[Wikimedia-l] Re: Wikimedia Endowment reaches initial $100 million goal and welcomes new board members

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

So having totally missed this news last week I have to (belatedly) agree with 
Christophe and SJ.

Many congratulations to Lisa and the team for proposing the endowment and 
making it a succes. It is amazing to see how many donors have been willing to 
contribute to reaching this milestone so quickly.

Secondly great to see Doron, Phoebe and Patricio on the board! Their collective 
knowledge of the movement and our challenges will be of great value!

Thank you!

Jan-Bart




> On 23 Sep 2021, at 10:50, Christophe Henner  
> wrote:
> 
> Congratulations Lisa and team, I know how much energy you pour into it! That 
> is an amazing step. And great to see the endowment becoming its own 
> organization. 
> 
> And "welcome" to the "new" endowment board members! :)
> 
> Few people might know Doron, but he is not a stranger. He has been supporting 
> the movement for a very very long time and knows us very well. I remember 
> back in 2016, he understood very very fast why it was critical to invest in 
> Wikidata and that lead to the Structured Data grant: 
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Structured_data/Sloan_Grant 
> . 
> 
> Phoebe, Doron and Patricio are great additions to the endowment board!
> 
> All good news, thank you again Lisa!
> 
> 
> --
> Christophe
> 
> 
> On Wed, 22 Sept 2021 at 16:58, Lisa Gruwell  > wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> Today I am very happy to announce the Wikimedia Endowment [1] has reached its 
> initial $100 million goal. The Endowment was started in 2016 as a permanent 
> fund to support the Wikimedia projects in perpetuity [2]. 
> 
> My deep gratitude goes out to our generous donors, the Endowment board, 
> Foundation staff, and volunteers who made this possible. I am grateful to the 
> future-focused community members who began considering the idea of an 
> endowment years ago, to those who participated in community conversations on 
> Meta [3] to help us think through initial decisions regarding its launch, and 
> to all contributors whose work creating Wikimedia content has brought free 
> knowledge to the world. 
> 
> As part of this milestone, the Wikimedia Endowment Board has also welcomed 
> three new members: Phoebe Ayers, Patricio Lorente, and Doron Weber, bringing 
> in important expertise of the Wikimedia movement and priorities as well as in 
> nonprofit management.
> 
> You can read more about this milestone, what it means for the movement, and 
> what comes next for the Endowment on Diff [4] and the Endowment Meta page 
> [5]. We invite you to share any questions or feedback on the Endowment talk 
> page [6].
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has made this incredible achievement possible. 
> 
> Best regards, 
> Lisa 
> 
> [1] https://wikimediaendowment.org/ 
> [2] https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/mission/  
> 
> [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Endowment_Essay 
>  
> [4]https://diff.wikimedia.org/2021/09/22/the-wikimedia-endowment-reaches-100-million-milestone-and-welcomes-three-new-members-to-its-board-more-on-what-these-developments-mean-for-the-projects-and-movement/
>   
> 
> [5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Endowment  
> [6] 
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Endowment  
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> Lisa Seitz Gruwell 
> Chief Advancement Officer
> Wikimedia Foundation  
> 
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Welcoming the new Wikimedia Foundation CEO

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

HI Maryana,

Welcome to the movement in your new role!  While we have to be patient a bit 
longer I look forward to seeing you learn about and improve upon the role of 
the Foundation within movement so that together we can tackle the complex 
challenges ahead of us.

Thank you to all the board members and staff members involved in completing 
what is the  incredibly challenging proces of finding us a  new CEO!

Warm greetings

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Wikimedia Nederland


> On 14 Sep 2021, at 17:35, Maryana Iskander  wrote:
> 
> Dear All, 
> 
> Thank you for this opportunity to introduce myself to you.  
> 
> When I read the job position [1] for the next leader of Wikimedia Foundation, 
> I noticed that it opened with a seemingly simple statement: “Knowledge 
> belongs to all of us.” Does it, really? It’s a striking statement. In an 
> increasingly unequal and polarizing world, one in which almost nothing 
> belongs to all of us, the idea that knowledge must belong to all is enough to 
> capture anyone’s attention and imagination – certainly mine. 
> 
> My story is shaped by a twin belief that knowledge can also set us free. 
> Shortly after I was born in Cairo, Egypt, my parents left for the United 
> States. During my time at university, graduate school, and law school, I was 
> consistently pulled towards some of society’s toughest issues – women’s 
> rights, civil rights, and the rights of prisoners. I was equally pulled by 
> the need to be effective in making change – seeking out leadership positions 
> and raising my hand and voice to change the institutions of power, not just 
> protest against them. I learned that the opportunity to make meaningful 
> impact often sits ‘in-between’ traditional spheres: in-between research and 
> teaching at Rice University, in-between healthcare delivery and advocacy at 
> Planned Parenthood, and in-between government and the private sector at 
> Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. My time at all of these organisations 
> required listening to and learning from many diverse stakeholders – including 
> volunteers – and using my position of leadership to champion often unheard 
> voices.
>  
> In 2012, I followed my heart to South Africa and its very complicated society 
> – a legacy of apartheid perpetuating deep inequality despite the resilience 
> of communities full of potential and hope, and a country with one of the 
> highest youth unemployment rates in the world. A new organisation had just 
> been formed with a big vision to close this opportunity gap. I signed up, 
> first as an unpaid volunteer, and then for many years as the CEO. My job has 
> been to cultivate a common space of trust for the collective assets of the 
> society – from government, the private sector, civil society, and millions of 
> young people – to work in a coalition to tackle one of the most daunting 
> challenges of our time. To do this, we relied on an inclusive, multi-channel 
> platform that leverages all forms of technology as a way to serve communities 
> still riddled by a basic lack of access. Our successes came from the power of 
> connection, partnership, and a collective belief that young people are the 
> solution, not the problem. As I began my tenth year, I felt it was time to 
> make space for new leaders.
>  
> Why am I joining the Wikimedia Foundation at this moment? There are many 
> reasons: (1) this collective of projects is growing what is perhaps the most 
> important commons infrastructure of our modern world. I am excited to add my 
> time and talents to this vision. What will it take to create – not just 
> imagine – a world in which every single human being can freely share in the 
> sum of all knowledge? (2) I have experienced first-hand that distributed 
> leadership models can usually achieve more than any group of people can do on 
> their own. I am eager to support processes that will make this even more true 
> for our movement; and (3) I am drawn to working with people of integrity and 
> commitment, who also appreciate humor and joy. I can already see that I will 
> meet new colleagues like this from all over the world.
>  
> My former colleagues will say that I believe progress is enabled by culture: 
> one that is founded on accountability, diversity and inclusion in all its 
> forms, and a way of working led by values. It has informed an organisational 
> humility in working with others and a relentless focus on getting things done 
> the right way – while doing the right thing.
>  
> During the recruitment process, I met with a leading academic in the United 
> States named Rebecca. She told me a story of her primary school teacher 
> asking the students to raise their hands if they did not have an encyclopedia 
> at home. She was one of those s

[Wikimedia-l] Re: Conflict of Interest - Transition from Trustee to Staff

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi,

I want to take this opportunity to thank all Foundation staff involved in the 
office hour that was organised today on this topic.

Thank you for being transparent and open in what was a difficult conversation 
for everyone involved. Like everyone I wish that there was an easy solution, 
but there doesn’t seem to be one.

But thank you for trusting us by showing vulnerability and explaining the 
reasoning that led to this and some of the thinking going forward...

Regards

Jan-Bart de Vreede

PS: Also thank you to all those that attended or wrote on this topic and 
expressed their (lack of) concerns. It is only through these discussions that 
we an grow as a movement and rebuild trust.



> On 27 Jun 2021, at 22:20, Christophe Henner  
> wrote:
> 
> I am just forking this thread so the title reflects the needed discussion and 
> we avoid derailling again to non directly / personal topics. 
> 
> Le dim. 27 juin 2021 à 9:55 PM, Katherine Maher  <mailto:katherine.ma...@gmail.com>> a écrit :
> Hi folks,
> 
> Leaving aside everything else for a minute, I want to reply to Maggie’s 
> statement regarding the T&S case here. As someone with direct and specific 
> knowledge of the issue, I feel responsibility to affirm Maggie’s version of 
> events. 
> 
> Although we provided notice to the board that we were considering a difficult 
> T&S case regarding a well known admin on English Wikipedia, we did not 
> consult with the board on the case. When we made the determination, following 
> two warnings, to take action regarding the user, it was at the recommendation 
> of staff following an investigation that followed all standard operating 
> practices. The Board was not notified in advance of our decision to move to 
> action; something that was in line with existing policies and IMHO, in line 
> with an important distinction between governance and operations, but also 
> arguably may have contributed to some of the mess that we’re all familiar 
> with.
> 
> I have taken responsibility in various fora for this decision, and accepted 
> the subsequent criticisms, many of them legitimate, by community members. I 
> continue to bear that responsibility, and it is precisely because it was my 
> responsibility that I want to reiterate that there was no COI of María in any 
> capacity. 
> While I would handle that case somewhat differently were we to revisit it, 
> that is besides the point. 
> 
> Whatever conversation the community wishes to have with Foundation leadership 
> about governance and this recent decision is up to the community. However, I 
> would encourage to avoid conflating these issues, as there is no basis for 
> the insinuation or accusation, and unnecessarily muddies the waters for valid 
> concerns.
> 
> Cheers,
> Katherine 
> 
> On Sun, Jun 27, 2021 at 13:42 Maggie Dennis  <mailto:mden...@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
> Hi, everybody.
> 
> It’s Sunday, and there’s a lot of meetings today, and I wrestled with whether 
> to say this without necessarily having the full time to think about all the 
> ways I could say it wrong and potentially make misunderstandings worse. We’re 
> having a meeting on Tuesday specifically to discuss issues of concern to 
> people around this consultancy. But I’d like to openly address the suggestion 
> that María may have influenced a Trust & Safety case here.
> 
> First: it is against policy (and it is a policy I helped write and support 
> whole-heartedly) to talk about the specifics of Trust & Safety behavioral 
> investigations in public in order as much as possible to protect the privacy 
> and dignity of all involved. Public in this case includes even among staff, 
> most of whom have no need to know when a case is even under review. We do 
> discuss these cases with some volunteer groups who have signed non-disclosure 
> agreements, but even that is limited. Only recently have we created a body 
> who can review Trust & Safety case files on appropriate appeal. 
> 
> Given this policy, I’m going to have to be uncomfortably vague, but I want to 
> address and firmly deny rumors that any Board member has ever attempted to 
> influence Trust & Safety (T&S) to take office action (including warnings) in 
> relation to any behavioral investigation. (See the Meta page, which includes 
> a list of the individuals 
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Global_Ban_Policy>.) I know that my 
> saying so isn’t necessarily going to reassure folks. Some may think I’m 
> deluded, and some may think I’m lying, but for me silence on this point is 
> unacceptable.
> 
> Neither María nor any other trustee ever exerted any influence over any Trust 
> & Safety case. The Board does not provide guidance on how cases s

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

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Dear Maggie (& everyone)

Thank you for this email. I really feel that you should not have had to write 
this. I feel that the personal reference in an earlier mail (on this thread) to 
Maria and her partner was inappropriate and detracted from the discussion. But 
thank you for taking the opportunity to share the facts as you know them.

Again: this is hard… we as a movement are in a tough spot with regards to next 
steps. There are individuals involved (volunteers and staff)  whom I not only 
respect but also sympathise with. And whatever our next steps are people have 
been hurt and could be damaged even more.

I have stated my opinion… and the Dutch have a saying which sums this up 
nicely: “beter ten halve gekeerd dan ten hele gedwaald” which roughly 
translated to “better to turn back halfway than having completed the journey 
ending up being lost"

But whatever the outcome, let us try to limit the personal attacks and minimise 
the damage to everyone involved. 

Regards 

Jan-Bart de Vreede
(Again: my personal opinion)







> On 27 Jun 2021, at 19:41, Maggie Dennis  wrote:
> 
> Hi, everybody.
> 
> It’s Sunday, and there’s a lot of meetings today, and I wrestled with whether 
> to say this without necessarily having the full time to think about all the 
> ways I could say it wrong and potentially make misunderstandings worse. We’re 
> having a meeting on Tuesday specifically to discuss issues of concern to 
> people around this consultancy. But I’d like to openly address the suggestion 
> that María may have influenced a Trust & Safety case here.
> 
> First: it is against policy (and it is a policy I helped write and support 
> whole-heartedly) to talk about the specifics of Trust & Safety behavioral 
> investigations in public in order as much as possible to protect the privacy 
> and dignity of all involved. Public in this case includes even among staff, 
> most of whom have no need to know when a case is even under review. We do 
> discuss these cases with some volunteer groups who have signed non-disclosure 
> agreements, but even that is limited. Only recently have we created a body 
> who can review Trust & Safety case files on appropriate appeal. 
> 
> Given this policy, I’m going to have to be uncomfortably vague, but I want to 
> address and firmly deny rumors that any Board member has ever attempted to 
> influence Trust & Safety (T&S) to take office action (including warnings) in 
> relation to any behavioral investigation. (See the Meta page, which includes 
> a list of the individuals 
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Global_Ban_Policy>.) I know that my 
> saying so isn’t necessarily going to reassure folks. Some may think I’m 
> deluded, and some may think I’m lying, but for me silence on this point is 
> unacceptable.
> 
> Neither María nor any other trustee ever exerted any influence over any Trust 
> & Safety case. The Board does not provide guidance on how cases should be 
> handled unless asked (which is rare). Even executive staff do not weigh in on 
> Trust & Safety recommended approaches until an investigation itself is 
> complete and has been reviewed by an attorney. 
> 
> I know this because I’ve been involved in one aspect or another in Trust & 
> Safety’s behavioral investigations since 2012, when we imposed our first 
> Foundation ban. Over the years, we have created a process by which behavioral 
> investigations may be launched by request from anyone; Trust & Safety staff 
> review all requests, no matter who makes it, to determine if a request is 
> within their mandate. If it is, they open a case.
> 
> Speaking candidly, in the 9 years I’ve been involved in this, I have seen 
> bias when issues touch on treatment of staff members or Board members or 
> those who are close to them. But it is a bias against taking action that 
> might make it look like the Foundation is trying to silence legitimate 
> criticism. Those of you who handle behavioral issues on our projects are very 
> aware that “trolls” are not our major problem. People who are hostile with no 
> reason are easily taken care of. The problem is when people who go on the 
> attack may have reason (even if only partial) to be unhappy. It’s hard to 
> address the way people approach problems independently of those problems. 
> It’s hard to say “You have a point, but you can’t handle it that way” without 
> some people seeing you as trying to avoid the point. But there are some 
> approaches to problems that are unacceptable. Staff, Board members, and those 
> who are close to them deserve reasonable protection, too. 
> 
> The involvement of anyone close to María in a behavioral investigation has 
> only been speculation by some in community. That makes it questionable for me 
&

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

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

So with all due respect and sympathy for the individuals involved and me being 
unwilling to hurt people I feel it would be worse for me just keep quiet.

The Foundation is supposed to be an example of good Governance for our entire 
movement. We (as a movement) have come a long way in the past 20 years (and 
that is important: as our organisation and budget grows, so do our 
responsibilities and the critical questions we get from the world)

My personal opinion with regards to this announcement it comes down to this:

It is NOT good governance to have a current board member suddenly resign and 
then create a situation where that person receives compensation for a position 
that seems to have been created specifically for that board member (or at least 
was not publicly posted?). 

Even simpler
It is a good practice to create a 12 month waiting period before board members 
of non-profits can become a staff member/paid contractor/consultant.

No matter whether or not this is legally or procedurally explainable… 

Jan-Bart de Vreede
(Writing this as a personal opinion)



> On 23 Jun 2021, at 22:44, Maggie Dennis  wrote:
> 
> Hello, all. :) 
> 
> I hope and trust that everyone is keeping well during these times! 
> 
> I’m Maggie Dennis, Vice President of the Community Resilience & 
> Sustainability group of Wikimedia Foundation, within the Legal department. I 
> wanted to announce with pleasure that Maria Sefidari has agreed to consult 
> with the Foundation on Movement Strategy and the ongoing Board evolution for 
> the upcoming year. Many of us know María from her role as the chair of the 
> Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, from which she provided invaluable 
> leadership in governance, oversight, and fundraising. Others may know her 
> from her volunteer work as User:Raystorm 
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Raystorm>, in which she has a broad 
> range of experience.
> 
> María, based in Spain, commenced her assignment with the Foundation this 
> week. We intend to tap into her expertise and knowledge of the Foundation to 
> support a successful implementation of the Movement’s Strategy and to tap 
> into new opportunities. (With her Board work, she will be supporting Quim 
> Gil’s team with the Board election and helping Margo Lee in improving 
> onboarding, documentation practices, and training.) María will report to me 
> as part of our Community Resilience & Sustainability group. I’m excited that 
> she accepted our offer for a more hands-on assignment, particularly given how 
> important all of the work she’ll be supporting is. :) With more than 15 years 
> of Wikimedia experience, her contributions in the next phase will be a 
> tremendous benefit to me and my team as we continue settling into our own 
> work on Movement Strategy.
> 
> Those of you who are involved with Movement Strategy are used to seeing her 
> at related meetings and still will. :) I anticipate María will be joining one 
> or more of the Movement Strategy global conversations 
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Updates/June_15,_2021> 
> this weekend. Advertisement alert: maybe you can, too? Here’s more detail 
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Strategy/Updates/June_15,_2021>! I 
> myself will be attending at least one of those sessions and look forward to 
> seeing some of you there.
> 
> Warm regards,
> Maggie
> 
> 
> -- 
> Maggie Dennis
> She/her/hers
> Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability
> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Update from the Wikimedia Foundation Board chair

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Maria

I would like to join all the others in thanking you for volunteering your time 
in challenging times for our movement. 8 years is a long time to serve on the 
board, not even taking into account all the topics that have been on the agenda 
over the past years. 

Hopefully you will be around in another capacity in the coming years to see the 
the Movement Strategy Process come to fruition. But first: wishing you a 
relaxing Wikibreak enjoying family time!

Thank so much!

Jan-Bart




> On 3 Jun 2021, at 21:39, María Sefidari  wrote:
> 
> Dear All,
> 
> There is one last bit of news I would like to share following the Board 
> meeting update.
> 
> After ~ 8 years on the Board of Trustees at the Wikimedia Foundation - a long 
> time! - I have notified the Board that I am stepping down as Chair and 
> trustee, effective end of day today. 
> 
> As all of you know, the community-selected seats were due to expire last year 
> and were extended at the request of the Board to see through these difficult 
> and unprecedented times. Now, after chairing the last meeting of the fiscal 
> year and having the call for candidates for the upcoming elections approved, 
> it is the least disruptive moment for me to step down. The Foundation has 
> asked me to consider an advisory role to support Movement Strategy and the 
> onboarding of new trustees and the new CEO/ED, to help support leadership and 
> this strategic transition. Nataliia Tymkiv, currently Vice Chair, will act as 
> Chair until a new one is elected by the Board ensuring continuity.  
> 
> Hopefully this news will not come as too much of a surprise. I am grateful to 
> the community members who lent me their trust and support to become a trustee 
> on two different occasions, to the staff, and to the trustees for their 
> confidence in me in the different leadership positions I have held within the 
> Board - first as committee chair, then two terms as Vice Chair, and two terms 
> as Chair. 
> 
> Together we have accomplished many things during this time, but if I had to 
> single out only a few they would be the following: launching the Movement 
> Strategy process, engaging in the most ambitious governance reform in the 
> history of the Board, and working to ensure the stability and sustainability 
> of the Foundation. It has been a time of change, of discussing strategy and 
> our future, and deciding together what the path forward should be. 
> 
> Of course, the work is never finished - it will be the task of the Board to 
> continue what has been done and face the newer and complex challenges that 
> will no doubt arise. I hope that we will see many of the women of the 
> movement and people from the Global South as candidates in the upcoming 
> community elections - I know there are many qualified people ready to step 
> into these important roles. I look forward to supporting an increasingly 
> capable and diverse Board.
> 
> Be safe and well everyone. 
> 
> Tupananchiskama,
> 
> María
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> María Sefidari Huici 
> Chair of the Board 
> Wikimedia Foundation  
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board Update on Branding

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

 Hi Gnangarra

I find your request for Nat to resign uncalled for…. and not in the least 
because of the common misconception you have with regards to the role of Board 
members of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Quoting from the excellent Wikimedia Board Handbook(1)

"WMF is an entrusted steward within the Wikimedia movement. The Board's role 
(and legal obligation) is to oversee the management of the organization and 
ensure that it fulfills its mission and responsibilities as a steward. To help 
accomplish this, the Board maintains a strong connection to the Wikimedia 
communities. For example, WMF's bylaws require that a majority of Board seats 
(not including the Founder's seat and non-member officer positions) be filled 
by candidates selected by the communities and chapters, and appointed by the 
incumbent Board members - an unusual requirement for a nonprofit board. Board 
members are often active community members as well. That said, Board members 
have a fiduciary duty to represent the overall WMF interests during their 
service on the Board – not just the interests of chapters or certain parts of 
the communities. “

So while the community certainly gets to elect board members, these board 
members have obligations once they are appointed to the board. And yes: that 
also means getting community input, but all board members should be concerned 
with that, not just those elected by the community.

Jan-Bart

> On 22 Jun 2020, at 08:52, Gnangarra  wrote:
> 
> The choice is yours to resign because the The Board isnt considering the
> community as a key part of what we have created, or because you
> arent representing the community's voice on the Board.


1) 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Handbook#Fiduciary_duties
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board Update on Branding

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Natalii (and everyone)

Thank you for this mail. I know this was hard to write, also knowing that it 
will be dissected by a lot of people who will read it with a perspective all of 
their own. 

Having been on the other side of the fence I know how hard it is to (re)gain 
trust after mistakes have been made (and to be clear, mistakes have and will be 
made by everyone). In my opinion this is caused by an existing tension between 
the volunteer movement and the Foundation which is based mostly on emotions and 
a difference of opinion with regards to the best path forward for a lot of 
issues. Everyone seems to remember the time that the Foundation was tone deaf, 
but no one recalls all the things that are going well. So it is encouraging to 
read that we still have time before the board has to make this decision (and to 
understand that the deciion has not been made)

Honestly: I realise that people find it annoying to be reminded that the board 
has the authority to change the name of the Foundation. But apart from being 
very direct it is not only true, but also your responsibility. As I stated 
elsewhere I look towards the board to make a decision which looks at the 
benefits (which could be financial or otherwise) and the costs (which in this 
case seem to include a lot of resistance from the community). Apparently you 
are not in a position to make that decision at this time, and that is 
understandable. 

However: there is a question if you can accurately measure the outcome of the 
survey as it is formulated now (which should give you a good indication of the 
movements feelings on this topic)… I have heard several people complain that it 
is “not easy” to fill in the survey to indicate that one is against a name 
change altogether. It might be a good idea to make this an easier option or 
gauge feedback in another way. by pausing or restarting the community 
consultation process in a different way.

Thanks again for your efforts. 

Jan-Bart de Vreede

PS: I am thinking of making a standard disclaimer under my emails on topics 
such as these: During my 9 years as a Board member of the Foundation I have 
made mistakes and so have the people I worked with, both volunteers and staff. 
I have however never doubted anyone’s intentions and have always noticed that  
tensions such as these are also fueled  by a passion that can only come from 
caring a lot about the subject matter. It is often easy to forget that. I take 
the blame for the mistakes that were made during my tenure, and I hope that the 
above remarks can be seen as constructive.



> On 22 Jun 2020, at 02:43, Nataliia Tymkiv  wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> As Acting Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees since March
> [1] I take full responsibility for this situation. I am truly sorry for all
> the frustration this whole situation has caused to volunteers, who have
> engaged in discussions expressing their concerns, and to the staff, who
> have been working and not really sure if that is really the direction the
> Board is prepared to seriously consider, or if it is just an exercise on
> our part. As Chair of the Board, I recognize the Board owes clear
> information to the communities and guidance to the staff.
> 
> In 2017, the Board approved the 2030 Movement Strategic Direction,
> recognizing the strategic importance of growing the reach of the Wikimedia
> projects to new languages, communities, and geographies, as part of our
> global mission. In June 2018, the Board approved a Foundation Annual Plan
> that included research into the Wikimedia and Wikipedia brands to
> understand how they could be tools in helping us reach these goals.
> 
> In November 2018 [2], the staff presented research to the Board about the
> Wikipedia and Wikimedia brands. I personally, even though a relatively long
> term Wikipedian (and a bit less long term Wikimedian), was basically
> convinced by the findings that a rebranding is needed and beneficial for
> our mission and global vision, and furthermore that it should be based on
> the Wikipedia brand. The information presented there also convinced the
> Board that the team should continue their work, but as you can see from the
> minutes the Board believed that communication is crucial, but already a
> possibility for a new name for the Wikimedia Foundation was seriously
> considered [3].
> 
> And I am going to be frank here - intuitively taking the name of something
> like “Wikipedia Foundation” makes a lot of sense, whether or not it makes
> sense upon deeper consideration. But, of course, no one was planning to
> just rename the organisation, more conversations were needed. It was
> convincing enough for us (the Board) to approve the budget for this
> initiative.
> 
> The Board has received regular updates about the Brand work along the way,
> including approving continu

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Results of the Affiliate Selected Board Seats voting

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi All

Thanks to the election committee for facilitating this election, and all
those who voted. And as Pierre said: thanks to all those who put their name
forward, it is a lot of work and involves a lot of responsibility.

Congrats to Nataliia and Shani!

And thank you so much to Christophe for serving!

