[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcement: Building a new Legal and Community Advocacy Department & Promotion of Philippe Beaudette

[Theo10011]

I believe Liam puts it very close to how I read the announcement.

Does this mean Pb is a Chief now? or will that department still be under
community/Zack?

Also, how does the relation between legal come into this. Is Geoff also in
charge of this department or is legal separate from this?

And before I forget, Congratulations Pb!

Regards
Theo

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 8:05 AM, Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'll admit that that's what I thought it meant when I read it too - that
> the WMF was setting up a congressional lobbying department. So it's not
> that an outrageous thing to assume. From the link it says that you will be
> (in part) focusing on "...seeking ways to increase capacity to safeguard
> the movement’s reputation and support the advancement of legal conditions
> that support our movement." but it also says that you'll be "Setting up
> international meet-ups that recognize and support the role of
> administrators and functionaries, including brainstorming ways that WMF can
> better help these critical roles within our movement (e.g., Arbcoms,
> checkusers, OTRS, etc.)". Finally, it also says "This change will transfer
> the community liaison and advocate responsibilities to the Legal and
> Community Advocacy team. This move will allow Zack Exley, Chief Community
> Officer, and his team to focus on editor retention and recruitment work and
> fundraising strategy and implementation".
>
> From this I understand that the new department will be focused on the
> *existing* community (especially those with specialised roles within it)
> and also on the legal aspects of defending free-knowledge globally (such as
> helping Chapters to write submissions to Government policy reviews etc.).
> This will leave Zack's existing department to focus on recruiting new users
> and on the annual fundraiser.
>
> Is that a fair assessment?
>
> Peace, love & metadata
>
>
> On 10 February 2012 13:23, Philippe Beaudette <philippe at wikimedia.org
> >wrote:
>
> > I'm not really sure where you get that, MZ.  Politics and lobbying were
> not
> > mentioned at all.
> >
> > What was mentioned was advocacy... advocacy for the community, in varying
> > roles and flavors.
> >
> > So to clear it up: this is not a lobbying or political wing.  Or anything
> > that even resembles it.  :)
> >
> > There's a reasonable discussion in the page, linked from the
> announcement.
> >
> > pb
> > ___________________
> > Philippe Beaudette
> > Director, Community Advocacy
> > Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
> >
> > 415-839-6885, x 6643
> >
> > philippe at wikimedia.org
> >
> > To check my email volume (and thus know approx how long it will take me
> to
> > respond), go to http://courteous.ly/hpQmqy
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 6:08 PM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Geoff Brigham wrote:
> > > > Today, we are excited to announce the start of our building of a new
> > > > department called the ³Legal and Community Advocacy Department.²
>  This
> > > new
> > > > alignment recognizes that we can combine the best of legal and
> > community
> > > > advocacy to foster new ways to advance the interests of the community
> > > > consistent with the goals and strategies of the Foundation.   For
> > > details,
> > > > please go to http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/LCA_Announcement.
> > > >
> > > > As part of this reorganization, I¹m pleased to announce that Philippe
> > > > Beaudette has been promoted to Director of Community Advocacy.  We
> will
> > > > start engaging our community shortly and enter into a consultation
> > period
> > > > with it to brainstorm how to build the department.  We anticipate
> that
> > it
> > > > will take us about 6-12 months to get the right team and drive the
> new
> > > > department at full speed.
> > > >
> > > > The community is invited to join us on Friday for office hours to
> > discuss
> > > > the new Legal and Community Advocacy Department.  Details for the IRC
> > > chat
> > > > can be found at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours.
> > >
> > > A political (lobbying?) arm of Wikimedia? And the Wikimedia community
> and
> > > Board have said they're okay with this?
> > >
> > > MZMcBride
> > >
> > >
> > >
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