Hello community,
You will find below a report on the state of the Foundation and at the
end of the email, a collection of links on previous reports and
announcements.
The board just had a meeting in the WMF office, in Florida.
It is actually a bit strange that I report on it, because I actually
missed most of the board meeting itself :-)
The board meeting was planned to be on friday, saturday and sunday.
Except for Jimbo, currently travelling in Japan, all board members were
supposed to be there, but I was planned only to get there on friday
afternoon.
What happened is that Global Warming caught me in New York, where I got
stuck in an ugly ice storm, which cause the airport to close for 24
hours. I will not comment on hotel availabilities in Newark, nor about
how Continental Airlines handle their customers in such crisis cases,
but I will try to fly through other cities in the future... In any
cases, I could only join at the end of saturday.
During that week, the office was really populated, as it also hosted two
other meetings, one dedicated to Quality (might be worthwhile to ask
Greg to make a report on this one...), and another meeting of the tech
team. Delphine was also in Florida for several days.
==Passed resolutions==
May be found here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolutions#March_2007
Essentially, there were
* adoption are the license policy
* approval of hardware purchase
* approval to hire Bastique
* approval to have Rob work full time rather than full time, to help in
the office
* approval to hire a legal coordinator
==Other discussions==
Several other discussions occured on various topics, some of them being
confidential (sorry guys).
What can be mentionned probably is this:
* work on a travel policy (nothing very fancy to report)
* work on a policy for reimbursement (nothing very fancy to report)
* further work on license issues (details confidential)
* study of some collaboration propositions (details confidential)
* study around brand licensing (not surprisingly since we are in the top
of most recognised brands, we get some propositions from branding
companies. Brand licensing is probably one of our best assets to collect
money for the development of the projects in the future, so we should be
careful about what we do on the topic. Brand licensing has also various
ramifications, in particular in our relationships with chapters).
* approval of two new advisory board members
* discussion about a future CTO or a tech project leader. No conclusion
at the moment.
Last, a significant part of the meeting was dedicated to the ED issue.
As you are aware probably, the WMF doesnot have any more an executive
director. At the same time, we started a search with a company, in order
to hire our future ED. The search company voiced concerns about the
involvement of the board in executive issues (too high to their opinion)
and the difficulties a new ED would meet, due to the confusion between
the role of the ED and the role of the board.
Accordingly, the issue of an interim director was discussed (no decision
was really made). And we spent sunday morning in defining a list of
tasks that ought to be taken care of, giving to each of them a notion of
priority and a notion of importance, and for each of them, defining
whether the task should be under the ED role or the board job.
For your information,
Do it soon and is important
* Coordinate legal activities (ED)
* Job description for all (ED)
* Personnel needs (ED)
Do it soon (but not necessarily very important)
* Data Gathering (ED)
* Fundraising Planning (ED)
* Board Skills and Expansion and Election (board)
* Short term budget (COO)
* Wikimania Finances (ED)
* Tech stuff in office (ED)
Important (but not necessarily to do immediately)
* Brand Strategy (board)
* Business Development Strategy (board)
* Technical Management (ED)
Followed many other points, with less support either as important or as
urgent (but not entirely non important nor not urgent at all, I just
listed the MOST important and/or urgent from our perspective).
Note that looking for an ED is not even listed above - I guess it was so
important and urgent that we even forgot to mention it :-)
As I was explaining, we have no ED. Which means that the points listed
above as ED issues will either be left unfixed until we have one, or
will have to be dealt with by someone else (undefined). We might make an
exception and hire a legal coordinator, because this is a critical issue.
Thanks
Florence Devouard
==links==
*http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-March/028158.html
(thoughts on staff issues)
*http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-March/028385.html
(Bastique as volunteer coordinator)
*
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-February/027477.html
(Announcement concerning the ED search firm)
*
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-January/027269.html
(explanation of the differences between CEO, COO and Board)
*http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-February/027478.html
(Brad moving to GC job)
*
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-January/027268.html
(Announcement of Carolyn becoming COO)
*
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-January/026515.html
(4 wishes for year 2007... including reorganisation and financial
considerations)
*
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-January/027171.html
(Welcome to Sandy)
*
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-February/027455.html
(Welcome to chapter coordinator)
Scholarships are available to help defray the costs of attending Wikimania
2007, which will be held in Taipei, Taiwan from August 3-5. The deadline for
scholarships has been extended to April 15, 2007; please apply soon.
