Dear all,
As Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee, I am happy to introduce the two newest members of our Board of Trustees: Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri.
Kelly and Arnnon bring deep expertise in strategy and financial oversight, and diversity and organizational development, and a passionate commitment to advancing Wikimedia’s vision for the world. You can learn more about them in the blog post here: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/01/05/new-wikimedia-foundation-trustees/, and their biographies have been added to the Board of Trustees page, here https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees.
Over the past several weeks, the Board considered many qualified candidates from around the globe. We were looking for people with experience in strategic and organizational development to help guide the Wikimedia Foundation’s future. We were also looking for people with a sense of empathy and cultural awareness, who would value and strengthen the unique culture of our diverse, global movement.
We are excited to announce that with Kelly and Arnnon, we have found exceptional new Trustees who have these qualities, as well as many more. They were approved unanimously by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Both terms are effective Jan 1, 2016 and will last for two years. We look forward to working with them on the Board and toward our mission.
Please join me in welcoming them.
Dariusz
Dariusz,
Are either of these trustees occupying the seat formerly occupied by James Heilman? On Jan 5, 2016 6:01 PM, "Dariusz Jemielniak" darekj@alk.edu.pl wrote:
Dear all,
As Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee, I am happy to introduce the two newest members of our Board of Trustees: Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri.
Kelly and Arnnon bring deep expertise in strategy and financial oversight, and diversity and organizational development, and a passionate commitment to advancing Wikimedia’s vision for the world. You can learn more about them in the blog post here: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/01/05/new-wikimedia-foundation-trustees/, and their biographies have been added to the Board of Trustees page, here https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees.
Over the past several weeks, the Board considered many qualified candidates from around the globe. We were looking for people with experience in strategic and organizational development to help guide the Wikimedia Foundation’s future. We were also looking for people with a sense of empathy and cultural awareness, who would value and strengthen the unique culture of our diverse, global movement.
We are excited to announce that with Kelly and Arnnon, we have found exceptional new Trustees who have these qualities, as well as many more. They were approved unanimously by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Both terms are effective Jan 1, 2016 and will last for two years. We look forward to working with them on the Board and toward our mission.
Please join me in welcoming them.
Dariusz _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
No, they replace Jan Bart and Stu, whose term ended as scheduled. Apologies for not making it clear.
Dj 05.01.2016 9:04 PM "Todd Allen" toddmallen@gmail.com napisał(a):
Dariusz,
Are either of these trustees occupying the seat formerly occupied by James Heilman? On Jan 5, 2016 6:01 PM, "Dariusz Jemielniak" darekj@alk.edu.pl wrote:
Dear all,
As Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee, I am happy to introduce the two newest members of our Board of Trustees: Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri.
Kelly and Arnnon bring deep expertise in strategy and financial oversight, and diversity and organizational development, and a passionate commitment to advancing Wikimedia’s vision for the world. You can learn more about them in the blog post here: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/01/05/new-wikimedia-foundation-trustees/, and their biographies have been added to the Board of Trustees page, here https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees.
Over the past several weeks, the Board considered many qualified candidates from around the globe. We were looking for people with experience in strategic and organizational development to help guide the Wikimedia Foundation’s future. We were also looking for people with a sense of empathy and cultural awareness, who would value and strengthen the unique culture of our diverse, global movement.
We are excited to announce that with Kelly and Arnnon, we have found exceptional new Trustees who have these qualities, as well as many more. They were approved unanimously by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Both terms are effective Jan 1, 2016 and will last for two years. We look forward to working with them on the Board and toward our mission.
Please join me in welcoming them.
Dariusz _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Congratulations to Kelly and Arnon in joining the wikiverse at this crucial time in our movement's existence. I hope their expertise - respectively in Finance and HR - will be able to be put to good use!
However, I do have a concern about diversity... Both of these appointees are white Americans from Iowa/Kansas with top-pedigree Silicon Valley resumes.
I note that one of the other appointed WMF-board seats is currently also occupied by Guy, also Silicon Valley, and one of the recently elected community seats is occupied by Denny, who is a manager at Google. They all live and work in the same field and within commuting distance to the WMF office.
I've always believed that Wikimedia is an education charity that happens to exist exists in a technology field. I often note in presentations that I give that the Wikimedia vision statement does NOT use the words, Internet, or Wiki, or Encyclopedia. But these appointments indicate the Board and WMF Executive believe Wikimedia is a technology charity that happens to exists in the education field.
