Dear all,
I wanted to let you know that Damon Sicore’s last day with the WMF was June 30th. Damon has served as the Vice President of Engineering and played a role in our strategic thinking as we retool to fulfill our mission of delivering free and open knowledge to the world. We wish him well.
Some of you may have questions about this transition and our plans for Engineering leadership. There’s a small FAQ attached below that should address some of the immediate questions about next steps. While I know you may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding personnel issues. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality.
~~~~Lila
Q. Why did Damon leave?
Damon’s departure is a personnel issue, so we are not able to comment on it. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality and Damon’s privacy.
Q. Who will manage Engineering and Technology?
Lila and our interim Chief Operating Officer Terry Gilbey will be sharing oversight for the Engineering and Technology teams at the C-level. They'll work closely with the strong leadership of the audience verticals and individual teams. Lila, Terry, Katie Horn, Toby Negrin, Trevor Parscal, Wes Moran, and the C-team are committed to doing our best to minimize disruption to your day-to-day work, and to support you during this transition.
Q. Who will guide Engineering decisions and set goals?
The basic direction for the Engineering team is articulated in their approved Q1 goals. The team will continue to deliver on these commitments. The audience team leads will meet regularly with Lila to ensure that their work remains aligned with the WMF’s technical vision.
Q. What does this mean for the new Engineering and Technology department structure?
The department structures for Engineering and Technology remain the same. The audience verticals reflect the emerging strategy, and we believe they remain the best way to organize the WMF’s teams, based on the work we have ahead of us in the next few years.
Q. Will there be any additional department reorganization as part of this?
We’re not planning any additional organizational changes.
Q. What does this mean for the ongoing CTO search?
We are already underway with the CTO search; this will continue as planned. The CTO role is an important part of executing against the WMF’s engineering strategy. We look forward to bringing on board a new CTO with the leadership, perspective, and skills that the position entails.
Q. Will we recruit for a new Vice President of Engineering? What is the timeline?
Our priority will continue to be filling the CTO role. Once we have identified a CTO we’ll revisit the role of VPE, to ensure that the new CTO’s perspective is taken into consideration.
Thank you for this announcement Lila.
Good luck to Damon in his future endeavours; Good luck to the leadership of the engineering teams during this transition; And, good luck for recruiting the important CTO role soon!
Sincerely, -Liam / Wittylama
On Friday, 3 July 2015, Lila Tretikov lila@wikimedia.org wrote:
Dear all,
I wanted to let you know that Damon Sicore’s last day with the WMF was June 30th. Damon has served as the Vice President of Engineering and played a role in our strategic thinking as we retool to fulfill our mission of delivering free and open knowledge to the world. We wish him well.
Some of you may have questions about this transition and our plans for Engineering leadership. There’s a small FAQ attached below that should address some of the immediate questions about next steps. While I know you may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding personnel issues. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality.
Q. Why did Damon leave? Damon’s departure is a personnel issue, so we are not able to comment on it. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality and Damon’s privacy. Q. Who will manage Engineering and Technology? Lila and our interim Chief Operating Officer Terry Gilbey will be sharing oversight for the Engineering and Technology teams at the C-level. They'll work closely with the strong leadership of the audience verticals and individual teams. Lila, Terry, Katie Horn, Toby Negrin, Trevor Parscal, Wes Moran, and the C-team are committed to doing our best to minimize disruption to your day-to-day work, and to support you during this transition. Q. Who will guide Engineering decisions and set goals? The basic direction for the Engineering team is articulated in their approved Q1 goals. The team will continue to deliver on these commitments. The audience team leads will meet regularly with Lila to ensure that their work remains aligned with the WMF’s technical vision. Q. What does this mean for the new Engineering and Technology department structure? The department structures for Engineering and Technology remain the same. The audience verticals reflect the emerging strategy, and we believe they remain the best way to organize the WMF’s teams, based on the work we have ahead of us in the next few years. Q. Will there be any additional department reorganization as part of this? We’re not planning any additional organizational changes. Q. What does this mean for the ongoing CTO search? We are already underway with the CTO search; this will continue as planned. The CTO role is an important part of executing against the WMF’s engineering strategy. We look forward to bringing on board a new CTO with the leadership, perspective, and skills that the position entails. Q. Will we recruit for a new Vice President of Engineering? What is the timeline? Our priority will continue to be filling the CTO role. Once we have identified a CTO we’ll revisit the role of VPE, to ensure that the new CTO’s perspective is taken into consideration. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org <javascript:;> ?subject=unsubscribe>
Il 03/07/2015 01:35, Lila Tretikov ha scritto:
Dear all,
I wanted to let you know that Damon Sicore’s last day with the WMF was June 30th. Damon has served as the Vice President of Engineering and played a role in our strategic thinking as we retool to fulfill our mission of delivering free and open knowledge to the world. We wish him well.
