Updated January4 at 3:04 p.m.: This story has been changed to correct the number of members of the Wikimedia Foundation's board.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is "absolutely" not out of a job at the Wikimedia Foundation, according to the foundation's director of communications.
On Saturday, Valleywag editor Owen Thomas reported that Wales was "out of a job," writing, "Imagine an online encylopedia anyone can edit -- and no one can run. Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's...cofounder, is no longer a board member of the site's nonprofit foundation. Who's in charge here?"
It was reported Saturday that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is no longer on the board of the Wikimedia Foundation. But the director of the board said the report was not true.
(Credit: Wikimedia Foundation)The Valleywag report didn't cite any sources saying that Wales was no longer on the foundation's board, though it did point out that Wales' seat on the board--along with those of two others--had expired on December 31, 2008.
But in an e-mail to CNET News, Sue Gardner, the director of the foundation, wrote, "(t)here's nothing to it. Jimmy is a much-valued board member of the Wikimedia Foundation, and I expect he will hold that role permanently: I know of no reason for anyone to speculate otherwise."
In addition, Jay Walsh, the foundation's director of communications, said that Wales is "absolutely" still a member of the board and that he, along with the two other members, had been "unanimously" confirmed for another term on the board.
Wales' official position is Community Founder Trustee. According to Walsh, the Wikimedia Foundation's board decided that rather than make Wales' appointment infinite, or indefinite, it would allow his seat to come up for re-appointment at the end of each term, giving Wales a way to bow out if he needed to do so for any reason.
"I don't foresee any (time) in the near future where he wouldn't continue in that position he holds," Walsh said.
Indeed, in an e-mail sent on December 28, 2008, to the Wikimedia Foundation's e-mail list, board chair Michael Snow wrote, among other things, "We...had a unanimous vote to re-appoint Jimmy Wales to his position as Community Founder Trustee."
Wales did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Valleywag's Thomas.
Last April, the foundation re-organized its board, formalizing Wales' position as the Community Founder Trustee, and setting forth its current structure, in which the board is intended to be comprised of 10 members, including Wales, three community-elected seats, four "specific expertise" seats, and two chapter seats.
As of right now, the board has just seven members and is still looking for three more, said Walsh.
The Wikimedia Foundation has instituted a restructuring of its board of trustees, in the process adding two "chapter" board seats and formalizing Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales' position as the "community founder" board member.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has been designated the 'community founder' board member of the Wikimedia Foundation as part of a restructuring of the board.
(Credit: Lane Hartwell)Valleywag on Wednesday first noted the changes.
First, according to Jan-Bart de Vreede, the board of trustees' vice chairman, the board is expanding from its current 8 seats to a total of 10.
The big change, de Vreede wrote, is the expansion of the board through what he termed "chapter-selected" seats.
"This has been under consideration for a long time, and we are glad to finally be implementing it, de Vreede wrote. "We want to acknowledge that the chapters are an important player in the fulfillment of the Wikimedia Foundation's mission and that they therefore deserve a voice in the governance of the Foundation. Please note that the two chapter-selected seats are not intended to represent the interests of the chapters vis-a-vis the foundation. The chapters are being asked to pick trustees who they feel will represent the interests of the Wikimedia Foundation and help it fulfill its mission as well as it possibly can."
There will also be three Wikimedia community-elected seats.
Further, the foundation is designating four board seats for "specific expertise" in the hopes that it can find people who bring "skills and capacities" the board wants.
"For example, we might decide to actively recruit board members with deep nonprofit governance experience or fund-raising experience," according to de Vreede.
And, finally, Wales was formally appointed to the community founder board seat, a seat he will occupy until December 31.
According to de Vreede, the "specific expertise" seats and the community founder seat will be re-appointed in January 2009. De Vreede's post did not specify how those reappointments would be done.
The community-elected and chapter-selected seats will come with two-year terms and will be reselected in alternating years.
It's been a good week for the coffers of the Wikimedia Foundation.
On Tuesday, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced it was giving $3 million over three years to the organization that runs Wikipedia.
And on Thursday, top-dog venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and his wife, Neeru, said they were going to donate $500,000 to the foundation.
This is good news for an organization that has been recently criticized over its finances, particularly from those who say founder Jimmy Wales may have played a little fast and loose with the foundation's credit card when it came to personal expenses. The foundation's executive director, Sue Gardner, has strongly denied the charges, arguing that Wales did nothing wrong.
Still, with some ill winds circling around, it must be gratifying for the Wikimedia Foundation to be seeing people and institutions like the Khoslas and the Sloan Foundation giving it votes of confidence with their wallets.
As for the Khosla money, it's unclear exactly what it will be used for. The Sloan money, it is said, will go toward, among other things, helping to support the construction of a Wikipedia feature called "flagged revisions," which is designed to allow "experienced editors to publicly and visibly grade the quality status of articles--in effect, functioning as a kind of 'nutrition labeling' for Wikipedia content."
Another thing that's unclear is exactly how much control the Khoslas and the Sloan Foundation get over how their donations will be used.
Some, like Valleywag editor Owen Thomas, have argued that the new money gives the donors oversight that could curtail what critics contend is profligate spending. Whether that control actually exists is not known.
Talk about hot foundation-on-foundation action.
On Tuesday, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced it was giving the Wikimedia Foundation--which runs Wikipedia--$3 million.
The money will go toward supporting "Wikimedia's organizational development and help to increase the quality of its content and the reach of its services."
Among other things, the announcement said the money would go specifically to a new Wikipedia feature called "flagged revisions," which will "allow experienced editors to publicly and visibly grade the quality status of articles--in effect, functioning as a kind of 'nutrition labeling' for Wikipedia content."
I sort of wonder if that is in any way related to a feature that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told me about back in August 2006 that was supposed to make it possible for Wikipedia's home page to be open to the public again.
Perhaps not, but it seems there might be some similarities in the functionality.
Update (4:03pm): I got an email this afternoon from Jimmy Wales who confirms that the flagged revisions feature on Wikipedia is exactly the feature he told me about back in 2006. The only difference, he said, is that back then, it was called "stable versions." But he said, that name was too confusing.
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