[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Maggie Dennis]

Hello, all.

Following up on Amanda because she mentioned that we were going to hold an
open meeting to discuss this. I just announced the details in a separate
email thread titled "Tuesday Foundation office hour." They are also
available on Meta, here
.

This office hour will be on *June 29 at 15:00 UTC* — see
https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1624978855 for your local time. If you
can't come, there are ways to submit questions in advance (or
simultaneously, if you don't want to join Zoom).

It's taken quite a bit of time to pull together the technical details
today, and the team will be sharing information in other fora over the next
few days, but we wanted to follow up on this thread ASAP.

I hope to see you there.

Best regards,
Maggie



On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 12:51 AM  wrote:

> Hello, All,
> I’m Amanda Keton, the General Counsel of the Foundation, and I’d like to
> clarify some of the questions and comments that have been raised over the
> engagement of María as a Foundation consultant. I want to assure you that
> we carefully followed our policies, compensated this in line with similar
> consultants, and legitimately assessed her as the best person for the role.
> The need. Maria’s engagement comes at a time of transition for both the
> Board and the Foundation executive staff. This is also a time where the
> Community Resilience & Sustainability (CR) unit is setting up mechanisms
> to ensure that the Foundation provides seamless service to our growing
> community in its areas of responsibility. As many of you know, that team
> has taken on Movement Strategy due to the transition along with maintaining
> their support of Board elections, the Universal Code of Conduct, and
> leading our cross-departmental approach to supporting a Thriving Movement.
> As a unit, CR undertook a needs assessment of the workload ahead. This
> needs assessment revealed gaps in implementation of the Foundation’s
> Movement Strategy and in supporting staff with the ongoing Board selection
> process, upcoming onboarding, and supporting a smooth transition. The team
> currently supporting the Board expansion is quite stretched, monitoring
> multiple channels in many languages. Having another person who can step in
> immediately is tremendously helpful to these efforts. Based on this, CR
> considered the necessary skills and expertise for assistance in executing
> this work. While seeking this expertise, numerous factors were considered.
> Some of these factors included experience with the Board, volunteers and
> management. We also considered the qualifications with respect to the
> criteria and role at hand. The unique blend of circumstances at play and
> the importance of moving forward strongly at this time led us to carefully
> assess our needs and explore creative solutions.
> The role. In developing the scope of work for this role, we determined
> that María was a very strong candidate to support this critical work. With
> the transition at the executive level, and at the Board level, Maria brings
> long-term familiarity with the strategy process and strategy conversations
> that is crucial for the Foundation and the movement. Furthermore, she has
> been a big believer and a promoter of the Movement Strategy. We believe she
> can help ensure continuity in that work and can also support Maggie and
> others in the Foundation working to help expand the Board in service of
> bringing additional expertise, representation and capacity.
> Managing a potential conflict of interest. Maria first considered stepping
> down months ago, but she wanted to help navigate the transition at the helm
> of the Board. I followed our Conflict of Interest policy and brought this
> staff idea to the Transition Committee, the Human Resources Committee, and
> ultimately discussed this idea in principle in the last executive session
> of the Board of Trustees -- without Maria. The Board does not generally
> discuss individual contracts, but I wanted to make sure that the Board knew
> about it to respect the spirit of the conflict of interest policy even if
> that would be shortly mitigated by her stepping down from her trusteeship
> for unrelated reasons. I appreciate the concerns that were raised about
> Affiliates receiving different advice. I'm not aware of this, and because I
> want to respond timely, I can't check with all the relevant staff. However,
> I have not found reference to this in internal or Meta documentation and
> would appreciate more information on where this policy can be found so we
> can review it when we next update our policies, and ensure we consistently
> uphold our policies throughout the movement. I agree we want to be
> consistent, and I appreciate that this was pointed out.
> Fair compensation. I understand that a lot of questions have been raised
> pertaining to Maria’s remuneration. As many of you already know, we do not
> discuss 

[Wikimedia-l] Tuesday Foundation office hour

[Maggie Dennis]

Hello, all.

Apologies for the rather late Friday notice. We had hoped to get details on
this out earlier today, but it has taken rather all day for us to get the
technical details ironed out!

