My point was more that these are ethically movement funds rather than WMF
funds. Yes I realize that legally the matter differs. The Signpost produces
reviews of issues of interest to Wikimedias rather than forward facing
content for our readers. I do not see it as different than funding the WMF
blog.
James
On Sun, May 7, 2017 at 5:49 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I don't think that WMF project grants would be a
suitable funding source
for *Signpost *work, for multiple reasons. I consider the *Signpost *to be
"content", and WMF shouldn't fund content if it wants to maintain its
immunity to lawsuits regarding user-contributed content. Also, there would
be a conflict of interest between the journalistic role of the *Signpost
*and
the WMF; the *Signpost *should have significant financial, legal, and
managerial independence from WMF.
Project grants could be a good source of funding for some work that
addresses COI, although I think it would be good to keep in mind that WMF
shouldn't be creating (or editing) content directly. I would be wary of
using WMF funds to pay people to decide whether or not certain edits are
appropriate. I think that training materials, and software tools to detect
edits that look promotional or controversial, could be developed with WMF
funds. I'd want someone who isn't reporting to WMF to make the decisions
about the appropriateness of edits that are flagged for review (whether
flagged by humans or technical tools, and whether or not self-reported by
COI editors who request review). If a process leads to a community (i.e.
not WMF and not COI editor) decision that edits are incompatible with
community policies and norms, then at that point the matter could be (1)
addressed directly by the reviewer such as by declining a proposed edit or
reverting an edit, (2) referred to site administrators for community
interventions such as warnings or blocks, and/or (3) referred to WMF for
legal action using WMF resources. That's a long way of saying that I think
that there are important technical and legal roles that WMF can have in
helping to identify and deter COI editing, but WMF's roles should be be
carefully separated from and in alignment with the community's roles.
Pine
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James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine