Wikimedia Foundation elections/Board elections/2015/Questions/4

The elections have not begun. Candidates and votes will not be accepted.
Help translate the election.

Translate this page with Google into: Afrikaans (af) · azərbaycanca (az) · Bahasa Indonesia (id) · Bahasa Melayu (ms) · Jawa (jv) · bosanski (bs) · català (ca) · Cebuano (ceb) · čeština (cs) · Cymraeg (cy) · dansk (da) · Deutsch (de) · eesti (et) · English (en) · español (es) · Esperanto (eo) · euskara (eu) · français (fr) · Gaeilge (ga) · galego (gl) · Hausa (ha) · Hmoob (hmn) · hrvatski (hr) · Igbo (ig) · isiZulu (zu) · íslenska (is) · italiano (it) · Kiswahili (sw) · Kreyòl ayisyen (ht) · Latina (la) · latviešu (lv) · lietuvių (lt) · Māori (mi) · magyar (hu) · Malti (mt) · Nederlands (nl) · norsk (no) · polski (pl) · português (pt) · română (ro) · shqip (sq) · slovenčina (sk) · slovenščina (sl) · Soomaaliga (so) · suomi (fi) · svenska (sv) · Türkçe (tr) · Tagalog (tl) · Tiếng Việt (vi) · Yorùbá (yo) · Ελληνικά (el) · беларуская (be) · български (bg) · македонски (mk) · монгол (mn) · русский (ru) · српски / srpski (sr) · українська (uk) · հայերեն (hy) · ქართული (ka) · नेपाली (ne) · मराठी (mr) · हिन्दी (hi) · বাংলা (bn) · ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (pa) · ગુજરાતી (gu) · தமிழ் (ta) · తెలుగు (te) · ಕನ್ನಡ (kn) · ไทย (th) · ລາວ (lo) · ភាសាខ្មែរ (km) · 한국어 (ko) · 日本語 (ja) · 中文（简体） (zh-hans) · 中文（繁體） (zh-hant) · ייִדיש (yi) · עברית (he) · اردو (ur) · العربية (ar) · فارسی (fa)

Distribution

Hi! Thanks for volunteering as a candidate for the Wikimedia Board. I have two questions. This one is about distribution freedom. As you know, free information implies freedoms to get, modify, and distribute content. Wikimedia Foundation is there to support and advance such information freedoms. In my opinion the 'anyone can edit' concept is an attempt at exercising the 'free to get and modify' freedom, but I have two concerns.

1) I believe that the current implementation of «anyone can edit» is a failure because of MediaWiki's bugs in flaggedrevs regarding templates, and because of inadequate diff viewer for reviewing edits.

The way 'anyone can edit' works right now is encountering problems, especially on large wikis, as some pages are being protected and people are being shelled out of editing them, especially templates.

Thanks to flaggedrevs, some pages are still editable, and a reviewer needs to approve the edit for it to be visible to other readers. But flaggedrevs has two bugs which prevent it from being used and scaling properly:
a) For templates flaggedrevs is buggy and even a latest (even if unapproved) version of a template is always included.

This bug impact is full protection of popular templates and introduction of the template editor right for lack of sysop human power to review the requested edits on the English Wikipedia.

b) Instead of relying on git or other good old tested diffing software, an in-house mediawiki's php diff viewer is used, and as it is inadequate, the review backlog is increasing, making the sysops think that the flaggedrevs process is not successful. T

This bug impact is full or partial protection from popular pages.

In both cases, newcomers are assumed bad faith and driven away from editing.

Most people would be too lazy to request an edit after realizing that the page is read-only.
And there is no way to measure how many people closed the tab after seeing that the page is read-only.

In my view, the WMF Engineering department consistently ignores the two above problems but doing so is a mistake.

2) I believe that providing adequate decentralized infrastructure for distributing content is vital for the success of the Wikimedia movement.

The right/freedom to distribute content is not supported by the existing infrastructure. There is Wikia, but it is still centralized and making modifications to mediawiki or extensions on it is not possible. I would like to see the Wikimedia Foundation run a decentralized wiki program where anyone can copy a page or a number of pages (i.e. category members) to his own instance and edit them at leisure, including re-distribution and making them published. Running such program would also foster an increase in the number of mediawiki contributors. As with software, any useful edits from the copied versions can be cherry-picked back to Wikimedia projects.

An interesting related essay: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

Please comment on these two problems. Thank you. --Gryllida 02:17, 17 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Houcemeddine Turki (Csisc)

No response yet.

Sailesh Patnaik (Saileshpat)

No response yet.

Dariusz Jemielniak (Pundit)

I agree with the first point. On a more general level, many of our tools are not really functioning well. A thing I personally think is even more lacking, is proper bug reporting - Bugzilla is not a tool that allows for any sensible discussion with the community (and this example shows, why it is a problem). Per your second point, I think it would be good to have increased distribution, but and also a decentralized wiki. I would even dream of a totally dispersed distribution (after all, with enough users all over the world, a lot could be mirrored at users' computers, by their consent). However, I think that a change in this respect would be a huge software project, and I basically think we have more urging issues for the next two years.

Mohamed Ouda (Mohamed Ouda)

I agree with the Flagged revisions although it make growing the articles slower but It protect from many vandalism editing , and I am also din't get the second question could you please clarify it more .

Josh Lim (Sky Harbor)

No response yet.

David Conway (Smerus)

I guess it's clear by now to those who have been reading my replies that I am not much above a layman when it comes to software issues. Again, I would need to review an evidence base to assess how serious is the problem of 'people being shelled out of editing'. However question 1, whilst it clearly reflects a genuine concern of Gryllida, doesn't give me any idea of the prevalence of the problems involved and it seems from its wording that there is 'no way to measure how many people' are affected by it. If there is a serious problem and if it is being exacerbated by the type of software being used, then evidently that is an issue for policy discussion and steps should be taken to address it.

As regards question 2, I agree that free distribution of content is an important part of the wiki projects. However, when we go beyond our immediate boundaries and start to try to specify how third parties distribute content, we get into deep water. We already see (on Google) how wiki material is widely recirculated under other 'branding', and sometimes edited/manipulated in the process. How do we animate distribution whilst preserving integrity? It doesn't seem to me that this proposal is an appropriate answer.--Smerus (talk) 06:13, 19 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Francis Kaswahili Kaguna (Francis Kaswahili)

No response yet.

Cristian Consonni (CristianCantoro)

No response yet.

Peter Gallert (Pgallert)

No response yet.

María Sefidari (Raystorm)

No response yet.

Phoebe Ayers (Phoebe)

No response yet.

Denny Vrandečić (Denny)

No response yet.

Ali Haidar Khan (Tonmoy) (Ali Haidar Khan)

No response yet.

Nisar Ahmed Syed (అహ్మద్ నిసార్)

No response yet.

James Heilman (Doc James)

Flagged revisions is a great idea. I agree that it does need more work to get it functioning smoothly and believe that the fact that it is slow is part of the reason it is used so little.

Yes anyone can edit. But that does not mean the bar to editing all of Wikipedia should be zero. We are radically opener than anything that has come before and while this has contributed to our success it has also come at the cost of many thousands of hours of volunteer time cleaning up poor quality edits.

In established languages, we are no longer a new encyclopedia in need of any old content. To take Wikipedia to the next level of quality requires research and consistent effort. Those who are serious about Wikipedia will spend the time to register an account and build a reputation. One of the first articles I tried to edit was semi protected. I ended up working on another topic until I was autoconfirmed. I do not think judicious use of semi protection turns away the editors we are most in need of.

I am not sure I understand the second part of the question. I have an entire copy of Wikipedia and Wikivoyage on my laptop. I could run my own instance of Mediawiki and set it up how I wish and many people do. There are more than 2000 mirrors of Wikipedia content for example. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 09:27, 18 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Tim Davenport (Carrite)

I do not have a fundamentalist understanding of "anyone can edit." That's a lovely slogan, but it's simply not true, never has been true, and never will be true. Yet we still allow anybody to make changes through any IP address, without registration or accountability of any kind, and are left with the volunteer community to clean up the mess. Anyone can edit. Yes. Register an account and do good work, maintain NPOV firmly, commit no spam, provide sources — your contribution is welcome. That is what "anyone can edit" should mean. So am I concerned about random newcomers and potential vandals being locked out of template editing? Not in the least. Prove yourself to gain advanced rights. This is not what the questioner wants to hear but it is the way that we should approach things, speaking as a Wikipedian. As a board member I would say this: these matters are to be decided by each functioning language encyclopedia's volunteer community. But if an encyclopedia wants to require registration, I pledge to work my hardest to keep WMF from intervening against this and vetoing community action.

I am not a fan of flagged revisions, speaking personally as a Wikipedian.

