[Wikimedia-l] Re: Luis Bitencourt-Emilio Joins Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

[The Cunctator]

I would like to submit that I personally found SJ's characterizations of
other contributors' legitimate concerns and critiques as "light hazing" to
be offensively dismissive, but if SJ helps facilitate an honest and
respectful attempt by Luis and the board to answer those concerns I will
happily eat my words.

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 3:38 PM Samuel Klein  wrote:

>  Welcome, Luis :)  A light hazing is traditional. ✨
>
> I am delighted to see someone w/ not just a product and technical
> background, but specific experience maintaining a collaborative read-write
> platform w/ global audience.  Of course the board is responsible for
> higher-level governance.  But increasingly, advancing the mission [of the
> foundation and the movement as a whole] touches on technical details and
> their implications.  That's why experience with our sort of tech at scale
> has long been on the list of skills the Board seeks.
>
> Yair writes:
> > People are allowed to have outside interests. Being incidentally
> interested in blockchain tech is not
> > a disqualifying attribute. Having worked in large technology companies
> is not a disqualifying attribute.
> > Neither of these things should even be counted negatively.
>
> Indeed not.  (Steven, I don't see any meaningful parallel w/ AG!)
>
> We should discuss what place blockchain + nft communities, trends, and
> practices have with respect to our mission.  But ... in a separate thread
> perhaps?
>
> SJ
> w:user:sj
>
> [ Personally I see more substantive alternatives to the destructive trend
> towards copyright-maximalism than I have for some time. ]
>
> On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 8:40 AM Dariusz Jemielniak <
> dar...@kozminski.edu.pl> wrote:
>
>> Dear Dan,
>>
>> Thank you for the feedback!
>>
>> The search for a trustee with an expertise in product and technology
>> began a few months ago. One of the problems we identified was that the
>> Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not
>> staying for a long period of time, and then there was also a CPO (Chief
>> Product Officer) transition. It was also important that the new CEO (Chief
>> Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience
>> and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with
>> the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work
>> together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.
>>
>> The other critical factor was diversity – the search was prioritizing
>> candidates with experience outside of Silicon Valley, in non-English
>> speaking countries, preferably from the Global South.
>>
>> And, of course, we also needed a commitment to spend enough time on the
>> Board work – to be engaged and present. For example, Luis met online and
>> offline with Wikimedia volunteers from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking
>> communities, he is eager to help us with his knowledge and experience.
>> Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance
>> Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things Luis brings to
>> the table, the needed expertise, diversity and commitment.
>>
>> I personally am not particularly fond of cryptocurrencies, even though I
>> appreciate blockchain as a technology, and support e.g. decentralized
>> science (https://decentralized.science/). We as a movement have not had
>> a uniform stand on this, and I’m not sure if we should, though.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Dariusz (chair of the BGC)
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 1:40 PM Dan Garry (Deskana) 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks for the update, Nataliia. Knowledge and expertise in product and
>>> technology is a skill set that has been lacking on the Board, and it's
>>> great to see the Board addressing this by co-opting product and technology
>>> leaders. Luis's experience, such as his time at reddit, will likely be very
>>> applicable to our movement.
>>>
>>> However, I'm surprised that the Board chose to co-opt someone who seems
>>> to have such a public focus on technology like blockchains and
>>> cryptocurrency, and that this focus of his was omitted from this
>>> announcement.
>>>
>>> It would be helpful if we could hear from Luis how he intends to use his
>>> knowledge and expertise to contribute to the movement as a Board member,
>>> and to what extent he considers blockchain and cryptocurrency to factor
>>> into that.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Dan
>>>
>>> On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 at 17:20, Nataliia Tymkiv 
>>> wrote:
>>>
 Dear All,

 Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia
 Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year
 term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in
 November 2021 [1].

 Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at
 Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product
 and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned
 

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Luis Bitencourt-Emilio Joins Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

[The Cunctator]

I am sincerely interested in your views on the open source movement, the
for-profit exploitation of Wikinedia, the role of the Foundation in
protecting the intellectual property interests of Wikimedia contributors,
and the role of influential technologists in promoting financially and
environmentally ruinous Ponzi schemes like cryptocurrency.