Jan-Bart “recycled” de Vreede ;)
Board Member Wikimedia Netherlands



On 13 June 2019 at 00:56:18, Ad Huikeshoven (a...@huikeshoven.org) wrote:

*Dear Wikimedians, We are writing to let you know the result of the
election for the 2 Affiliate Selected Board Seats on the Wikimedia
Foundation board. The successful candidates were Nataliia Tymkiv and Shani
Evenstein Sigalov. A total of 122 affiliates voted, 85% of the 143 eligible
to vote, which is a record. As you know the election was conducted under a
variation of the Single Transferable Vote, which meant that prorated votes
were redistributed between candidates to come up with the final result. In
the 10th step of counting the final place, after Nataliia Tymkiv was
elected, was between Shani Evenstein Sigalov (40.519678) and Richard Knipel
(40.480322). We have put the full count narrative on meta so that others
can verify it if they wish.[1] It is the closest ASBS result for some time,
and all candidates brought very valuable perspectives to the work of the
WMF. In the 9th step of counting Reda Kerbouche lost by a very small
margin. Adding a ballot with rank #1 for Richard or Reda would result in
them being elected instead of Shani. The same goes for removing a ballot.
Changing the ranking on one of the ballots in a specific can way can result
in a different outcome for the second seat. This is an election in which
every vote counts. As in any election, there is a chance that some voters
misinterpreted the instructions and voted wrongly. We don't see a
justification for an action as extraordinary and controversial as opening
votes for review after the vote period is over. The instructions were
visible and clear: "Rank any candidate from 1 (your preferred candidate) to
11 (your least preferred candidate)." After voting, voters received a
confirmation email stating the name of each candidate they voted with the
number of their rank: Rank 1, Rank 2, ... The agency of voters should be
respected. As part of the retrospective we may identify areas of
improvements on our side, but still the process was quite simple and
documented. Some voters realized they made a mistake and requested a new
ballot. New ballots were issued in those cases. This choice was done
because of the specific situation of this election, since the process was
complex for new affiliates and participation, diversity and inclusion were
a clear goal.[2] We have published on meta information about who got a new
ballot within the voting deadline.[3] The Election Facilitators have been
available nearly 24 hours a day monitoring the various communication
channels to answer any questions affiliates might have. We did our best at
answering all of them. After our own scrutiny of the data, and based on our
experience in community processes, we strongly advise the community to
respect the integrity of the process, and advise against allowing any
modifications of votes at this point. If the votes had been reopened for
modification with or without publishing vote results, that would have
caused significant confusion and criticism that could have jeopardized the
entire election. We will publish a debrief with recommendations for a next
ASBS process on meta.[4] We invite all representatives of affiliates to a
feedback session at Wikimania.[5] We would like to congratulate Nataliia
Tymkiv and Shani Evenstein Sigalov and thank everyone who stood. Regards,
Ad Huikeshoven, Lane Rasberry, Jeffrey Keefer, Neal McBurnett, Abhinav
Srivastava, Alessandor MarchettiElection Facilitators [1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/Results

[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/Resolution_2019
<
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/Resolution_2019
>
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/New_ballots
<
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/New_ballots
>
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/Debrief

[5]
https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/ASBS_Feedback
*
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] 2016 call for Board Governance Committee Volunteer and Advisory members [results]

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi

Great news, thank you so much for all of you for volunteering and to the board 
for taking a novel approach to having more external expertise involved :)

Thank you Natalia!

Jan-Bart


> On 16 Aug 2016, at 15:47, Nataliia Tymkiv  wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I am honestly delighted to announce the results of the public call for
> Board Governance committee volunteer and Advisory members, announced on
> July 15, 2016  [1]. We received nine applications, and after discussing
> them with BGC and reviewing the committee's needs and interviewing a short
> list of candidates,I have chosen five volunteer advisory members for the
> committee. I'd like to extend my thanks to everyone who offered to serve on
> the committee.
> 
> Please find below a short introduction for our new volunteer advisory
> members. They are all quite well known in the movement and I think their
> insights would be helpful. They join the Committee once they sign the
> documents that Stephen LaPorte, our Interim Secretary, sent to them (the
> same ones as the Board members sign - the confidentiality agreement
> 
> , code of conduct
> 
> , conflict of interest disclosure
> ).
> 
> === Gayle Karen Young ===
> 
> Gayle Karen Young is a WMF's former Chief Talent and Culture office. In her
> time at Wikimedia, she was accountable for building the current HR team and
> had an active hand in board development and staffed the board HR committee.
> She brings experience with the Wikimedia movement, with the workings of the
> Foundation, and through her own consulting work in leadership and board
> development with organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit space,
> and in technology and human rights.
> 
> === Kat Walsh ===
> 
> Kat Walsh is a former member of Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees,
> 12/2006-8/2013 (Chair, 2012-2013; Executive Secretary, 2009-2010). Now she
> works as an attorney specializing in copyright, Internet law, and free and
> open source software.
> 
> 
> === Tim Moritz Hector ===
> 
> Tim Moritz Hector is Chair of the Board of Wikimedia Deutschland since
> 2014. Tim has been an active Wikimedian for more than eight years and was
> engaged in several positions on national and international level. His most
> recent engagement (with Frans Grijzenhout from WMNL) is focussed on
> building the capacities of board members in all Wikimedia-organizations. He
> is going to finish his B.A. in politics and german philology this month and
> shall work as an advisor to the ED at the "Academy for volunteerism" in
> Berlin beginning in September.
> 
> === Ido Ivry ===
> 
> Ido Ivry is a board member of Wikimedia Israel. He has extensive NGO
> experience, as well as business understanding, both in large corporates,
> NGOs, GLAM institution (National Library of Israel), and is currently a CTO
> in his own startup, developing open data solutions for city governments.
> Ido has been active on the Grants Advisory Committee and as part of the
> Simple APG Committee, working with many organizations in our movement on
> carrying out their missions successfully and effectively.
> 
> === Ira B. Matetsky (User:Newyorkbrad) ===
> 
> Ira Brad Matetsky (User:Newyorkbrad) is a long-time editor, administrator,
> and former arbitrator on English Wikipedia as well as a board member of
> Wikimedia New York City.  Professionally, he has been a litigation attorney
> in New York City since 1987.  He has broad experience with board and
> community governance issues, best practices, and legal requirements from
> serving with and representing a number of organizations.
> 
> [1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-July/084756.html
> 
> Best regards,
> antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] With my thanks to everyone ...

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Geoff

What can I say that others have not said earlier in this thread…

Well… perhaps that you were a Rock(star) during my tenure as (vice-)chair of 
the Foundation Board of Trustees. Relying on you to give sound advice was one 
of the easiest decisions I ever made. You have shaped many of our governance 
aspects, and can take credit for a lot of our growth in professionalism and 
have given us great examples of how to have a department conduct community 
consultations. Your enthusiasm for the mission combined with your warm human 
side always made it a pleasure to work with you. There is a reason that there 
is a stereotype of the typical “Lawyer”, the reason is that you were able to 
clearly break through that ;) The world is a small place and I am sure that 
some of us will run into you sooner or later, if only because you simply get to 
enjoy Wikimania in Montreal as a volunteer? 

Many many many thanks for everything you have contributed to the Foundation 
over the past years.

Jan-Bart



> On 13 Jul 2016, at 23:25, Geoff Brigham  wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Over the past five years, I’ve been honored to serve as the General Counsel
> and Secretary of the Wikimedia Foundation. This job has been amazing, and
> I’m grateful to everyone who has made it so rewarding. It's now time for my
> next step, so, in the coming days, I will be leaving the Foundation to
> pursue a new career opportunity.
> 
> I depart with such love for the mission, the Foundation, the Wikimedia
> communities, and my colleagues at work. I thank my past and present bosses
> as well as the Board for their support and guidance. I stand in awe of the
> volunteer writers, editors, and photographers who contribute every day to
> the Wikimedia projects. And I will hold special to my heart my past and
> current teams, including legal and community advocacy. :) You have taught,
> given, and enriched me so much.
> 
> After my departure, Michelle Paulson will serve as interim head of Legal,
> and, subject to Board approval, Stephen LaPorte will serve as interim
> Secretary to the Board. I can happily report that they have the experience
> and expertise to ensure a smooth and professional transition.
> 
> The future of the Foundation under Katherine's leadership is exciting.
> Having had the pleasure of working for her, I know Katherine will take the
> Foundation to its next level in promoting and defending the outstanding
> mission and values of the Wikimedia movement. Although I'm delighted about
> my next opportunity, I will miss this new chapter in the Foundation's
> story.
> 
> My last day at the Foundation will be July 18th. After that, I will take a
> month off to recharge my batteries, and then I start my new gig at YouTube
> in the Bay Area. There, I will serve as Director of YouTube Trust & Safety,
> managing global teams for policy, legal, and anti-abuse operations. As with
> Wikimedia, I look forward to learning from those teams and tackling
> together a new set of exciting, novel challenges.
> 
> For those who want to stay in touch, please do! My personal email is:
> geoffrey.r.brig...@gmail.com.
> 
> With respect, admiration, and gratitude,
> 
> Geoff
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Board appointment of Executive Director

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Congratulations to Katherine for being an incredible positive force and make a 
great impression in such a short time as Interim! A well deserved reward :)

I have all the confidence that you are able to motivate those around you (and 
in our community) to perform at their best, work together and be creative.

The very best wishes in what is (as always) likely to be a challenging time :)

Jan-Bart


> On 24 Jun 2016, at 11:15, Patricio Lorente  wrote:
> 
> Dear all, 
> 
> It is our great pleasure to share that during the Board meeting at Wikimania 
> 2016 in Esino Lario, we unanimously voted to appoint Katherine Maher as 
> Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. This is effective as of our 
> resolution dated Thursday, 23 June. 
> 
> Katherine served as interim Executive Director for the past three months, 
> during which time she consistently and repeatedly demonstrated the kind of 
> leadership our organization needs. She is deeply committed to our movement’s 
> values, and brings expertise in civic technology and international 
> development that will be an asset to the Wikimedia Foundation and the 
> movement.
> 
> We came to this conclusion after an intensive discovery process led by the ED 
> search committee. Our decision was also informed by direct feedback from 
> staff and community, and our own experience working closely with Katherine. 
> 
> In March, we assembled an Executive Director search committee[1] consisting 
> of four Board members¹ who were chosen to represent different perspectives 
> and capacities.² Additionally, the Board asked the Foundation’s Chief 
> Advancement Officer Lisa Gruwell to represent the executive team, and 
> Foundation staff member Katie Horn was selected by her peers as someone who 
> could represent staff perspectives. The committee was charged with keeping 
> the process on track and on time, engaging important stakeholders, and 
> facilitating transparency in communications. Their first tasks were to 
> identify a search firm, and define the position description. You can review 
> the committee’s updates on Meta.[2]
> 
> The committee recruited Viewcrest Advisors,³ to identify our leadership needs 
> and design a hiring process. Kathleen Yazbak of Viewcrest worked with the 
> committee to conduct interviews with every Foundation department, the 
> executive, the Board, and nearly 20 additional one-on-one interviews with 
> staff. Kathleen attended the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin, collecting 
> feedback from community members and affiliates. The committee launched a 
> community survey in June, receiving more than 1,600 responses about the 
> qualities needed in the next ED; they also asked for feedback on Meta.[3] 
> Taking all of this into account, the transition team developed a profile and 
> requirements for the next Executive Director that reflect our values and our 
> communities.
> 
> Throughout this process, the Board and the transition team received very 
> clear and often unsolicited feedback from both staff and community members 
> that Katherine embodies the values of our movement and the traits needed in 
> our next ED. This feedback was only reinforced by the latest Foundation 
> engagement survey results, which showed a strong shift toward renewed trust 
> in leadership. After taking this all into account, and considering what the 
> organization needs at this moment of transition, we moved to appoint 
> Katherine now. 
> 
> In just three months as interim ED, Katherine worked with the organization 
> and community to make huge strides in management, execution, and 
> transparency. She brought much-needed clarity to our strategic direction, and 
> mobilized the organization to clearly communicate that direction through this 
> year’s annual plan. 
> 
> After her appointment, she worked with the leadership team to swiftly 
> identify the organization’s priorities during the transition period and 
> execute against them, setting ambitious but reachable targets. Under 
> Katherine’s leadership, the Foundation submitted its annual plan to the Funds 
> Dissemination Committee, leaving ample time for community feedback and 
> discussion.
> 
> Katherine is an excellent fit for our movement. She is longtime advocate for 
> global open communities, culture, and technology. She was the Foundation’s 
> Chief Communications Officer from April 2014 until she was appointed interim 
> ED in March. Throughout her career she has focused on freedom of expression, 
> access to information, and digital rights; supporting the efforts of people 
> around the world to deepen participation, advance transparency, and 
> strengthen their communities through her work with UNICEF, National 
> Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and the World Bank.  If you 
> don’t already know Katherine, you can learn more about her on Meta.[4]
> 
> With this appointment, we feel strongly that the Foundation has the 
> leadership and clarity to move forward. We wish

Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF Board of Trustees appointments and officer positions

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Congratulations go to Christophe, and also thank you for making yourself a
candidate. Your years of experience in the movement and personality are are
great asset and we are lucky to have you. The good news is that you have a
great organisation to support you in helping you do a good job!

Like many others have said: thank you Patricio! I know from experience that
this is 'at best' a tough job, and the past year has demanded a lot from
you (and many others) Time to take a well deserved rest, and of course we
will hopefully see you back contributing somewhere/somehow :)

Many thanks to you both!

Jan-Bart de Vreede

On 23 June 2016 at 23:43:41, Johan Jönsson (jjons...@wikimedia.org) wrote:

> Thank you both, Patricio and Alice.
>
> //Johan Jönsson
> --
> Den 23 juni 2016 6:02 em skrev "Patricio Lorente" <
> patricio.lore...@gmail.com>:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I am happy to share that as of today, Christophe Henner and Nataliia Tymkiv
> have formally joined the Board of Trustees as affiliate Board-selected
> members. They both bring deep expertise in the Wikimedia community, and in
> their respective fields. I’m confident they will serve as excellent
> contributors, rooted in the values of our movement. You can learn more
> about them in an announcement we made in May:
>
> https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/05/24/affiliate-selected-board-trustees-election/
>
>
> Today the Board also voted to appoint Christophe Henner as Chair, and María
> Sefidari as Vice Chair. Both Christophe and María have a long history of
> involvement in the Wikimedia community, and have held leadership roles at
> Wikimedia France and Wikimedia Spain, respectively.
>
> More about Christophe, María, and Natallia is below. I hope you will join
> me in congratulating them on their new positions and wish them success in
> their terms ahead.
>
>
> I would like to thank my friend Alice for working with me in her role as
> Vice Chair, and many thanks to you all for your support during my time as
> Chair.
>
> Patricio Lorente
>
>
> About Christophe Henner
>
> Christophe Henner is the former Chair of Wikimedia France and current
> deputy CEO of Webedia <http://www.webedia.com>'s gaming division, the
> international digital media group headquartered in France.
>
> He has deep and varied experience across the marketing sector, including
> leadership roles at at Webedia and L'Odyssée Interactive.
>
> Christophe has been an active member of the Wikimedia community for more
> than 12 years. In 2007, he joined the Board of Wikimedia France
> <http://www.wikimedia.fr/> and has remained an active Board member in
> various positions for the past ten years. He has served as both Chair and
> Vice Chair of the Board of Wikimedia France. During his time on the Board,
> Christophe helped lead Wikimedia France through a significant period of
> growth. This included leading the development of the chapter’s brand, and
> supporting the development of a clear organizational strategy and vision
> for the chapter.
>
>
>
> About Maria Sefidari
>
> Maria is a professor in the Digital Communications, Culture and Citizenship
> Master's degree program <http://cccd.es/wp/> of Rey Juan Carlos University
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Juan_Carlos_University> at the
> MediaLab-Prado <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/es:MediaLab-Prado>. María
> graduated with a Psychology degree from Universidad Complutense de Madrid
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complutense_University_of_Madrid>, and
> later
> a Master's degree in Management and Tourism at the Business faculty of the
> same university.
>
>
> María started contributing to the Wikimedia projects in 2006, and has since
> served in many different roles across the Wikimedia movement. She was a
> founding member of Wikimedia España
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Espa%C3%B1a> and Wikimujeres
> Grupo de Usuarias <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimujeres>, and also
> created Spanish Wikipedia's LGBT Wikiproject
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/es:Wikiproyecto:LGBT>. She has served on
> several Wikimedia governance committees, including the Affiliations
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee> and Individual
> Engagement Grants <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG> committees.
> In her time on the Affiliations committee, María served as the first
> Treasurer of the committee, effectively overseeing and monitoring
> disbursement of the committee's budget. Maria served a prior term on the
> Wikimedia Foundation board from 2013 to 2015.
>
>
>
> About Nataliia Tymkiv
>
> Nataliia currently serves as F

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Welcome Delphine Ménard as WMF's Annual Plan Grants Program Officer

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Of course this is likely to change once your children are old enough to run the 
approvals process… which could be a year or two away ;)

Congrats Delphine! 

Jan-Bart


> On 22 Jun 2016, at 00:06, Arne Klempert  wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 11:56 AM, Ting Chen  wrote:
>> Just curious: Will Delphine and family now be moving to SF or will you be
>> working from remote mostly?
> 
> As a spokesperson of our family I can confirm that at this stage there are
> no plans to move away from our current place of residence near Frankfurt,
> Germany.
> 
> Disclaimer: Any forward-looking statement found in this email is only true
> at the time it was written. We are under no obligation to update such
> written statements if conditions change or that unexpected occurrences
> happen to affect the statement afterwards.
> 
> Cheers,
> Arne
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Affiliate Selected Board Seats - Result

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

Congratulations to the winners! So happy to see that the board will profit from 
your insights. And yes: thanks to all those who helped make the process 
possible or made themselves available to be a candidate :)

Regards

Jan-Bart



> On 09 May 2016, at 16:11, Chris Keating  wrote:
> 
> Dear Wikimedians,
> 
> We are writing to let you know the result of the election for the 2
> Affiliate Selected Board Seats on the Wikimedia Foundation board.
> 
> The successful candidates were *Christophe Henner* and *Nataliia Tymkiv.*
> 
> A total of 40 chapters and thorgs voted - all except for the Macedonia and
> Macau chapters - which is a record.
> 
> The number of first preferences received by each candidate was as follows:
> 
> Christophe Henner (9.00);
> Siska Doviana (6.75);
> Jan Ainali (5.50);
> Osmar Valdebenito (5.50);
> Nataliia Tymkiv (4.75);
> Susanna Mkrtchyan (3.25);
> Lodewijk Gelauff (2.50);
> Maarten Deneckere (1.50);
> Kunal Mehta(1.25);
> Leigh Thelmadatter (0.00)
> 
> As you know the election was conducted under the Single Transferable Vote,
> which meant that votes were redistributed between candidates to come up
> with the final result. In the 9th round of voting the final place, after
> Christophe was elected, was between Nataliia (16.09) and Siska (9.91). We
> will be putting the full count narrative on the Chapters Wiki so that
> others can verify it if they wish.
> 
> We would like to congratulate Christophe and Nataliia and thank everyone
> who stood. It is the closest ASBS result for some time, and all candidates
> brought very valuable perspectives to the work of the WMF.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Chris Keating, Lorenzo Losa, Lane Rasberry
> Election Facilitators
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Thank you, Jan-Bart and Stu

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi All,

It has been an honour, this movement and its goals is one of the greatest 
things in the world and I am glad to be a part of it. The diversity of opinion 
is enormous which sometimes makes things hard, but at the same time that is one 
of our biggest strengths. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to get to 
know so many of you and am sure that I will continue to contribute in some way 
and meet a lot of you again.

I have been mulling over a longer message with some more reflections over the 
past days but I think I need a couple more weeks to formulate that properly.

Here is hoping to see a lot of you at Wikimania! 

Thank you!

Jan-Bart


> On 07 Jan 2016, at 06:17, rupert THURNER  wrote:
> 
> thank you both. i enjoyed seeing jan-bart beeing the movements best man in
> many situations. and i appreciated money talks and croissant with stu, who
> was open to globalize the movement in a financial aspect while always
> paying attention that it does not become FIFA. some videos from sunny haifa
> and netherlands:
> * stu, mr decentralization: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ULO0ppoxBs8&t=2951
> * jan-bart, mr 1 mio $$, and stu, mr 100 years:
> https://youtube.com/watch?v=ULO0ppoxBs8&t=3912
> * jan-bart, mr stroupwaffel: https://youtu.be/5C0aNWfwaaw?t=835
> * jan-bart, mr hiring sue gardner: https://youtu.be/eCrMJMh4gX0?t=25
> 
> best,
> rupert
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jan 7, 2016 at 1:12 AM, Florence Devouard 
> wrote:
> 
>> Thank you for this message Lodewijk !
>> 
>> I would like to join the messages already posted to thank both Stu and
>> Jan-Bart. I was on the board when we ask them to join us and I have no
>> memory of ever regretting that decision ;)
>> 
>> I wish you both the best !
>> JB, can we expect to see you in Italy next summer ? I sure hope so...
>> 
>> Anthere
>> 
>> Le 06/01/16 08:10, Lodewijk a écrit :
>> 
>> While we have long discussions on this list about board composition, we
>>> seem to almost ignore the fact that two long time veterans are leaving the
>>> Wikimedia Foundation board, as scheduled. Jan-Bart de Vreede and Stu West
>>> have been around longer than many regular editors nowadays, and I think
>>> there are not many people who can recall the days that the board didn't
>>> have them on it. I have never had the pleasure to serve on the board with
>>> them, but a little thank-you from our community side, would seem in place.
>>> 
>>> Stu joined the board already in 2008 (filling Michael Davis' seat), and
>>> has
>>> been a solid power on the board's audit responsibilities (I believe he
>>> chaired the audit committee for quite a while) and was a force behind the
>>> accountability of movement affiliates. While we often strongly disagreed
>>> on
>>> affiliate issues, I appreciate the fact that he always remained
>>> constructive and wanted to think about solutions rather than problems. He
>>> served both as treasurer and vice chair.
>>> 
>>> Jan-Bart was on the board even longer, since early 2007, and I recall
>>> already working with him through Kennisnet (a Dutch foundation for
>>> education and IT) before that. Jan-Bart is one of those rare people who
>>> went to ALL wikimania conferences, and can be easily recognised there with
>>> his big smile. I can't remember a theme Jan-Bart didn't work on in the
>>> past
>>> years (Affiliates, HR, searching a new Executive Director) and he served
>>> the board in many positions, including as chair.
>>> 
>>> I'm sure that the WMF communications staff and/or board has a nice
>>> thankyou
>>> coming up - with a more accurate description of the awesome work they did,
>>> that I now made up from the top of my head. But in the mean time, I'd like
>>> to do it myself: Thank you Jan-Bart and Stu for all the time, energy and
>>> effort that you poured into our movement. I know that not all of us
>>> appreciate this as much as we perhaps should, and sometimes you may even
>>> have perceived us as hostile. I do sincerely hope that you had fun with us
>>> though, and I'm confident that you made a big dent in our impossible
>>> mission of sharing the sum of all knowledge with everyone.
>>> 
>>> I hope to meet you again soon, at least in Italy at Wikimania, and I hope
>>> to see you around in our movement in many different ways.
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> 
>>> Lodewijk
>>> ___
>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidel

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Does Foundation have 3rd party standing against Harald Bischoff?

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey Pine (& All)

I think that the statement “there is no harm” in asking the Foundation/chapter 
staff (legal or otherwise) to do something is not always true.

Every request has at least an “opportunity cost” (meaning there is something 
else that cannot be done). When there are situations when you genuinely need 
Foundation staff to answer something that is fine, but I think that Risker is 
arguing that it is best to wait with a request such as this until you are 
actually at the point of needing that energy to be spent (when the community 
discussion has concluded)

I am sympathetic to this because I often see requests coming by which really do 
not take into account the amount of time it takes to provide an answer. Of 
course there is always room for legitimate requests but I would encourage 
everyone to think twice before asking staff members (of the Foundation or their 
chapter) to commit time on something which might be of personal interest to 
them, or is a hypothetical situation which might well wait until the situation 
has become reality.

Jan-Bart


> On 27 Jul 2015, at 01:03, Pine W  wrote:
> 
> Risker,
> 
> James' question is about legal standing. There are also questions about
> license compliance. I believe that those are both within the scope of WMF
> Legal to analyze, and are sepatate from questions about compliance with
> community policy. The community and WMF can look into this situation in
> parallel and make separate determinations of what action, if any, to take.
> WMF might decide to take no action or wait for community actions to take
> place first, or they might decide to be more energetic. There is no harm,
> and potentially much good, in asking WMF what they can do about a situation
> like this.
> 
> Pine
> On Jul 26, 2015 3:04 PM, "Risker"  wrote:
> 
>> Pine, why are you pinging WMF Legal on this?  It is considerably premature
>> to expect them to do anything much more  than read the relevant
>> discussions, maybe, if they have an intern to spare. What action do you
>> expect them to take, when the community has yet to determine whether or not
>> its own standards have been met, whether there is actually an issue, here,
>> whether what the user in question is doing is actually wrong or is well
>> within the acceptable parameters of that project.  Should the community
>> involved believe that they need assistance on this matter, they will then
>> be able to decide if it is necessary to discuss with WMF Legal.  Looking at
>> this user's talk page at dewp and Commons, nobody seems to have raised the
>> issue directly with him on-wiki.
>> 
>> Calling upon WMF staff and expecting them to deal with all kinds of issues
>> that are not ripe for their attention, are still being addressed within the
>> relevant community, or (as in this case) are not being discussed in the
>> relevant community at all, is not really appropriate, and I for one would
>> appreciate if you'd stop doing that.
>> 
>> Risker/Anne
>> 
>> On 26 July 2015 at 17:45, Pine W  wrote:
>> 
>>> Pinging WMF Legal to ask about what WMF can do about this entire
>> situation.
>>> 
>>> Pine
>>> On Jul 26, 2015 1:06 PM, "James Salsman"  wrote:
>>> 
 If Harald Bischoff has defrauded Commons reusers by requiring stricter
 attribution than the community requires, does the Foundation have
>>> standing
 in Germany to require him to return the money to his victims in
>>> proportion
 to the extent that their attribution was improper?
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Recognition of WikiWomen's User Group

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Congratulations !

