Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
James, I believe they were talking about the cloning/death star discussion. Not everything is about you, mate. In regards to the relative merits of the candidates, it would be grossly unprofessional for Erik, Jan-Bart, or anyone else to publicly discuss the relative merits of people who may or may not be involved in a confidential hiring process in a public forum such as this. I suspect you're wasting your metaphorical breath in continually asking for these sorts of details. Cheers, Craig Franklin On 31 January 2014 16:08, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: My suggestion of Leonie Haimson as co-director was most certainly not frivolous, and concern trolling on comments made in the spirit of fun to try to sideline consideration of her is offensive. Erik and others, what has Ting accomplished that would make him a better Director or Co-director than a parent advocate in the education field whose Foundation and goals have been seriously impacted by paid advocacy editing abuses on Wikipedia? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Actually, as Erik Zachte, I am unhappy when someone like Ting makes a serious proposal on this list and then the thread is used for mockery on the subject. For mockery, strange comparisons etc., one is welcome to open an new thread... Kind regards Ziko Dr. Ziko van Dijk voorzitter / president Wikimedia Nederland Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland Postbus 167 3500 AD Utrecht http://wikimedia.nl 2014-01-31 Craig Franklin cfrank...@halonetwork.net: James, I believe they were talking about the cloning/death star discussion. Not everything is about you, mate. In regards to the relative merits of the candidates, it would be grossly unprofessional for Erik, Jan-Bart, or anyone else to publicly discuss the relative merits of people who may or may not be involved in a confidential hiring process in a public forum such as this. I suspect you're wasting your metaphorical breath in continually asking for these sorts of details. Cheers, Craig Franklin On 31 January 2014 16:08, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: My suggestion of Leonie Haimson as co-director was most certainly not frivolous, and concern trolling on comments made in the spirit of fun to try to sideline consideration of her is offensive. Erik and others, what has Ting accomplished that would make him a better Director or Co-director than a parent advocate in the education field whose Foundation and goals have been seriously impacted by paid advocacy editing abuses on Wikipedia? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Me too. Wikipedia is what it is through the community, and a CEO well respected in the community who, over the years proved to have handled many situations with care, and involving the relevant stakeholders is, at least imo, the best what can happen to the wmf. Rupert. Am 30.01.2014 16:56 schrieb Steffen Prößdorf steffen.proessd...@wikimedia.de: I absolut agree with all Erik said. Steffen 2014-01-30 Erik Zachte ezac...@wikimedia.org: I find it kind of sad to see how this thread after Ting reopened it (surely after careful consideration) morphed into frivolity. So let me say I deeply respect Ting's choice to reapply, and to do so, very on-topic, in the open. That takes courage. I personally think Ting would be a great CEO. It is not our call but I wish the committee all wisdom. Erik Zachte [..] Could the WMF strategy extend to creating a Death Star to preserve all of human knowledge? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Craig Franklin wrote: ... it would be grossly unprofessional for Erik, Jan-Bart, or anyone else to publicly discuss the relative merits of people who may or may not be involved in a confidential hiring process No, the Board resolved to consult the community as necessary to assist with identifying, evaluating, and selecting candidates as per http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Appointing_and_authorizing_a_transition_committee_in_the_search_of_a_new_Executive_Director How is it possible for the community to evaluate and select candidates without a transparent discussion of their individual merits? There is nothing which requires confidentiality in the hiring process. What would be unprofessional would be if the Board doesn't follow through with their own resolution, but we all know how well the resolution to maximize financial support of the projects fares as soon as the budgeted fundraising goal is reached since a couple years ago. We should be discussing the merits of individual candidates in the open. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 12:55 PM, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: We should be discussing the merits of individual candidates in the open. No... we should not. That would greatly hamper the board's ability to get good candidates. Most people who are already in a current job are not going to be willing to have open debates about the job opportunities they are seeking. Not only because their 'boss' will know but also because if they are in a public company that could cause large issues in the market etc (all for naught if they don't get selected). ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
On 31 January 2014 12:55, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: Craig Franklin wrote: ... it would be grossly unprofessional for Erik, Jan-Bart, or anyone else to publicly discuss the relative merits of people who may or may not be involved in a confidential hiring process No, the Board resolved to consult the community as necessary to assist with identifying, evaluating, and selecting candidates as per http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Appointing_and_authorizing_a_transition_committee_in_the_search_of_a_new_Executive_Director How is it possible for the community to evaluate and select candidates without a transparent discussion of their individual merits? Easily; I think you're simply reading the resolution incorrectly. It can be interpreted as each individual candidate should be publicly outed and discussed, sure, but I don't think that's what it means. I interpret the resolution to mean candidates, plural, as a group, not candidates as a collection of singular subjects. Or to put it another way: the community can help with identifying candidates by suggesting people who should be invited to apply (we did that) The community can help with evaluating and selecting candidates by explaining what they'd like to see in the new ED (we did that too). This doesn't extend to the community should be involved with every candidate as part of their individual interview-and-hiring processes; for all the reasons James gives below, that would be a startling thing to see from the board, and something they'd say explicitly if they actually intended to say it. I think the error may be on the part of the reader and not the writer. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
