Welcome Esra'a! I look forward to working with you. :) Mike, as Cristian says - the Wikimedia movement has a history of trying to balance the safety concerns of volunteers in not-so-free regions (to put it mildly...) with having them contribute to our projects and events. We *need* these contributions, these voices - but we can sometimes be hard-pressed to understand the challenges associated. Esra'a is not requesting "security by obscurity" - she already has had ample media coverage and recognition, as can be read in the announcement. She has even attended and given a (wonderful) keynote at Wikimania a few months ago. We *can* successfully figure out together how to balance having her voice present while respecting her safety needs.
Again, thank you Esra'a for your willingness to take up the challenge of serving on the WMF Board! Kind regards, María El 2 dic. 2017 5:31, "Cristian Consonni" <[email protected]> escribió: On 01/12/2017 23:22, Michael Peel wrote: > Thank you, Esra’a, for volunteering! Welcome,Esra'a! > However, I’m very concerned by this: > > "P.S. Due to the nature of Esra’a’s work, sharing photos or videos of Esra’a may endanger her safety or the safety of others. To help ensure the privacy and safety of Esra’a and her colleagues, we are not sharing any photographs or videos of Esra'a. We ask that you please join us in supporting this important safety consideration.” > > This is security by obscurity (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q133735) - which is at best a temporary measure that won’t last, particularly in a high-profile position like this. Aside from the potential media coverage, Wikimedia events are very well photographed by Wikimedians who want to illustrate a rather well-read encyclopaedia… This leads to an awkward situation where someone’s safety and Wikimedia’s openness are conflicting, which is not OK. Sorry, but I have to disagree, Mike. Openness - as generally understood in Wikimedia - does not conflict with respecting someone's privacy, much less so with not endangering their safety. I believe that respecting the privacy and anonymity of our editors (and readers, as well) is a value of Wikimedia. Furthermore, I feel that Wikimedians value very highly their privacy and anonimity, in fact, there are several Wikipedians with whom I have edited pages for years now, and I still have no idea of their real names, their age, their gender or where they live. All I know is their nicknames on the projects and it's perfectly fine like that. There are several rules that the communities have adopted to protect the privacy and anonymity of every user. Even at in-person events, there are usually ways to signal the fact that one does not want to be photographed or have photos or recordings of him/her, put online. You can also wear a badge with just your nickname and not your real name, so that's not new even for our live events. I agree with the idea that occupying a high-profile position and trying to limit one's own exposure are conflicting goals, but I am sure that this was very carefully. So, I understand that this may seem different from the usual, but, actually, it is not. Ciao, _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wik i/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
