Hi James. You can find out more about the Endowment here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Endowment
Seddon On Wed, Mar 1, 2017 at 7:54 PM, James Salsman <jsals...@gmail.com> wrote: > The statements Yair quoted are appropriate unless you believe > "empower" in the Foundation's Mission statement merely means "enable" > or "facilitate," without regard to economic or political power, so I'm > very glad to see them, as I am to see all of the eleven sections in > https://annual.wikimedia.org/2016/consider-the-facts.html > > Yair omitted mention of the descriptions of how, in each of those > eleven cases, our volunteers are using Foundation projects to address > the identified issues. Those who think discussion of these issues > should be suppressed or are cause to leave could talk with the > volunteers whose work has been profiled so that both sides can > understand the motivations and concerns of the other. Maybe Roxana > Sordo or Andreas Weith are on this list and can address the concerns > raised about the description of their work directly? In any case, free > culture isn't compatible with prohibition of discussion and > censorship. And the impulses toward such suppression aren't rational, > given the extent to which the human endocrine system regulates > personal, group, hierarchical, and reciprocal relationships, as shown > in Table 1 on page 192 of Daphne Bugental's (2000) "Acquisition of the > Algorithms of Social Life: A Domain-Based Approach," in Psychological > Bulletin 126(2):187-219, at http://talknicer.com/Bugental2000.pdf > > Regarding the Annual Report financials, it looks like the investment > income the Foundation is earning has fallen below 1%. I don't think > it's fair to donors to hold $47 million dollars in cash and > equivalents as per https://annual.wikimedia.org/2016/financials.html > -- Are people waiting for the Endowment Committee to meet before > investing? Does anyone know when the Endowment Committee will ever > meet? > > > On Wed, Mar 1, 2017 at 11:58 AM, Yair Rand <yyairr...@gmail.com> wrote: > > An unscheduled CentralNotice just started running, linking to a rather > > bizarre page [1]. Purporting to be the WMF's 2016 Annual Report, it > starts > > off with some text about refugees. "FACT: Half of refugees are > school-age", > > followed by some completely unencyclopedic text about the topic: "That > > means 10 million children are away from their homes, their communities, > and > > their traditional education. Each refugee child’s experience is unique, > but > > every single one loses time from their important learning years. Many of > > them face the added pressure of being surrounded by new languages and > > cultures." The linked page goes on to detail some of Wikimedia's vision > and > > how Wikimedia projects aid refugee populations. Following that, we have > an > > entire page on climate change and some of its effects, similarly written > in > > a style that is not befitting the movement: "In 2015, [Wikimedian Andreas > > Weith] photographed starving polar bears in the Arctic. As the ice > > declines, so does their ability to find food. “It’s heartbreaking,” he > > says." After all that, we finally have some pages on interesting > statistics > > about Wikimedia, mixed in with some general odd facts about the world, > > followed by a call to donate. There are also letters from the ED and > > founder linked. > > > > So, this could be a mix of coincidence and bad stylistic choices, and not > > politically motivated at all, but it is getting increasingly hard to > assume > > good faith on this, especially with the blog post a month ago > specifically > > calling for a change in refugee policy. > > > > Using Wikimedia projects to push politics is not okay. If the WMF does > not > > accept this, I suspect many projects will simply block CentralNotices, > > avoid associating with WMF statements, and quite possibly fork/leave. > > > > This is a serious problem. > > > > -- Yair Rand > > > > [1] https://annual.wikimedia.org/2016/?pk_campaign= > > WikiBanners&pk_kwd=AR2016_dsk_short > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Wikimedia-l > > 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> > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Wikimedia-l > 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> > -- Seddon *Advancement Associate (Community Engagement)* *Wikimedia Foundation* _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l 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>
