Though I'm trying to cut back on the number of posts I make to this list, I want to respond to a couple points made in this thread.
First I totally understand - and agree - that we can't expect immediate board comment on Arnnon's appointment. Although I think the degree of the issue should've been discovered in pre-appointment due diligence, it seems like the issue and it's degree has caught many of the trustees by surprise - even if figuring out how to respond to issues like this was their full time (and since even the trustees are volunteers, it's certainly not,) it would take some time to come up with a reasonable response, and they should certainly be given the time they need to form an appropriate response. However, I also want to respond to the suggestion that people are bringing out their pitchforks based solely on media coverage of Arnnon's actions. Although there are still shareholder lawsuits underway and there has certainly been gossipy media coverage, the employee settlement has already been agreed to upon by the companies (and class representatives) involved, many of the documents involved have been released by order of the federal judge involved, etc. Arnnon's emails that I sent a copy of out earlier on this thread don't come from someone leaking to Gawker - they were given by Google to a federal judge, and then unsealed by her order. We're not in a situation where there's just media gossip that Arnnon was involved in some way in setting up an illegal and unethical anti-solicitation agreement between tech companies - rather, he was found to play a fairly integral role in it's creation by a federal judge. Some lawsuits are settled to make them go away, but nearly half a billion dollars is not "This is a groundless lawsuit, but it'll cost less to settle it than to make it go away" territory - even for the companies involved, as large as they are. Best, Kevin Gorman On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 1:21 PM, Pete Forsyth <petefors...@gmail.com> wrote: > Anders, thank you for your thoughtful message; I understand your position > much better now, and see much to agree with: > > On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 1:08 PM, Anders Wennersten < > m...@anderswennersten.se> > wrote: > > > I used the word Superprotect but could just as well said the disastrous > > implementation of Visual Editor, which definitely was not the doing of > > Lila. And the very positive response to Community Wishlist i have read on > > this list (and on the talkpages), I have not co,me across any real > negative > > feedback.across > > > > Yes, I agree -- the organization's software development processes are > improved under Lila's leadership. Significant positive steps have been > taken, no question -- and she certainly deserves some credit for that. > > I am happy to read that there were several in the tech org who initiated > > this, and that there is a positive feeling of it. I was 25 years ago for > > seven years was a manager of a org developing sw tools for 3000 sw > > developer (very similar the WMF setup) and I went through the process of > > going from inside-out. And I learned that the setup of "wishlists" etc > was > > the easy part. I learned that when this was in place the internal org and > > roles had to be redefined (it was not upwards you had to look what to > > implement but to the community). > > > I don't know for sure, but my impression is that in this case, much of this > has been done simultaneously; internal structures have been changing > alongside the processes for community engagement. I expect there is much > credit for that to be shared among various parties, including Lila. > > And there were a lot of squeaks before the org got sorted out, but then the > > people got very stimulated working in a outside-in organisation. > > > > Glad to hear of this experience. > > > > And from this perspective I actually think the Board made a very good > work > > identifying the competence Geshuri has which I believe is just what the > > Board and WMF needs just now. > > > That very well may be the case. I do not have a strong opinion on Mr. > Geshuri's competencies, and am happy to defer to your more-informed > perspective. I am heartened to hear that the Board may have done good work > in identifying and addressing certain missing competencies (even if there > may be separate issues with the specific choice). > > I do think there are two significant issues with Mr. Geshuri's appointment, > though -- the second of which has not been brought up yet: > (1) The Board did not apparently do basic due diligence in looking into his > background > (2) Mr. Geshuri himself did not highlight the Google firing issue to the > board prior to his appointment, which makes me wonder about his judgment. > > The problems associated with him is already identified and I am not denying > > these, but please give the Board also credit for their good work, not > just > > blaming when (and if) they make mistakes > > > I am happy to do so, but I must say -- so much of the board's work is > invisible to me, that I rarely have enough information to do so. > > -Pete > [[User:Peteforsyth]] > _______________________________________________ > 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> > _______________________________________________ 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>
