Today, we are excited to announce the start of our building of a new department called the “Legal and Community Advocacy Department.” This new alignment recognizes that we can combine the best of legal and community advocacy to foster new ways to advance the interests of the community consistent with the goals and strategies of the Foundation. For details, please go to http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/LCA_Announcement.

As part of this reorganization, I’m pleased to announce that Philippe Beaudette has been promoted to Director of Community Advocacy. We will start engaging our community shortly and enter into a consultation period with it to brainstorm how to build the department. We anticipate that it will take us about 6-12 months to get the right team and drive the new department at full speed.

The community is invited to join us on Friday for office hours to discuss the new Legal and Community Advocacy Department. Details for the IRC chat can be found at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours.

Geoff Brigham
General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation