After a series of closed-door meetings this week by the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees, WMF staffers widely believe that the Board is deciding the fate of executive director Lila Tretikov.
Tretikov's tumultuous tenure has seen a number of dramatic events in recent months, including the dismissal of community-selected Board of Trustees member James Heilman (Doc James); the appointment of trustee Arnnon Geshuri, and his resignation following a community outcry; and the controversy around a Knight Foundation grant for a project called "Knowledge Engine", which at one point may have been intended to be a competitor with Google.
While at least the first two issues could be attributed to the Board's political mistakes, WMF staffers widely attribute a series of high-profile employee departures from the WMF to issues with Tretikov's leadership. A timeline of events at the WMF was recently created by GorillaWarfare, illustrating many instances of staff turmoil, including a number of incidents that were not publicly known outside WMF circles.
Staff concerns about Tretikov came to a head at a remarkable all-staff meeting last November 9, details of which are only now becoming public. An apologetic Tretikov, flanked by Jimmy Wales and Board chair Patricio Lorente, confronted the assembled WMF staffers and pledged to improve communication and leadership. Tretikov told them, in part,
First of all, I owe you all an apology, for not seeing this earlier, and it started percolating few weeks ago when some people started telling me some of the problems they were seeing. So, I'm really, really sorry for anything that I've said or done that have made you feel devalued in any respect, or disrespected or not listened to. It was not at all my intent. I deeply believe that, and I think I've said that, or somehow I'm failing to communicate it.
A dramatic question and answer session followed, but many WMF employees seemed bewildered by what resembled a moment of truth, and were unsure about the circumstances that had prompted it. One staffer later termed it a "show trial" of Tretikov, while others vented about perceived failures of leadership during the meeting itself. One prominent staffer, Asaf Bartov (Asaf (WMF)), directly accused Tretikov of lying about the Knowledge Engine, which has been a particular flashpoint in conflicts between Tretikov and WMF staff.
Many staffers had little information about the project, despite the fact that the WMF was asking for millions of dollars from the Knight Foundation to implement it. Heilman told the Signpost that he and fellow Board member Dariusz Jemielniak had to fight a reluctant Tretikov and other Board members to receive key documents about the Knowledge Engine. Regarding this accusation leveled at Tretikov, Bartov later wrote on Facebook:
It was only after staff (outside the Discovery team, *who were also in the dark* regarding the grant and what was written in it) began asking persistent questions on the staff-wide mailing list about the mysterious and undefined "Knowledge Engine" that Lila shared any information at all.
The Discovery team is tasked with implementing the Knowledge Engine, yet according to the minutes of last week's Discovery meeting, which contained some candid discussion, some team members appear to have learned key details about the project from a Signpost report.
The issue of Tretikov's management and leadership style was intended to be addressed by the appointment of Steve Scheier as a management coach in November. Scheier worked at Apple in the 1980s with Guy Kawasaki, a member of the Board of Trustees who has been widely seen as sympathetic to Tretikov. Kawasaki provided a blurb for Scheier's 2015 book Do More Good. Better. Using the Power of Decision Clarity® to Mobilize the Talent of your Nonprofit Team, stating "This book removed the scales from my eyes and taught me that nonprofits are a different beast—in distribution of power, relationships with constituencies, and employee recruitment and retention. If you want to optimize the leadership of a nonprofit, this is the hands-on guide to help you succeed."
In earlier months, staff voiced fears of retaliation and described a "culture of fear" at the WMF, such as a February 1 comment to Tretikov by Community Tech developer Frances Hocutt: "I hear my colleagues' concerns and see some of them being censured for speaking in ways that I have found sharply critical but still fundamentally honest and civil, and I worry that someday I will be the one who is suddenly found to have stepped over lines which were previously invisible or unspoken."
The depth of these problems was revealed in an anonymous staff survey held in late November. As the Signpost revealed, the survey indicated that trust levels were abysmally low. Just 10% of staff indicated that they had confidence in the WMF's senior leadership, a number widely interpreted as a direct reflection on Tretikov. An even lower 7% of staffers indicated that those senior leaders "keep people informed about what is happening."
In recent weeks, staffers have spoken out more directly and brazenly, responding to Tretikov and even contradicting her directly both in public and private. They appear to have been galvanized by a number of recent events, most notably the resignations of Luis Villa, senior director of Community Engagement, and Siko Bouterse, director of Community Resources—the most recent in a long line of staff departures and medical leaves from the WMF over the past two years, triggering particularly strong responses.