These appointments will make a crucial difference to how the new WMF strategic direction will go - and clearly the leadership is wanting to make us act more like a Californian dot-com and less like a global education charity. Less "community consensus building" and more "move fast and break things" - is the message I am reading here.
Can the board please address how it accounts for the geographical proximity and professional-background similarity between three of the four Board-appointed seats? And, whether you would define the WMF as a "tech organisation"?
- Liam / Wittylama
I note we now have on the board:
* Jimmy Wales, who has served as a member of Google's "Advisory Council" * Denny Vrandecic, who is a Google employee * Guy Kawasaki, who has served as special advisor to the CEO of the Motorola business unit of Google * Kelly Battles of Bracket Computing, which partners with Google Cloud Platform * Arnnon Geshuri, who served as Senior Director of HR and Staffing at Google
Did I miss anyone?
The Foundation is also acquiring something of a Tesla connection.
Boryana Dineva, the Wikimedia Foundation VP of Human Resources, was previously Head of HR Systems, HR Operations & Data Analytics at Tesla Motors. Arnnon Geshuri currently serves as VP of Human Resources at Tesla.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Google are linked through Google's $900 million investment in Musk's SpaceX,[1] and Google's $280 million investment in Musk's SolarCity.[2]
The Wikimedia Foundation's top decision-making body is now run by corporates, while James Heilman has been turfed out.
And it seems that Bill Beutler's crystal ball was in good working order when he prophesied that Google would begin to play a bigger role in Wikimedia development in 2016.[3]
I expect further developments will bear him out.
[1] http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/10/google-confirms-it-put-900m-into-spacexs-1... [2] http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/14/technology/google_solarcity/index.htm [3] http://www.beutlerink.com/blog/ten-predictions-for-wikipedia-in-2016/
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 2:09 AM, Liam Wyatt liamwyatt@gmail.com wrote:
Congratulations to Kelly and Arnon in joining the wikiverse at this crucial time in our movement's existence. I hope their expertise - respectively in Finance and HR - will be able to be put to good use!
However, I do have a concern about diversity... Both of these appointees are white Americans from Iowa/Kansas with top-pedigree Silicon Valley resumes.
I note that one of the other appointed WMF-board seats is currently also occupied by Guy, also Silicon Valley, and one of the recently elected community seats is occupied by Denny, who is a manager at Google. They all live and work in the same field and within commuting distance to the WMF office.
I've always believed that Wikimedia is an education charity that happens to exist exists in a technology field. I often note in presentations that I give that the Wikimedia vision statement does NOT use the words, Internet, or Wiki, or Encyclopedia. But these appointments indicate the Board and WMF Executive believe Wikimedia is a technology charity that happens to exists in the education field.
These appointments will make a crucial difference to how the new WMF strategic direction will go - and clearly the leadership is wanting to make us act more like a Californian dot-com and less like a global education charity. Less "community consensus building" and more "move fast and break things" - is the message I am reading here.
Can the board please address how it accounts for the geographical proximity and professional-background similarity between three of the four Board-appointed seats? And, whether you would define the WMF as a "tech organisation"?
- Liam / Wittylama
-- wittylama.com Peace, love & metadata _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hi,
On 01/05/2016 08:01 PM, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
I note we now have on the board:
- Jimmy Wales, who has served as a member of Google's "Advisory Council"
- Denny Vrandecic, who is a Google employee
- Guy Kawasaki, who has served as special advisor to the CEO of the
Motorola business unit of Google
- Kelly Battles of Bracket Computing, which partners with Google Cloud
Platform
- Arnnon Geshuri, who served as Senior Director of HR and Staffing at Google
Did I miss anyone?
I think you missed all the board members who have Google set as their browser's default search engine instead of using DuckDuckGo[1].
But really, I think you should be paying attention to Facebook. We are reliant upon HHVM to run MediaWiki, which is developed by them, as well as Phabricator for bug tracking, which was originally developed by them. Furthermore, our current hardware officer[2] is a Facebook employee.
[1] https://duckduckgo.com/ [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_Officer
-- Legoktm
This is all fascinating and concerning. Most concerning to me is the presence on the board of someone actually on Google's payroll right now. How can Denny not be fatally conflicted in all - or most - board deliberations that involve broad strategy - especially but not only to do with WikiData?
Anthony Cole I'm on the board of Wiki Project Med Foundation.
