Wikipediocracy

HRIP7 wrote:

JCM wrote:

HRIP7 wrote:Check the latest update to the Daily Dot piece.

In an email to the Daily Dot, Wales specifies that he never planned to keep the money and will use the funds to start his own foundation dedicated to furthering human rights.

Well, that means he doesn't have to give the money away to anyone else, doesn't it.

Is it overly jaundiced of me to fear that this foundation will mainly fund him, his travel expenses and his $70,000-per-event speeches?

Ah well. Perhaps I'm wrong. Time will tell.

I hope you are wrong. Having said that, considering the deplorable status of human rights in some parts of the world, and the attempts of the governments in many of those parts of the world to limit access to outside information, even if much of the money goes to paying for travel and other expenses for his own speeches, that wouldn't be the worst thing he could do with the money. He does have a bit of a reputation as someone related to a project which is supposed to be open to everyone, and that reputation might help some proposals or actions he might take get attention. Maybe. I don't know, and am not really sure how productive it might be, but maybe.

And, honestly, pardon me for being cynical, I don't know that there is that much that can really be done in the world with only half a million dollars anyway. I'm sure a lot of the rest of you already know how a lot of the money and resources to charities for aid to Africa in recent years has wound up in the hands of repressive governments to allow individuals and small quantities of goods from those charities to be given out to the people.

I'm sure Amnesty, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch or Reporters Without Borders could put the money to good use. Don't you think?

I would have to check to see which organizations were the ones who had to basically pay off the local governments with most of their money and resources to let them in, although at least a few of those you name might well not be subject to the protection rackets that some other charities are. I is a ugly American, me not know current ivents dat good.

Just when you think they've run out of clowns, Wikipedia Category:Template editor (how awesomely awesome) DHeyward (T-C-L) slaps on whiteface, straps on red nose, and comes waddling in to give a bravura performance of a village idiot totally missing the point: "My new Daily Dot would start off with an article about Pakistan's latest tragedy involving education, not how UAE's awards for improving the world are wrong."

Lor (T-C-L) pulls scintillating wordplay out of his ass: "Or as it's now called…the daily dump." Ta-da!

NE Ent (T-C-L), whose user page—rather oddly, given the quality of his contributions—declares a preference to be known by the quality of his contributions, here shows a preference for brown nose over red: "Jimbo, Congratulations! It's your award, spend it on whatever you want."

Finally, self-styled "abuse filter manager" and administrator Wifione (T-C-L), another clown on call for Jimbo Rescue Duty, goes tumbling around the ring with squeals of "troll!" "RFC!", "disruptive!", and the predictable (assuming this is meant to be the finale) "hat!"

Always grimly gratifying to see the intellect and integrity of Team Dimbo on display.

Writegeist wrote:Just when you think they've run out of clowns, Wikipedia Category:Template editor (how awesomely awesome) DHeyward (T-C-L) slaps on whiteface, straps on red nose, and comes waddling in to give a bravura performance of a village idiot totally missing the point: "My new Daily Dot would start off with an article about Pakistan's latest tragedy involving education, not how UAE's awards for improving the world are wrong."

Lor (T-C-L) pulls scintillating wordplay out of his ass: "Or as it's now called…the daily dump." Ta-da!

NE Ent (T-C-L), whose user page—rather oddly, given the quality of his contributions—declares a preference to be known by the quality of his contributions, here shows a preference for brown nose over red: "Jimbo, Congratulations! It's your award, spend it on whatever you want."

Finally, self-styled "abuse filter manager" and administrator Wifione (T-C-L), another clown on call for Jimbo Rescue Duty, goes tumbling around the ring with squeals of "troll!" "RFC!", "disruptive!", and the predictable (assuming this is meant to be the finale) "hat!"

Always grimly gratifying to see the intellect and integrity of Team Dimbo on display.

Yes, a marvellous display. If it's any consolation, the biggest brown-nosers are often those with the most "colourful" backgrounds. They like to feel safe; Wifione and Demiurge1000 are good cases in point.

Someone should let the good folks over there know that Jimbo is keeping the money after all. Like his mate Blair (see post in the other thread), Wales seems to have figured out that large sums received from dodgy governments are most advantageously used in a "charitable foundation".

