[Foundation-l] Money, politics and corruption

[Stuart West]

Just a quick follow-up on this thread.  On the Wikimedia Foundation's Board
I currently serve as the Chair of the Audit Committee (
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Audit_committee).  One of the Audit
Committee's duties is to ensure appropriate review of fraud, abuse, waste,
or other wrongdoing.  I encourage anyone with specific concerns to reach out
to me directly.  I would of course respect the wishes of anyone who wants to
remain anonymous.  Thanks.

-s

==================
Stu West
User:Stu
stu <at> wikimedia.org

On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 3:30 PM, Milos Rancic <millosh at gmail.com> wrote:

> Besides having a great time on Wikimania, I've heard a number of
> complains which put a shadow on a really great event. At some point of
> time I was even a bit depressed.
>
> I was thinking a lot about should I raise this issue or not; and if
> yes, then how. After the first issue I thought not to talk about it at
> all. After the second, I thought that it is better not to talk. After
> the third, I thought that I should contact some people privately.
> After the fourth I've realized that I should talk about it publicly.
> Then a couple of more issues came which convinced me that I have to
> talk about that publicly. We are open community and serious issues,
> those which affect many people, should be discussed publicly.
>
> I will talk without mentioning names, but I will try to be precise
> enough. In other words, I don't want to talk about people and
> organizations, but about problems. Taking care about problems is much
> more important than making witch hunts.
>
> It also should be noted that all of those problems are "natural" and I
> don't see that any of them is able to hurt Wikimedia movement, if we
> put it under control. It also should be noted that there are many
> successful corrupted organizations, like FIFA and OIC are. However, I
> hope that we won't go that way.
>
> I've heard about two serious corruption issues among chapters. And as
> I am living in a deeply corrupted country, I am personally very upset
> with this. However, those two cases are too obvious not to be
> recognized and fixing is in ongoing phase. However, I am very deeply
> concerned about what is going with the rest of 20+ chapters. And what
> will happen with them when they are able to become corrupted. We need
> an audit system for checking how things are going on in all chapters.
> In this case I am much more concerned about chapters than about WMF,
> but it would be good to have a common international body which would
> audit all of the important issues among chapters and WMF.
>
> What I am able to realize a couple of months earlier, everybody are
> able to realize when those things become public. I've already
> mentioned privately that I am deeply concerned with the connection
> with US business interests and present WMF strategy (not to be
> confused with whole Strategic Planning, but partially yes). It is now
> a public issue, although my concern has been seen by very limited
> number of people. And I am quite sure that it was not about spreading
> my concern via informal channels, but about recognizing the problem by
> a number of Wikimedians separately. I hope that Strategy Planning will
> fix those problems -- if properly implemented.
>
> There is a split between those who are coming from rich and poor
> countries. Wikimania social networking was about various groups. I am
> lucky that I am connected well and that I know where should I ask and
> what should I ask. However, there are Wikimedians who are not well
> connected and who don't know where to ask and what to ask. I am also
> from a country similar to Poland and I had a feeling like I am just in
> a little bit weird city of my own country. But, many Wikimedians came
> from very different parts of the world, as well as they were not able
> to buy their confidence. If we want to be a global movement, we have
> to think about them. It is not just about Wikimanias, it is about
> every social interaction in which Wikimedia is involved. Thus, I fully
> support Wikimedia Israel initiative for helping spreading Wikimedia
> projects into developing world. And if organizations from Israel are
> not welcomed everywhere, there are many other Wikimedia chapter which
> could help.
>
> Wikimedia is now a global movement and global culture. It is not
> anymore a site with cool content, but an organization and movement
> with worldwide impact. *All* decisions of WMF, chapters and their
> bodies are now political decisions in the international sense. So,
> *before* making *any* decision, please consider political impact of
> your decision. If you need help, you can ask various Wikimedians or
> hire a professional in international relations.
>
> WMF and chapters have enough money now to be attracted by careerists.
> Persons who try to put themselves as "mid-players", between Wikimedia
> organizations and people and organizations who are working with WM
> organizations. WMF and chapters should be explicit in noting to
> everybody that such behavior is not acceptable and to Wikimedians that
> they are safe of it.
>
> Closely connected with the previous previous is the fact that many
> Wikimedians feel that they are alienated from Wikimedia leadership
> (not just WMF and staff, but more about some amorphous mass of
> influential Wikimedians). There was an incident in Dormitory 6 because
> of misunderstanding between organizers and dormitory management. I
> would say that it shouldn't be a big deal, as such problems can happen
> everywhere. What was not usual is the reaction of the part of
> Wikimedians who were there. Some of them were cool and just somewhat
> frustrated because of this. However, the reaction and feeling of the
> other part was "We shouldn't call them [WMF and organizers]. They will
> not help us. They don't care for us. They have fun in the city,
> although we have problems here."
>
> This feeling is irrational in the particular case. Organizers took
> care about them, of course. However, I didn't hear this from a couple
> of well connected Wikimedians who were there. I didn't hear it from
> Europeans and inhabitants of other OECD countries. I've heard this
> from not so rich Wikimedians who were far away from home; from those
> who felt insecure in a distant country and who feel a gap between
> those with money (and/or connections) and them.
>
> This list is consisted of our first serious real-world problems. Yes,
> I know that we used to be virtual, online, onwiki. I know that those
> problems are new for us. But if we want to stay as a global movement,
> we have to fix them. Otherwise, we'll be just another attempt for
> creating a decadent society which main purpose is to make fun for rich
> and wannabe rich. And, by the way, to explain to poor how rich world
> looks like.
>
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