On 30 January 2014 11:22, Steve Zhang cro0...@gmail.com wrote: Funnily enough the cost of doing so has been looked into: http://news.com.au/technology/lehigh-university-figure-out-how-much-it-costs-to-build-death-star/story-e6frfro0-1226275852491 In short, $8,100,000,000,000,000 and would take about 800,000 years. Probably not a viable solution :) Due to our focus on knowledge, The Library[1][2] might be a more preferable option. [1]. Silence in the Library https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence_in_the_Library [2]. Forest of the Dead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_of_the_Dead ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
On 01/30/2014 02:22 AM, Steve Zhang wrote: Funnily enough the cost of doing so has been looked into: http://news.com.au/technology/lehigh-university-figure-out-how-much-it-costs-to-build-death-star/story-e6frfro0-1226275852491 In short, $8,100,000,000,000,000 and would take about 800,000 years. Probably not a viable solution :) Also, I don't think that our community could agree on building a Death Star, seeing that it's diameter is subject of a fierce dispute and edit war on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wars#Death_Star I believe building the Infosphere is much more suitable given our movement's mission: The Infosphere is a massive […] memory bank created […] to catalogue all the information in the Universe http://theinfosphere.org/Infosphere ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
... try to clone Sue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recurring_Futurama_characters#Cubert_Farnsworth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_(2009_film) Could the WMF strategy extend to creating a Death Star to preserve all of human knowledge? If Sue and Leonie Haimson were mutual co-directors of each other's organization, that would be better than building a Death Star or cloning either individually at this point. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
I find it kind of sad to see how this thread after Ting reopened it (surely after careful consideration) morphed into frivolity. So let me say I deeply respect Ting's choice to reapply, and to do so, very on-topic, in the open. That takes courage. I personally think Ting would be a great CEO. It is not our call but I wish the committee all wisdom. Erik Zachte [..] Could the WMF strategy extend to creating a Death Star to preserve all of human knowledge? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
I absolut agree with all Erik said. Steffen 2014-01-30 Erik Zachte ezac...@wikimedia.org: I find it kind of sad to see how this thread after Ting reopened it (surely after careful consideration) morphed into frivolity. So let me say I deeply respect Ting's choice to reapply, and to do so, very on-topic, in the open. That takes courage. I personally think Ting would be a great CEO. It is not our call but I wish the committee all wisdom. Erik Zachte [..] Could the WMF strategy extend to creating a Death Star to preserve all of human knowledge? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
+1 Thank you Erik. A serious remark on the clone discussion: Instead of trying to copy a status quo I strongly suggest to move on and embrace the idea of something or someone new: change is not always easy - sometimes even scary - but change is inevtiable, necessary and good. Am 30.01.2014 16:55, schrieb Steffen Prößdorf: I absolut agree with all Erik said. Steffen 2014-01-30 Erik Zachte ezac...@wikimedia.org: I find it kind of sad to see how this thread after Ting reopened it (surely after careful consideration) morphed into frivolity. So let me say I deeply respect Ting's choice to reapply, and to do so, very on-topic, in the open. That takes courage. I personally think Ting would be a great CEO. It is not our call but I wish the committee all wisdom. Erik Zachte [..] Could the WMF strategy extend to creating a Death Star to preserve all of human knowledge? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
My suggestion of Leonie Haimson as co-director was most certainly not frivolous, and concern trolling on comments made in the spirit of fun to try to sideline consideration of her is offensive. Erik and others, what has Ting accomplished that would make him a better Director or Co-director than a parent advocate in the education field whose Foundation and goals have been seriously impacted by paid advocacy editing abuses on Wikipedia? ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Hello dear all, hello Transition Team, hello dear board, I am still willing to take the challenge. Looking into the description of the search criteria: citeKey to the success of the Executive Director will be a commitment to understand and advance Wikimedia's core values./cite - In many occasions in the past years I have demonstrated that the core values of our movement are part of my life. They are the values that I use to guide my behavior and my decisions, not only inside of the movement, but also in my professional work and in my personal life. citeThe Executive Director will need to have the technology management and product development skills to effectively lead a high traffic website, and experience designing and implementing planning processes with a high built-in assumption of fast and iterative change./cite - In the past 16 years I worked in a company which like no other IT companies had decisively contributed into the establishment of standards and processes of the industry. I started in that company as a programmer on the OS (Assembler and C++) level and moved with the time into the position of technical lead of projects that are set into highly complicated political contexts. Being a subject matter expert, I am the anchor with facts and expertise between the different political interests and streams, build trust with my open and direct communication style to all groups and parties and move things forward by understand the background of the different interests and so build bridges and provide solutions that address those backgrounds directly. These are the skills and personal marks that brought me there where I am now: Into the core of those troubled projects. citeHe or she will need to have exceptional communication skills, and to possess both a drive to achieve transformative results and a deep respect for collaborative processes. The ED's ability to effect change in partnership with Wikimedia's community will be decisive not just to their success, but to Wikimedia's lasting impact in the 21st century./cite - As I have stated in my resign letter from the board, I believe this is indeed the most intriguing, most urgent and most difficult part of the work that lay directly before us in the next decade. And for this we need, more than anyone else inside of the movement, an ED who is really trusted