Re: [Wikimedia-l] The other side of the crisis at WMFR

[Rémi Mathis]

 > the
> > > > information presented, the investigation found no support for the
> > > > allegations. That conclusion was conveyed to the Wikimedia Foundation
> > > Board
> > > > as well as the chair of Wikimédia France.
> > > >
> > > > The Wikimedia Foundation remains committed to independent
> investigation
> > > if
> > > > presented with new information. Absent such information, we consider
> > the
> > > > allegations to be without merit.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On behalf of the Board,
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > María Sefidari
> > > >
> > > > El 8 oct. 2017 5:20, "John Erling Blad" <jeb...@gmail.com> escribió:
> > > >
> > > > When I first saw the posts I thought it would probably be more
> opinions
> > > to
> > > > them than the very clear blame-game that were going on. Having a
> partly
> > > > anonymous community and a chapter that only represents some of the
> > users
> > > > are an invitation to fierce battles.
> > > >
> > > > Whatever going on at WMFR, I believe it is time for reevaluating the
> > role
> > > > of WMF in this. I'm wondering if there should be a new board for WMF,
> > > > unless they get a new chair themselves asap. Reorganize, solve the
> > > > problems, and move on.
> > > >
> > > > No, I do not know any of the people involved.
> > > >
> > > > John Erling Blad
> > > > /jeblad
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, Oct 6, 2017 at 3:11 PM, Marie-Alice Mathis <
> > > > mariealice.gar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> Hello all,
> > > >>
> > > >> I haven’t had a real opportunity to introduce myself: I am
> Marie-Alice
> > > >> Mathis, 32, a now ex-member of the Board of Wikimédia France.
> > > >>
> > > >> The transition with the newly elected members of the Board is now
> > > complete
> > > >> and I gladly step down to get away from the violence, exhaustion and
> > > >> frustration of these past few months.
> > > >>
> > > >> I was a Board candidate because after completing my PhD I finally
> had
> > > more
> > > >> time to contribute to the projects and serve the community through
> the
> > > >> French chapter: after watching my husband Rémi Mathis do it for
> years
> > I
> > > > had
> > > >> a pretty good idea of what it meant. I did not know our ED Nathalie
> > > Martin
> > > >> or our chair Émeric Vallespi before working with them, and now that
> I
> > > have
> > > >> I can vouch for their hard work and attachment to the movement’s
> > values.
> > > >>
> > > >> Today, I have lost friends or people I thought were friends because
> I
> > > >> defended Nathalie and Émeric in good faith during the smear campaign
> > > based
> > > >> on the community’s assumption that they were the source and cause of
> > all
> > > >> the chapter’s problems, real or perceived. Although I have worked
> with
> > > > them
> > > >> closely for a year, I have been repeatedly informed that I’ve been
> > > >> manipulated by Nathalie from the start and should not have blindly
> > > > believed
> > > >> everything Émeric was saying. I’ve been personally attacked on WMF
> > > sites,
> > > >> email lists, and social media for weeks, my every word scrutinised,
> > > >> questioned and mocked assuming I was either ignorant or lying. I’ve
> > been
> > > >> told by so-called feminists who were endorsing a particularly sexist
> > > rant
> > > >> against me to “stop making inflammatory comments”. I’ve been called
> a
> > > >> conspiracy theorist because I questioned the role of our former
> chair
> > > >> Christophe Henner, now chair of the Board at the WMF, in the threats
> > to
> > > >> withdraw our chapter agreement and the cutting of half our FDC
> > funding.
> > > >> People close to Christophe who have resigned from the WMFR Board
> early
> > > in
> > > >> the crisis rather than take responsibility for their mistakes now
> call
> > > >> themselves victims and whistleblowers. The WMF, who is perfectly
>

[Wikimedia-l] Leaving from Wikimedia France - against violence and sexim

[Rémi Mathis]

Dear Wikipedians,

I'm leaving Wikimedia France, after 5 years at the board, 3 as chair, 3 as
chair of the Scientific Committee. The violence which took place this
summer and the way the Foundation behave (or rather, did nothing against
it) are not acceptable.
Here is a short explanation of my departure in English. The longer one, in
French, is here:
https://medium.com/@mathis.remi/la-toxicit%C3%A9-violence-sexisme-dune-partie-de-la-communaut%C3%A9-ne-me-permet-pas-de-rester-%C3%A0-wikim-38d6e1b71a73

Various dissensions and various oppositions have combined in recent months
within Wikimedia France, culminating in some members questioning its
governance. On this occasion, the community showed a behaviour which is not
suitable for a democratic association.

