-rules-of-building-trust-and-credibility.pdf, Journal of Risk Research, doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1864008

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On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 3:02 PM Yair Rand yyairrand@gmail.com wrote:

I'm going to strongly disagree with this.

People are allowed to have outside interests. Being incidentally interested in blockchain tech is not a disqualifying attribute. Having worked in large technology companies is not a disqualifying attribute. Neither of these things should even be counted negatively.

It's not about outside interests. NFTs and crypto are widely viewed as inherently scammy (and, of course, environmentally destructive). And working for a tech start-up trying to disrupt housing - when the activities of tech companies like Zillow are already seen as making housing even more unaffordable for people - is really bad optics.

Neither of these mean that he's a bad candidate. He might have an amazing background in non-profit governance that he will bring to the Board. He might be someone really dedicated to our mission. The problem is that these details haven't been shared. The diff posting [1] includes some kind platitudes, but that's it.

It may just be a messaging failure. Coming so soon after the kerfuffle with Jimmy's proposed NFT sale, and just after Molly White opened an RFC on crypto, ans coming in the middle of a housing crisis, I find it worrying that the only message seems to be "trust us".

Ian

[1] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedia...

If the Board has ascertained that the new trustee fits the relevant needs of expertise, experience, values, and level of commitment, as well as furthering the Board's goals of having a diverse set of backgrounds and competencies, then wonderful. The idea that a trustee's background interest in NFTs (which, if I may remind people, is something the general public has by-and-large never even *heard of*, let alone have strong opinions on) will affect Wikimedia's reputation is, frankly, beyond silly.

Welcome to Wikimedia, Luis Bitencourt-Emilio. Apologies for the less-than-ideal reception.

-- Yair Rand

‫בתאריך יום ה׳, 13 בינו׳ 2022 ב-13:53 מאת ‪Lane Chance‬‏ <‪ zinkloss@gmail.com‬‏>:‬

...

Dariusz, Chair of the BGC: "Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things..."

This is so wrong it's painful to read. The fundamental job of the Governance Committee is to ensure that appointed trustees do not come with the potential to cause harm to the Wikimedia 'brand' and the community.

A WMF trustee that promotes Bitcoin and NFTs? Compare with the WMF statement "We at the Wikimedia Foundation strive to ensure that our work and mission support a sustainable world" - now in the bin as it lacks any credibility from here on, as the governance committee and therefore the board of trustees does not believe in these values. This is not a successful appointment, Luis Bitencourt-Emilio is not welcome as they are a controversial and damaging addition to the board.

Ref: https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/09/19/how-the-wikimedia-foundation...

On Thu, 13 Jan 2022 at 13:40, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@kozminski.edu.pl wrote:

...

Dear Dan,

Thank you for the feedback!

The search for a trustee with an expertise in product and technology began a few months ago. One of the problems we identified was that the Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not staying for a long period of time, and then there was also a CPO (Chief Product Officer) transition. It was also important that the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.

The other critical factor was diversity – the search was prioritizing candidates with experience outside of Silicon Valley, in non-English speaking countries, preferably from the Global South.

And, of course, we also needed a commitment to spend enough time on the Board work – to be engaged and present. For example, Luis met online and offline with Wikimedia volunteers from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities, he is eager to help us with his knowledge and experience. Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things Luis brings to the table, the needed expertise, diversity and commitment.

I personally am not particularly fond of cryptocurrencies, even though I appreciate blockchain as a technology, and support e.g. decentralized science (https://decentralized.science/). We as a movement have not had a uniform stand on this, and I’m not sure if we should, though.

Best regards, Dariusz (chair of the BGC)

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 1:40 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) djgwiki@gmail.com wrote:

...

Thanks for the update, Nataliia. Knowledge and expertise in product and technology is a skill set that has been lacking on the Board, and it's great to see the Board addressing this by co-opting product and technology leaders. Luis's experience, such as his time at reddit, will likely be very applicable to our movement.

However, I'm surprised that the Board chose to co-opt someone who seems to have such a public focus on technology like blockchains and cryptocurrency, and that this focus of his was omitted from this announcement.

It would be helpful if we could hear from Luis how he intends to use his knowledge and expertise to contribute to the movement as a Board member, and to what extent he considers blockchain and cryptocurrency to factor into that.

Thanks, Dan

On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 at 17:20, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Dear All,

Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in November 2021 [1].

Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin American-based startups.

Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development, software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials manage and automate their finances.

His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors. Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico.

Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a proud father and dog lover.

I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or shared their experiences.

You can find an official announcement here [2].

PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janua...

[1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%9...

[2] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedia...

Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!*

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prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak kierownik katedry MINDS https://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/, Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego

członek korespondent Polskiej Akademii Nauk https://pan.pl/

faculty associate Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society https://cyber.harvard.edu/, Harvard University Ważniejsze książki: Collaborative Society https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/collaborative-society (2020, MIT Press, z A. Przegalińską), Thick Big Data https://global.oup.com/academic/product/thick-big-data-9780198839705?cc=gb&lang=en (2020, Oxford University Press), Common Knowledge? https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24010 (2014, Stanford University Press) *Ostatnie artykuły:*

• Jędrzej Chrzanowski, Julia Sołek, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech

Fendler (2021) Assessing Public Interest Based on Wikipedia’s Most Visited Medical Articles During the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26331/, *Journal of Medical Internet Research*, 23(4)::e26331

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech Pędzich

(2021) Intercessory Rote Prayer, Life Longevity and the Mortality of Roman Catholic Bishops: An Exploratory Study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10943-021-01214-9, *Journal of Religion and Health*, doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01214-9

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Maciej

Wilamowski (2021) Psychology and Wikipedia: Measuring Psychology Journals’ Impact by Wikipedia Citations http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Psychology-and-Wikipedia-measuring-psychology-journals-impact-by-Wikipedia-citations.pdf , *Social Science Computer Review, *doi.org/10.1177/0894439321993836

• Agata Stasik, Dariusz Jemielniak (2021) Public involvement in risk

governance in the internet era: impact of new rules of building trust and credibility http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Public-involvement-in-risk-governance-in-the-internet-era-impact-of-new-rules-of-building-trust-and-credibility.pdf, Journal of Risk Research, doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1864008

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On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 4:31 PM Nathan nawrich@gmail.com wrote:

No, it isn't a messaging failure. There's no failure at all - the WMF, I'm sure, already recognizes there are pros and cons to a movement where every individual participant feels a sense of ownership. They work around that, sometimes they don't work around it well, but this is an example of where there's no dodging to be done. This "ownership" feeling leads to folks thinking that the WMF should be fully reflective of my values or your values - not just around the WMF's actual mission, but about anything that I happen to feel strongly about right now.

The result is people constantly jerking the WMF in the direction of unrelated vogues. It leads to lots of friction and debate and drama, but that isn't the WMF's failure - just how our history and structure interacts with human nature. This is probably familiar to anyone who lives in a jurisdiction that permits laws or regulations to be passed by popular referenda.

The WMF has made the conscious decision to select four (soon seven) of its board members secretly and then announce them to the community after the fact. The board's only guide to whether a candidate is reflective of our values is its own judgment, and the input of the staff or other persons it decides to include in the process.[1] Of course, in many cases that turns out to be good enough. But they won't know for sure whether they've made a mistake until they draw back the curtains and let the sunshine in.

[1] In the past, the Governance Committee has included non-board, non-staff advisory members; the most recent updates indicate that this is no longer the case, though this may be an oversight: https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Gove... Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the Governance Committee apparently had no advisory members at the time AG was selected either: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Commit...

I'm probably missing some context. I've seen earlier references to this NFT in light of his appointment. What I somehow missed (sorry if I overlooked it) is a clear indication how he would have supported this NFT, and especially whether he supported problematic aspects of it specifically. Also: has he spoken out about it since, or contextualized it in any way?

I hope those of us better informed can help to understand this conversation a bit better.

Lodewijk

On Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 7:06 PM Lane Chance zinkloss@gmail.com wrote:

Just to remind you, Luis Bitencourt-Emilio is one of the Wikimedia Foundation's unelected trustees. He publicly supported the infamous "monkey" NFTs, widely thought to mirror racist tropes,* and used one as his social media avatar when first appointed to the board.

In the last 24 hours a class action lawsuit is in the news, suing celebrities who were paid to promote the same Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs now considered "fraudulently misleading". It remains bizarre that the Wikimedia Foundation, considered a technology-leading organization with a core commitment to ethical behaviour, is publicly represented by someone who was openly part of the BAYC fanbois with such bad judgement they helped this alleged pyramid scheme. This background of lousy judgement does not meet the requirement for anyone sitting in top-level governance over the activities and massive funding for Wikimedia projects and operations.