Some of you may have questions about this transition and our plans for Engineering leadership. There’s a small FAQ attached below that should address some of the immediate questions about next steps. While I know you may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding personnel
Personal?
issues. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality.
Q. Why did Damon leave? Damon’s departure is a personnel issue, so we are not able to comment on it. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality and Damon’s privacy. Q. Who will manage Engineering and Technology? Lila and our interim Chief Operating Officer Terry Gilbey will be sharing oversight for the Engineering and Technology teams at the C-level. They'll work closely with the strong leadership of the audience verticals and individual teams. Lila, Terry, Katie Horn, Toby Negrin, Trevor Parscal, Wes Moran, and the C-team are committed to doing our best to minimize disruption to your day-to-day work, and to support you during this transition. Q. Who will guide Engineering decisions and set goals? The basic direction for the Engineering team is articulated in their approved Q1 goals. The team will continue to deliver on these commitments. The audience team leads will meet regularly with Lila to ensure that their work remains aligned with the WMF’s technical vision. Q. What does this mean for the new Engineering and Technology department structure? The department structures for Engineering and Technology remain the same. The audience verticals reflect the emerging strategy, and we believe they remain the best way to organize the WMF’s teams, based on the work we have ahead of us in the next few years. Q. Will there be any additional department reorganization as part of this? We’re not planning any additional organizational changes. Q. What does this mean for the ongoing CTO search? We are already underway with the CTO search; this will continue as planned. The CTO role is an important part of executing against the WMF’s engineering strategy. We look forward to bringing on board a new CTO with the leadership, perspective, and skills that the position entails. Q. Will we recruit for a new Vice President of Engineering? What is the timeline? Our priority will continue to be filling the CTO role. Once we have identified a CTO we’ll revisit the role of VPE, to ensure that the new CTO’s perspective is taken into consideration. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
On Jul 2, 2015 5:32 PM, "Ricordisamoa" ricordisamoa@openmailbox.org wrote:
Il 03/07/2015 01:35, Lila Tretikov ha scritto:
(Snip)
While I know you may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding personnel
Personal?
No, "personnel." It means, more or less, issues about an individual, relating to his/her employment. Pete
[[User:Peteforsyth]]
Il 03/07/2015 02:38, Pete Forsyth ha scritto:
On Jul 2, 2015 5:32 PM, "Ricordisamoa" ricordisamoa@openmailbox.org wrote:
Il 03/07/2015 01:35, Lila Tretikov ha scritto:
(Snip)
While I know you may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding personnel
Personal?
No, "personnel." It means, more or less, issues about an individual, relating to his/her employment.
I know what "personnel" means, just thought it was a typo.
Pete
[[User:Peteforsyth]] _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Lila,
Will any consideration be given toward selecting a new leader for the engineering team who has been an active volunteer with a Wikimedia project for some period of time?
Thanks,
Todd
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 5:35 PM, Lila Tretikov lila@wikimedia.org wrote:
Dear all,
I wanted to let you know that Damon Sicore’s last day with the WMF was June 30th. Damon has served as the Vice President of Engineering and played a role in our strategic thinking as we retool to fulfill our mission of delivering free and open knowledge to the world. We wish him well.
Some of you may have questions about this transition and our plans for Engineering leadership. There’s a small FAQ attached below that should address some of the immediate questions about next steps. While I know you may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding personnel issues. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality.
