On Sunday, the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation published several resolutions concerning movement roles (following the publication of a resolution on the related subject of fundraising, see the other report in this issue). This concluded a process that started in October 2010, with predecessors going back to at least 2009. The details of the model are discussed in this week's "News and notes" column, but the Signpost also caught up with community-elected board member Samuel Klein ( Sj) to discuss the background of these debates, the long-term importance of their subject, and why it has taken so long to arrive at this conclusion.
Today, eleven years after its inception, Wikipedia is still the encyclopedia that anyone can edit, but there is a growing number of activities in which volunteers interact with the outside world in a way that requires their being legitimized in some form as official representatives of the Wikimedia movement. This legitimization can be as simple as an @wikimedia email address, or access to donor funds (raised under the official assurance that it would be used to advance Wikimedia projects). If I'm a Wikipedian who needs this kind of formal support for my project, whom do I need to turn to? Can we say that the movement roles discussion is largely about who should have that kind of authority to grant projects this kind of legitimization? What would be your concise definition of the concept of "movement roles"?
Is the English Wikipedia editing community also considered one of these "active groups in our movement", for example? Where does it fit in the list given in the new resolution?
Can you describe some of the problems that sparked this conversation and the establishment in 2009 of the "movement roles" task force and the following year of the movement roles workgroup ( Signpost coverage, board vote)? Why did these attempts to arrive at consensus recommendations falter?
Many national chapters have now been established or are in development, but for now they still represent only a very small slice of the Wikimedia community. Can you explain why chapters are the best organizational unit for Wikimedia users, why they uniquely have earned representation on the Board of Trustees (2 seats guaranteed) and the Funds Dissemination Committee, and the role you see chapters playing in a democratic, transparent global movement?
Historically, how has the understanding of movement roles evolved, from the founding of the first chapters in 2004 until now? Has the general opinion of what chapters are for changed since then, and how?
Leonhard Dobusch, a Berlin-based scholar who has studied the relationship of the Foundation and chapters since at least 2010 ( Signpost coverage), has observed about the fundraising debates that "the whole conflict is fought out by representatives of the formal organizational bodies. The majority of Wikipedians – editors and administrators – seem to be rather uninterested in these governance issues." Would you agree that this a problem with respect to the movement roles question? Has it had an effect on the state of the debate?
According to one Wikimania submission, the Foundation "is regularly accused [of imposing] a US-centric cultural model", which together with the predominance of the English Wikipedia generates "power tensions" (exacerbated by the financial success of the Wikimedia movement), which in turn "nourish nationalist approaches ... Wikimedia chapters claim their role in providing a more balanced cultural approach and in managing decentralised outreached programs. In reality the fund-raising campaign mirrors last century geopolitics with the US and few European countries sharing the cake; Switzerland with a rather independent position and Italy unable to keep a proper slice." Do you agree with this criticism of the Foundation and chapters? Otherwise could you explain how the new movement roles resolution will help to address such problems?
As the annual fundraiser approaches the $30 million mark, distribution of funds has become the hottest controversy within the Wikimedia community. The issue of control over funding has arisen in the last year or two largely as a result of the recent ability of some chapters to retain large amounts of money from the fundraiser by acting as a payment processor for donors from certain geographic regions. An observer reading about the debates might wonder which is truly the core of the dispute: concerns over decentralization and cultural diversity, or simply who gets to control the money? If the former, can you describe for Signpost readers what these concerns are, and any specific events or problems that might exemplify them?
The recent resolutions were an effort to address the inflamed tensions over movement roles and funding priorities; to what extent do you think the process the resolutions outline will resolve these tensions? Are we looking at a long-term solution, or will the debates of the last year prove to be a preview of inter-organizational relations for years to come? In what way might tension and conflict between the Wikimedia Foundation and national chapters affect the projects, their users or the uninvolved reader?
On Sunday, the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation published several resolutions concerning movement roles (following the publication of a resolution on the related subject of fundraising, see the other report in this issue). This concluded a process that started in October 2010, with predecessors going back to at least 2009. The details of the model are discussed in this week's "News and notes" column, but the Signpost also caught up with community-elected board member Samuel Klein ( Sj) to discuss the background of these debates, the long-term importance of their subject, and why it has taken so long to arrive at this conclusion.
Today, eleven years after its inception, Wikipedia is still the encyclopedia that anyone can edit, but there is a growing number of activities in which volunteers interact with the outside world in a way that requires their being legitimized in some form as official representatives of the Wikimedia movement. This legitimization can be as simple as an @wikimedia email address, or access to donor funds (raised under the official assurance that it would be used to advance Wikimedia projects). If I'm a Wikipedian who needs this kind of formal support for my project, whom do I need to turn to? Can we say that the movement roles discussion is largely about who should have that kind of authority to grant projects this kind of legitimization? What would be your concise definition of the concept of "movement roles"?
Is the English Wikipedia editing community also considered one of these "active groups in our movement", for example? Where does it fit in the list given in the new resolution?
Can you describe some of the problems that sparked this conversation and the establishment in 2009 of the "movement roles" task force and the following year of the movement roles workgroup ( Signpost coverage, board vote)? Why did these attempts to arrive at consensus recommendations falter?
Many national chapters have now been established or are in development, but for now they still represent only a very small slice of the Wikimedia community. Can you explain why chapters are the best organizational unit for Wikimedia users, why they uniquely have earned representation on the Board of Trustees (2 seats guaranteed) and the Funds Dissemination Committee, and the role you see chapters playing in a democratic, transparent global movement?
Historically, how has the understanding of movement roles evolved, from the founding of the first chapters in 2004 until now? Has the general opinion of what chapters are for changed since then, and how?
Leonhard Dobusch, a Berlin-based scholar who has studied the relationship of the Foundation and chapters since at least 2010 ( Signpost coverage), has observed about the fundraising debates that "the whole conflict is fought out by representatives of the formal organizational bodies. The majority of Wikipedians – editors and administrators – seem to be rather uninterested in these governance issues." Would you agree that this a problem with respect to the movement roles question? Has it had an effect on the state of the debate?
According to one Wikimania submission, the Foundation "is regularly accused [of imposing] a US-centric cultural model", which together with the predominance of the English Wikipedia generates "power tensions" (exacerbated by the financial success of the Wikimedia movement), which in turn "nourish nationalist approaches ... Wikimedia chapters claim their role in providing a more balanced cultural approach and in managing decentralised outreached programs. In reality the fund-raising campaign mirrors last century geopolitics with the US and few European countries sharing the cake; Switzerland with a rather independent position and Italy unable to keep a proper slice." Do you agree with this criticism of the Foundation and chapters? Otherwise could you explain how the new movement roles resolution will help to address such problems?
As the annual fundraiser approaches the $30 million mark, distribution of funds has become the hottest controversy within the Wikimedia community. The issue of control over funding has arisen in the last year or two largely as a result of the recent ability of some chapters to retain large amounts of money from the fundraiser by acting as a payment processor for donors from certain geographic regions. An observer reading about the debates might wonder which is truly the core of the dispute: concerns over decentralization and cultural diversity, or simply who gets to control the money? If the former, can you describe for Signpost readers what these concerns are, and any specific events or problems that might exemplify them?
The recent resolutions were an effort to address the inflamed tensions over movement roles and funding priorities; to what extent do you think the process the resolutions outline will resolve these tensions? Are we looking at a long-term solution, or will the debates of the last year prove to be a preview of inter-organizational relations for years to come? In what way might tension and conflict between the Wikimedia Foundation and national chapters affect the projects, their users or the uninvolved reader?
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