DimDecision 2011 - The Board of Trustees Election, One nerd, one vote - or the horror of the Dingo Options

[Zoloft]

Dear Stanistani,

You are eligible to vote in the 2011 elections for the Board of Trustees of the
Wikimedia Foundation, which operates projects such as Wikipedia. The Board of
Trustees is the decision-making body that is ultimately responsible for the long
term sustainability of the Foundation, so we value wide input into its selection.

For more information, please see
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2011/en . To remove yourself from
future notification, please add your user name at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_nomail_list .

Damned spam.

*scratches head*

Hey guys.

The candidates are a luvly bunch o' nerds.

Should I vote? If I don't, would they 'run me down with Dingo dogs for not voting at all.'

[EricBarbour]

Vote all you want, they'll probably toss it anyway.

[SB_Johnny]

Is Kohs running again?

[lilburne]

As with real world elections: Don't vote it only encourages them.

[thekohser]

Is Kohs running again?

They slightly changed the eligibility requirements from 2009, so that I would not be able to run. I was thinking for next time to develop a sockpuppet that would exclusively be eligible to run in the next election, but then I realized how ridiculous that would be.

[Milton Roe]

Dear Stanistani,

You are eligible to vote in the 2011 elections for the Board of Trustees of the
Wikimedia Foundation, which operates projects such as Wikipedia. The Board of
Trustees is the decision-making body that is ultimately responsible for the long
term sustainability of the Foundation, so we value wide input into its selection.

For more information, please see
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2011/en . To remove yourself from
future notification, please add your user name at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_nomail_list .

Damned spam.

*scratches head*

Hey guys.

The candidates are a luvly bunch o' nerds.

Should I vote? If I don't, would they 'run me down with Dingo dogs for not voting at all.'

This voting for board of directors thing-- I don't get it. You get one vote for every one of your IP accounts that uses a different username and password, right? If you have 10 votes, do they mind if you split them? Or do they all have to go to one person?

No nonprofit is required to have any board members elected by anybody, so what's the point of WMF having any at all? Sure, they make sure it's not a majority, so the communiteh can't hijack WMF. They've given themselves a safety. It isn't real democracy for any of them, so what's the point of even pretending with this minority?

Wait-- could it be a sop for those who weren't paying attention?

[Kelly Martin]

It isn't real democracy for any of them, so what's the point of even pretending with this minority?

It maintains the appearance that the "communiteh" has some input in the operation of the Foundation. They don't, of course, but if there's one thing Jimmy has learned in his years on this world, it's the marketing truism that if you assert something enough times, most people will act as if it's true, even if it isn't.

[The Joy]

It isn't real democracy for any of them, so what's the point of even pretending with this minority?

It maintains the appearance that the "communiteh" has some input in the operation of the Foundation. They don't, of course, but if there's one thing Jimmy has learned in his years on this world, it's the marketing truism that if you assert something enough times, most people will act as if it's true, even if it isn't.

Jimbo Wales takes marketing advice from Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Goebbels?

[EricBarbour]

Jimbo Wales takes marketing advice from Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Goebbels?

Yep, but purely by accident. His usual cowardly stumbling-around.

Musn't kill the goose that lays the golden pageviews, and the cleverly-devised not-entirely-bogus statistics.....
lots of blather about "traffic" and "popularity" and not one word about "quality".

(Pop question: how many of those 3.6 million en-WP articles are stubs or "start-class"?
And no, I'm not talking about the 1000-plus "long stubs". )

This post has been edited by EricBarbour: Mon 13th June 2011, 2:00am

[The Joy]

I just checked my e-mail and the WMF BoE sent me one too.

But, it's for the 2009 election, not the 2011 election, according to the e-mail title.

You would think they would have had someone check that out before sending this to every eligible voter. What do they want me to do? Go back in time?

[Zoloft]

I just checked my e-mail and the WMF BoE sent me one too.
But, it's for the 2009 election, not the 2011 election, according to the e-mail title.
You would think they would have had someone check that out before sending this to every eligible voter. What do they want me to do? Go back in time?

As a moviegoer, I was surprised when Doc Brown said 'serious shit' during that scene.

Now when I watch that movie, I'm aghast that he put his dog in the car.

As far as the election goes, I may vote just for Coren.

[The Joy]

I was going to vote for the craziest ones most likely to cause more damage than the current board and preferably ones that can't communicate well in English. There are some doozies:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elect...e_.28mvart4u.29

used to work as senior trust relationship mgr for 15 yrs with citibank/csg. in between i have sucessfully restruct. our fam. business. began with 18 as illustrator / editor of high quality books.

loved medium-longterm strat. consid. are also asset 2day, as writer/painter: « teatime, samurai », compar. dalai LAMA with GANDHI, helped 2009 & counter proposal 2 OBAMA / court to postpone google-agreem.

started in dec 2010 THE HOPE CYCLE (http://vetere.blogspot.com/) with marocco & egypt (?!) - with happenings in libya, on 21st of feb 11, posted the new blog on fb white house with saying from 2010: "human rights are not, not negotiable." on 23rd of feb OBAMA quotes by amending: « nowhere » - on apr 15 human rights commission, UN geneva, fully adhered to official complaint dated 25th of nov 10 against wished apartheid in switzland (vote of 28th of nov. reverted!).

I contribute since 2010 to commons, mainly to own categ. mischa vetere - due to heavy censorship 2010, all works are O.T.R.S. approved now, a lot – due to fascist tendencies - against discrim., world problem no. 1: HUNGER, education. here an example, used for recent german conf. about north afr. Revol.: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...ERMORE_2010.jpg

following the invit. of ting chen, i would love to help to bring the wiki project further with all its diversity, increasing the quality level by encouraging participants. my contribution: to listen carefully, obtain a full overview, bring in strategical ideas. i am at the top of creativity - 2010: 1300 paintings!

He wants to fight fascism and world hunger with Wikipedia? I don't even understand much of statement at all. And he used to work at Citibank? He thinks Wikipedia can help the Arab Spring movement? Very over-zealous and overly idealistic. He will definitely stir the s--t up and not in a good way!

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elect...er_.28Capsot.29

Worried that WMF might foster oligarchs who hardly edit anymore and do not care much about the projects/editors
Sorry to witness bureaucracy gaining more importance, intricacy and control without counterpower
Still awaiting real transparency to know who the people in charge are, what they do and why/how they got up there
Afraid to see that institutions may become independent and get loads of money without control nor duties
Tired to see some rights renewed when last edit was in 2005 (BC maybe for some)

I am Capsot, the editor sorely praised in the high places. I deem that the core of the projects is its editors who deserve much more than what they get now.

If elected, I would try my very best to:

Listen & reply to concerns about the institutions
Promote transparency in every organ of the WMF
Have every Wikipedia or sister project on an equal ground be them big or small, specially small, stateless and threatened languages
Promote access/use to Internet and knowledge in the less-privileged countries, in the native languages
Ensure that funds go to noble causes, accordingly to development plans and needs, not in nurturing the biggest Chapters and discussable activities

As you can deduce from my general block a while ago, and still in Meta, some prominent people in the high places fear me ; so take your chance to frighten them as well voting for one of the few candidates really committed to change, truth and transparency.

Sounds like an outcast trying to get back at the powers that be. Since we can't root for Greg this go round, may Capsot is our best chance? He sounds like Malleus and is angry about the power-tripping administrators taking over all the wikis. Due to his being blocked, he states that he is "feared." Should we endorse someone feared by the WMF? Reminds me of the black knight from Monty Python:



Now, one person who does appear as an interesting candidate is Jane S. Richardson:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elect...on_.28Dcrjsr.29

I contribute organized sets of biomolecular-structure & mountain/flower images to Wikimedia Commons, edit molecular structure & graphics articles on en:wikipedia (POTD 2009-11-19), and introduce Wikipedia editing in classes.

My research is on 3D structure of biological macromolecules. I am a Professor at Duke University; MacArthur Fellow; National Academy of Sciences USA; American Academy of Arts & Sciences; Institute of Medicine; President-elect, Biophysical Society. Our lab (joint with my husband User:DavetheMage) runs the MolProbity structure-validation web service (at http://kinemage.biochem.duke.edu), distributes our open-source software and open-access papers, contributes to the RNA Ontology Consortium and the worldwide Protein Data Bank Validation Task Forces, and is a development team on the PHENIX crystallographic software project.