by the community (to which I count the readers, the editors, the affiliated organizations, their board and staff, the staff of the Foundation, and the board). Gain trust is hard work, build trust needs time. It took me long time, two or three years, to build that mutual trust with many of the people within our movement. And trust is the thing that thwart the belief that the process has the luxury of time. Because with the lasting of indecisive time the trust sinks and the anxiouty raises. As it is remarked at one point, there is no obvious career path that leads to this position. After seeing the result of last year's search I am strengthend in my belief, that I am the best fit for this position. Greetings Ting Am 1/21/2014 12:09 PM, schrieb Jan-Bart de Vreede: Hey Frederico I will write an update for the meta page in the coming week or so but just to give you a general sense of where we are at: we are trying to reach potential candidates in a different way, and so far that looks like a good strategy. This means more direct contact between the Foundation and candidates and more pro-actively reaching out to people who initially showed no interest. There is no scientific way to make the trade-off between characteristics/skills of candidates. We might very well choose to ignore an important characteristic if all the others fall into place. And it is of course easier to make a trade-off on less significant characteristics and skills. The decision to look for more candidates rather than make a choice in December was not an easy one, but we were not willing to go for a candidate who was missing too many of our desired characteristics/skills. This is something that the transition team does, and its not something that translates well to a table on meta. I am not sure what you are referring to as “avoid another fiasco”, but as far as I am concerned we are simply in a stage of finding new candidates and trying to surface the candidate that is up to the challenge and opportunity that we as a unique movement have to offer. This was always an option, and we would have liked to have found someone in the first round, but it wasn’t to be. Jan-Bart de Vreede On 18 Jan 2014, at 11:08, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemow...@gmail.com wrote: I don't know what to think about a final community consultation on a specific name. Personally I suspect that I wouldn't be able to say anything about it, as with https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Executive_Director_Transition_Team/Update_9_December. Speaking of which, I wonder how the problems there were
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Part of me still thinks we'd be better off and it would be easier to try clone Sue rather than trying to find a suitable replacement for her... On 29/01/2014 7:03 PM, Ting Chen wing.phil...@gmx.de wrote: Hello dear all, hello Transition Team, hello dear board, I am still willing to take the challenge. Looking into the description of the search criteria: citeKey to the success of the Executive Director will be a commitment to understand and advance Wikimedia's core values./cite - In many occasions in the past years I have demonstrated that the core values of our movement are part of my life. They are the values that I use to guide my behavior and my decisions, not only inside of the movement, but also in my professional work and in my personal life. citeThe Executive Director will need to have the technology management and product development skills to effectively lead a high traffic website, and experience designing and implementing planning processes with a high built-in assumption of fast and iterative change./cite - In the past 16 years I worked in a company which like no other IT companies had decisively contributed into the establishment of standards and processes of the industry. I started in that company as a programmer on the OS (Assembler and C++) level and moved with the time into the position of technical lead of projects that are set into highly complicated political contexts. Being a subject matter expert, I am the anchor with facts and expertise between the different political interests and streams, build trust with my open and direct communication style to all groups and parties and move things forward by understand the background of the different interests and so build bridges and provide solutions that address those backgrounds directly. These are the skills and personal marks that brought me there where I am now: Into the core of those troubled projects. citeHe or she will need to have exceptional communication skills, and to possess both a drive to achieve transformative results and a deep respect for collaborative processes. The ED's ability to effect change in partnership with Wikimedia's community will be decisive not just to their success, but to Wikimedia's lasting impact in the 21st century./cite - As I have stated in my resign letter from the board, I believe this is indeed the most intriguing, most urgent and most difficult part of the work that lay directly before us in the next decade. And for this we need, more than anyone else inside of the movement, an ED who is really trusted by the community (to which I count the readers, the editors, the affiliated organizations, their board and staff, the staff of the Foundation, and the board). Gain trust is hard work, build trust needs time. It took me long time, two or three years, to build that mutual trust with many of the people within our movement. And trust is the thing that thwart the belief that the process has the luxury of time. Because with the lasting of indecisive time the trust sinks and the anxiouty raises. As it is remarked at one point, there is no obvious career path that leads to this position. After seeing the result of last year's search I am strengthend in my belief, that I am the best fit for this position. Greetings Ting Am 1/21/2014 12:09 PM, schrieb Jan-Bart de Vreede: Hey Frederico I will write an update for the meta page in the coming week or so but just to give you a general sense of where we are at: we are trying to reach potential candidates in a different way, and so far that looks like a good strategy. This means more direct contact between the Foundation and candidates and more pro-actively reaching out to people who initially showed no interest. There is no scientific way to make the trade-off between characteristics/skills of candidates. We might very well choose to ignore an important characteristic if all the others fall into place. And it is of course easier to make a trade-off on less significant characteristics and skills. The decision to look for more candidates rather than make a choice in December was not an easy one, but we were not willing to go for a candidate who was missing too many of our desired characteristics/skills. This is something that the transition team does, and its not something that translates well to a table on meta. I am not sure what you are referring to as avoid another fiasco, but as far as I am concerned we are simply in a stage of finding new candidates and trying to surface the candidate that is up to the challenge and opportunity that we as a unique movement have to offer. This was always an option, and we would have liked to have found someone in the first round, but it wasn't to be. Jan-Bart de Vreede On 18 Jan 2014, at 11:08, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemow...@gmail.com wrote: I don't know what to think about a final community consultation on a specific name. Personally I
