Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

The removal is not transparent at all. Apart from that James was community elected. A democracy words different. Very disappointing. > From: rupert.thur...@gmail.com > Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2015 16:51:14 +0100 > To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Call for Board nominees

Hi Board folks and Boryana, Separate from the discussions about Doc James, can we get an update on the appointment of new members? Thanks, Pine On Sep 25, 2015 5:04 PM, "Boryana Dineva" wrote: > Hello everyone, > > As you may have heard, I joined the Wikimedia Foundation

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

I don't think it's been mentioned on this list that Jimmy Wales (one of the board members) commented about this matter today on his En-WP talkpage. Since I assume many people on this list don't follow that page, I have copied his comment below: "Hi everyone. I couldn't possibly agree more that

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

...and you seem to think one can live by an encyclopedia. I can assure you, Wikipedia is a lot of things, but it is not a way of life. To answer your fear which I read between the lines of what you are saying, in order to create a Wikipedia project you need a basic list of 10,000 articles. The

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Community Wishlist Survey: Top 10 wishes!

On 29.12.2015 03:40, Pete Forsyth wrote: > This is not an "either/or" situation. At least in the past, when I have > manually added Wayback Machine links (or seen them added by bots), they do > not *replace* dead links, they merely complement them. The English > Wikipedia templates include two

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 10:00 AM, MZMcBride wrote: > Nathan wrote: > >In any case, its irritating to see people providing cover for the Board's > >lack of transparency or failure to be forthcoming in a timely manner. > > The removal resolution was approved on December 28,

[Wikimedia-l] Congratulations to the first four organizations to receive Simple Annual Plan Grants!

Dear Wikimedia colleagues: In response to feedback about the grants process that identified a gap in support for organizations and groups with annual plans that are not part of the FDC process

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 4:00 PM, MZMcBride wrote: > issue here. This is hardly unusual. Regarding the removal itself, at least > in the United States, it's fairly common for members of a body to be able > to remove/expel one of their own. The Wikimedia Foundation Board of >

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

Interesting link, thanks Gerard! I was referring to a citation for this quote however: "and a > significant > > selection of the information unsourced WikiDatas data lacks the quality, > > integrity we all expect of ourselves when we add content to any of the > > projects." On Tue, Dec 29, 2015

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 12:47 PM, Newyorkbrad wrote: > I don't think it's been mentioned on this list that Jimmy Wales (one > of the board members) commented about this matter today on his En-WP > talkpage. Since I assume many people on this list don't follow that > page,

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board (Olatunde Isaac)

I find the remover of James very disappointing. He was elected by the community and his remover should follow a due process and be transparent to the community who elected him. Olatunde Isaac (User:Wikicology) Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN -Original Message- From:

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

Well I may live in a fantasy world, but that is entirely beside the point. When I say these things will be discovered, that's exactly what you are saying happened years ago. These things will always be discovered, because they are unhidable. In your example the Uzbek Wikipedians have learned to

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Obsessed with secrecy?

Pete, thanks for asking, and for your ever toughtful voice. About my wiki edits: In my volunteer time, I'm a lurker, hack translator, fringe developer, and sometimes say obnoxious things on mailing lists or in this case on metawiki. About my staff position: I've sent this email from my staff

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Obsessed with secrecy?

Hi Adam - Thanks for the email - and the idea. Something like this had been floating around in the back of my head for some time, but I hadn't acted on it yet. I'm in the middle of a desert for a few more days, but have bookmarked this to help contribute to when I return. (Unfortunately this is

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

As an add-on note to Jimmy's comment, although it again comes with the specification that I'm not a lawyer, and the only nonprofit governance experience I have is in California rather than Florida: there's a solid possibility that board meetings aren't held with the same sort of non-disclosure

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Call for Board nominees

Hi Pine, sure, this is where we are: We completed the search for two appointed Board members successfully and we plan to fill the two board positions in the first week of January. We are in the process of final on-boarding steps and will be ready to announce on or before January 5th with regards

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 5:39 PM, Jane Darnell wrote: > Granted, you could > get past the 10,000 article startup requirement somehow and then start > creating lots of POV articles, but once you do this you will soon be > discovered. There is just no way to hide it. Jane,

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Call for Board nominees

Hi Pine, I'm on my phone now and can't reply in detail, but it is my pleasure to write that we're in the very final stages of the process and an announcement early in January should be made. Best, Dariusz Hi Board folks and Boryana, Separate from the discussions about Doc James, can we get an

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Congratulations to the first four organizations to receive Simple Annual Plan Grants!

