Optional: write a lede — not necessarily a WP:LEAD. Interesting > encyclopedic.

Vote: WMF Board Elections

meta:Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2024

Twelve candidates are listed for four (soon to be) open positions.

The voting period will be September 3 to September 17 (UTC).

VOTE Now - Wikimedia Movement Charter ratification

Should the 10 June 2024 version of the Movement Charter be the governing document of the Wikimedia Movement?

VOTE NOW ---> meta:Movement Charter/Ratification/Voting

The voting period is June 25, 2024 at 00:01 UTC to July 9, 2024 at 23:59 UTC. As reported in the previous issue of The Signpost, the Movement Charter would guide many governance decisions in the Wikimedia Movement by establishing a Global Council of Wikimedia community volunteer representatives.

• user:Jmabel meta:Cascadia Wikimedians/Joe Mabel's comments on the proposed Global Charter
• Scores - anyone can add their score to a new page in this sheet. Groups and individuals welcome - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dg6T7bH47mLIeS320YxU20RzBUmAkfHKK0otcVtYa9Y/edit?gid=1020542680#gid=1020542680
  • Represented so far: Germany and Central/Eastern Europe
• I think that Wikimedians of Central and Eastern Europe may comment through @ Philip Kopetzky: meta:Talk:Movement_Charter#Movement_charter_analysis_from_CEE
• Wikipedia:Village_pump_(policy)#Wikimedia_Movement_Charter_ratification_vote!_How_should_we_spend_a_billion_dollars?

comments from DarwIn and others, , English

• The Charter refers some "community leadership" as the accountable body for each Wikimedia project, without defining what it means (the whole community, some specific members?);
• Charter rules over all Wikimedia project policies, but not over those of the Wikimedia affiliates and the WMF;
• Charter leaves WMF out of the Global Council (community + affiliates), as an independent body at the same power level;
• While the whole community, including affiliate people, get to elect 12 seats out of 25 in the Global Council, affiliates themselves get an additional 8 seats for themselves, which I consider a severe and totally unjustified unbalance of power towards affiliates - which not uncommonly do not represent anything but themselves and have their own agenda, and commonly have at least some degree of these problems;
• In general, this Charter seems to treat onwiki communities as the underdog of the Wikimedia Movement, when in fact they are the core of the whole thing, where all starts and where almost all Wikimedia funding comes from.

• WMF says not to ratify the Movement Charter
  • https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/thread/IH6CY4GSMZB2C3WTWQISUOYUQCKPQS4R/

• theklan - "If it doesn't matter what you state, it doesn't matter who we elect. There can't be any difference, as everyone should defend the same thing. Elections are futile."
• Doc James - "when I was on the board I viewed the best interests of the foundation and community as inseparable as neither can succeed without the other"
• Chris Keating "Well, I have never seen an organisation undermine its own strategy so spectacularly, or waste so many millions of dollars, or years-worth of volunteer time."

• Wikimedia Germany as the second largest movement entity endorses the Charter
  • https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Movement_Charter#Wikimedia_Deutschland%E2%80%99s_Appeal_to_the_WMF_Board_of_Trustees

Endorsements

The Signpost received the following endorsement(s), and does not take a position on the charter.

Our draft text for the Movement Charter takes a vital step toward a more decentralized, diverse, equitable, community-driven, and resilient Wikimedia ecosystem. Whether acting in this moment is a step too far, or a step not far enough, is a question of timing, but ultimately the status quo in centralized governance is not a sustainable one. Each of the three voting stakeholder groups (Wikimedia Foundation, affiliates, and communities) has their own valuable perspective on advancing our shared vision of free knowledge, and naturally believes theirs is the wisest course and pace of change, and it has been the drafters' rocky path to reconcile all these.

Here is a referendum not just on this specific text, but on whether we are willing to evolve our institutions in response to a rapidly changing and challenging world - in addition to saying "yes" or "no", we urge you to take advantage of the write-in comment to express what you like and dislike, and if you support the principle but not the final product, tell us to "try again", as this unique opportunity for change will fade away without your continued voice. – Pharos, Movement Charter/Drafting Committee member, speaking solely for themself

Shira Klein Appointed to Wiki Education’s Humanities and Social Justice Advisory Committee

Shira Klein, associate professor and chair of the Department of History at Chapman University's Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and co-author of an academic paper on Wikipedia's coverage of the Holocaust in Poland that led to a 2023 Wikipedia arbitration case (see previous Signpost coverage), has been appointed to Wiki Education’s inaugural Humanities and Social Justice Advisory Committee (see Chapman University press release).

The seven-member committee will support the Wikipedia Student Program’s Knowledge Equity initiative in partnership with the Mellon Foundation. The complete list of members is as follows:

• David-James Gonzales: Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University where he teaches and researches on race, migration, and Latino (a/x/e) politics in the US. He has been teaching with Wikipedia since 2018.
• Shira Klein: Associate Professor and Chair of History at Chapman University. Her two primary areas of expertise are Italian Jewish history and knowledge production on Wikipedia.
• Alexandria Lockett: A former professor of Writing and Rhetoric who has been editing Wikipedia for 20+ years to improve its content about marginalized persons, cultures, communities, languages, professions, texts, and disciplines.
• Tracy Perkins: Associate Professor in the School of Social Transformation Arizona State University who specializes in social inequality, social movements, and the environment.
• David Sartorius: Historian of Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of Maryland and author of a book on the racial politics of colonial rule.
• Heather J. Sharkey: Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the history of the modern Middle East and North Africa.
• Delia Steverson: Associate Professor of English at the University of Alabama, where she specializes in 19th and 20th Century African American Literature, Critical Disability Studies, and Southern Literature.

For further details on the committee and its members see the Wiki Education press release:

• Humanities & Social Justice Advisory Committee members announced

– AK

Administrator cadre continues to contract overall, despite recent gains

Repeating the refrain reported here in recent issues, despite three gains in June (see below), the number of active administrators hasn't been above 440 since May 18, and hit new record lows: 433 on June 13, 432 on June 22, and finally 431 on June 27 right before our publication deadline. –  B

Brief notes

Comment these items out if something happens.

• New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrators, Elli, HouseBlaster, and Pickersgill-Cunliffe, all promoted in June.

  Elli has been active since 2020 and edited widely in various areas. Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Elli was closed June 7 with 207 supports, 6 opposes, and 3 neutrals, ending a three-month new-admin drought and becoming the first RfA to succeed under the trial discussion-only period. Opposition concerns about her anodyne, infrequent activity on Wikipediocracy failed to gain meaningful traction. –  Sdkb

  Pickersgill-Cunliffe started editing in 2021, with a handful of edits prior to that, and has been active at WikiProject Military history. Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Pickersgill-Cunliffe was closed June 15 with 201 yea !votes, zero nay and zero neutral, putting it in the top 10 unopposed RfAs.

  Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/HouseBlaster RfA closed 153:27:8 on 23 June.

• Milestones: The following Wikimedia projects have reached milestones: TKTK
• Articles for Improvement: This week's Article for Improvement is Breaking wave, followed next week by Mechanism (engineering). Please be bold in helping improve these articles!
• Community User Group Senegal: Community User Group Sénégal was recognized as an affiliate on June 3 (wikimedia-l)