HRIP7 wrote:

Writegeist wrote:Just when you think they've run out of clowns, Wikipedia Category:Template editor (how awesomely awesome) DHeyward (T-C-L) slaps on whiteface, straps on red nose, and comes waddling in to give a bravura performance of a village idiot totally missing the point: "My new Daily Dot would start off with an article about Pakistan's latest tragedy involving education, not how UAE's awards for improving the world are wrong."

Lor (T-C-L) pulls scintillating wordplay out of his ass: "Or as it's now called…the daily dump." Ta-da!

NE Ent (T-C-L), whose user page—rather oddly, given the quality of his contributions—declares a preference to be known by the quality of his contributions, here shows a preference for brown nose over red: "Jimbo, Congratulations! It's your award, spend it on whatever you want."

Finally, self-styled "abuse filter manager" and administrator Wifione (T-C-L), another clown on call for Jimbo Rescue Duty, goes tumbling around the ring with squeals of "troll!" "RFC!", "disruptive!", and the predictable (assuming this is meant to be the finale) "hat!"

Always grimly gratifying to see the intellect and integrity of Team Dimbo on display.

Yes, a marvellous display. If it's any consolation, the biggest brown-nosers are often those with the most "colourful" backgrounds. They like to feel safe; Wifione and Demiurge1000 are good cases in point.

Someone should let the good folks over there know that Jimbo is keeping the money after all. Like his mate Blair (see post in the other thread), Wales seems to have figured out that large sums received from dodgy governments are most advantageously used in a "charitable foundation".

Thank you for the link to the interesting and illuminating Wifione piece.

Tragic news just in: soon after I lauded DHeyward in this thread he came down with rabies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =638592523
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =638596682

I have to admit to a great deal of envy towards Mr Wales.

No, not the money an notoriety for essentially being the the right place at the right time.

No, not the hoards of fans and adoration approaching (or exactly like) the leader of a cult.

No, what I envy is the complete and utter credulous stupidity of the people to whom he must "answer". The Murdoch news may have polluted the landscape with cheap rubbish and paved the way for click bait garbage, but by fuck haven't most of the rest of them made an art form of dereliction of duty and crass stupidity.

Aside from the very, very few real investigative or industry reporters with integrity and intelligence like Dan Murphy and Seth Finklestein, the entire fourth estate needs to be boarded up and condemned.

Just when you thought the Jimbo-fans were starting to stabilize and work nicely with the rest of the world......they up and do this.
Still dishonest idiots.

HRIP7 wrote:

thekohser wrote:Wow, you guys are really harsh on this Jimbo guy!

Not as harsh as Eric Corbett.

Do you think we should invite Eric Corbett here?

One thing to remember, unfortunately, about a lot of people who receive attention and respect in the world is that they are almost always very fond of receiving attention as individuals. Carl Sagan was ripped into and actually sent to the second-to-the-lowest circle of hell by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in their (fictional, obviously) novel Escape from Hell because of his having, as they described it, been a false prophet for global cooling in his later years. Scientifically dubious as the idea was even then, being an advocate of it kept his name in the paper and kept the speaker fees coming in.

It is also worth noting that Jimbo is a self described objectivist, of the Ayn Rand type. Um, many people might have, shall we say, less flattering synonyms which they think might perhaps be clearer descriptions of such people.

Put the two together in any individual, and there is a very strong chance that they might think that the best person to determine how any money they might ever see is themselves directly.

JCM wrote:One thing to remember, unfortunately, about a lot of people who receive attention and respect in the world is that they are almost always very fond of receiving attention as individuals. Carl Sagan was ripped into and actually sent to the second-to-the-lowest circle of hell by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in their (fictional, obviously) novel Escape from Hell because of his having, as they described it, been a false prophet for global cooling in his later years. Scientifically dubious as the idea was even then, being an advocate of it kept his name in the paper and kept the speaker fees coming in.

It is also worth noting that Jimbo is a self described objectivist, of the Ayn Rand type. Um, many people might have, shall we say, less flattering synonyms which they think might perhaps be clearer descriptions of such people.

Put the two together in any individual, and there is a very strong chance that they might think that the best person to determine how any money they might ever see is themselves directly.

Covered in the Signpost:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... _the_media

I left a comment.

