[Foundation-l] Ethics (was: Corporate Social Responsibility)

[Noein]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

What I thought was a simple question has generated a volley of strong
answers, even some hostility. This was not the original topic. So I will
wrap my intervention and be gone for a while.

==Representation==
As far as I know, there is no survey of the wikimedians on what they
think about the transparency of the Foundation and about the salaries of
the employees. From my side, I always ask people what they think. In my
life I listened to people of all ethnics and social classes from any
country.
So I'm doing an educated guess, based on my eclectic experiences and
relationships, about the Foundation (and possibly the Chapters) not
representing the consensus of the community (*). But don't throw your
stones yet, and answer to yourself three questions:
Do you care about what the community thinks?
Do you have information about what it thinks?
Is your circle of relationships and culture a good sample of the people
concerned by the wikipedia project?

Apparently, most of the people in this mailing list are living in one of
the most expensive microcosmos of the world, with the highest standards
of life. In contrast, the drama about having microwaved food and an old
car is incomprehensible to 6 billions of people. I do understand it,
though, but your views need to be challenged.

Instead of explaining how normal, justified and even lowly paid is your
way of life, did anyone put things in a bigger perspective? 150 000$ a
year puts someone in the 0.33% top of the world [1]. Even 5000$ a month
puts you in the 0.91% top. I'm not aiming at any individual in
particular but showing the economical elitism of the Foundation in the
worldwide context.
And by the way, as a contrasting sidenote to the declarations made on
this list about the price of legal advising, some associations do it for
free [2]. All I'm asking here, is whether this approach was ever
considered and tried?


==Ethics==
The dozens of thousands of dedicated volunteers prove that the mission
of Wikipedia is of an ethical essence. It is thus mandatory for the
representatives and leaders to recognize it and share it. Despising or
denying the ethical considerations is a mistake which can only end with
the disavowing of an informed community.

I've been wondering for a while how the dedicated volunteers were
keeping faith in their abnegation when some people were getting paid for
the same work, or worse, for transforming the volunteer work into money
- - which I find discouraging and disturbing. It seems that opacity is one
of the answers. Things are done discreetly [3][4] and confidentially [5].

Unless the Foundation aims to transform the Wikipedia into a
rich-countries-centered money-making-machine, (and the doubling of the
paid staff for a doubling of the fundraising is quite ambiguous to
interpret), compliance with legal requirements will not suffice: I don't
see other path than ethical consciousness to authentically reach all
mankind.

I've been asked to suggest concrete proposals. This would be useless as
long as there is a majoritary denial. We can't discuss solutions while
there is no awareness of the problem. And this lack of perception should
be the first problem to be addressed.


Having said that, I will retire from the discussion for a while. I need
some perspective too. Once again, bear in mind that I mean no offense.


(*): and remember that some - or in fact, most - communities are absent,
as the current thread about american-africans shows.

[1]: http://www.globalrichlist.com/
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Freedom_Law_Center
[3]: What's hidden in this page? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Book
[4]: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_thanks_Virgin_Unite
[5]:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaannounce-l/2010-October/000069.html
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJM62PUAAoJEHCAuDvx9Z6LWIYH/3XapRiU4VvQABdthjFrAPxu
NnJa+9kc/xRa/z25xprbrSojjunn4Cp5XyO3ZwQfiQB9xy31EdZxCT7wiXxxKIE6
bno2iS4kMTR8bWSb35/7yAVMDNQ/jrjAsm4k+sJl5V+mTOs5dIVflB6fyrXIPDBS
J9gntD4n68PXnyrbozL1NxlFVgUeCnR6knApxXecBsxEdbReEQHZCQARkxWmNAPY
t1QaRTveQXSnmzbVCwj0IoeSHhb0W+wal84Zu5Ljx/+DtpFJfTOqe4isM2sYjVmC
VzcYm1d4yFQiGxgMTwd/KAPmwRT8iMYy3TwinJLJRcqeIgL1Krgu6zFjtDOQmZ0=
=Ghuu
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----