As for the distribution of content: we release under a license providing for free reuse. That is the ultimate form of decentralized distribution. WMF's purpose is the production of content, helping to make sure that the best possible set of language encyclopedias are created and maintained. The distribution of that content produced is a matter for others, who have made it ubiquitous. Carrite (talk) 17:27, 17 May 2015 (UTC) —Last edit: Carrite (talk) 18:02, 17 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Samuel Klein (Sj)

No response yet.

Syed Muzammiluddin (Hindustanilanguage)

No response yet.

Edward Saperia (EdSaperia)

No response yet.

Mike Nicolaije (Taketa)

No response yet.

Kuhusu Africa

Mimi naitwa Diana Sherina francis nataka kujua uhusiano wa bara Africa je kuna mtu gani aliwahi kuchaguliwa kuwa kiongozi wa Wikimedia foundation najua kwa sasa kunamchakato wa uchaguzi kwa ajili ya wajumbe wa Body, ili kujua msima wa Wikimedia kama na sisi tunasifa ya kugombe kwenye hiyo Bodi --Dianasherina 13:05, 18 May 2015 (UTC) [reply]

Unconfirmed rough translation: I want to know the relationship of the continent Africa is to anyone that would like to serve on the board.

Houcemeddine Turki (Csisc)

No response yet.

Sailesh Patnaik (Saileshpat)

No response yet.

Dariusz Jemielniak (Pundit)

Apologies, if my automated translator-supported understanding of Swahili leads to a misunderstanding. So far, NEVER in the history of our movement has anyone outside of Northern America and Western Europe got elected. I am from Poland (Central Europe), which is a well doing country now (GDP per capita 4x bigger than that of Ukraine, 4x smaller than that of France), but I did have experience of living for 1 USD per day, as well as living in a totalitarian regime with censorship. As I have stated elsewhere, as a Board member I would like to animate Wikimedia Zero project, as well as focus on accessibility and fostering local communities, such as Wikimedia AZ (which, sadly, has withdrawn from the FDC process, but I hope it will get back in the next round).

Mohamed Ouda (Mohamed Ouda)

I am from continent Africa , Egypt and I think the board should contain people from different regions around the world

Josh Lim (Sky Harbor)

We need to increase engagement in the developing world, and this is something that the Foundation has failed to do not only in Africa, but elsewhere too. Like others who will answer this question, my understanding of it will be incomplete, but let's face the facts here:

The WMF Board is overwhelmingly composed of people from the developed world. As Pundit pointed out, not a single member in the history of community-elected Board seats has come from outside the United States or Western Europe. There is only one person from the developing world in the current Board.
The Wikimedia model scales poorly in developing countries. In societies where people are forced to think about more basic needs, it is extremely difficult to find dedicated volunteers who would have the time and the resources to contribute to Wikimedia. At the same time, resources are less abundant, leaving them out of the greater narrative.

In order for the Wikimedia Foundation to really understand developing world issues, it needs someone there in a position of authority who actually comes from that world and who knows what they're going through. So far, of the candidates in this election, I am the only candidate capable of providing that. --Sky Harbor ^(talk) 21:39, 19 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

David Conway (Smerus)

My connection with Africa is slight - brief visits to Egypt and a South African son-in-law. Outside Western Europe I have a lot of experience of Russia (outside Moscow and St. Petersburg - including Murmansk, Irkutsk, Astrakhan, Kaliningrad), Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova,the Caucasus countries and the Central Asian countries. Also of Sri Lanka where I set up a clothing manufacturing unit some years ago. I spend a lot of time in our second home in Eastern Slovakia. It's of course up to voters to determine their own criteria for casting their votes. As regards the wiki movement in the developing world as a whole, see my answer to the next question. Should the lead criterion in voting be the geographic location and experience of the candidate, should it to be to make some kind of 'statement' about the voter's own bugbears about software or politics, should it be to choose representatives who will have the experience and vision to help steer the Board to constructive decisions about the role and future of the Wiki movement? You decide!--Smerus (talk) 05:29, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Francis Kaswahili Kaguna (Francis Kaswahili)

Thank you very much Dianasherinafor your supportive question About Africa, the issue here is Africans them selves to come together and my point here is to volunteer on WMF project. my plan to our continent is mobilizing more users, and about elected some one from Africa it hasn't may be tomorrow if not a day after tomorrow and please Dianasherina don't be discouraged WMF and it's projectsis for every one. Francis Kaswahili talk 19:06, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Cristian Consonni (CristianCantoro)

No response yet.

Peter Gallert (Pgallert)

No response yet.

María Sefidari (Raystorm)

I have tried to translate the question, but have too met with some difficulties. My understanding is you're asking about our involvement with Africa and African content.