HRIP7 wrote:I left a comment.

Wikipedia is not censored? Deleted by Wikimedia staffer Ryan Kaldari.

The author, Casey Michel, confirmed to me that he considered the quote to fall under fair use, and had indeed tweeted a link to the page himself.

In other news, Writegeist was threatened by Jechochman and Wifione with a block for pointing out that Wales had not given the UAE award money to charity, as Wnt had claimed on Wales' talk page.

HRIP7 wrote:In other news, Writegeist was threatened by Jechochman and Wifione with a block for pointing out that Wales had not given the UAE award money to charity, as Wnt had claimed on Wales' talk page.

And the diploma mill apologist is close on Jehochman's heels, in support of Jimmy.

I'm seconding Jehochman's message to you. I came here to tell you to immediately stop. Your repetitive messages are trolling and are now disrupting discussions. Wifione Message 17:12, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Surely Jimmy must now regret his remark that it would be best if Wifione doesn’t come back? Wifione has done a great job and Jimmy should be grateful. No?

Peter Damian wrote:

HRIP7 wrote:In other news, Writegeist was threatened by Jechochman and Wifione with a block for pointing out that Wales had not given the UAE award money to charity, as Wnt had claimed on Wales' talk page.

And the diploma mill apologist is close on Jehochman's heels, in support of Jimmy.

I'm seconding Jehochman's message to you. I came here to tell you to immediately stop. Your repetitive messages are trolling and are now disrupting discussions. Wifione Message 17:12, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Surely Jimmy must now regret his remark that it would be best if Wifione doesn’t come back? Wifione has done a great job and Jimmy should be grateful. No?

It is really quite incredible that Jimbo et. al. has learned nothing since the days of Matanmoreland (T-C-L): no user was more "supportive" of Jimbo, and in return, WP overlooked his socking on the article on himself, Gary Weiss (T-H-L) and on those of his, eh, adversaries, until it was completely impossible to overlook. And WP was made to look a fool because of him.

Now both Jehochman (T-C-L) (read: Another wiki-day, another wiki-dollar) and Wifione (T-C-L) (read: Indian Fakers Teach Wiki PR) are neck-deep in COI edits; they get away with it by licking Jimbos behind.

Corruption?
Hell, yes.

The Adversary wrote:

Peter Damian wrote:

HRIP7 wrote:In other news, Writegeist was threatened by Jechochman and Wifione with a block for pointing out that Wales had not given the UAE award money to charity, as Wnt had claimed on Wales' talk page.

And the diploma mill apologist is close on Jehochman's heels, in support of Jimmy.

I'm seconding Jehochman's message to you. I came here to tell you to immediately stop. Your repetitive messages are trolling and are now disrupting discussions. Wifione Message 17:12, 19 December 2014 (UTC)

Surely Jimmy must now regret his remark that it would be best if Wifione doesn’t come back? Wifione has done a great job and Jimmy should be grateful. No?

It is really quite incredible that Jimbo et. al. has learned nothing since the days of Matanmoreland (T-C-L): no user was more "supportive" of Jimbo, and in return, WP overlooked his socking on the article on himself, Gary Weiss (T-H-L) and on those of his, eh, adversaries, until it was completely impossible to overlook. And WP was made to look a fool because of him.

Now both Jehochman (T-C-L) (read: Another wiki-day, another wiki-dollar) and Wifione (T-C-L) (read: Indian Fakers Teach Wiki PR) are neck-deep in COI edits; they get away with it by licking Jimbos behind.

Corruption?
Hell, yes.

So, Wifone is that diploma mill guy. I thought he had been kicked out of the place. Did he just keep his head down until the heat was off? I see he's still an admin.

Anthonyhcole wrote:So, Wifone is that diploma mill guy. I thought he had been kicked out of the place. Did he just keep his head down until the heat was off? I see he's still an admin.

Oh Anthony really, read this. Of course he is back. He just waited a bit, blamed everything on evil people at Wikipediocracy, and has ascended to the highest echelons.

Only Vejvan%C4%8Dick%C3%BD (T-C-L) complained, but he seems to have left the place in disgust, and no one else is prepared to take Carcharoth’s suggestion to bring it to arbitration.

