On 9 September 2010 01:56, Sue Gardner <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi folks, > > I'm delighted to tell you that the Wikimedia Foundation has just hired > its first-ever Chief Talent and Culture Officer. Cyn Skyberg will > begin work with us this coming Monday, September 13. She'll report to > me <snip> > I am delighted Cyn will be joining us: please help me welcome her. But > -- she doesn't yet have a Wikimedia e-mail address, and she's not yet > subscribed to our mailing lists. So maybe wait for Monday :-) Having waited 'till the new week as requested.... Welcome Cyn! :-) I never really "got" SecondLife beyond as a proof of concept but the one thing that did come across very clearly was that it had a vibrant internal culture which was actively supported by LindenLabs. So I look forward to seeing what can be achieved by this crucial position at the WMF to develop a vibrant and open culture within the WMF staff and between the staff and the wider community. Of course, as the WMF grows (and it will grow a lot according to the strategic plan) the relationship between the community and the staff (tech, fundraising, outreach etc.) will become ever more important in ensuring the health of the projects. I'm interested to see the change in position title from the original as "Human Resources" to "Talent and Culture" as Erik described. I've always thought that if for some reason all of the Wikimedia projects suddenly disappeared (and no one had any backups) we would be upset about it for a couple of days but then we would just start again - and we would do it better! On the other hand, if the community disappeared all of a sudden then the projects would become irrelevant and overgrown with spam within a week no matter how resilient the staff, financial or technical systems. So, whilst I understand that Cyn's job is specifically to manage the WMF staff "talent and culture" I look forward to seeing how that role interacts with the talent and culture visible in the community at large. Welcome once again, Sincerely, Liam wittylama.com/blog Peace, love & metadata _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