Anthony Cole
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 3:22 PM, Legoktm legoktm.wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
On 01/05/2016 08:01 PM, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
I note we now have on the board:
- Jimmy Wales, who has served as a member of Google's "Advisory Council"
- Denny Vrandecic, who is a Google employee
- Guy Kawasaki, who has served as special advisor to the CEO of the
Motorola business unit of Google
- Kelly Battles of Bracket Computing, which partners with Google Cloud
Platform
- Arnnon Geshuri, who served as Senior Director of HR and Staffing at
Did I miss anyone?
I think you missed all the board members who have Google set as their browser's default search engine instead of using DuckDuckGo[1].
But really, I think you should be paying attention to Facebook. We are reliant upon HHVM to run MediaWiki, which is developed by them, as well as Phabricator for bug tracking, which was originally developed by them. Furthermore, our current hardware officer[2] is a Facebook employee.
[1] https://duckduckgo.com/ [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_Officer
-- Legoktm
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
I was amused to read the official announcement, which paints the two new appointed white American trustees who "happen" to live and work within an easy commute to the WMF offices in California, as a win for diversity and internationalism.[1]
No, WMF, these were cosy personal network appointments that make the WMF look like a typical "old boys club" with a focus on money, power, growth and do nothing to gain community confidence that your board is going to turn around its strategy into something meaningful and effective for our open knowledge mission over the next two years.
In line with Anthony Cole's comment, the majority of the board should declare a conflict and opt out of any vote that touches on Google, Wikidata etc. but of course the on-going complacent group think will apply.
1. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/01/05/new-wikimedia-foundation-trustees/
Fae
On 6 January 2016 at 07:52, Anthony Cole ahcoleecu@gmail.com wrote:
This is all fascinating and concerning. Most concerning to me is the presence on the board of someone actually on Google's payroll right now. How can Denny not be fatally conflicted in all - or most - board deliberations that involve broad strategy - especially but not only to do with WikiData?
Anthony Cole I'm on the board of Wiki Project Med Foundation.
Anthony Cole
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 3:22 PM, Legoktm legoktm.wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
On 01/05/2016 08:01 PM, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
I note we now have on the board:
- Jimmy Wales, who has served as a member of Google's "Advisory Council"
- Denny Vrandecic, who is a Google employee
- Guy Kawasaki, who has served as special advisor to the CEO of the
Motorola business unit of Google
- Kelly Battles of Bracket Computing, which partners with Google Cloud
Platform
- Arnnon Geshuri, who served as Senior Director of HR and Staffing at
Did I miss anyone?
I think you missed all the board members who have Google set as their browser's default search engine instead of using DuckDuckGo[1].
But really, I think you should be paying attention to Facebook. We are reliant upon HHVM to run MediaWiki, which is developed by them, as well as Phabricator for bug tracking, which was originally developed by them. Furthermore, our current hardware officer[2] is a Facebook employee.
[1] https://duckduckgo.com/ [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_Officer
-- Legoktm
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Congratulations Kelly and Arnnon!
-Hasive WMBD
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 2:14 PM, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
I was amused to read the official announcement, which paints the two new appointed white American trustees who "happen" to live and work within an easy commute to the WMF offices in California, as a win for diversity and internationalism.[1]
No, WMF, these were cosy personal network appointments that make the WMF look like a typical "old boys club" with a focus on money, power, growth and do nothing to gain community confidence that your board is going to turn around its strategy into something meaningful and effective for our open knowledge mission over the next two years.
In line with Anthony Cole's comment, the majority of the board should declare a conflict and opt out of any vote that touches on Google, Wikidata etc. but of course the on-going complacent group think will apply.
Fae
On 6 January 2016 at 07:52, Anthony Cole ahcoleecu@gmail.com wrote:
This is all fascinating and concerning. Most concerning to me is the presence on the board of someone actually on Google's payroll right now. How can Denny not be fatally conflicted in all - or most - board deliberations that involve broad strategy - especially but not only to do with WikiData?
Anthony Cole I'm on the board of Wiki Project Med Foundation.
Anthony Cole
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 3:22 PM, Legoktm legoktm.wikipedia@gmail.com
wrote:
Hi,
On 01/05/2016 08:01 PM, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
I note we now have on the board:
- Jimmy Wales, who has served as a member of Google's "Advisory
Council"
- Denny Vrandecic, who is a Google employee
- Guy Kawasaki, who has served as special advisor to the CEO of the
Motorola business unit of Google
- Kelly Battles of Bracket Computing, which partners with Google Cloud
Platform
- Arnnon Geshuri, who served as Senior Director of HR and Staffing at
Did I miss anyone?