What's the message? The message is that if you keep your nose clean, be ultra polite and nice, and wait quietly for any bad things to blow over, then you can get away with absolutely anything.

Peter Damian wrote:What's the message? The message is that if you keep your nose clean, be ultra polite and nice, and wait quietly for any bad things to blow over, then you can get away with absolutely anything.

And kiss some asses occasionally. A true medieval society.

Peter Damian wrote:

Anthonyhcole wrote:So, Wifone is that diploma mill guy. I thought he had been kicked out of the place. Did he just keep his head down until the heat was off? I see he's still an admin.

Oh Anthony really, read this. ...

I'm sorry, Peter. I'm just not keeping up. I was on a WP-/WO-break but it's just all too appalling and fascinating.

Andrew Orlowski, The Register: What's Jimmy Wales going to do with $500k from the UAE? He's gonna set up one of them darn foundations, of course...

[...] The idea of "creating a Foundation" allows Wales to say he's donating the money to charity while retaining control over the distribution of the cash. [...]

Check this Twitter conversation.

linkhttps://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/ ... 6115921920[/link]
Joseph Nye is at the Belfer Center. This article relates:

One of Wikimedia's largest donors accused in paid editing scandal

And another Twitter conversation:

linkhttps://twitter.com/Wikiland/status/547787733130043393[/link]

Another Twitter thread to review:

https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/ ... 7060086785

(Archive links: https://archive.today/6NiuY https://archive.today/q0B1k )

Note: archive.today is usually safe, but today, accessing those links, I got a warning. It's probably nothing, but just to be on the safe side, make sure you've got virus protection etc. on if you access the archive links.

HRIP7 wrote:Another Twitter thread to review:

https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/ ... 7060086785

(Archive links: https://archive.today/6NiuY https://archive.today/q0B1k )

Note: archive.today is usually safe, but today, accessing those links, I got a warning. It's probably nothing, but just to be on the safe side, make sure you've got virus protection etc. on if you access the archive links.

This was kinda sad. Jimbo says 'I'm not the kind of guy who tut-tuts from a distance.' "I make things happen" he says. So the guy responds that he himself has served "only" 106 days in jail, 51 on remand, for exercising free speech. Jimbo's response is typical: Let's take this to email, far from the public eye.
(edited)

mac wrote:This was kinda sad. Jimbo says 'I'm not the kind of guy who tut-tuts from a distance.' "I make things happen" he says. So the guy responds that he himself has served "only" 106 days in jail, 51 on remand, for exercising free speech. Jimbo's response is typical: Let's take this to email, far from the public eye.

Yep. You better warn the guy: Wales "taking it to a subpage" or "to e-mail" is usually the last thing anyone hears about it.

Too many unkept promises.

The Adversary wrote:You forgot
Lets see, no 1 contributor to the article: Alexandermcnabb (T-C-L)

https://ae.linkedin.com/in/alexandermcnabb

Mr McNabb is a Wikipedia critic.

The UAE's Wikipedia problem

I don't quite remember why, but I looked up the place I live on Wikipedia a while ago. Al Heera is a suburb of Northern Sharjah, a sleepy wee harbour and an area of older mud brick houses that were until recently the homes of taxi drivers and labourers which has now been all but cleared. The 1970s era police station remains.

Wikipedia didn't have a page for Al Heera, but it did have one for Al Hayra. It contained nothing more than a line saying it was a suburb of Sharjah. But Al Heera has a lot more history than that (as I pointed out the other day in that ten things you didn't know about the UAE post). And it's spelled 'Al Heera' - that's what it says on the street signs and everything.

So I thought I'd change it. [...] Well, my dears, what followed was an education. 'You can't do that' said members of the "Wikipedia community" - it's called Al Hayra.'

It's not. I live there. It's called Al Heera.

'Just because you live somewhere doesn't mean you can change Wikipedia. Because you say so doesn't make a truth. There are more Google results for Al Hayra than Al Heera. So it stays that way.'

But those results are all websites that have derived their miss-spelling of the place from Wikipedia. You're the reason for those results. Just because you've made a mistake and it's been echoed all over the Web doesn't make your echoes justify the fact what you originally shouted was wrong. You can't define a virtual world that has no link to reality. [...]

