2009/8/25 Thomas Dalton [email protected]:
How can you have a Q&A on a topic like this that doesn't even address the matter than you have sold a seat on the board? Has the WMF completely lost touch with the community? It should be obvious that this is going to be a highly controversial decision and yet you can't even get the basic announcement right and don't even try and answer the obvious question the community is going to ask.
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Why did the Wikimedia Foundation invite Matt Halprin to join its Board?
Matt's background and skills are a great fit for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, which has had two "expertise" (non-community) seats vacant since last April. Matt is a Board member of several other non-profit organizations, which means he will bring general non-profit governance and oversight experience to Wikimedia. His background at eBay gives him a good understanding of issues related to online community, trust, reputation, privacy and content quality: all key issues for the Wikimedia Foundation. Matt also has a background in strategy development, which will be useful for the Wikimedia Foundation as it embarks on its collaborative strategy development project. The Wikimedia Foundation believes Matt will be a terrific addition to Wikimedia's Board of Trustees.
Is Matt Halprin's Board seat an individual seat, or an Omidyar Network seat?
Like all Wikimedia Board members, Matt will be a member as an individual, not as a representative of any particular organization or constituency. All Wikimedia Foundation Board members have an obligation to put the best interests of the Wikimedia Foundation first, and to do their best to support and guide the organization, to help it achieve its mission and goals. The Wikimedia Foundation looks forward to Matt's participation on the Board.
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ON has supported many other charitable organizations in our space, including Creative Commons and the Sunlight Foundation (which you should look up if you don't know them - they're doing amazing work). Having one of their most qualified staffers join our Board of Trustees is a wonderful thing. Good Board members who bring the required governance experience and the significant time and patience it takes, particularly in our organization, to serve this role well, are hard to find. Naturally, the Board has done its due diligence in reviewing Matt as a candidate for the Board. Sue, Sara and I have also had deep discussions about our values and objectives with him. I'm very pleased to see him join our Board of Trustees; he's an excellent addition for the expertise seats.
ON's long-time interest in wikis is not a conflict of interest, it's a harmony of interests and expertise. If you look at ON's history, you'll find that they've made some very early attempts to decentralize and open up the grant-making process. It's reformed itself a couple of times in the process, and the folks there are really thoughtful and smart about open, collaborative projects. Our relationship with them is not an accident, and we've started building it very early when we moved to San Francisco. I'm hopeful that we can build a strong, successful long-term relationship with them, as it makes obvious sense to do so. I'm very pleased to see WMF be bold rather than timid in breaking new ground and building new relationships like this, which will be essential to break patterns of stagnation and re-ignite Wikimedia's mission.