As was previously remarked in this email thread, "We should have looked at that history and trod more carefully." More worryingly the defensively circling the wagons at the beginning of the year to brush off the questions this raises shows that the Wikimedia Foundation nor the governance committee they rely on to "vet" unelected trustee appointments, failed.

• A context here from an analysis by David Gerard "It does seem pretty

likely that the Ape bros are at least casually racist. For one thing, they clearly feel at home in those corners of internet edgelord culture whose syncretism includes the troll disposition that has characterised the identitarian right since at least the eighties, the performative nihilism that has come to characterise disaffected digital natives in the wake of the Great Recession, and the ironic hipster racism that somehow always stops being ironic after a while. For another, they are shilling crypto, a project of the far right since day one." [3]

Thanks, Lane

References

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/celebrity-promoters... 2. https://futurism.com/the-byte/celebrities-bored-apes-are-hilariously-worthle... 3. https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2022/02/06/bored-ape-yacht-club-and-neo...

On Thu, 13 Jan 2022 at 16:02, Lane Chance zinkloss@gmail.com wrote:

...

Dariusz, Chair of the BGC: "Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things..."

This is so wrong it's painful to read. The fundamental job of the Governance Committee is to ensure that appointed trustees do not come with the potential to cause harm to the Wikimedia 'brand' and the community.

A WMF trustee that promotes Bitcoin and NFTs? Compare with the WMF statement "We at the Wikimedia Foundation strive to ensure that our work and mission support a sustainable world" - now in the bin as it lacks any credibility from here on, as the governance committee and therefore the board of trustees does not believe in these values. This is not a successful appointment, Luis Bitencourt-Emilio is not welcome as they are a controversial and damaging addition to the board.

Ref: https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/09/19/how-the-wikimedia-foundation...

On Thu, 13 Jan 2022 at 13:40, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@kozminski.edu.pl wrote:

...

Dear Dan,

Thank you for the feedback!

The search for a trustee with an expertise in product and technology began a few months ago. One of the problems we identified was that the Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not staying for a long period of time, and then there was also a CPO (Chief Product Officer) transition. It was also important that the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.

The other critical factor was diversity – the search was prioritizing candidates with experience outside of Silicon Valley, in non-English speaking countries, preferably from the Global South.

And, of course, we also needed a commitment to spend enough time on the Board work – to be engaged and present. For example, Luis met online and offline with Wikimedia volunteers from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities, he is eager to help us with his knowledge and experience. Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things Luis brings to the table, the needed expertise, diversity and commitment.

I personally am not particularly fond of cryptocurrencies, even though I appreciate blockchain as a technology, and support e.g. decentralized science (https://decentralized.science/). We as a movement have not had a uniform stand on this, and I’m not sure if we should, though.

Best regards, Dariusz (chair of the BGC)

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 1:40 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) djgwiki@gmail.com wrote:

...

Thanks for the update, Nataliia. Knowledge and expertise in product and technology is a skill set that has been lacking on the Board, and it's great to see the Board addressing this by co-opting product and technology leaders. Luis's experience, such as his time at reddit, will likely be very applicable to our movement.

However, I'm surprised that the Board chose to co-opt someone who seems to have such a public focus on technology like blockchains and cryptocurrency, and that this focus of his was omitted from this announcement.

It would be helpful if we could hear from Luis how he intends to use his knowledge and expertise to contribute to the movement as a Board member, and to what extent he considers blockchain and cryptocurrency to factor into that.

Thanks, Dan

On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 at 17:20, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Dear All,

Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in November 2021 [1].

Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin American-based startups.

Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development, software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials manage and automate their finances.

His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors. Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico.

Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a proud father and dog lover.

I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or shared their experiences.

You can find an official announcement here [2].

PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janua...

[1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%9...

[2] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedia...

Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!*

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prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak kierownik katedry MINDS https://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/, Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego

członek korespondent Polskiej Akademii Nauk https://pan.pl/

faculty associate Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society https://cyber.harvard.edu/, Harvard University Ważniejsze książki: Collaborative Society https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/collaborative-society (2020, MIT Press, z A. Przegalińską), Thick Big Data https://global.oup.com/academic/product/thick-big-data-9780198839705?cc=gb&lang=en (2020, Oxford University Press), Common Knowledge? https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24010 (2014, Stanford University Press) *Ostatnie artykuły:*

• Jędrzej Chrzanowski, Julia Sołek, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech

Fendler (2021) Assessing Public Interest Based on Wikipedia’s Most Visited Medical Articles During the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26331/, *Journal of Medical Internet Research*, 23(4)::e26331

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech Pędzich

(2021) Intercessory Rote Prayer, Life Longevity and the Mortality of Roman Catholic Bishops: An Exploratory Study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10943-021-01214-9, *Journal of Religion and Health*, doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01214-9

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Maciej

Wilamowski (2021) Psychology and Wikipedia: Measuring Psychology Journals’ Impact by Wikipedia Citations http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Psychology-and-Wikipedia-measuring-psychology-journals-impact-by-Wikipedia-citations.pdf , *Social Science Computer Review, *doi.org/10.1177/0894439321993836

• Agata Stasik, Dariusz Jemielniak (2021) Public involvement in risk

governance in the internet era: impact of new rules of building trust and credibility http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Public-involvement-in-risk-governance-in-the-internet-era-impact-of-new-rules-of-building-trust-and-credibility.pdf, Journal of Risk Research, doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1864008

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On Thu, 13 Jan 2022 at 13:41, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@kozminski.edu.pl wrote:

One of the problems we identified was that the Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not staying for a long period of time

Does anyone know why this is? This sounds like a pretty critical buried lead if the very top level of leadership isn't invested enough to stick around. Sure they might be excellent technically, but if they dip after a year or so, they're not really going to drive long-term technical progress for the projects. Even if you miss out on having a year of Captain Awesome before s/he leaves for SpaceX or whatever, would it be better to have 5 years or more of someone who can completely immerse themselves in the technology involved and understand the issues end-to-end and inside-out (or perhaps better still: someone who _already_ knows it)?

Wikimedia is different to other tech darlings, because it is, hopefully, not trying to drum up valuations for a quick and lucrative exit, so I'm not sure why cycling C-level executives like there's an IPO around the corner and you need to look dynamic and profitable is helpful.

It was also important that the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.

I'd be interested to know the perspective coming from Reddit, as it seems there have been some serious issues there over the years. Since I generally avoid Reddit, I'm not aware of them in excruciating detail, other than that being partly why I do avoid Reddit in the first place. Perhaps an (ex-)insider will be well placed to help avoid things like:

* Some Reddit communities being famously toxic, and even bordering on illegal[1]] * Reddit communities being siloed from each other, leading to "echo chambers" and general animosity * Misinformation of various sorts is rife (Covid threw this into sharp relief with specific demonstrable cases, but it's not new), not to mention the crypto-scams * Conflict between "the mods" and "the users" (and infighting between mods), not to mention secretive modding and practises like auto-shadowbanning * Distrust between "the community/ies" and the company itself * The Reddit "product" has come out with some very hostile un-features: ** Forcing login to read most of it in the first place on a mobile ** Top-down redesign which was impressively unpopular, even for a website redesign[2], especially because they then crippled the mobile site anyway with app-nags and full-on browser-blocks ** Advertising is pervasive and dishonestly disguised as content (if you use the app, so I suppose that's why they force you into it when they can) ** Scads of other dark patterns[3][4]

Not all will translate to Wikimedia projects, due to the open nature and different goals. Nevertheless, I think there are some parallels to be drawn. Hopefully Luis will be well positioned to have insight on how to avoid such issues.

Cheers,

--IL

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversial_Reddit_communities [2] This guarantees drama, as everyone knows, no matter how amazing the new thing is [3] https://ognjen.io/reddits-disrespectful-design/ [4] Interestingly, Reddit does actually manage to have a correct cookies dialog, unlike novi.com which would probably be outright illegal in the EU since you can't decline ad/tracking cookies

I would like to submit that I personally found SJ's characterizations of other contributors' legitimate concerns and critiques as "light hazing" to be offensively dismissive, but if SJ helps facilitate an honest and respectful attempt by Luis and the board to answer those concerns I will happily eat my words.

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 3:38 PM Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:

Welcome, Luis :) A light hazing is traditional. ✨

I am delighted to see someone w/ not just a product and technical background, but specific experience maintaining a collaborative read-write platform w/ global audience. Of course the board is responsible for higher-level governance. But increasingly, advancing the mission [of the foundation and the movement as a whole] touches on technical details and their implications. That's why experience with our sort of tech at scale has long been on the list of skills the Board seeks.