Jan-Bart


> On 19 Jul 2015, at 06:24, Carlos M. Colina  wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I am pleased and honoured to announce on behalf of the Affiliations Committe 
> the recognition [1] of a new member of the family of Wikimedia affiliates: 
> The WikiWomen's User Group. Among their goals are providing a collaborative 
> space for women to work on projects, discuss gender-related issues (but not 
> limited to) and work towards the increase in content and contributor 
> diversity.
> 
> Please, join us in welcoming them!! :-)
> 
> 
> 1: 
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/WikiWomen's_User_Group_-_Liaison_approval,_July_2015
> -- 
> "*Jülüjain wane mmakat* ein kapülain tü alijunakalirua jee wayuukanairua 
> junain ekerolaa alümüin supüshuwayale etijaanaka. Ayatashi waya junain."
> Carlos M. Colina
> Socio, A.C. Wikimedia Venezuela | RIF J-40129321-2 | www.wikimedia.org.ve 
> 
> Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Affiliations Committee
> Phone: +972-52-4869915
> Twitter: @maor_x
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[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Board of Trustees Chair and Vice Chair positions

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hello Everyone

I am happy to inform you that the Board has unanimously appointed a new Chair 
and Vice Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.

Patricio Lorente will be the new Chair and Alice Wiegand will be the new 
Vice-Chair. Both have several.years of experience on the board and we are 
confident that they will help the board grow and be successful in the coming 
years.

Personally I am looking forward to helping them get acquainted with their new 
role in the coming months as my time on the Wikimedia Board ends in December. 

I hope you can join me in congratulating them on their new position and wish 
them success in the challenges facing them.

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Wikimedia Board of Trustees
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wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi All

Next week the Wikimedia Board of Trustees will not only elect a new chair (and 
vice chair) but we will also have our annual Board Q&A session at Wikimania on 
Saturday the 18th of July). Although the session will not be broadcast live we 
do want to take questions from the Board Noticeboard (and either answer them 
during the session or attempt to on the noticeboard). From what I understand 
the session will be streamed at a later stage.

Meanwhile, feel free to add your questions to:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard#Please_Submit_Questions_for_Board_Q.26A
 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard>

Thanks!

Jan-Bart de Vreede

PS: In order to avoid confusion I feel that it is useful to point out the “Role 
of the Board” so that people are reminded of what we are responsible for. You 
can find this at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Handbook#The_role_of_the_Board
 
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Handbook#The_role_of_the_Board>



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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Results of 2015 WMF Board elections

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Everyone

Thank you to the Election Committee for all the hard work in both these and the 
FDC elections! It is amazing to see how many votes were cast this year, which 
is great. And voters came from a much larger spread of projects than before. As 
we can see from the results every vote really can make a difference. I would 
like to give a special thanks to all the affiliates who facilitated discussion 
within their community’s and encouraged people to vote. 

Congratulations to Dariusz, James and Denny on being elected to the Wikimedia 
Board of Trustees! Their formal appointment will take place at Wikimania. When 
that time comes we will also thank Maria, Phoebe and SJ properly for all the 
hard work over the past years :)

Apart from thanking all those who voted I would like to do a final thank you to 
everyone who ran in these elections. It is an incredible amount of work to run 
in these elections (especaily with all the questions that have to be answered, 
often not in a native language). You are a great pool of volunteers and 
hopefully you are able to help in other places within the movement. As 
discussed with some of you we are looking at a way to keep the candidates 
involved and somehow benefit from your expertise in the future :)

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair 
Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation


> On 06 Jun 2015, at 01:14, Gregory Varnum  wrote:
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> The certified results of the 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
> election are now available on Meta-Wiki:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2015/Results
> 
> Congratulations to Dariusz Jemielniak (User:pundit), James Heilman
> (User:Doc James), and Denny Vrandečić (User:Denny), for receiving the most
> community support. They will join the Wikimedia Foundation as Trustees,
> after they are appointed by the Board at their July meeting at Wikimania.
> 
> These results have been certified by the committee, the Wikimedia
> Foundation's legal department, and the Board of Trustees.
> 
> There were 5512 votes cast, with 5167 of those being valid. The 345-vote
> difference comes from recast ballots, where eligible voters recast ballots
> to change their votes, and struck votes, of which there were 4.
> 
> Additional information is available on the Wikimedia Blog:
> http://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/06/05/board-election-results
> 
> More statistics on the elections, a post mortem from the committee, and a
> blog post on the process behind the elections will be published  in the
> coming days. In the meantime, we would appreciate your input—what went well
> for you in this election?  What could we do better next time?  These
> reports are crucial to helping future elections be even more successful,
> and we hope that you will offer your feedback and ideas:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2015/Post_mortem
> 
> The committee thanks everyone that participated in this year’s election for
> helping make it one of the most diverse and representative in the
> movement’s history.
> 
> Sincerely,
> – 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee
> Adrian, Anders Wennersten, Daniel, Gregory Varnum, Katie Chan, Mardetanha,
> Ruslan, Savh, and Trijnstel
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Changing our volunteer structure at Wikimedia UK

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi All,

Despite Fae’s attempt to derail the conversation and make this all about him 
(which I am guessing it isn’t) I would like to applaud this initiative.

I hope that in the coming months you can keep us all up to date on your 
experiences. All of the movement entities are struggling to find meaningful and 
effective ways to keep people involved in all levels of our decision making. 
The different approaches in the initiative described below should teach us a 
lot and I am glad that you are taking such an active approach!

Thanks!

Jan-Bart 








> On 05 Jun 2015, at 16:14, Michael Maggs  wrote:
> 
> 
> Dear movement colleagues
> 
> I thought you might like to hear about a new WMUK initiative, following on 
> from our recently-completed staff restructure. We are hopeful our local 
> community will react positively to much greater levels of volunteer 
> engagement.
> 
> Our initiative might be of interest to other chapters who are trying - as we 
> are - to get away from a perception of not being sufficiently open to 
> community involvement.
> 
> Also, we are looking for movement-wide input.  If you can provide thoughts, 
> ideas or feedback, do please make contact.
> 
> For the full details on wiki see: 
> https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_strategy_consultation_2015
> 
> Best regards
> 
> 
> Michael
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Michael Maggs
> 
> Chair, Wikimedia UK
> 
> 
> *From:* Michael Maggs
> *Date:* 5 June 2015 14:38
> *To:* "wikimediau...@lists.wikimedia.org" 
> *Subject:* [Wikimediauk-l] Volunteering with Wikimedia UK: a call to action
> 
> Volunteering with Wikimedia UK: a call to action
> 
> Wikimedia UK needs your help. We want to transform the way we work so that we 
> can bring volunteering right into the heart of the charity.
> 
> We plan to:
> 
> * Establish a new volunteer engagement panel
>    or
>   steering group, focusing specifically on volunteering and volunteer
>   engagement
> * Embed members into our day-to-day decision making via a new
>   evaluation panel 
> * Encourage the setting up of volunteer special-interest working
>   groups  to replace the
>   existing non-board committees
>   
> * Set up cultural/GLAM
>    and
>   educational outreach
>   
>   expert advisory boards to advise the WMUK main board on high-level
>   strategy
> * Change our Articles of Association
>   
> 
>   to allow volunteers to be appointed full members of board committees
> * Provide more effective support for volunteers via the new project
>   coordinator 
>   staff roles
> * Move toward project-based
>    working
>   practices to improve efficiency and to enable better self-evaluation
>   of our work
> 
> These draft plans follow on from the excellent feedback we received from our 
> last Volunteer Strategy Gathering 
> . They 
> deliberately don't attempt to answer all possible questions about 
> implementation, as we think it best that both further questions and the 
> answers to those questions should come out of collaborative discussions. The 
> plans are not set in stone, and with the community's help they can be 
> improved, strengthened and fleshed out.
> 
> We would like your feedback, either online or in person at our next Volunteer 
> Strategy Gathering 
>  on 
> Saturday 25th July 2015, in London. For more information, see the links on 
> the right.
> 
> Feedback, comments and discussion are more than welcome on the discussion 
> page, or you can email chairatwikimedia.org.uk if you have feedback you would 
> prefer not to make public.
> 
> To read the full details on wiki see here: 
> https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Volunteer_strategy_consultation_2015
> 
> Best regards
> 
> 
> Michael
> 
> 
> ___
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> 
> Chair, Wikimedia UK
> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board election: we have such good candidates

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi David

I could not agree more. I think that in general we have a great pool of talent, 
not just in the board candidates, but also in the FDC pool. Having attended the 
Wikimedia Conference in Berlin it was great to meet the volunteers from all the 
different affiliates and similarly: there is a great pool of people. We need to 
figure out some kind of way of allowing people to grow their talents and be 
involved more actively if they want to.

Jan-Bart

> On 24 May 2015, at 23:20, David Gerard  wrote:
> 
> I just voted in the board election, and I must note how delighted I am
> at the excellent candidates.
> 
> To the board: even the people who don't get in, make sure you're in
> touch with them, use them in an advisory capacity, keep them drawn in
> and involved.
> 
> Yet again, Wikimedia amazes me with the stupendous calibre of
> candidates we have even for volunteer jobs.
> 
> 
> - d.
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] A transition and a new chapter.

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Dear Erik,

Not sure where to begin :(

Because words cannot begin how important your contribution to Wikimedia so far 
has been. When I started on the board in 2007 you were a little impatient with 
your new fellow board member for simply “not getting it” (fair comment, some 
would argue that 8 years later I still don’t get it  so there). In the 
following months I learned to admire not just your expertise but also your 
unwavering belief in our mission. You made clear what “being bold” meant on 
several occasions. Sue could not have picked a better deputy to help her set up 
the foundation in San Francisco and you deserve a large part of the credit for 
what we have achieved (as it witnessed in this thread).

But there are two things that have always impressed me beyond all others:

1) Knowing what the “right thing” to do is in terms of our movement and 
mission. I have sought you out many times for advice, and have not regretted it 
once. Even if I did not agree your perspective always got me thinking and 
helped me form a better opinion.
2) Your ability to always be frank, but also take the time to reach out and 
spend the time to explain things when needed (and take the criticism for it). 
Several emails to this mailing list are proof of that.

But I can understand your decision that “the time has come”. I might not agree, 
but I am not sure I will ever agree with it…. working with you has made me a 
better person and hopefully we will have the chance to do so again somewhere in 
the future.

As a very small consolation: I am excited to find out what cause you will 
actively support next, and I am sure that your path and that of our community 
will continue to cross regularly.

From the bottom of my heart: THANK YOU!

Jan-Bart “your henchman” de Vreede




> On 13 Apr 2015, at 20:12, Erik Moeller  wrote:
> 
> Hi all --
> 
> As Lila noted, since January 2008 I've worn many hats at the Wikimedia
> Foundation, and in the six years before that I was a Wikipedian,
> MediaWiki developer, and member of the WMF board of trustees. I became
> involved in Wikipedia when I was 22 years old. :) The Wikimedia
> movement has accomplished amazing things, but I believe it's time now
> for me to do something different and new.
> 
> It's been a long and incredible journey, and one I am privileged to
> have helped to shape. When I joined the Foundation in December 2007 we
> were a staff of a dozen people, with barely enough funds to keep the
> lights on. Since then, we've tackled challenges of a complexity and
> scale faced by few other organisations. In doing so, we’ve been
> generously supported by people all over the world who are grateful for
> the gift of free knowledge.
> 
> I’m proud of and happy with what we've achieved. Reaching people on
> mobile. Pioneering new approaches working with universities.
> Painstakingly building a visual editing experience on top of wikitext.
> :) I’m glad we’ve taken a stand when it matters (SOPA blackout, NSA
> lawsuit) and that we don’t shy away from complex issues such as
> community health and diversity.
> 
> I’m excited that Wikidata is growing in leaps and bounds with the help
> of Wikimedia Germany, and that more and more powerful tools and
> services are being built on the basis of Wikimedia APIs and data. I’ve
> always believed that Wikimedia chapter and affiliate organizations are
> key to the success of the movement, and I hope they are going to truly
> thrive in years to come.
> 
> But it's time. As the leadership team begins to coalesce under Lila, I
> want to open up space for the organization to learn and explore anew
> -- and I’d like to rediscover for myself what it means to tackle
> challenges outside of my areas of comfort and familiarity.
> 
> I’m very interested in the technical challenges of federated
> collaboration, and am looking forward to getting my hands dirty in
> that domain. I also want to explore how to make patterns of ethics,
> policy, and self-governance more accessible and re-usable for
> communities. In short, I’m itching to immerse myself in new problem
> spaces and new ideas.
> 
> Lila, Damon, Terry, myself and others in the org have been discussing
> how to organize product going forward to set the org up for success in
> the years to come, and we’ll have an update on that very soon. This is
> a very natural point for me to pursue something new.
> 
> What Wikimedia does in the world is wonderful & important. I’m sure I
> will continue to cross paths with many of you in future as I continue
> to move in free culture circles, and I very much look forward to it.
> 
> I’ll continue to be @ WMF full-time through April, and will make
> myself available as necessary afterwards, for when the org needs human
> institutional memory that surpasses digital archives. I wish you all
> success and joy :-)
> 
> Love,
> 
> Erik
> -- 
> Erik Möller
> VP of Product & Strategy, Wikimedia Foundation
> 
> ___
> Wikimedia

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Veteran Malayalam Wikipedian BabuG signed off...

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi

Thank you so much for this tribute. My condolences to you and all others who 
admired and loved him.

Jan-Bart


> On 05 Mar 2015, at 16:07, ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ)  wrote:
> 
> Dear Wikimedians all over the world,
> 
> One of our stalwarts at ml Wikimedia community, Wikiuser:BabuG
>  (
> https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Babug)  expired yesterday night.
> 
> Despite having paralyzed due to a severe stroke and severely affected by
> several subsequent health problems, he was guided to Wikipedia by his son,
> Dr. Ajay, another prominent Malayalam Wikipedian, as a possible remedy to
> escape perpetual loneliness.
> 
> His real world name was G. Balachandran.He was born on 14th October 1938 in
> a small village off North Parur, Ernakulam District, Kerala, the
> Southernmost state of India.He  joined the Armed Forces Engineering College
> and then continued to serve the Indian Armed forces for long many years.
> 
> He started contributing to Wikimedia, particularly to Malayalam Wikipedia,
> in the year 2008.
> 
> His initial contributions to Malayalam Wikipedia were based upon a
> pulp-converted digital Encyclopedia, released by the Government through
> GFDL licence then.  He continued to create even more full-featured articles
> on his own, later. By 2014 October 18 - the day he edited last in
> Wikipedia- he had 1935 full-blown articles initiated and expanded by
> himself in ml.wikipedia.org. Besides, he also contributed more than 350
> images to Wikimedia commons and a handsome  amount of contributions to
> Wikisource, Wikidata and Wiktionary.
> 
> He always attributed his renewed energy and life's aspirations to the
> Wikimedia mission, for having returned to a meaningful life after a 20-year
> long and frustrating solitude while constrained to an immobile chair. Ever
> since 2008, he stood up and started walking and moving around. His was an
> extreme example for us in Malayalam WP to showcase how Wikipedia can change
> lives.
> 
> In almost all our Wikipedia Outreach sessions, we utilized this great
> example to motivate and excite the newcomers to WP.
> 
> Tory Read mentioned about BabuG thus, in a document
> , a  review
> on the state of Indian Wikimedia Communities, in 2011:
> 
> G. Balachandran, a septuagenarian who lives outside of Ernakulum in Kerala
>> state, said that working on Malayalam Wikipedia helped him recover after a
>> stroke left him paralyzed. “He’s much sharper now,” said his wife Jagadamma
>> K. “He’s made a lot of new friends, and that’s been good for his health.”
> 
> 
> For us in Malayalam Wikipedia, today is a black day, for having lost a
> great beacon on our voyage to ultimate openness and freedom in knowledge
> and wisdom.
> 
> 
> Yet, we feel, BabuG has made his life stamped immortal for ever and has
> shown us the pathway we should follow in continuing our humble
> contributions to the ultimate cause of mankind.
> 
> 
> -ViswaPrabha
> (On behalf of Malayalam Wikimedia Community)
> http://ml.wikipedia.org
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcement: A new structure for WMF Community Engagement

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Dear Anasuya,

Like you and many others I hope that this is an Au-Revoir, but nevertheless its 
a good idea to take a moment even when parting with the expectation of meeting 
again in the near future.

Thank you for all that you have done for the Foundation, especially in building 
up our grant making ability in the past years. One of the reasons why the FDC 
is getting better all the time is you and your ability to listen to all the 
different stakeholders and come up with suggestions to improve/simplify the 
process. Having worked with you in the first FDC rounds and follow up 
conversations in the board have been great and as you can see from this thread, 
you will be sorely missed.

I hope that your health issues will be behind you soon and that you will be 
able to dance with/around us soon :)

Best Wishes

Jan-Bart de Vreede




> On 19 Feb 2015, at 23:20, Anasuya Sengupta  wrote:
> 
> Dear friends and colleagues, fellow adventurers on the Wikimedia journey -
> 
> Goodbyes are overrated.[1] But since I’m sure this will be au revoir, I’ll
> continue: I am leaving the Foundation as head of the Grantmaking
> department, at the end of March. This was not an easy decision to make;
> this is not an easy email to write.
> 
> As some of you know, I have been battling health issues over the past few
> months. I’ve learnt sharp and intimate truths about myself as I’ve worked
> to get better, and what I’ve kept coming back to is the compassionate but
> fierce feminist slogan around self-care and sustainability: ‘what’s the
> point of the revolution if we can’t dance?’[2] To reassure you all, I will
> be well,[3] but I need a little time and space to focus on getting my
> dancing legs strong again.
> 
> That said, I am pleased that we have a really solid plan in place as I
> leave. As Lila’s email announced, Luis Villa (our current Deputy General
> Counsel) will be taking over the team effective immediately, and leading
> the organisation further in our support of Wikimedia communities worldwide.
> Luis brings with him a range of skills and qualities that I know will stand
> him, the team, and the movement in wonderful stead through it all. As a
> friend and colleague, I am so delighted to be supporting Luis through the
> next few weeks of transition.
> 
> I joined the Foundation in July 2012 to oversee and implement the FDC
> process. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of creating and leading a
> department of more than twenty remarkable and passionate people who care
> about our mission, our communities, and the resources needed to match the
> two.
> 
> We went from Asaf managing a small grants portfolio on his own, ably
> supported on occasion by Winifred, to a fully fledged grantmaking
> department with a spectrum of monetary and non-monetary resources. We have
> been able to offer these in different ways to different parts of our
> movement: to individual volunteers with great ideas in need of project
> management, to small groups experimenting with new initiatives, and to
> established organisations who form critical content and policy partnerships
> in their local contexts. We built an infrastructure for understanding our
> collective impact. We learned together about what our different communities
> are doing globally, about the successes and challenges we have, and above
> all: about how we can, together, create a more powerful set of outcomes for
> free knowledge.
> 
> In doing so, I’ve had the joy of discovery,[4] of learning from and with
> some of the most dedicated volunteers in the world, who believe that
> knowledge matters. Most importantly, that it’s not only free knowledge
> _for_ all that we seek, but even more critically, that we believe in
> knowledge _from_ and _with_ all.
> 
> And I’ve discovered that the nerdy, geeky, obsessed-with-data part of me
> found a home in this extraordinary universe, where everybody’s “unimaginable,
> magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds” can find expression.[5] I
> look forward to the day when my worlds find more space on Wikipedia, when
> 80% of the globe is represented by far more than 20% of the edits, when
> much more than 15% of our contributors can self-identify as women. Till
> then, I’ll keep fighting notability one article at a time...[6]
> 
> So thank you for sharing your worlds with me, and no thanks for turning me
> into an obsessive Wikimedian. :-) As I have learnt with you, I know I have
> done so with trust, and as I have challenged you, I hope I have done so
> with respect. I look forward to continuing our friendships and obsessions
> on a wiki near you.
> 
> With appreciation and gratitude,
> 
> Anasuya
> 
> p.s. You can find me in the future at my enWP user page (User:Anasuyas
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:An

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Its not goodbye, but au revoir

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Dear Pavel (& everyone)

Its hard to describe the incredible positive impact that you have had on WMDE 
and the Wikimedia Movement as a whole. While every affiliates contributes 
differently  it is fair to say that under your leadership  WMDE has contributed 
a lot to our movement by facilitating communication between the different 
affiliates (including all the work on the Wikimedia Conferences and the 
chapters dialogue project). And of course Wikidata is an incredible project 
which I cannot praise enough :)

On a more individual note: I think the way you remained on board in order to 
facilitate a good transition within WMDE says a lot about your incredible 
character and dedication to our goals!

Very happy to hear that its not a goodbye, and hope to see your impact in the 
next challenge you choose to take on!

Thank you!

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation

> On 29 Jan 2015, at 08:05, Pavel Richter  wrote:
> 
> Dear Friends of Free Knowledge,
> 
> today is my last day at the office as the former Executive Director of
> Wikimedia Deutschland.
> 
> For 2012 days, I had the great opportunity and the tremendous pleasure to
> work for one of the greatest causes I can think of: Free Knowledge for
> everybody. What Wikimedia does is nothing short of changing the world, one
> edit at a time.
> 
> I reflect a little about this in this blog post:
> http://blog.pavelrichter.de/2012-days-later/
> 
> Thank you all for the best time I had in my (professional) life. Of course,
> while I leave my job, I will not leave the Wikimedia movement. Looking
> forward to this!
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Pavel
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] November 21, 2014 minutes of the Board of Trustees

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for publishing the minutes Stephen. I wanted to add a short note on 
the two days the board spent prior to the board meeting. We had a retreat (our 
first with the new Executive Director) in which we focused on the changing 
nature of the internet, our environment, our users and the way in which 
knowledge is documented and disseminated. We then looked at what the impact of 
these changes should be on the Foundation as a whole, and our Board in 
particular. Some of the proposals were very practical and could be implemented 
quite quickly. A good example of this was the need for faster decision making. 
As a result we now have monthly online board meetings which are 60-90 minutes 
long (so more minutes will follow quickly)

Other ideas need to be worked out in more detail, and we have formed a small 
working group that is currently working on some of these ideas to present back 
to the board. A good example of this is the reduction of the number of two day 
physical meetings… is that feasible and will it allow us to attract a different 
potential group of board members that simply cannot commit the time for 12-16 
days of board meetings including travel). 

The ever changing composition of the board gives an extra value to a two day 
retreat which allows every one to work together in a structured way. All in all 
the retreat was very productive and has already improved some aspects of our 
decision making and working together. 

As usual I refer you to: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard 
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard> if you 
wish to ask questions to the board, or have a comment. I cannot promise that we 
can answer all questions but this is a good place to keep track of them all.


Regards

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation



> On 16 Jan 2015, at 16:55, Stephen LaPorte  wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> At the request of the Board of Trustees, I have posted the minutes of the
> November 21, 2014 meeting in San Francisco, which you can find here:
> *https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2014-11-21
> <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2014-11-21>*
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Stephen LaPorte
> Legal Counsel
> Wikimedia Foundation
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia wins Erasmusprize 2015

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey Rupert,

See

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/01/15/wikipedia-turns-14-receives-erasmus-prize/
 


"This honor is accompanied by an award of €150,000. In keeping with the 
Praemium Erasmianum Foundation’s intent to recognize the contributions of the 
Wikimedia community, we are redirecting these funds towards the community in 
the form of individual grants and other support for editors and contributors.”

So there you go :)

Jan-Bart





> On 15 Jan 2015, at 20:21, rupert THURNER  wrote:
> 
> 150'000 eur for the wikipedia community? How they will pay that ;)
> On Jan 15, 2015 7:32 PM, "Romaine Wiki"  wrote:
> 
>> http://www.erasmusprijs.org/?page=Erasmusprijs
>> 
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus_Prize
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising in the Netherlands; informing the donors

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

Another minor correction with a large impact. The first 60 euro, or 1% of your 
gross income,  (crude translation of Drempelinkomen, but it will do for the 
sake of the argument), whichever is higher, does not count as deductible...

Realistically this means that for people donating any money, it usually comes 
down to the fact that the first several hundred Euro’s donated each year 
(cumulatively) are NOT tax deductible. An exception would be a “periodical” 
gift which is documented.

But overall: its complex and the amount you need to donate to charities is 
relatively high, and most people cannot take advantage of it because of this 
reason. 

I would guess that the ANBI status only really affects large donors… but it 
never hurts to advertise our ANBI status :) (personal opinion)

Jan-Bart
 
PS: http://www.belastingdienst.nl/rekenhulpen/giften/ 
 (only seems to be available 
in dutch)

> On 07 Dec 2014, at 11:23, Lodewijk  wrote:
> 
> Minor correction: this system in the Netherlands works the other way
> around: donors can get back a part of their donation through their tax
> reduction - it is not that the charity gets a bonus.
> 
> Interestingly, the Wikimedia Foundation has obtained this status (ANBI) in
> the Netherlands at the urging of the chapter several years ago (2010/2011).
> However, for some reason the WMF chooses not to advertize this (not so
> obvious) fact on the donation home page; which means that the donors are
> unaware that they can donate and get this reduction of their taxes (indeed
> up to 50% of the donation amount!). This is mindboggling to me - it should
> be an easy fix.
> 
> Lodewijk
> 
> On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 11:16 AM, Gerard Meijssen 
> wrote:
> 
>> Hoi,
>> A similar possibility is in existence in the Netherlands... National
>> charities can easily get such a status. It is possible for international
>> organisations but it is more difficult..
>> 
>> In order to optimise fundraisers it is extremely relevant that we optimise
>> it for our donors. That makes it very much in need of local efforts.
>> 
>> As it is we lose 50% of the giftst of our donors in the Netherlands to the
>> taxman.
>> Thanks,
>> GerardM
>> 
>> On 4 December 2014 at 22:10, Andy Mabbett 
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> I've split this from a more general thread, for convenience...
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 3 December 2014 at 01:16, Megan Hernandez 
>>> wrote:
>>> 
 Starting today, banners are being shown to 100% of anonymous readers on
 English Wikipedia in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
>>> 
>>> How much money do we expect to raise (or did we last year), from the
>>> UK? How much of the money raised from the UK will attract "Gift
>>> Aid"[*] tax releif?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> [* Gift AId is a UK scheme where the government gives, to a charity,
>>> tax paid by a  donor. For every £80 such a donor gives, the charty
>>> would receive £100]
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Andy Mabbett
>>> @pigsonthewing
>>> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Au Revoir from WMUK CEO

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi John (&All)

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation let me give you a heartfelt thanks for 
all that you have done for both Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Movement as a 
whole. Being the first Chief Executive is always a hard job and requires a 
positive attitude and lots of energy in order to motivate people to join you on 
a risky journey. Having made a good start with WMUK I can imagine that leaving 
it behind is not easy, but I have confidence that the staff, board and 
volunteers in the United Kingdom will manage to build on the foundation that 
you have put in place.