I think you missed all the board members who have Google set as their browser's default search engine instead of using DuckDuckGo[1].
But really, I think you should be paying attention to Facebook. We are reliant upon HHVM to run MediaWiki, which is developed by them, as well as Phabricator for bug tracking, which was originally developed by them. Furthermore, our current hardware officer[2] is a Facebook employee.
[1] https://duckduckgo.com/ [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_Officer
-- Legoktm
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https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
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-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae Personal and confidential, please do not circulate or re-quote.
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2016-01-06 8:52 GMT+01:00 Anthony Cole ahcoleecu@gmail.com:
This is all fascinating and concerning. Most concerning to me is the presence on the board of someone actually on Google's payroll right now. How can Denny not be fatally conflicted in all - or most - board deliberations that involve broad strategy - especially but not only to do with WikiData?
Are you suggesting the removal of another communitee selected board member ? Just checking :)
Anthony Cole I'm on the board of Wiki Project Med Foundation.
Anthony Cole
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 3:22 PM, Legoktm legoktm.wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
On 01/05/2016 08:01 PM, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
I note we now have on the board:
- Jimmy Wales, who has served as a member of Google's "Advisory
Council"
- Denny Vrandecic, who is a Google employee
- Guy Kawasaki, who has served as special advisor to the CEO of the
Motorola business unit of Google
- Kelly Battles of Bracket Computing, which partners with Google Cloud
Platform
- Arnnon Geshuri, who served as Senior Director of HR and Staffing at
Did I miss anyone?
I think you missed all the board members who have Google set as their browser's default search engine instead of using DuckDuckGo[1].
But really, I think you should be paying attention to Facebook. We are reliant upon HHVM to run MediaWiki, which is developed by them, as well as Phabricator for bug tracking, which was originally developed by them. Furthermore, our current hardware officer[2] is a Facebook employee.
[1] https://duckduckgo.com/ [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_Officer
-- Legoktm
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Pierre-Selim asked: "Are you suggesting the removal of another communitee selected board member?"
I'm sure Denny would make a fine adviser. But having a voting board member who is paid by Google, who in turn is almost the (and would like to be the) monopoly commercial vendor of knowledge to the world, strikes me as wrong. That's much too close an embrace.
Anthony Cole
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 6:10 PM, Pierre-Selim pierre-selim@huard.info wrote:
2016-01-06 8:52 GMT+01:00 Anthony Cole ahcoleecu@gmail.com:
This is all fascinating and concerning. Most concerning to me is the presence on the board of someone actually on Google's payroll right now. How can Denny not be fatally conflicted in all - or most - board deliberations that involve broad strategy - especially but not only to do with WikiData?
Are you suggesting the removal of another communitee selected board member ? Just checking :)
Anthony Cole I'm on the board of Wiki Project Med Foundation.
Anthony Cole
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 3:22 PM, Legoktm legoktm.wikipedia@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
On 01/05/2016 08:01 PM, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
I note we now have on the board:
- Jimmy Wales, who has served as a member of Google's "Advisory
Council"
- Denny Vrandecic, who is a Google employee
- Guy Kawasaki, who has served as special advisor to the CEO of the
Motorola business unit of Google
- Kelly Battles of Bracket Computing, which partners with Google
Cloud
Platform
- Arnnon Geshuri, who served as Senior Director of HR and Staffing at
Did I miss anyone?
I think you missed all the board members who have Google set as their browser's default search engine instead of using DuckDuckGo[1].
But really, I think you should be paying attention to Facebook. We are reliant upon HHVM to run MediaWiki, which is developed by them, as well as Phabricator for bug tracking, which was originally developed by
them.
Furthermore, our current hardware officer[2] is a Facebook employee.
[1] https://duckduckgo.com/ [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_Officer
-- Legoktm
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-- Pierre-Selim _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
On 6 January 2016 at 07:52, Anthony Cole ahcoleecu@gmail.com wrote:
This is all fascinating and concerning. Most concerning to me is the presence on the board of someone actually on Google's payroll right now. How can Denny not be fatally conflicted in all - or most - board deliberations that involve broad strategy - especially but not only to do with WikiData?
Given Denny's long history with Wikimedia and his role in Wikidata, I would be more concerned about influence working the other way around ;-)
Is Denny recusing from all discussions and decisions that might affect Google, broadly construed, including decisions involving WikiData?
I'm glad to see two people with Kelly's and Arnnon's expertise on the board.
