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 Open Source Diva named CTO |
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| anthony |
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Postmaster
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QUOTE(Zoloft @ Thu 28th January 2010, 11:44pm) 
That BLP is very different today. It links to her blog and other sources.
Yeah, the DivaBlog of the Open Source Diva, the title of which I think would have counted as a strike against her even if I hadn't associated the name with David Gerard. QUOTE(Zoloft @ Thu 28th January 2010, 11:44pm)
She's had a long tech career, appears to be an Open Source evangelist, coder, and advocate for women in IT.
Seems like an excellent choice, really.
A very fitting one, anyway. I was just talking to a friend of mine two days ago about how Sun totally screwed up a successful business (and making fun of the fact that its ticker symbol is JAVA). Not sure how much of that was Cooper's fault, though. |
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| Milton Roe |
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Known alias of J. Random Troll
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QUOTE(TungstenCarbide @ Thu 28th January 2010, 7:50pm) QUOTE(thekohser @ Fri 29th January 2010, 2:17am)
She looks like a Napa Valley "real estate agent of the stars".
I should also add, her IQ is likely 20 points higher than mine, and she's got about 6 times more hair than me, so I'm not one to talk.
She's hyperopic, too. Sure enough. That right eye is bigger than life, not smaller. That's a rare condition in intelligent early-readers, who usually end up myopic. Good catch, O optometrically knowlegable one. (IMG: smilys0b23ax56/default/blink.gif) |
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| Somey |
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Can't actually moderate (or even post)
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Seems to me they need someone whose OSS background is LAMP, not Java and OO.o...? (IMG: smilys0b23ax56/default/hmmm.gif) Sorry, I just thought it would be fun to use a few buzzword acronyms. The main thing to be concerned about now is who drives feature prioritization. If it's still going to be Jimbo and Erik Moeller, then we can probably expect more of the same, i.e., vaporware, or nothing of any value whatsoever. If it's Cooper, then it remains to be seen, but the mere fact that Cooper is female is probably a good sign. Females tend to be more compassionate and less narcissistic, though of course we've seen plenty of exceptions to that in Wikiland. Still, almost anybody is likely to be more compassionate and less narcissistic than Erik Moeller and Jimbo. Anyway, it's always best to give people a chance to show what they're about before assuming the worst. I say we give her at least a couple of weeks before concluding that her tenure as CTO is a complete failure. |
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| dogbiscuit |
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Could you run through Verifiability not Truth once more?
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QUOTE(Somey @ Fri 29th January 2010, 7:35am) Seems to me they need someone whose OSS background is LAMP, not Java and OO.o...? (IMG: smilys0b23ax56/default/hmmm.gif) Sorry, I just thought it would be fun to use a few buzzword acronyms. The main thing to be concerned about now is who drives feature prioritization. If it's still going to be Jimbo and Erik Moeller, then we can probably expect more of the same, i.e., vaporware, or nothing of any value whatsoever. If it's Cooper, then it remains to be seen, but the mere fact that Cooper is female is probably a good sign. Females tend to be more compassionate and less narcissistic, though of course we've seen plenty of exceptions to that in Wikiland. Still, almost anybody is likely to be more compassionate and less narcissistic than Erik Moeller and Jimbo. Anyway, it's always best to give people a chance to show what they're about before assuming the worst. I say we give her at least a couple of weeks before concluding that her tenure as CTO is a complete failure. I'm confused, wasn't Erik chosen as the GodKing of technology? Presumably, at least we can conclude that HIS tenure as CTO was a complete failure? Presumably he gets to hang around on a nice salary. |
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| Somey |
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Can't actually moderate (or even post)
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QUOTE(dogbiscuit @ Fri 29th January 2010, 2:41am) I'm confused, wasn't Erik chosen as the GodKing of technology? Presumably, at least we can conclude that HIS tenure as CTO was a complete failure? Presumably he gets to hang around on a nice salary. Erik is the Deputy Director - Brion Vibber was the CTO. Other than that, you probably presume correctly... (IMG: smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif) If the job mostly entails keeping the servers running, and/or keeping the back-end software up-to-date and so on, then Cooper has the wrong background - she seems to be a software development person whose expertise is in Java stuff, not LAMP, which is what I believe Wikipedia runs on. I did notice on her blog ( linked directly from her BLP) that her last job was essentially with a "cap-bait" operation. In other words, someone with a million dollars hired her to provide name-recognition (i.e., credibility) in his effort to get a startup company to the point at which he could obtain 10 million dollars from someone else, and once the 10 million was obtained (I'm making wild guesses as to the numbers) he "let her go," since he now had the money in hand and no longer needed someone with a recognizable name. (That isn't quite how she described the situation, but it's fairly obvious, reading between the lines.) An experience like that can turn a person into a cynic very easily - and it's easy to see why she'd be drawn to the WMF CTO job, since the WMF calls itself a non-profit and therefore doesn't look like a cap-bait operation, at least on the surface. However, it is still a fairly small operation, and if she's going to be working under the same terms as Brion Vibber, i.e., answerable to Erik Moeller, that could be worse than unemployment. |
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| GlassBeadGame |
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Dharma Bum