You can find more information here:
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships
and an application form here:
http://wm07schols.wikimedia.org/apply.php
Registration and our Call for Participation are also both open:
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registrationhttp://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/CfP
Wikimania is the annual conference of the Wikimedia Foundation. It provides
a chance to meet the global community of contributors to the Wikimedia
projects, share ideas and research, and make new friends. All are welcome to
attend and present, but you must be a current editor of a Wikimedia project
to qualify for a scholarship.
Send questions to wikimania-scholarships(a)wikimedia.org or
wikimania-info(a)wikimedia.org.
Please translate and widely distribute this notice to your communities.
thank you,
Phoebe Ayers
Wikimania 2007 scholarships committee and program committee
Hey all. Please excuse the fact that this is posted to multiple
mailing lists, but I need to ensure that it reaches all concerned.
I'm writing as an IRC Group Contact to call all operators of Wikimedia
IRC bots to state their activity and use of their bot to me, using a
private e-mail, as I'm doing a bit of reorganisation. I have a few
issues to address and would like to try and smooth out the rather
convoluted situation we have right now.
As many will know, I'm a freenode staffer and as such am in a position
to notice the lack of continuity present. In particular many of our
bots use flood-protection exemption due to the nature of their
much-data roles. Unfortunately, with the death of freenode's founder
Rob Levin, there is no longer a very organised record of which bots
are doing what and where, and I would really like to establish a
better one. By doing this I aim to make things a lot easier for bot
operators to get the information/permissions they need. Please note
that this has nothing to do with MediaWiki bot flags or community
permission, which is still very important for bots that edit as well
as speak on IRC.
I would like to make two major changes to what we do at the moment.
Firstly, I would like to cloak all active bots with wikimedia/bot/nick
(wikimedia can be replaced by wikipedia, wikisource etc.) and add them
to a list I'll keep on meta (not set up yet, will see how this goes
first!). At the moment, there are a good few usercloak/bot/botnick
(e.g. I have wikimedia/xyrael/bot/winesteward) and a few
wikimedia/bot/botnicks around. I would like to make the distinction
that usercloak/bot/botnick is a non-Wikimedia bot and that the
project/bot/botnick is for those that are run specifically for one of
our projects.
Secondly, I would like to use one bot o:line for flood protection.
Currently, there are a good few floating about, and I'm not sure who
is actually using them actively - a cull of bots no longer in use
would be good from freenode's perspective. There are obvious trust
issues with this in that one password leak would be a lot of trouble
compared with bot operators guarding their own personal passwords, but
I think it's worth it because of the two stage process of changing the
o:lines: me as group contact and then as staff, then actually getting
hold of someone to make the change.
I realise that I've rambled a bit here, and so I'll summarise my requests:
* That all operators of IRC bots contact me via e-mail telling me
their bot nickname, what is does and what it is cloaked with, as well
as a note if it uses an o:line. I can then recloak them with your
assistance. This also has the purpose of weeding out inactive bots (no
action being taken yet, though).
* That anyone who knows an operator who doesn't read any of the lists
forwards this to them and asks them to complete my request, perhaps
translating if necessary.
* That any ideas/complaints/ways-that-are-significantly-better-than-this
are expressed in this mailing list conversation!
Thank you,
[[m:User:Xyrael]]
Friendly IRC group contact
--
—Sean Whitton (Xyrael/xyr)
sean(a)silentflame.com
http://xyrael.net/
Florence,
Thank you for your email. I will try to clarify exactly what you are saying—
the best way to do that is to read your email from bottom to top. You wrote:
" As I was explaining, we have no ED. Which means that the points listed
above as ED issues will either be left unfixed until we have one, or will have to
be dealt with by someone else (undefined). We might make an exception and
hire a legal coordinator, because this is a critical issue."
