[Wikimedia-l] What diversity is about

[Gerard Meijssen]

One of the stated objectives for the board of the Wikimedia Foundation is
to have a more diverse representation, for it to be more inclusive. As an
abstract it is a really worthwhile objective, once chosen as one of the
more diverse board members of the Wikimedia Foundation however, it is easy
to find it is a poisoned chalice.

The problem is that there is now a huge carnival where board candidates are
trotted around explaining themselves, giving their points of view. In this
way expectations are raised that cannot be fulfilled. They cannot be
fulfilled for several reasons.

   - the board activities are to consider proposals and points of view as
   prepared by the Wikimedia organisation
   - there is no room to introduce independent points of view for
   consideration
   - even when all community elected board members agree on a point of view
   (unlikely), they are by design a minority

When people are later judged for their contributions on the board by our
communities, there is no defence when it is argued that nothing
materialised from initial good intentions. In addition, there is no
interest from the Wikimedia organisation to learn what drives candidate
board members to invest an inordinate amount of time to play a role on the
"governing" level they are to enable.

Diversity can be many things but it is tokenism when board members are only
to fulfil a predetermined role. It is tokenism when the tradition of
prevalence for English and Wikipedia is not even considered. It is tokenism
when the needs of communities we could serve are not considered only
because "it is not a community we have defined we serve" particularly as
there is no cost except for initial configuration.

I have brought these points forward earlier in private communications. They
are not reflected in the provided feedback.
Thanks,
   GerardM
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Sanctions against the Russian Federation; support for Ukrainian Wikimedians

[Peter Southwood]

Yes, that is what we are supposed to do and supposed to be good at. Cheers, 
Peter

 

From: Ilario Valdelli [mailto:valde...@gmail.com] 
Sent: 02 March 2022 10:31
To: Wikimedia Mailing List
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Re: Sanctions against the Russian Federation; support 
for Ukrainian Wikimedians

 

I agree and I think that the best support is to offer a neutral and complete 
information against any kind of propaganda.

 

This is what Wikimedia can do better.

 

Kind regards

 

On Tue, 1 Mar 2022, 23:21 Valentin Nefedov,  wrote:

Thanks for your support! The best "sanctions" WMF can implement is raising 
awareness about the whole situation. For example, the promotion of Ukraine's 
Cultural Diplomacy Month 2022 
 . 
About Russian Wikipedia: unfortunately, most likely it will get banned in the 
Federation. More than 70 Russian Wikipedians wrote open letter to us on our 
village pump 

  where they condemned the invasion, so WMF might support people who signed 
this letter legally because of possible threats.

 

Best regards,

Renvoy

 

вт, 1 бер. 2022 р. о 22:57 James Heilman  пише:

I wonder if a banner raising awareness regarding the existence of offline apps 
specifically Kiwix for when communication goes down would be useful?

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kiwix.kiwixmobile 

 &hl=en_CA&gl=US

 

We also have Internet in a Box, with instruction on how to build your own here

 

https://mdwiki.org/wiki/WikiProjectMed:Internet-in-a-Box

 

James

 

On Tue, Mar 1, 2022 at 2:37 PM GorillaWarfare 
 wrote:

+1 on the "what can we all do to help?" question. On the VPN topic, I suspect 
the functionary teams will be pretty open to granting IPBE for folks editing 
from that region. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IP_block_exemption#Used_for_anonymous_proxy_editing
 has details if anyone needs it.




– Molly White (GorillaWarfare)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:GorillaWarfare

she/her

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-- 

James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian

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Virus-free.  

 www.avg.com 

 

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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Sanctions against the Russian Federation; support for Ukrainian Wikimedians

[Zafer BATIK]

Hi Everyone,

As you know Turkey has banned more than 2,5 year Wikipedia Project all
languages. And we contributed through free VPNs in those years.

Andy Mabbett was also our guest speaker during the ban for the Wikidata 6th
Birthday event
.
We contacted WMF employees many times.

I hope no one is not badly affected by this situation.