***

The Wikimedia Foundation is hosting an office hour featuring Chief
Financial Officer Jaime Villagomez
 and General
Counsel Amanda Keton ,
two of the transition team guiding the Wikimedia Foundation during its
executive transition. It will also feature guests from the Wikimedia
Foundation’s Board of Trustees (BoT), to be determined over the next few
days, and Community Resilience & Sustainability Vice President Maggie Dennis
. The main purpose of
the call is to discuss questions related to Wikimedia Foundation executive
transition, including the retention of María Sefidari
 as an advisor to Movement
Strategy and supporting and onboarding the expanding BoT. Come with your
questions or feedback, and let’s talk! You can also send us your questions
in advance.

This office hour will be on June 29 at 15:00 UTC — see
https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1624978855 for your local time.



We will officer live interpretation for German, Spanish, French, and Arabic.
To be able to listen to the interpretation, you need to join the Zoom room
(and therefore register via answ...@wikimedia.org; see
below). The Youtube live-stream will be only in English.



Details

This call will be streamed and available on demand at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQTND98b_Yg


We will be fielding questions from Wikimedians in good standing (that is,
not Foundation or community banned). In order to be as efficient as
possible, we are encouraging people to send questions in advance. Please
send all questions to answ...@wikimedia.org, by Monday June 28 (midnight,
whatever time zone you may be in). We may aggregate similar questions or
truncate them for length. Questions can also be asked live on Zoom for
in-room attendees, in Zoom chat, Telegram and YouTube.


Language support

We will offer automated closed captioning for English, and live
interpretation for German, Spanish, French, and Arabic. This is the first
time we offer such a service for an office hour, and we would like to
experiment with it and see how it works. To be able to listen to the Zoom
interpretation, you need to join the Zoom room (and therefore register, see
below), as live-streaming interpretation channels to Youtube is not
possible.

How to register

For security reasons and specifically to avoid Zoombombing
, we will be sending the Zoom
link only to people who have registered in advance close to the meeting and
only to Wikimedians in good standing. In order to register, please send an
email to answ...@wikimedia.org, indicating your name, username, affiliation
if you have any. The title should be “Registration for Office Hours”. The
link will be shared with any Wikimedia in good standing (not Foundation or
community banned) who requests it  within the hour before the meeting.

The meeting will be governed by the Friendly Space Policy
. We are
committed to tackling hard questions bravely in a manner that reflects the
values of our Universal Code of Conduct
.




-- 
Maggie Dennis
She/her/hers
Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Appropriate promotion OR Appropriate canvassing protocol/policy

[Risker]

Speaking personally only, I'd prefer not to have candidate statements or
self-promotion on this mailing list, although I'd be fine if candidates
announced their candidacy and gave a link to their statements on Meta.  We
have to keep in mind that the majority of potential voters do not read this
mailing list, and it's worthwhile for both the voters and the candidates to
ensure that all members of the community have an equal opportunity to
assess each candidate fairly and fully.

Ultimately, this is a decision for the list moderators; however, it's also
a decision of the readers whether or not to read these statements.

Risker/Anne

On Fri, 25 Jun 2021 at 15:06, Benjamin Lees  wrote:

> On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 3:05 AM টিটো দত্ত Tito Dutta 
> wrote:
>
>> In such a situation there is a possibility that if a candidate has many
>> social media or contacts and friends (Wimimedian), they will end up getting
>> more votes than someone who entirely relied on their nomination and
>> performance.
>>
>
> Is this a problem?  That's normally how an election works.  You
> participate in public debates, Q, or other events to present yourself to
> voters who have come to look at all the candidates, and then you reach out
> and try to engage voters who haven't engaged themselves.
>
> WP:CANVASS exists in the Wikipedia milieu that proclaims that discussions
> are not votes, and hence discourages ordinary election behaviors in order
> to promote consensus-based decision-making. (I don't recall offhand whether
> or how WP:CANVASS has been applied to the one thing that even the English
> Wikipedia acknowledges is an election: the ArbCom election.)
>
> Nevertheless, I think it would be appropriate for particular venues to
> consider whether they want to permit themselves to be used for
> campaigning.  For instance, a couple people announced their candidacies or
> intended candidacies for things on this mailing list earlier this month,
> which is fine, I think, but you could imagine it becoming disruptive to the
> list if it devolved into electioneering by a hundred different candidates.
> Likewise, the English Wikipedia might not permit a candidate to post a
> vote-for-me message on the talk pages of all eligible voters.  That's
> really a question of disruptiveness to the forum, though, not fairness of
> the election.
>
> Benjamin
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Kunal Mehta]

Hi,

On 6/25/21 12:58 PM, Samuel Klein wrote:


Some precedents:
~ As Florence noted, in 2007, Erik made a similar transition.  (A bit 
contentious; there was a long internal-l thread).


