[Foundation-l] [WikiEN-l] Jimmy Wales in the news

[Anthony]

On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 5:20 AM, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Nathan wrote:
>  > <quote>
>  >
>  > *In an interview with The Associated Press, Florence Devouard, who chairs
>  > the Wikimedia Foundation, defended Wales and said he had simply been "slow
>  > in submitting receipts." She pointed out that the foundation rejected the
>  > steakhouse expense.*
>  >
>  > *A short time later, in an e-mail exchange with her fellow board members,
>  > Devouard reported that she had persuaded the AP that "the money story was a
>  > no story." Yet she proceeded to indicate the opposite, upbraiding Wales for
>  > having asked the foundation to pay the steakhouse tab.*
>  >
>  > *"I find (it) tiring to see how you are constantly trying to rewrite the
>  > past," she wrote to Wales in the message, which was obtained by the AP. "Get
>  > a grip!"*
>  >
>  > </quote>
>  > True?
>  >
>  > Nathan
>
>  Yeah. The first quote comes from a direct discussion I had with the
>  journalist. The two other quotes were taken from two different emails
>  sent to the comcom list.
>
>  The comcom list is supposingly an internal list to deal with
>  communication issues. A *private* and *confidential* list.
>  Unfortunately, some members of that list (and I have no idea who) are
>  also leaking information. It also happened on internal-l some time ago
>  (again, no idea who is the author of the leak).
>
>  We are currently in an odd situation. I wish from all my heart that we
>  be transparent as much as possible. But for all the transparency in the
>  world, there are stuff that is just internal discussion, cases where we
>  need to discuss openly without the fear that it will make the headlines
>  the next day. Unfortunately, there is now no way we can be certain that
>  a discussion we have anywhere, be it irc, email or phone, will not be
>  leaked.
>
>  These are very sad times.
>

I'm sorry Florence, but if this issue had been brought into the open
*nearly two years ago* when *I* first started hearing the rumors (so a
lot of people must have already known about it by then), this would
have been taken care of then and wouldn't have even made any headlines
(maybe Slashdot, but not the Associated Press, anyway).  Instead, the
board and staff chose to try to cover things up, and now you've all
dug yourself a very deep hole.

You're right about one thing: "there is now no way we can be certain
that a discussion we have anywhere, be it irc, email or phone, will
not be leaked".  Of course, that's something that has always been
true.  That's why you don't lie to reporters and to the public.  And
that's why you admit problems before they snowball out of hand.

I'm posting this to foundation-l, both because it's more on topic here
and because I'm on moderation on wikien-l.  I was put on moderation
there by David Gerard for urging you, on that list, to come out with
this story before Danny.  Had you listened to me then you could have
at least gotten your spin out ahead of time.  I even suggested the
spin: "they did, but then they got caught and now they've stopped" --
& provide detailed evidence that this is the case.

Believe it or not, my suggestion was made because I felt that it would
be in all of our interests if you followed it.  And I second the
suggestion today.  This story still hasn't completely broken - I
suggest you get it out into the open sooner rather than later.

Anthony