I think we are all happy to hear that you will still be a volunteer, and 
hopefully our paths will cross in the future.

Best wishes for your next challenge!

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Wikimedia Foundation
Board of Trustees

> On 11 Nov 2014, at 10:10, Jon Davies  wrote:
> 
> With some sadness I have to tell you that I will be leaving Wikimedia UK,
> as an employee, if not as a volunteer, at the end of the year. I have
> achieved what I set out to do and leave WMUK in a good state. I now need to
> look for new challenges.
> 
> I was the first chief executive and it has been an amazing three years
> watching the chapter grow and develop. It has not always been smooth
> sailing but we have come through it together in good shape. Wikimania
> proved how professional we had become and the positive feedback from the
> participants makes all the work we put in worthwhile.
> 
> My heartfelt thanks to everyone in the community, particularly the
> volunteers who are at the heart of all we do, my great colleagues at the
> Foundation and the loyal and hardworking staff at WMUK who have supported
> me so ably and with such good humour over the years.
> 
> My best wishes go to my successor in all they seek to achieve.
> 
> Cyhoeddiad gan Jon
> 
> Gyda pheth tristwch rwy'n eich hysbysu y byddaf yn gadael Wikimedia UK, fel
> cyflogai, os nad
> 
> fel gwirfoddolwr, ar ddiwedd y flwyddyn. Dw i wedi cyflawni'r hyn roeddwn
> wedi'i obeithio a dw
> 
> i'n gadael WMUK ar delerau da. Edrychaf ymlaen rwan am sialensau newydd. Fi
> oedd y Prif Weithredwr cyntaf ac mae'r dair blynedd diwethaf wedi bod yn
> hollol anhygoel,
> 
> wrth i mi weld y siaptr yn tyfu a datblygu. Doedd y daith bob amser ddim yn
> llyfn, ond daethom drwyddi'n y diwedd yn ddianaf! Profodd Wikimania inni
> aeddfedu mewn modd proffesiynol a chafwyd adborth adeiladol gan y cyfranwyr
> oedd yn gwneud yr holl waith yn bleser.
> 
> Carwn ddiolch o waelod fy ngalon i bawb o fewn ein cymuned, yn enwedig y
> gwirfoddolwyr sy'n sylfaen i'n gwaith, fy nghydweithwyr bendigedig yn
> Sylfaen Wikimedia a'r staff sydd wedi bod mor driw i mi, wedi fy nghefnogi
> mor effeithiol ac wedi gweithio mor arbennig o galed dros y blynyddoedd ­ a
> hynny gyda hiwmor iach. Dymunaf pob llwyddiant i f'olynydd ym mhopeth y
> ceisiant ei gyflawni.
> 
> Jon.
> 
> -- 
> *Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK*.  Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169
> tweet @jonatreesdavies
> 
> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
> Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
> Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
> United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
> movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
> operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
> Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990.
> 
> Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Access by Wikimedia volunteers to WMF records about them

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Fae/Everyone

Just to be clear, although the text below is factually correct it implies that 
the two of us talked about your request at Wikimania, which we did not. We 
talked for a total of around 60 seconds, most of which was spent on me 
explaining that I was looking for someon in a hurry, that fact is not relevant 
with regards to your request so I am not sure why you mention it.

The topic below is not within the scope of my governance responsibility and I 
should not be involved in this all. So please don’t involve me :)

Thanks,

Jan-Bart

PS: As this is me ‘setting the record straight” the odds are small to zero that 
I will respond to a follow up…. see above



> On 22 Aug 2014, at 17:06, Fæ  wrote:
> 
> I wrote the email below to Lila and the WMF Legal department asking
> for access to records (and reports) they hold on me, but I'm sad to
> say that after 3 weeks waiting, I have yet to receive an
> acknowledgement. As a Wikimania London volunteer I had a moment to
> speak with Jan-Bart, and some of my Wikimedia Commons uploads were
> even featured as part of a presentation by WMF Legal on their
> successes in the past year, so there was plenty of opportunity for us
> to have the friendly chat I suggested.
> 
> Can someone recommend if there is a WMF policy on transparency that
> volunteers can rely on for questions like mine, or does the law in the
> USA give me any specific rights of access to records or reports the
> WMF may keep on me that would mean that WMF Legal would do more than
> stay silent in response to reasonable requests from its established
> volunteers?
> 
> Thanks,
> Fae
> 
> -- Forwarded message --
> From: Fæ 
> Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2014 13:49:45 +0100
> Subject: Request for disclosure of all WMF records relating to Fae
> To: Lila Tretikov 
> Cc: legal , Jan-Bart de Vreede 
> 
> Dear Lila,
> 
> The Wikimedia Foundation keeps information such as management
> summaries about me, which have never been shared with me.
> [Redacted example material]
> 
> Could you please ensure that all records that the WMF has retained
> about me are copied to me? It would seem fair that I have the
> opportunity to both understand what the WMF management and board have
> available to refer to when discussing my activities for Wikimedia, and
> that I have a chance to both correct any mistakes in this personal
> data, or to ask that inappropriate material gets permanently removed
> from WMF databases.
> 
> I will be active in both the Wikimania hackerthon and conference in
> the coming week, should you or an employee wish to informally review
> this request with me in person, along with my reasons for making the
> request at this time.
> ...
> -- 
> fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
> 
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[Wikimedia-l] Board statement on the Media Viewer roll out

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi all,

Some of you have asked the Board and its individual members for feedback. Some 
of us are already in conversation with you or are planning to answer on 
different pages. This is our general common statement:

The Board supports the decision to protect the Media Viewer roll out. Our 
platform powers a top-5 website. We need operational protocols that are 
consistent with this position. This includes making improvements, rather than a 
tendency towards reverting to the status quo. 

At the Board meeting before Wikimania, Lila laid out her strategy to put in 
place best practices for product development. We will communicate sooner, we 
will prioritize smarter, we will test more, and we will achieve better 
outcomes. Her vision is to involve the community at each step of product 
development, including more structured feedback stages and reviews. We endorse 
this vision.

We realize that there is concern about the superprotect user right and how it 
affects power balance and influence on content and administration. We recognize 
the concern that we need to explain and introduce our measures better. However, 
stability of the platform is necessary as we seek to improve our sites, and, 
for that reason, we support the creation of this tool. We also understand that 
with more robust rollout plans and better staged community feedback - as Lila 
envisions - the tool should rarely be used.
We urge you to focus on specific improvements you'd like to see in the Media 
Viewer and the roll-out process. Lila intends to incorporate that feedback as 
she plans to improve Media Viewer and the process for future product roll outs.
The Wikimedia Foundation needs to be in a position to make software and 
configuration changes for which it is responsible. We expect restrictions of 
MediaWiki code-level editing to be a temporary step to enable us to move 
forward with improvements. As we say, Media Viewer should be improved; our 
procedures to date have not yet met the high standards we want to set for 
ourselves. Lila wants to address both now, and we need to give her the space to 
do so. She has our full support and confidence as she tackles this tough 
challenge.

On behalf of the Wikimedia Board of Trustees

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation
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[Wikimedia-l] Board Meeting Update

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hello Everyone

While the minutes of the Board of Trustees meeting will arrive in due time I 
wanted to update you on some internal matters at this point because there have 
been some changes in the board composition. 

Ana Toni joined our board last year but unfortunately the time demands placed 
upon a Wikimedia Board member were not compatible with her other commitments. 
This has given the board something to think about. We aim to be a board that is 
able to incorporate outside expertise to increase our effectiveness and 
possible candidates are often not able to commit the time which we currently 
require.. In the coming period we want to have a look at the time which is 
demanded of a board member (especially our in person meetings which require a 
lot of travel) and look at which activities we need to perform as a board. We 
want to thank Ana for her contributions. The insights gained from her position 
as Chair of Greenpeace International were especially useful to us as a board. 
We are sad to see her go, but we hope to keep her in “our space”.

Bishakha Datta joined our board in March 2010 and has indicated to us that she 
is not available for re-appointment after her term runs out in December of this 
year. We will take the time to properly thank her for her great contributions 
when her term formally ends in December.

While these things are part of of the normal turnover of the composition of the 
board (and are also an opportunity to attract new fields of expertise as 
needed) there is a matter of board stability during the first year of the 
tenure of our new Executive Director. In response to Lila's request for 
stability the board has decided the following:

1) Alice Wiegand was appointed to finish out Ana's term ending December 2014.  
We also appointed Alice to carry out the subsequent term ending December 2016.

2) Last year at Wikimania I was appointed to the board for a two year period, 
but I tendered my resignation effective the end of this year.  At the Board's 
request I reconsidered that resignation, and will serve out the rest of my 
original two year term ending December 2015.  

This does mean we will start the search process for a new board member for the 
appointed seat that Bishakha will vacate at the end of this year. And hopefully 
we will be able to also identify potential candidates to fill the seats of both 
Stuart West and me, which will become vacant at the end of 2015. 

Secondly we have appointed the two officer positions as follows for the coming 
fiscal year 

Chair - Jan-Bart de Vreede 
Vice-Chair - Patricio Lorente

The foundation has a great opportunity to grow under the guidance of our new 
Executive Director and realize our ambitions. The board is looking forward to a 
year of supporting Lila and providing direction for our strategic goals. 

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation

PS: All the relevant resolutions will be published on meta in the coming days
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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Agenda Board Meeting 6&7 august

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hello Everyone,

Like every year the Wikimedia Board of Trustees will have a board meeting in 
the days preceding Wikimania. Our meeting in London has the following agenda:

== August 6, 2014 ==

Special items from Committees
Lila's first three months
Strategy planning
Chapter site visits and evaluations
User groups
Funds Dissemination Committee
Wikimedia Belgium

== August 7, 2014 ==

Board appointments
Board legal duties
Board officer elections
Chapter's Dialogue
Trustee evaluation
Executive session

If you have additional comments or questions please feel free to leave a 
message on the Board noticeboard: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard

Alternatively, if you are lucky enough to be able to attend Wikimania it is 
good to know that we are attending as well. Please come and find us if you have 
something  that you think the board should be aware of. At the same time you 
will probably meet a lot more people at Wikimania who have a very practical 
approach in making “cool projects reality”, so I would encourage you to seek 
out other attendees to see if you can make great things happen!

Finally I would like to draw your attention to the annual Board Q&A which takes 
place at Wikimania on the 8th of August at 15:00. Please feel free to leave 
questions at: 
https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Questions_for_the_Q%26A_with_Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees
but we are also just going to answer questions from the audience. I commit that 
all written questions left on the above page will be answered in some online 
way if we do not get to them during the Q&A. This might take a few weeks but it 
will happen.

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Board of Trustees



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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Disclosure amendment to the Terms of Use

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Nemo (& others)

I know of at least one non english project that has implemented a much stronger 
stance against paid contributions

Their are two possibilities when specific projects discuss if they need to have 
their own policy on this topic

a) If all participants of the project agree on what they would like to 
implement, then it should not be a long discussion.
b) If there are different opinions this could be a longer discussion and is a 
worthwhile one to have (and the general ToU is a general fall back in case 
there is no conclusion to that discussion)

In both cases this is a discussion that worth having. One of the most important 
things we have is our integrity (and the perception of that integrity by our 
readers), and having a frank discussion (per project) on how we protect this 
integrity is not a waste of time or useless overhead, its incredibly relevant.

Jan-Bart


On 17 Jun 2014, at 19:55, Federico Leva (Nemo)  wrote:

> phoebe ayers, 17/06/2014 18:56:
>> Anyway, I'm not sure why you are assuming that the amendment will
>> automatically be abhorrent to every community that's not English Wikipedia.
> 
> And why do you think it will be useful? If it was needed, how comes only some 
> 50 non-en.wiki editors came to support it (and about as many opposed it)?
> 
> Nemo
> 
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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Thank you Sue Gardner

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hello Everyone,

As Lila officially takes over from Sue as the Executive Director of the 
Wikimedia Foundation after this weekend  it really is a moment to not only wish 
Lila a lot of succes in the coming years, but also to give a tremendous thanks 
to Sue for her work in the past years. Of course I did so last year in March 
when she announced her departure but it bears repeating that Sue took us from a 
small organisation in St. Petersburg Florida, which was struggling to create 
impact, to a mature and stable organisation which makes a huge difference. 
Building up a professional staff who are dedicated to our mission, incredible 
fundraising growth and working through complex situations to create concepts 
such as the FDC stand out amongst many other achievements. 

It was Sue herself who indicated that it was time to find a new Executive 
Director, someone who was more suitable for our focus on Engineering and 
Grantmaking. As I mentioned more than a year ago, its hard to imagine the 
Wikimedia Foundation without Sue at the helm. However, due in large part to her 
efforts we have managed to find a new Executive Director who gives me 
confidence in the future of the Foundation. I am happy that we managed to find 
the “unicorn” that we were looking for, but that didn’t happen by accident. 
Most of you know that we concluded the first round of our search in early 
december with candidates that we did not feel were ideal for the job. We 
decided to change our tactics and this involved both Erik and Sue spending a 
lot of their (spare) time with potential candidates and making sure that we 
were getting the right candidates. As a result our second round had a great set 
of candidates, which ultimately led to the selection of Lila. On the transition 
team Sue has been very crucial in holding up a mirror and reminding us what we 
were looking for.

After a well deserved vacation Sue will be available as a Special Advisor to 
both the Lila and the Board of Trustees and we are grateful to her for making 
herself available to do this. However, what intrigues me more is what she will 
end up doing in the coming years. I am hoping it is in the space of Open 
Content or the Open Internet, as she will undoubtedly have a tremendous impact 
in there, and we need her! I am also happy to inform you that Sue will attend a 
part of Wikimania where she will for once not have an packed schedule, so feel 
free to take the opportunity to thank her in person if you are so inclined :)

On behalf of the entire Board and all the staff of the Wikimedia Foundation: 
thank you so much all that you have given the Foundation, and especially your 
efforts in the past year to ensure that there was both stability within our 
organisation and a great succesor.

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Ukraine's anniversary

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Indeed, congratulations on achieving these milestones! 

It is great to know that even in these turbulent times you are managing to 
reach new goals and have a positive effect! Sometimes in the bigger picture 
these seem like small steps, but they are important steps for us as a movement 
and society as a whole.

Jan-Bart


On 31 May 2014, at 22:38, ENWP Pine  wrote:

> Congratulations Wikimedia Ukraine on these milestones.
> 500,000 articles, 10 years as a language wiki, and 5 years
> as an organization are great reasons to celebrate.
> 
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feuerwerk_Dreiländerbrücke.jpg
> 
> 
> 
> Pine
> 
> 
>> Date: Sat, 31 May 2014 21:13:16 +0200
>> From: Richard Ames 
>> To: Wikimedia Mailing List 
>> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Ukraine's anniversary
>> Message-ID: <538a29cc.7030...@ames.id.au>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> - оригінальне повідомлення -
>> Тема: Wikimedia Ukraine's anniversary
>> Від кого: Levon Azizian 
>> Кому: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
>> Копія: Правління Вікімедіа Україна 
>> Відправлено: 31.05.2014 18:40,
>> 
>> Today, our organization celebrates anniversary - 5 years from the date
>> of creation.
>> 
>> Exactly 5 years ago, on May 31, 2009, in Kyiv was held the constituent
>> meeting, which approved the bylaws and elected its first Board of the new
>> organization, known as Wikimedia Ukraine.
>> 
>> Our community has gone through a long and difficult path. Birthday of
>> Wikimedia Ukraine for our community is the third remarkable date this
>> year. On January 30 was the 10th anniversary of the establishment of
>> Ukrainian Wikipedia and on May 12 Ukrainian Wikipedia has crossed the
>> threshold of 500 000 articles.
>> 
>> We want to thank to Wikimedia Foundation Inc. for their help, to our
>> neighboring communities for fruitful cooperation with us and of course
>> to our community for their contributions!
>> 
>> Regards, Levon Azizian
>> Deputy chair
>> Wikimedia Ukraine
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> The greatest collection of shared knowledge in history. Help Wikipedia, 
>> participate now: http://wikimedia.org/
>> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] FDC recommendation round 2 announced

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Dariusz (& Everyone)

On behalf of the Board of Trustees allow me to once again thank the FDC and 
involved WMF Staff members for all the work that has gone into this round. I am 
looking forward to discussing the future of the FDC with you and all the others 
in the coming days as we convene with the FDC Advisory Group.

Also thanks to all those who have participated in the public discussions on the 
different proposals, it is what makes us truly unique as an organisation!

Thank you,

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees


On 24 May 2014, at 15:51, Dariusz Jemielniak  wrote:

> Hello friends,
> 
> The Funds Dissemination Committee meets twice annually to help make
> decisions about how to effectively allocate movement funds to achieve the
> Wikimedia movement's mission, vision, and strategy. [1]
> 
> On behalf of the committee, I am pleased to announce that Round 2 2013-2014
> recommendations to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees have now been
> posted on Meta [2]:
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2013-2014_round2
> 
> The WMF Board will make their decision on these recommendations by 1 July
> 2014.
> 
> For the second round of this fiscal year, the committee received four
> proposals.  [3] These four proposals came from two chapters, WMF and one
> non-Wikimedia organization, totaling requests of '''$1.56''' million USD.
> Prior to our face-to-face deliberations in Frankfurt from 21st-24th May,
> the FDC reviewed the proposals in careful detail, aided by staff
> assessments and analysis on programs, finances, grant compliance and
> history, as well as community comments on the proposals. Staff presented an
> overview of these findings to the FDC during the deliberations. The FDC and
> FDC staff also asked clarifying questions to the entities on the proposal
> form discussion pages during the four-week community review period (and
> prior to the publishing of staff assessments), and observed the discussions
> about the proposals.
> 
> The committee thanks all organizations that submitted proposals, as it
> required significant effort to both create the proposal and to respond to
> the questions and feedback from the community, FDC, and FDC staff.  We
> sincerely appreciate them all for this work.
> 
> For formal complaints or appeals about the recommendations, there is a
> separate process that entities should follow. Note that at the request of
> many stakeholders, we are clarifying the complaints and appeals terminology
> so that complaints are made about the process to the ombudsperson and
> appeals on the recommendations are made to the WMF Board representatives.
> These are further explained below:
> 
> Any organization that would like to submit an appeal on the FDC’s Round 2
> recommendation should submit it to the Board representatives to the FDC by
> '''end of day UTC 8 June 2014''' in accordance with the appeal process
> outlined in the FDC Framework. The process is as follows:
> 
> Appeals to the WMF Board on the recommendations of the FDC (formerly called
> complaints, terminology changed to avoid further confusion):
> 
> * A formal appeal to challenge the FDC’s recommendation should be in the
> form of a 500-or-fewer word summary directed to the two non-voting WMF
> Board representatives to the FDC (Patricio Lorente and Bishakha Datta).
> 
> * The appeal should be submitted on-wiki through the FDC portal page
> designated for this purpose. [4]
> 
> * Formal appeals can be submitted only by the Board Chair of a
> funding-seeking organization.
> 
> * Formal appeals must be filed within seven days of the deadline for
> submission of the FDC slate of recommendations to the WMF Board, even if
> the recommendations are published before the deadline for the
> recommendations i.e. end-of-day '''1 June 2014'''. The deadline for appeals
> is the end-of-day UTC on '''8 June 2014'''.
> 
> * These board representatives will present the appeal to the WMF Board at
> the same time as the Board considers the FDC recommendation. Responses to
> an appeal will be made alongside the overall decision on the FDC
> recommendations, i.e. by end-of-day UTC '''1 July 2014'''.
> 
> * Any planned or approved disbursements to the organization filing an
> appeal will be put on hold until the appeal is resolved.
> 
> * If the WMF Board's consideration of the appeal results in an amendment of
> the FDC's recommendations (which is expected only in extraordinary
> circumstances), the WMF Board may choose to release extra funds from the
> WMF reserves to provide additional funds n

[Wikimedia-l] Please welcome Lila Tretikov, the Wikimedia Foundation's new ED

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi All

FYI

Jan-Bart

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Jan-Bart de Vreede 
> Subject: Please welcome Lila Tretikov, the Wikimedia Foundation's new ED 
> Date: 1 May 2014 20:15:04 GMT+2
> To: wikimediaannounc...@lists.wikimedia.org
> 
> Dear fellow community members,
> 
> On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am delighted to 
> announce that the new Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation will be 
> Lila Tretikov. Lila is a widely respected Bay Area technology leader, most 
> recently with SugarCRM.
> 
> As many of you know, about a year ago Sue Gardner announced she planned to 
> step down as our ED. As we launched the search for her successor, we spent 
> some time working through the most critical requirements for the role. We 
> decided the new ED should be someone with a product/engineering background, 
> ideally in an open-source or other online community context. We wanted 
> someone experienced with organisations that were growing, who'd managed staff 
> and budgets comparable to ours, and who had experience creating continuous 
> delivery of technology improvements in an agile context. We wanted a person 
> who is oriented towards collaboration, transparency and openness, with some 
> experience with complex stakeholder environments, and with an international 
> orientation. We knew we needed someone with courage and strong personal 
> integrity, who wouldn't be intimidated by attempts to censor the projects. 
> 
> Lila is precisely what we set out to find.
> 
> Lila was born in the Soviet Union and moved to the United States alone, as a 
> teenager. She's been working for technology companies, primarily in open 
> source, in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. In 1999 she started her career 
> at Sun Microsystems. Shortly afterwards she founded GrokDigital, a technology 
> and design company. She spent three years as senior director of development 
> at Telespree, a company that provides cloud-based wireless data services for 
> mobile carriers. For the past eight years, she was at SugarCRM, where she 
> held positions of increasing responsibility as the organization grew, 
> including being in charge of internal IT, marketing, customer support and 
> professional services, engineering, and product development. She has a 
> stellar reputation as a leader who is highly skilled, collaborative, open, 
> passionate and curious. 
> 
> We think Lila will be a terrific fit for the ED role. The Transition Team 
> (Phoebe, Alice, Kat, Sue, Erik, Geoff, Gayle and I) voted unanimously to 
> recommend her to the Board, and the Board voted unanimously to accept the 
> recommendation. She strikes all of us as smart, brave and unpretentious, and 
> we believe she has the skills the WMF needs.
> 
> Lila is going to spend the next few weeks in learning-and-listening mode, and 
> will take over the ED position from Sue at the end of the month. Her first 
> priority will be to immerse herself in deepening her understanding of the 
> Wikimedia projects.
> 
> I want to close this announcement by saying a heartfelt and deeply 
> appreciative thanks to Sue, who has been the Executive Director of the 
> Wikimedia Foundation for the past seven years. When the Board and I hired Sue 
> in 2007, we were just a chaotic little non-profit in small-town Florida, with 
> a tiny staff and not much money. Over the past seven years, Sue's leadership 
> has built the Foundation into an effective, well-funded and well-managed 
> organisation, with integrity and a clear sense of purpose, and her steady and 
> committed presence throughout the search process was integral in helping us 
> come to this excellent result. We will be forever grateful for her leadership 
> and vision, and I hope we can continue to rely on her support in the months 
> and years ahead.
> 
> In June Sue will move into a new role as a special advisor to me and Lila. 
> She'll also take a well-earned holiday, and maybe even a bit of a wiki-break, 
> before beginning to think about what she's going to do next. Many of us will 
> get a chance to see her in London, at Wikimania, in August.
> 
> The Wikimedia Foundation is delighted to have reached such a successful 
> outcome to the search. My thanks to Lisa Grossman of m/Oppenheim for helping 
> us with it, and I ask you to please join me in extending a warm welcome to 
> Lila Tretikov, our new ED.
> 
> Jan-Bart de Vreede
> Chair
> Wikimedia Board of Trustees
> 

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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Please welcome Lila Tretikov, the Wikimedia Foundation's new ED

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Dear fellow community members,

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am delighted to 
announce that the new Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation will be 
Lila Tretikov. Lila is a widely respected Bay Area technology leader, most 
recently with SugarCRM.

As many of you know, about a year ago Sue Gardner announced she planned to step 
down as our ED. As we launched the search for her successor, we spent some time 
working through the most critical requirements for the role. We decided the new 
ED should be someone with a product/engineering background, ideally in an 
open-source or other online community context. We wanted someone experienced 
with organisations that were growing, who'd managed staff and budgets 
comparable to ours, and who had experience creating continuous delivery of 
technology improvements in an agile context. We wanted a person who is oriented 
towards collaboration, transparency and openness, with some experience with 
complex stakeholder environments, and with an international orientation. We 
knew we needed someone with courage and strong personal integrity, who wouldn't 
be intimidated by attempts to censor the projects. 

Lila is precisely what we set out to find.

Lila was born in the Soviet Union and moved to the United States alone, as a 
teenager. She's been working for technology companies, primarily in open 
source, in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. In 1999 she started her career 
at Sun Microsystems. Shortly afterwards she founded GrokDigital, a technology 
and design company. She spent three years as senior director of development at 
Telespree, a company that provides cloud-based wireless data services for 
mobile carriers. For the past eight years, she was at SugarCRM, where she held 
positions of increasing responsibility as the organization grew, including 
being in charge of internal IT, marketing, customer support and professional 
services, engineering, and product development. She has a stellar reputation as 
a leader who is highly skilled, collaborative, open, passionate and curious. 

We think Lila will be a terrific fit for the ED role. The Transition Team 
(Phoebe, Alice, Kat, Sue, Erik, Geoff, Gayle and I) voted unanimously to 
recommend her to the Board, and the Board voted unanimously to accept the 
recommendation. She strikes all of us as smart, brave and unpretentious, and we 
believe she has the skills the WMF needs.