Yair writes:

...

People are allowed to have outside interests. Being incidentally

interested in blockchain tech is not

...

a disqualifying attribute. Having worked in large technology companies

is not a disqualifying attribute.

...

Neither of these things should even be counted negatively.

Indeed not. (Steven, I don't see any meaningful parallel w/ AG!)

We should discuss what place blockchain + nft communities, trends, and practices have with respect to our mission. But ... in a separate thread perhaps?

SJ w:user:sj

[ Personally I see more substantive alternatives to the destructive trend towards copyright-maximalism than I have for some time. ]

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 8:40 AM Dariusz Jemielniak < darekj@kozminski.edu.pl> wrote:

...

Dear Dan,

Thank you for the feedback!

The search for a trustee with an expertise in product and technology began a few months ago. One of the problems we identified was that the Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not staying for a long period of time, and then there was also a CPO (Chief Product Officer) transition. It was also important that the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.

The other critical factor was diversity – the search was prioritizing candidates with experience outside of Silicon Valley, in non-English speaking countries, preferably from the Global South.

And, of course, we also needed a commitment to spend enough time on the Board work – to be engaged and present. For example, Luis met online and offline with Wikimedia volunteers from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities, he is eager to help us with his knowledge and experience. Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things Luis brings to the table, the needed expertise, diversity and commitment.

I personally am not particularly fond of cryptocurrencies, even though I appreciate blockchain as a technology, and support e.g. decentralized science (https://decentralized.science/). We as a movement have not had a uniform stand on this, and I’m not sure if we should, though.

Best regards, Dariusz (chair of the BGC)

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 1:40 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) djgwiki@gmail.com wrote:

...

Thanks for the update, Nataliia. Knowledge and expertise in product and technology is a skill set that has been lacking on the Board, and it's great to see the Board addressing this by co-opting product and technology leaders. Luis's experience, such as his time at reddit, will likely be very applicable to our movement.

However, I'm surprised that the Board chose to co-opt someone who seems to have such a public focus on technology like blockchains and cryptocurrency, and that this focus of his was omitted from this announcement.

It would be helpful if we could hear from Luis how he intends to use his knowledge and expertise to contribute to the movement as a Board member, and to what extent he considers blockchain and cryptocurrency to factor into that.

Thanks, Dan

On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 at 17:20, Nataliia Tymkiv ntymkiv@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Dear All,

Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in November 2021 [1].

Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin American-based startups.

Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development, software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials manage and automate their finances.

His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors. Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico.

Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a proud father and dog lover.

I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or shared their experiences.

You can find an official announcement here [2].

PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janua...

[1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%9...

[2] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedia...

Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

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prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak kierownik katedry MINDS https://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/, Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego

członek korespondent Polskiej Akademii Nauk https://pan.pl/

faculty associate Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society https://cyber.harvard.edu/, Harvard University Ważniejsze książki: Collaborative Society https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/collaborative-society (2020, MIT Press, z A. Przegalińską), Thick Big Data https://global.oup.com/academic/product/thick-big-data-9780198839705?cc=gb&lang=en (2020, Oxford University Press), Common Knowledge? https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24010 (2014, Stanford University Press) *Ostatnie artykuły:*

• Jędrzej Chrzanowski, Julia Sołek, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech

Fendler (2021) Assessing Public Interest Based on Wikipedia’s Most Visited Medical Articles During the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak https://www.jmir.org/2021/4/e26331/, *Journal of Medical Internet Research*, 23(4)::e26331

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Wojciech Pędzich

(2021) Intercessory Rote Prayer, Life Longevity and the Mortality of Roman Catholic Bishops: An Exploratory Study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10943-021-01214-9, *Journal of Religion and Health*, doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01214-9

• Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Dariusz Jemielniak, Maciej Wilamowski

(2021) Psychology and Wikipedia: Measuring Psychology Journals’ Impact by Wikipedia Citations http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Psychology-and-Wikipedia-measuring-psychology-journals-impact-by-Wikipedia-citations.pdf , *Social Science Computer Review, *doi.org/10.1177/0894439321993836

• Agata Stasik, Dariusz Jemielniak (2021) Public involvement in risk

governance in the internet era: impact of new rules of building trust and credibility http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Public-involvement-in-risk-governance-in-the-internet-era-impact-of-new-rules-of-building-trust-and-credibility.pdf, Journal of Risk Research, doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1864008

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On 14/01/2022 02:01, Luis Bitencourt-Emilio wrote: <snip>

I was born and grew up in Brazil, under vastly different circumstances than today. There was a critical moment in my life when my father placed me, at 8 years old, in a BASIC programming course which I would practice on our x286 hidden away in a laundry room. My passion for technology started then, and has only grown since. I believe in technology as a key path to the furthering of humanity, of knowledge, of quality of life, and of our collective future. I also believe that this will only happen with the guidance and efforts of active and inclusive communities that shepherd said technology to positive outcomes.