So let us look at the critical issues. I can safely assume that "Do it soon
and is important" is most critical
* Coordinate legal activities (ED)
* Job description for all (ED)
* Personnel needs (ED)
Note that they are all ED. Am I too assume that, except for the coordination
of legal activities, these will all be left unfixed until there is an ED, or
will they be dealt with by some undefined else. It seems the former is the
answer, with the exception of a legal coordinator. In other words, are you
leaving the most pressing issues unfixed? If it is the latter "undefined else,"
how will the "else" be selected?
Next came, " Do it soon (but not necessarily very important)"
* Data Gathering (ED)
* Fundraising Planning (ED)
* Board Skills and Expansion and Election (board)
* Short term budget (COO)
* Wikimania Finances (ED)
* Tech stuff in office (ED)
4 out of 6 are ED-related. Am I too assume here that this "do it soon
category" is delayed as well? (Wiktionary defined "soon" as "Within a short time;
_quickly_ (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quickly) .") In fact, the only
Board-related one involves the upcoming election for community representatives.
That will be soon, even though it is "not necessarily very important").
Finally, you had " Important (but not necessarily to do immediately)"
* Brand Strategy (board)
* Business Development Strategy (board)
* Technical Management (ED)
What professional expertise does the Board bring to the first two? When
talking about a brand worth billions of dollars--and that means billions of
dollars for free culture and knowledge--I would assume that the Board would
consider some professional advice and assistance. As for the last point, Technical
Management, I assume you mean managing Brion, Tim, Domas, Mark, and the other
developers. Wouldn’t the last be the job a CTO, and not the board?
As for some of the other topics discussed, you wrote "What can be mentioned
probably is this:"
* work on a travel policy (nothing very fancy to report)
I ask: what is the current travel policy which is being amended?
* work on a policy for reimbursement (nothing very fancy to report)
I ask: what is the current reimbursement policy, which is being amended. If
there is no reimbursement policy, how are reimbursements made? What is
eligible for reimbursement and what is not?
* study of some collaboration propositions (details confidential)
I hope you don’t mean the collaboration proposals with three major
organizations in DC that I brought to the table. If you do, why was I not asked about
them?
* study around brand licensing (not surprisingly since we are in the top
of most recognised brands, we get some propositions from branding
companies. Brand licensing is probably one of our best assets to collect
money for the development of the projects in the future, so we should be
careful about what we do on the topic. Brand licensing has also various
ramifications, in particular in our relationships with chapters).
Blah blah blah—who on the Board is actually qualified to discuss this on a
professional level?
* approval of two new advisory board members
Can you please provide a summary of what the advisory board has done or been
asked to do to date. Not who is on it, but what they actually do.
* discussion about a future CTO or a tech project leader. No conclusion at
the moment.
Does that mean that there is no direction in technical development as of
now? Considering the size of the website and the amount of money poured into
tech development, a basic roadmap should be the least one should come to expect.
You also wrote:
"During that week, the office was really populated, as it also hosted two
other meetings, one dedicated to Quality (might be worthwhile to ask
Greg to make a report on this one...), "
While Greg is extremely qualified to report on that, you might also ask the
person who organized it. Oh, and how much time did the Board take discussing
its recommendations.
You wrote: "Delphine was also in Florida for several days."
It is always very nice to see Delphine. What was her role in these meetings?
Or does that go under the discussed Travel Policy (to quote you, "nothing
very fancy to report.")
It would also be nice to hear some more elaboration from you about the
"difference of opinion" between the Board and the Search Firm regarding the role
of an ED. How does the Board see the role? How does the Search Firm see the
role? What efforts are being made to bridge this difference?
All in all, it sounds like a fascinating meeting. I look forward to reading
the minutes.
