[Osmf-talk] Paying Board/WG was: Standing for board election

[John Crowley]

John,

The Wikimedia Foundation has changed since the days that Jimmy Wales ran
things. Katherine Maher was confirmed as Executive Director last year, and
she oversees the employment of 280 staff and contractors and over $80M USD
in revenues in 2016. Over the coming 5 years, I suspect that mapping will
become as critical as an encyclopedia, and OSMF will likely need to head in
a similar direction. That will entail moving toward a more professionalized
structure.

That said, OSMF should not pursue this as a traditional non-profit/charity;
like Wikipedia, we administer a collective intelligence that is OSM,
requiring some unique structures. We would do well to talk with WMF about
how they tackled these challenges, at minimum so we do not repeat mistakes.
But I do not think that we can retain a purely amateur governance structure
for much longer.

Best,

John

On Sun, Nov 26, 2017 at 3:18 AM, john whelan <jwhelan0112 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks Richard.
>
> I think it has a very different culture with a boss who indulges himself
> from time to time.
>
> Cheerio John
>
> On 25 November 2017 at 21:05, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Nov 25, 2017 at 8:15 PM, john whelan <jwhelan0112 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Question who or what is WMF?
>>
>> WikiMedia Foundation
>>
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-- 
______________________________

John Crowley
jcrowley at post.harvard.edu
bostoncello at gmail.com
mobile: +1 617.784.3663
skype: johnrcrowley

“You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it.
You must learn to see the world anew.” -- Albert Einstein
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