We're in the middle of our board meeting and a great discussion about the strategy development process, but I wanted to share some news with you about the Board of Trustees itself. We welcomed Sam Klein (better known as Sj) as a new community-elected board member, with many thanks to Domas for his service. In addition, we're grateful to the candidates who participated in the election, everyone who voted, and the election committee for facilitating the process.
We also appointed someone to one of the vacant expertise seats appointed by the board. His name is Matt Halprin, and in brief, Matt is with the Omidyar Network and a former eBay executive who was in charge of trust and safety there. Matt has met with a number of us over the past several months, and I invited him to join us in Buenos Aires and meet the entire board. The Omidyar Network is very interested in supporting our strategy development discussions, and I look forward to having Matt's experience and insight as we continue with the process. Matt's initial appointment is for a term until December 31, at which time it will be reviewed like the other appointed seats.
Jay will be putting out press releases and a Q&A with some more details about all of this. We still have one more vacant seat we hope to fill in time, and we have a search consultant who is working with the Nominating Committee to identify and recommend candidates for that position. The Nominating Committee also continues to have the role of reviewing appointed board members for renewal.
Finally, as we normally do at Wikimania, we chose board officers for the coming year. I will be continuing as chair, with Jan-Bart as vice chair and Stu as treasurer. Since Domas, who was our executive secretary, is leaving us, Kat was chosen for that role. I'm excited about working with them and the rest of the board over the coming year.
--Michael Snow
2009/8/25 Michael Snow wikipedia@verizon.net:
We also appointed someone to one of the vacant expertise seats appointed by the board. His name is Matt Halprin, and in brief, Matt is with the Omidyar Network and a former eBay executive who was in charge of trust and safety there. Matt has met with a number of us over the past several months, and I invited him to join us in Buenos Aires and meet the entire board. The Omidyar Network is very interested in supporting our strategy development discussions, and I look forward to having Matt's experience and insight as we continue with the process. Matt's initial appointment is for a term until December 31, at which time it will be reviewed like the other appointed seats.
Omidyar Network? They were involved with a 4 million funding round for wikia back in 2006 no?
http://web.archive.org/web/20060422054638/http://www.americanventuremagazine...
Appointing yet another person with wikia links looks kinda dicey no?
2009/8/25 geni geniice@gmail.com:
Omidyar Network? They were involved with a 4 million funding round for wikia back in 2006 no? http://web.archive.org/web/20060422054638/http://www.americanventuremagazine... Appointing yet another person with wikia links looks kinda dicey no?
Oh come on, someone has to entertain Mr Kohs. I am 100% certain that was the actual reason.
- d.
2009/8/25 geni geniice@gmail.com:
Omidyar Network? They were involved with a 4 million funding round for wikia back in 2006 no?
http://web.archive.org/web/20060422054638/http://www.americanventuremagazine...
Appointing yet another person with wikia links looks kinda dicey no?
I have to agree. I'm sure everyone involved is acting with the best of intentions and that any conflicts of interest will be dealt with appropriately, but it doesn't look good. It is really important to consider the PR impact of decisions like this.
On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 1:48 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.comwrote:
2009/8/25 geni geniice@gmail.com:
Omidyar Network? They were involved with a 4 million funding round for wikia back in 2006 no?
http://web.archive.org/web/20060422054638/http://www.americanventuremagazine...
Appointing yet another person with wikia links looks kinda dicey no?
I have to agree. I'm sure [...] any conflicts of interest will be dealt with appropriately [....]
I'm not. Did Wales recuse himself from the discussion and vote?
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org