And on Foundation-l 
.


~ In 2013, Ting stepped down from the Board to apply to the ED search; 
and addressed concerns at the time. (Discussion on this list 
) 



Try this link 
. 
Though I couldn't find any replies to Ting on Wikimedia-l, maybe the 
real discussion happened elsewhere.


-- Legoktm

P.S.: With Mailman3, the Wikimedia-l archives are now fully searchable 
through the web UI. You can even search across all lists at once.


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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Samuel Klein]

¹ OK, the existence of the Good Governance Kodex, and its Good Governance
Gremium , may be the
best thing I learned all day.  Thank you, WMAT!

Some precedents:
~ As Florence noted, in 2007, Erik made a similar transition.  (A bit
contentious; there was a long internal-l thread).
~ In 2013, Ting stepped down from the Board to apply to the ED search; and
addressed concerns at the time. (Discussion on this list

)

Since then we've thought more intently about this sort of transition across
the movement, and shared many excellent learning patterns
,¹ but
I haven't seen a resulting global rule of thumb honoring that work. This
feels like a good moment to develop such a lightweight overview.  E.g.,
"orgs over size X should review this list of [[common patterns]], and
consider implementing a version of each [links to global + regional
WM-wide examples]".

SJ
--
topnoting >> topposting
*the community that norms together, warms together*, 

On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 4:18 PM Philip Kopetzky 
wrote:

> Hi SJ!
>
> The 12 month waiting/cooldown period is something that was implemented in
> the Good Governance Kodex of Wikimedia Austria in 2014, see
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_%C3%96sterreich/Good_Governance_Kodex,
> with an independent committee consisting of a staff, board and community
> representative deciding cases that do not fulfill the 12 months waiting
> period.
>
> Best,
> Philip
>
> On Thu, 24 Jun 2021 at 16:28, Samuel Klein  wrote:
>
>> Jan-Bart: Spot on.  It is always uplifting to see one of your measured
>> notes come over the wire.
>>
>> Jan-Bart de Vreede  writes:
>>
>>> The Foundation is supposed to be an example of good Governance for our
>>> entire movement. We (as a movement) have come a long way in the past 20
>>> years (and that is important: as our organisation and budget grows, so do
>>> our responsibilities and the critical questions we get from the world)
>>>
>>> It is NOT good governance to have a current board member suddenly resign
>>> and then create a situation where that person receives compensation for a
>>> position that seems to have been created specifically for that board member
>>> (or at least was not publicly posted?).
>>>
>>
>> The impact of this increases as the movement grows, and clear
>> communication is at a premium. How can we use this moment to model the
>> norms we want for the future?  Any *particular* moment can feel like a
>> special exception when you are close to it, but the WMF's actions set a
>> standard, translated across time and context, more instantly and
>> effectively than words.
>>
>>
>>> It is a good practice to create a 12 month waiting period before board
>>> members of non-profits can become a staff member/paid contractor/consultant.
>>>
>>
>> A few people mentioned that their own orgs or committees have norms or
>> policies around this (Chris, Philip, Tito); could you describe specifics
>> that are in place now around the movement?
>>
>> SJ.
>> ___
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-- 
Samuel Klein  @metasj   w:user:sj  +1 617 529 4266
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Appropriate promotion OR Appropriate canvassing protocol/policy

[Benjamin Lees]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 3:05 AM টিটো দত্ত Tito Dutta 
wrote:

> In such a situation there is a possibility that if a candidate has many
> social media or contacts and friends (Wimimedian), they will end up getting
> more votes than someone who entirely relied on their nomination and
> performance.
>

Is this a problem?  That's normally how an election works.  You participate
in public debates, Q, or other events to present yourself to voters who
have come to look at all the candidates, and then you reach out and try to
engage voters who haven't engaged themselves.

WP:CANVASS exists in the Wikipedia milieu that proclaims that discussions
are not votes, and hence discourages ordinary election behaviors in order
to promote consensus-based decision-making. (I don't recall offhand whether
or how WP:CANVASS has been applied to the one thing that even the English
Wikipedia acknowledges is an election: the ArbCom election.)