Some members behave like a pack of hounds, leading to the departure of the
executive director Nathalie Martin, after such a harassment on lists and
social media that she filed a complaint against 12 people. That makes 13
with the complaint she already filed against the ex-chair Christophe Henner
– now chair of the Wikimedia Foundation – for sexual harassment at the time
they worked together. Other members of the board have been systematically
harassed, sometimes with incredibly chauvinistic statements, leading to the
departure of all the board but one member.

I continuously sent messages, from July to October, to the Foundation to
warn them of what was going on. I even met its Legal Director, LaPorte, and
its Chair, Henner. They did nothing to counter these violence, part of
which took place on the lists and websites of the Foundation – they did
nothing to protect these women. On the contrary, they continuously
questioned the words and deeds of Wikimedia France board, providing
legitimacy to those who spread obnoxious rumours and committed violence and
abuse. Their sole preoccupation was to avoid a scandal, silence the
victims, and protect their Chair.

Within an organization which struggles to find new members, which
endeavours to be women-friendly and which communicate on their desire to be
more inclusive, it raises a lot of questions. Even Hollywood begins to
react and denounce people such as Weinstein: it is properly unbearable that
the digital world – and not anyone, but one committed to the greater good –
still hides the dust under the rug and refuse to take their responsibility
against morbid, dangerous, violent or sexist behaviours.

Given all that, and after losing all hope to be heard – after months
talking to a blank wall – I’m leaving Wikimedia France, resigning from it
Scientific Committee, and strongly condemn the toxic and irresponsible
strategy of the Wikimedia Foundation.

I also inform you that

*Frédéric Martel, culture and media journalist and author (France Culture)
*Laurent Le Bon, president of the Picasso Museum
*Cédric Villani, mathematician, Fields medallist

are also resigning from their position on the scientific committee.

Best,

Rémi Mathis
Chair 2011-2014
Chair of the Scientific Committee 2014-2017
Global Wikipedian of the Year 2013
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update on Wikimédia France

[Rémi Mathis]

> To be honest, 25-30% of WMFR members is quite a lot. And, don't
> forget, include roughly half of the Wikimedia France Board elected at
> the last General Assembly.
>
> This isn't the first governance crisis in the Wikimedia movement (WMF
> and other chapters have certainly had them) but it is probably the
> biggest and most long-drawn-out.
>


Of course, it's quite a lot: that's why a special meeting is scheduled to
discuss of all that and the biggest part of the discussion will be driven
by the people who are not happy.
But still, 70-75% of the members are happy with the organisation and never
ask them anything, nobody tries to listen to them. We should try to include
everyone, even the shy ones, even those who just work and don't consider
themselves as potentiol bosses... not only the few who knows who to talk
to, where to write, to have their personal wills fulfilled

And you are totally right, this is not the first crisis; this is actually
the point.
Every two years, some people complain and ask question about the general
strategy: should the organisation grow or not, what should be the relations
between employees and members, what are the main goals, etc. Then everybody
work together to build a strategic plan, to take decisions ; the plan is
implemented... and two years after that those who weren't happy at that
time, some new members, etc. want to begin from scratch one more time. It's
very hard to have a long-term strategy and developpment if there is no
trust in what members have done before. And it's above all a real problem
for the employees who can never be sure their job won't be at risk a few
months after.



>
> > And those people refuse to acknowledge reality, even when the
> > board explains everything, even when lawyers explains what can and
> cannot be done within a chapter.
>
> To my mind the board's "explanations" are part of the problem. Reading
> the statements from WMFR about the FDC process, or their emails to
> members or their response to the timeline - it's all about how WMFR
> has never been wrong about anything. All the criticism is wrong (and
> probably a conspiracy). WMFR's board has been doing the only thing
> they could possibly have done. All of this is repeated again and
> again.
>
> That is a dysfunctional response to the situation. A significant part
> of the French Wikimedia community has lost confidence in WMFR. The
> Board should be working to restore that confidence, and the more it
> denies the problem is real, the worse the result will be.
>


Well, the problem is that... it's not really clear what the problem is...
They always talk about "what happens", "the situation"... but it's very
hard to understand what specific problem there is. I mean, to have another
answer than "a gouvernance problem" and another ideas than "we should fire
the director, another employee and ask the board to resign".
The people organizing the next general meeting want an audit... but there
have been two in a few months, and we are waiting for the conclusion of the
Foundation (some people came in Paris a few weeks ago): what new can an
audit find?
They want to create a commission against conflits of interest... but it
already exist (within the board, it can be widened, I totally agree) and
some of their leaders precisely left because they wouldn't sign the conflit
of interest statement!
They want to reinstate not only the people whose admission have been
refused but all the members who have been excluded... but no member have
ever been excluded!