Lila is going to spend the next few weeks in learning-and-listening mode, and 
will take over the ED position from Sue at the end of the month. Her first 
priority will be to immerse herself in deepening her understanding of the 
Wikimedia projects.

I want to close this announcement by saying a heartfelt and deeply appreciative 
thanks to Sue, who has been the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation 
for the past seven years. When the Board and I hired Sue in 2007, we were just 
a chaotic little non-profit in small-town Florida, with a tiny staff and not 
much money. Over the past seven years, Sue's leadership has built the 
Foundation into an effective, well-funded and well-managed organisation, with 
integrity and a clear sense of purpose, and her steady and committed presence 
throughout the search process was integral in helping us come to this excellent 
result. We will be forever grateful for her leadership and vision, and I hope 
we can continue to rely on her support in the months and years ahead.

In June Sue will move into a new role as a special advisor to me and Lila. 
She'll also take a well-earned holiday, and maybe even a bit of a wiki-break, 
before beginning to think about what she's going to do next. Many of us will 
get a chance to see her in London, at Wikimania, in August.

The Wikimedia Foundation is delighted to have reached such a successful outcome 
to the search. My thanks to Lisa Grossman of m/Oppenheim for helping us with 
it, and I ask you to please join me in extending a warm welcome to Lila 
Tretikov, our new ED.

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees

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[Wikimedia-l] Agenda Board of Trustees Spring Meeting

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Dear fellow members of the community,

Following is the board agenda for next weeks meeting. As usual we have tried to 
make room for more substance rather than process. After a thorough consultation 
period the board will be discussing the amendment to the terms of use with 
regards to undisclosed paid editing and we will spend a significant amount of 
time in an executive session thinking about different aspects of our board and 
its role in different processes of the movement. We will also be reflecting on 
the Wikimedia Conference 2014, where 6 board members were present.

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees

PS: As always I would ask you to discuss the agenda and other board related 
topics at: 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard rather 
than on the mailing list



== Thursday, April 24, 2014 ==

Executive Session
Strategy Considerations (Open Discussion)
Board Development
Chapters Dialogue
Update Transition Team


== Friday, April 25, 2014 ==
Housekeeping Items
Status update on the Annual Plan
News from AffCom and FDC
News from committees
Investment Policy
Privacy policy
Amendment to the Terms of Use on undisclosed paid editing
Discussion on user groups
Open and Action Items
Executive Session
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] New board Wikimedia Nederland

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi,

It is the season for new boards apparently :) Frans: congratulations on the new 
challenge and looking forward to seeing you in Berlin. As always: thanks to all 
those who volunteer their time to serve on the board!

Jan-Bart


On 07 Apr 2014, at 22:26, Frans Grijzenhout  wrote:

> It is with great pleasure that I present to you the new board of Wikimedia
> Netherlands (WMNL).
> 
> 
> During our General Assembly of March 29, 2014 the following persons were
> elected for a new term of 1 year.
> 
> 
>   -
> 
>   Ronn Boef - new Board member
>   -
> 
>   Jan Anton Brouwer - Treasurer, board member since 2013
>   -
> 
>   Justus de Bruijn - new Board member
>   -
> 
>   André Engels - Secretary of the Board, new Board member
>   -
> 
>   Frans Grijzenhout - Chair, Secretary since 2013, Board member since 2012
>   -
> 
>   Ad Huikeshoven - Board member since 2012
>   -
> 
>   Marlon Thé - new Board member
> 
> 
> André en Ronn have been active Wikipedians for a long time and we are glad
> that they are willing to serve the community in a different role.
> 
> Justus and Marlon are new to the Wikimedia community but both have a track
> record in serving volunteer organizations.
> 
> The general meeting gave a warm applause to the two board members that
> stepped down after serving the community for many years: Ziko van Dijk,
> Board member and Chair since 2011 and Paul Becherer, who served as
> Secretary of the Board and as Treasurer since 2010. They have led the Dutch
> chapter in an outstanding way during turbulent years.
> 
> Frans Grijzenhout
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> *Frans Grijzenhout*, chair
> fr...@wikimedia.nl
> +31 6 5333 9499
> 
> Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland
> Postbus 167
> 3500 AD Utrecht
> 
> http://www.wikimedia.nl/
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fuck the community, who cares

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi All,

I was not present at this meeting, but gather that it was a weekend that was 
valued by all that attended. As Chris has already indicated, he does not agree 
with the remark and I think that all of us disagree with the remar (and that is 
discounting the fact that the whole statement is taken out of context which 
makes a big difference)

But in the middle of a heated discussion, things get said. Chris has indicated 
that one of the ground rules for the workshop was that individual contributions 
were made on a confidential and non-attributable basis. And I agree that I 
would be terrible to break this confidentiality as this would severely limit 
the effectiveness of future sessions within the movement because feel people 
that they cannot be frank. As a movement we have a tremendous challenge ahead 
of us in the coming years, and we need open interaction amongst the different 
entities in order to make progress on these goals. Are we really interested in 
a movement where all volunteer board members are constantly being politically 
correct and cannot misspeak (whereas other community members can?). I for one 
would enjoy an open environment rather than a punishing one which closely 
resembles some of the political environments we read so much about.

Can we assume that the feedback has already reached the person in question (and 
the person probably got more than enough feedback during and after the 
session). Does it really benefit us as a movement to force this person to 
resign or be publicly shamed? 

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair Wikimedia Board of Trustees

PS: whenever Christophe speaks I would be likely to cheer, only to realise 
minutes later… “What the #(*$& did I just agree with?” ;)



On 07 Apr 2014, at 13:54, Christophe Henner  wrote:

> Ok so the quote taken out of context is actually saying the opposite
> of the original meaning.
> 
> The discussion was about "what are the goals of the Wikimedia
> Organizations?". Why do they exist?
> 
> If we look at what Wikimedia Organizations do, mostly, is investing in
> free knowledge. If that's their main goal, well then we don't have to
> care about the communities. That was said as a way to shock people and
> make them think about why Wikimedia Organizations exist and perhaps
> that they should rethink their goal and their focus. Make
> organizations think a little more about the communities instead of
> sheer free knowledge production.
> 
> In that same session I did say some pretty radical things, if you take
> some sentences out of my 10 minutes monologue (yeah I kinda tend to
> speak a lot :() you could say that I said "let's disband all Wikimedia
> Organizations".
> 
> Taking a single sentence totally out of context can lead, as it is the
> case here, to change it's true meaning.
> 
> No need for any witch hunt here, I can't think of anyone in our
> community that doesn't value a lot volunteer and community work as we
> are all part of that community.
> 
> Best,
> --
> Christophe
> 
> 
> On 7 April 2014 13:37, Tomasz W. Kozlowski  wrote:
>> Chris Keating wrote:
>> 
>>> This was exactly because we wanted people to speak freely and not worry
>>> about a witch-hunt on an email list if a couple of trolls got hold of some
>>> out-of-context quotes.
>> 
>> 
>> I wish you answered the question instead of smearing me on a public mailing
>> list, Chris. I have no idea who you are, but I would expect you to adhere to
>> elementary rules of debating, which suggest not to resort to personal
>> attacks.
>> 
>> If you are a Wikipedian, I should not have to explain this to you.
>> 
>> What a shameful comment, Chris.
>> 
>>Tomasz
>> 
>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Italia has a new board

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi

Congratulations and thank you to all those involved for volunteering their time!

Jan-Bart


On 06 Apr 2014, at 15:25, Cristian Consonni  wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> yesterday April 6th, 2014, in Florence at "The Impact Hub" Wikimedia
> Italia held his general assembly which comprised the vote on the final
> budget for 2013 and the budget for 2014 the election of 3 new board
> members[*].
> 
> The new board is:
> * Andrea Zanni, President
> * Simone Cortesi, Vice-president (newly elected)
> * Luca Martinelli, Secretary (newly elected)
> * Cristian Consonni, Treasurer
> * Ginevra Sanvitale, Director of Programmes (newly elected)
> 
> Please join me in applauding the new members and wishing them good luck :-)
> 
> We would also like to thank Alessio Guidetti, Lorenzo Losa, Francesco
> Tarantini and Frieda Brioschi for their service in the board.
> 
> Cristian Consonni
> 
> [*] Wikimedia Italia adopted since last year to have two-year long
> board mandates with staggered deadlines so we will be electing either
> 2 or 3 board members each year.
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Purpose of WMConf ( was: Cost of Wikimedia Conference 2014)

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi,

To provide some perspective. The Board of Trustees has traditionally had its 
Board meeting at the Wikimedia Conference. This year is the first year we 
decide to change that and have our board meeting a couple of weeks later so 
that we could actually attend the sessions and have more interaction with all 
the participants. Six of us will be going to Berlin because we feel that it is 
an incredible valuable conference. 

Lets be clear: this is a different event than Wikimania. It is a time to meet 
and discuss governance issues with those that have been entrusted with them in 
our movement, it is a time to exchange organisational experiences and a time to 
look forward to possibilities for that part of the movement that chooses to 
organise itself in chapters or thematic organisations. And although the 
audience is probably a subset of the Wikimania audience the smaller setup 
allows for different interactions etc.

I have no opinion on the decision of certain organisations to send more people 
than expected, this is something that can be discussed for next year, and there 
will always be exceptions. But in general: these conferences, though expensive, 
really provide a place to learn how to be more effective with donor money 
rather than less through the sessions and the interaction. I am happy that many 
volunteers are able to invest their valuable time and am sure that they will 
get a great return on that investment (I notice that many chapters rotate 
participation throughout the years and that there are also familiar faces, and 
its great to see them both)

I am grateful to the German Chapter for hosting us this year, and also to all 
the volunteers who are willing to donate their time to participate. Looking 
forward to seeing you all next week!

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair 
Wikimedia Board of Trustees


On 02 Apr 2014, at 19:15, Fæ  wrote:

> On 02/04/2014, Chris Keating  wrote:
>> Great! We are starting to have the conversation we need to have!
>> 
>> So: What is the purpose of the Wikimedia Conference?
>> 
>> This has never been clearly defined, in my view.
>> 
>> I certainly found attending last year useful as it was a chance to get to
>> know face-to-face people I only knew over email, to share some useful
>> experience of Wikimedia UK's with other chapters,  and  to get an insight
>> into how others were thinking, and have some meetings which needed to be
>> done face-to-face.
>> 
>> In general those are very useful things. But is that what the conference is
>> for?
>> 
>> Chris
> 
> This question neatly demonstrates the fundamental issue for me.
> 
> I am genuinely puzzled as to why, if nobody on the WMUK board (such as
> the CEO or the current Chairman) is sure what the purpose of the
> conference is, they should chose to invest the donor's money in
> sending 5 trustees and 3 full time employees to it (presumably the
> employees are being paid for their time rather than going as
> volunteers).
> 
> If the key benefit claimed is to do social networking, it should be
> recognized that all the same faces will be at Wikimania London in 4
> months, and socializing is part of the defined benefits of Wikimania.
> 
> Considering the conference is a week away and it appears that flights
> and accommodation have been paid for, re-framing this as good news,
> rather than admitting it is a problem, appears to be replacing
> pragmatism with sophistry.
> 
> Fae (writing from the grave)
> -- 
> fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Goodbye as the German president of the Dutch chapter

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Dear Ziko,

Let me take the opportunity to thank you for all the efforts over the past 
years. While we do not always agree on everything it was pleasure exchanging 
ideas with you and I felt that the leadership of the Dutch chapter was in great 
hands while you where the chair of the Dutch board. I am happy to see that some 
of your thinking behind the WCA has influenced other collaborations between 
chapters and thematic organisations. Wikimedia Netherlands has enjoyed three 
years of your leadership, and is so much the better for it!

Although some are expressing regret at seeing you go I am assuming that you are 
not going anywhere and that we will see you on the projects or maybe in some 
other volunteer role in the future. 

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees

PS: I do not envy your successor for having to fill your role during “speech 
time”. I enjoyed every one of your introductions and talks at conferences and 
will miss the sentence “welkom vrienden van vrije kennis”  (I hope I am quoting 
it accurately) and the always inspiring link to something “completely 
different” which turned out to not be so different after all :)



On 30 Mar 2014, at 19:59, Ziko van Dijk  wrote:

> Dear colleagues, collaborators and friends of free knowledge,
> 
> After three eventful years I left the board of Wikimedia Nederland;
> yesterday was the General Assembly in Utrecht. This means a 'goodbye'.
> 
> In this time, I had the privilege and pleasure to work with many great
> people in many different organisations. We saw a lot of small steps
> and some bigger ones directed to our common goal, the support of free
> knowledge. Certainly, not everything we as a movement or parts of the
> movement was achieved, though.
> 
> Between many WMNL members and me, there were two grades of separation:
> coming from the humanities, my geekiness differs a little from the
> average Wikipedianess; having the German Wikipedia as my home wiki, I
> was never a very active or 'true' part of the Dutch editing community.
> And when I quoted in my speeches from medieval quests or Prussian
> literary realism, I received therefore some strange looks from some
> members.
> 
> But I remain firmly convinced that good governance and respect have no
> nationality. Indeed, stroopwafels do have, and so I adopted the Dutch
> custom to bring them with me to Wikimedian meetings abroad.
> 
> Wikimedia Nederland has experienced and overcome a difficult period of
> transition. Office space and employees, more members including more
> members without Wikipedia background, more activities, more money,
> more responsibility; more need for an association to mature and focus
> on what is necessary (and not always easy, cool or fun). We achieved
> that as a collective, slower than previously expected, but with the
> appropriate pride and good feelings about the future.
> 
> Goodbye - and Hello: I am looking forward to see many of you again at
> whatever wiki, chat or real life meeting.
> 
> Kind regards
> Ziko
> 
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Nederland
> 
> 
> Dr. Ziko van Dijk
> 
> Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland
> Postbus 167
> 3500 AD Utrecht
> http://wikimedia.nl
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Timothy Sandole and (apparently) $53, 690 of WMF funding

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

So while I do not know the background of this case I am a little concerned by 
the tone of the email (and similar emails in the past)

Anasuya, Garfield and indeed the entire legal department work for the Wikimedia 
Foundation. Your email (and Fae’s) seems to imply that they work directly for 
you, which is of course not the case (because they really only need one person 
to be their manager :)  

In this case: thank you both for pointing out this post and someone within the 
Foundation will undoubtedly come back with some response in the coming period. 

Jan-Bart de Vreede



On 20 Mar 2014, at 07:59, ENWP Pine  wrote:

> That's a very interesting blog post, and at first glance situation looks bad 
> in a number of ways. I'm bothered by the lack of reporting as well as the COI 
> issues involved.
> 
> Anasuya, at I don't think the $53,690 number is the right one, but regardless 
> of how much money was involved,  can you look at this issue, figure out what 
> happened from start to finish, and respond to the other questions raised in 
> this discussion? Can you confirm what the amount of money involved was, 
> clarify why Sandole was listed as a WMF Fundraiser contractor which implied 
> that he raised money for WMF instead of being a grantee receiving money from 
> WMF, that the money came entirely from Stanton, how it was accounted for in 
> the financial statements referenced by Tomasz, and what reports were produced 
> that may have been sent back to Stanton or WMF about what the outcomes of the 
> grant were?
> 
> I would also be interested in knowing what COI rules were established as 
> conditions of this grant, by Stanton, Harvard, and/or WMF. It would be 
> interesting to get full copies of any contracts or grant award documents 
> although that may be appropriate for review by the Board in private.
> 
> I'm also CCing this to Garfield and WMF Legal. It looks like something went 
> very wrong here.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Pine
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] (press release) Frank Schulenburg named executive director of new Wiki Education Foundation

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi

On 13 Feb 2014, at 04:46, Liam Wyatt  wrote:

> Good question Andy!
> Moreover, as this is an independent organisation, why does the fact of it
> getting a director deserve a WMF press-release? For comparison, has the
> hiring of senior staff for any of the Chapters received a WMF-written press
> release?

Because the director happens to be an extremely valued long time member of the 
senior staff of the Wikimedia Foundation. 



>  I note that on the Q&A that the
> organisation is "Based in San Francisco" - I hope this means that it is not
> getting free accommodation in the WMF offices as I'm sure there's lots of
> other independent groups that would like free office space too.
> 

Assuming good faith would be a good start here. Funny thing is… Frank moved to 
San Francisco for his work at the Wikimedia Foundation (and built up a life 
there), so that could also be a logical reason for the office being based there 
(and in fact I think that is the reason, because the last I heard the Wiki 
Education Foundation will not be located in the Wikimedia Foundation office)

Rather than just answer your concerns I want to take the opportunity to 
congratulate Frank on this move. While he will be sorely missed at the 
Wikimedia Foundation this step makes sense for him personally. The fact that he 
will remain part of our movement helps make this a little less painful. I am 
sure that in his new capacity he will continue to move mountains to further our 
goals. I wish him the best of luck and hope that the Wiki Education Foundation 
becomes a great succes.

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation





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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board decisions on movement funding and approval issues

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

AQ gives a pretty good indication. What concerns me 
(and other board members) is the fact that there is a natural tendency to 
incorporate a group of volunteers into a chapter or thematic organisation even 
if there is no real track record or a good reason to want to do so (especially 
since the revised trademark policy gives user groups much more freedom to make 
use of the trademarks). Chapters and Thematic organisations are an essential 
part of the movement and we would like each and every one to succeed in 
furthering the goals of the movement as a whole. Asking these groups to be a 
user group for the first two years while doing programmatic work really gives a 
good indication of the ability of the “future chapter/thematic organisation” to 
succeed.

We also reference the strategic planning which is due to start this summer. One 
of the things we really have to solve is the roles/responsibilities/privileges 
of each player in the movement. The basic answer to the questions: 

1) What are our long term goals
2) Who is best positioned to achieve these goals

should lead to a “who does what” picture of the movement (and maybe just as 
important “who will stop doing what”), and it is on the basis of this picture 
and the underlying goals that we should create and fund different players in 
the movement. I would argue that at this time the picture is not as clear as it 
should be before committing the resources we currently commit to it.

(just as a small note: when I talk about movement I mean the range from the 
individual volunteer to the Wikimedia Foundation itself)

> 
> As a side note, this is the only point that I will keep from Rupert's
> email: this decision completely ignores international cultural
> differences in terms of funding, fundraising and organization in
> general. Indeed, in a quote above, you talk about "good lawyer in the
> group who can draw up bylaws"; this reinforces the incorrect premise
> your decision is based on: that incorporation is a complicated and
> bureaucratic process that should be avoided. And this is something that
> can not be decided globally.

This is true. But to be clear, its not the possible “bureaucratic” aspect which 
concerns us greatly (as I mentioned above).


> 
> Frédéric

Regards

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation



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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi All,

Just to react to a few points in this discussion.

1) We did get a lot of community input for connectors and potential candidates 
(thank you all for that). We used this list and approached people where we felt 
this was useful, and this also generated some interesting leads.

2) For all our “potentials” we have a screening process. That means that a 
large part will never be contacted as a potential candidate, simply because 
they are not close to matching the profile. We might still approach them as a 
connector if we feel that this will help us reach other “potentials”. If you 
suggested a name, that person might very well not be contacted at all.

3) The transition team will not be publishing/discussing the merits (or 
identity) of any of the people which we have contacted in any public forum like 
this mailing list. (for all the reasons mentioned in this thread) Our intend is 
that we will involve the community where we feel it is possible and desirable.

4) Even if candidates have publicly announced their interest in the position we 
will respect point 3. I do want to publicly state my gratefulness to those 
candidates that have decided to invest in applying for the position, even if we 
do not end up selecting them.

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees.

PS: There also seems to be some confusion about the re-appointment process for 
the founders seat on the Board. Just to confirm: the founders seat is also up 
for reappointment every two years. Referring you the minutes of our last 
meeting (https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2013-11-24) you will see 
that a vote took place on this.
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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Agenda Board meeting 31st of January/1st February posted

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hello Everyone,

The agenda for this weeks meeting of the Board of Trustees has been posted at

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Agenda_January_31st-February_1st_2014_Board_Meeting

I would like to invite  to use the Board of Trustees Noticeboard for any 
comments:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard

My apologies for the delay in posting which occurred due to technical 
difficulties on my end.

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

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  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
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process

[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)  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
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community consultation + Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director selection process

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

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  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
> 
> 
> 
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[Wikimedia-l] Update Transition Team on Meta

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi All

I just posted a substantial update at:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Executive_Director_Transition_Team/Update_9_December

Regards

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation


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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Board of Trustees Meeting Agenda

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi All,

The board will meet this Sunday and Monday for its “Fall” board meeting in San 
Francisco. You can find the tentative agenda at

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Agenda_November_24-25_2013_Board_Meeting

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia France] Welcome to Nathalie, our new ED

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Nathalie,

I am happy that the time has finally arrived that you are starting :) I wish 
you the best in your new challenge and I was glad to meet you in Hong Kong!

Congrats to WMFR!

Jan-Bart


On 01 Oct 2013, at 16:34, Christophe Henner  
wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> We have the great pleasure to announce Nathalie Martin is starting
> today as the new Executive Director of Wikimédia France!
> 
> Her hiring is the tipping point of a process we started last January
> when we hired a HR firm to audit our organization and support us in
> finding the right person for this key role.
> 
> With a background in political science and organizations strategy,
> Nathalie has a deep experience managing several associations of
> similar or bigger size as Wikimedia France. Even though she is not
> from the movement, we believe she'll adapt quickly to who we are.
> 
> She came to Wikimania in Hong-Kong, and some of you may have had the
> pleasure to meet her. By coming to Wikimania she had the luck to
> experience in 3 day what Wikimedia is at large, to meet wikimedians
> from all around the world. I'm happy to say that she too suffered from
> PWD (Post-Wikimania Depression).
> 
> If you need to contact her, her email address is
> nathalie.mar...@wikimedia.fr. Please keep in mind that it's her first
> day within our movement and she still will need few days to adapt to
> our awesomeness
> 
> Please join us in welcoming Nathalie!
> 
> Best,
> 
> PS: please keep her in copy of your answers :)
> 
> Christophe HENNER | Vice-chair
> ---
> › Mail : christophe.hen...@wikimedia.fr
> › Mobile : +33(0)6 29 35 65 94
> › Tel : +33(0)5 62 89 12 01
> › Twitter : @Wikimedia_Fr
> -
> Wikimédia France | Association pour le libre partage de la
> connaissance | Visitez notre blog http://blog.wikimedia.fr
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] WMF Board of Trustees: minutes of Hong Kong meeting

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hello Everyone,

Our secretary Geoff has just posted the minutes of our last board meeting and 
we would like to follow this up with a short email. As you might know, the 
board had its officer elections during our meeting in Hong Kong and we have 
been selected to be Chair (Jan-Bart) and Vice-Chair (Phoebe) for the coming 
year.

Although the agenda (and therefore minutes) of the last meeting was very heavy 
on procedural and administrative items, if you have any comments we would like 
to invite you to discuss them on Board Noticeboard

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_noticeboard

In the coming year, we would like to facilitate insight into and discussion of 
the board's work as much as possible. We plan to publish the agenda for board 
meetings several days (or as early as possible) before future board meetings, 
and we invite members of the community to comment on the agenda. This year we 
plan reserve significant board time for matters of substance (such as 
grantmaking and technology strategy), which are topics we think the community 
as a whole will also be interested in. After the meeting, the minutes will be 
published with a note from one of the board members inviting comment and maybe 
highlighting one or two issues from the previous board meeting. 

We are looking forward to a productive and intensive year, with our challenge 
of picking the right executive director being the first big priority for the 
coming months.

Thanks,

Jan-Bart & Phoebe

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update ED Transition Team pages

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Anders,

Yes we did have a meeting and I still have to publish a small note on the Wiki. 
We haven’t really finished the meeting (we spent four hours on it) and have 
scheduled another 3 hour meeting for next week to finish talking through the 
initial shortlist of candidates. I will update the Transition Pages on Meta in 
the coming days :) To be sure this will not be much more than a procedural 
updates as 95% of the discussion we are having right now is about specific 
candidates which we cannot share.

Thanks for your patience

Jan-Bart de Vreede


On 10 Sep 2013, at 10:38, Anders Wennersten  wrote:

> Any update on this issue?
> 
> In earlier protocols it was mention a meeting to be had on Sept 4th, where a 
> list of candidates should be presented
> 
> Anders
> 
> Jan-Bart de Vreede skrev 2013-05-02 20:25:
>> Hi Everyone,
>> 
>> As mentioned after Sue's announcement of her intention to depart the 
>> Foundation we will try to ensure transparency in the work of the Transition 
>> Team where possible (and respect privacy where necessary). To that end I 
>> would like to draw you attention to a set of recent changes made to the 
>> Transition Team pages on Meta:
>> 
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Executive_Director_Transition_Team
>> 
>> These changes include a preliminary timeline, FAQ and an invitation to add 
>> people to the "connectors list". Please feel free to add more questions and 
>> other discussion points. We expect to add more information (such as the 
>> choice we made with regards to the Search firm that will assist us) in the 
>> coming week.
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> Jan-Bart de Vreede
>> Chair Executive Director Transition Team
>> 
>> 
>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] WMF Board agenda for Hong Kong meeting

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Its a bit early in jet lag time , that should of course "Kat will be an 
observer on the SECOND day"

:)

Jan-Bart

On Aug 6, 2013, at 9:10 AM, Jan-Bart de Vreede  wrote:

> Hi 
> 
> No, they are observers on the first day and will be present. Just like Kat 
> will be an observer on the first day. We have always done this, but the 
> Wikimania meeting was always one day, so the transition took place somewhere 
> in the middle of the day. This time the break is more obvious, thats all.
> 
> Jan-Bart de Vreede
> Vice Chair
> Wikimedia Board of Trustees
> 
> 
> On Aug 6, 2013, at 2:27 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo)  wrote:
> 
>> Geoff Brigham, 05/08/2013 16:26:
>>> == Thursday, August 8, 2013 ==
>>> 
>>> * Welcoming the newly elected trustees  [...]
>> 
>> So the new trustees enter in office only on the second day?
>> 
>> Nemo
>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] WMF Board agenda for Hong Kong meeting

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi 

No, they are observers on the first day and will be present. Just like Kat will 
be an observer on the first day. We have always done this, but the Wikimania 
meeting was always one day, so the transition took place somewhere in the 
middle of the day. This time the break is more obvious, thats all.