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QUOTE(Somey @ Fri 29th January 2010, 4:20am) QUOTE(dogbiscuit @ Fri 29th January 2010, 2:41am) I'm confused, wasn't Erik chosen as the GodKing of technology? Presumably, at least we can conclude that HIS tenure as CTO was a complete failure? Presumably he gets to hang around on a nice salary. Erik is the Deputy Director - Brion Vibber was the CTO. Other than that, you probably presume correctly... (IMG: smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif) If the job mostly entails keeping the servers running, and/or keeping the back-end software up-to-date and so on, then Cooper has the wrong background - she seems to be a software development person whose expertise is in Java stuff, not LAMP, which is what I believe Wikipedia runs on. I did notice on her blog ( linked directly from her BLP) that her last job was essentially with a "cap-bait" operation. In other words, someone with a million dollars hired her to provide name-recognition (i.e., credibility) in his effort to get a startup company to the point at which he could obtain 10 million dollars from someone else, and once the 10 million was obtained (I'm making wild guesses as to the numbers) he "let her go," since he now had the money in hand and no longer needed someone with a recognizable name. (That isn't quite how she described the situation, but it's fairly obvious, reading between the lines.) An experience like that can turn a person into a cynic very easily - and it's easy to see why she'd be drawn to the WMF CTO job, since the WMF calls itself a non-profit and therefore doesn't look like a cap-bait operation, at least on the surface. However, it is still a fairly small operation, and if she's going to be working under the same terms as Brion Vibber, i.e., answerable to Erik Moeller, that could be worse than unemployment. I think the CTO has quite a challenge ahead. It can't be easy to justify the expenditure of the bulk of $10,000,000 per year to accomplish exactly what had previously been achieved for $300,000. A better choice might have been the toilet seat guy at the Pentagon or the GM executive who coined the term "burn rate" to described corporate sending in the run-up to bankruptcy. |
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| Cock-up-over-conspiracy |
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Now censored by flckr.com and who else ... ???
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Social entropy typical of big time voluntary sector operations. First the idealists burn out then a second class of individuals move in. Obviously a bit part of the game is, "we have to spend the money to attract the type of candidate commensurably to the job at all" because ... obviously ... we need someone responsible when we are dealing with these types of money.
In other words, we have to pay them so they pay be well. And we will keep squeezing it upwards. Altruism in the higher echelons goes out the windows and, gradually, the operation keep requiring more and more time, energy and money in ... and more and more to bring it in ... give less and less out ... and become less and less relevant.
The only ones that last are one that actually do some good ... it will be interesting to see if the Pornopedia can actually deliver.
I, personally, doubt it right now.
Expenditure of $10,000,000 per year ... gosh, that is easy. All those consultants and experts and reviews and meetings and new furniture and own trumpets to blow. Spending is what this second class of individuals are good at.
Hell, they could even spend a few hundred bucks on making the software better and easier for modest, ordinary, informed people ... imagine how much that will cost in consultants to review and oversee?
Are all dem gurls now even going to push for a little race and gender equality amongst contributors? It oughtn't to have been boy toys Lacriox watches in golf magazine ads ... it ought to have been handbags and women's lifestyle magazines.
This post has been edited by Cock-up-over-conspiracy:
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| TungstenCarbide |
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Allegedly shot down by stray Ukrainian missile
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QUOTE(GlassBeadGame @ Fri 29th January 2010, 2:15pm) QUOTE(Somey @ Fri 29th January 2010, 4:20am) QUOTE(dogbiscuit @ Fri 29th January 2010, 2:41am) I'm confused, wasn't Erik chosen as the GodKing of technology? Presumably, at least we can conclude that HIS tenure as CTO was a complete failure? Presumably he gets to hang around on a nice salary. Erik is the Deputy Director - Brion Vibber was the CTO. Other than that, you probably presume correctly... (IMG: smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif) If the job mostly entails keeping the servers running, and/or keeping the back-end software up-to-date and so on, then Cooper has the wrong background - she seems to be a software development person whose expertise is in Java stuff, not LAMP, which is what I believe Wikipedia runs on. I did notice on her blog ( linked directly from her BLP) that her last job was essentially with a "cap-bait" operation. In other words, someone with a million dollars hired her to provide name-recognition (i.e., credibility) in his effort to get a startup company to the point at which he could obtain 10 million dollars from someone else, and once the 10 million was obtained (I'm making wild guesses as to the numbers) he "let her go," since he now had the money in hand and no longer needed someone with a recognizable name. (That isn't quite how she described the situation, but it's fairly obvious, reading between the lines.) An experience like that can turn a person into a cynic very easily - and it's easy to see why she'd be drawn to the WMF CTO job, since the WMF calls itself a non-profit and therefore doesn't look like a cap-bait operation, at least on the surface. However, it is still a fairly small operation, and if she's going to be working under the same terms as Brion Vibber, i.e., answerable to Erik Moeller, that could be worse than unemployment. I think the CTO has quite a challenge ahead. It can't be easy to justify the expenditure of the bulk of $10,000,000 per year to accomplish exactly what had previously been achieved for $300,000. A better choice might have been the toilet seat guy at the Pentagon or the GM executive who coined the term "burn rate" to described corporate sending in the run-up to bankruptcy. Brion and Tim were legends in their own time for what they did on a shoestring, with mostly opensource software. This was after Wikipedia got popular but before the Foundation started getting lots of money and employees. |
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| Kelly Martin |
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Bring back the guttersnipes!
