[WikiEN-l] Jimmy Wales in the news

[Erik Moeller]

On 3/4/08, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> Any idea where Danny got that idea from? Is it purely imagination, or
>  was there some wine incident?

As geni pointed out, he did not actually make that claim. His blog
entry is carefully constructed to do the maximum damage to the
reputation of the Foundation and to Jimmy Wales personally, without
making many (any?) actionable, specific claims. (Not that legal action
against trash blogs would actually be a good idea -- it only gives
them the attention that they seek.)

Generally speaking, at the time when Jimmy was essentially still
running the Foundation, the organization was tiny (first employee in
2005) and didn't have the kinds of reimbursement procedures and
controls you'd expect, so what'd happen is that Jimmy would scribble
"Wikia" on a receipt, or maybe lose it entirely. Then there would be
some back and forth about what it meant, etc. When anything was in
doubt, Jimmy would write the Foundation a check later to make sure
everything was fully covered. In fact, he hasn't claimed many expenses
which would be perfectly reasonable.

Organizations aren't born with benefits packages, financial controls,
and reimbursement policies; they develop them over time.  Wikimedia is
now under professional management, and these matters are handled as
you would expect, with expense sheets, travel policies, a requirement
for receipts or other documentation, and so forth. But back in the
day, they weren't. It doesn't take a lot of creative energy to use the
inherent messiness of a young start-up organization as the basis for
making outrageous claims, and it takes, frankly, a lot of time and
energy to undo the damage caused.
-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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