Regards,

*Zafer*

*WMTR*

Stephen LaPorte , 2 Mar 2022 Çar, 21:48 tarihinde
şunu yazdı:

> Hello Andy,
>
> The Foundation is undertaking several initiatives in assisting the
> Wikimedia communities in Ukraine and Russia, and in reviewing the potential
> impacts that the sanctions will have on the movement. We are not able to
> discuss all the specifics without potential risk to those being supported.
>
> What we can disclose is that the Trust and Safety and Human Rights units
> of the Foundation are in constant communication with community members in
> Ukraine and Russia. Our Disinformation Team on the other hand is actively
> collaborating with various communities in monitoring the situation, and in
> ensuring that the projects maintain neutrality during these unprecedented
> times.
>
> Other emails on this thread have shared valuable ideas of how we can
> collectively assist the Wikimedia communities in Ukraine and Russia, and we
> are grateful for that. As we continue to monitor the situation, we urge
> everyone to report direct threats of harm through our dedicated channel:
> emerge...@wikimedia.org, so that we can evaluate them on an individual
> basis and determine the best course of action.
>
> On matters related to disinformation, and specifically pertaining to
> Ukraine and Russia, we have set up a dedicated channel and our team can be
> reached through d...@wikimedia.org.
>
> Best,
> Stephen
>
> On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 5:25 AM Andy Mabbett 
> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 2 Mar 2022 at 06:26, Stephen LaPorte 
>> wrote:
>>
>> > We share your concern for the ongoing threats to our community members
>> in
>> > Ukraine and Russia, as well as our global mission to share free and open
>> > knowledge. As Ziko just shared, the Foundation issued a statement
>> earlier
>> > today on the crisis in Ukraine.
>>
>> I don't think any of us would disagree with the sentiments expressed
>> there.
>>
>> But your post does not answer the questions I posed in the original
>> post in this thread.
>>
>> --
>> Andy Mabbett
>> @pigsonthewing
>> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>> ___
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>>
>
>
> --
> Stephen LaPorte (he/him/his)
> Legal Director
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
> *NOTICE: This message may be confidential or legally privileged. If you
> have received it by accident, please delete it and let us know about the
> mistake. As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical
> reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
> members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
> on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
> .*
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Sanctions against the Russian Federation; support for Ukrainian Wikimedians

[Valentin Nefedov]

As a member of Wikimedia Ukraine, I can say that we as an organisation
proposed help for Wikipedians from Ukraine. Wikimedia Poland was also very
kind to express its readiness to help. But as far as I know, no one used
this help so far.

чт, 3 бер. 2022 р. о 14:55 Yaroslav Blanter  пише:

> Males between 18 and 60 may not leave the country (and probably do not
> want to do it anyway), so that there could be only women, old people, and
> children among the refugees. Given the gender gap situation, probably there
> are not so many Wikipedians among them, but I hope if there are some, they
> will let themselves known.
>
> Best
> Yaroslav
>
> On Thu, Mar 3, 2022 at 2:35 PM Tomasz Ganicz  wrote:
>
>> I was contacted by two wikipedians from Ukraine which I know personally
>> with questions about the situation at Polish border and what documents they
>> need to enter. I just answered them + gave my private phone number, but
>> till then I haven't heard from them, so they either decided to stay or are
>> still trying to get to the border. One of them is from Kiev and one from
>> Lviv. Bear in mind that at the moment, there are around 1 million
>> Ukrainians queing at the border on the Ukrainian side, and Poland is able
>> to accept around 100 000 per day.
>>
>> I guess - if the substantial number of Ukrainian Wikipedias manage to
>> reach Polish border - some sort of help from WMF would be very appreciated
>> - but at the moment I guess not too much real help can be done.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>>
>>
>> 
>>  Wolny
>> od wirusów. www.avast.com
>> 
>> <#m_-6354216588033126005_m_-2230622763712047362_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
>>
>> czw., 3 mar 2022 o 11:40 Andy Mabbett 
>> napisał(a):
>>
>>> On Wed, 2 Mar 2022 at 18:04, Stephen LaPorte 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> > The Foundation is undertaking several initiatives in assisting the
>>> Wikimedia
>>> > communities in Ukraine and Russia, and in reviewing the potential
>>> impacts
>>> >that the sanctions will have on the movement. We are not able to
>>> discuss all
>>> > the specifics without potential risk to those being supported.
>>> >
>>> > What we can disclose is that the Trust and Safety and Human Rights
>>> units of
>>> > the Foundation are in constant communication with community members in
>>> Ukraine
>>> > and Russia.
>>>
>>> Thank you for the response. It is good to know that WMF is assisting
>>> our colleagues, and of course I understand the need for discretion
>>> regarding specifics, but I had hoped you could tell us /something/
>>> about what is being done in that regard.
>>>
>>> An additional thought occurs to me: Do we know of any Wikimedians who
>>> have become refugees, and are we assisting them in their new host
>>> countries?
>>>
>>> Regarding sanctions, do WMF have salaried staff or freelancers in
>>> Russia, and what is their position now? Does WMF fund a chapter or any
>>> other grantees in Russia, and ditto?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Andy Mabbett
>>> @pigsonthewing
>>> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>>> ___
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>>> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz
>> http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek
>> http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/
>>
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>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Sanctions against the Russian Federation; support for Ukrainian Wikimedians

[Yaroslav Blanter]

Males between 18 and 60 may not leave the country (and probably do not want
to do it anyway), so that there could be only women, old people, and
children among the refugees. Given the gender gap situation, probably there
are not so many Wikipedians among them, but I hope if there are some, they
will let themselves known.