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
On 29 January 2014 12:21, Steve Zhang cro0...@gmail.com wrote: Part of me still thinks we'd be better off and it would be easier to try clone Sue rather than trying to find a suitable replacement for her... Hm, clone armies. Could the WMF strategy extend to creating a Death Star to preserve all of human knowledge? (As a certain CEO said once; blah, blah, blah, dark side.) Fae ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Funnily enough the cost of doing so has been looked into: http://news.com.au/technology/lehigh-university-figure-out-how-much-it-costs-to-build-death-star/story-e6frfro0-1226275852491 In short, $8,100,000,000,000,000 and would take about 800,000 years. Probably not a viable solution :) On 30/01/2014 12:08 AM, Fæ fae...@gmail.com wrote: On 29 January 2014 12:21, Steve Zhang cro0...@gmail.com wrote: Part of me still thinks we'd be better off and it would be easier to try clone Sue rather than trying to find a suitable replacement for her... Hm, clone armies. Could the WMF strategy extend to creating a Death Star to preserve all of human knowledge? (As a certain CEO said once; blah, blah, blah, dark side.) Fae ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote: ... we are trying to reach potential candidates in a different way Does Leonie Haimson want to interview to be co-director? http://www.classsizematters.org/about-us/ She started editing in the past year, after suffering from a paid advocacy-introduced inaccuracy contrary to the peer reviewed secondary literature, many examples of which still exist in the English Wikipedia. Best regards, James Salsman ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
2014/1/21 Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.org: I am not going to debate the different kinds of movement representation in the board, but I would argue that the community directly and indirectly influences 100% of the board, as appointed members are appointed by (s)elected members and the founder of the Wikimedia Foundation. What a bad joke... What does the community have to do with the founder's seat (10% of the board)? And the members chosen by the board itself (40%) have time and again shown that, despite their good faith and best efforts, their understanding of the inner workings of the community is scarce at best. I reckon (without any proof though) that this distribution of seats is at least in part responsible for the alienation between the Foundation and the community in 2009-2012. Strainu ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Hoi, Sorry I cannot parse this suffering from a paid advocacy-introduced inaccuracy contrary to the peer reviewed secondary literature Thanks, GerardM On 22 January 2014 11:29, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote: ... we are trying to reach potential candidates in a different way Does Leonie Haimson want to interview to be co-director? http://www.classsizematters.org/about-us/ She started editing in the past year, after suffering from a paid advocacy-introduced inaccuracy contrary to the peer reviewed secondary literature, many examples of which still exist in the English Wikipedia. Best regards, James Salsman ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Thanks for the assurance that the community directly and indirectly influences 100% of the board. Could someone point me to where this happened for the founder of the Wikimedia Foundation? Thanks again, Fae On 21 January 2014 17:28, Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.org wrote: Hey I am sure it is technically feasible, its just not realistic from a hiring perspective. I cannot tell a potential candidate that process includes a public vetting process, this is something that is just not going to happen. We are hiring an ED for the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Board of Trustees of that Foundation is simply the body that is responsible for the final decision on this. I am not going to debate the different kinds of movement representation in the board, but I would argue that the community directly and indirectly influences 100% of the board, as appointed members are appointed by (s)elected members and the founder of the Wikimedia Foundation. Jan-Bart On 21 Jan 2014, at 15:57, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: Thanks for getting back to me. Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote: There is no community consultation period in the selection proces. It's simply not feasible or desirable to have someone have a public vetting phase. I'm not sure I understand how it would be infeasible. It's 2014, not 1814. I think we've figured out how to solicit feedback in a timely manner. It seems less desirable to me to reduce the Wikimedia community to waiting for the white smoke. The new Executive Director will be publicly vetted, to be sure, it just sounds as though it'll happen after or he or she has been firmly appointed by the Board. It would be dishonest to suggest that there's no merit to this approach, but I do wonder if it's in line with Wikimedia's values. The good news is that you elected representatives on the board who have a strong voice in the selection process and final approval. I'm not quite sure who you is, but only three of ten Board seats are directly elected. I suppose that's a strong voice? MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- fae...@gmail.com http://j.mp/faewm Personal and confidential, please do not circulate or re-quote. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Founder of the Wikimedia Foundation = One who founded/established the foundation? Sorry; I didn't get your question. Regards, Jee On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 4:30 PM, Fæ fae...