I come from Southern Europe, specifically Spain. As you can tell from my profile pic, my heritage is more varied than that. I am also half Persian, and have family living in Iran with whom I am in fairly regular contact. I have travelled extensively including Africa. But regarding content, recently this year I collaborated at the Fundación Mujeres por África (Women for Africa Foundation) for the Art+Feminism initiative organized by Club de las 25 and the Spanish chapter to increase content in Wikipedia (see pic here!).

Phoebe Ayers (Phoebe)

No response yet.

Denny Vrandečić (Denny)

No response yet.

Ali Haidar Khan (Tonmoy) (Ali Haidar Khan)

No response yet.

Nisar Ahmed Syed (అహ్మద్ నిసార్)

No response yet.

James Heilman (Doc James)

My understanding of the question is incomplete due to having translated it with Google. Am working with the translation company Rubric out of South Africa to increase the amount of content we have in African languages. The key to success is bringing together partners with different expertise. We often struggle in African languages as volunteers are more difficult to find. We definitely need to trial efforts to increase the number of people involved. I have; however, made a few hundred edits on Swahili Wikipedia [1] and helped with the creation of a few dozen articles as listed here Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 12:27, 19 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Tim Davenport (Carrite)

Re: "I called Diana Sherina francis want to know the relationship of the continent Africa is there anyone what had been the elected leader of the Wikimedia Foundation know by now kunamchakato of choice for members of the Body, in order to determine the wells of Wikimedia like and we praise the cattle on that board" — That's what it looks like coming out of Google Translate. Carrite (talk) 05:42, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Samuel Klein (Sj)

I'm an admin on the Swahili Wikipedia and have supported translation and outreach projects there. We know that a major source of systemic bias on our projects is lack of knowledge about places, people, and ideas that are prominent in Africa.

We need to build hubs of creators in Africa in many languages. Our movement has some excellent contributors and some weak ties with local organizations and governments throughout the continent: it deserves attention to find messages and tools that work in different regions there.

Syed Muzammiluddin (Hindustanilanguage)

No response yet.

Edward Saperia (EdSaperia)

No response yet.

Mike Nicolaije (Taketa)

No response yet.

How will you expand Wikipedia for the billion users in Poor Countries?

Many candidates have said that they will help or work more with users outside of Europe and North America and since less than 20% of humanity lives in Europe and North America that sounds like a good goal. Still, what exactly will you do to benefit the 50% of human beings on earth who are under the age of 28 and live in non-Europe and North American countries? Thank you in advance for your responses.Monopoly31121993 (talk) 11:12, 19 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Houcemeddine Turki (Csisc)

No response yet.

Sailesh Patnaik (Saileshpat)

We can't say any country poor, if they are economically poor then many of them are Culturally rich. I accept that except North American and European countries there are many countries which are economically poor. However, It doesn't matter where economically poor countries can't Edit Wikipedia , It only depends upon the resources that are available to us.

I said it before and even i will say it again that , History is always an example to us many Govt. had fall because they never spread the importance of their policies to the citizen. I hope the same situation shouldn't come for Wikipedia because the resources of Wiki are limited within certain peoples many people aren't aware of this. Wikimedia Foundation appoints employees for our countries unluckily we never see their faces or never ever get chance to contact them.

For User's who belongs to these countries, It's their chance to make their country more resourceful and enrich the cultural aspects. For me Editing Wikipedia is like saving the Culturally Advanced History of my country. It's WMF's duty to spread resources of its project with Global South users so that it can make user Wiki friendly.Being a Board member by the community selection, It's our prime duty to work for every single community without any hesitation and try to solve their problems in single hand.

WMF could help its contributor in better ways by providing them the resources ( Money never matters ) Like;

We all know about Wikipedia Zero , It was one of best initiative by WMF to make Wikipedia for reader friendly but in the same moment the editors pay their bills to make Wikipedia strong. If we can also start same initiative for Wikipedia editors it could help us getting more active editors and remove the burdens of existing Wikimedians.
Wikipedia Education program is also best initiative to reach among the youths and make Wikipedia famous in them. School ,College and University students can get information from Wikipedia as well as can contribute to it.
We allow every age group and every race or gender people to edit in Wikipedia, In most of the Global South countries many housewives are educated but aren't aware of Computer if WMF and Wiki Women Collaboration can help us in empowering them.