Anthony Cole
On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 8:53 PM, Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk wrote:
On 6 January 2016 at 07:52, Anthony Cole ahcoleecu@gmail.com wrote:
This is all fascinating and concerning. Most concerning to me is the presence on the board of someone actually on Google's payroll right now. How can Denny not be fatally conflicted in all - or most - board deliberations that involve broad strategy - especially but not only to do with WikiData?
Given Denny's long history with Wikimedia and his role in Wikidata, I would be more concerned about influence working the other way around ;-)
--
- Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk
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Kelly and Arnnon, good to meet you! This is an exciting time to join the movement; your experience and insight will be welcome. I hope you have a chance to share public thoughts from time to time.
Anthere:
I appreciate Kelly is a woman as well. I would suggest changing the
profile picture though, otherwise the fundraising team might hire you to be Jimbo staring eyes replacement.
Now would that be so bad?
But yes, the board is missing a certain breadth of social, regional, and other perspective. We should think about ways to provide that perspective in addition to / more flexible than choosing a couple of trustees each year.
Lodewijk:
And, whether you would define the WMF as a "tech organisation"?
That's a fair question, even though the bulk of the staff do technical work of some sort. There are all-developer organizations that think of themselves as a 'design' or 'entertainment' or 'political' organization, where tech is just one of the powerful tools in their belt. And WMF has at times presented its role as roughly 'tech' + 'community' – facilitating, rather than directly realizing, the mission... and despite that feeling of uniqueness, similar efforts could support almost any mission.
Whether this is the best division of labor for a centralized org, I don't know; Wikimedians have tried other options in different regions, so there are many examples to learn from.
Sam
2016-01-06 5:01 GMT+01:00 Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com:
I note we now have on the board:
- Jimmy Wales, who has served as a member of Google's "Advisory Council"
- Denny Vrandecic, who is a Google employee
- Guy Kawasaki, who has served as special advisor to the CEO of the
Motorola business unit of Google
- Kelly Battles of Bracket Computing, which partners with Google Cloud
Platform
- Arnnon Geshuri, who served as Senior Director of HR and Staffing at Google
Did I miss anyone?
You missed the fact that San Francisco is in California.
The main point is what Liam said, i.e. the lack of geographical and professional diversity of the board, the rest is much more probably a small-world effect[1].
Suggesting a "conspirationist" explanation to this situation is going driving attention away from solving the actual problem.
Cristian [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small-world_experiment
Congratulations from me as well to both Kelly and Arnnon. I wonder if they'll take the plunge and subscribe here? =)
But without in any way questioning their good faith, dedication and fitness for the job (and it is good to see another female appointed), I have to say that I also feel this is a missed opportunity for the WMF. It is not like the "white American with a background in the tech sector" is a particularly under-represented group in our movement. I believe it will be difficult for the WMF to realise it's ambitious goals in operating in developing countries with its current mix of trustees, most of whom are either from continental Europe or the United States.
Cheers, Craig
On 6 January 2016 at 12:09, Liam Wyatt liamwyatt@gmail.com wrote:
Congratulations to Kelly and Arnon in joining the wikiverse at this crucial time in our movement's existence. I hope their expertise - respectively in Finance and HR - will be able to be put to good use!
However, I do have a concern about diversity... Both of these appointees are white Americans from Iowa/Kansas with top-pedigree Silicon Valley resumes.
I note that one of the other appointed WMF-board seats is currently also occupied by Guy, also Silicon Valley, and one of the recently elected community seats is occupied by Denny, who is a manager at Google. They all live and work in the same field and within commuting distance to the WMF office.
I've always believed that Wikimedia is an education charity that happens to exist exists in a technology field. I often note in presentations that I give that the Wikimedia vision statement does NOT use the words, Internet, or Wiki, or Encyclopedia. But these appointments indicate the Board and WMF Executive believe Wikimedia is a technology charity that happens to exists in the education field.
These appointments will make a crucial difference to how the new WMF strategic direction will go - and clearly the leadership is wanting to make us act more like a Californian dot-com and less like a global education charity. Less "community consensus building" and more "move fast and break things" - is the message I am reading here.
Can the board please address how it accounts for the geographical proximity and professional-background similarity between three of the four Board-appointed seats? And, whether you would define the WMF as a "tech organisation"?
- Liam / Wittylama
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On 6 January 2016 at 02:09, Liam Wyatt liamwyatt@gmail.com wrote:
I've always believed that Wikimedia is an education charity that happens to exist exists in a technology field. I often note in presentations that I give that the Wikimedia vision statement does NOT use the words, Internet, or Wiki, or Encyclopedia. But these appointments indicate the Board and WMF Executive believe Wikimedia is a technology charity that happens to exists in the education field.