A February 18 message from Ido Ivri also prompted a number of frank responses from current and former WMF employees and community members. Ivri, a board member of Wikimedia Israel, wrote:
I’m concerned because it’s evident that the Foundation is undergoing a deep, strategic change. But this change is not accompanied by the required transparency, honesty and accountability required by the Foundation in order to truly transform in a way that's beneficial for the organization and its community.
While WMF staffers are convinced that Tretikov's departure is imminent, staff resignations have continued amid concerns about the long-term future of the Foundation and the ability of the Board to address these issues. The latest departure, announced Tuesday, is that of Research Analyst Oliver Keyes (Ironholds). Although he used much sterner language in an internal email seen by the Signpost, Keyes publicly stated that "While I appreciate that the Board of Trustees may take steps to rectify the situation, I have no confidence in their ability to effectively do so given their failure to solve for the problem until it became a publicity issue as well as a staff complaint."
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4 July 2016
Clarifications on status and compensation of outgoing executive directors Sue Gardner and Lila Tretikov
15 June 2016
Lila Tretikov a Young Global Leader; Wikipediocracy blog post sparks indefinite blocks
23 March 2016
Podcast #119: The Foundation and the departure of Lila Tretikov
16 March 2016
Update: On February 25, Tretikov announced her resignation, effective March 31, 2016. In her resignation statement, Tretikov said, "I will support the process of identifying our new leadership in every way that I can, and offer my assistance to the Board as they conduct their search for my successor. It has been an honor to serve and to contribute to our great movement." The Board of Trustees announced their acceptance of her resignation.
The WMF issued an official statement to The Next Web, which we have reprinted below in full:
On Thursday, February 25, Lila Tretikov announced she will step down from her role as Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation.
“I am both inspired by, and proud of, the many great things we have all accomplished at the Foundation over the last two years, most significantly reversing the loss of our editorial community,” Lila wrote in her email to staff and community. “I would like to thank our Board of Trustees and Advisors, our Foundation staff, as well as the many outstanding community members for their support and encouragement on this journey. I remain passionate about the value and potential of open knowledge and Wikimedia to change the world.”
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is working to develop a transition plan that will include appointing interim leadership and initiating the search for a new Executive Director. Lila’s last day will be March 31, 2016.
Lila joined as Executive Director in May 2014 to support the maturation of the Wikimedia Foundation and focus the organization on the needs of its community and users. During this time, the organization has made real progress in these areas. The Foundation has improved organizational performance and product development, released new native apps, editor translation and content quality assessment tools. Many talented members of our staff and community contributed to these accomplishments, and we want to recognize their hard work and commitment to our mission.
“These changes are in motion and I move on with confidence that the Foundation can meet new challenges in a changing environment” said Lila, “I remain passionate about the value and potential of open knowledge to change the world and our ability to continue to lead this change.”
Since it started fifteen years ago, Wikipedia has grown into one of the world’s most important knowledge resources, thanks to the efforts of hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world. The focus of the Wikimedia Foundation has always been to support that community and the Wikimedia projects, and to help make free knowledge available for the world.
“The Wikimedia’s vision is clear: a world in which every single person can share in the sum of all knowledge. Even as we go through changes, our focus remains on this vision,” said Patricio Lorente, Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. “The Wikimedia Foundation has strong leadership and a talented staff devoted to this vision and our movement’s core values. They will continue to support the Wikimedia projects and community, and we are confident that we are well positioned to move forward at this time. We thank Lila for her service and wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
Lila will remain engaged with the Wikimedia Foundation to support the transition process.
When I joined the Wikimedia Foundation there was an operations engineer named Ryan Lane. In most respects, Ryan was just a standard operations engineer, but every Friday as work wound down he'd crack open a big archive drawer full of drinks and make everyone cocktails.
It was a nice opportunity for mingling: legal, administration, engineering and global development would all come around and have a cocktail (alcoholic or not) and chat. It broke down barriers between departments, sequestered as they are on different floors, and let visiting remote employees meet people they might not otherwise have encountered.
Then Ryan left and nobody bothered organising it any more, and the function went away.
When I joined the Wikimedia Foundation there was an Executive Director named Sue Gardner. In most respects, Sue was just an ED, but she instilled values of transparency outside the organisation and transparency inside it. She created an environment where you might disagree with a decision, but you could still respect it, because you were there for it. She created an environment where everyone, even executives, were answerable for the work they did and did not do. She created an environment where dissent was expected and valued rather than classed as unprofessional.