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks for the assurance that the community directly and indirectly influences 100% of the board. Could someone point me to where this happened for the founder of the Wikimedia Foundation? Thanks again, Fae On 21 January 2014 17:28, Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.org wrote: Hey I am sure it is technically feasible, its just not realistic from a hiring perspective. I cannot tell a potential candidate that process includes a public vetting process, this is something that is just not going to happen. We are hiring an ED for the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Board of Trustees of that Foundation is simply the body that is responsible for the final decision on this. I am not going to debate the different kinds of movement representation in the board, but I would argue that the community directly and indirectly influences 100% of the board, as appointed members are appointed by (s)elected members and the founder of the Wikimedia Foundation. Jan-Bart On 21 Jan 2014, at 15:57, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: Thanks for getting back to me. Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote: There is no community consultation period in the selection proces. It's simply not feasible or desirable to have someone have a public vetting phase. I'm not sure I understand how it would be infeasible. It's 2014, not 1814. I think we've figured out how to solicit feedback in a timely manner. It seems less desirable to me to reduce the Wikimedia community to waiting for the white smoke. The new Executive Director will be publicly vetted, to be sure, it just sounds as though it'll happen after or he or she has been firmly appointed by the Board. It would be dishonest to suggest that there's no merit to this approach, but I do wonder if it's in line with Wikimedia's values. The good news is that you elected representatives on the board who have a strong voice in the selection process and final approval. I'm not quite sure who you is, but only three of ten Board seats are directly elected. I suppose that's a strong voice? MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- fae...@gmail.com http://j.mp/faewm Personal and confidential, please do not circulate or re-quote. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
GerardM, please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Class-size_reductiondiff=563977349oldid=405118703 ...for starters. The editor from 2010 is a strident charter schools movement proponent who strongly prefers parochial education to public education in the U.S., which is a surprisingly common view among Stanford's Hoover Institution-sponsored staff, their relatives, and alumni. See also the proportion of Americans who disbelieve evolution, vaccines, and radioisotope dating. Best regards, James Salsman On Wednesday, January 22, 2014, James Salsman jsals...@gmail.com wrote: Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote: ... we are trying to reach potential candidates in a different way Does Leonie Haimson want to interview to be co-director? http://www.classsizematters.org/about-us/ She started editing in the past year, after suffering from a paid advocacy-introduced inaccuracy contrary to the peer reviewed secondary literature, many examples of which still exist in the English Wikipedia. Best regards, James Salsman ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Founder of a company that hosted the first wiki setup named as Wikipedia after someone else suggested it due to the failure of Nupedia. There is currently a Foundation where he is limited to the boy who sometimes talks to the press only after YEARS of internal wars, including press coverage of he misusing the Foundation credit card. You should learn more about the Wikimedia history... Em 22/01/2014 09:43, Jeevan Jose jkadav...@gmail.com escreveu: Founder of the Wikimedia Foundation = One who founded/established the foundation? Sorry; I didn't get your question. Regards, Jee On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 4:30 PM, Fæ fae...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks for the assurance that the community directly and indirectly influences 100% of the board. Could someone point me to where this happened for the founder of the Wikimedia Foundation? Thanks again, Fae On 21 January 2014 17:28, Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.org wrote: Hey I am sure it is technically feasible, its just not realistic from a hiring perspective. I cannot tell a potential candidate that process includes a public vetting process, this is something that is just not going to happen. We are hiring an ED for the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Board of Trustees of that Foundation is simply the body that is responsible for the final decision on this. I am not going to debate the different kinds of movement representation in the board, but I would argue that the community directly and indirectly influences 100% of the board, as appointed members are appointed by (s)elected members and the founder of the Wikimedia Foundation. Jan-Bart On 21 Jan 2014, at 15:57, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: Thanks for getting back to me. Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote: There is no community consultation period in the selection proces. It's simply not feasible or desirable to have someone have a public vetting phase. I'm not sure I understand how it would be infeasible. It's 2014, not 1814. I think we've figured out how to solicit feedback in a timely manner. It seems less desirable to me to reduce the Wikimedia community to waiting for the white smoke. The new Executive Director will be publicly vetted, to be sure, it just sounds as though it'll happen after or he or she has been firmly appointed by the Board. It would be dishonest to suggest that there's no merit to this approach, but I do wonder if it's in line with Wikimedia's values. The good news is that you elected representatives on the board who have a strong voice in the selection process and final approval. I'm not quite sure who you is, but only three of ten Board seats are directly elected. I suppose that's a strong voice? MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l , mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- fae...@gmail.com http://j.mp/faewm Personal and confidential, please do not circulate or re-quote. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Oh for heavens sake, what does that have anything to do with this thread? -- Katie Chan Any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of any organisation the author is associated with or employed by. Experience is a good school but the fees are high. - Heinrich Heine ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