These appointments will make a crucial difference to how the new WMF strategic direction will go - and clearly the leadership is wanting to make us act more like a Californian dot-com and less like a global education charity. Less "community consensus building" and more "move fast and break things" - is the message I am reading here.
I would like to very much second Liam's concerns here. This feels like we're drifting further into the bubble of SF technology companies, and frankly the world needs less of that not more. I think it's valuable that we have some board members with experience from outside the Wikimedia bubble - but also very important that we try to avoid too large a proportion of the board coming from within the SF technology bubble. This feels like a step sideways in that regard, and it's unsettling.
(I also agree with his concerns about diversity, but we're not always great at solving that through the elected seats either, to be fair...)
Liam Wyatt wrote:
I've always believed that Wikimedia is an education charity that happens to exist exists in a technology field. I often note in presentations that I give that the Wikimedia vision statement does NOT use the words, Internet, or Wiki, or Encyclopedia. But these appointments indicate the Board and WMF Executive believe Wikimedia is a technology charity that happens to exists in the education field.
This is sort of nitpicky, but there's a somewhat important distinction between Wikimedia and the Wikimedia Foundation, though the two are obviously heavily related. Wikimedia is a global movement dedicated to creating free educational content and bringing it to the world. The San Francisco-based Wikimedia Foundation is a large player currently in this movement, mostly due to how fund-raising operates on Wikimedia wikis.
You and I both know this, of course, but we should try to be precise, even if the naming is abominable. :-)
These appointments will make a crucial difference to how the new WMF strategic direction will go - and clearly the leadership is wanting to make us act more like a Californian dot-com and less like a global education charity. Less "community consensus building" and more "move fast and break things" - is the message I am reading here.
The counter-argument: the numeric reality is that a sizable portion of Wikimedia Foundation staff is (and has always been) technology-related. If the Wikimedia Foundation continues to have, as Sue's "narrowed focus" put it, two primary focuses, engineering and grant-making, I think you'd expect/hope that the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees would be experienced and competent in technology and financial administration.
All that said, I don't really disagree with most of your e-mail. The diversity issue is one to always be mindful of. Your main point about what the Wikimedia Foundation is (technology organization in education or education organization in technology) is reasonable. There's https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Guiding_Principles, but I think we're still looking at the larger issue identified in the "Something" thread: the vision for what the Wikimedia Foundation is going to do not in 100 years, but in the next 5 to 10 years, is missing.
The other issue that I see, interwoven with the missing vision, is that the Wikimedia Foundation has ballooned in size and is an incredible outlier within the Wikimedia movement. It's time to consider bolstering the other Wikimedia chapters instead of continuing to create one super-chapter that's unreasonably and unmanageably large. It's time to treat the Wikimedia Foundation as we would Wikimedia California or Wikimedia United States and hold the Wikimedia Foundation to the same standards as we hold Wikimedia DC, Wikimedia DE, and all the others to.
MZMcBride
Dear Board,
I'm deeply grateful that the past, current and new members of the Board have dedicated the 10 hours/week and more to our cause, and both as people and Board functionaries I wish them the best and much success in their lives.
However, the Board as an entity which has energetically lost the trust of both its own staff and that of the broader community who cares about such issues does, in my opinion, owe us all a better backstory for these latest appointees. I would love to hear more about the humanist and visionary bubbles left in their wake, for example a loving and vibrant workplace environment crafted by Arnnon, a scheme to charge no tuition at the Montessori school devised by Kelly... I do believe that these stories must lay deeper beneath the surface of these two, who appear from their CVs to be rich, likeable personalities with impeccable, traditional business management skills. The Board owes it to Kelly and Arnnon, if no one else, to set them up for success by sharing the mission-aligned personal history which makes them desirable appointments to our unique organization.
Perhaps you could request new Board members to write a personal statment, of their vision and the goals they intend to pursue during their time on the Board.
Warmly, Adam Wight Fundraising Tech "the sheepdog" Lead Wikimedia Foundation User:Adamw
On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 5:01 PM, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@alk.edu.pl wrote:
Dear all,
As Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee, I am happy to introduce the two newest members of our Board of Trustees: Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri.
Kelly and Arnnon bring deep expertise in strategy and financial oversight, and diversity and organizational development, and a passionate commitment to advancing Wikimedia’s vision for the world. You can learn more about them in the blog post here: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/01/05/new-wikimedia-foundation-trustees/, and their biographies have been added to the Board of Trustees page, here https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees.
