Wikimedia Quarto/2/administration

+/- Where can I find information about the Foundation?

Current information about the Foundation can be found in this quartely newsletter, on the dedicated mailing list ([1]), on the Wikimedia Meta-wiki ([2]), and at the Foundation's website ([3]). The Foundation website was in very active development in the early fall : most major pages were basically set up and most of these pages were translated into 10 languages. There are currently 38 editors, who are native speakers of a variety of languages, registered on the Foundation's website. The website is currently in a rather dormant phase, though.

How does the Board communicate ?

Board activities are recorded on the Wikimedia Meta-wiki ([4]), and on the Wikimedia Foundation's site ([5]). Communication takes place via email, as well as, through the foundation-l mailing list, which is open to the public and publicly archived. Members of the board also frequent the #Wikimedia IRC channel on freenode ([6]).

The general address, board(at)wikimedia.org, can also be used for any request. However, please be aware that this mail address is no longer a private one. All mails are redirected to a ticket system, OTRS ([7]), and may be answered either by a board member or by a few trusted editors. The OTRS, also, hosts the address for information about the German local chapter, as well, as the address for requests for information lists in English and German.

Finally, Jimbo, Angela, and Anthere, being fearless explorers, have all started blogs. Angela’s blog is the richest one ([8]) in terms of information on Wikipedia. Please read it, if you want information on the latest wikipedia features or anything related to wikisearch. Jimbo ([9]) took the opportunity to talk about free software (both in English). Also, Anthere ([10], in French) decided to use her blog to express free opinions and focus on increasing the visibility of Wikimedia projects in the French-speaking world, in the particular hope of reaching out to the African world where French is widely spoken.

Does the Board record or publish their activities anywhere?

There have been several meetings of board members over the fall.

• Fundraising and grants, September 17, 2004 (full transcript)
• General Board meeting, October 9, 2004
• General Board meeting, October 16, 2004
• Membership, October 22, 2004
• Open Board meeting November 6, 2004 (full transcript on meta)

The board also had the opportunity to meet in real life on a few occasions: in Rotterdam in November, the day following the Wikipedian meeting; and in New York City, before the OSI meeting. Several topics were discussed, including plans for upcoming meetings, whether the Wikimedia Foundation should get involved in political advocacy, how local chapters could be more involved in WMF activity, and free discussion of what the board could become in the future. All these topics were easier to discuss in real life in a youth hostel lounge than on irc or by mail.

Life with the board

Michael and Tim were not very active this trimester, although Michael helped with the financial considerations after the last fundraiser.
The past months have been very busy for Angela, Jimbo and Anthere, with many good wikipedian meetings (please, see the Meetings report), and interviews with newspapers, websites and radio stations for all board members. Wikipedia is becoming famous now, and our project raises a lot of interest.

Jimbo and Angela spent 2 weeks at the BBC (please, see the special report on this), while Anthere was moving into a new house, with plenty of room and a garden but no phone line and no internet connection for several weeks. Anthere was able to keep in touch and active, thanks to her workplace internet connection, and random visits to the local university computer lab, but she had no opportunity to satisfy her true wikipediholism or to access IRC.
Anthere appreciated support during her forced vacation, and suggests that all wikiholics use of the "Wikipatch" [11] sent by snail mail by Ryo and notafish.

How can I become a member of the Foundation?

Tha board made several decisions in regard to membership ([12]). The board's vision of membership changed, after much thought and discussions with Wikimedia editors.
Initially, it was imagined that much of the income supporting the project would come from subscribing membership fees. Hence, initial plans set membership fees rather high (about 100 dollars.) However, some board members and many editors were not in favor of such a high amount, and, soon, it became clear that most Foundation income could come from other sources. Additional discussions led to subscribing membership fees being set at 36 dollars (non-editors) and 12 dollars (reduced).

Additionaly, further discussions with Jamesday and Kate changed the volunteer membership status from being automatic for editors, to being an opt-in procedure.

The technical development of a membership system will be overseen by Tim Starling in the coming weeks.

Are developers currently being paid?

In July 2004, the Wikimedia developers were polled about the feasibility of a bounty system for development tasks. This led the board to try out a system of payment and other rewards for developers who choose to work on particular tasks. The board suggested a four month trial run before stepping back and evaluating the system.

In the past three months, the board has proposed one task, related to the membership system development -- a task, which is of primary interest to the Foundation, itself, and, thus, unlikely to be controversial. More than two months after the proposal, Tim Starling made an offer, which was accepted in late November. The feature will be developed against a certain amount of money, at the end of 2004 or in early 2005.

No other proposal has been made by the board; one suggestion was offered by a developer, but has been discarded.

This suggests that the prospect of being paid per task is not a strongly motivation for our developer team. Details of the trial run are available at [13]. All Wikimedia contributors will be encouraged to evaluate it when it is over.

For more on the topic, please see the Founder's letter.

What is going on with domain names?

Jason at Bomis has the full list of domain names ([14]) that are currently registered to the Foundation. Some domains in other countries are owned by other people; for instance, GerardM looks after a few .nl domain names. The french domain name www.wikipedia.fr was taken over by a cybersquatter in fall of 2004. The French wikipedians have decided not to do anything on the matter for now, and the cybersquatter gently redirected the domain to wikipedia, himself. However, the Russian domain name, www.wikipedia.ru, is, unfortunately, being used to make cash by its cybersquatter.

Over the next trimester, decisions will bes made regarding which domains to take. Many editors would prefer that the domain of all projects be bought in their country; however, the cost of buying so many names is too high for that solution to be really sustainable. The board hopes that registration of the trademarks will help alleviate this issue.

Privacy on Wikimedia projects

As requested by several editors, a long overdue privacy statement is currently under development and should be finalized and translated during the first trimester of 2005. Please do not hesitate to comment ([15]).

Local chapters

Anthere was involved in the creation of the French chapter, Wikimédia France (please, see the special report on this), and is now part of its board. There are now two local chapters, each based on a very different legal construction, which emphasizes the diversity of options for chapters. The French chapter is a legal representation of Wikimedia Foundation Inc in France. The French and the German chapters are both chapters legally based on a country, rather than a language. However, both wish to expand their activity beyond the borders of their respective countries.

Several other projects have discussed the creation of a local chapter in the past few months, most notably the Dutch and Italian wikipedias. Some editors are interested in the creation of chapters based on languages rather than nations, or even a European chapter.

Wikimedia Foundation Inc, and political involvement

Over the fall, there have been discussions over the political involvement of the Foundation and of its local branch, Wikimedia France. The board would like to indicate that it does not wish the Wikimedia Foundation Inc to support activism generally, and, in particular, activism not directly related to Wikimedia activity. Any involvement, such as signature of a petition, should be carefully assessed and be done only with very large support of the community.

The future of the board

During the fall, the board has been discussing both the involvment of local chapter boards and the future of the Wikimedia board, itself. With regards to local chapters, the board is open to any discussions with or proposals from the chapters' members, themselves. Please be reactive on this matter.

With regard to the board itself, Anthere, Angela, and Jimbo agree that the current situation is hardly sustainable. The board activity is essentially taken care of by three people, and requires active involvement of other wikipedians to be managed. It was suggested that the board size, or, at least, the number of active members be increased.