On 6 January 2016 at 02:09, Liam Wyatt <liamwy...@gmail.com> wrote: > I've always believed that Wikimedia is an education charity that happens to > exist exists in a technology field. I often note in presentations that I > give that the Wikimedia vision statement does NOT use the words, Internet, > or Wiki, or Encyclopedia. But these appointments indicate the Board and WMF > Executive believe Wikimedia is a technology charity that happens to exists > in the education field. > > These appointments will make a crucial difference to how the new WMF > strategic direction will go - and clearly the leadership is wanting to make > us act more like a Californian dot-com and less like a global education > charity. Less "community consensus building" and more "move fast and break > things" - is the message I am reading here.
I would like to very much second Liam's concerns here. This feels like we're drifting further into the bubble of SF technology companies, and frankly the world needs less of that not more. I think it's valuable that we have some board members with experience from outside the Wikimedia bubble - but also very important that we try to avoid too large a proportion of the board coming from within the SF technology bubble. This feels like a step sideways in that regard, and it's unsettling. (I also agree with his concerns about diversity, but we're not always great at solving that through the elected seats either, to be fair...) -- - Andrew Gray andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