I would like to turn on more professionals to the satisfactions of wiki editing and contributing in their specialties. I have strong connections in professional scientific societies (Biophysics, Proteins, RNA, Crystallography, Computer Graphics, Biochemistry) in the US and internationally, would organize workshops and web pages to encourage new editors, and would share those strategies & materials with experts in other fields.
In the other direction, I would work to help make Wikimedia editing even more friendly and accessible.

Wow. She would be best for the board. Which means she won't get it.

[thekohser]

Now, one person who does appear as an interesting candidate is Jane S. Richardson:

She's 70 years old! Jimbo won't allow that on his board.

[A Horse With No Name]

The candidates are a luvly bunch o' nerds.

Why is Mischa Vetere doing an homage to Maya Deren?

Why is Jane Richardson wearing a coffee cake on her head?

Why isn't Kat Walsh showing off her va-va-vooms?

Is the man behind Esteban Zerate vomiting?

What is James Forrestor doing with his hands under the desk?

And why does Monsieur Pelletier look like a pervert?

I am extremely confused by this presentation.

[Milton Roe]

Now, one person who does appear as an interesting candidate is Jane S. Richardson:

She's 70 years old! Jimbo won't allow that on his board.

And also it's not worth it to piss off the admin cabal. We're going to hear from Risker about being upstaged by attentions being paid to a younger woman.

[EricBarbour]

Wow. She would be best for the board. Which means she won't get it.

Seriously, don't bother. All of these people (even the crazy ones) have put in some time Sniffing The Throne Of Wales.

Capsot looks like an interesting character, but he's far more interested in starting a Catalan Wikipedia group and editing the Occitan Wiktionary than he is in "reforming" anything. (You can read more and decide for yourself.) He's also not "blocked" anywhere that I can find.

My conclusion: nut. But not a "spoiler".

Plus.....it appears that Dalby (you remember that awful book he wrote?) likes the guy. Probably because he's a big fan of "dying" languages like Catalan, Occitan and Basque, and Dalby also wrote a book about dying languages.

[The Joy]

Wow. She would be best for the board. Which means she won't get it.

Seriously, don't bother. All of these people (even the crazy ones) have put in some time Sniffing The Throne Of Wales.

Capsot looks like an interesting character, but he's far more interested in starting a Catalan Wikipedia group and editing the Occitan Wiktionary than he is in "reforming" anything. (You can read more and decide for yourself.) He's also not "blocked" anywhere that I can find.

My conclusion: nut. But not a "spoiler".

Plus.....it appears that Dalby (you remember that awful book he wrote?) likes the guy. Probably because he's a big fan of "dying" languages like Catalan, Occitan and Basque, and Dalby also wrote a book about dying languages.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?titl...e=User%3ACapsot

[thekohser]

Another Wikimedia Foundation election, another result to rig.

In case there was any surprise at the fixed outcome -- the three incumbents among the large field were the ones re-installed to their posts. The Wikimedia Foundation board is not interested in any sort of reform.

This post has been edited by thekohser: Sat 18th June 2011, 4:37am

[EricBarbour]

So it seems.

Interesting: Capsot, despite being banned on Meta, came in sixth--higher than true-blue Wiki-nerds
like Jdforrester, GerardM, and Coren.

Otherwise, it's just like any large nonprofit. The people who run the place stay forever because they like
things in there, and fight like maniacs to keep things as they were before. Conclusion: Wikipedia
will not change until it either goes bankrupt, or (more likely) something happens that ruins its public image.

Something really nasty, like maybe a book full of scandals and proof that it's not an "encyclopedia".

This post has been edited by EricBarbour: Sat 18th June 2011, 8:05am

[gomi]

Roughly 3000 people -- worldwide -- who give a shit about Wikipedia. A bit on the high side of my expectations, but an interesting counterpoint to "the encyclopedia that everyone can ...." BS.