Over the past several weeks, the Board considered many qualified candidates from around the globe. We were looking for people with experience in strategic and organizational development to help guide the Wikimedia Foundation’s future. We were also looking for people with a sense of empathy and cultural awareness, who would value and strengthen the unique culture of our diverse, global movement.
We are excited to announce that with Kelly and Arnnon, we have found exceptional new Trustees who have these qualities, as well as many more. They were approved unanimously by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Both terms are effective Jan 1, 2016 and will last for two years. We look forward to working with them on the Board and toward our mission.
Please join me in welcoming them.
Dariusz _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
2016-01-06 2:01 GMT+01:00 Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@alk.edu.pl:
As Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee, I am happy to introduce the two newest members of our Board of Trustees: Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri.
I realize that my previous email was not the best welcome.
Welcome Kelly and Arnnon to the vibrant (very very very vibrant, probably beyond the "flammable" line) Wikimedia world.
C
Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri are Volunteers?
I am not able to find the volunteer account of both.
With best regards, Steinsplitter
From: kikkocristian@gmail.com Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2016 15:55:14 +0100 To: darekj@alk.edu.pl; wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcing new Wikimedia Foundation Trustees
2016-01-06 2:01 GMT+01:00 Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@alk.edu.pl:
As Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee, I am happy to introduce the two newest members of our Board of Trustees: Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri.
I realize that my previous email was not the best welcome.
Welcome Kelly and Arnnon to the vibrant (very very very vibrant, probably beyond the "flammable" line) Wikimedia world.
C
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On 06/01/2016 16:02, Steinsplitter Wiki wrote:
Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri are Volunteers?
I am not able to find the volunteer account of both.
Since when is (attempted) outing okay because the people involved are trustees?
KTC
I asked if and Arnnon Geshuri are Volunteers. Because there is nothing in the bio like "editor since 2011" for example.
Maybe both have disclosed his volunteer account, i don't know. Therefore i ask.
Calling a simple question "attempted outing" is ridiculous.
To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org From: ktc@ktchan.info Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2016 16:55:41 +0000 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcing new Wikimedia Foundation Trustees
On 06/01/2016 16:02, Steinsplitter Wiki wrote:
Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri are Volunteers?
I am not able to find the volunteer account of both.
Since when is (attempted) outing okay because the people involved are trustees?
KTC
-- Katie Chan Any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of any organisation the author is associated with or employed by.
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On 6 January 2016 at 16:02, Steinsplitter Wiki steinsplitter-wiki@live.com wrote:
Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri are Volunteers?
Unless we''ve started paying WMF board members, then of course they are.
I am not able to find the volunteer account of both
Not every volunteer who contributes to our mission has an account; nor are they required to.
Some edit anonymously (i.e. without logging in), and some help to run events, or contribute in other ways, but don't edit.
Kelly and Aronnon, I will be happy to meet you in meat space at Wikimania in Italy next summer.
In a context where Stu is leaving the board, Kelly expertise will indeed reveal very precious. I am well aware a veteran financial expertise is one critical and difficult to find. I doubt not Stu waited till his replacement was identified before leaving ;) Obviously as well, only a US citizen should take in that position and being located nearby the WMF also appears to me to be an asset. I appreciate Kelly is a woman as well. I would suggest changing the profile picture though, otherwise the fundraising team might hire you to be Jimbo staring eyes replacement.
I am tempted to say that the board is being wise in adding Aronnon, an expert in "growing healthy cultures and organizations, leading innovative practices to identify, attract, and retain great people". Much needed at WMF if rumors are correct.
So, very warm welcome to both of you.
This said, with all due respect, I am also very *disapointed* by the lack of diversity on the current board. Too much white. Too much tech. Too much California. Too much Big Companies related.
That sucks.
Anthere
Le 06/01/16 02:01, Dariusz Jemielniak a écrit :
Dear all,
As Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee, I am happy to introduce the two newest members of our Board of Trustees: Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri.
Kelly and Arnnon bring deep expertise in strategy and financial oversight, and diversity and organizational development, and a passionate commitment to advancing Wikimedia’s vision for the world. You can learn more about them in the blog post here: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/01/05/new-wikimedia-foundation-trustees/, and their biographies have been added to the Board of Trustees page, here https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees.
Over the past several weeks, the Board considered many qualified candidates from around the globe. We were looking for people with experience in strategic and organizational development to help guide the Wikimedia Foundation’s future. We were also looking for people with a sense of empathy and cultural awareness, who would value and strengthen the unique culture of our diverse, global movement.