Nevertheless, I think it would be appropriate for particular venues to
consider whether they want to permit themselves to be used for
campaigning.  For instance, a couple people announced their candidacies or
intended candidacies for things on this mailing list earlier this month,
which is fine, I think, but you could imagine it becoming disruptive to the
list if it devolved into electioneering by a hundred different candidates.
Likewise, the English Wikipedia might not permit a candidate to post a
vote-for-me message on the talk pages of all eligible voters.  That's
really a question of disruptiveness to the forum, though, not fairness of
the election.

Benjamin
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Paulo Santos Perneta]

"It also concerns me that the WMF were *not* aware of Community & affiliate
norms in this field - what level of oversight of affiliate governance is
occurring that there being significant affiliates with provisions like this
not be known?"

This is a question I would really like to be answered. For way more than a
decade, the WMF Board maintains a committee precisely to deal with those
issues - first ChapCom, now AffCom. How come this disconnection is
happening between the Board, and their own committee?

P.


 escreveu no dia sexta, 25/06/2021 à(s) 18:19:

> Hi Amanda, [Apologies if accidental double-post]
>
> "Moving forward, we will
> articulate and follow the best practices that emerge from these important
> discussions and
> our corresponding review of the attendant policies, procedures, and
> practices."
>
> That would be a reasonable statement if this were a more marginally
> concerning action - something that promoted some concerns, and pointed to
> potential greater future issues if not resolved.
>
> However this indicates the WMF is willing to accept that an error was
> made, but not actually vitiate that error. It also concerns me that the WMF
> were *not* aware of Community & affiliate norms in this field - what level
> of oversight of affiliate governance is occurring that there being
> significant affiliates with provisions like this not be known?
>
> Like functionally the entire participant list of the email thread to date,
> I don't think there was any absence of good faith from key actors. But nor
> do I think it's "merely" (and it's a very big "merely" indeed) an optics
> complaint. There are genuine accidental COI issues that arise, as well as
> the instance raising genuine concerns at the decision-making and awareness
> of community values that anyone operating in such a significant consulting
> role in the most critical field of discussions the movement has had in a
> decade.
>
> Yours,
>
> Nosebagbear
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Appropriate promotion OR Appropriate canvassing protocol/policy

[টিটো দত্ত Tito Dutta]

Greetings,
Thanks for your message. Not that particular link, but the
promotion/canvassing policy/protocol and the concept behind it may be
relevant. I believe it is important to work on a behavioral guideline for
major elections and similar processes.
In a few other languages it may be seen here:
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13365390

ইতি,/Thanks,
টিটো দত্ত/User:Titodutta
(মাতৃভাষা থাক জীবন জুড়ে)


শুক্র, ২৫ জুন, ২০২১ তারিখে ১০:৪৭ PM টায় এ Gerard Meijssen <
gerard.meijs...@gmail.com> লিখেছেন:

> Hoi,
> Why is a guideline on English Wikipedia the right place for a policy that
> is of a global relevance?
> Thanks,
>  GerardM
>
> On Fri, 25 Jun 2021 at 09:05, টিটো দত্ত Tito Dutta 
> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>> This is something I have been thinking about for some time. This
>> June–July we will see a couple of elections/selections. I think wherever a
>> voting is in process, an effective canvassing/promotion policy should be
>> there. We may need to notify our friend Wikimedians about our candidacy,
>> that is understandable, but there should be behavioral guidelines on what
>> is appropriate and what is inappropriate promotion/canvassing.
>> This email thread is about the process, and I won't mention any specific
>> example, however during every election/committee formation we see different
>> votestacking attempts and efforts. In such a situation there is a
>> possibility that if a candidate has many social media or contacts and
>> friends (Wimimedian), they will end up getting more votes than someone who
>> entirely relied on their nomination and performance.
>>
>> There is a behavioral guideline on a Wikipedia project:
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Canvassing
>> I don't think this is globally applicable, and I am note sure if we have
>> one global policy.
>> Hence,
>> 1) We can work on  "Canvassing guidelines", discussing appropriateness,
>> inappropriateness etc.
>> 2) These guidelines should be effectively used and it would be great if
>> the candidates/contestants read and acknowledge that they will adhere to
>> the protocol/policy.
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> ইতি,/Regards
>> টিটো দত্ত/User:Titodutta
>> (মাতৃভাষা থাক জীবন জুড়ে)
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[nosebagbear]

Hi Amanda, [Apologies if accidental double-post]

"Moving forward, we will
articulate and follow the best practices that emerge from these important 
discussions and
our corresponding review of the attendant policies, procedures, and practices."