The 100% being reduced to at least 90% but, in fact, my wording was friendly to start a flame war. Sorry for that. Em 22/01/2014 11:27, Katie Chan k...@ktchan.info escreveu: Oh for heavens sake, what does that have anything to do with this thread? -- Katie Chan Any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of any organisation the author is associated with or employed by. Experience is a good school but the fees are high. - Heinrich Heine ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Hey There is no “community consultation” period in the selection proces. Its simply not feasible or desirable to have someone have a public “vetting” phase. The good news is that you elected representatives on the board who have a strong voice in the selection process and final approval. Jan-Bart de Vreede Chair Wikimedia Board of Trustees On 18 Jan 2014, at 06:58, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: Hi. Is there a community consultation period built in to the selection process for a new Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director? If not, should there be? In trying to figure out what the selection process may look like, I re-reviewed some of the relevant FAQs and timelines: * https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/90968 * https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/91132 * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/7127367 As I understand the basic process, the Transition Team will ultimately find a suitable candidate and will make a recommendation to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. (Please correct me if this description is mistaken... this is largely unchartered territory for Wikimedia.) When this recommendation is made and prior to the Board voting, should the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to weigh in on the candidate Selection prior to final approval? If so, in what way? These questions are not meant to suggest that the Wikimedia community and the Transition Team have not been working together already (e.g., in creating a connectors list, drafting interview questions, etc.). While nobody would reasonably argue that every Wikimedia Foundation employee be vetted by the Wikimedia community, it seems to me that this particular position is unique given its enormous influence in shaping Wikimedia's course. As I understand it, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is (s)elected to ultimately make the choice of who oversees the daily operations of the Wikimedia Foundation as Executive Director. However, I believe that ensuring that the community is adequately consulted is important. Relatedly, I've asked the Executive Director Transition Team on-wiki about the possibility of more regular status updates on its progress in some form (mailing list posts, wiki page updates, etc.). MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Hey Frederico I will write an update for the meta page in the coming week or so but just to give you a general sense of where we are at: we are trying to reach potential candidates in a different way, and so far that looks like a good strategy. This means more direct contact between the Foundation and candidates and more pro-actively reaching out to people who initially showed no interest. There is no scientific way to make the trade-off between characteristics/skills of candidates. We might very well choose to ignore an important characteristic if all the others fall into place. And it is of course easier to make a trade-off on less significant characteristics and skills. The decision to look for more candidates rather than make a choice in December was not an easy one, but we were not willing to go for a candidate who was missing too many of our desired characteristics/skills. This is something that the transition team does, and its not something that translates well to a table on meta. I am not sure what you are referring to as “avoid another fiasco”, but as far as I am concerned we are simply in a stage of finding new candidates and trying to surface the candidate that is up to the challenge and opportunity that we as a unique movement have to offer. This was always an option, and we would have liked to have found someone in the first round, but it wasn’t to be. Jan-Bart de Vreede On 18 Jan 2014, at 11:08, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemow...@gmail.com wrote: I don't know what to think about a final community consultation on a specific name. Personally I suspect that I wouldn't be able to say anything about it, as with https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Executive_Director_Transition_Team/Update_9_December. Speaking of which, I wonder how the problems there were addressed: apparently they just expanded the search and reduced the number of people participating, but I see no answers to the question: «Have we been looking for a unicorn -- somebody who doesn't exist in the real world? [...] too insular? [...] unfairly comparing [...]?». If an answer was found, I'd like to know it. To me that only looked like a rhetorical question, because of course I have no idea what exact criteria/questions/interview practices are being applied or if unfair comparisons were made. To avoid another fiasco, it would probably be useful to publish on Meta an anonymised table of candidates, pointing out strengths and weaknesses in a single line for each. Then one could say «oh, look, criterion 175 made 12 otherwise awesome candidates fail, do we really need it?». Nemo ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Hello, I would also prefer to avoid an expression such as fiasco. Having not found a candidate in 2013 was unpleasant, unfortunate, undesirable... Kind regards Ziko Am Dienstag, 21. Januar 2014 schrieb Jan-Bart de Vreede : Hey Frederico I will write an update for the meta page in the coming week or so but just to give you a general sense of where we are at: we are trying to reach potential candidates in a different way, and so far that looks like a good strategy. This means more direct contact between the Foundation and candidates and more pro-actively reaching out to people who initially showed no interest. There is no scientific way to make the trade-off between characteristics/skills of candidates. We might very well choose to ignore an important characteristic if all the others fall into place. And it is of course easier to make a trade-off on less significant characteristics and skills. The decision to look for more candidates rather than make a choice in December was not an easy one, but we were not willing to go for a candidate who was missing too many of our desired characteristics/skills. This is something that the transition team does, and its not something that translates well to a table on meta. I am not sure what you are referring to as “avoid another fiasco”, but as far as I am concerned we are simply in a stage of finding new candidates and trying to surface the candidate that is up to the challenge and opportunity that we as a unique movement have to offer. This was always an option, and we would have liked to have found someone in the first round, but it wasn’t to be. Jan-Bart de Vreede On 18 Jan 2014, at 11:08, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemow...@gmail.comjavascript:; wrote: I don't know what to think about a final community consultation on a specific name. Personally I suspect that I wouldn't be able to say anything about it, as with https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Executive_Director_Transition_Team/Update_9_December . Speaking of which, I wonder how the problems there were addressed: apparently they just expanded the search and reduced the number of people participating, but I see no answers to the question: «Have we been looking for a unicorn -- somebody who doesn't exist in the real world? [...] too insular? [...] unfairly comparing [...]?». If an answer was found, I'd like to know it. To me that only looked like a rhetorical question, because of course I have no idea what exact criteria/questions/interview practices are being applied or if unfair comparisons were made. To avoid another fiasco, it would probably be useful to publish on Meta an anonymised table of candidates, pointing out strengths and weaknesses in a single line for each. Then one could say «oh, look, criterion 175 made 12 otherwise awesome candidates fail, do we really need it?». Nemo ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:; Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:; ?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:; Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:; ?subject=unsubscribe -- Dr. Ziko van Dijk voorzitter / president Wikimedia Nederland Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland Postbus 167 3500 AD Utrecht http://wikimedia.nl ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Hi Jan-Bart, I was unaware that the panel had gone back to the drawing board with looking at new candidates. I gather from the tenor of Sue's original posting that she was planning to have moved on by now, has she committed to continuing to work on for the forseeable future while you continue to look for a replacement? Does the BoT have a contingency plan in case Sue does decide to leave before a permanent replacement is found? Cheers, Craig Franklin On 21 January 2014 21:09, Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.orgwrote: Hey Frederico I will write an update for the meta page in the coming week or so but just to give you a general sense of where we are at: we are trying to reach potential candidates in a different way, and so far that looks like a good strategy. This means more direct contact between the Foundation and candidates and more pro-actively reaching out to people who initially showed no interest. There is no scientific way to make the trade-off between characteristics/skills of candidates. We might very well choose to ignore an important characteristic if all the others fall into place. And it is of course easier to make a trade-off on less significant characteristics and skills. The decision to look for more candidates rather than make a choice in December was not an easy one, but we were not willing to go for a candidate who was missing too many of our desired characteristics/skills. This is something that the transition team does, and its not something that translates well to a table on meta. I am not sure what you are referring to as “avoid another fiasco”, but as far as I am concerned we are simply in a stage of finding new candidates and trying to surface the candidate that is up to the challenge and opportunity that we as a unique movement have to offer. This was always an option, and we would have liked to have found someone in the first round, but it wasn’t to be. Jan-Bart de Vreede On 18 Jan 2014, at 11:08, Federico Leva (Nemo) nemow...@gmail.com wrote: I don't know what to think about a final community consultation on a specific name. Personally I suspect that I wouldn't be able to say anything about it, as with https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Executive_Director_Transition_Team/Update_9_December . Speaking of which, I wonder how the problems there were addressed: apparently they just expanded the search and reduced the number of people participating, but I see no answers to the question: «Have we been looking for a unicorn -- somebody who doesn't exist in the real world? [...] too insular? [...] unfairly comparing [...]?». If an answer was found, I'd like to know it. To me that only looked like a rhetorical question, because of course I have no idea what exact criteria/questions/interview practices are being applied or if unfair comparisons were made. To avoid another fiasco, it would probably be useful to publish on Meta an anonymised table of candidates, pointing out strengths and weaknesses in a single line for each. Then one could say «oh, look, criterion 175 made 12 otherwise awesome candidates fail, do we really need it?». Nemo ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Thanks for getting back to me. Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote: There is no community consultation period in the selection proces. It's simply not feasible or desirable to have someone have a public vetting phase. I'm not sure I understand how it would be infeasible. It's 2014, not 1814. I think we've figured out how to solicit feedback in a timely manner. It seems less desirable to me to reduce the Wikimedia community to waiting for the white smoke. The new Executive Director will be publicly vetted, to be sure, it just sounds as though it'll happen after or he or she has been firmly appointed by the Board. It would be dishonest to suggest that there's no merit to this approach, but I do wonder if it's in line with Wikimedia's values. The good news is that you elected representatives on the board who have a strong voice in the selection process and final approval. I'm not quite sure who you is, but only three of ten Board seats are directly elected. I suppose that's a strong voice? MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Thanks Jan-Bart for the answer. Jan-Bart de Vreede, 21/01/2014 12:09: [...] I am not sure what you are referring to as “avoid another fiasco”, [...] Sorry, I'll clarify: it would be a fiasco (only) if you had the same result again. I was just aiming for a summary of the previous and current situation in your own view. So if I summarise correctly: the answer to Have we been looking for a unicorn -- somebody who doesn't exist in the real world? is no, too insular? maybe, unfairly comparing no idea. Or, in other words, you keep looking for the same thing but in a different way, which seems to work better. Correct? You can answer in that update next week, no hurry. Nemo ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Hey I am sure it is technically feasible, its just not realistic from a hiring perspective. I cannot tell a potential candidate that process includes a public vetting process, this is something that is just not going to happen. We are hiring an ED for the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Board of Trustees of that Foundation is simply the body that is responsible for the final decision on this. I am not going to debate the different kinds of movement representation in the board, but I would argue that the community directly and indirectly influences 100% of the board, as appointed members are appointed by (s)elected members and the founder of the Wikimedia Foundation. Jan-Bart On 21 Jan 2014, at 15:57, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: Thanks for getting back to me. Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote: There is no community consultation period in the selection proces. It's simply not feasible or desirable to have someone have a public vetting phase. I'm not sure I understand how it would be infeasible. It's 2014, not 1814. I think we've figured out how to solicit feedback in a timely manner. It seems less desirable to me to reduce the Wikimedia community to waiting for the white smoke. The new Executive Director will be publicly vetted, to be sure, it just sounds as though it'll happen after or he or she has been firmly appointed by the Board. It would be dishonest to suggest that there's no merit to this approach, but I do wonder if it's in line with Wikimedia's values. The good news is that you elected representatives on the board who have a strong voice in the selection process and final approval. I'm not quite sure who you is, but only three of ten Board seats are directly elected. I suppose that's a strong voice? MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
I have to say that much as I would like to have the opportunity for us, as the community, to participate in the process, I understand that this could likely deter many quality people from applying (and we don't want only those who are currently between jobs, right?). best, dariusz pundit On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 6:28 PM, Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.org wrote: Hey I am sure it is technically feasible, its just not realistic from a hiring perspective. I cannot tell a potential candidate that process includes a public vetting process, this is something that is just not going to happen. We are hiring an ED for the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Board of Trustees of that Foundation is simply the body that is responsible for the final decision on this. I am not going to debate the different kinds of movement representation in the board, but I would argue that the community directly and indirectly influences 100% of the board, as appointed members are appointed by (s)elected members and the founder of the Wikimedia Foundation. Jan-Bart On 21 Jan 2014, at 15:57, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: Thanks for getting back to me. Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote: There is no community consultation period in the selection proces. It's simply not feasible or desirable to have someone have a public vetting phase. I'm not sure I understand how it would be infeasible. It's 2014, not 1814. I think we've figured out how to solicit feedback in a timely manner. It seems less desirable to me to reduce the Wikimedia community to waiting for the white smoke. The new Executive Director will be publicly vetted, to be sure, it just sounds as though it'll happen after or he or she has been firmly appointed by the Board. It would be dishonest to suggest that there's no merit to this approach, but I do wonder if it's in line with Wikimedia's values. The good news is that you elected representatives on the board who have a strong voice in the selection process and final approval. I'm not quite sure who you is, but only three of ten Board seats are directly elected. I suppose that's a strong voice? MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- __ dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak profesor zarządzania kierownik katedry Zarządzania Międzynarodowego i centrum badawczego CROW Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego http://www.crow.alk.edu.pl ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
I don't know what to think about a final community consultation on a specific name. Personally I suspect that I wouldn't be able to say anything about it, as with https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Executive_Director_Transition_Team/Update_9_December. Speaking of which, I wonder how the problems there were addressed: apparently they just expanded the search and reduced the number of people participating, but I see no answers to the question: «Have we been looking for a unicorn -- somebody who doesn't exist in the real world? [...] too insular? [...] unfairly comparing [...]?». If an answer was found, I'd like to know it. To me that only looked like a rhetorical question, because of course I have no idea what exact criteria/questions/interview practices are being applied or if unfair comparisons were made. To avoid another fiasco, it would probably be useful to publish on Meta an anonymised table of candidates, pointing out strengths and weaknesses in a single line for each. Then one could say «oh, look, criterion 175 made 12 otherwise awesome candidates fail, do we really need it?». Nemo ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process
Hi. Is there a community consultation period built in to the selection process for a new Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director? If not, should there be? In trying to figure out what the selection process may look like, I re-reviewed some of the relevant FAQs and timelines: * https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/90968 * https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/91132 * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/7127367 As I understand the basic process, the Transition Team will ultimately find a suitable candidate and will make a recommendation to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. (Please correct me if this description is mistaken... this is largely unchartered territory for Wikimedia.) When this recommendation is made and prior to the Board voting, should the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to weigh in on the candidate Selection prior to final approval? If so, in what way? These questions are not meant to suggest that the Wikimedia community and the Transition Team have not been working together already (e.g., in creating a connectors list, drafting interview questions, etc.). While nobody would reasonably argue that every Wikimedia Foundation employee be vetted by the Wikimedia community, it seems to me that this particular position is unique given its enormous influence in shaping Wikimedia's course. As I understand it, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is (s)elected to ultimately make the choice of who oversees the daily operations of the Wikimedia Foundation as Executive Director. However, I believe that ensuring that the community is adequately consulted is important. Relatedly, I've asked the Executive Director Transition Team on-wiki about the possibility of more regular status updates on its progress in some form (mailing list posts, wiki page updates, etc.). MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
