[Foundation-l] Confidentiality agreement with FSF

[Erik Moeller]

On 4/15/08, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> People that aren't working for an organisation that's supposed to be
>  as transparent as possible, sure. That's not the case here. The WMF
>  should not be keeping anything from the community unless they
>  absolutely have to.

It seems fairly obvious to me that transparency, as a value, has to be
balanced with other values and interests. For example, we protect the
privacy of users and donors. We do not disclose salaries of all staff
members. And we won't disclose information if it actively hurts the
interests and needs of an organization we're working with. All these
strike me as completely defensible.

I am with you when it comes to maximizing transparency, and having
constructive debates about how that can be done. If you want to have
this discussion about this particular case, then for obvious reasons,
I would want to have the discussion with all the facts on the table --
and right now, that's not possible.

What I can say to you is that the ongoing process of negotiation and
license development has been an extremely complex and exhausting one,
one which we as an organization have been engaged in to give the
community more choice over the future of its content. It's not
particularly motivating to be second guessed on every step of the way
and to have your own motives questioned in this process. This entire
discussion has an undertone of the assumption of bad faith which I
find very damaging. We're working towards the same goal. I am a
Wikipedian. My interest here is no different from yours.

To me, living the value of transparency primarily means: thinking
about it all the time, and about ways in which it can be implemented.
It doesn't mean sharing information without regard for the
consequences, and in the process, damaging relationships, processes,
and outcomes.

-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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