Looks like Jimbo's not the only one who wants to be buddies with Sheikh Maktoum:

I couldn't resist... here is my Examiner article about Jimbo's UAE escapade:

Broken promises of Jimmy Wales
December 26, 2014 - Examiner.com
by Gregory Kohs

thekohser wrote:I couldn't resist... here is my Examiner article about Jimbo's UAE escapade:

Broken promises of Jimmy Wales
December 26, 2014 - Examiner.com
by Gregory Kohs

Nice article, but needs a flow chart (or a Venn diagram maybe) to show the connections. I barely understood that paragraph even though I already understood the point.

thekohser wrote:Looks like Jimbo's not the only one who wants to be buddies with Sheikh Maktoum:

Wow, that didn't last long: https://twitter.com/Nadine_g_wehbe/stat ... 3783634944

For those who didn't get to see it, it was a photo of Nadine Wehbe (complete with a come-hither look) standing next to a poorly-drawn portrait of the Sheikh, with the statement that she wanted nothing more for "xmass" than to meet Mohammed bin Rashid personally. Rather creepy, really.

SB_Johnny wrote:Nice article, but needs a flow chart (or a Venn diagram maybe) to show the connections.

I don't know why you're struggling with it, John. It's really simple:

thekohser wrote:

SB_Johnny wrote:Nice article, but needs a flow chart (or a Venn diagram maybe) to show the connections.

I don't know why you're struggling with it, John. It's really simple:

Somehow you still have to get the World Economic Forum into that. It's what connects all those people: Wales is a "Young Global Leader", so is his wife Kate Garvey; Tony Blair is the WEF's current "Middle East Quartet Representative" and a past chair of their Annual Meeting in Davos; Mandelson is a contributor. And of course Graham Allison has a page there, too. As does Joseph Nye (a search for Nye on the WE Forum website yields 454 results).

I guess some of them like Nazarbayev because of his stance on nuclear non-proliferation (read Allison's introduction to Nazarbayev's book). (And because of his control of vast oil, gas and uranium resources, of course. And his money.)

A few days ago, I asked Wales on Twitter to launch an investigation into Wikipedia's Kazakhstan articles, as they are quite clearly the target of ongoing PR efforts. No response.

Here is a write-up of some of the links a complete diagram would have to show:

Graham Allison
Director of the Belfer Center at Harvard
World Economic Forum contributor
Winner of friendship medal from Kazakh President Nazarbayev
Authored introduction to Nazabayev's book, Epicenter of Peace
Husband of Elizabeth Allison (co-director of the Stanton Foundation, Wikimedia's biggest donor)
Involved in Wikimedia paid-editing scandal

Elizabeth Allison
Wife of Graham Allison (director of the Belfer Center at Harvard)
Co-director of the Stanton Foundation, Wikimedia's biggest donor
Involved in Wikimedia paid-editing scandal

Joseph Nye
Belfer Center, Harvard
World Economic Forum contributor
Asked Wales to contribute to UAE-co-sponsored Guide to Good Government

Tony Blair
Labour politician, former UK prime minister
Leading figure at World Economic Forum
Ex-boss of Jimmy Wales' wife
Consultant to Nazarbayev, much criticised for his involvement
Guest at Garvey's and Wales' wedding

Peter Mandelson
Labour politician, head of "Global Counsel" consultancy firm
Reported ties to Kazakhstan, BP and Russian conglomerate Sistema
World Economic Forum contributor, authored chapter in UAE-co-sponsored Guide to Good Government
Guest at Garvey's and Wales' wedding

Jimmy Wales
Husband of Kate Garvey, Blair's former diary secretary
Young Global Leader at World Economic Forum, contributed to UAE-co-sponsored Guide to Good Government
Co-founder of Wikipedia, permanent WMF board member
Bestowed inaugural "Wikipedian of the Year" award on Kazakh government's Wikipedia initiative
Adviser to Tony Blair's Faith Foundation

Kate Garvey
Former diary secretary to Tony Blair
Wife of Jimmy Wales
Young Global Leader at World Economic Forum

Obviously, we shouldn't make too much of someone being a World Economic Forum (T-H-L) contributor: they have hundreds, if not thousands of them, and many academics have at least dipped a toe into one of their projects. But Wales' World Economic Forum participation and the WMF's financial links to the Allisons are part of the picture when trying to understand his strange entanglement with Kazakhstan and the UAE.