Thank you Winifred - very good to see this has taken off. SJ On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 1:10 PM, Winifred Olliff wrote: > Dear Wikimedia colleagues: > > In response to feedback about the grants process > < >

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Obsessed with secrecy?

Dear Adam, Here is a sort of meta-request: could you please identify your position at Wikimedia? I will make this suggestion on the page, as one of the very low-hanging fruit items that will make a big difference: if Wikimedia staff could make a regular practice of listing info like their title,

[Wikimedia-l] Obsessed with secrecy?

There is a lot of room for improving the WMF's transparency and accountability to the broader community. Please help identify our shortcomings by contributing to this page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Transparency_Gap -Adam ___ Wikimedia-l

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

Well the longer this drags on, the more likelihood of us getting a "false" answer ..it takes seconds to speak the truth, but days to connive a lie..so i doubt we will get the 'truth' or atleast the full truth.. On 12/30/15, Craig Franklin wrote: > Thanks Brad for

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Obsessed with secrecy?

Many thanks Adam! A worthy effort, to be sure. I'll visit and dive in some time tomorrow. Pete [[User: Peteforsyth]] On Dec 29, 2015 3:13 PM, "Adam Wight" wrote: > Pete, thanks for asking, and for your ever toughtful voice. > > About my wiki edits: In my volunteer time,

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

Thanks Brad for spotting this and bringing it here, and also to Jimbo for filling in a few more details. Just as an aside, my thinking is that this must have needed to be an emergency action. Because if the BoT has been mulling this over for awhile, it would be very poor governance to not have a

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Congratulations to the first four organizations to receive Simple Annual Plan Grants!

...And thank you Winifred, for working tirelessly to facilitate this process, and overcome the difficulties of having to coordinate 8 different timezones, as well as improving the S-APG process on-the-fly. Remarkable! I look forward to participating in the next cycle ;) Happy holidays, -- -Ido

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Congratulations to the first four organizations to receive Simple Annual Plan Grants!

Congratulations to the grantees and the committee members, who have helped throughout the process! Regards Tanweer On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 9:30 AM, ido ivri wrote: > ...And thank you Winifred, for working tirelessly to facilitate this > process, and overcome the

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

I am not so ready to throw stones (: Perhaps because I have had one-on-one conversations with a number of people involved in this situation, and I would like to believe that they are all good people. Reports that are rushed can lead to mistaken conclusions. I'd rather get a comprehensive report

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

Dear Patricio, Dear Board members On 29.12.2015 00:29, Patricio Lorente wrote: > Today the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted to remove one of the > Trustees, Dr. James Heilman, from the Board. His term ended effective > immediately. This is not how a democratic system works. James'

Re: [Wikimedia-l] AWB & Ubuntu: Can really someone help?

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 9:31 AM, Ilario Valdelli wrote: > AWB is made in C#. > > C# runs in .NET. > > .NET is like a virtual machine to abstract the layer of the operating > system. > > .NET runs in Windows doesn't run in Linux based OS. > Not really. Apart from Mono, we

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

On 29 Dec 2015 01:17, "Todd Allen" wrote: > > Even if there are legal reasons that disclosure is not possible, a simple > statement to that effect ("For legal reasons, we cannot provide additional > information") should be at the very least forthcoming. > > If the removal

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

On 29/12/15 07:37, MZMcBride wrote: Right, that part isn't surprising. But discounting the unsurprising vote, it was a nearly unanimous decision (8 to 1). I have a good deal of respect for many of the current Board of Trustees members and I have no doubt that all of them understand and

Re: [Wikimedia-l] AWB & Ubuntu: Can really someone help?