That would be a reasonable statement if this were a more marginally concerning 
action - something that promoted some concerns, and pointed to potential 
greater future issues if not resolved.

However this indicates the WMF is willing to accept that an error was made, but 
not actually vitiate that error. It also concerns me that the WMF were *not* 
aware of Community & affiliate norms in this field - what level of oversight of 
affiliate governance is occurring that there being significant affiliates with 
provisions like this not be known? 

Like functionally the entire participant list of the email thread to date, I 
don't think there was any absence of good faith from key actors. But nor do I 
think it's "merely" (and it's a very big "merely" indeed) an optics complaint. 
There are genuine accidental COI issues that arise, as well as the instance 
raising genuine concerns at the decision-making and awareness of community 
values that anyone operating in such a significant consulting role in the most 
critical field of discussions the movement has had in a decade. 

Yours,

Nosebagbear
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[mail]

Dear Amanda,

it is good to hear that you will take this advise and the discussion under 
consideration for future decisions of this kind. But what about the one we are 
talking about right now? Will the WMF review it´s decision to hire the former 
chair of its own board, or not?

Besides all the good arguments from Jan-Bart, Chris and many others here: How 
is hiring the former Board chair not covered under the Conflict of Interest 
policy of the WMF? Cleary, the former Chair of the Board falls under the 
"Covered Person" definition - and the policy clearly coveres not only *actual* 
CoI, but also *peceived* ones?

Cheers,

Pavel
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[Wikimedia-l] Innovate in Free Knowledge | UNLOCK 2021projects

[Kannika Thaimai]

Dear Movement members,

Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE) launched UNLOCK last year, an acceleration program
which aims to “innovate in free knowledge” by promoting and supporting
teams that are working on free knowledge projects and helps them turn their
idea into a functional prototype [1]. In the context of movement strategy,
WMDE is interested in building the innovative capacity of our movement, and
with UNLOCK we seek to actively contribute to recommendation 9 "Innovate in
Free Knowledge".

The first edition of the program was held in Germany in 2020 and was a
great success [2]. This year, we scaled to Europe. UNLOCK is open to
volunteers from the existing Wikimedia projects, but also to those who are
not yet part of the Wikimedia movement. We are looking for change makers,
activists, technologists and creative minds who are eager to turn their
idea into a concrete prototype or product/service.

UNLOCK 2021 is now ready! 24 project teams from 17 countries (13 of them
from the European region, 4 even from outside Europe) applied and submitted
their ideas for our program focus *Trust in the Digital Age *[3]. 3 project
proposals were submitted by members of Wikimedia project communities. Five
(out of 24) of the teams were selected to participate in our three-month
accelerator program. This is a brief summary of the participating teams and
their approaches (a more detailed description can be found at the UNLOCK
website [4]):

   - FollowTheVote – a mobile app that makes political engagement a fun and
   informative habit for young people by combining facts with gamification.
   - Government Online Presence Directory – a crowdsourced and fact-checked
   directory of official governmental online accounts and services around the
   globe. This project is run by two active members of the Wikidata community
   and the directory itself will build on Wikidata.
   - OpenSpeaks Accessibility – an open toolkit for language archivists on
   how to create permanent, accessible and inclusive audiovisual archives. One
   of the project member is a longterm Wikimedian.
   - Supply-chains.us – an interactive and visual repository of resources,
   information, and stories related to technology supply chains.
   - ThinkTwise – open source browser extension that detects and highlights
   the quality of arguments in written, digital texts.

The program will kick-off on July 1&2, 2021 and ends by beginning of
October. We are super thrilled to be able to support these promising
projects and help them further develop in the coming months. If you want to
be updated about the development of these projects, please follow us on
Twitter [5] or check out our Blog for regular updates [6].

Best
Kannika

[1] https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock/
[2]
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/UNLOCK_Lessons_Learned_2020_%28english%29.pdf
[3]
https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock-blog/rebuilding-trust-in-the-digital-age/
[4] https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock/projects/
[5] https://twitter.com/UNLOCK_Acc
[6] https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock-blog/


-- 

Kannika Thaimai (she/her)Leitung / Lead UNLOCK Accelerator

UNLOCK Accelerator: We accelerate your ideas. Together we build the
future of Free Knowledge.