Then Sue left, and guess what happened next?
Culture is a fragile thing, much more fragile than we expect. When we're in the middle of it, good or bad, it just ... fades into background noise. It's taken as a given. And then people leave and you slowly realise both how valuable their presence was, and the fact that the things they were doing aren't anywhere in anyone's job description, or things you were hiring their replacement with an eye to.
When Ryan left, we lost alcohol. And hey, I can deal with an absence of alcohol. Tech and alcohol haven't exactly been the healthiest of friendships. But when Sue left, we lost a lot of our transparency, internally and externally. When Gayle left we lost a boundless love and fierce determination to make us do better and comfort us when we didn't. When Anasuya left we lost steady counsel, an awareness of the width of the world and knowledge of the multitudes it contains.
We hired for none of these values. We tasked for none of these values. And so we have, organisationally, none of these values. The things that always distinguished the Wikimedia Foundation as a workplace are gone, and replaced with an environment that prizes unanimity above confidence and lacks accountability for organisational failures.
Because of that, I am leaving. I don't know what things I did that nobody will organise now, but I do know that I am not looking back. This was a good place to be – I wouldn't have spent half a decade at it otherwise – but it has tarnished and rusted every day of the last year and a half.
To my friends in the wider movement, I would ask you to keep insisting that the organisation do better. Insist until your keyboard is worn down, insist until your lungs give out, insist until the next Board election and the next opportunity to make the people holding the job at the moment actually do it.
To my friends in the organisation – and there are so very many of them, so many wonderful, glorious, loving people – you owe your people trust and respect and protection, and sometimes that is shielding them at your expense. But sometimes it is getting out while you still can, so as to set an example that leaving is a thing that can be done. If you wait to leave until you have pulled everyone out, you'll be consumed by it. I would not wish that on any of you.
If anyone wants me, I'll be at Rapid7, a company whose employees like being there, whose work is interesting, and whose managers are accessible and answerable. Turns out being a security/privacy nerd who likes data is, in fact, remunerative. If you're reading this: I'm sure you can work out where to find me if you need me.
Oliver Keyes is a Research Analyst at the Wikimedia Foundation until March 18. This article was originally posted on the author's blog and is republished with his permission. The views expressed in this article are his alone and do not reflect any official opinions of this publication.
Summary: There was a lot going on this week: the Grammys; the Presidential primaries in Nevada and South Carolina; and the death of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, which provoked an entirely predictable and completely unnecessary political firestorm. But what people wanted to know about more than anything, it seems, is Deadpool; a film which, judging from the box office receipts, they've already seen. Still, that's a lot to take in, and I can't really blame people for seeking an escape.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of February 14–20, 2016, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deadpool (film) | 
|
2,846,632 |  |
The Marvel Comics antihero film starring Ryan Reynolds (pictured) was released on February 12 to a stellar reception. Regarded as a risk by its makers 20th Century Fox, the film has earned nearly $500 million worldwide in just ten days. Reviews are surprisingly strong as well, with the film averaging 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. |
| 2 | Antonin Scalia | 
|
2,131,575 |  |
Oh dear. US politics are getting dirty again. The longest-serving Supreme Court Justice in modern history, Scalia held his position for nearly 30 years until his sudden death this week at the age of 79. Despite his rigidly originalist Constitutional stance and conservative views on homosexuality and abortion, he was apparently well-liked even by the more liberal members of the court. Even so, his death leaves the Court in an even 4–4 split between liberals and conservatives, a fact which concerns the Republican-held Senate enough that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who famously said his one goal would be to make Barack Obama a one-term president, declared that the Senate would not approve any replacement candidate Obama might put forward. Whether he will follow through with his threat, and whether voters will reward such obstructionism or reject it, remains to be seen. |
| 3 | Deadpool | 
|
1,735,849 | .jpg) |
Marvel may have disavowed their X-Men franchise until Fox gives it back to them, but their fourth wall-tickling, chimichanga-chomping, bullet-spraying loony toon obviously remains a potent force, whether they like it or not. |
| 4 | Valentine's Day |
|
1,271,571 |  |
The annual greeting-card consumption festival got fewer views than usual this week. Typically (see 2013 and 2014 and 2015), Valentine's Day makes its annual appearance at the top of the chart. Since the 14th fell on the first day of this week's report, it didn't have the benefit of the pre-holiday views in its totals. |