It's really hard to speak and be understood (once more, Anthere asks a
question about something she doesn't know, about a fact; I answer to her
with the very fact, and she says "I don't agree". What can you answer to
that?)
I think everybody counted on the Foundation mission to facilitate the
dialogue, we really hope it will happen.

And anyway, I think most of the board cannot deal with the harasment
anymore and will resign. This is just a terrible waste of energy, good will
and work. Back to 2008... with a lot of frustration from those who gave a
lot of free time and competence to the development of the chapter

R














>
> Regards,
>
> Chris
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update on Wikimédia France

[Rémi Mathis]

This is typically the kind agressive behaviour we don't need right now.
Everybody in the chapter knows that Marie-Alice Mathis and Rémi Mathis are
wife and husband, it has always been clearly stated and we always refused
to be at the board at the same time to avoid conflicts of interest.

Now what? Do you think I can't have opinions of my own because I'm not a
member of the board, or she can't have because she's a manipulated woman?
We are *two individuals* and we do have *two brains*. This kind of
allegations are not acceptable and the smugness of "Nuff said" really
hurtful!

I am an ordinary member... but I think I have a certain experience of
what's going on
1/ as a long-time member of the board (2009-2014) and chair (2011-2014),
who hired most of the employees, managed them, organized a lot of what made
Wikimedia France one of the biggest and most sucessful chapters... and a
member still really involved in the life of the community
2/ as someone, yes, who sees her wife spending hours every night, trying to
explain things to people who don't want to hear or understand. Like, you
know, when you ask a question about a fact, I answer to you with a
*checkable fact*. And you answer "I don't agree" (not even "it's not true",
because everybody could check that, but "I don't agree")...

I can't even understand why you post things like at all, but even less on
an international list where people don't know what happens and, for most of
them, can't read French.
This really makes me sad and frustrated

Rémi












On 3 August 2017 at 12:47, Devouard (gmail) <fdevou...@gmail.com> wrote:

> And for the sake of proper understanding... Rémi Mathis is the husband of
> the current vice-chair of Wikimedia France.
>
> Nuff said.
>
>
> Florence
>
>
>
> Le 03/08/2017 à 12:17, Rémi Mathis a écrit :
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> As a member - and former chair - of Wikimedia France, this kind of message
>> really hurts my feelings and I still wonder why they can be posted on
>> international mailing lists.
>> We are supposed to act as responsible adults and work together so that the
>> chapters can manage projects... and I keep thinking we are pretty good at
>> it.
>>
>> I don't want to read "shame", "false statement", "use Louise passing",
>> "uncollaborative way".
>> Both because it's a very agressive way to talk to human beings, because
>> it's misleading people about what's going on, and because it's simply not
>> true.
>>
>> A few French wkipedians are not happy with the board and some of the
>> employees. They are about 25-30% of Wikimedia France members and asked for
>> a General Meeting - which will take place in September.
>> Some of their concerns can be understood, but some of those wikipedians
>> began to accuse the board of squandering money without any ground for it
>> (there have been two audits within the past few years and all the
>> accounts/expenses are audited yearly, published and commented to the
>> members), to go and see former employee's bosses to stalk them, to spread
>> rumours on their sexuality, to report members of the board to their own
>> boss etc. This is going mad. Really mad.
>>
>> This is not "the community", Pierre-Selim, I'm sorry.
>> This is a few people, for various reasons, usualy very personal and very
>> bad ones. And those people refuse to acknowledge reality, even when the
>> board explains everything, even when lawyers explains what can and cannot
>> be done within a chapter.
>>
>> I'm really worried about the behaviour of those people, and the future of
>> Wikimedia France - since the harassment could lead to prosecution from
>> employees.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Rémi
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> From: Pierre-Selim <pierre-se...@huard.info>
>>> Date: 2 August 2017 at 20:09
>>> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update on Wikimédia France
>>> To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
>>>
>>>
>>> The passing of Louise is really sad :(
>>>
>>> On the other fronts, Edouard it feels like you're not telling things the
>>> way
>>> they really are.
>>>
>>> "The board acknowledge..." means the board has been forced to a new AGM
>>> by
>>> 25%
>>> of the member. Our bylaws dictate that.
>>>
>>> The board has published a shameful "Right of reply" [1], full of
>>> inexact/false
>>> statements that are on the same line than the email sent by the board
>&

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update on Wikimédia France

[Rémi Mathis]

Dear all,

As a member - and former chair - of Wikimedia France, this kind of message
really hurts my feelings and I still wonder why they can be posted on
international mailing lists.
We are supposed to act as responsible adults and work together so that the
chapters can manage projects... and I keep thinking we are pretty good at
it.

I don't want to read "shame", "false statement", "use Louise passing",
"uncollaborative way".
Both because it's a very agressive way to talk to human beings, because
it's misleading people about what's going on, and because it's simply not
true.

A few French wkipedians are not happy with the board and some of the
employees. They are about 25-30% of Wikimedia France members and asked for
a General Meeting - which will take place in September.
Some of their concerns can be understood, but some of those wikipedians
began to accuse the board of squandering money without any ground for it
(there have been two audits within the past few years and all the
accounts/expenses are audited yearly, published and commented to the
members), to go and see former employee's bosses to stalk them, to spread
rumours on their sexuality, to report members of the board to their own
boss etc. This is going mad. Really mad.

This is not "the community", Pierre-Selim, I'm sorry.
This is a few people, for various reasons, usualy very personal and very
bad ones. And those people refuse to acknowledge reality, even when the
board explains everything, even when lawyers explains what can and cannot
be done within a chapter.

I'm really worried about the behaviour of those people, and the future of
Wikimedia France - since the harassment could lead to prosecution from
employees.

Best,

Rémi









>
> From: Pierre-Selim 
> Date: 2 August 2017 at 20:09
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update on Wikimédia France
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List 
>
>
> The passing of Louise is really sad :(
>
> On the other fronts, Edouard it feels like you're not telling things the
> way
> they really are.
>
> "The board acknowledge..." means the board has been forced to a new AGM by
> 25%
> of the member. Our bylaws dictate that.
>
> The board has published a shameful "Right of reply" [1], full of
> inexact/false
> statements that are on the same line than the email sent by the board
> on July 11th (and shared here by Chris [2]).
> This Right of reply even "use" Louise passing ... For shame!
>
> In an uncollaborative way, the board has not listen to the community/member
> for
> the agenda which forces the members to a new vote [3] to add items to the
> agenda
> ... during the summer ... and Wikimania.
>
> I hope the board will have again to "Acknowlege" the voice of the
> community,
> but I wish we did not had to go this way.
>
> I am truly ashamed of this board,
>
> [1] https://www.mathisbenguigui.eu/wikimedia-timeline/droitdereponse.html
> [2] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2017-July/
> 088008.html
> [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimédia_France/
> Assemblée_générale/septembre_2017/Points_à_ajouter_à_l'ordre_du_jour
>
> 2017-07-26 17:56 GMT+02:00 Yaroslav Blanter :
>
> > Yes, I figured this out, thanks. Now copyediting.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Yaroslav
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 5:51 PM, Natacha Rault  wrote:
> >
> > > probably me...
> > > > Le 26 juil. 2017 à 17:49, Yaroslav Blanter  a
> écrit
> > :
> > > >
> > > > Actually, after Catherine's mail, an English article was started by
> > > someone
> > > > I can not recognize from the username.
> > > >
> > > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Merzeau
> > > >
> > > > Cheers
> > > > Yaroslav
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 2:38 PM, Katherine Maher <
> kma...@wikimedia.org
> > >
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> Dear Édouard and our other colleagues at Wikimédia France,
> > > >>
> > > >> We are sorry to hear about the passing of Mrs. Louise Merzeau.
> While I
> > > did
> > > >> not have a chance to meet her, I understand she was an advocate for
> > the
> > > >> Commons movement and a leading academic on digital identities and
> the
> > > >> relationship between technology and culture. I suspect we would have
> > > gotten
> > > >> along well.
> > > >>
> > > >> Although she did not get to share her knowledge longer, we are
> > grateful
> > > for
> > > >> the contributions she made. I have no doubt Wikimedia would have
> > > benefited
> > > >> greatly from her continued advocacy.
> > > >>
> > > >> I recognize with everything that is going on, an event like this can
> > > >> quickly pass by without enough notice and tribute from all of us.
> > > However,
> > > >> I hope we can pause to recognize that, above all, we are people who
> > have
> > > >> come together under a shared vision for a better future. The passion
> > and
> > > >> bond that unites us are much stronger than any disagreements or
> > > challenges.
> > > >> Louise was a part