[WikiEN-l] Just what *is* Jimbo's role anyway?

[geni]

On 3/21/07, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) What is Jimbo's financial position with respect to Wikipedia?

he may get some expenses

> Does
> he own any part of servers, software, intellectual property?

like any editor he holds the copyright on his edits and uploads.

> In what
> way, if any, does he profit from it?
>

None.

> 2) What is Jimbo's legal position with respect to Wikipedia?

he is a board member.


>
> 3) What is Jimbo's position as an editor on Wikipedia? Does he have
> the right to ignore consensus? What happens if people disregard his
> right? Can he confer this right on others? How do we distinguish
> between Jimbo as normal editor and Jimbo as editor with godlike
> powers?
>
> 4) Does Jimbo have a leadership position, and if so, of what? Whom
> does he lead? In what way? Is that leadership contestable?

Jimbo's power is due mostly to the community accepting his pronouncements


> 5) What concrete changes have taken place as a result of Jimbo being
> succeeded by Anthere as chairman of the Wikimedia Foundation Board?
> What is the day-to-day effect of these changes?
>

The board doesn't normally get involved in day to day matters. It is
of course impossible to say what would have differed if jimbo had
stayed as chair. Changes since the switchover are basically the
foundation becoming far less ad-hoc.

> 6) What is Jimbo's position as a spokesperson for Wikipedia or the
> Wikimedia Foundation? What does it mean when Jimbo tells the press
> that some change "will probably be going ahead"? Are we to interpret
> that as an order to be obeyed?
>

Up to you. You may find yourself rather outnumbered if you don't but not always.


> 7) Are the answers to any of these questions different for the
> different language Wikipedias, or other Wikimedia projects?
>

Other projects tend to be more independent of the board and the like
anyway. This extends to Jimbo.


-- 
geni