[Foundation-l] Official Positions

[Jimmy Wales]

Although many people do wonderful for Wikimedia and its projects, I
would like to formally recognize a few of those people today. Daniel
Mayer has had the title of Chief Financial Officer for the last year,
and has done some amazing work in this role, often despite being in
the difficult situation of not having access to the Foundation's bank
account. I would like to invite him to continue in this role for the
following year, with the promise of getting him better access to the
data, by changing banks if necessary.  (Don't get me started about
stupid online banking systems!)

In addition, there are a number of positions where it would be
extremely useful to the Foundation to have a key person the Board can
maintain contact with, and as such, I would like to appoint the
following people, subject to them being happy with these positions:

Chief Technical Officer (servers and development): Brion Vibber
Hardware Officer: Domas Mituzas
Developer Liaison: Jens Frank
Chief Research Officer: Erik Möller
Grants Coordinator: Danny Wool
Press Officer: Elian
Lead Legal co-ordination: Jean-Baptiste Soufron

Angela has written some brief descriptions of these roles at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Official_position#New_positions_proposed
but the exact tasks are not yet defined, and will more likely become
apparent as each of these people makes the role their own.

I would encourage these people to work closely with, and even help to
formulate committees within Wikimedia. Sj has made a very good
suggestion at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Official_position#Special_Interest_Groups
for a number of Special Interest Groups. These appointed positions do
not have any special power within any of those groups, but serve as a
point of contact to the Board, and to the community, to ensure that
information is flowing between all concerned parties within their own
fields of expertise. The appointment is a reflection of the work these
people are already doing in these areas, and should not be seen as a
disincentive to others to become involved.  (To the contrary, I hope
that formal recognition and appreciation can serve as a further
incentive, not that we really need a lot of that since everyone is
working so hard already!)

-- Jimbo