From a 2009 Gulf News article:

The World Economic Forum was set up in 1971 as a business and academic think tank whose motto is "entrepreneurship in the global public interest". Its annual Davos meeting has grown into a huge event that has become a focus of anti-capitalist anger.

From a 2012 CNN article:

Davos's image problem is easy to quantify: It offers a haven for the capitalist world's elite at a time when social media has galvanized popular movements calling for greater democracy and a major rethink of the financial systems behind the global financial crisis.

From a 2014 Guardian article:

Memo to self: things to pack for Davos this year – boots, woolly hat, gloves, sick bag.

From a 2014 Huffington Post article by Steven Strauss, also of Harvard, and Princeton:

Unfortunately, many of [the World Economic Forum's] Partners have criminal records, are under investigation for potential criminal activity (e.g., bribery), are mired in significant legal/ethical issues, or have blatant conflicts of interest while setting the agenda for a supposedly "non-partisan" event. [...] U.S. politicians shouldn't attend Davos. Unless, of course, the real purpose of Davos is to provide politicians with opportunities for off-the-record meetings with questionable characters.

Davos is a bastion and symbol of privilege. It's the precise opposite of what Wikipedia is supposedly about: the empowering of the masses.

You'd want to add that Joseph Nye is the "Sultan of Oman professor of international relations" at Harvard; and that Jimbo performed his "lecture" routine for the Sultan, before receiving his prize of the the 2014 edition of Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence. You can also find financial links between Mandelson and the UAE between about 2009 and 2011.

Assuming that everything posted on this thread is true, it is a powerful indictment of Mr. Wales as the WMF's "spiritual leader" and "spokesperson." It is clearly time to transfer those roles to paid WMF staff (the Executive Director or Press Spokesman). Mr. Wales can continue his career as a B List rent-a-celebrity without dragging in the WMF into the controversies created by his mis-steps. The WMF has matured into a non-profit charity that no longer needs Mr. Wales to recruit editors and charitable donors. An intelligent small donor is more likely to buy into the Wikipedia concept than to accept the man with all of his warts.

A paid Executive Director is more likely to stay "on message" than is a man busy setting up a $500,000 private foundation, exploring croud-source funding of his printed biography, endorsement of luxury watches, or how to legitimize bitcoin in exchange for cash.

Mr. Wales has outgrown Wikipedia, and Wikipedia has outgrown Mr. Wales.

eagle wrote:Assuming that everything posted on this thread is true, it is a powerful indictment of Mr. Wales as the WMF's "spiritual leader" and "spokesperson." It is clearly time to transfer those roles to paid WMF staff (the Executive Director or Press Spokesman). Mr. Wales can continue his career as a B List rent-a-celebrity without dragging in the WMF into the controversies created by his mis-steps. The WMF has matured into a non-profit charity that no longer needs Mr. Wales to recruit editors and charitable donors. An intelligent small donor is more likely to buy into the Wikipedia concept than to accept the man with all of his warts.

A paid Executive Director is more likely to stay "on message" than is a man busy setting up a $500,000 private foundation, exploring croud-source funding of his printed biography, endorsement of luxury watches, or how to legitimize bitcoin in exchange for cash.

Mr. Wales has outgrown Wikipedia, and Wikipedia has outgrown Mr. Wales.

Hard to disagree with that, except for the slight advantage Wales has over a more direct spokesperson in name recognition and ease with which he gets media attention. If the foundation could recruit someone who already has some personal name recognition of some sort as the CEO or COO or whatever, and thus have an easier time getting media attention when appropriate, that might well be in the best interests of the project.

eagle wrote:Assuming that everything posted on this thread is true, it is a powerful indictment of Mr. Wales as the WMF's "spiritual leader" and "spokesperson."

I believe there are links verifying all the non-trivial assertions above in this post:

viewtopic.php?p=122650#p122650

If you find anything is missing, let me know and I'll supply a link or correct the information.

eagle wrote:It is clearly time to transfer those roles to paid WMF staff (the Executive Director or Press Spokesman). Mr. Wales can continue his career as a B List rent-a-celebrity without dragging in the WMF into the controversies created by his mis-steps. The WMF has matured into a non-profit charity that no longer needs Mr. Wales to recruit editors and charitable donors. An intelligent small donor is more likely to buy into the Wikipedia concept than to accept the man with all of his warts.

