In the light of the recent announcement by the Wikimedia Foundation that
paid editing is not acceptable for employees, and the apparent swift
termination of a long term employee, I believe it appropriate for the Board
of Trustees of Wikimedia UK to agree a policy at the next board meeting to
require employees, contractors and trustees to publicly declare any current
or past paid editing activities, or related unpaid advocacy that may
represent a potential conflict of interest.
The risk to the charity by allowing confidential declarations limited to
the board in this area, or to "overlook" past paid editing (even if some
years ago) is that a current board member, employee or contractor may be
perceived to be deliberately misleading the Wikimedia community. Were this
to be exposed then Wikimedia UK may suffer reputational damage if seen to
be supporting procedures that protect this secrecy.
Considering the recent resignation of an Arbcom member, after avoiding a
public declaration of off-wiki accounts where they were advocating matters
related to Wikimedia projects, I would hope that the board would require
employees and contractors to similarly interpret "related advocacy" as
applying to "secret" accounts elsewhere whenever they can be seen to relate
to Wikimedia projects or Wikimedia UK matters. The board of trustees will
already be aware that such undeclared accounts already exist.
I have posted this same proposal at <
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Declarations_for_paid_editing_and…gt;,
however I recommend that should anyone wish to discuss specific examples,
including naming
or linking to
the WMF employee case, that this is limited to this independent email list
rather than using the WMUK wiki.
Thanks
Fae
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faewik(a)gmail.com
http://j.mp/faewm