A bit of unsolicited advice from a chapter staff member and long-time volunteer coming up. It doesn't represent my view on this proposal, but is, as I said, simply unsolicited advice! Feel free to ignore it if you want.
Here we go... It seems to me that the term 'paid volunteer' is an oxymoron. A volunteer is, by definition<http://www.volunteering.org.uk/iwanttovolunteer/what-is-volunteering>, unpaid, aren't they? That said, this definition, *as applied to paid editing,* is a good start, but it seems like it needs a little reworking to cover what you're trying to cover, in particular the part that reads "This includes employees and contractors...". I'll explain why this is my advice below: - Paid volunteers are employees, contractors or part time contractors of Wikimedia organizations or other organizations having agreements or partnerships with Wikimedia. - *[This could include, say, Google, who have probably signed a Wikimania sponsorship agreement with the WMF at some point]* - The paid volunteer contributes to Wikimedia projects and discussions that influence the content of Wikimedia projects. - *[This would include any Google employee who edits Wikipedia in his spare time]* - This includes employees and contractors that may not be paid for their on-project activities, - *[This would also include a Google employee who edits in his spare time about trains as his hobby]* - however their employer benefits from the content of the same projects. - *[Which Google does because they trawl Wikimedia projects and thus benefit from them... but then, most of the "Western World" benefits from Wikipedia one way or another!]* This would mean that anyone who works for Google, and edits Wikipedia about 1920s Welsh steam trains, is a paid volunteer, regardless of whether their job has anything to do with Wikipedia. As a paid volunteer, presumably their would be extra rules which apply to him - but rules which would not serve any purpose in his case except for preventing some sort of Google/Wikipedia/Welsh Steam Trains tryst that wouldn't realistically occur anyway. What I'm saying is that this would potentially cover an *awful* lot of people. To give another example, what if the US State department granted an amount to the "Wikimedia Idaho" chapter to do an editathon (with a short one-page grant agreement covering what the £250 grant would be used for)? Would that then mean that any US State Department employee, worldwide, would be a 'paid volunteer'? By this definition, yes... Don't get me wrong, this is a discussion that the community needs to have, but the stated definition, in my opinion, may be overreaching a bit more than intended... Richard Symonds Wikimedia UK 0207 065 0992 Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.* On 4 April 2014 12:26, Philippe Beaudette <phili...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > Perhaps I'm just being obtuse, but I'm a little unclear on the definition > of a paid volunteer. Could you possibly try rephrasing it so that I'm more > clear? > > pb > > > > *Philippe Beaudette * \\ Director, Community Advocacy \\ Wikimedia > Foundation, Inc. > T: 1-415-839-6885 x6643 | phili...@wikimedia.org | : > @Philippewiki<https://twitter.com/Philippewiki> > > > On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 4:14 AM, Fæ <fae...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Proposal: "Paid volunteers" should take care to identify themselves on > > Wikimedia Projects and discussions related to Wikimedia Projects. > > > > Sue Gardner's initial report by the WMF into the Belfer case makes a key > > decision that there must be effective processes for escalation of > employee > > activities that may not comply with Wikimedia local project best > > practice.[1][2] The WMF can direct their own processes for their staff, > but > > a consequence for the wider community is that on our projects we should > > have policies that ensure there is simple and straight-forward > transparency > > for who is a paid volunteer and may have interests related to their edits > > or their contributions to discussion. The current situation is that paid > > volunteers have no requirement to identify themselves and may contribute > > anonymously or pseudonymously in ways that obscure their interest, in > fact > > this is current common practice. > > > > I am thinking of raising this proposal on meta, so initial thoughts and > > comments on this list would be welcome to decide whether this is worth > > taking forward as beneficial to our volunteer community. > > > > *Definition of "paid volunteer":* > > Paid volunteers are employees, contractors or part time contractors of > > Wikimedia organizations or other organizations having agreements or > > partnerships with Wikimedia. The paid volunteer contributes to Wikimedia > > projects and discussions that influence the content of Wikimedia > projects. > > This includes employees and contractors that may not be paid for their > > on-project activities, however their employer benefits from the content > of > > the same projects. > > > > Links: > > [1] > > http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-April/070827.html > > [2] > > > > > https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedian_in_Residence/Harvard_University_assessment > > > > Fae > > -- > > fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