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022, 8:40 PM Luis Bitencourt-Emilio 
wrote:

> Hello everybody,
>
> Thank you Nataliia et al. for the warm welcome (and light hazing) and
> apologies to all for my late response.
>
> Years ago, a colleague from the Wikimedia Foundation staff reached out to
> talk about product & technology at the organization. I still remember how
> eye-opening that initial conversation was - discussing the challenges and
> opportunities behind Wikipedia, one of my favorite sites that I had used
> for over a decade at that time, left me with little doubt that this is a
> movement I would want to be part of in some capacity. I was still at Reddit
> at the time, learning what it was like to shift from using and contributing
> to open source software to working in a tech company built around open
> source and through active, committed, and vocal communities. My experience
> at Reddit was one of the most transformative periods in my career and one
> of the reasons that I was interested in volunteering for this role.
>
> I was born and grew up in Brazil, under vastly different circumstances
> than today. There was a critical moment in my life when my father placed
> me, at 8 years old, in a BASIC programming course which I would practice on
> our x286 hidden away in a laundry room. My passion for technology started
> then, and has only grown since. I believe in technology as a key path to
> the furthering of humanity, of knowledge, of quality of life, and of our
> collective future. I also believe that this will only happen with the
> guidance and efforts of active and inclusive communities that shepherd said
> technology to positive outcomes.
>
> So now, years later and after my return to Latin America, there was an
> opportunity to join the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. I spent the
> next several months in conversations with other board members, staff,
> community members and friends to try and internalize more about the
> challenges and opportunities ahead, and most importantly to learn whether I
> could indeed make a positive contribution. I join this movement deeply
> humbled and inspired by the passion of everyone I met, and with a strong
> drive to leverage my experiences as a product and engineering leader to
> build a world where every single human being can freely share in the sum of
> all knowledge.
>
> In this role, I can only be my authentic self, I will strive for
> understanding in my interactions with you, as well as do my absolute best
> to bring excellence to our product and technology. I will always be
> inclusive and welcoming of our differences, and engage in civil discourse,
> in service of a movement that is bigger than ourselves.
>
> Thank you for the opportunity to contribute. I hope to connect with many
> of you directly over the coming months.
>
> Cheers,
> Luis
>
> PS: I see a separate conversation has emerged relating to blockchains and
> my interests in that field. I want to clarify that I don’t work
> professionally in this field, and while I’m historically an early adopter
> of technology - in the same way I adopted the internet in the 90s - I share
> many of the same thoughts and questions about this new technology’s future
> that have been raised in this thread. As a new Trustee, first and foremost,
> I am here to learn and to hear more from all of you.
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Luis Bitencourt-Emilio Joins Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

[Lane Chance]

Just to remind you, Luis Bitencourt-Emilio is one of the Wikimedia
Foundation's unelected trustees. He publicly supported the infamous
"monkey" NFTs, widely thought to mirror racist tropes,* and used one as his
social media avatar when first appointed to the board.

In the last 24 hours a class action lawsuit is in the news, suing
celebrities who were paid to promote the same Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs now
considered "fraudulently misleading". It remains bizarre that the Wikimedia
Foundation, considered a technology-leading organization with a core
commitment to ethical behaviour, is publicly represented by someone who was
openly part of the BAYC fanbois with such bad judgement they helped this
alleged pyramid scheme. This background of lousy judgement does not meet
the requirement for anyone sitting in top-level governance over the
activities and massive funding for Wikimedia projects and operations.

As was previously remarked in this email thread, "We should have looked at
that history and trod more carefully." More worryingly the defensively
circling the wagons at the beginning of the year to brush off the questions
this raises shows that the Wikimedia Foundation nor the governance
committee they rely on to "vet" unelected trustee appointments, failed.

* A context here from an analysis by David Gerard "It does seem pretty
likely that the Ape bros are at least casually racist. For one thing, they
clearly feel at home in those corners of internet edgelord culture whose
syncretism includes the troll disposition that has characterised the
identitarian right since at least the eighties, the performative nihilism
that has come to characterise disaffected digital natives in the wake of
the Great Recession, and the ironic hipster racism that somehow always
stops being ironic after a while. For another, they are shilling crypto, a
project of the far right since day one." [3]

Thanks,
Lane

References
1.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/celebrity-promoters-sued-over-bored-ape-nft-endorsements-1235279115
2.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/celebrities-bored-apes-are-hilariously-worthless-now
3.
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2022/02/06/bored-ape-yacht-club-and-neo-nazis-so-much-reaching-for-just-four-bananas/