UNLOCK is a program initiated and implemented by Wikimedia Deutschland.

www.wikimedia.de/unlock

Keep up to date! Current news and exciting stories about Wikimedia,
Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in our newsletter (in German):
https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/

Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
https://www.wikimedia.de/
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Dan Szymborski]

"Moving forward" would involve directly addressing and fixing this shocking
example of board malgovernance, not corporate-doublespeaking about the
future in a way that avoids any and all culpability and transparency for
this gross ethical lapse. This doesn't need to be "explained" to us; it
needs to be remedied. Preferably with pen, paper, and farewells for the
pushers of this latest débâcle.

Best,

Dan

On Thu, Jun 24, 2021 at 10:27 PM  wrote:

> Hello again,
> Thank you to everyone that has provided valuable feedback. Moving forward,
> we will articulate and follow the best practices that emerge from these
> important discussions and our corresponding review of the attendant
> policies, procedures, and practices. Developing a more clear and consistent
> policy approach to future decisions is important for us.
> Maggie had been planning to do a community office hour in July in order to
> avoid conflicting with annual plan discussions and Movement Strategy
> meetings. We’ve decided instead to host that time next week. I’ll be there
> as General Counsel and also as a member of the transition team and am
> working to see if the other members of the Transition Team or Board of
> Trustees will be able to join me so we can discuss any further questions or
> concerns you may have. I’m prioritizing doing this sooner over making sure
> everyone can attend. It’s less notice than we would like to give, but
> otherwise it would be well into July before we’d be able. The time and
> details will be coming very soon, hopefully tomorrow.
> Best regards,
> Amanda
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Appropriate promotion OR Appropriate canvassing protocol/policy

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
Why is a guideline on English Wikipedia the right place for a policy that
is of a global relevance?
Thanks,
 GerardM

On Fri, 25 Jun 2021 at 09:05, টিটো দত্ত Tito Dutta 
wrote:

> Hello,
> This is something I have been thinking about for some time. This June–July
> we will see a couple of elections/selections. I think wherever a voting is
> in process, an effective canvassing/promotion policy should be there. We
> may need to notify our friend Wikimedians about our candidacy, that is
> understandable, but there should be behavioral guidelines on what is
> appropriate and what is inappropriate promotion/canvassing.
> This email thread is about the process, and I won't mention any specific
> example, however during every election/committee formation we see different
> votestacking attempts and efforts. In such a situation there is a
> possibility that if a candidate has many social media or contacts and
> friends (Wimimedian), they will end up getting more votes than someone who
> entirely relied on their nomination and performance.
>
> There is a behavioral guideline on a Wikipedia project:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Canvassing
> I don't think this is globally applicable, and I am note sure if we have
> one global policy.
> Hence,
> 1) We can work on  "Canvassing guidelines", discussing appropriateness,
> inappropriateness etc.
> 2) These guidelines should be effectively used and it would be great if
> the candidates/contestants read and acknowledge that they will adhere to
> the protocol/policy.
> Kind regards,
>
> ইতি,/Regards
> টিটো দত্ত/User:Titodutta
> (মাতৃভাষা থাক জীবন জুড়ে)
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[The Cunctator]

It's pretty embarrassing that regional Wikimedias have better governance
standards than the (extraordinarily wealthy) international Foundation.

I don't understand how  the Tides/Wikimedia general counsel believes that
the conflict of interest of Maria has moved directly from being Board chair
to being a paid consultant for an undisclosed amount "would be shortly
mitigated by her stepping down from her trusteeship for unrelated reasons".

On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 12:25 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) 
wrote:

> On Thu, 24 Jun 2021 at 12:56, Chris Keating 
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the detailed comments. However, still, this doesn't really
>> help that much.
>>
>> From your email it seems that over several months the WMF has created a
>> new role which just happens to be ideal for its outgoing Chair to fill, and
>> indeed could scarcely be filled by anyone else because it so closely
>> relates to the Board's priorities.
>>
>> If this is allowed to happen then it raises serious questions about
>> whether Board members make decisions about the WMF's priorities in order to
>> create consultancy posts for themselves. As it happens I don't believe that
>> is what has happened here, but one could be forgiven for drawing that
>> conclusion. There is a clear appearance of a conflict of interest. And
>> there is a real risk of undermining the credibility of pretty much any
>> decision the Board might take in future, if people - the community, donors
>> or the media - start to believe that those decisions are being taken
>> because Board members will be eased into paid positions to implement them.
>>
>> No amount of reassurances that conversations happened in a particular
>> order can avoid this. The letter and indeed the spirit of the WMF's
>> conflict of interest policy may have been followed. But the object of the
>> WMF's conflict of interest policy has not been achieved, quite the
>> opposite. One can follow a policy and end up making the wrong decision, and
>> that's what's happened here.
>>
>
> I agree wholeheartedly with Chris's eloquent comments on this situation.
> What has happened here is very inappropriate, and deeply troubling.
>
> Dan
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Dan Garry (Deskana)]

