Just a quick correction, you say that "Even a paid researcher on a
university project would not meet this definition, unless the project were
part funded or in partnership with Wikimedia. "
This is not quite accurate: even a student on a university project would
meet this definition if his university had:
1. Signed a quick
licence<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trademark/License/GLAM> (an
agreement between the University and the WMF)
2. Paid for the student's scholarship (a contracted payment from the
University to the student)
This would apply under the current definition *even if* *the student's
studies are entirely unrelated to Wikimedia.* This is because the student
would be a "contractor" of an "organizations having [an agreement] with
Wikimedia".
It could easily be read that a 'paid volunteer':
- "Has to be an employee, contractor or part time contractor of [anyone
who has signed any agreement with any Wikimedia organisation or person
describing themselves as part of Wikimedia].
- Has to [contribute to Wikimedia, but not necessarily edit].
- This includes [anyone whose employer benefits from Wikimedia in any
way]."
I know that this seems hysterical, but experience has shown that we need to
define these things accurately, and the definition is much too broad at
present. It has the effect of including all employees and contractors (even
unpaid) of all organisations which have ever so much as signed a single
page agreement with anyone from "Wikimedia". We have to ask:
1. How are we defining "Wikimedia"? Does it include, say, user groups?
Could it include single persons in some cases?
2. Why are we including people who are not actually paid to edit the
projects, but might be paid to, for example, mine coal - but edit the
projects when they get home?
3. Does this include organisations where there is an "unwritten
agreement"? What about a draft agreement?
A complex issue!
Richard Symonds
Wikimedia UK
0207 065 0992
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
On 4 April 2014 16:49, Fæ <faewik(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 4 April 2014 14:33, Gryllida
<gryllida(a)fastmail.fm> wrote:
On Fri, 4 Apr 2014, at 22:14, Fæ wrote:
> *Definition of "paid volunteer":*
> Paid volunteers are employees, contractors or part time contractors of
> Wikimedia organizations or other organizations having agreements or
> partnerships with Wikimedia. The paid volunteer contributes to Wikimedia
> projects and discussions that influence the content of Wikimedia
projects.
> This includes employees and contractors that
may not be paid for their
> on-project activities, however their employer benefits from the content
of
> the same projects.
...
If I am a student and write wikipedia articles
about commercial software
my university uses in my free time, I satisfy this
definition. However, I
would have no conflict of interest here, as neither I nor my university
gets paid for the new information I would write.
...
I do not understand how you are reading the definition to believe it
would apply to students writing about some software they happen to
use. Students pay the university to be on a course, or receive a grant
from a funding body which they then pay the university, not the
reverse. To be clear, this definition does not apply to students, they
are not:
* employees who are also volunteers
* volunteers who are receiving money or given significant assets for
improving content of Wikimedia projects
Even a paid researcher on a university project would not meet this
definition, unless the project were part funded or in partnership with
Wikimedia. In that latter case, yes, we would want their interest to
be declared when they were acting as a volunteer contributor to
Wikimedia projects and at the same time benefiting their university
project or advocating for further projects where they were likely to
be employed/contracted or be credited for associated academic
publications.
What is proposed here is *not* a general conflict of interest policy,
it is a specific policy of transparency directed at Wikimedia
organization employees or employees of Wikimedia partners on
programmes directly related to Wikimedia projects in the same way as
can be claimed for the Belfer case. Vague associations like an
employee of a Wikimedia partner organization who has no connection to
a Wikimedia partnership are tangential ideas, having nothing to do
with this proposal.
Fae
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