[Foundation-l] jobs

[Kelly Martin]

On 6/1/06, Anthere <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Right. I have one job for you. I forwarded on checkuser list yesterday
> an email of someone complaining of misuse of checkuser on fi. I do not
> have the time to study the case. You are in charge of exploring the
> issue, clarify if there was blantant abuse (in this case, please ask us
> to remove the status) or mostly ignorance (in that case, please inform
> the checkuser). Do you accept the job ?

I'll look into it.  Note that I lack much insight into fi policy or
events, and as I cannot read Finnish, cannot examine their project
pages to meaningfully determine if CheckUser was used inappropriately
there.  To whom may I refer questions of that nature?

If you ever have anything else of this or any other nature which you
think I might be able to help with, please feel free to email me
*directly* (or chat with me on IRC).  I do not reliably read the
public mailing lists; the signal-to-noise ratio is too low on the
public lists and my free time too limited.  I guarantee that any mail
addressed directly to me will be read within 24 hours unless I am ill
or traveling.

> Interesting question.
> Is the job of a board member
> 1) define the strategy of the Foundation in the long run
> 2) manage everyday operations of the organisation
> 3) focus on human management of volunteers
>
>
> According to books, it is 1. According to reality, it is 2. According to
> wishes, is it 3 ?

The proper duty of the board is to steer the organization, that is,
item 1 above.  Item 2 should be handled by the paid professional staff
of the foundation, but the Board has been reluctant to date to hire
paid professional staff, and so has to do those items in lieu of
having them done by that staff.  This is one of the major mistakes
that the Board has made to date, and until they correct it they will
forever be struggling to deal with matters they should not have to
deal with anyway.  Item 3 falls within the scope of "managing everyday
operations" and should also be handled either by paid professional
staff or a volunteer selected by and managed by the paid professional
staff.

I have no intention of suggesting that the Board should be doing more
than it is doing.

> Let me see... I need
>
> 1) someone with good knowledge of cell phones to help us figure what we
> could do with wikipedia and cell phone (technical description). Able to
> answer all emails on OTRS of cell-phone people proposing various
> partnership.

Not an area I know much about.

> 2) Someone with good graphical skills to improve the look of a CD for
> kids 7-13. And make the external jacket. Speaking french will be a bonus.

My graphics arts skills are about as good as my French.

> 3) Someone to clean up and rearrange all pages on meta related to the
> Foundation. Good english skills required as well as knowledge of the
> Foundation structure

I find the current structure confusing (at least once one gets beyond
the Board itself), and freely admit that I do not understand it.  On
the other hand, my English skills are reasonably good.

> 4) Someone to update various pages on the foundation website. To check
> the discrepancies between the english version and the other languages
> version. To contact the various editors responsiable of this version to
> tell them about the discrepancies. Require : access to WMF site and good
> communication skills.

I lack the requisite access to the Foundation site, and being
monolingual cannot help much with reconciliations of translations.

> 5) A baby-sitter at Wikimania for my baby. Skills : knowledge of kids.
> Plump preferred. Male, female, trans welcome. Date and location : early
> august in Boston.

If I go to Wikimania at all, I suspect I will be going to attend
events and actually try to accomplish something productive.  And if I
wanted to watch a child while doing this, it would be my own.  Sorry.

> 6) A lawyer or legal counselling to fix broken contracts received on
> OTRS. Skills required : patience and availability.

Not a lawyer (althougb not legally clueless), nor do I understand what
you mean by "fixing broken contracts received on OTRS".

> 7) Checkuser issue : it seems the privacy policy, the checkuser policy
> are not making everyone happy. I am looking for someone to review both
> and make new proposals. Additional jobs : doing stats of useage. Asking
> Brion to add a system to allow easier consulting. Skills : tough skin.

Please write me privately about this.

> 8) OTRS assistant : job, improve the spam filter. OR, clean up the board
> queue.

I have no access to the board queue, although I've been working OTRS
for several months now.  The spam filter is a technical issue that I
don't know much about (the spam filter I use at work is a commercial
product sold by Sophos and I don't know much about how it works, just
how to make it work, and I'm not knowledgeable of the solution being
used now).  I freely admit that my open-source technical skills are
rusty.

> 9) Fundraising assistant : someone to help Mav to write a resolution
> allowing the creation of that committee. Then, help to make a GREAT
> fundraising before summer. Skills : being creative with good
> communication ability. Urgent job.

Not an area I'm good at.

> 10) Business development : I need someone to help figuring out how much
> are trademarks are worth. Example : if we make a dvd, how much to ask
> per item. If we make a board game : how much to ask per item.

I have past experience in this area.  Write me privately.

> 11) Also in business development. I need someone to collect the names
> and addresses of all mirrors (in all languages) and to contact them one
> by one to propose them a live feed; Will require to contact translators
> to fix languages templates. Should get a tech description from Brion.
> Skills and various : should have tech knowledge and OTRS access.
> Multilingual preferred.

Write me privately about this one, too.

Kelly