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Vice Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees


On Aug 6, 2013, at 2:27 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo)  wrote:

> Geoff Brigham, 05/08/2013 16:26:
>> == Thursday, August 8, 2013 ==
>> 
>> * Welcoming the newly elected trustees  [...]
> 
> So the new trustees enter in office only on the second day?
> 
> Nemo
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Questions for the WMF Board of Trustees?

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Lodewijk,

I would be happy to attend any roundtable on that topic, or other topic on that 
level. I just do NOT have the time to get it on the agenda. In other words: if 
you send me anywhere on fri/sat/sun I will turn up :)

To you and others: As usual: please feel free to find me walking around and 
accost me regarding anything :)

Regards

Jan-Bart


On Jul 29, 2013, at 4:50 PM, Lodewijk  wrote:

> Hi Phoebe,
> 
> thanks for pointing to this!
> 
> I see that this year we only have one hour of board Q&A. I have always seen
> a lot of value in these board discussions, especially when it can come to
> actually that: discussions. As there are several discussion sessions
> scheduled, without a specific topic, would you and perhaps a few other
> board members be willing to commit to use some of these sessions to dig a
> bit deeper into a few specific topics? For example, would there be three
> board members willing to have a round table discussion about transparency
> and openness at a board level? Or perhaps the technical strategy (at a
> board level)? If we could do that in somewhat smaller groups (max 50
> people), maybe even parallel, I think we could finally engage in truly
> helpful and constructive discussions. It would of course require a neutral
> discussion facilitator each time, but I'm sure we'd be able to arrange that
> somehow?
> 
> We could then flag those discussion topics during the Q&A even.
> 
> Best,
> Lodewijk
> 
> 
> 2013/7/29 phoebe ayers 
> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> Every year at Wikimania the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees hosts a
>> panel where they take questions from the audience on the work of the WMF
>> and the Board.
>> 
>> In past years the board has also taken questions via IRC. This year we'd
>> also like to provide the opportunity to leave questions on a wiki page
>> ahead of time:
>> http://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Board_Q%26A
>> 
>> While there is only time to answer a few questions during the session
>> itself, hopefully this will be a good way of getting questions from
>> attendees as well as from those who can't make it. The board will also take
>> questions from the audience at Wikimania, as time permits.
>> 
>> Remember the Board doesn't deal directly with work on or problems on the
>> projects, and does not have a direct hand in how the WMF operates
>> day-to-day. Rather, the board thinks about the big picture, and gives
>> direction on strategy for the WMF. You can find out more about what the
>> board does (and does not do) here:
>> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees and
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_handbook
>> 
>> best,
>> phoebe
>> 
>> --
>> * I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers 
>> gmail.com *
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] (Announcement) Ana Toni Announced as New Wikimedia Foundation Board Member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

I am also very happy to publicly welcome her to the Board, and am really happy 
that she was able to free up time for the commitment of our board, which 
demands a good deal of time.

With regards to your questions:

1) I am forwarding these messages to Ana Toni :) And gave her instructions how 
to subscribe
2) Her term started on the 1st of July.
3) Unfortunately she is not able to make it to Wikimania because she already 
had plans during that period :(  She will probably be attending a part of the 
board meeting through Skype but she will miss the interaction with everyone, 
which is something she (and we all) regret but which couldn't be helped.

(she did meet some of the community members in San Francisco during her stay 
there when we interviewed here and Phoebe organised a edit-a-thon :) 

Jan-Bart




On Jul 9, 2013, at 12:42 PM, Lodewijk  wrote:

> Welcome Ana!
> 
> (while everyone is assuming Ana is already subscribed to this list, I will
> do the same. i hope that when this thread lies down a bit, someone will
> forward it of course :) )
> We have always heard a lot about Greenpeace, and as you probably know, it
> was often used as an example in our strategic discussions how we would like
> to develop as a movement (the amount of centralization). I look forward to
> your involvement on those discussions as we're slowly moving towards a new
> strategic cycle for the Wikimedia Foundation, and I hope you will be bold
> enough a person to simply join, even if you may feel somewhat 'new' for the
> first ten years ;-).
> 
> Very practically: when exactly does your term officially start her term?
> Will that be at the coming board meeting in Hong Kong, or afterwards? I
> hope you will have the opportunity of meeting many community members in
> Hong Kong!
> 
> Best,

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[Wikimedia-l] Draft ED Job Description Online

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Everyone

I have posted the draft ED job description online at the ED transition site.

If you want to comment on:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Executive_Director_Transition_Team/Position_description

Please do so before the end of Sunday (PST). Sorry for the rush, but its not a 
long document :) Along with other members of the transition team I will be 
available to discuss this this weekend.

Thanks

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair ED Transition Team

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[Wikimedia-l] Ting's resignation, Thank you for five great years

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Everyone,

As today is the day that Ting's resignation from the Board of Trustees becomes 
effective I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for the tremendous 
contribution he has made to the board over the past five years. I did not know 
Ting when he joined our board but from what I heard we were lucky that the 
community elected him. And that certainly proved to be the case. In my opinion 
a board functions best when there are many divergent opinions at the table who 
are able to discuss matters in a sensible and constructive way in order to come 
to creative solutions. Ting certainly contributed his uniqueness to that mix 
over the past five years, and I am grateful that he was able to make as much 
time available as he did in order to remain on the board for such a long time. 
Apart from being a really really nice person Ting has a lot of wisdom 
(something which he will probably deny ;)

As some of you might know I ran against Ting for the Chair position of the 
Board of Trustees in 2010 and lost. At that time I thought that I was 
definitely the better candidate but the following two years proved me wrong. I 
was happy to serve as his vice chair during the second year. His diligent way 
of going about things made sure that a lot of things got done during his tenure 
as chair and also ensured that all the voices at the table got heard. Ting was 
always willing to go and visit a local chapter or a Wikimedia event in order to 
represent the board and Foundation. His unwavering principles and spirited way 
of discussing topics about which he is passionate (of which there are several) 
are an inspiration. At the same time he was more than willing to listen to all 
the different viewpoints and able to change his mind if others presented valid 
arguments (something which sounds simple but with which a lot of people, 
including myself, have difficulty with ;) During several different discussions 
Ting managed to convince me of the fact that his viewpoint was the correct one, 
and I will miss his input in the future.

As is tradition Ting will attend the next Wikimania (Hong Kong here we come!) 
and we will take that opportunity to formally thank him for his efforts for the 
Wikimedia Board of Trustees. I hope you will all join me in this :)

Thank you Ting! I am not sure how or when, but I hope that our paths will cross 
again in the coming years!

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Vice Chair Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation



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[Wikimedia-l] Update ED Transition Team pages

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Everyone,

As mentioned after Sue's announcement of her intention to depart the Foundation 
we will try to ensure transparency in the work of the Transition Team where 
possible (and respect privacy where necessary). To that end I would like to 
draw you attention to a set of recent changes made to the Transition Team pages 
on Meta:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Executive_Director_Transition_Team

These changes include a preliminary timeline, FAQ and an invitation to add 
people to the "connectors list". Please feel free to add more questions and 
other discussion points. We expect to add more information (such as the choice 
we made with regards to the Search firm that will assist us) in the coming week.

Regards

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair Executive Director Transition Team



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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey Florence

On Apr 30, 2013, at 1:12 AM, Florence Devouard  wrote:

> Le 4/30/13 12:04 AM, Nathan a écrit :
>> 
>> 
>> It's not logical to assume that because the WMF has funds it should in
>> some way equitably distribute those funds around the world.
> 
> What happens to the idea according to which the funds belong to the Wikimedia 
> mouvement rather than to Wikimedia Foundation ?

Please note that you are disagreeing with Nathan, not with others (like me and 
as far as I know the entire board) who have supported the idea of the FDC 
because it is a great way to ensure that the funds are distributed amongst the 
movement in the interest of the movement. The funds are those of the movement, 
and although we might disagree on how the funds are divided we agree on that. I 
am happy to see that the FDC as a body (and the community review process as a 
important addition) ensures much more transparent processes.

> 
> Supporting
>> chapter operations, and funding offices and staff in dozens of
>> countries, is not the chief object of the money raised from donors. We
>> need to get away from the belief that chapters are unquestionably the
>> best use of movement resources. There is a place for outreach,
>> publicity, and targeted educational programs. But the WMF is best
>> situated to supplement the efforts begun by volunteers, in the same
>> way the WMF itself was created and has grown.
> 
> I would object to the idea that WMF is best situated to supplement efforts 
> started by volunteers and that statement parts from the decision made some 
> months ago to deflate WMF role.
> But we may agree to disagree on this.

I would agree with you here. I think that the WMF is in a good position to help 
certain initiatives and that in several cases there are better alternatives. 
This is why I am so excited about chapters helping chapters and all 
affiliations being able to join the wikimedia conference in Milan this year. It 
is that kind of exchange of experience which is perfect for all involved, and 
lets remember that what works for some might not work for others.

> 
> Additionnaly... I must add that when WMF was precisely at the current stage 
> of most chapters (with no staff and no office), it was run in a rather 
> creative fashion that would make everyone cough today in comparison to the 
> requirements and obligations made mandatory to chapters. Uh. You may have a 
> slightly more ideal view of the past :)

True, but just because things used to be "bad" is no reason that they should be 
"bad" now if we can prevent it (I was there with you, and we are both happy 
that we outgrew that phase with a minimal of damage and a LOT of luck in 
finding the right ED)  the scale of the organisation now makes it impossible to 
tolerate that kind of "creativity" when not absolutely necessary.
> 
> It would be a poor use
>> of movement funds indeed if the WMF decided to pour money into infant
>> chapters with minimal development and fuzzy strategic goals. That's a
>> recipe for, at an absolute minimum, good-faith mismanagement and waste
>> of scarce donor resources. Avoiding this path was a very wise decision
>> by the trustees, and I only hope they remain resolute despite
>> criticism and Sue's impending departure.
> 
> I mostly hope that they stay consistant with their own past decisions (=we 
> were sold the fact that the money collected belong to the mouvement, not to 
> the entity collecting it. If so, decisions of allocations should not become 
> WMF ones).

Agreed, which is why I think the FDC's advice is so important and I hope to 
never have to question it (although the board does have to have a final say in 
these matters as a matter of governance)

> 
> In any cases... I know not if WM HK should have been funded or not. What I 
> know is that the mouvement need happy and rested and humanly treated 
> volunteers to stay healthy.

True, but volunteers also have to ensure not to force themselves into positions 
of "make or break" and thereby put themselves at risk.

> 
> We keep talking about editors decrease. Maybe in the future, we'll talk about 
> irl volunteers (as in "chapter members") decrease as well.

I think we should, and I think that some of that discussion took place in 
Milan. As we know there are different kind of volunteers who organise 
affiliates (because the problem is not limited to chapters) and it takes 
different ways to keep motivated. These are important topics to discuss and 
keep track of. But lets not fall into the trap of blaming the "big bureaucratic 
body of the WMF" for all the problems we have. Volunteers burn out because of 
lots of reasons and we should all take care to fix those problems that are 
within our reach to control, and try to reduce the risk of burnout for all 
those involved (and again: meeting each other physically and exchanging 
experiences is a really good way of recharging)...

> In the past years, we have seen several times organizers of Wikimania plain 
>

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey Deryck,

On Apr 29, 2013, at 10:25 PM, Deryck Chan  wrote:

>> 
>> But you say "we" … We refers to WMHK I assume, but did you do this after a
>> discussion with the Grants Programme, or did you decide this on your own?
> 
> I work for the non-profit sector, and there is not way that any
>> organisation I know could get away with something like that I am afraid. If
>> you are given money for a reason, you cannot simply decide to take it as an
>> advance on a possible next grant without agreement of the party that
>> supplied you with the grant. I am sorry, but this is not Irony, this is
>> governance…
>> 
> 
> From my reply to THO (also on this thread): "We have replied multiple times
> that we want the remaining funds from the 2010-11 grants to be considered
> in conjunction with the FDC proposal. (ie. the FDC proposal is the
> reallocation request.) This is because it is logistically impractical for
> us to return any funds to WMF before the end of Wikimania."
> 

Yes I read your reply, but you keep stating "we want", that is not that same as 
"together with the grant giver we agreed"… I cannot overstate the importance of 
the difference between the two…

(and again: this is not the only issue with the WMHK request that the FDC 
pointed out). 

>> 
>> Additionally I see that the community consultation phase asked for the
>> annual report and you stated that it would be available on the WMHK website
>> after the meeting of the 16th of March…  I wanted to go through it, but
>> could not find it on the home page (I would assume its under
>> documentation?) Can you point me to it?
>> 
> 
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Hong_Kong_2011-12_Annual_Report_and_Financial_Report.pdf
> (or scroll halfway down the proposal page)
> 

Thanks!

Jan-Bart
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi Markus,

I am not sure but I have the feeling that WMHK is free to apply for a Grant 
once they are in compliance with the terms of the earlier grant? But I am out 
of my depth here, probably someone like Asaf could inform us better…

And I was happy that the chapters are setting up peer review amongst 
themselves, I think its great and heard enthusiasm for the idea in Milan

Jan-Bart


On Apr 29, 2013, at 8:23 PM, Markus Glaser  wrote:

> Deryck,
> 
> it makes me sad to read your leaving message, as I have got to know you as a 
> very constructive and engaged person, and I think your input and 
> contributions are very valuable to the movement.
> 
> It seems to me that we all kind of agree there's a gap between GAC and FDC 
> funding when it comes to professionalization, esp. setting up an office and 
> first staff. Also, there's the possibility of losing all the funding. That, 
> IMHO, is a very dangerous situation for an organisation. Maybe it would help 
> to have a process to "up-" or "downgrade" a funding proposal from GAC to FDC 
> and vice versa, so in case a FDC proposal is not approved at all, there's 
> still a fallback option.
> 
> Also, I think we should offer some guidance through the process based on the 
> experience we made so far. As has been stated before, the step from zero to 
> three employees is a big one. Maybe an early assessment of the proposal might 
> have lead to other options and better success in funding. Personally, I am no 
> expert in FDC funding, but can we not get a group of people together who are 
> willing to help with such an assessment?
> 
> Best,
> Markus
> 
> -- 
> Markus Glaser
> WCA Council Member (WMDE)
> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

So while I really regret your decision and hope that you will reconsider I 
would like to ask you something.

> 
> Or, ironically, putting together a reallocation grant. Here's another
> hen-and-egg problem for you all. We saw little value in settling the
> remaining funds from the 2010-11 grants because the FDC results will change
> everything anyway. Ironically the WMF and FDC became convinced that this is
> a valid reason to retrospectively disqualify us.
> 

But you say "we" … We refers to WMHK I assume, but did you do this after a 
discussion with the Grants Programme, or did you decide this on your own? I 
work for the non-profit sector, and there is not way that any organisation I 
know could get away with something like that I am afraid. If you are given 
money for a reason, you cannot simply decide to take it as an advance on a 
possible next grant without agreement of the party that supplied you with the 
grant. I am sorry, but this is not Irony, this is governance…

Additionally I see that the community consultation phase asked for the annual 
report and you stated that it would be available on the WMHK website after the 
meeting of the 16th of March…  I wanted to go through it, but could not find it 
on the home page (I would assume its under documentation?) Can you point me to 
it?

And again: the FDC stated more reasons to turn down the request,not just the 
fact that WMHK was not in compliance, they obviously spent a significant amount 
of time discussing this...

Jan-Bart







>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Craig Franklin
>> 
>> 
>> On 29 April 2013 17:25, Thehelpfulone  wrote:
>> 
>>> On 29 Apr 2013, at 07:52, Tilman Bayer  wrote:
>>> 
 I'm not familiar with the case, but reading that page, it seems that
 
>>> 
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:WM_HK/Education_Toolkits_For_Liberal_Studies/Report#Remaining_funds
 might also have played a role for the FDC's recommendation?
>>> 
>>> Indeed, yet it looks like there has been no (public) follow up by the
>> paid
>>> WMF grants staff for over a month. In addition,
>>> 
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/Wikimedia_Hong_KongshowsWMHK
>>  to still be an eligible entity.
>>> 
>>> Winifred/Asaf, please can you clarify whether WMHK is still an eligible
>>> entity and what follow up was done after that message a month ago?
>>> 
>>> ---
>>> Thehelpfulone
>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hello Everyone

I was an observer on the first round of the FDC, Patricio was the observer of 
the recent round of FDC requests so he will probably be able to tell you more 
on the specific details. But in general I have been (and still am) extremely 
impressed with the level of scrutiny   AND the flexibility of the FDC members. 
I was witness to several spirited discussions and saw a group of thoughtful 
people doing what they were good at: reviewing proposals for large grants.

But as I understand there were several "issues" with the proposal, please do 
not pick on one issue. We had a community review period which also resulted in 
some serious questions (some without answers).  And the FDC feedback gave 
several reasons. 

I would have seriously disappointed if $200K+ was granted. I do think that we 
need to provide a way to support an organisation after the FDC process… and we 
have in several cases in the past. 

David: I do not agree with you. you are blaming the WMF for the fact that the 
FDC is doing a good job in reviewing funding proposals. The "Centralisation" of 
payment processing has little to do with this. In fact, most chapters that do 
not payment process since the change (and there were not that many to begin 
with) are happy with the new process (and a lot of other chapters go through 
Grants process, which they would have done anyway regardless of the change to 
an FDC which exists alongside). I argue that the FDC is the best thing that has 
happened to our movement and combined with an improved process and chapter peer 
review we are going to get even better. I would love to hear how you would have 
handled this particular FDC request.


Jan-Bart




On Apr 29, 2013, at 5:38 PM, Deryck Chan  wrote:

> We have replied multiple times that we want the remaining funds from the 
> 2010-11 grants to be considered in conjunction with the FDC proposal. (ie. 
> the FDC proposal is the reallocation request.) This is because it is 
> logistically impractical for us to return any funds to WMF before the end of 
> Wikimania.
> 
> Winifred informed us of the "out of compliance" well after the grant report 
> was accepted and the FDC eligibility of WMHK was announced. There was no 
> indication whatsoever that this late notice of "out of compliance" may lead 
> to retrospective disqualification.
> 
> Deryck
> 
> (cc. Patricio and Jan-Bart as the official contacts for FDC complaints. Yes, 
> I'm accusing WMF grants staff of foul play with the FDC rules.)
> 
> 
> On 29 April 2013 12:50, Thehelpfulone  wrote:
> Deryck please could you confirm what happened with regards to the unused 
> funds - did WMHK request a reallocation?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> ---
> Thehelpfulone
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone
> 
> On 29 Apr 2013, at 12:43, Deryck Chan  wrote:
> 
> > -- Forwarded message --
> > From: "Deryck Chan" 
> > Date: 29 Apr 2013 12:42
> > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark
> > to everyone
> > To: 
> > Cc: "Wikimedia Mailing List" 
> >
> > See the footnotes on the FDC decision page. Both WMHK and WMCZ were
> > declared eligible at the time of submission, but the WMF subsequently found
> > new faults during the review period which they chose to use as convenient
> > excuses to disqualify these 2 chapters.
> > On 29 Apr 2013 12:33, "Craig Franklin"  wrote:
> >
> >> I'd like to come back to this - if the entity was told they were eligible
> >> (which certainly looks to be the case from the public documents), when was
> >> it discovered they were not?  Obviously, putting together an FDC
> >> application is a tremendous amount of work for a chapter, and if the effort
> >> was futile from the start, then the time that Deryck and WMHK put into this
> >> could have been better spent on useful programme work instead.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Craig Franklin
> >>
> >>
> >> On 29 April 2013 17:25, Thehelpfulone  wrote:
> >>
> >>> On 29 Apr 2013, at 07:52, Tilman Bayer  wrote:
> >>>
>  I'm not familiar with the case, but reading that page, it seems that
> >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:WM_HK/Education_Toolkits_For_Liberal_Studies/Report#Remaining_funds
>  might also have played a role for the FDC's recommendation?
> >>>
> >>> Indeed, yet it looks like there has been no (public) follow up by the
> >> paid
> >>> WMF grants staff for over a month. In addition,
> >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/Wikimedia_Hong_KongshowsWMHK
> >>  to still be an eligible entity.
> >>>
> >>> Winifred/Asaf, please can you clarify whether WMHK is still an eligible
> >>> entity and what follow up was done after that message a month ago?
> >>>
> >>> ---
> >>> Thehelpfulone
> >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone
> >>> ___
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> >>> Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> >>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

> 
> P. S. again, internal-l discussions that should be public. Damn.
> 

Agreed, I am not on Internal either…

Jan-Bart


> [1] http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/wmconf2013-fdc-process
> 
> Tom
> 
> --
> Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom)
> "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more
> useful than a life spent doing nothing."
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] FDC Letter of Intent process and schedule for 2013-14

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey Milos,

I am sorry I don't understand the remarks completely… can you tell me a little 
bit more about what you are referring to?

Jan-Bart

On Apr 18, 2013, at 11:09 AM, Milos Rancic  wrote:

> It would be very useful to express the current state of the FDC in emails
> like this one -- at the top of email.
> 
> For a couple of months I was mislead that FDC is actually working and that
> Wikimedia entities should do a kind of action toward FDC if they want to
> get funds.
> 
> Contrary to that, just if emails like this one have been carefully read,
> one can conclude that all of them present lists of non-binding wishes for
> informational purpose, although it's explicitly stated that Wikimedia
> entities should do an action.
> 
> Wikimedians will treat FDC as seriously as its members treat their own
> work. So, at least, please take care about the accuracy of your language to
> avoid misleading Wikimedians reading your emails.
> On Apr 18, 2013 9:01 AM, "Patricio Lorente" 
> wrote:
> 
>> Dear friends and colleagues,
>> 
>> We want to share with you information about the Letter of Intent process
>> and the FDC schedule for next year (July 2013 - June 2014). As you may
>> remember, the *Letter of Intent (LoI)* is the first step towards applying
>> for funds from the FDC, as discussed in the FDC framework [1]. This was not
>> part of the first year's process, but is meant to be an integral part of
>> the FDC calendar from this next round (Round 1, 2013-14) onwards. *The
>> Letter of Intent asks all entities who intend to apply for Round 1 (or
>> Round 2) to formally state their intention to do so.* In addition, the LoI
>> now asks applying entities to include a notional dollar figure (or local
>> currency figure) in the Letter of Intent. Applying entities will be able to
>> update this amount in their final FDC proposals. The updated Letter of
>> Intent template will be available on the FDC portal [2] by May 1, but the
>> sample is here for reference [3].
>> 
>> With the Letter of Intent, the FDC staff can support applying entities in
>> their proposal process well before the deadline for proposals. We hope this
>> will remove some of the challenges faced by applicants in the first year of
>> the FDC process. The FDC can also plan better with a clear understanding of
>> who intends to apply, and an estimation of the funds requested.
>> 
>> The FDC framework originally stated that the deadlines for the LoI were
>> June 1 for Round 1 and November 1 for Round 2. However, we are pushing back
>> the deadline *by one week*, since the community review period was also
>> extended by two weeks. *The LOI deadline will now be June 8 for Round 1,
>> and November 8 for Round 2. *
>> 
>> For your reference, here is the updated 2013-2014 Round 1 proposal process
>> schedule:
>> 
>> 
>>   - *Letter of Intent deadline for Round 1: 8 June 2013*
>>   - Deadline for WMF Staff to post eligibility: 15 July 2013
>>   - Deadline for entities to meet eligibility requirements: 15 September
>>   2013
>>   - Proposal submission deadline: 1 October 2013
>>   - Community review period: 1 October - 31 October 2013
>>   - Staff assessment deadline: 8 November 2013
>>   - FDC recommendation due: 1 December 2013
>>   - Board decision due: 1 January 2014
>> 
>> 
>> The schedule for the 2013-14 Round 2 proposal process:
>> 
>>   - *Letter of Intent deadline for Round 1: 8 November 2013*
>>   - Deadline for WMF Staff to post eligibility: 15 December 2013
>>   - Deadline for entities to meet eligibility requirements: 15 February
>>   2014
>>   - Proposal submission deadline: 1 March 2014
>>   - Community review period: 1 March - 31 March 2014
>>   - Staff assessment deadline: 8 April 2014
>>   - FDC recommendation due: 1 May 2014
>>   - Board decision due: 1 June 2014
>> 
>> 
>> It is our hope that the Letter of Intent process will help in planning for
>> both the entities and the FDC, and ensure that the FDC and FDC staff are
>> supporting the applying entities significantly ahead of the proposal
>> deadlines.
>> 
>> As always, do not hesitate to let us or the FDC support staff (
>> fdcsupp...@wikimedia.org) know if you have any questions or concerns about
>> this important process.
>> 
>> Warm regards,
>> Patricio and Jan-Bart
>> (Board representatives to the FDC)
>> 
>> [1]
>> 
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Framework_for_the_Creation_and_Initial_Operation_of_the_FDC#Process_overview
>> [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal
>> [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Sample_letter_of_intent
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Patricio Lorente
>> Blog: http://www.patriciolorente.com.ar
>> Identi.ca // Twitter: @patriciolorente
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] CFAAA+CALEA vs. SOPA+PIPA: the amortization

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey James

So while we have actively started looking for a new ED I am happy to report 
that Sue is still on the job !

Which means you do not have to fill in for the position and tell Garfield what 
to do :) 

On a more realistic tone: my gut feeling is that you are asking an impossible 
question (and aware of this) and I assume that Garfield has much better things 
to do, but I guess if Sue wants to sound time on this, she will get back to you.

Kind regards,

Jan-Bart de Vreede





On Apr 13, 2013, at 5:03 PM, James Salsman  wrote:

> Hi Garfield,
> 
> Would you please find out how much the CFAA and CALEA amendements
> would be expected to cost readers, editors, and the Foundation
> compared to what SOPA or PIPA would have cost if they had passed, and
> let the wikimedia-l and advocacy advisors lists know?
> 
> Best regards,
> James Salsman
> 
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[Wikimedia-l] Transition team update

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hello Everyone,

With a little help from TheHelpfulOne we have made a start with the Meta pages 
for the transition team.