A paid Executive Director is more likely to stay "on message" than is a man busy setting up a $500,000 private foundation, exploring croud-source funding of his printed biography, endorsement of luxury watches, or how to legitimize bitcoin in exchange for cash.

Mr. Wales has outgrown Wikipedia, and Wikipedia has outgrown Mr. Wales.

It's hard to see how this could be accomplished. He has the only permanent seat on the Wikimedia Foundation board. Even if that were no longer the case, he can, truthfully, bill himself as the founder (or co-founder, at least) of Wikipedia till the end of time, and accept speaking engagements on this basis.

'Just because you live somewhere doesn't mean you can change Wikipedia. Because you say so doesn't make a truth. There are more Google results for Al Hayra than Al Heera. So it stays that way.'

Obviously, people don't understand "references must be weighed, not counted". Would it help to put a load of photos of "Al Heera" street signs on Commons, or would people say they're not verifiable?

HRIP7 wrote:It's hard to see how this could be accomplished. He has the only permanent seat on the Wikimedia Foundation board. Even if that were no longer the case, he can, truthfully, bill himself as the founder (or co-founder, at least) of Wikipedia till the end of time, and accept speaking engagements on this basis.

As I keep saying: the only way to really reform the WMF is to purge it.
And Jimbo is the one guy they should purge first, but won't.

The WMF is beyond purging. It needs dissolving and replacing from top to bottom with new, competent people... which would never happen.

EricBarbour wrote:

HRIP7 wrote:It's hard to see how this could be accomplished. He has the only permanent seat on the Wikimedia Foundation board. Even if that were no longer the case, he can, truthfully, bill himself as the founder (or co-founder, at least) of Wikipedia till the end of time, and accept speaking engagements on this basis.

As I keep saying: the only way to really reform the WMF is to purge it.
And Jimbo is the one guy they should purge first, but won't.

The bylaws can be amended to remove the permanent seat. It's not that difficult.
The WMF could publicly repudiate his role as a spokesman.

Nothing like this will likely happen because the board and WMF are staffed with equally weak minded and inferior people.

Vigilant wrote:

EricBarbour wrote:

HRIP7 wrote:It's hard to see how this could be accomplished. He has the only permanent seat on the Wikimedia Foundation board. Even if that were no longer the case, he can, truthfully, bill himself as the founder (or co-founder, at least) of Wikipedia till the end of time, and accept speaking engagements on this basis.

As I keep saying: the only way to really reform the WMF is to purge it.
And Jimbo is the one guy they should purge first, but won't.

The bylaws can be amended to remove the permanent seat. It's not that difficult.
The WMF could publicly repudiate his role as a spokesman.

Nothing like this will likely happen because the board and WMF are staffed with equally weak minded and inferior people.

I'd like to see Lila take on more of a leadership/spokesperson role. She's busy, though, and probably won't unless some unforeseen catastrophe forces her. If the Tony Blair/tyrant/snout-trough thing blows up sufficiently, it has the potential to change the whole game.

Anthonyhcole wrote:

Vigilant wrote:

EricBarbour wrote:

HRIP7 wrote:It's hard to see how this could be accomplished. He has the only permanent seat on the Wikimedia Foundation board. Even if that were no longer the case, he can, truthfully, bill himself as the founder (or co-founder, at least) of Wikipedia till the end of time, and accept speaking engagements on this basis.

As I keep saying: the only way to really reform the WMF is to purge it.
And Jimbo is the one guy they should purge first, but won't.

The bylaws can be amended to remove the permanent seat. It's not that difficult.
The WMF could publicly repudiate his role as a spokesman.

Nothing like this will likely happen because the board and WMF are staffed with equally weak minded and inferior people.

I'd like to see Lila take on more of a leadership/spokesperson role. She's busy, though, and probably won't unless some unforeseen catastrophe forces her. If the Tony Blair/tyrant/snout-trough thing blows up sufficiently, it has the potential to change the whole game.