Q. Why did Damon leave? Damon’s departure is a personnel issue, so we are not able to comment on it. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality and Damon’s privacy. Q. Who will manage Engineering and Technology? Lila and our interim Chief Operating Officer Terry Gilbey will be sharing oversight for the Engineering and Technology teams at the C-level. They'll work closely with the strong leadership of the audience verticals and individual teams. Lila, Terry, Katie Horn, Toby Negrin, Trevor Parscal, Wes Moran, and the C-team are committed to doing our best to minimize disruption to your day-to-day work, and to support you during this transition. Q. Who will guide Engineering decisions and set goals? The basic direction for the Engineering team is articulated in their approved Q1 goals. The team will continue to deliver on these commitments. The audience team leads will meet regularly with Lila to ensure that their work remains aligned with the WMF’s technical vision. Q. What does this mean for the new Engineering and Technology department structure? The department structures for Engineering and Technology remain the same. The audience verticals reflect the emerging strategy, and we believe they remain the best way to organize the WMF’s teams, based on the work we have ahead of us in the next few years. Q. Will there be any additional department reorganization as part of this? We’re not planning any additional organizational changes. Q. What does this mean for the ongoing CTO search? We are already underway with the CTO search; this will continue as planned. The CTO role is an important part of executing against the WMF’s engineering strategy. We look forward to bringing on board a new CTO with the leadership, perspective, and skills that the position entails. Q. Will we recruit for a new Vice President of Engineering? What is the timeline? Our priority will continue to be filling the CTO role. Once we have identified a CTO we’ll revisit the role of VPE, to ensure that the new CTO’s perspective is taken into consideration. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
Todd,
I'm not speaking for WMF or Lila here, just repeating what I've heard in other circles: it's rare to find a software engineer or designer who's an experienced Wikimedia content contributor. More common, but still far from plentiful, are experienced engineers who've contributed to MediaWiki and other open source tech tools. Pinging Quim in case he can give us some demographics of Wikimedia's volunteer tech pool and whether he thinks it might be possible to find an engineering executive in that pool.
Pine
Pine
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 6:21 PM, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
Lila,
Will any consideration be given toward selecting a new leader for the engineering team who has been an active volunteer with a Wikimedia project for some period of time?
Thanks,
Todd
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 5:35 PM, Lila Tretikov lila@wikimedia.org wrote:
Dear all,
I wanted to let you know that Damon Sicore’s last day with the WMF was
June
30th. Damon has served as the Vice President of Engineering and played a role in our strategic thinking as we retool to fulfill our mission of delivering free and open knowledge to the world. We wish him well.
Some of you may have questions about this transition and our plans for Engineering leadership. There’s a small FAQ attached below that should address some of the immediate questions about next steps. While I know
you
may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding personnel issues. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality.
Q. Why did Damon leave? Damon’s departure is a personnel issue, so we are not able to comment on it. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality and Damon’s privacy. Q. Who will manage Engineering and Technology? Lila and our interim Chief Operating Officer Terry Gilbey will be sharing oversight for the Engineering and Technology teams at the C-level.They'll
work closely with the strong leadership of the audience verticals and individual teams. Lila, Terry, Katie Horn, Toby Negrin, Trevor Parscal,
Wes
Moran, and the C-team are committed to doing our best to minimize disruption to your day-to-day work, and to support you during this transition.
Q. Who will guide Engineering decisions and set goals?
The basic direction for the Engineering team is articulated in their approved Q1 goals. The team will continue to deliver on these
commitments.
The audience team leads will meet regularly with Lila to ensure that
their
work remains aligned with the WMF’s technical vision.
Q. What does this mean for the new Engineering and Technology department structure?
The department structures for Engineering and Technology remain the same. The audience verticals reflect the emerging strategy, and we believe they remain the best way to organize the WMF’s teams, based on the work we
have
ahead of us in the next few years.
Q. Will there be any additional department reorganization as part of
this?
We’re not planning any additional organizational changes.
Q. What does this mean for the ongoing CTO search?
We are already underway with the CTO search; this will continue as
planned.
The CTO role is an important part of executing against the WMF’s engineering strategy. We look forward to bringing on board a new CTO with the leadership, perspective, and skills that the position entails.
Q. Will we recruit for a new Vice President of Engineering? What is the timeline?
Our priority will continue to be filling the CTO role. Once we have identified a CTO we’ll revisit the role of VPE, to ensure that the new CTO’s perspective is taken into consideration. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
You're talking to one now, and I know several others. Now speaking for me, I would never want to be "VP of anything", and so I'm certainly not asking this on my own behalf, but that's not necessarily true of everyone.
Regardless, I'd at least like to see some preference given toward volunteers who might apply and encouragement for them to do so if qualified. There's been, to put it mildly, some tone deafness of the VPN in dealing with the community, and though some of the people engaged in that were indeed volunteers as well, I have no idea if that was actually their idea. (I hope not.) Perhaps having some people who have been volunteers actually in charge might help to bridge that disconnect.