Best
Yaroslav

On Thu, Mar 3, 2022 at 2:35 PM Tomasz Ganicz  wrote:

> I was contacted by two wikipedians from Ukraine which I know personally
> with questions about the situation at Polish border and what documents they
> need to enter. I just answered them + gave my private phone number, but
> till then I haven't heard from them, so they either decided to stay or are
> still trying to get to the border. One of them is from Kiev and one from
> Lviv. Bear in mind that at the moment, there are around 1 million
> Ukrainians queing at the border on the Ukrainian side, and Poland is able
> to accept around 100 000 per day.
>
> I guess - if the substantial number of Ukrainian Wikipedias manage to
> reach Polish border - some sort of help from WMF would be very appreciated
> - but at the moment I guess not too much real help can be done.
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> 
>  Wolny
> od wirusów. www.avast.com
> 
> <#m_-2230622763712047362_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
>
> czw., 3 mar 2022 o 11:40 Andy Mabbett 
> napisał(a):
>
>> On Wed, 2 Mar 2022 at 18:04, Stephen LaPorte 
>> wrote:
>>
>> > The Foundation is undertaking several initiatives in assisting the
>> Wikimedia
>> > communities in Ukraine and Russia, and in reviewing the potential
>> impacts
>> >that the sanctions will have on the movement. We are not able to discuss
>> all
>> > the specifics without potential risk to those being supported.
>> >
>> > What we can disclose is that the Trust and Safety and Human Rights
>> units of
>> > the Foundation are in constant communication with community members in
>> Ukraine
>> > and Russia.
>>
>> Thank you for the response. It is good to know that WMF is assisting
>> our colleagues, and of course I understand the need for discretion
>> regarding specifics, but I had hoped you could tell us /something/
>> about what is being done in that regard.
>>
>> An additional thought occurs to me: Do we know of any Wikimedians who
>> have become refugees, and are we assisting them in their new host
>> countries?
>>
>> Regarding sanctions, do WMF have salaried staff or freelancers in
>> Russia, and what is their position now? Does WMF fund a chapter or any
>> other grantees in Russia, and ditto?
>>
>> --
>> Andy Mabbett
>> @pigsonthewing
>> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>> ___
>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
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>>
>
>
> --
> Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz
> http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek
> http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Sanctions against the Russian Federation; support for Ukrainian Wikimedians

[Tomasz Ganicz]

I was contacted by two wikipedians from Ukraine which I know personally
with questions about the situation at Polish border and what documents they
need to enter. I just answered them + gave my private phone number, but
till then I haven't heard from them, so they either decided to stay or are
still trying to get to the border. One of them is from Kiev and one from
Lviv. Bear in mind that at the moment, there are around 1 million
Ukrainians queing at the border on the Ukrainian side, and Poland is able
to accept around 100 000 per day.

I guess - if the substantial number of Ukrainian Wikipedias manage to reach
Polish border - some sort of help from WMF would be very appreciated - but
at the moment I guess not too much real help can be done.

Cheers,



Wolny
od wirusów. www.avast.com

<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

czw., 3 mar 2022 o 11:40 Andy Mabbett 
napisał(a):

> On Wed, 2 Mar 2022 at 18:04, Stephen LaPorte 
> wrote:
>
> > The Foundation is undertaking several initiatives in assisting the
> Wikimedia
> > communities in Ukraine and Russia, and in reviewing the potential impacts
> >that the sanctions will have on the movement. We are not able to discuss
> all
> > the specifics without potential risk to those being supported.
> >
> > What we can disclose is that the Trust and Safety and Human Rights units
> of
> > the Foundation are in constant communication with community members in
> Ukraine
> > and Russia.
>
> Thank you for the response. It is good to know that WMF is assisting
> our colleagues, and of course I understand the need for discretion
> regarding specifics, but I had hoped you could tell us /something/
> about what is being done in that regard.
>
> An additional thought occurs to me: Do we know of any Wikimedians who
> have become refugees, and are we assisting them in their new host
> countries?
>
> Regarding sanctions, do WMF have salaried staff or freelancers in
> Russia, and what is their position now? Does WMF fund a chapter or any
> other grantees in Russia, and ditto?
>
> --
> Andy Mabbett
> @pigsonthewing
> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
> ___
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>


-- 
Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz
http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek
http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Sanctions against the Russian Federation; support for Ukrainian Wikimedians

[Andy Mabbett]

On Wed, 2 Mar 2022 at 18:04, Stephen LaPorte  wrote:

> The Foundation is undertaking several initiatives in assisting the Wikimedia
> communities in Ukraine and Russia, and in reviewing the potential impacts
>that the sanctions will have on the movement. We are not able to discuss all
> the specifics without potential risk to those being supported.
>
> What we can disclose is that the Trust and Safety and Human Rights units of
> the Foundation are in constant communication with community members in Ukraine
> and Russia.

