After reading Tomasz's (Odder) blog post[1] on the
Wikipedian-in-Residence (WiR) at Harvard in 2012 and in response to
Fae's and Pine's questions to the WMF on this list, I thought I would
post my thoughts/report on this issue, as it touches on a few areas of
which I have both professional (HRM and IR) and wiki (International
relations articles on English Wikipedia) expertise.[2]
I have broken this into sections covering each of the players in what
is a major fiasco for the Wikimedia Foundation. I do apologise that
some of the reference numbering is out of order.
== Stanton Foundation ==
The Stanton Foundation has been a long-term donor to the Wikimedia
Foundation,[3] and their 990 for the year 2012 indicates that it has
some US$221,311,214 in assets.[4] Stanton has no website, and apart
from several high-profile grants to the Wikimedia Foundation, it has
made grants to the Council on Foreign Relations,[5] MIT's Department
of Political Science,[6] the Rand Corporation,[7] and Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace,[8] in addition to the Belfer
Center.[9] All of these organisations operate in the arena of
international relations. These grants are aligned with Frank Stanton's
history on input on US nuclear security policy.[10] Other grants which
aren't clear as to how they are in Stanton's mission include the US$3
million grant to the Animal Rescue League of Boston.[11] That little
is known about Stanton isn't uncommon, given it is a private
foundation where donations are more often made via personal
connections and in areas of their interest.
The trustee of Stanton and contact point for the Wikimedia Foundation
is Elisabeth (Liz) K. Allison, who was a long-time friend of Frank
Stanton.[12] Liz was key to the creation of the WMF Public Policy
Initiative (PPI),[13] and has attended several sessions of PPI
events.[14] Her apparent LinkedIn profile[15] states that she is a
business negotiator at the Harvard Business School; having previously
been a director of the MSPCA,[16] which could explain Stanton's grant
to the Animal Rescue League of Boston. Other information on Liz is
scarce, but it is evident from the 2010,[17] 2011,[18] and 2012[4] 990
filings for Stanton, that Liz is one of only two trustees; the other
being a financial adviser/lawyer, so it would be fair to assume that
Liz determines how Stanton Funds are spent, whilst the financial
adviser/lawyer makes sure everything is legal, etc.
From the outset, it should be noted that Liz Allison (Stanton) is
married to Graham Allison (Belfer).[12] Whilst this may on the surface
raise eyebrows as to an obvious conflict of interest, this could be
discounted when analysing why Stanton decided to fund this WiR
position. The likely reasoning is a combination of Liz's involvement
in the WMF Public Policy Initiative program and a desire to want to
expand Stanton's involvement in Wikipedia in areas of its interest --
namely nuclear security.
As mentioned above, Liz was instrumental in the creation of the PPI,
and in November 2010 the PPI team met with Liz for a mid-point
stagegate meeting and on the project she stated:
This is exactly what we expected from the initiative. This is what we
wanted. Keep going.[23]
Given Liz's involvement and enthusiasm for the PPI, and given
Stanton's grants to organisations involved in international
relations/nuclear security and policy, it isn't surprising that
Liz/Stanton would want to look at getting a WiR into organisations
that it has given grants to. In all likelihood, the Belfer WiR
position was part of a concept program which was being driven by Liz
herself to do exactly that.
== Belfer Center ==
As noted in Tomasz's blog post, Belfer is a research centre within the
John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Named
after Robert A. Belfer, the research centre in its online bio of the
oil magnate[19] neglects to mention that he was a director of Enron,
and was quite possibly one of the biggest financial losers[20] in the
Enron scandal[21]. Wikipedia has an article about the Belfer Center,
but not about its namesake.
The current, and long-time, director of Belfer is Graham Allison[22],
the Founding Dean of the Kennedy School, who has held advisory roles
in the Reagan and Clinton governments, and been on the board of a
multitude of corporations, notably in the oil and banking industries.
Given the abovementioned grant by Stanton to Belfer, nuclear security
is also an area which interests Belfer.
== Timothy Sandole ==
As noted on Tomasz's blog, Timothy Sandole only registered on 10 July
2012; the day applications closed. His first edit to Wikipedia was to
an article written about his grandfather.[39] On 30 July 2012, Sandole
cemented his credentials for the job in edits to the nuclear
terrorism article, in which he heavily uses materials
written/co-authored by Graham Allison.[40] Prior to his successful
application for the position, this is basically the gist of his
editing career on Wikipedia.