Dariusz Jemielniak (Pundit)

As I have stated before, I find it really unfortunate that all Board members elected so far are from North America and Western Europe. I'm distinguishing Western Europe from CEE countries, as the latter have experienced poverty, totalitarian regimes, travel and communication restrictions, censorship, as well as war - and even though in terms of economic development they are currently much better off, the memory remains (and having actual experience of living for 1 USD per day, or of being afraid of what you say in public, or of looking up to the West with awe and jealousy, does increase one's sensitivity to the issues of the people in Poor Countries you're asking about). One of my priorities is helping Wikimedia Zero develop. I also believe that partnering with local organizations of Wikimedia activists is the way to go (rather than setting up "professional" organizations driven from San Francisco, which at least on two occasions didn't work). According to my research, that I am going to present on Wikimania, quality standards and perceptions across projects differ significantly - I want to increase our understanding of these processes, to let smaller projects set their own priorities. As a Board member I would strongly promote focusing also on communities outside of the English language zone. I find it awkward that many of the tools available on en-wiki (ProveIt, Twinkle, etc.), are not propagated at a fraction of their development cost to other projects. Also, I believe that WMF, whenever they try to learn from community's experience, has to make an effort to reach to communities outside of their immediate vicinity, and that it is important to draw especially from communities that are outside of the Western bubble. As a university (full) professor, I hope that WMF would reach out to Academia in different countries and support Wikipedia development this way, especially in the non-Western countries (I have made my own attempts in this respect, but as a Board member I will be able to do much more). Apart from the issues I've mentioned, one of the problems we're seriously facing now is operating in a reality, where most of our users are young people, often outside of the West, who rely on their mobile devices heavily - we don't really have good content for mobiles yet, and our fundraiser relies on the desktop version. So all in all we not only are not benefiting people outside of the West well enough, we're also all cutting the branch we're sitting on.

Mohamed Ouda (Mohamed Ouda)

I think the best way to benefit the 50% of human beings on earth who live in non-Europe and North American countries is to deliver the free content to them by all the possible ways , by growing Wikipedia offline projects and Wikipedia Zero projects in all the poor countries .

Josh Lim (Sky Harbor)

I'm from the developing world, and it is reprehensible that our reach in the developing world is not as strong as it can be. Sure, there are challenges to increasing our reach in the developing world, but I strongly believe that these challenges can be overcome. Having worked with communities in the developing world, it's not as hard as people say it is, and allow me to elaborate on three particular things that I would like to see to better enable the developing world to shape the future of our projects:

Enable the projects to accommodate developing world demands. We've seen this with oral citations, spoken Wikipedia and video support, but we need to bring this further. We need to enable content creation by investing in the ability of our developing world communities to generate this information, studying best practices for sustaining these communities in the long term, and reducing barriers to entry both technological and societal.
Giving the developing world a place at the table. The movement's power structures need to be overhauled in order to account our diversity, especially geographical diversity, and we need to have a deeper conversation on diversity at this label. Among others, there needs to be investment in incentivizing the developing world to participate in the movement's governance structures, and supporting affiliates and movement partners who engage with the developing world so that they have a greater say in how the Foundation is run.
Sustain distribution of our content, both for reading and editing. Wikipedia Zero and the Education Program are helpful, but we can go further. We should invest in the growth of new editors through projects more relevant to people in the developing world (e.g. the Cultural Heritage Mapping Project), enhanced offline distribution methods, and generation of information that would be most relevant to the developing world (e.g. medical articles, agriculture. etc.).

Many editors in the developing world don't care about the movement's politics and only care about editing. That's fine. However, that is not an excuse for excluding them from the table. There are people in the developing world who care about these things, and we need to find ways to accommodate them. We have to try, even if we fail. --Sky Harbor ^(talk) 10:15, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

David Conway (Smerus)

For those who have no access to the internet there is little that the Foundation can do, directly or indirectly. For those that do, it is up in the first instance for the wiki organizations serving the languages of those people (rather than the Foundation) to devise initiatives that will involve and inform them - such organizations will obviously have a better idea of what is needed for their audiences than the Foundation board. The Foundation should listen to the opinions and ideas of those wiki organizations and do what it can to support them in advice and (if necessary) secondment, funding and other initiatives. I don't believe that the Foundation board should prioritize 'gesture' statements in areas where it can't itself make a difference. It should however be a resource for the wiki organizations which are campaigning to make a difference in their regions. Incidentally it doesn't seem to me that there should be a uniform approach for developing countries - some of those characterised as developing (e.g. Russian Federation, China, India, Brazil, Nigeria) are in the top ten countries for internet users. So immediately we come to a different policy issue - do we concentrate on countries where a large number of users will ensure the greatest impact, or do we use resources which are much more costly (on a per capita basis) and hence less 'efficient', to support countries at the 'bottom end' of the developing countries list? That would also be a debate to be carried out. I myself have no preconceptions on this. --Smerus (talk) 05:37, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Francis Kaswahili Kaguna (Francis Kaswahili)

A good and best reader always think about integration and not a separation if I get this opportunity I will not be a member of Tanzania or Africa but a man of the global, It's my believes that we are all the same whether from north, west, east or south. I promise to be a man of speed and Standard and my readership is unitedly. Francis Kaswahili talk 19:28, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Cristian Consonni (CristianCantoro)

No response yet.

Peter Gallert (Pgallert)

No response yet.

María Sefidari (Raystorm)

No response yet.

Phoebe Ayers (Phoebe)

No response yet.

Denny Vrandečić (Denny)

No response yet.

Ali Haidar Khan (Tonmoy) (Ali Haidar Khan)

I come from a poor country in South Asia. The per capita income of Bangladesh is around USD 1,000 and I live in the challenges of poverty every day. So I can see the potentials that the poor countries have in a way different than others. At present, WMF’s main strategy for the Global South is promotion of Wikipedia Zero and I am in full support of it. Wikipedia Zero opens up the opportunity to access Wikipedia free of cost for people without access to internet. However, it should not be the only major strategy of WMF for the Global South, but unfortunately it is the only one. In Global South countries, there are people who already have access to internet and they need something else to engage with Wikipedia. For example, WMF employees have visited Bangladesh at least 4 times in past few years for Wikipedia Zero partnerships and Wikipedia Zero was launched in Bangladesh very recently. However, there are over 40 million people in Bangladesh who already has access to internet and does not need Wikipedia Zero to access Wikipedia. Unfortunately, we do not see any strategy from WMF to engage this huge number of people who are already using internet, they are left out of WMF's radar. No one from WMF ever came to Bangladesh to discuss this matter with the community or even reached out to the community in any manner. The full responsibility of engaging this 40 million existing internet users rests on the small Bangladeshi Wikimedia community and our Wikimedia Bangladesh chapter which was born few years ago! If I am elected for the Board, I will make sure WMF has a separate and effective strategy for the people in Global South who already has access to internet alongside the promotion of Wikipedia Zero. Only then, the communities in the poor countries will be effectively activated & engaged and it will allow them to sustain further growth of their respective communities in the Wiki-way.

Nisar Ahmed Syed (అహ్మద్ నిసార్)

No response yet.

James Heilman (Doc James)

I have been working to improve Wikipedia's medical coverage in collaboration with 100s of volunteers from around the world in many languages for years per this effort. Recently Andrew West and I look at just how much medical content there was in different languages and I agree it is less than ideal.[2] Many languages have little or no health content on key topics.

I am working to change this and working to raise awareness regarding the issues. This morning for example we had a blog post published by the London School of Economics.

One effort I would love to see increased is collaborations between Wikipedians and local medical schools. I believe that translation can be a great introduction for students to Wikipedia editing. As long as the students have excellent base content they do not need to worry about sourcing or copyright issues. The students also develop the skill of translation from English into the languages they will ultimately be using to practice medicine which will ultimately benefit their future patients. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 12:08, 19 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Tim Davenport (Carrite)

I'm in favor of building the best possible set of language encyclopedias. That process will require talented people from around the world. As of right now, however, WMF doesn't even know who its core volunteer community is, nor does it have the slightest grasp of how to nurture and develop permanent volunteers. Database and survey first, then listen, listen, listen. Spend money on programs that work, don't spend money on things that don't work. It has been cart-before-horse for a long time and tens of millions of donor dollars have been squandered. Getting that fixed is job 1. Carrite (talk) 05:34, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Samuel Klein (Sj)

No response yet.

Syed Muzammiluddin (Hindustanilanguage)

No response yet.

Edward Saperia (EdSaperia)

No response yet.

Mike Nicolaije (Taketa)

No response yet.

Unpaid internships

It appears that the WMF advertises unpaid intern positions. Do you approve of this practice? Didcot power station (talk) 18:12, 19 May 2015 (UTC) [reply]

I was asked for more information: these jobs, linked from wmf:Work_with_us#Wikimedia Careers, [3], [4], [5] are all described as "ïntern" and have no mention of pay or benefits, unlike the other jobs in the same section. Didcot power station (talk) 06:57, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Houcemeddine Turki (Csisc)

No response yet.

Sailesh Patnaik (Saileshpat)

No response yet.

Dariusz Jemielniak (Pundit)

I have mixed feelings about unpaid internships. On the one hand, we all are unpaid volunteers, and there are people who enjoy contributing their time (in a form of public service, as well as to get experience). Yet, on the other, way too often unpaid internships are a form of exploitation of young people, who are desparate to get anything on their CV, and also live a hope of being employed later. I would be in favor of fair pay for work. I think that unpaid internships for young people should be introduced only if the benefits for interns are clear, and also if there is a non-theoretical chance of employment later.

Mohamed Ouda (Mohamed Ouda)

I am supportive of these programs only if the workload is suitable for being volunteer so the unpaid programs are not suitable for any job, and also the volunteers in these positions will not gain money but will gain experience .

Josh Lim (Sky Harbor)

I am not a fan of unpaid internships, and I believe that you should be fairly compensated for the work that you've done. That being said, we should remember that we do Wikimedia work often for no pay at all, either as a vocation or otherwise. Unpaid internships, therefore, make sense only if there is a clear elaboration of incentives for those who willingly decide to work for the Foundation in that capacity, including the possibility of joining the Foundation as paid staff at a later date, and providing employment support (letters of referral, connections, etc.) to them if this arrangement doesn't work out.. --Sky Harbor ^(talk) 10:30, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

David Conway (Smerus)

It appears? Tell me more. It depends on the conditions of the internships, their duration, the support provided to internees, etc. I am not a priori against unpaid interneeships if there can be real benefits (skills, improved employment potential, etc.) --Smerus (talk) 05:38, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Francis Kaswahili Kaguna (Francis Kaswahili)

Ooh, Didcot power station (talk)I can't say yes or no but my perception as human being I will have a time of study before reacting as I have also said that my concern is on WMF grownup and community demand, it simply noted. Francis Kaswahili talk 19:42, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Cristian Consonni (CristianCantoro)

No response yet.

Peter Gallert (Pgallert)

No response yet.

María Sefidari (Raystorm)

Unpaid internships are very typical in my country. They are mostly oriented to students who can get in some work experience before graduating. Usually they get some credits for it, but sometimes they don't. I would like it if the offer also included if there is a chance of getting a permanent job later, but otherwise, I am not unfamiliar with the concept.

Phoebe Ayers (Phoebe)

No response yet.

Denny Vrandečić (Denny)

No response yet.

Ali Haidar Khan (Tonmoy) (Ali Haidar Khan)

No response yet.

Nisar Ahmed Syed (అహ్మద్ నిసార్)

No response yet.

James Heilman (Doc James)

I am supportive of these programs. In the process of becoming a physician one is required to do a 1.5 years internship for which they are required to pay in the range of $10,000 to $40,000 a year (yes that is right the Intern pays for the privilege of being an Intern). This is than followed by a residency where one works long hours and is paid relatively little. Law has the same sort of practice were before one becomes a full fledged lawyer one is required to spend time working for free with someone more experience. Many professions have apprenticeships.

I think it is exceedingly useful for the WMF to be involved in these sorts of programs. This is often a useful way to find future staff members. It additionally spreads awareness regarding the work we are doing. These programs have a number of benefits for the Interns. It gives them the opportunity to develop skills, making them more eligible in the job market. It helps them develop connections in the tech industry. And they end up with official recognition from a global technology leader. As editors many of us are working an equivalent of a full time job or more for free without gaining official recognition for our resumes.

Academic writing has historically been unpaid work. Most people neither get paid to write a journal article nor get paid to provide peer review. Academic publishers have sprung up (such as Elsevier) and made billions by simply being the middle man between those doing the work and those benefiting from it. One reason why Wikipedia is amazing is that we are replacing these middle man. We have returned a system were neither the writer nor the distributors are making money, but most importantly people are getting access to knowledge. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 05:03, 21 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Tim Davenport (Carrite)

No.

Samuel Klein (Sj)

As far as I know, WMF internships are paid. In general, unpaid internships can be done well, but I don't believe that applies here. –SJ talk 11:19, 22 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Syed Muzammiluddin (Hindustanilanguage)

No response yet.

Edward Saperia (EdSaperia)

No response yet.

Mike Nicolaije (Taketa)

No response yet.