On Thu, 13 Jan 2022 at 16:02, Lane Chance  wrote:

> Dariusz, Chair of the BGC: "Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a
> factor here – the Governance Committee, and then the Board, were
> considering other things..."
>
> This is so wrong it's painful to read. The fundamental job of the
> Governance Committee is to ensure that appointed trustees do not come with
> the potential to cause harm to the Wikimedia 'brand' and the community.
>
> A WMF trustee that promotes Bitcoin and NFTs? Compare with the WMF
> statement "We at the Wikimedia Foundation strive to ensure that our work
> and mission support a sustainable world" - now in the bin as it lacks any
> credibility from here on, as the governance committee and therefore the
> board of trustees does not believe in these values. This is not a
> successful appointment, Luis Bitencourt-Emilio is not welcome as they are a
> controversial and damaging addition to the board.
>
> Ref:
> https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/09/19/how-the-wikimedia-foundation-is-making-efforts-to-go-green
>
> On Thu, 13 Jan 2022 at 13:40, Dariusz Jemielniak 
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Dan,
>>
>> Thank you for the feedback!
>>
>> The search for a trustee with an expertise in product and technology
>> began a few months ago. One of the problems we identified was that the
>> Wikimedia Foundation CTOs (Chief Technology Officer) are usually not
>> staying for a long period of time, and then there was also a CPO (Chief
>> Product Officer) transition. It was also important that the new CEO (Chief
>> Executive Officer) would like to have a trustee with relevant experience
>> and leadership in the tech world (as would the Board itself), but also with
>> the understanding and experience of how technology and communities can work
>> together, so, as you said, Reddit experience is very relevant.
>>
>> The other critical factor was diversity – the search was prioritizing
>> candidates with experience outside of Silicon Valley, in non-English
>> speaking countries, preferably from the Global South.
>>
>> And, of course, we also needed a commitment to spend enough time on the
>> Board work – to be engaged and present. For example, Luis met online and
>> offline with Wikimedia volunteers from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking
>> communities, he is eager to help us with his knowledge and experience.
>> Cryptocurrency and blockchains were not a factor here – the Governance
>> Committee, and then the Board, were considering other things Luis brings to
>> the table, the needed expertise, diversity and commitment.
>>
>> I personally am not particularly fond of cryptocurrencies, even though I
>> appreciate blockchain as a technology, and support e.g. decentralized
>> science 

[Wikimedia-l] Re: ChatGPT and Wikipedia

[The Cunctator]

It's trained on Wikipedia. Here's a 2020 paper from the authors. I would
argue it's violating the copyright but I'm aware the foundation isn't very
interested in defending it.

 https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.14165

On Sat, Dec 10, 2022, 10:42 AM Anders Wennersten 
wrote:

> Is this Ai software using info from Wikipedia directly or indirecly, and
> if not is it an alternative way of storing knowledge to the wikiway?
>
> Anders
>
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[Wikimedia-l] ChatGPT and Wikipedia

[Anders Wennersten]

Is this Ai software using info from Wikipedia directly or indirecly, and 
if not is it an alternative way of storing knowledge to the wikiway?


Anders

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[Wikimedia-l] Reminder – expressions of interest for Wikimania 2024 and 2025 (deadline December 16th)

[Iolanda Pensa]

Dear all,
Wikimania is an extraordinary event: consider hosting it!!

By December 16th express your interest in hosting Wikimania in 2024, 2025 and 
beyond
https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2024:Expressions_of_Interest 
  

You don’t need to have a venue secured or event logistics in place, that’s 
something we will work on together. At this point, we are primarily seeking 
your expression of interest. Hosting an international event with the size and 
magnitude of Wikimania – and now with added distributed and hybrid 
participation models – is complicated. With resources from the Foundation and 
guidance from the Wikimania Steering Committee, you will also have access to 
professional event organizers on the ground that can support this work. We also 
plan for an overlap with the current Wikimania 2023 organizing team to build in 
plenty of time for learning and collaboration.   

Looking forward to discuss with you new locations for our future Wikimanias

Best regards,
Iolanda, on behalf of the Wikimania Steering Committee
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_Committee#Members 
  

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