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 7:30 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Todd,
I'm not speaking for WMF or Lila here, just repeating what I've heard in other circles: it's rare to find a software engineer or designer who's an experienced Wikimedia content contributor. More common, but still far from plentiful, are experienced engineers who've contributed to MediaWiki and other open source tech tools. Pinging Quim in case he can give us some demographics of Wikimedia's volunteer tech pool and whether he thinks it might be possible to find an engineering executive in that pool.
Pine
Pine
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 6:21 PM, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
Lila,
Will any consideration be given toward selecting a new leader for the engineering team who has been an active volunteer with a Wikimedia
project
for some period of time?
Thanks,
Todd
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 5:35 PM, Lila Tretikov lila@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Dear all,
I wanted to let you know that Damon Sicore’s last day with the WMF was
June
30th. Damon has served as the Vice President of Engineering and played
a
role in our strategic thinking as we retool to fulfill our mission of delivering free and open knowledge to the world. We wish him well.
Some of you may have questions about this transition and our plans for Engineering leadership. There’s a small FAQ attached below that should address some of the immediate questions about next steps. While I know
you
may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding personnel issues. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality.
Q. Why did Damon leave? Damon’s departure is a personnel issue, so we are not able to commenton
it. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality and Damon’s privacy.
Q. Who will manage Engineering and Technology?
Lila and our interim Chief Operating Officer Terry Gilbey will be
sharing
oversight for the Engineering and Technology teams at the C-level.
They'll
work closely with the strong leadership of the audience verticals and individual teams. Lila, Terry, Katie Horn, Toby Negrin, Trevor Parscal,
Wes
Moran, and the C-team are committed to doing our best to minimize disruption to your day-to-day work, and to support you during this transition.
Q. Who will guide Engineering decisions and set goals?
The basic direction for the Engineering team is articulated in their approved Q1 goals. The team will continue to deliver on these
commitments.
The audience team leads will meet regularly with Lila to ensure that
their
work remains aligned with the WMF’s technical vision.
Q. What does this mean for the new Engineering and Technology
department
structure?
The department structures for Engineering and Technology remain the
same.
The audience verticals reflect the emerging strategy, and we believe
they
remain the best way to organize the WMF’s teams, based on the work we
have
ahead of us in the next few years.
Q. Will there be any additional department reorganization as part of
this?
We’re not planning any additional organizational changes.
Q. What does this mean for the ongoing CTO search?
We are already underway with the CTO search; this will continue as
planned.
The CTO role is an important part of executing against the WMF’s engineering strategy. We look forward to bringing on board a new CTO
with
the leadership, perspective, and skills that the position entails.
Q. Will we recruit for a new Vice President of Engineering? What is the timeline?
Our priority will continue to be filling the CTO role. Once we have identified a CTO we’ll revisit the role of VPE, to ensure that the new CTO’s perspective is taken into consideration. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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...
Tone deafness of the WMF, and thank my phone for silly spelling.
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 7:47 PM, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
You're talking to one now, and I know several others. Now speaking for me, I would never want to be "VP of anything", and so I'm certainly not asking this on my own behalf, but that's not necessarily true of everyone.
Regardless, I'd at least like to see some preference given toward volunteers who might apply and encouragement for them to do so if qualified. There's been, to put it mildly, some tone deafness of the VPN in dealing with the community, and though some of the people engaged in that were indeed volunteers as well, I have no idea if that was actually their idea. (I hope not.) Perhaps having some people who have been volunteers actually in charge might help to bridge that disconnect.
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 7:30 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Todd,
I'm not speaking for WMF or Lila here, just repeating what I've heard in other circles: it's rare to find a software engineer or designer who's an experienced Wikimedia content contributor. More common, but still far from plentiful, are experienced engineers who've contributed to MediaWiki and other open source tech tools. Pinging Quim in case he can give us some demographics of Wikimedia's volunteer tech pool and whether he thinks it might be possible to find an engineering executive in that pool.
Pine
Pine
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 6:21 PM, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
Lila,
Will any consideration be given toward selecting a new leader for the engineering team who has been an active volunteer with a Wikimedia
project
for some period of time?
Thanks,
Todd
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 5:35 PM, Lila Tretikov lila@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Dear all,
I wanted to let you know that Damon Sicore’s last day with the WMF was
June
30th. Damon has served as the Vice President of Engineering and
played a
role in our strategic thinking as we retool to fulfill our mission of delivering free and open knowledge to the world. We wish him well.