Term Limits for Board Seats

What are your opinions on term limits for Board members, such that Board members may serve a maximum of, say, two or three terms (4 or 6 years)? I understand the need to have stability in the Board and so perhaps term limits could be excluded for the 'Board-appointed' members, but do you believe that such limits should exist for the community-elected and chapter-selected seats? I'm certain that this question (or a discussion relating to it) has been asked before, but I can't seem to find previous discussions at present. Template:BoardChart summarises the current history of Board membership. Thehelpfulone 21:23, 19 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Houcemeddine Turki (Csisc)

No response yet.

Sailesh Patnaik (Saileshpat)

No response yet.

Dariusz Jemielniak (Pundit)

I fully support term limits. I believe that 2-3 terms is a very reasonable maximum. Staying longer decreases added value of a member (they run out of ideas and iron will to change things), and increases chances of adverse effects (groupthink, alienation from the community, politicizing the process, burnout, etc.). A break from the Board can be refreshing (after all, one can return after a reasonable while) - and I think we should look for good ways of accommodating highly qualified ex-Board members (advisory board, FDC,AffCom, and maybe some new ways, too). I declare that if I get elected, I would advocate for formalizing such limits.

Mohamed Ouda (Mohamed Ouda)

I am also support term limits. I think 3 terms are very suitable . because the board needs to renews its blood every few years to get new and innovative ideas.

Josh Lim (Sky Harbor)

I am not opposed to term limits either, but I have reservations about whether having term limits would really lead to increased representation and a better discussion of ideas. Remember that the people who participate in our politics form a relatively small pool of our entire editing community, and it would do no good if we get people who are generally from that pool. Increasing the pool of people involved in our movement's politics, which in turn empowers even more editors to have a direct stake in the future of our movement, is a more effective method of inducing turnover than arbitrary term limits.

That being said, should the community will that we have term limits, I will definitely support their decision and abide by it accordingly. --Sky Harbor ^(talk) 16:13, 21 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

David Conway (Smerus)

I have no problems with such term limits. There is a large and ever-changing community - we don't want community representatives hogging their places, the board should also reflect the way the wiki movement develops.--Smerus (talk) 05:40, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Francis Kaswahili Kaguna (Francis Kaswahili)

To me it doesn't matter with tenure, what's important is accountability, passionate and responsibility but 3-4 years it can be better, it could've be helps for the elected members to do more better for making the first year for study, 2nd year for robbing and and the remaining tenure for the better sanction. Francis Kaswahili talk 12:34, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Cristian Consonni (CristianCantoro)

No response yet.

Peter Gallert (Pgallert)

No response yet.

María Sefidari (Raystorm)

I'm open to the idea of term limits, but to me they only make sense if they apply to all Board seats equally.

Phoebe Ayers (Phoebe)

No response yet.

Denny Vrandečić (Denny)

No response yet.

Ali Haidar Khan (Tonmoy) (Ali Haidar Khan)

I think term limit should be applied for all board seats except the founder’s seat. For me, ideal term limit should be between 2 terms (4 years) to maximum 3 terms (6 years). Stability on the board can be ensured in a different way. For example, term limits can be different for elected and Board-appointed members. If the term limits are known in advance for the different types of Board seats, it should not be a problem to ensure smooth transition and maintain stability on the board. At the same time, it will allow more diversity and new ideas on the board.

Nisar Ahmed Syed (అహ్మద్ నిసార్)

No response yet.

James Heilman (Doc James)

We need to make the board more democratically elected by increasing the number of seats elected by the community. And we need to make the board and thus the foundation more responsive to the community. I am not opposed to term limits but I am not sure that they would achieve this goal.

If enough of the community; however, see this as an important issue I would be supportive of the creation of a RfC to address it and would support whatever decision the community makes.

Additionally I am not sure why we would want term limits for community elected members but not for board elected members? I am happy to have Jimmy Wales excluded from term limits but not sure why other would be if they were implemented. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 05:31, 21 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Tim Davenport (Carrite)

I don't think formal term limits solve very much. Constructing a more democratic board doesn't require term limits, it requires placing more than 3 seats on the board under community control. Open up the electoral process, publicize the elections, and the turnover will take care of itself. Carrite (talk) 05:28, 20 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Samuel Klein (Sj)

I support a limit on continuous terms for all Board seats except the founder; as well as an increase in the number of community seats. I have proposed a 3-term limit to our board governance committee (currently under discussion). We need other ways to keep people involved in movement guidance and governance; it's good to have rotation and an influx of new approaches on any particular body. –SJ talk 11:19, 22 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Syed Muzammiluddin (Hindustanilanguage)

No response yet.

Edward Saperia (EdSaperia)

No response yet.

Mike Nicolaije (Taketa)

No response yet.