We are excited to announce that with Kelly and Arnnon, we have found exceptional new Trustees who have these qualities, as well as many more. They were approved unanimously by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Both terms are effective Jan 1, 2016 and will last for two years. We look forward to working with them on the Board and toward our mission.
Please join me in welcoming them.
Dariusz _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Interesting to note Arnnon's role in the Silicon Valley anti-poaching affair: http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/27/2753701/no-poach-scandal-unredacted-steve-...
- Andrew
On 06/01/16 04:39 PM, Florence Devouard wrote:
Kelly and Aronnon, I will be happy to meet you in meat space at Wikimania in Italy next summer.
In a context where Stu is leaving the board, Kelly expertise will indeed reveal very precious. I am well aware a veteran financial expertise is one critical and difficult to find. I doubt not Stu waited till his replacement was identified before leaving ;) Obviously as well, only a US citizen should take in that position and being located nearby the WMF also appears to me to be an asset. I appreciate Kelly is a woman as well. I would suggest changing the profile picture though, otherwise the fundraising team might hire you to be Jimbo staring eyes replacement.
I am tempted to say that the board is being wise in adding Aronnon, an expert in "growing healthy cultures and organizations, leading innovative practices to identify, attract, and retain great people". Much needed at WMF if rumors are correct.
So, very warm welcome to both of you.
This said, with all due respect, I am also very *disapointed* by the lack of diversity on the current board. Too much white. Too much tech. Too much California. Too much Big Companies related.
That sucks.
Anthere
Le 06/01/16 02:01, Dariusz Jemielniak a écrit :
Dear all,
As Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee, I am happy to introduce the two newest members of our Board of Trustees: Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri.
Kelly and Arnnon bring deep expertise in strategy and financial oversight, and diversity and organizational development, and a passionate commitment to advancing Wikimedia’s vision for the world. You can learn more about them in the blog post here: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/01/05/new-wikimedia-foundation-trustees/, and their biographies have been added to the Board of Trustees page, here https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees.
Over the past several weeks, the Board considered many qualified candidates from around the globe. We were looking for people with experience in strategic and organizational development to help guide the Wikimedia Foundation’s future. We were also looking for people with a sense of empathy and cultural awareness, who would value and strengthen the unique culture of our diverse, global movement.
We are excited to announce that with Kelly and Arnnon, we have found exceptional new Trustees who have these qualities, as well as many more. They were approved unanimously by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Both terms are effective Jan 1, 2016 and will last for two years. We look forward to working with them on the Board and toward our mission.
Please join me in welcoming them.
Dariusz
On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 8:01 PM, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@alk.edu.pl wrote:
Dear all,
As Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee, I am happy to introduce the two newest members of our Board of Trustees: Kelly Battles and Arnnon Geshuri.
Welcome to Kelly and Arnnon, and I wish you every success in this complex organization at this complex moment! I am excited to have your expertise in our movement.
I'm also pleased because financial expertise is one of the crucial qualities that the prior board recruitment committee (which I was on) identified as being needed for these seats, especially with the departure of Stu. We also identified large organization management experience and experience with technology organizations as two potential qualities we wanted in trustees, and both seem to bring this. It is also useful to have a few people experienced in Silicon Valley on the board, as that is the environment, for better or for worse, in which the foundation and its technology development operates.
I do agree with those who have raised the question of diversity in these candidates. The great strength of our board is its diversity in the backgrounds of board members. In general, I would like to see trustees from other places besides the US and western Europe, bringing a new set of experiences to the table, and -- though I am well aware of the challenges in recruiting trustees, having done it myself -- would thus love to see our scope widened for future trustee searches. This is a hard problem because, as I think all of the current trustees know well, we have many needs for our board: we need people with backgrounds in education (large and small); with ICT and mobile; with finance and organizations; with Wikimedia communities specifically and consensus-driven communities generally; with multilingual communities; with knowledge generation; with technology strategy. And we need those people to represent the globe.
That said I would attempt to avoid equating people's strengths as trustees solely with their backgrounds. (And of course when people leave we will never get a 1-1 replacement, so even if we thought past trustees had important experiences this tranche of the board will be different.) Having seen a number of really excellent people join the board over the years, what trustees prove to be good at in board work, or not, is sometimes surprising. At any rate, I look forward to meeting Kelly and Arnnon, and congratulations to the committee in a successful recruitment.
best, Phoebe
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