Some of you may have questions about this transition and our plans for Engineering leadership. There’s a small FAQ attached below that should address some of the immediate questions about next steps. While I know
you
may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding personnel issues. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality.
Q. Why did Damon leave? Damon’s departure is a personnel issue, so we are not able to commenton
it. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality and Damon’s privacy.
Q. Who will manage Engineering and Technology?
Lila and our interim Chief Operating Officer Terry Gilbey will be
sharing
oversight for the Engineering and Technology teams at the C-level.
They'll
work closely with the strong leadership of the audience verticals and individual teams. Lila, Terry, Katie Horn, Toby Negrin, Trevor
Parscal,
Wes
Moran, and the C-team are committed to doing our best to minimize disruption to your day-to-day work, and to support you during this transition.
Q. Who will guide Engineering decisions and set goals?
The basic direction for the Engineering team is articulated in their approved Q1 goals. The team will continue to deliver on these
commitments.
The audience team leads will meet regularly with Lila to ensure that
their
work remains aligned with the WMF’s technical vision.
Q. What does this mean for the new Engineering and Technology
department
structure?
The department structures for Engineering and Technology remain the
same.
The audience verticals reflect the emerging strategy, and we believe
they
remain the best way to organize the WMF’s teams, based on the work we
have
ahead of us in the next few years.
Q. Will there be any additional department reorganization as part of
this?
We’re not planning any additional organizational changes.
Q. What does this mean for the ongoing CTO search?
We are already underway with the CTO search; this will continue as
planned.
The CTO role is an important part of executing against the WMF’s engineering strategy. We look forward to bringing on board a new CTO
with
the leadership, perspective, and skills that the position entails.
Q. Will we recruit for a new Vice President of Engineering? What is
the
timeline?
Our priority will continue to be filling the CTO role. Once we have identified a CTO we’ll revisit the role of VPE, to ensure that the new CTO’s perspective is taken into consideration. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
,
mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/GuidelinesWikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
I think most VPNs are tone deaf. ;)
Yes, in general I would like to see more respect from WMF for the collective wisdom of the community and for the use of volunteer time. Appointing a technical or content contributor to an executive role would be a good thing IMO.
Pine
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 6:48 PM, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
...
Tone deafness of the WMF, and thank my phone for silly spelling.
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 7:47 PM, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
You're talking to one now, and I know several others. Now speaking for
me,
I would never want to be "VP of anything", and so I'm certainly not
asking
this on my own behalf, but that's not necessarily true of everyone.
Regardless, I'd at least like to see some preference given toward volunteers who might apply and encouragement for them to do so if qualified. There's been, to put it mildly, some tone deafness of the VPN
in
dealing with the community, and though some of the people engaged in that were indeed volunteers as well, I have no idea if that was actually their idea. (I hope not.) Perhaps having some people who have been volunteers actually in charge might help to bridge that disconnect.
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 7:30 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Todd,
I'm not speaking for WMF or Lila here, just repeating what I've heard in other circles: it's rare to find a software engineer or designer who's
an
experienced Wikimedia content contributor. More common, but still far
from
plentiful, are experienced engineers who've contributed to MediaWiki and other open source tech tools. Pinging Quim in case he can give us some demographics of Wikimedia's volunteer tech pool and whether he thinks it might be possible to find an engineering executive in that pool.
Pine
Pine
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 6:21 PM, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com
wrote:
Lila,
Will any consideration be given toward selecting a new leader for the engineering team who has been an active volunteer with a Wikimedia
project
for some period of time?
Thanks,
Todd
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 5:35 PM, Lila Tretikov lila@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Dear all,
I wanted to let you know that Damon Sicore’s last day with the WMF
was
June
30th. Damon has served as the Vice President of Engineering and
played a
role in our strategic thinking as we retool to fulfill our mission
of
delivering free and open knowledge to the world. We wish him well.
Some of you may have questions about this transition and our plans
for
Engineering leadership. There’s a small FAQ attached below that
should
address some of the immediate questions about next steps. While I
know
you
may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding
personnel
issues. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality.
Q. Why did Damon leave? Damon’s departure is a personnel issue, so we are not able tocomment
on
it. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality and Damon’s
privacy.
Q. Who will manage Engineering and Technology?
Lila and our interim Chief Operating Officer Terry Gilbey will be
sharing
oversight for the Engineering and Technology teams at the C-level.