The central page is located at: 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ED_Transition_Team

Feel free to browse and comment/suggest!

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair Transition Team
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[Wikimedia-l] reminder: Office Hours at 11PST, 6PM UTC

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Sue and I will be having office hours in a few hours to answer questions on her 
decision and the Transition Team and the next steps. 

(Europeans: please note that different implementations of daylight savings time 
has made the current difference between PST and CET 8 hours rather than 9!)

Regards

Jan-Bart
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement *please read*

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

So I need a little time to set this up properly on meta (I want to get the 
structure right the first time round, but as we all know… that will probably 
not happen). But there will certainly be a good "suggestion" spot where people 
can leave thoughts and ideas (and discuss them!) 

Should be done by saturday at the latest!

Jan-Bart


On Mar 27, 2013, at 11:58 PM, Steven Walling  wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 3:08 PM, Jan-Bart de Vreede > wrote:
> 
>> The Board has appointed a Transition Team which consists of the Chair of
>> the Board of Trustees Kat Walsh,  and HR Committee member Alice Wiegand,
>> Sue, Sue’s deputy and the Wikimedia Foundation’s Vice-President of Product
>> and Engineering Erik Moeller, Geoff Brigham our General Counsel, and Gayle
>> Karen Young, our Chief Talent and Culture Officer. I am the final member
>> and am the Chair of the Transition Team, and Sue will be facilitating its
>> work on my behalf.
>> 
>> (In case you don’t know, non-profit organizations often have outgoing EDs
>> support the recruitment of their successors. The Board is of course
>> ultimately responsible for appointing the Executive Director, but we want
>> our search to be supported by our staff members, including Sue. Sue , Erik,
>> Geoff and Gayle have done a lot of hiring for the Wikimedia Foundation over
>> the past number of years, and we know they will bring experience and wisdom
>> to the process.)
>> 
>> I will also be responsible for making this a transparent (where possible)
>> and confidential (where needed) process and will set up the corresponding
>> pages on Meta in the coming days (please give me some time to do so :).
>> First step will be the office hours with Sue and myself this Saturday.
>> 
> 
> Thanks Jan-Bart.
> 
> I suggested to Gayle earlier this afternoon that it would be ideal for
> staff and community members to have some place where we can write out
> recommendations to the transition team about what kind of attributes and
> experiences we'd like from a new ED. A simple Request for Comment, where
> people can post thoughts, is likely to grow very large, but is one idea. In
> any case, the huge advantage of having this public announcement far in
> advance is clearly the opportunity for this kind of transparent feedback
> for the Board on selecting a new ED, and in that light I just want to say
> thanks to the Board and to Sue for doing this the right way.
> 
> Steven
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement *please read*

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Dear members of the community.
 
As they say… all good things must come to an end…
 
It’s hard for me and the rest of the Board to imagine the Wikimedia Foundation 
without Sue at the helm, but we’re confident, as is she, that we can make this 
transition positive for everyone. Sue is going to continue to work in what we 
broadly think of as “our space”, and we know she’s going to continue to be our 
friend and supporter. So, this isn’t goodbye.
 
I understand and respect Sue’s reasoning here, and know she’s going to continue 
to do important work. Although I’m tempted to write a big note of praise and 
love, I want to respect her request that we not move into thanking mode just 
yet.  She’s right, we have lots of work to do, and she’s not going anywhere 
right away. There will be lots of time for thanking later.
 
But I do wish to make the general statement that her contribution to the 
movement through the position of Executive director (and very active editor) 
has been and will continue to be incredible. As a board member I will forever 
be grateful that she was willing to bet on a small organization with a lot of 
potential… and then continued on to build on that potential to make it one of 
the most powerful examples in the space of open knowledge and learning.
 
Here’s what will happen next.
 
The Board has appointed a Transition Team which consists of the Chair of the 
Board of Trustees Kat Walsh,  and HR Committee member Alice Wiegand, Sue, Sue’s 
deputy and the Wikimedia Foundation’s Vice-President of Product and Engineering 
Erik Moeller, Geoff Brigham our General Counsel, and Gayle Karen Young, our 
Chief Talent and Culture Officer. I am the final member and am the Chair of the 
Transition Team, and Sue will be facilitating its work on my behalf.
 
(In case you don’t know, non-profit organizations often have outgoing EDs 
support the recruitment of their successors. The Board is of course ultimately 
responsible for appointing the Executive Director, but we want our search to be 
supported by our staff members, including Sue. Sue , Erik, Geoff and Gayle have 
done a lot of hiring for the Wikimedia Foundation over the past number of 
years, and we know they will bring experience and wisdom to the process.)
 
I will also be responsible for making this a transparent (where possible) and 
confidential (where needed) process and will set up the corresponding pages on 
Meta in the coming days (please give me some time to do so :). First step will 
be the office hours with Sue and myself this Saturday.
 
We haven’t yet defined exactly what the process will look like, although we do 
know that we will be engaging a search firm to help us. The Transition Team 
will be meeting informally over the next several weeks, and will have our first 
face-to-face meeting together in mid-April in Milan, as part of the Wikimedia 
Conference. I will give a status report shortly after that.
 
I’d be very happy to answer any questions you’ve got. To that end, Sue and I 
will be having office hours this Saturday, 30 of March, at 11AM PST [6PM UTC]. 
Or, we can talk on this list.

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Vice Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees

On Mar 27, 2013, at 11:04 PM, Sue Gardner  wrote:

> Hello Wikimedia community members,
> 
> This is not an easy e-mail to write, and it’s been a very hard
> decision to make. But I’m writing to tell you that I’m planning to
> leave my position as the Executive Director of the Wikimedia
> Foundation.
> 
> My departure isn’t imminent -- the Board and I anticipate it’ll take
> at least six months to recruit my successor, and I’ll be fully engaged
> as Executive Director all through the recruitment process and until we
> have a new person in place. We’re expecting that’ll take about six
> months or so, and so this note is not goodbye -- not yet.
> 
> Making the decision to leave hasn’t been easy, but it comes down to two 
> things.
> 
> First, the movement and the Wikimedia Foundation are in a strong place
> now. When I joined, the Foundation was tiny and not yet able to
> reliably support the projects. Today it's healthy, thriving, and a
> competent partner to the global network of Wikimedia volunteers. If
> that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t feel okay to leave. In that sense, my
> leaving is a vote of confidence in our Board and executive team and
> staff --- I know they will ably steer the Foundation through the years
> ahead, and I’m confident the Board will appoint a strong successor to
> me.
> 
> And I feel that although we’re in good shape, with a promising future,
> the same isn’t true for the internet itself. (This is thing number
> two.) Increasingly, I’m finding myself uncomfortable about how the
> internet’s developing, who’s influencing its development, and who is
> not. Last year we at Wikimedia raised an alarm about SOPA/PIPA, and
> now CISPA is back. Wikipedia has experien

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Recognition of Wikimedia Armenia

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Congratulations! 

Jan-Bart


On Mar 27, 2013, at 9:26 PM, Bence Damokos  wrote:

> Dear all,
> 
> I am happy to announce that the the WMF Board of Trustees have resolved to
> recognize Wikimedia Armenia as the newest Wikimedia chapter:
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Recognition_of_Wikimedia_Armenia
> 
> This group has  already put a lot of effort into promoting Wikipedia and
> the other projects in Armenia on their road to recognition and I am really
> looking forward to hearing of their future endeavours.
> 
> Please give a warm welcome to Wikimedia Armenia!
> 
> Best regards,
> Bence
> (Affiliations Committee)
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Info: Markus Glaser is elected Chair of the Wikimedia Chapters Association Council

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi

Congratulations! I look forward to a continuation of the more "practical and 
transparent" approach that the Chapters Association has been taking in the past 
month (and thanks Fae and the rest for starting that). I enjoyed exchanging 
some ideas with you in London!

I hope to see that the Association will soon be able to benefit all the 
chapters (member or not) :)

Jan-Bart

On Mar 18, 2013, at 1:58 AM, Markus Glaser  wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> thanks for voting and thank you for your trust. Time will show if I can meet 
> your expectations. Thank you, Fae, for all the work you have done so far. I 
> assume I can continue to count on your experience :)
> 
> In order to get things going, I totally depend on the help and support of the 
> Council members. We also need to involve all chapters and affiliate 
> organisations. Furthermore, I hope for very friendly relations to WMF and 
> their organisations.
> 
> In order to shape the future of the WCA, please approach me with all 
> comments, criticism and suggestions!
> 
> There's quite some work ahead of us! Our next milestone will be the Milan 
> conference.
> 
> Cheers,
> Markus
> 
> Am 18.03.2013 01:12, schrieb Kirill Lokshin:
>> Congratulations to Markus!  I look forward to working with everyone to make
>> the WCA a success in the coming year!
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Kirill
>> 
>> 
>> On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 8:08 PM, Fae  wrote:
>> 
>>> Congratulations to Markus on becoming the Chair of the WCAC.
>>> 
>>> The election results is available at
>>> <
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Elections/2013_Chair#Votes
 ,
>>> with an associated detailed Q&A from the candidates on the associated
>>> talk page.
>>> 
>>> Thank you to all candidates for coming forward and taking part in the
>>> public debate so well.
>>> 
>>> I look forward to supporting Markus in his role as our Chair, and the
>>> discussions with everyone at the Milan conference next month.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> Fae
>>> --
>>> Ashley Van Haeften (Fae) fae...@gmail.com
>>> Chapters Association Council Chair
>>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WCA
>>> Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/mfae
>>> 
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>>> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Markus Glaser
> WCA Council Member (WMDE)
> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia Zero wins!

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Congrats to all!

Jan-Bart


On Mar 13, 2013, at 2:28 AM, Kul Wadhwa  wrote:

> Hey all,
> 
> Wikipedia Zero just won the Activism Award @ SXSW!
> 
> A big thanks to all of you for keeping knowledge free for EVERYONE!
> 
> -- 
> Kul Wadhwa
> Head of Mobile
> Wikimedia Foundation
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] fiction: WMF policy of paying less than market

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi james, (renamed thread to not distract from NDA discussion)

Your concerns have been noted, several times.

But I do want to make sure you (and everyone else) realise that there is no 
FACT like the one that you mention.

"fact that the
> Foundation's policy of paying below market salary discriminates
> against potential hires with large expenses such as kids in college or
> a mortgage from 2007?"

because
a)  there is no such policy. There are several areas where WMF pays market 
salary or more. Please don't create a myth. I have talked to our recruiters and 
they confirm this. Stating it as fact does not help your case or your 
credibility. In my experience WMF compensation and other benefits is well 
thought about and choices have been made (you might not agree with their 
outcome but they are being made, they don't "happen to us")
b) you could argue that any salary level discriminates against people who need 
more. Just because I chose to have three kids (who will hopefully end up going 
to college if they want to do so) and choose to live where I want to live does 
not mean someone who offers me a salary which is unable to support my choices 
is discriminating against me… I live by the choices I make…

Finally I find the idea of restraining people to talk about salary almost 
comical in the WMF sense… as I find the idea of any substantial discussion 
amongst WMF employees being "restrained" by a document unrealistic. I am 
grateful that we have enough critical employees who are willing to voice their 
opinion on pretty much everything.

While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I think that its time to stop spreading a 
myth. If you do insist on tackling the issue, please base yourself on facts and 
not small sets of data an generalisations. I don't have all the fact either, 
but I know enough to know that your generalising statements are incorrect, so 
please stop making them.

Jan-Bart


On Mar 7, 2013, at 12:51 AM, James Salsman  wrote:

> I'd like to know more about the non-disparagement clause which
> multiple people have stated that the Foundation's NDA includes. In
> particular, does it forbid employees from discussing the fact that the
> Foundation's policy of paying below market salary discriminates
> against potential hires with large expenses such as kids in college or
> a mortgage from 2007? Does it forbid employees from discussing the
> fact that the only evidence ever produced by Foundation employees in
> support of that policy is a non-peer reviewed popular press book which
> is not only contradicted by all of the recent secondary sources on the
> subject, but the interpretation of which is contradicted by the author
> of the book himself?
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Info: Election for WCA Chairperson

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey Ziko

No actually we did not agree on that. We agreed that there were several reasons 
that chapters might not join the Chapters Association. Again: i do not know all 
the specifics and cannot give you the arguments for the chapters that did not 
join, but some certainly voiced a reluctance to become part of a membership 
organisation within the Wikimedia Movement, simply because they felt it was a 
bit much)

And I am not sure that creating a membership model within a group of approved 
chapters (who have therefore already passed the AffCom test) can be described 
as a "democratic model". You are creating an preferred status. You could argue 
that it is much more democratic to give all the approved organisations a vote. 
After all the Chapters Association intends to help all chapters with the 
exchange of knowledge of skills… regardless of wether they are a member or not 
(that was the last status I heard).

Jan-Bart



On Feb 25, 2013, at 1:13 AM, Ziko van Dijk  wrote:

> Jan-Bart, what you call a 'membership model' is a democratically
> established international NGO in which members have rights and obligations.
> It operates under a charter accepted by the chapters that joined. Maybe you
> would like to read the charter first, or think about the way the WMF (!)
> approves new chapters, or consider to improve the democratic character of
> the WMF before trying to undermine the WCA as such. I thought that we
> agreed in London that many chapters did not join because they now busy with
> other things.
> Ziko
> 
> 
> Am Montag, 25. Februar 2013 schrieb Fae :
> 
>> @Jan-Bart
>> One of the early discussions before agreeing the WCA charter was the
>> possibility of automatically counting all legally recognized chapters
>> as members. It was felt that this would not result in a credible
>> democratic process, indeed the current 21 members are not all very
>> active in votes and the current voting pattern shows participation at
>> around 2/3 of the members or less in any vote. If we counted all
>> Chapters, then a quorum would have to be set to be artificially
>> low.<
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Resolutions/2012_votes
>>> 
>> 
>> Should any Chapter wish to vote in this election, they need only
>> provide a statement to me and then the new Council member sends in a
>> statement that they support the charter. The Council member need not
>> be on the board of the Chapter. There are no fees, there are no
>> specific duties and we are always looking for more light-weight ways
>> of handing our processes. Any Council member recognized before the
>> vote opens, will be eligible to vote.
>> 
>> @Newyorkbrad
>> My original thought was to allow an overall three week process, but
>> was put under pressure to do this quickly to make a clear
>> demonstration that I was going; however I would guess that opening the
>> election does this rather than bringing forward the deadline to close
>> it. I will take a look at the schedule again later today and
>> reconsider the deadlines. In practice, I have had the opposite
>> feedback from Council members, who thought that allowing 2 weeks for a
>> vote as our past custom, was unnecessarily long.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Fae
>> --
>> Ashley Van Haeften (Fae) fae...@gmail.com 
>> Chapters Association Council Chair http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WCA
>> Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/mfae
>> 
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>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> ---
> Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland
> dr. Ziko van Dijk, voorzitter
> http://wmnederland.nl/
> 
> Wikimedia Nederland
> Postbus 167
> 3500 AD Utrecht
> ---
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Info: Election for WCA Chairperson

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

So I would not dare speak for the specific chapters, but I gather some of them 
did not want to join simply because they did not like the membership model. So 
it might be good to open things up the other way around :)

Jan-Bart

On Feb 24, 2013, at 4:39 PM, Thomas Dalton  wrote:

> If chapters won't to be involved, why don't they join? I don't think there
> is even a plan to charge membership fees yet, so what have they got to lose?
> On Feb 25, 2013 12:35 AM, "Jan-Bart de Vreede" 
> wrote:
> 
>> Hi All,
>> 
>> Not to be incredibly mean about this, but how about giving a vote to all
>> chapters approved by the AffCom, rather than just the members? I know you
>> are looking at the membership model and trying to see if it will work for
>> you, but this sort of limits your options and perpetuates the feeling that
>> you are not representing cooperation between ALL the chapters...
>> 
>> Jan-Bart
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 24, 2013, at 2:29 PM, Fae  wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> The schedule of election for the Chapters Association Council Chair
>>> has been announced at
>>> <
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Elections/2013_Chair
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The schedule is:
>>>   Nominations open midnight (UTC) on Monday 25 February 2013.
>>>   Nominations close midnight on Monday 4 March 2013 and voting is
>> opened.
>>>   Voting closes midnight Monday 11 March 2013.
>>> 
>>> Note that all 21 Council members will be eligible to vote, including
>>> those that stand for election. In a heavily contested election,
>>> expecting nominated candidates to refrain from voting would not be
>>> workable.
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> Fae
>>> --
>>> Ashley Van Haeften (Fae) fae...@gmail.com
>>> Chapters Association Council Chair http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WCA
>>> Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/mfae
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Info: Election for WCA Chairperson

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi All,

Not to be incredibly mean about this, but how about giving a vote to all 
chapters approved by the AffCom, rather than just the members? I know you are 
looking at the membership model and trying to see if it will work for you, but 
this sort of limits your options and perpetuates the feeling that you are not 
representing cooperation between ALL the chapters...

Jan-Bart


On Feb 24, 2013, at 2:29 PM, Fae  wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> The schedule of election for the Chapters Association Council Chair
> has been announced at
> 
> 
> The schedule is:
>Nominations open midnight (UTC) on Monday 25 February 2013.
>Nominations close midnight on Monday 4 March 2013 and voting is opened.
>Voting closes midnight Monday 11 March 2013.
> 
> Note that all 21 Council members will be eligible to vote, including
> those that stand for election. In a heavily contested election,
> expecting nominated candidates to refrain from voting would not be
> workable.
> 
> Thanks,
> Fae
> -- 
> Ashley Van Haeften (Fae) fae...@gmail.com
> Chapters Association Council Chair http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WCA
> Guide to email tags: http://j.mp/mfae
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Are chapters part of the community and board seats for affiliates?

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

So my 2 cents

I do consider the chapters to be an integral part of the community. Some of our 
community members prefer to work individually and some prefer to work together. 
Some things can be done by individuals and some things require organisations 
like chapters or thematic organisations. Wiki Loves Monuments is a great 
example of supporting the cause and it could only be done by collaboration 
between several chapters. Discussion about the role of chapters, thematic 
organisations or indeed the foundation itself are very healthy, but lets not 
forget that we are all part of the movement and share the common goals. If any 
one of the players of the movement does not support the goals, we should 
address that, but lets not disqualify those people that choose to help that are 
simply not editing individuals (as someone once said: "it takes all kinds to 
make the world go round"

So I regard both the elected and the selected seats to be community seats.

Jan-Bart


On Feb 22, 2013, at 6:42 PM, cyrano  wrote:

> Le 19/02/2013 11:23, Christophe Henner a écrit :
>> 
>> 
>> I would even add that chapters should, and perhaps are, be key part of our
>> community. Online communities tend to "die" slowly over the time. The main
>> reason is that "virtual" bonds are much easier to forget than "physical"
>> ones. I mean it's easier stop sending email to someone than stopping to see
>> someone.
> 
> I think Wikipedia gathered such a community because of an ideal, not of 
> social bonds. Though parts of the community may form social, professional or 
> political bonds, and thus perdure through these mechanisms, the cause 
> "sharing the knowledge" should be the main raison d'être of the community. 
> Thus, I disagree that Chapters should be considered the key part of the 
> community: the cause should be the key part. In fact, if the cause ceases to 
> be the highest priority, then the community will tend to die and only the 
> institutions will tend to remain because of their own inertia and interests. 
> I don't consider that a good thing per se since this tends to lead to 
> sclerosis and a hollow structure with no other point than perpetuating 
> itself, instead of pushing for the next needed accomplishments to collect and 
> disseminate knowledge.
> 
>> Yes, chapter as such do not edit the projects directly. But does this mean
>> they're not part of the community? I don't think so. They're a different
>> part of the community, but still are a part of the community.
> Being part of the community doesn't allow to act on the name of the entire 
> community. The gap between the community and the Chapters is significant 
> enough to distinguish both, in particular for political and communicational 
> matters.
> 
> 
>> 
>> So should the Chapters seats be considered asa "Community seats" ? I'd say
>> that the term is wrong.
>> 
>> We have the "editing community seats", the "meta" community seats and the
>> appointed seats. Perhaps we should differentiate the two sides of the
>> community.
> Why not distinguish the community seats from the Chapters seats with the 
> terms "community seats" and " Chapters seats"?
> Using the word community in both cases may induce to believe that's it's the 
> same community with two branches. But nothing guarantees that unity.
> 
> By the way, what would you say Chapters actually are? Is it correct to say 
> that they're an administrative organization financed by the WMF through Fund 
> Dissemination Commitees?
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Looking back at the London Conference

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

yeah, I was going to suggest the same thing, why make a different list with 
different membership? 

Jan-Bart (personally agreeing with mike's personal viewpoint… please don't take 
it personally)


On Feb 19, 2013, at 9:09 PM, Michael Peel  wrote:

> 
> On 19 Feb 2013, at 19:57, Thehelpfulone  wrote:
> 
>> On 19 February 2013 16:10, Ziko van Dijk  wrote:
>> 
>>> There will be a special list 'WCA-announcements". If you want to be
>>> informed about Bulletins and discussions, join the list and you will
>>> get links to Meta Wiki. It's a one-way-list, because the discussions
>>> are supposed to be on Meta Wiki. This is a WCA service for Council
>>> Members and non Council Members alike. In this way, nobody is obliged
>>> to be on a heavy traffic list such as Wikimedia-l.
>>> 
>> 
>> Thanks Ziko, I'm happy to create this list for you on the Foundation
>> servers, please follow the instructions at
>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists#Create_a_new_list to file a
>> bug. I'd suggest "WCA-Announce" to match our similar announcement lists for
>> MediaWiki, WLM, Toolserver etc and to keep it relatively short.
> 
> Is there a reason why wikimediaannounce-l can't be used here?
> 
> Thanks,
> Mike
> (Personal viewpoint)
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Looking back at the London Conference

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

So just to add my perspective on the mail below (as one of the two board 
members that were present).

As mentioned before the board has several big issues with the WCA where it was 
going (as outlined on the meta discussion page and our statement: 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Chapters_Association#WMF_Board_letter_regarding_the_Chapters_Association)

We felt that our statement was needed at the time, and some good debate has 
taken place. If we were inconsistent in our behaviour (in the eyes of Ziko) 
this was simply because things increasingly seemed to be going the wrong way 
and views evolve over time. 

The discussion we had was a very useful one, and you can read a pretty accurate 
transcript at: http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/WCA/ (and I see that minutes are 
being worked on as I type this, so a formal report is likely to be announced 
here soon I guess)

The main focus that I tried to bring across is that the people working on the 
Chapter Association stop focusing on process, structure, incorporation, hiring 
and strategy but rather focus on getting things started and trying to develop 
things that work and can grow. Rather than focus on membership and voting, 
focus on getting an exchange of knowledge, experience and skills between all 
the chapters (members or not).

And though it might not come across right now without seeing the results,  I 
feel that the weekend was very useful. There was a lot of energy in the room 
and a willingness to re-assess where the CA is, and where it needs to go (thank 
you for that everyone, and thank you to Fae for helping create this open 
environment). Public discussion on meta, along with open exchange and notes are 
a good start, and I am sure that a lot of things will be happening the next 
months. Hopefully this will grow into the potential that chapter cooperation 
has always had. 

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Wikimedia Board of Trustees


On Feb 19, 2013, at 5:10 PM, Ziko van Dijk  wrote:

> Dear Council Members and everyone interested in the WCA,
> 
> On 16/17th February 2013 a number of Council Members visited the
> London Conference I had proposed in mid January to talk about the way
> of the WCA and to prepare the Wikimedia Conference in Milan. We are
> happy that the London Conference did happen, and, in spite of the
> debatable WMF board statement of 5th February, that two WMF board
> members still agreed to join us.
> 
> Because in 2012/2013 the signals from the WMF were not very consistent
> I tried to receive more clarity about the relationship between
> Foundation and Association. This was only partially successful, but I
> understand that the two present WMF board members were as open as it
> was possible within the constraints of the WMF board unity. We very
> much appreciated the commitment of Alice and Jan-Bart and were happy
> not to hear certain allegations from the board statement again.
> 
> The London Conference discussed many WCA subjects collected during the
> last months. One of them was communication, and I am content that I
> could convince the participants of a major change. For someone who is
> interested in the WCA it has been very difficult to follow the
> proceedings, plans and results. When e.g. a Council Member wanted to
> talk to others or discuss something, he or she used one of the several
> mailing lists the movement has, or Meta Wiki, or private email
> addresses. I believe that this has been a fundamental problem with the
> regard to the perception of the WCA, and that the participation even
> from Council Members suffered also because of this kind of
> communication.
> 
> After the election of a new Chair, the Chair of the WCA Council will
> issue a Bulletin, a kind of short report, with a summary of what
> happened recently and what are the plans for the near future. This
> will be put on Meta Wiki, and, naturally, discussions will centre
> around those Bulletins. For those who are interested it will be much
> easier to follow and to participate. If someone wants to support the
> WCA via translations, he or she can translate those Bulletins instead
> of a lot of messages.
> 
> There will be a special list 'WCA-announcements". If you want to be
> informed about Bulletins and discussions, join the list and you will
> get links to Meta Wiki. It's a one-way-list, because the discussions
> are supposed to be on Meta Wiki. This is a WCA service for Council
> Members and non Council Members alike. In this way, nobody is obliged
> to be on a heavy traffic list such as Wikimedia-l.
> 
> When we talked about the future and a possible new election of the
> Chair I also asked about my position. If for any reason someone
> believed that there should be a new election of the Deputy Chair, I
> wanted to hear. The participants said that that is no issue and th

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

I think that chapters represent a different part of the movement, and that 
their input in board composition results in different candidates than we would 
possibly elect :) At the same time the increased scope of affcom also gives us 
the option of increasing the scope of these two selected seats to include 
thematic organisations and user groups (giving them more "community coverage" 
than is the case now). That would be a good discussion to have over de coming 
months as the selected seats term expires in july next year…

thoughts anyone?