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QUOTE(dogbiscuit @ Fri 29th January 2010, 2:41am) I'm confused, wasn't Erik chosen as the GodKing of technology? Presumably, at least we can conclude that HIS tenure as CTO was a complete failure? Presumably he gets to hang around on a nice salary. Erik was Brion's boss, which I've always assumed was done because Sue couldn't be bothered to supervise Brion (who needed supervision; Brion is a technically gifted individual but his organizational and management skills need a lot of honing). It remains to be seen, I suppose, if this individual will also report to Erik das Wunderkind. I've always assumed Brion's decision to leave was predicated on two things: one, his job mutating from "hack on interesting things" to "prepare budget projections", and two, having to report to Erik. Wikimedia needs a CTO with management experience more than it needs technical wizardry. I honestly believe she was chosen, however, primarily because she's female. Wikimedia is very very upset at the low rate of female participation in Wikimedia projects, and I think this is part of their program to boost that. In addition, she is socially well-connected to the San Francisco open source scene, which is, of course, the playground Jimmy and Co. want to play in. From the standpoint of her role as a CTO, I don't think she adds a whole lot to Wikimedia. However, in the social networking game that Wikimedia is playing, she probably adds quite a lot. |
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| Kelly Martin |
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Bring back the guttersnipes!
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QUOTE(anthony @ Fri 29th January 2010, 7:33pm) QUOTE(Kelly Martin @ Fri 29th January 2010, 4:20pm)
From the standpoint of her role as a CTO, I don't think she adds a whole lot to Wikimedia. However, in the social networking game that Wikimedia is playing, she probably adds quite a lot.
So, would it be fair to say she's the Mike Godwin of computer scientists? No, Godwin is actively incompetent. I have no reason to believe that Ms. Cooper is incompetent; in fact, I strongly suspect that she's quite competent in a set of technologies that Wikimedia is not using, and is unlikely to use in the future. It'd be like hiring Julia Childs to run a Vietnamese restaurant. No, Ms. Cooper's value to Wikimedia is that she is well-known in the open-source open-culture community as an activist, and so she provides name recognition, prestige, and access within that community. Unfortunately, I think she's rather on the outs with Snoracle these days, an entity with whom Wikimedia has had decently good relations in the past. If they brought her in to try to shore up that relationship, which is undoubtedly changing with Larry Ellison calling the shots now, I think that'll be a fail. In any case, none of this has anything to do with her competency as CTO qua CTO, but instead with her ability to expand Wikimedia's social (and fundraising) network. |
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| Krimpet |
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QUOTE(Alison @ Sat 30th January 2010, 1:18am) Releasing a dozen pieces of a hundred-piece puzzle doesn't count. (IMG: smilys0b23ax56/default/smile.gif) (GNU has been trying to implement Cocoa for years, since when it was still "OpenStep," but Apple doesn't seem very interested in helping...) This actually gets at the heart of the whole "Free" versus "Open Source" battle. The Free Software folks want the entire system to be free for ideological reasons, while Open Source folks just think it's a better methodology to use to build software in certain cases, and are willing to mix and match open-source components with closed-source components in their products as is convenient or profitable. Cooper seems to be strongly affiliated with the latter camp, being involved with the Open Source Initiative. Wiki[pm]edia has always been about "free content" and "free culture"; the Open Source approach would be akin to Bomis starting Wikipedia so they could package it up as one free part of an otherwise all-rights-reserved "Bomis Encyclopedia of Boobs." "Open source" buzzwords and posturing aside, the Diva's experience and technical chops seem perfectly acceptable for the job. This post has been edited by Krimpet: |
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