[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcement: Building a new Legal and Community Advocacy Department & Promotion of Philippe Beaudette

[Philippe Beaudette]

No, I report to Geoff.  Geoff is the "Chief" for the legal and 
community advocacy department.  I run the C.A. side of it. :-)

On Thu Feb  9 18:48:34 2012, Theo10011 wrote:
> I believe Liam puts it very close to how I read the announcement.
>
> Does this mean Pb is a Chief now? or will that department still be under
> community/Zack?
>
> Also, how does the relation between legal come into this. Is Geoff also in
> charge of this department or is legal separate from this?
>
> And before I forget, Congratulations Pb!
>
> Regards
> Theo
>
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 8:05 AM, Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'll admit that that's what I thought it meant when I read it too - that
>> the WMF was setting up a congressional lobbying department. So it's not
>> that an outrageous thing to assume. From the link it says that you will be
>> (in part) focusing on "...seeking ways to increase capacity to safeguard
>> the movement’s reputation and support the advancement of legal conditions
>> that support our movement." but it also says that you'll be "Setting up
>> international meet-ups that recognize and support the role of
>> administrators and functionaries, including brainstorming ways that WMF can
>> better help these critical roles within our movement (e.g., Arbcoms,
>> checkusers, OTRS, etc.)". Finally, it also says "This change will transfer
>> the community liaison and advocate responsibilities to the Legal and
>> Community Advocacy team. This move will allow Zack Exley, Chief Community
>> Officer, and his team to focus on editor retention and recruitment work and
>> fundraising strategy and implementation".
>>
>> From this I understand that the new department will be focused on the
>> *existing* community (especially those with specialised roles within it)
>> and also on the legal aspects of defending free-knowledge globally (such as
>> helping Chapters to write submissions to Government policy reviews etc.).
>> This will leave Zack's existing department to focus on recruiting new users
>> and on the annual fundraiser.
>>
>> Is that a fair assessment?
>>
>> Peace, love & metadata
>>
>>
>> On 10 February 2012 13:23, Philippe Beaudette <philippe at wikimedia.org
>>> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm not really sure where you get that, MZ.  Politics and lobbying were
>> not
>>> mentioned at all.
>>>
>>> What was mentioned was advocacy... advocacy for the community, in varying
>>> roles and flavors.
>>>
>>> So to clear it up: this is not a lobbying or political wing.  Or anything
>>> that even resembles it.  :)
>>>
>>> There's a reasonable discussion in the page, linked from the
>> announcement.
>>>
>>> pb
>>> ___________________
>>> Philippe Beaudette
>>> Director, Community Advocacy
>>> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
>>>
>>> 415-839-6885, x 6643
>>>
>>> philippe at wikimedia.org
>>>
>>> To check my email volume (and thus know approx how long it will take me
>> to
>>> respond), go to http://courteous.ly/hpQmqy
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 6:08 PM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Geoff Brigham wrote:
>>>>> Today, we are excited to announce the start of our building of a new
>>>>> department called the ³Legal and Community Advocacy Department.²
>>  This
>>>> new
>>>>> alignment recognizes that we can combine the best of legal and
>>> community
>>>>> advocacy to foster new ways to advance the interests of the community
>>>>> consistent with the goals and strategies of the Foundation.   For
>>>> details,
>>>>> please go to http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/LCA_Announcement.
>>>>>
>>>>> As part of this reorganization, I¹m pleased to announce that Philippe
>>>>> Beaudette has been promoted to Director of Community Advocacy.  We
>> will
>>>>> start engaging our community shortly and enter into a consultation
>>> period
>>>>> with it to brainstorm how to build the department.  We anticipate
>> that
>>> it
>>>>> will take us about 6-12 months to get the right team and drive the
>> new
>>>>> department at full speed.
>>>>>
>>>>> The community is invited to join us on Friday for office hours to
>>> discuss
>>>>> the new Legal and Community Advocacy Department.  Details for the IRC
>>>> chat
>>>>> can be found at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours.
>>>>
>>>> A political (lobbying?) arm of Wikimedia? And the Wikimedia community
>> and
>>>> Board have said they're okay with this?
>>>>
>>>> MZMcBride
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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