[Wikimedia-l] [Announcement] James Forrester joins WMF as Technical Product Analyst

[James Alexander]

Here here!

It's a pile on at this point but I'm not sure I care. I honestly think this
is one of the best hires the foundation has ever made and am so incredibly
excited that I can't explain it properly. There have always been 2-3
Wikipedians who I would have classified as "I'd give up my right foot to
have them work with us", James would even be in the category of "I'd give
up my own job to have him working here". Having his unique combination of
skills, experience, talent and tact is an enormous boon for us and having
him here will help us not just in the visual editor group but across the
organization.

On a personal level I'm excited to have someone else local to debate
politics, law and economics with even (I already have a taste of how fun
that will be from his visits) even if he is at an advantage because he's
far less likely to ever get drunk while doing it.

James

On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 2:51 PM, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 10:23 AM, Kat Walsh <kat at mindspillage.org> wrote:
> > Also, I am having serious trouble wrapping my mind around James living
> > outside the UK.
>
> We've confirmed through experimental visits to San Francisco that
> James can in fact exist outside the UK in a stable state. But let's
> face it -- we'll either see some significant changes in James'
> Britishness, or we'll see Californians increasingly pick up some new
> and strange habits. I'm betting it's the latter.
>
> On a more personal note, it's kind of funny - James and I probably
> most frequently touched base in person at Wikimania, so whenever he
> visits I get flashbacks of Wikimanias past. With James joining, and
> some other recent additions, it's really gratifying to see WMF be more
> and more a reflection of who we are.
>
> We're very lucky that the timing has aligned for James to join us for
> the Visual Editor project; I highly doubt we would have been able to
> find the combination of skills (deep community expertise, ability to
> ship product, technical depth) otherwise. He's an old colleague and
> friend, and I look forward to working more closely with him. :-)
>
> --
> Erik Möller
> VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
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-- 
James Alexander
Manager, Merchandise
Wikimedia Foundation
(415) 839-6885 x6716 @jamesofur