Danny
************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
Hello,
I think it is important to disclaim a few points here. GerardM's
opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of the subcommittee
as a whole; therefore, please note that:
1. The subcommittee recommendation was to rename the alternative or
'classical' Belarusian wiki, and use the standard code for the
standard or 'normative' Belarusian wiki. This recommendation did not
include the closure of the alternative Belarusian Wikipedia. I'm not
sure whether it was closed by decision of the board of trustees or by
mistake. That is why the announcement on the normative Belarusian
request page on Meta did not explain the decision: there was no such
subcommittee decision we could explain.
2. The subcommittee has not had a serious discussion about nor reached
any consensus on the idea of a Meta arbitration committee. Whether
this is desirable or not is up to the community or the board of
trustees, not the subcommittee.
Yours cordially,
Jesse Martin (Pathoschild)
I don't pretend to understand trademark law, but in this month's issue
of cleo <http://cleo.ninemsn.com.au/cleo/> there is a section called
"cleo's guy wikipedia" or something to that effect. Basically it is a
bunch of articles along the line of "if a guy says this he really
means this". Anyways, it has nothing at all to do with wikipedia
except for the use of our name.
I'm not sure if this is the right list to bring this up but since
wikilegal was closed down i guess it must be.
Paz,
-rjs.
--
Hit me: <http://robin.shannon.id.au>
Jab me: <FIRSTNAME(a)LASTNAME.id.au>
"I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor
should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."
--- George Bush
The Foundation evolves. Some are leaving, some are joining and
reinforcing the current team.
Rob was not mentionned till now, but Rob is an important part of the
puzzle as well, who will become a bit more important.
Rob Halsell has been our part-time data center technician since December
2006, maintaining servers in our Tampa facility on the recommendation of
our previous tech, Kyle Anderson. Since January he has additionally been
working on securing and improving the office network in St. Petersburg.
With 200+ servers to maintain in Tampa and a growing office staff with
the attendant IT needs, we needed him available additional hours. Rob
will now be working full-time for the Foundation, under the direction of
Brion.
Primary responsibility:
* data center technician at Tampa facility.
* Maintaining servers and network.
* Receiving and setting up hardware.
* Diagnosing and returning failed hardware, working with vendors as
necessary on RMAs and fixes.
Secondary responsibility:
* office IT technician in St. Petersburg office.
* Maintaining desktop and server computers and wired and wireless networks.
* Technical support for software and hardware issues in the office.
* Setting up and maintaining backup system for in-office desktop
computers and file servers.
Rob is a very smily and talkative person, bringing sunlight in the office.
Welcome Rob
Florence
The three uses of EDP images are given as
1. "should be to illustrate historically significant events"
2. "to include identifying protected works such as logos"
3. "to complement (within narrow limits) articles about copyrighted
contemporary works"
The problem with #2 is that it doesn't give the context in which such an
identification is required. Should a logo only be allowed when it's
design is discused? Or when the company is discussed? Or on the article
about the company? Or simply whenever the company is mentioned?
The problem with #3 is it gives no clarification as to how narrow the
limits should be. If I have an article about a film (a copyrighted
contemporary work) and I upload 30 screenshots, I could argue each one
"complements" the article, and who's to say that only using 30 of the
~200,000 frames of the film isn't within "narrow limits".
Ed
-----
en:ed_g2s
Hello,
www.WeRelate.org would like your review and participation. I have seen a few proposals for the foundation to create a site simular to WeRelate. Our purposes are in line and we believe that some sort affiliation would benefit both organizaitons. We would like to discuss affiliation with the Media Wiki Foundation.
WeRelate.org is code complete and coming out of beta. During beta, WeRelate.org became the largest genealogical wiki, it has more than115,000 ancestor pages, 430,000 historical and current inhabitted place pages, 115,000 names, and 1.3 million source pages. WeRelate encourages citation and documentation, annotated images of family pictures and documents. It also generates 5 generation pedigree maps. The Family Tree Explorer application splits the screen to allow viewing and navigation of from various types of trees and indexes while viewing and working on the wiki page in the other window.
WeRelate is a free public service web site supported by tax deductible donations, it is nonsectarian and noncommercial. WeRelate is dedicated to collaborative research and the sharing of information. Please see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WeRelate and see the video.
Thank you,
Solveig Quass