Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: WMF Policy and Political Affiliations Guideline
On 8/2/12 7:51 AM, Samuel Klein wrote: And I would love to see the foundation practice delegating some of this bureaucracy and responsibility to non-staff groups. We have no shortage of energy, talent, and experience there in the community. In addition, there's a fairly well-organized set of advocacy groups in related areas (Creative Commons, FSF, EFF), who perhaps some of the work could be delegated to? There would still be a need for a process to decide when Wikimedia should do things such as agreeing to sign on to an EFF amicus brief. But imo it makes sense to leave most of the legwork to advocacy organizations who focus on it. -Mark ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: WMF Policy and Political Affiliations Guideline
David Gerard wrote: On 2 August 2012 05:13, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: This appears to be an unprecedented power-grab by the office of the General Counsel. Um ... that's a bizarre perception. Is it? I read through the page at Meta-Wiki and couldn't help but notice that every involvement required the approval of the General Counsel. I read the linked Board resolution (https://wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Recognizing_Models_of_Affiliations) and looked around wikimediafoundation.org and Meta-Wiki trying to find a resolution or vote that directed the General Counsel to develop this kind of policy, but didn't find anything. Philippe seemed to suggest that there's a distinction between outside groups approaching the Wikimedia Foundation for support and the community making its own requests. The distinction seems incredibly murky and doesn't seem likely to become clearer over time. What type of action was the SOPA blackout in January? MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: WMF Policy and Political Affiliations Guideline
On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 9:45 AM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote: On 2 August 2012 05:13, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: This appears to be an unprecedented power-grab by the office of the General Counsel. Um ... that's a bizarre perception. Well, just look at the number of scenarios where the democratically elected board is entirely out of the loop, or at best (possibly) consulted. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Foundation_Policy_and_Political_Affiliations_Guideline ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: WMF Policy and Political Affiliations Guideline
Seriously stop hijacking this thread. Let MZMcBride have a chance at some discussion on his question. This below is just not cool. Have some respect for MZMcBride. He didn't write out his thoughts or concerns with idea that the first reply would turn it all into snip fodder. That seems beyond demoralizing to me. I know I am as guilty of a tangent as anyone, but can't we all, at the very least, agree to let one another's sincere *questions* stand without being twisted beyond all recognition. We need to insist on there being some lines in respect for the other person's voice, or else we are all better off to just write a blogs. The only point to joining a mailing list is so you might hear what others wish to say. As a sort of pact. This mailing list, I like it as a mailing list; I think it sucks as a blog. Birgitte SB On Aug 2, 2012, at 7:45 PM, Andreas Kolbe jayen...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 12:11 PM, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: What type of action was the SOPA blackout in January? You mean, given the $500,000 Google donation Wikimedia received in November 2011, one month after the Italian Wikipedia's blackout, and two months before the English Wikipedia's SOPA blackout, and round about the time Wikimedia first made public statements denouncing SOPA? Good question. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: WMF Policy and Political Affiliations Guideline
There has been discussion about this in the past. To second Philippe's comment: A uniform process makes sense. In practice, most of the advocacy or policy positions of the WMF have for years taken the form of amicus briefs. And positions the WMF takes on behalf of promoting, preserving, or collaborating on free knowledge fall under the mandate of the LCA team (since this spring). So we're starting from a position where that team has the most experience and day-to-day concern with such positions. And there is no t yet an organized community body that tracks such things - despite the idea of an advocacy advisory group. I do think there are quite a lot of different staff with approval in the current guideline. Must it be so time-consuming? And I would love to see the foundation practice delegating some of this bureaucracy and responsibility to non-staff groups. We have no shortage of energy, talent, and experience there in the community. SJ On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 12:32 AM, Philippe Beaudette, Wikimedia Foundation pbeaude...@wikimedia.org wrote: Hi MZ - I'm surprised by this, given that it clearly delineates that it doesn't impact community requests at all, and only applies to requests that come to the Foundation. It seems logical that there be a uniform process for routing those internally and this is an attempt to transparently tell the community what that process is. The alternative is to have no policy for handling it and make it up every time. Regardless, if you have specific concerns, perhaps you could lay them out at the talk page and we can figure out if it makes sense to modify or adjust the policy in some way? PB --- Philippe Beaudette Director, Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation, Inc Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -Original Message- From: MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com Sender: wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:13:47 To: Wikimedia Mailing Listwikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Reply-To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: WMF Policy and Political Affiliations Guideline Geoff Brigham wrote: Since the SOPA blackout, we have had a number of requests come in for public affiliations regarding policy and political issues. The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is not a political organization, and many may argue understandably that our role is to support great projects - not politics. That said, we recognize that there may be select times where such affiliations should be considered, and, in those cases, we should have a review process in place, especially where there is strong community interest in an issue. To make sure that the right parties, including the community, are involved in the review process, we have created the Policy and Political Affiliations Guideline http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Foundati on_Policy_and_Political_Affiliations_Guidelineto clarify when and how the WMF associates itself publicly on policy and political issues. This guideline is an internal ³rule of thumb² covering requests to and actions by the WMF - without restricting the independent actions of the community. The guideline sets out a number of different types of affiliations and examines when review is appropriate by the community, WMF staff, and the Board of Trustees. This appears to be an unprecedented power-grab by the office of the General Counsel. Was there any Board or community support for placing so much power in an unelected and unaccountable lawyer? MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l -- Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