<snip>

Hello Luis,

Welcome at the foundation, it is great to see someone joining the board having a large technical background.

BASIC and x286 are definitely familiar among staff members around your age. If you ever join one of our tech meetings, I am sure you will feel at home :]

10 REM "-- " 20 PRINT "Antoine" 30 PRINT "hashar" 40 PRINT "Musso" 50 PRINT "Wikimedia > Release Engineering"

hi molly; certainly.

while I don’t agree with Nicolas’ tweet verbatim - particularly the “need better critics” bit - what resonated with me personally was being unable to attribute human values, good vs. evil, to an underlying technology platform. note; I interpreted good/bad as value judgments here rather than quality ratings; from a quality perspective, there’s tons of bad tech out there!

in my experience, the communities that build on those platforms are overwhelmingly the most impactful force in its outcome being either positive or negative, and oftentimes the same underlying platform is used and misused to both outcomes by different communities (e.g. the internet).

a potential caveat here is how high or low in the stack one considers… I don’t think anyone would propose that SQL is inherently evil, but perhaps there’s specific use cases of higher level technology, particularly in the ai realm, that can make it harder to separate the technology’s potential from how it’s being used. in my interpretation of the tweet above, the “platform” wording made me consider broader, underlying technologies rather than this scenario.

Given that the actual appointment is about a year ago, it may make sense to shift this conversation and these great questions into a more general domain: what is the current procedure the WMF follows when encountering a vacancy for an expert board member?

I imagine we could rephrase some of these questions into more general language (although the original questions from Scann may still be valuable):

- What does the search strategy look like, and is the movement engaged in it? How? (I would add the same question for the other stakeholders, including staff) - How are the elements of the ideal profile determined (e.g. US vs worldwide, social good vs commercial, etc) - To what extent are demographic criteria used in setting a profile for a specific recruitment (rather than at the high level 'we want to be diverse')

I think we could add to that how the WMF does a 'background check' (in the broadest sense possible), although I doubt everything we discussed would always come up. But in two or three occasions over the past years we have had appointments result in some controversy, and it would be interesting to better understand whether WMF was aware but didn't consider it important enough, whether WMF feels that these issues are not relevant enough to begin with or whether WMF would have expected to have been aware, but wasn't.

I realize that board appointments like this are rare events, and it's hard to really analyze them for that reason. Each appointment has its own quirks, and I'm pretty sure nothing you'll say or do will truly satisfy the entire community. I personally don't think it's realistic to pre-announce any appointment to the community before formalizing, but it would also be interesting to think about how we can leverage the community better. I'm thinking about identifying specific experts, committees or focus groups (but I'm confident there's more ways available). And maybe the WMF is already doing all this and we're just under-appreciating it!

All in all, these questions don't necessarily have to reflect on Luis' appointment - they are interesting in their own right.

Lodewijk

On Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 3:02 PM eheidel@wikimedistas.uy wrote:

To add to the conversation, I'm wondering several things.

1. Was there actually an outreach strategy to recruit for this type of

technologist profile? Was it communicated to the movement? We could have helped.

2. Why the decision on someone whose only relevant background as

technologist is on US corporate technology companies? As several people have pointed out, Luis doesn't seem to have any relevant experience in enterprises that contribute to the larger social good; some of them are significantly controversial (Rappi, Loft); and all of them seem to be very much US-based.

3. Why a guy? It would have been significantly better to bring a woman

into this position. If the problem is retention, I actually think that a woman would have been a way better fit to understand what's failing in terms of business culture that's creating challenges to make people stay.

There are several other things that could be said about this decision but I think others have already said them -- like the whole NFT & blockchain thing and the "fintech for young people", which is already a huge, huge, huge red flag.

cheers, scann _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org