Jan-Bart


On Feb 19, 2013, at 8:42 AM, James Alexander  wrote:

> Snipping a bunch for simplicities sake
> 
> On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 11:14 PM, Jan-Bart de Vreede <
> jdevre...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> 
>> I simply don't agree.
>> a) Chapters are part of the community
>> b) Whenever a vote comes up for an appointed seat that seat obviously does
>> not vote, therefore the (s)elected seats have a majority vote on any
>> appointed seat (5 our of 9 votes) Apart from that I would say that Jimmy's
>> seat is a community seat, but recognise that not all share that viewpoint.
>> 
>> Jan-Bart
>> 
> 
> :-/ To be honest I don't particularly like this meme that the chapter are
> part of the community either. The chapters may be part of the community
> (and so the statement not false) but we use the phrasing in such a way as
> to say that they are more then they are.  There may be a part of the
> community but they are really a very small part of it overall.
> 
> Their power in board selection and movement voice (both formally and
> informally) is disproportionately huge and we set them up to represent the
> community when that is a serious misstatement. They represent their members
> who are a very small subset of the community and often have a very
> different goal and interest set then the, much larger, remainder of the
> community and depending on the chapter may include more donors or readers
> then editors.
> 
> That is not to say they don't do good things at times (or that it is a
> problem to include donors or readers, personally I think they are part of
> our larger community) but we should not confuse what they actually are.
> 
> Jimmy is a whole different question ;) I would certainly say he deserves a
> seat at the table, I prefer to just categorize him as "Jimmy" because he's
> just a class of his own in all ways :).
> 
> James
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

AHHH!

Oh wow, thats pretty bad. 

Funny thing is: I really don't have the board manual url bookmarked (terrible 
of me) and i googled "BOARD MANUAL WIKIMEDIA"… and you will never guess what 
the first result was…. the Wikimedia one doesnt really show up until the 6th 
result :( sorry about that.. my intentions were good…

(so yes, please feel free to make sure we no longer have a Wikipedia Board 
Manual, as we don't have a wikipedia board :)

Jan-Bart


On Feb 19, 2013, at 7:55 AM, Risker  wrote:

> The link you provided said "Wikipedia board manual", Jan-Bart.  The correct
> link is: <
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_board_manual#Roles_and_responsibilities
>> 
> 
> Risker/Anne
> 
> 
> 
> On 19 February 2013 01:52, Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote:
> 
>> Hey Nemo,
>> 
>> I seriously have no idea what you are talking about. I looked at the talk
>> page and could not find a hint. In what way is the board manual a highly
>> misleading link?
>> 
>> Jan-Bart
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 18, 2013, at 9:41 PM, "Federico Leva (Nemo)" 
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Jan-Bart de Vreede, 18/02/2013 21:09:
>>>> I, and most of the non-profit world (not to mention the law ;)
>> respectfully disagree and would argue that the main function of any board
>> of trustees is more governance related. For a good summary of what our
>> Board of Trustees' function is I would refer you to:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_board_manual#Roles_and_responsibilities
>>> 
>>> I'm getting sick of this linking [[Wikipedia board manual]], can you
>> please fix your highly misleading links?
>>> I'm considering restoring the original page under that title and adding
>> a disambiguation note, please express disagreement on talk page if you
>> don't want me to.
>>> Thanks,
>>>  Nemo
>> 
>> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

(have cut some items to focus on main points)


On Feb 18, 2013, at 11:22 PM, cyrano  wrote:
> 
>> if there is a divergence you can (s)elect different people for those five 
>> seats. The appointed seats are intended to help add specific 
>> skills/expertise to the board to make sure that it can perform its 
>> governance tasks effectively….
>> 
>>> Now, if the Board of Trustees sets requirements, or pays the people who 
>>> will recommend the candidates, it immediately breaks the guaranty that 
>>> there is something else than people in power keeping their power structure 
>>> intact. It doesn't mean it is happening, but it can't guaranty it's not, 
>>> which defeats the point of having Trustees.
>> Simply don't agree with that reasoning. The point of trustees it to provide 
>> governance and direction to the WMF.
> Of course they must provide governance and direction, but with the greater 
> priority of representing the values of the community, in order to deserve the 
> alleged trust.

I think that governance is the greatest priority, and community comes into it 
as an integral part.




>>  If you cannot trust them to select the right people, how can you trust them 
>> to do anything?
> Exactly my point.
> 
But if no one is likely to trust the (s)elected board members, why not simply 
have a completely appointed board? You don't trust them anyway? In my view the 
(s)elected seats are the core of the board (see below) and they are the link to 
the community.

> 
>> 
>> 
>>> Personally, I think the main function of the Board of Trustees should be to 
>>> increase the trust of the community, thanks to a rigorous and transparent 
>>> scrutiny of its internal processes.
>>> 
>> I, and most of the non-profit world (not to mention the law ;)  respectfully 
>> disagree and would argue that the main function of any board of trustees is 
>> more governance related.
> You should not leave the community out the equation. I agree that the 
> internal function of the Board of Trustees is governance related. But from 
> the community's perspective, WMF should not exist by itself and for itself, 
> and that's why there are trustees: to *guaranty *that the main reason of its 
> existence is something else that getting money, prestige or any other 
> personal leverage. That's where the trust comes from.
> WMF exists to empower the community and its cause, and all the governance's 
> decisions are subsumed by this principle.

I am not leaving them out, I simply view governance as the main priority of the 
board.

> 
>>  For a good summary of what our Board of Trustees' function is I would refer 
>> you to:
>> 
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_board_manual#Roles_and_responsibilities
> Thank you for the link. I understand now why you think that five seats belong 
> to the community, the article is twice misleading: by saying that Chapters 
> ARE the community, and by saying that five out of ten is a majority.

I simply don't agree. 
a) Chapters are part of the community
b) Whenever a vote comes up for an appointed seat that seat obviously does not 
vote, therefore the (s)elected seats have a majority vote on any appointed seat 
(5 our of 9 votes) Apart from that I would say that Jimmy's seat is a community 
seat, but recognise that not all share that viewpoint.

Jan-Bart



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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey Nemo,

I seriously have no idea what you are talking about. I looked at the talk page 
and could not find a hint. In what way is the board manual a highly misleading 
link?

Jan-Bart


On Feb 18, 2013, at 9:41 PM, "Federico Leva (Nemo)"  wrote:

> Jan-Bart de Vreede, 18/02/2013 21:09:
>> I, and most of the non-profit world (not to mention the law ;)  respectfully 
>> disagree and would argue that the main function of any board of trustees is 
>> more governance related. For a good summary of what our Board of Trustees' 
>> function is I would refer you to:
>> 
>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_board_manual#Roles_and_responsibilities
> 
> I'm getting sick of this linking [[Wikipedia board manual]], can you please 
> fix your highly misleading links?
> I'm considering restoring the original page under that title and adding a 
> disambiguation note, please express disagreement on talk page if you don't 
> want me to.
> Thanks,
>   Nemo


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi

On Feb 18, 2013, at 8:52 PM, cyrano  wrote:

> To ensure a representation of the interests of the community, the 
> determination of a new Board Trustee cannot be influenced by the people 
> within the Board Trustee (and even less by the WMF itself). Otherwise, it 
> would boil down to a disguised form of cooptation.
> Cooptation is a way to absorb new elements into a structure without 
> threatening it, which is good for stability, but bad if changes or trust are 
> needed. In particular, if the community differs  from what the WMF or the 
> Board of Trustees are doing, cooptation cannot repair the divergence. In 
> fact, it tends to aggravate it.

But it wasn't intended to repair any possible divergence, this is what the five 
community (s)elected seats are for… if there is a divergence you can (s)elect 
different people for those five seats. The appointed seats are intended to help 
add specific skills/expertise to the board to make sure that it can perform its 
governance tasks effectively….

> 
> Now, if the Board of Trustees sets requirements, or pays the people who will 
> recommend the candidates, it immediately breaks the guaranty that there is 
> something else than people in power keeping their power structure intact. It 
> doesn't mean it is happening, but it can't guaranty it's not, which defeats 
> the point of having Trustees.

Simply don't agree with that reasoning. The point of trustees it to provide 
governance and direction to the WMF. The five community (s)elected seats and 
the founders seat select four others to help them perform this task. They will 
look for skills and expertise that they find lacking within their composition. 
If you cannot trust them to select the right people, how can you trust them to 
do anything? Which leads to … why vote for them at all?

> 
> That's why, even if you agree with the strategy behind the current proposal 
> and its advantages, you should be aware that it decreases the legitimacy of 
> the governance structure to the eyes of the community.

I don't think it does, or should. If it does then I think its worth explaining 
(like I have hopefully done above)


> 
> Personally, I think the main function of the Board of Trustees should be to 
> increase the trust of the community, thanks to a rigorous and transparent 
> scrutiny of its internal processes.
> 

I, and most of the non-profit world (not to mention the law ;)  respectfully 
disagree and would argue that the main function of any board of trustees is 
more governance related. For a good summary of what our Board of Trustees' 
function is I would refer you to:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_board_manual#Roles_and_responsibilities

Jan-Bart





> Le 18/02/2013 14:14, Jan-Bart de Vreede a écrit :
>> yes:
>> 
>> this bit:
>> 
>> "
>> I don't think it's about childish beliefs about "evil". Money has a real 
>> influence, conflicts of interests are a real thing, and opacity at any stage 
>> allow abuses. It has been shown countless times in countless situations, 
>> empirically and scientifically, that people in power WILL use it to keep it, 
>> as much as they can.
>> When an entity is using its influence to determine who will supervise it, 
>> it's a matter of keeping the power of self-determination. You may agree or 
>> not with this strategy, but there is no way to lift doubts about the 
>> fairness of such appointment and obtain a clean cut legitimacy from such 
>> premises.
>> "
>> 
>> I don't understand what you are trying to say or imply?
>> 
>> Jan-Bart
>> 
>> On Feb 18, 2013, at 3:30 PM, cyrano  wrote:
>> 
>>> Jan-Bart,
>>> 
>>> can you be more specific?
>>> 
>>> Cheers
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Le 18/02/2013 10:55, Jan-Bart de Vreede a écrit :
>>>> Hey
>>>> 
>>>> I seriously can't follow this, could you explain?
>>>> 
>>>> Jan-Bart
>>>> 
>>>> On Feb 18, 2013, at 2:11 PM, cyrano  wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> I don't think it's about childish beliefs about "evil". Money has a real 
>>>>> influence, conflicts of interests are a real thing, and opacity at any 
>>>>> stage allow abuses. It has been shown countless times in countless 
>>>>> situations, empirically and scientifically, that people in power WILL use 
>>>>> it to keep it, as much as they can.
>>>>> When an entity is using its influence to determine who will supervise it, 
>>>>> it's a matter of keeping the power of self-determination. You may agree 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

yes:

this bit:

"
I don't think it's about childish beliefs about "evil". Money has a real 
influence, conflicts of interests are a real thing, and opacity at any stage 
allow abuses. It has been shown countless times in countless situations, 
empirically and scientifically, that people in power WILL use it to keep it, as 
much as they can.
When an entity is using its influence to determine who will supervise it, it's 
a matter of keeping the power of self-determination. You may agree or not with 
this strategy, but there is no way to lift doubts about the fairness of such 
appointment and obtain a clean cut legitimacy from such premises.
"

I don't understand what you are trying to say or imply?

Jan-Bart

On Feb 18, 2013, at 3:30 PM, cyrano  wrote:

> Jan-Bart,
> 
> can you be more specific?
> 
> Cheers
> 
> 
> Le 18/02/2013 10:55, Jan-Bart de Vreede a écrit :
>> Hey
>> 
>> I seriously can't follow this, could you explain?
>> 
>> Jan-Bart
>> 
>> On Feb 18, 2013, at 2:11 PM, cyrano  wrote:
>> 
>>> I don't think it's about childish beliefs about "evil". Money has a real 
>>> influence, conflicts of interests are a real thing, and opacity at any 
>>> stage allow abuses. It has been shown countless times in countless 
>>> situations, empirically and scientifically, that people in power WILL use 
>>> it to keep it, as much as they can.
>>> When an entity is using its influence to determine who will supervise it, 
>>> it's a matter of keeping the power of self-determination. You may agree or 
>>> not with this strategy, but there is no way to lift doubts about the 
>>> fairness of such appointment and obtain a clean cut legitimacy from such 
>>> premises.
>>> 
>>> Cheers.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Le 18/02/2013 09:52, Jan-Bart de Vreede a écrit :
>>>> Hi
>>>> 
>>>> Sounded like good intervention, thanks for reminding me :)
>>>> 
>>>> Truth is of course that board Governance Committee is driving this process 
>>>> together with Gayle. That means that multiple community (s)elected board 
>>>> members are involved in the initial screening and that the whole board 
>>>> will be included in the final selection.
>>>> 
>>>> This would also be a good opportunity to make a small point: not all 
>>>> external consultancy is evil :) As a community we tend to be naturally 
>>>> suspicious of people that get paid "a lot" of money for tasks that 
>>>> theoretically "could also be done my the community"… There is a good 
>>>> reason why we sometimes rely on paid external advisors, some of which were 
>>>> given by Gayle.
>>>> 
>>>> m|Oppenheim in particular has been a great partner in WMF hiring with 
>>>> great results, and I hope that they can be as effective in this search 
>>>> (which we hope you can help out with by suggesting good candidates to them)
>>>> 
>>>> Regards
>>>> 
>>>> Jan-Bart
>>>> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

I seriously can't follow this, could you explain?

Jan-Bart

On Feb 18, 2013, at 2:11 PM, cyrano  wrote:

> I don't think it's about childish beliefs about "evil". Money has a real 
> influence, conflicts of interests are a real thing, and opacity at any stage 
> allow abuses. It has been shown countless times in countless situations, 
> empirically and scientifically, that people in power WILL use it to keep it, 
> as much as they can.
> When an entity is using its influence to determine who will supervise it, 
> it's a matter of keeping the power of self-determination. You may agree or 
> not with this strategy, but there is no way to lift doubts about the fairness 
> of such appointment and obtain a clean cut legitimacy from such premises.
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> 
> Le 18/02/2013 09:52, Jan-Bart de Vreede a écrit :
>> Hi
>> 
>> Sounded like good intervention, thanks for reminding me :)
>> 
>> Truth is of course that board Governance Committee is driving this process 
>> together with Gayle. That means that multiple community (s)elected board 
>> members are involved in the initial screening and that the whole board will 
>> be included in the final selection.
>> 
>> This would also be a good opportunity to make a small point: not all 
>> external consultancy is evil :) As a community we tend to be naturally 
>> suspicious of people that get paid "a lot" of money for tasks that 
>> theoretically "could also be done my the community"… There is a good reason 
>> why we sometimes rely on paid external advisors, some of which were given by 
>> Gayle.
>> 
>> m|Oppenheim in particular has been a great partner in WMF hiring with great 
>> results, and I hope that they can be as effective in this search (which we 
>> hope you can help out with by suggesting good candidates to them)
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> Jan-Bart
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 18, 2013, at 1:23 PM, Everton Zanella Alvarenga  
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi all.
>>> 
>>> I would like to recommend to see the Brazil case where the recruitment
>>> of the coordinator of the Catalyst Project was done in partnership
>>> with the community
>>> 
>>> http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/11/brazil-recruiting-and-partnership-with-the-community-moves-forward/
>>> 
>>> After the community noticed the mistake being done in hiring and
>>> expensive and useless headhunter, this was critized
>>> <http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.brazil/161> and,
>>> fortunately, promptly listened by Wikimedia Foundation people in
>>> charge of the process. The community even had the idea of a more open
>>> and transparent process, where the candidates would engage in a wiki
>>> task - four finalists for the whole process engaged in such task. Also
>>> in the interview with two wikimedians, the 10 candidates could have a
>>> taste of what they would expect. :)
>>> 
>>> We all saw the dozens of mistakes of this headhunters, that luckly
>>> were solved on time by the community, improving a lot the final
>>> results. Not saying the model shouldn't be adapted and improved, it
>>> must. And after all, no one better than locals to tell about their own
>>> community.
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> 
>>> Tom
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 9:11 AM, Jan-Bart de Vreede
>>>  wrote:
>>>> Hey
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks!
>>>> 
>>>> I am sure that Alice is grateful for the input. I must confess though that 
>>>> I think that most of these questions require a deep knowledge of the 
>>>> movement and the community and as such disqualify a lot of potential 
>>>> candidates… (I would hazard a guess that none of the past appointed 
>>>> candidates (including myself) were not able to answer 80% of these 
>>>> questions until about 6 months "on the job". So are you proposing these 
>>>> questions to select new candidates or are you simply trying to get 
>>>> attention for these issues (as you have been doing over the past months… 
>>>> which is fair enough to some degree?)
>>>> 
>>>> (and to be fair: at this point, with all the experience I have within the 
>>>> movement I would want to see most of these decisions researched before 
>>>> committing to a point of view)
>>>> 
>>>> Jan-Bart
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Feb 18, 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey

And I was not responding specifically to you, no worries!

Jan-Bart


On Feb 18, 2013, at 2:01 PM, Everton Zanella Alvarenga  
wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> sure I didn't mean every external consultancy is evil. Sorry if I
> sounded like that. Firstly, the world is not divided between good and
> evil, like if we had an axis of evil. :P
> 
> Just as an example, the same company I just criticized had a better
> performance in another country. Things can vary a lot and I am sure
> people in charge of the particular process are aware of that. I just
> wanted to remind a particular case that I believe is worth studying.
> 
> And I do think sometimes to have an external consultancy can help us
> to diminish our own bias.  ;)
> 
> Tom
> 
> On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 9:52 AM, Jan-Bart de Vreede
>  wrote:
>> Hi
>> 
>> Sounded like good intervention, thanks for reminding me :)
>> 
>> Truth is of course that board Governance Committee is driving this process 
>> together with Gayle. That means that multiple community (s)elected board 
>> members are involved in the initial screening and that the whole board will 
>> be included in the final selection.
>> 
>> This would also be a good opportunity to make a small point: not all 
>> external consultancy is evil :) As a community we tend to be naturally 
>> suspicious of people that get paid "a lot" of money for tasks that 
>> theoretically "could also be done my the community"… There is a good reason 
>> why we sometimes rely on paid external advisors, some of which were given by 
>> Gayle.
>> 
>> m|Oppenheim in particular has been a great partner in WMF hiring with great 
>> results, and I hope that they can be as effective in this search (which we 
>> hope you can help out with by suggesting good candidates to them)
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> Jan-Bart
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom)
> "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more
> useful than a life spent doing nothing."
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi

Sounded like good intervention, thanks for reminding me :)

Truth is of course that board Governance Committee is driving this process 
together with Gayle. That means that multiple community (s)elected board 
members are involved in the initial screening and that the whole board will be 
included in the final selection. 

This would also be a good opportunity to make a small point: not all external 
consultancy is evil :) As a community we tend to be naturally suspicious of 
people that get paid "a lot" of money for tasks that theoretically "could also 
be done my the community"… There is a good reason why we sometimes rely on paid 
external advisors, some of which were given by Gayle. 

m|Oppenheim in particular has been a great partner in WMF hiring with great 
results, and I hope that they can be as effective in this search (which we hope 
you can help out with by suggesting good candidates to them)

Regards

Jan-Bart 


On Feb 18, 2013, at 1:23 PM, Everton Zanella Alvarenga  
wrote:

> Hi all.
> 
> I would like to recommend to see the Brazil case where the recruitment
> of the coordinator of the Catalyst Project was done in partnership
> with the community
> 
> http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/11/brazil-recruiting-and-partnership-with-the-community-moves-forward/
> 
> After the community noticed the mistake being done in hiring and
> expensive and useless headhunter, this was critized
> <http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.brazil/161> and,
> fortunately, promptly listened by Wikimedia Foundation people in
> charge of the process. The community even had the idea of a more open
> and transparent process, where the candidates would engage in a wiki
> task - four finalists for the whole process engaged in such task. Also
> in the interview with two wikimedians, the 10 candidates could have a
> taste of what they would expect. :)
> 
> We all saw the dozens of mistakes of this headhunters, that luckly
> were solved on time by the community, improving a lot the final
> results. Not saying the model shouldn't be adapted and improved, it
> must. And after all, no one better than locals to tell about their own
> community.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Tom
> 
> On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 9:11 AM, Jan-Bart de Vreede
>  wrote:
>> Hey
>> 
>> Thanks!
>> 
>> I am sure that Alice is grateful for the input. I must confess though that I 
>> think that most of these questions require a deep knowledge of the movement 
>> and the community and as such disqualify a lot of potential candidates… (I 
>> would hazard a guess that none of the past appointed candidates (including 
>> myself) were not able to answer 80% of these questions until about 6 months 
>> "on the job". So are you proposing these questions to select new candidates 
>> or are you simply trying to get attention for these issues (as you have been 
>> doing over the past months… which is fair enough to some degree?)
>> 
>> (and to be fair: at this point, with all the experience I have within the 
>> movement I would want to see most of these decisions researched before 
>> committing to a point of view)
>> 
>> Jan-Bart
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 18, 2013, at 9:19 AM, James Salsman  wrote:
>> 
>>> Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote:
>>>> ...
>>>> if you have questions that you think we should ask: feel free to suggest 
>>>> them here :)
>>> 
>>> I have these ten questions:
>>> 
>>> 1. What do you think a reasonable goal for the growth of the Wikimedia
>>> Education Program over the next five years is?
>>> 
>>> 2. Do you believe that the Foundation should establish an endowment?
>>> If so, how large do you think such an endowment should be; in
>>> particular, should the Foundation establish an endowment large enough
>>> to subsist at present staffing levels and growth rates from current
>>> investment grade bond interest rates without accepting additional
>>> donations? If so, over how many years do you think it would be most
>>> appropriate to establish such an endowment?
>>> 
>>> 3. How often do you think the Foundation should propose advocacy
>>> actions to the community? Do you believe the Foundation should survey
>>> the opinion of the community and donors on this question?
>>> 
>>> 4. Should the Foundation meet or exceed Silicon Valley competitive pay
>>> to attract and retain the best talent while competing with firms able
>>> to offer equity participation? Do you believe the Foundation should
>>> survey the opinion of the community and donors on this question? Why

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hey 

Thanks!

I am sure that Alice is grateful for the input. I must confess though that I 
think that most of these questions require a deep knowledge of the movement and 
the community and as such disqualify a lot of potential candidates… (I would 
hazard a guess that none of the past appointed candidates (including myself) 
were not able to answer 80% of these questions until about 6 months "on the 
job". So are you proposing these questions to select new candidates or are you 
simply trying to get attention for these issues (as you have been doing over 
the past months… which is fair enough to some degree?)

(and to be fair: at this point, with all the experience I have within the 
movement I would want to see most of these decisions researched before 
committing to a point of view)

Jan-Bart



On Feb 18, 2013, at 9:19 AM, James Salsman  wrote:

> Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote:
>> ...
>> if you have questions that you think we should ask: feel free to suggest 
>> them here :)
> 
> I have these ten questions:
> 
> 1. What do you think a reasonable goal for the growth of the Wikimedia
> Education Program over the next five years is?
> 
> 2. Do you believe that the Foundation should establish an endowment?
> If so, how large do you think such an endowment should be; in
> particular, should the Foundation establish an endowment large enough
> to subsist at present staffing levels and growth rates from current
> investment grade bond interest rates without accepting additional
> donations? If so, over how many years do you think it would be most
> appropriate to establish such an endowment?
> 
> 3. How often do you think the Foundation should propose advocacy
> actions to the community? Do you believe the Foundation should survey
> the opinion of the community and donors on this question?
> 
> 4. Should the Foundation meet or exceed Silicon Valley competitive pay
> to attract and retain the best talent while competing with firms able
> to offer equity participation? Do you believe the Foundation should
> survey the opinion of the community and donors on this question? Why
> or why not?
> 
> 5. Should the Foundation establish a system of awarding employee
> bonuses in amounts determined by anonymous peer evaluations? Why or
> why not?
> 
> 6. Some proportion of long term project editors are impoverished,
> probably within a few percentage points of the impoverished proportion
> of the population as a whole. How do you think the Foundation could
> best assist impoverished long term volunteers? Do you think it should?
> Why or why not?
> 
> 7. To what extent do you believe the Foundation should reimburse
> travel and content development expenses for Wikinews contributors? In
> particular, if you were to propose a pilot grant program to grant
> travel and expense funds directly to individual Wikinews reporters,
> how many such awards would you begin with and how would you measure
> their effectiveness?
> 
> 8. PeerWise is a popular closed-source assessment question and answer
> database (http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/) used in hundreds of
> higher education institutions. Unlike textbooks, traditional courses,
> MOOCs, and Moodle-style courses, PeerWise question databases can and
> often are populated entirely by learners, with answers reviewed in a
> style very similar to wiki content. Do you believe it would be
> appropriate for the Foundation to develop an open source version of
> PeerWise? Why or why not?
> 
> 9. Do you believe the Foundation should employ professional fact
> checkers who would not edit reader-facing content on the projects, but
> who would be available to research questions pertaining to content
> disputes at the request of projects' dispute resolution volunteers
> (e.g. Wikipedia mediators) to prepare reports to help volunteers
> resolve content disputes? Why or why not? Do you believe the
> Foundation should survey the opinion of the community and donors on
> this question?
> 
> 10. What is your experience with editing or otherwise supporting
> Foundation projects?
> 
> Sincerely,
> James Salsman


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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Your support is wanted: The WMF Board of Trustees is looking for a new Board member

[Jan-Bart de Vreede]

Hi

I would not think so. In my experience we end up with candidates who appreciate 
a confidential process (especially if they get turned down). We have different 
processes for each of the three different board member types, this is probably 
the most private one. But if you have questions that you think we should ask: 
feel free to suggest them here :)

Regards

Jan-Bart de Vreede
Board of Trustees
Wikimedia Foundation


On Feb 18, 2013, at 5:16 AM, James Salsman  wrote:

> Samuel Klein wrote:
>> 
>> ... The person we find this time will also be through our community
>> and advisor networks
> 
> Will there be an opportunity for the community to pose questions to
> finalists, the answers to which the Board might be able to evaluate in
> making a final decision?
> 
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