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

[Casey Brown]

On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 10:39 PM, Theo10011 <de10011 at gmail.com> wrote:
> However, the issue of advocacy is not generally agreed upon by the entire
> community. SOPA blackout was the first and official action of its kind,
> before we consider an advocacy department, do we have consensus that it is
> something we should seek actively?

"Advocacy" is a much more general term in this context than people
seem to be taking it as. It does not mean lobbying or fighting for
something controversial with outside organizations. As I understand
it, it's the opposite: advocating to the Wikimedia Foundation on
behalf of the community.

The new "Community Advocacy" staff do what they've always done --
represent the community to the Wikimedia Foundation, liaise, and
advocate for their issues. Taking into account Philippe's last role,
reader relations, it probably also includes advocating for the readers
as well. This just spins it off into its own department and gives it a
name that more clearly defines what it does.

Many organizations, especially membership associations, have positions
devoted to advocacy like this. They're the contact people that
represent the broader group to the rest of the organization and bring
up issues that they want dealt with.

-- 
Casey Brown
Cbrown1023