They'll
work closely with the strong leadership of the audience verticals
and
individual teams. Lila, Terry, Katie Horn, Toby Negrin, Trevor
Parscal,
Wes
Moran, and the C-team are committed to doing our best to minimize disruption to your day-to-day work, and to support you during this transition.
Q. Who will guide Engineering decisions and set goals?
The basic direction for the Engineering team is articulated in their approved Q1 goals. The team will continue to deliver on these
commitments.
The audience team leads will meet regularly with Lila to ensure that
their
work remains aligned with the WMF’s technical vision.
Q. What does this mean for the new Engineering and Technology
department
structure?
The department structures for Engineering and Technology remain the
same.
The audience verticals reflect the emerging strategy, and we believe
they
remain the best way to organize the WMF’s teams, based on the work
we
have
ahead of us in the next few years.
Q. Will there be any additional department reorganization as part of
this?
We’re not planning any additional organizational changes.
Q. What does this mean for the ongoing CTO search?
We are already underway with the CTO search; this will continue as
planned.
The CTO role is an important part of executing against the WMF’s engineering strategy. We look forward to bringing on board a new CTO
with
the leadership, perspective, and skills that the position entails.
Q. Will we recruit for a new Vice President of Engineering? What is
the
timeline?
Our priority will continue to be filling the CTO role. Once we have identified a CTO we’ll revisit the role of VPE, to ensure that the
new
CTO’s perspective is taken into consideration. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe:
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It would be nice if there was an appropriately qualified person who was interested in the position - although one must remember that the previous Deputy ED and VP Engineering was very much "of the community" and several past and current engineering and tech leaders (and staff!) have come from the community as well.
On the other hand, given the scope of the job, it really needs someone with solid managerial experience to handle a very large team and the lion's share of the WMF's budget. While there is a lot of talent in the community (and even in the WMF), this job requires much more than developer/engineering skills. The WMF does have some experience with pushing talented and highly motivated developers/engineers into management positions, where they didn't have the skill sets (or, in several cases, the innate desire) to be the kind of leaders needed for those positions; it wasn't a good situation for either the engineers or the WMF. Or, to twist an old expression, it's not good use of resources to try and make a silk purse out of a Cray supercomputer.
Best wishes to Damon.
Risker/Anne
On 2 July 2015 at 22:06, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
I think most VPNs are tone deaf. ;)
Yes, in general I would like to see more respect from WMF for the collective wisdom of the community and for the use of volunteer time. Appointing a technical or content contributor to an executive role would be a good thing IMO.
Pine
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 6:48 PM, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
...
Tone deafness of the WMF, and thank my phone for silly spelling.
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 7:47 PM, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
You're talking to one now, and I know several others. Now speaking for
me,
I would never want to be "VP of anything", and so I'm certainly not
asking
this on my own behalf, but that's not necessarily true of everyone.
Regardless, I'd at least like to see some preference given toward volunteers who might apply and encouragement for them to do so if qualified. There's been, to put it mildly, some tone deafness of the
VPN
in
dealing with the community, and though some of the people engaged in
that
were indeed volunteers as well, I have no idea if that was actually
their
idea. (I hope not.) Perhaps having some people who have been volunteers actually in charge might help to bridge that disconnect.
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 7:30 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Todd,
I'm not speaking for WMF or Lila here, just repeating what I've heard
in
other circles: it's rare to find a software engineer or designer who's
an
experienced Wikimedia content contributor. More common, but still far
from
plentiful, are experienced engineers who've contributed to MediaWiki
and
other open source tech tools. Pinging Quim in case he can give us some demographics of Wikimedia's volunteer tech pool and whether he thinks
it
might be possible to find an engineering executive in that pool.
Pine
Pine
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 6:21 PM, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com
wrote:
Lila,
Will any consideration be given toward selecting a new leader for
the
engineering team who has been an active volunteer with a Wikimedia
project
for some period of time?
Thanks,
Todd
On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 5:35 PM, Lila Tretikov lila@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Dear all,
I wanted to let you know that Damon Sicore’s last day with the WMF
was
June
30th. Damon has served as the Vice President of Engineering and
played a
role in our strategic thinking as we retool to fulfill our mission
of
delivering free and open knowledge to the world. We wish him well.
Some of you may have questions about this transition and our plans
for
Engineering leadership. There’s a small FAQ attached below that
should
address some of the immediate questions about next steps. While I
know
you
may have additional questions, we can’t share more regarding
personnel
issues. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality.
