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

[Erik Moeller]

On 3/21/07, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) What is Jimbo's financial position with respect to Wikipedia? Does
> he own any part of servers, software, intellectual property? In what
> way, if any, does he profit from it?

Jimmy does not own any part of the servers, software, or "intellectual
property". These assets are owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, a
tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with offices based in St.
Petersburg, Florida. Jimmy does not stand to benefit financially from
the activities of the Wikimedia Foundation, and is indeed obligated to
recuse himself from any decision making processes where such a
personal benefit could result (such as Board resolutions affecting
Wikia, a separate for-profit company he co-founded).

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

Jimmy is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia
Foundation, which in total has 7 members. The Board of Trustees is the
governing authority of WMF which primarily defines strategy,
coordinates fundraising, and broadly oversees operations of hired
staff. Some Board members (notably the Board Chair and Jimmy) also
have an important role as media representatives, though this is not
presently described formally.

> 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?

This is for the English Wikipedia community to work out. The Wikimedia
Foundation takes no position on these questions.

> 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?

See: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Bylaws#ARTICLE_V_-_OFFICERS_AND_DUTIES

> 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?

There have been some misunderstandings about this, and we agree on the
Board-level that it needs to be clear when Jimmy is speaking as a
member of the English Wikipedia community, and when he is speaking as
a representative of the Wikimedia Foundation. In the case of the
credentials issue, for instance, the Foundation had taken no official
position.

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

Only insofar as they are separate communities which may give different
answers to questions 3) and 4).


-- 
Peace & Love,
Erik

DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of
the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.

"An old, rigid civilization is reluctantly dying. Something new, open,
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