[Foundation-l] Omidyar network press release and QA / Board Announcement

[Jay Walsh]

Hi all,

It's been an extraordinary day here at Wikimania in several senses of  
the term.  I know there has been some discussion about the perceived  
directions and timing of communications on the list.

At this point the WMF and our latest funding partner, the Omidyar  
Network, have both released the great news about this $2mm, 2 year  
grant.  At the same time I have also released a press release with  
details about the new Board appointments.

The Board Announcement can be found here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Board_Announcements_August_2009

The Omidyar Network press release can be found here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Omidyar_Network_Grant_August_2009

And a related Q&A can be found here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Omidyar_Network_Grant_August_2009QA

I can absolutely assure you that our intention from the beginning has  
been to share this great news with the Foundation list before sending  
out publicly - notably in the form of a communication from the Board,  
in this case Michael Snow.  The timing and fairly significant  
circumstances this year (most notably some internet connectivity and  
cellular problems in Buenos Aires) meant that the planned timing of  
our announcement with the Omidyar Network didn't play out as I would  
have hoped.  I've just now been able to get the news out and also  
start taking media calls on both of these announcements.

This was also somewhat compounded by the considerable media interest  
in coverage of some flagged revisions stories (it's important to  
respond to every request we get - we want to get the story right).  We  
were also strongly focussed on the logistics and planning of this  
year's press conference leading up to the beginning of tomorrow's  
events.  And we're a small group of responders here on the ground at  
Wikimania :)

I apologize for any confusion or if the impression was created that we  
were not intending to share this information with the community in our  
normal practice.  It was not so great timing and mostly technology  
hiccups.

The good news is that we're seeing some positive coverage of this  
wonderful and generous grant in the press already - especially as it  
follows the news of last week's Hewlett Foundation grant.  I'm now  
starting to also see coverage of the new Board appointments, which is  
also very exciting news here at Wikimania.

And let's not forget, there is a fairly important event taking place  
in our midst!  We had a wonderful turn-out of press from Argentina and  
from abroad.  There are some amazing sessions planned and I'm  
confident we'll see even more coverage for the good work of Wikimedia  
in the next few days.  I think this is the biggest kind of news week  
we could hope for - and I'm glad we have lots of positive developments  
to share.

Thanks,

Jay


Head of Communications
WikimediaFoundation.org
blog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 609, @jansonw