On Thu, 24 Jun 2021 at 12:56, Chris Keating 
wrote:

> Thanks for the detailed comments. However, still, this doesn't really help
> that much.
>
> From your email it seems that over several months the WMF has created a
> new role which just happens to be ideal for its outgoing Chair to fill, and
> indeed could scarcely be filled by anyone else because it so closely
> relates to the Board's priorities.
>
> If this is allowed to happen then it raises serious questions about
> whether Board members make decisions about the WMF's priorities in order to
> create consultancy posts for themselves. As it happens I don't believe that
> is what has happened here, but one could be forgiven for drawing that
> conclusion. There is a clear appearance of a conflict of interest. And
> there is a real risk of undermining the credibility of pretty much any
> decision the Board might take in future, if people - the community, donors
> or the media - start to believe that those decisions are being taken
> because Board members will be eased into paid positions to implement them.
>
> No amount of reassurances that conversations happened in a particular
> order can avoid this. The letter and indeed the spirit of the WMF's
> conflict of interest policy may have been followed. But the object of the
> WMF's conflict of interest policy has not been achieved, quite the
> opposite. One can follow a policy and end up making the wrong decision, and
> that's what's happened here.
>

I agree wholeheartedly with Chris's eloquent comments on this situation.
What has happened here is very inappropriate, and deeply troubling.

Dan
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Dan Garry (Deskana)]

On Fri, 25 Jun 2021 at 11:26, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FOs9_l33gY=13s
>

That is an unhelpful and incredibly inappropriate response.

Dan
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Andreas Kolbe]

"Thank you to everyone that has provided valuable feedback. Moving forward,
we will articulate and follow the best practices that emerge from these
important discussions and our corresponding review of the attendant
policies, procedures, and practices. Developing a more clear and consistent
policy approach to future decisions is important for us."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FOs9_l33gY=13s

Andreas
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming María Sefidari as a Foundation consultant. :)

[Michel Vuijlsteke]

On Thu, 24 Jun 2021 at 18:45, Adam Wight  wrote:

> I can imagine many potential conflicts of interest in this two-wiki
> arrangement, most concerning is the possibility that the scope of Wikimedia
> could be restricted in order to drive users towards the for-profit.
>

This is not a hypothetical. Contrary to the "Imagine a world in which every
single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human
knowledge. That's what we're doing." tenet, massive amounts of information
has been actively moved off Wikipedia to for-profit wikis -- I'm talking of
course about such things as Star Wars, Star Trek, Pokémon etc.

Michel
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[Wikimedia-l] Appropriate promotion OR Appropriate canvassing protocol/policy

[টিটো দত্ত Tito Dutta]

 Hello,
This is something I have been thinking about for some time. This June–July
we will see a couple of elections/selections. I think wherever a voting is
in process, an effective canvassing/promotion policy should be there. We
may need to notify our friend Wikimedians about our candidacy, that is
understandable, but there should be behavioral guidelines on what is
appropriate and what is inappropriate promotion/canvassing.
This email thread is about the process, and I won't mention any specific
example, however during every election/committee formation we see different
votestacking attempts and efforts. In such a situation there is a
possibility that if a candidate has many social media or contacts and
friends (Wimimedian), they will end up getting more votes than someone who
entirely relied on their nomination and performance.

There is a behavioral guideline on a Wikipedia project:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Canvassing
I don't think this is globally applicable, and I am note sure if we have
one global policy.
Hence,
1) We can work on  "Canvassing guidelines", discussing appropriateness,
inappropriateness etc.
2) These guidelines should be effectively used and it would be great if the
candidates/contestants read and acknowledge that they will adhere to the
protocol/policy.
Kind regards,

ইতি,/Regards
টিটো দত্ত/User:Titodutta
(মাতৃভাষা থাক জীবন জুড়ে)
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