Thank you for the response. It is good to know that WMF is assisting
our colleagues, and of course I understand the need for discretion
regarding specifics, but I had hoped you could tell us /something/
about what is being done in that regard.

An additional thought occurs to me: Do we know of any Wikimedians who
have become refugees, and are we assisting them in their new host
countries?

Regarding sanctions, do WMF have salaried staff or freelancers in
Russia, and what is their position now? Does WMF fund a chapter or any
other grantees in Russia, and ditto?

-- 
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Form 990 clarification request (for the attention of WMF accounts staff)

[Andreas Kolbe]

Dear all,

To bring some sort of closure to this thread about Wikimedia salary costs,
Wikimedia CEO Maryana Iskander did eventually post a response on Meta.[1]
My question and her reply are copied in full below.

What please was the 2019 salary cost per WMF employee, per the most recent
Wikimedia Foundation Form 990

?

According to the linked Form 990, the WMF had salary costs of $55,634,913
(page 1, line 15, "Salaries, other compensation, employee benefits") in
2019, and a total of 291 employees (page 1, line 5). On the face of it,
this makes for an average salary cost of over $191K per employee.

Is this the correct figure, or if not, what is the correct calculation for
the average salary cost per employee in 2019? Are there estimates for more
recent years? Thanks, --Andreas
 JN
466
 01:04, 17
February 2022 (UTC)[reply

]
Hi Andreas - I am six weeks into the job and have seen your questions about
salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation in various public forums. I would like
to try and give you a response. What interests me most is understanding the
motivations for your questions so that I can attempt to share appropriate
information. You are welcome to contact me directly at miskander[image:
(_AT_)]wikimedia.org for a conversation as I won’t respond further here.What
I can share is the following:Calculating an average salary based on the
Form 990 is highly misleading. It produces totals that match our
highest-paid employees, as you see on the 990 form. This is true of many
organisations, not only the Wikimedia Foundation. As we will not release
non-public salary information in public forums, we accept that this number
is much higher than the true average salary. We currently have over 500
staff all over the world that are in a wide variety of job types and
levels, each of which are paid differently and by location. An average is
difficult to calculate and while it may provide a data point, it lacks
meaning for evaluating our performance as an organisation. An average
salary cost, even based on non-public data, is not useful for most of the
issues that concern me most. We hire in over 50 countries, which is a
reflection of our values as a global movement, but introduces complexity in
ensuring we can offer competitive packages that will attract mission-driven
talent, and especially engineers who we need to support the technology
obligations of the Foundation. People are the biggest investment we make in
supporting the Wikimedia projects and community, so this is a topic of
critical importance to me. Finally, I have also checked that we are in line
with other open knowledge organisations (e.g., Mozilla, Creative Commons,
EFF) in the financial, salary, budget, and staff information that we
publish. MIskander-WMF 
 (talk ) 14:54, 17
February 2022 (UTC)[reply

]

I'll just leave some general comments on Maryana's response here.

1. An organisation committed to transparency shouldn't give a friendly or
beholden inquirer any different information than a hostile one in response
to questions of fact. In both cases, the information should simply be
accurate. I have no desire to ingratiate myself.

2. As for my motivation, it's surely one that any Wikipedian can relate to:
I would like the public to have access to accurate information. I sometimes
write about these topics[2][3] and assist journalists with related research.

3. I don't accept that calculating an average for 291 employees produces a
figure that matches "our highest-paid employees". On the contrary, it
produces a figure for ALL "employees" in the strict sense of the word
(excluding freelancers). Even factoring in freelancers, the 291 employees
listed on the Form 990 were by far the majority of the total number of
people working for the WMF in 2019, and not some sort of elite.

4. I did not ask for the release of non-public information. I simply wanted
to know how many people's pay, approximately, the front-page figure of
$55.6 million represents. I thought it was 291, based on the "Total number
of individuals employed in calendar year 2019" given in the Form 990.
Anne/Risker asserted the $55.6 million figure also included the pay of the
82 contractors listed in Part V, line 1a. Which is it? Are some or all of
those contractors included in the salary costs total? The WMF won't say.

5. Salary costs are the WMF's biggest expenditure item. They reac