On 29.12.2015 10:10, Petr Kadlec wrote: On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 9:31 AM, Ilario Valdelli wrote: AWB is made in C#. C# runs in .NET. .NET is like a virtual machine to abstract the layer of the operating system. .NET runs in Windows doesn't run in Linux based OS. Not

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

> > This is when sources truly become vital. But do > remember, the POV of the USA and many of its sources are as suspect as > those from Kazakhstan. ​And that is why regardless of the fact a citation is so important, ​ ​because the person receiving the information must able to make their own

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

http://www.amnesty.nl/sites/default/files/public/ainl_guidelines_use_of_force.pdf On 29 December 2015 at 13:30, Jane Darnell wrote: > citation needed > > On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 1:27 PM, Gnangarra wrote: > > > > > > > This is when sources truly become

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

We need an attorney, but... It looks like Bylaws IV sect 7 *could* override 617.0808 (1) via 617.0808 (2) which says that a IRS 501 (c) organization's bylaws can provide procedures (presumably different than 617.0808 (1) ), but says that you may include 617.0808 (1), and WMF does, explicitly.

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

On 2015-12-29, George Herbert wrote: > I do think the Foundation legal staff need to review and some fix to > this needs to be made to the Bylaws for the future, either overriding > 617.0808 (1) (a) 2. explicitly or by making community vote explicitly > the recall

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

Hoi, That is a circular argument. Thanks, GerardM On 29 December 2015 at 13:33, Gnangarra wrote: > no I agree quality is more than just the sources, but without sources > quality cannot be achieved > > On 29 December 2015 at 20:29, Gerard Meijssen

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 10:44 AM, Lilburne wrote: > On 28/12/2015 18:00, Jane Darnell wrote: > >> All I said is that the wiki way works, that's all. You can't hide it when >> someone tries to take over a project, and that is the reason we shouldn't >> try to

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

2015-12-29 10:15 GMT+01:00 Isarra Yos : > It says a lot, but just what that is depends entirely on the context. And > for community members who voted for him, that context could mean we should > also no longer have confidence in him elsewhere in the projects, or in the >

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

there are bigger questions than why like; - how can this take place - how can the community ensure its representatives independence in the future, - what effect will this have on other elected representatives on the board The Florida statute(

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

Nathan wrote: >In any case, its irritating to see people providing cover for the Board's >lack of transparency or failure to be forthcoming in a timely manner. The removal resolution was approved on December 28, 2015, according to wikimediafoundation.org. Unlike most Board resolutions, it was

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimania 2017 to be held in Montréal in Canada

Congratulations Montreal! S On 22 December 2015 at 10:53, James Forrester wrote: > All, > > I am delighted to announce on behalf of the Wikimania Committee that > Wikimania, the annual Wikimedia community conference, will be held in > Montréal, Canada in 8–13 August

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

citation needed On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 1:27 PM, Gnangarra wrote: > > > > This is when sources truly become vital. But do > > remember, the POV of the USA and many of its sources are as suspect as > > those from Kazakhstan. > > > ​And that is why regardless of the fact a

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

I don't think all the legal speculation here is very helpful. I'm sure the Board or someone else will sagely advise us that the board is self-governing and self-perpetuating and no other legal authority is necessary. In any case, its irritating to see people providing cover for the Board's lack

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

It's more complex if they've acted illegally, certainly. Under the law they're citing, it looks like they have. Since community directors are elected by a "class" (editors meeting the eligibility requirements), the law states removal would be possible only by that class, one would presume by

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

> > BTW, it's more "community selected" than "community representative". There's an important distinction there. > Quite - all WMF trustees have identical responsibilities, regardless of which method of selection resulted in them being on the board. For instance Alice and Phoebe both served on

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

no I agree quality is more than just the sources, but without sources quality cannot be achieved On 29 December 2015 at 20:29, Gerard Meijssen wrote: > Hoi, > You do not get the point or you deliberately distort it. The point is that > quality is not sources. Quality

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

Hoi, it is a great shitstorm Do remember that a community chosen representative voted the other community chosen representative out. It is not a case of he must be good, the others are bad. It is more complicated. Thanks, GerardM On 29 December 2015 at 13:19, Gnangarra

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

Bylaws IV Sect 3. (C) says that they're elected by the community then approved by the board subject to other requirements. Starting (first sentence) with "Three Trustees will be selected from candidates approved through community voting." would seem to make them subject to 617.0808 (1) (a) 2.

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quality issues

Hoi, So you have determined that people can be manipulated. Good, then what? If this is the tack that you take you will be grounded because there is no plan. It is a negative attitude that only stifles. Quality is not only in sources, sources can be and are manipulations in their own right. Many

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement about changes to the Board

From what I understand, the community elections don't directly elect/appoint WMF board members, but essentially provide a recommendation that the WMF board then approves. Have a look at the text of: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:James_Heilman_appointment_2015