Todd, putting the caveats before the main thrust of Jimmy Wales' email, is a strange way of reading it. I read the email the obvious way, and I encourage others to read the original for themselves, rather than relying on cherry-picked quotes towards the end.
Thanks, Fae On 28 February 2016 at 20:17, Todd Allen <toddmal...@gmail.com> wrote: > Fae, > > Your second citation didn't at all match what I recall Jimmy saying on the > subject, so I went and read it. Even the specific email you cite is not, in > any way, "...arguing the case against > introducing charges for commercial reusers of WMF services...". Some quotes > from the email you cited: > > "...my general view is 100% in agreement with him on the core issue - where > commercial re-users are getting enormous value from our work, they should > be paying for the engineering resources required for their support." > > "...I come down firmly on the side of being careful about falling into a > trap of doing lots of expensive work for commercial re-users without having > them pay." > > He does say that there would be some caveats and it would be something to > step lightly on, but I don't think it could be any clearer that he does > want commercial reusers to pay for WMF services in at least some cases. > > I'm all for discussion and identification of potential conflicts of > interest. But if you're going to accuse someone of that, you really do need > to make sure you've got your facts straight. Misrepresenting someone, or > some things they said, will not get anyone to take you seriously. > > Todd > > On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 12:47 PM, Fæ <fae...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> ISSUE >> >> Jimmy Wales has never declared a conflict of interest or loyalty when >> acting as a WMF trustee. He is co-founder of Wikia Inc, set up in >> 2004, a commercial company that often benefits from new MediaWiki >> developments, and clearly he benefits financially from resulting >> profitability of Wikia. The original vision for Wikia was as a >> "Google-killer" open search engine, so it would seem highly prudent >> for Jimmy to have declared a conflict of interest and avoided WMF >> board discussions and votes in relation to new development projects >> around open Knowledge Engines / Search Engines. >> >> I welcome some feedback as to whether the general perception of >> Wikimedians is that WMF trustees should be seen to do more to declare >> and manage their potential conflicts of interest, and whether Jimmy >> Wales is perceived to have a conflict of loyalties when steering the >> WMF board member in areas which overlap with Wikia Inc.'s marketing >> strategy, and that they might otherwise fund commercially. >> >> BACKGROUND >> >> With regard to his potential conflict of loyalties when serving as a >> voting unelected trustee on the WMF board, Jimmy Wales has stated: >> "I did not have any conflict of loyalties during that process. >> Spending a reasonable portion of our IT budget on an ambitious project >> to improve search and discovery, and to conduct research and community >> consultation on that, is a great idea for Wikipedia and for the >> broader Wikimedia movement and I strongly support it."[1] >> >> Most recently Jimmy Wales has been arguing the case against >> introducing charges for commercial reusers of WMF services, with an >> obvious reuser of MediaWiki code improvements and WMF supported open >> project data being Wikia Inc.[2] >> >> There is no record in the WMF board minutes for 2015 of Jimmy Wales >> having ever declared a conflict of interest or loyalty for Wikia Inc >> or for any other reason, nor of any other trustee doing so. In order >> to comply with standard company law, these are expected on the >> standing agenda for board meetings, and it is worrying for a >> Foundation with control of $100m assets to never have a trustee or >> director ever declare an interest as a reason to abstain from a vote >> or discussion.[3] >> >> Jimmy does not appear to see there may be a public perception of >> conflict of interest or loyalties[6] when he is involved in steering >> the WMF strategy for prioritizing new developments that are likely to >> benefit Wikia Inc. The Knowledge Engine / Search Engine project was >> discussed by the board during 2015 and Jimmy has been a public >> advocate of the project since it was publicly leaked. The overlap of >> what is thought to have been the original proposal to the Knight >> Foundation with Jimmy Wales' original vision for wikia.com, being >> "Search Wikia", described as a "Google-killer search engine", is an >> obvious concern. Jimmy Wales: "Obsession: Currently, it’s wikia.com. >> It is meant to take on Google by creating a search engine where all >> the editorial decisions are made by the general public and all the >> software is open."[5] >> >> Nine years later Jimmy is promoting the same ideas but with the WMF >> investing charitable donated funds to support a development that will >> benefit Wikia, rather than it being commercially funded while using >> much of the same rhetoric, such as the importance of transparency.[4] >> >> Links >> 1. >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-February/082678.html >> 2. >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-February/082721.html >> 3. https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Meetings >> 4. Search Wikia interview >> http://searchengineland.com/qa-with-jimmy-wales-on-search-wikia-10171 >> 5. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-domains-t.html >> 6. Company directors and trustees are expected to declare both >> "conflicts of interest", normally interpreted as having a direct or >> indirect financial interest, and "conflicts of loyalty" where their >> non-financial interests may be seen to potentially influence their >> judgement as a board member. There may be no demonstrable conflict for >> this to be an issue, it only needs to be potentially be seen to be an >> issue by others, in order to require a declaration. >> 7. "Take advantage of Wikia's custom research solutions to achieve >> campaign objectives, including brand lift studies, target audience >> insights, and more!", "Reach the right audience with the right message >> using Wikia's multitude of targeting opportunities, including >> demographic, psychographic, geographic, contextual, genre, devices, >> conquesting, and more!" http://www.wikia.com/mediakit >> >> Fae -- fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