| 5 | The Life of Pablo |
|
1,060,242 |  |
The latest album from Kanye West (pictured) was released this week to positive-if-perplexed reviews and some typically unhinged comments from its creator (see #8) |
| 6 | Alexander Hamilton | 
|
1,051,465 |  |
This Founding Father of the United States, who was shot in a duel by then-Vice President Aaron Burr, is probably best known as the soon-to-be-ex-face of the ten dollar bill. Rather surprisingly, his life became the subject of a hit off-Broadway musical, the theme to which earned a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album this week. |
| 7 | Donald Trump | 
|
998,114 |  |
In the alien, non-Euclidean geometry of this year's United States presidential election, down apparently means up. It doesn't matter what Donald Trump does; engage in a Twitter war with the Pope, tell a group of veterans that he would deal with Islamic terrorists by having them shot with bullets dipped in pigs' blood, or have "loser.com" redirect to his Wikipedia page, he can't be brought back to Earth. Having secured the Republican New Hampshire primary for on February 9, he went on to win the South Carolina primary by a similar margin, despite pundits predicting that Ted Cruz would benefit from the state's large Evangelical demographic. If he pulls similar numbers on March 1's "Super Tuesday" primaries, expect his nomination to be declared secure. |
| 8 | Kanye West |
|
833,443 |  |
It's the Grammys again, and that means it's time for another incoherent spiel from Kanye West. The previous recipient of the dubious honour of having "loser.com" redirect to his Wikipedia page managed to make, if possible, an even more insulting fool of himself this year, this time targeting Album of the Year winner Taylor Swift. After West claimed he wouldn't attend the ceremony if he didn't win said award (he wasn't nominated), Swift made an oblique reference to him in her acceptance speech, and in particular his lyrics to one of the songs on his just-released album: "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous/Goddamn, I made that bitch famous." This line is presumably a reference to the time he jumped on the stage during her acceptance speech at the VMAs to tell her she didn't deserve to win. After failing to win the award he wasn't nominated for, Kanye went on Twitter to claim he was $53 million in debt and that Mark Zuckerberg should help him out. Some are beginning to wonder if hip hop's insufferable genius may be easing on the "genius" while doubling down on the "insufferable". |
| 9 | O. J. Simpson |
|
934,959 |  |
As predicted by yours truly, the former football player, Leslie Nielsen costar and alleged murderer has become a fixture of this list, thanks to the first season of American Crime Story, the true-crime spinoff of American Horror Story, which focuses on his controversial trial. |
| 10 | Neerja Bhanot |
|
804,187 |  |
On 5 September 1986, just two days before her 23rd birthday, this Pan Am flight attendant was shot dead by terrorists affiliated with Abu Nidal as she spearheaded an escape from the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73; an act that ultimately saved over 300 lives. She was posthumously awarded India's highest peacetime bravery award, the Ashoka Chakra. Her life and death became the subject of a Bollywood biopic this week, Neerja, starring Sonam Kapoor (pictured) in the title role. |
Held in October and November of last year, the Wiki Loves Africa photo competition focused on the continent’s varied fashion traditions from north, south, east, and west.
According to the organizers, “The competition became an unprecedented visual celebration of the universality of fashion and the diversity of traditional and contemporary cultural practices across Africa.”
The winners came from all over the continent—Kenya, Senegal, Ghana, and Algeria. In total, 7,453 images were entered by 734 unique contributors from 51 countries around the world. All were reviewed by a team of judges, who ranked their favorite three; an additional 39 were sent to the community to vote on for their favorite.
This is Wiki Loves Africa’s second annual contest. 2014’s competition, as the blog documented, put the Africa continent’s cuisine on display through freely licensed photos available to anyone in the world, free of charge. These included a stunning photo of a Sudanese woman making traditional kisra bread.
Wiki Loves Africa is supported by WikiAfrica, hosted by the Africa Centre, and was funded in part by a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation.
At 04:46, 17 February 2016, the Arbitration committee voted to have the CheckUser permissions of Deskana removed. Later that same day, the committee released a motion on inactive users with CheckUser and Oversight permissions:
The following is an ArbCom internal process. It supplements the ArbCom procedure on CheckUser/Oversight permissions and inactivity.
This motion was made after a 10–1 vote, with four arbitrators having abstained or not voted.
Eight featured articles were promoted this week.
Three featured lists were promoted this week.
Four featured pictures were promoted this week.
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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
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You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 23 February at 20:00 (UTC). See how to join.
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