[Advocacy Advisors] Participating in a specific, transparency-focused action

[Luis Villa]

Hi, all-
As some of you may have seen, we posted this this morning:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/07/18/wikimedia-foundation-letter-transparency-nsa-prism/

Letting people know that we'd signed on to this letter:

https://www.cdt.org/files/pdfs/weneedtoknow-transparency-letter.pdf

Given last week's discussion here, I wanted to shed a little more light
here on why we signed this:

* Mission/Values: There has been some skepticism (like from MZ) about
whether PRISM is sufficiently related to our mission and values for us to
take action. Without getting into that general question, it is clear that
the Foundation's ability to be transparent with the community is absolutely
critical, so we thought this action was very clearly within the scope of
our mission/values.

* International: This letter is very deliberately focused on an issue
(transparency) that benefits all Wikimedians, not just Americans, and
generally uses language that matches that.

As I said last week, and mention again in the blog post, we'll continue to
look out for opportunities that make sense ourselves, and of course the
community should always feel able and empowered to start things as well.

I will be offline a good chunk of today (moving apartments - bad timing!)
but will try to monitor this thread and respond as quickly as I can to any
questions.

Thanks-
Luis

-- 
Luis Villa
Deputy General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext. 6810

NOTICE: *This message may be confidential or legally privileged. If you
have received it by accident, please delete it and let us know about the
mistake. As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical
reasons I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity.*
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