Q. Why did Damon leave? Damon’s departure is a personnel issue, so we are not able tocomment
on
it. Thank you for respecting that confidentiality and Damon’s
privacy.
Q. Who will manage Engineering and Technology?
Lila and our interim Chief Operating Officer Terry Gilbey will be
sharing
oversight for the Engineering and Technology teams at the C-level.
They'll
work closely with the strong leadership of the audience verticals
and
individual teams. Lila, Terry, Katie Horn, Toby Negrin, Trevor
Parscal,
Wes
Moran, and the C-team are committed to doing our best to minimize disruption to your day-to-day work, and to support you during this transition.
Q. Who will guide Engineering decisions and set goals?
The basic direction for the Engineering team is articulated in
their
approved Q1 goals. The team will continue to deliver on these
commitments.
The audience team leads will meet regularly with Lila to ensure
that
their
work remains aligned with the WMF’s technical vision.
Q. What does this mean for the new Engineering and Technology
department
structure?
The department structures for Engineering and Technology remain
the
same.
The audience verticals reflect the emerging strategy, and we
believe
they
remain the best way to organize the WMF’s teams, based on the work
we
have
ahead of us in the next few years.
Q. Will there be any additional department reorganization as part
of
this?
We’re not planning any additional organizational changes.
Q. What does this mean for the ongoing CTO search?
We are already underway with the CTO search; this will continue as
planned.
The CTO role is an important part of executing against the WMF’s engineering strategy. We look forward to bringing on board a new
CTO
with
the leadership, perspective, and skills that the position entails.
Q. Will we recruit for a new Vice President of Engineering? What
is
the
timeline?
Our priority will continue to be filling the CTO role. Once we
have
identified a CTO we’ll revisit the role of VPE, to ensure that the
new
CTO’s perspective is taken into consideration. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe:
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On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 3:30 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Pinging Quim in case he can give us some demographics of Wikimedia's volunteer tech pool and whether he thinks it might be possible to find an engineering executive in that pool.
I'm not sure which demographics we should look at. While we have data about technical contributions, they won't tell us much about the skills required to perform well in an engineering executive role. I think that if there would be a good candidate for a VP of Engineering in our community, they wouldn't have been unnoticed (but I might be wrong). If anything, we could improve our communication about open positions to reach likely targets in our community and our readership, but I have no idea how this could be done; it's not an easy task.
Most importantly, I think the main point of this discussion is this answer in the FAQ:
Our priority will continue to be filling the CTO role. Once we have identified a CTO we’ll revisit the role of VPE, to ensure that the new CTO’s perspective is taken into consideration.
Do you know a Wikimedia contributor that could become a good CTO? Is our future CTO editing articles, writing bots or reviewing code in Gerrit, unaware that this job hunt is happening? Ask them to apply! http://grnh.se/30f54b
Quim Gil skrev den 2015-07-03 14:27:
I think that if there would be a good candidate for a VP of Engineering in our community, they wouldn't have been unnoticed (but I might be wrong).
Please do not underestimate the competence existing in the community.
For myself I have seven years of experience of being a successful manager of a department made up by of 130 sw designer producing sw design tools for 4000 sw engineers residing in 40 different local offices all over the world. Almost a blueprint of the CTO position at WMF
But I am certainly not a candidate, and only mention this to counter your statement. And I do would like that WMF sometimes took a look outside the Bay area and into out global community, also for recruiting key personnel
Anders
Another thought: perhaps more investment could be made in providing career development support for our volunteers of all kinds. It's relatively common in the United States for organizations with lots of volunteers to put some investment explicitly into helping the volunteers develop skills snd experience that are useful for both their voluntary and paid work CVs. If more of that kind of investment was made by WMF, volunteering would be more attractive *and* WMF would benefit by having more ability to fill paid positions from the ranks of volunteers.
Pine
Anders, I don't think I'm underestimating the competence we have in this community. I'm wondering which demographics we should look at in order to detect potential candidates for engineering executives (replying to Pine's ping). I'm also suggesting that improving the communication of our open positions with our communities is probably the way to go because I think potential candidates do exist, although finding a good CTO is more complex than finding a good JavaScript developer (although, wait..) ;)
Pine, for what is worth, in almost every Google Summer of Code / Outreachy round we have ended up recruiting a volunteer. Several WMF teams offer internships, some of them filled with Wikimedia volunteers. A percentage of new hires comes from our communities (I don't have data but I do read the announcements). I'm sure more can be done, and I'm sure implementable solutions are welcome. But back to this thread, one thing is to help volunteers to develop skills and experience to apply for junior positions, and another thing is to do... what? to ease the search of potential executives within our communities.
I don't want to argue, I just want to know what can the Engineering Community team realistically do to connect better our technical volunteers with our technical job openings. I'm sure HR welcomes feedback about implementable improvements as well. They want to find best candidates anywhere, and they know that Wikimedia itself is a good pool. But we cannot hire the candidates that don't find us or that we cannot find... Which brings us back to the need to formulate practical solutions.
On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 3:14 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Another thought: perhaps more investment could be made in providing career development support for our volunteers of all kinds. It's relatively common in the United States for organizations with lots of volunteers to put some investment explicitly into helping the volunteers develop skills snd experience that are useful for both their voluntary and paid work CVs. If more of that kind of investment was made by WMF, volunteering would be more attractive *and* WMF would benefit by having more ability to fill paid positions from the ranks of volunteers.
Pine _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hi Quim,
I was digressing a little from the original subject of this thread when I talked about WMF career development support for volunteers, but here are a few suggestions:
1. Prioritize work on the open badges system.
2. Make information about WMF contract positions more public. Currently, the system for hiring contractors seems to be opaque and largely at the discretion of the C staff. The discretion is fine, but some additional openness could be beneficial here, for recruiting purposes and for financial & programmatic transparency.
3. Develop a central hub where WMF, Wikimedia affiliates, and mission-aligned organizations can post links to intern, contract, and staff openings. WMF could do this in partnership with an organization like Mozilla, the Free Software Foundation, Code for America, or the Ford Foundation. This hub might fit well with the WMF Partnership Department's mission, in addition to WMF HR's recruiting mission.
4. Support the Volunteer Supporters Network https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_Supporters_Network initiative on Meta; encourage peer support and networking opportunities among Wikimedia volunteers.
5. Post monthly emails to appropriate Wikimedia mailing lists about intern, contract, and full-time openings at WMF and affiliates that may be of interest to members of those lists.
6. Develop an active mentorship program at WMF that encourages WMF employees to mentor high-potential volunteers in their career development, ideally leading to a role at WMF or a mission-aligned organization. The Individual Engagement Grants Program and GSOC already do some of this with their grantees and interns, and the concept could be expanded to other programs and departments.
7. Continue to expand the number of intern opportunities at WMF. WMF benefits from the inexpensive labor, and the interns benefit from the experience and the networking opportunities.
Thoughts? We can take this discussion to Meta if it's getting to complicated and diverging too much from the original purpose of this thread.
Thanks!
Pine
Pine
On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 7:13 AM, Quim Gil qgil@wikimedia.org wrote:
Anders, I don't think I'm underestimating the competence we have in this community. I'm wondering which demographics we should look at in order to detect potential candidates for engineering executives (replying to Pine's ping). I'm also suggesting that improving the communication of our open positions with our communities is probably the way to go because I think potential candidates do exist, although finding a good CTO is more complex than finding a good JavaScript developer (although, wait..) ;)
Pine, for what is worth, in almost every Google Summer of Code / Outreachy round we have ended up recruiting a volunteer. Several WMF teams offer internships, some of them filled with Wikimedia volunteers. A percentage of new hires comes from our communities (I don't have data but I do read the announcements). I'm sure more can be done, and I'm sure implementable solutions are welcome. But back to this thread, one thing is to help volunteers to develop skills and experience to apply for junior positions, and another thing is to do... what? to ease the search of potential executives within our communities.
I don't want to argue, I just want to know what can the Engineering Community team realistically do to connect better our technical volunteers with our technical job openings. I'm sure HR welcomes feedback about implementable improvements as well. They want to find best candidates anywhere, and they know that Wikimedia itself is a good pool. But we cannot hire the candidates that don't find us or that we cannot find... Which brings us back to the need to formulate practical solutions.
On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 3:14 PM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Another thought: perhaps more investment could be made in providing
career
development support for our volunteers of all kinds. It's relatively
common
in the United States for organizations with lots of volunteers to put
some
investment explicitly into helping the volunteers develop skills snd experience that are useful for both their voluntary and paid work CVs. If more of that kind of investment was made by WMF, volunteering would be
more
attractive *and* WMF would benefit by having more ability to fill paid positions from the ranks of volunteers.
Pine _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- Quim Gil Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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