This is correct. No major donors want to be associated with corrupt governments, even at a Bacon number of 2.

Might be just what the WMF needs to finally cut loose the drifting hulk of the HMS Bomis.

Somehow overlooked over the Christmas digestion period, The Wikipedian (a.k.a. William Beutler) has weighed in:

Jimmy Wales and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Prize Money

It's a good write-up.

HRIP7 wrote:Somehow overlooked over the Christmas digestion period, The Wikipedian (a.k.a. William Beutler) has weighed in:

Jimmy Wales and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Prize Money

It's a good write-up.

Hmmmm.

While Wikipediocracy and The Register have self-identified themselves as Wikipedia critics and can therefore be dismissed more easily

Didn't hotlink us, which I guess means we're well enough known by now that he doesn't see the need, but not sure about this easily dismissed thing.

SB_Johnny wrote:

HRIP7 wrote:Somehow overlooked over the Christmas digestion period, The Wikipedian (a.k.a. William Beutler) has weighed in:

Jimmy Wales and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Prize Money

It's a good write-up.

Hmmmm.

While Wikipediocracy and The Register have self-identified themselves as Wikipedia critics and can therefore be dismissed more easily

Ah, the new age catch-cry "if you don't agree with us, then we can dismiss what you think".

Moral relativism. It's for everyone. /s

Notvelty wrote:Moral relativism. It's for everyone. /s

Very funny.

Jimbo posted a talk page entry about this today in which he stated they were "nearly done with the filing documents to register the organization formally," and named the "human rights lawyer" he'd hired to run the organization - this turns out to be a Ms. Orit Kopel, an Israeli national with a law degree from Hebrew University (and a recently-obtained Master's in International Law from the London School of Economics) who also has spent some time in the US, apparently. Impressive educational credentials, but very little experience - I guess that's understandable though, since $500K isn't really all that much seed money, when you get right down to it - someone with a track record would probably take up half the principal in salary over the first 2-3 years, assuming the ride lasts that long.

Ms. Kopel tweets in Hebrew, but from what I gather she's firmly enough on the Israeli side of the Israeli-Arab dispute to likely make the UAE's Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum somewhat miffed about how his money is being spent. Which, to a cynical person such as myself, could represent a deliberate move by Jimbo to prove to his critics that he can't be "bought." I guess I can't really blame him, though, and more importantly, if this does end up amounting to something real and positive, we'll probably owe him an apology for doubting his intentions (though to be fair, Jimbo's own track record did make those doubts justifiable). Oh well!

Midsize Jake wrote:Jimbo posted a talk page entry about this today in which he stated they were "nearly done with the filing documents to register the organization formally," and named the "human rights lawyer" he'd hired to run the organization - this turns out to be a Ms. Orit Kopel, an Israeli national with a law degree from Hebrew University (and a recently-obtained Master's in International Law from the London School of Economics) who also has spent some time in the US, apparently. Impressive educational credentials, but very little experience - I guess that's understandable though, since $500K isn't really all that much seed money, when you get right down to it - someone with a track record would probably take up half the principal in salary over the first 2-3 years, assuming the ride lasts that long.

Ms. Kopel tweets in Hebrew, but from what I gather she's firmly enough on the Israeli side of the Israeli-Arab dispute to likely make the UAE's Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum somewhat miffed about how his money is being spent. Which, to a cynical person such as myself, could represent a deliberate move by Jimbo to prove to his critics that he can't be "bought." I guess I can't really blame him, though, and more importantly, if this does end up amounting to something real and positive, we'll probably owe him an apology for doubting his intentions (though to be fair, Jimbo's own track record did make those doubts justifiable). Oh well!

According to her LinkedIn profile Ms Kopel has for the past year been...

Special Adviser of Human Rights Law to Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
2014 – Present (1 year)Europe
Special Adviser of Human Rights Law to Jimmy Wales, the Founder of Wikipedia, in relation to the Expert Advisory Council to Google on the "Right to be Forgotten".

• Analysing the desired Google’s policy and advising on the relevant conflicting ethical and legal considerations, primarily in regard to the balance between freedom of expression and privacy rights.
• Strategic advising: possible implications on the internet community and the freedom of information.
• Advising on policy issues: geographic considerations, notification to users and controllers, cultural aspects, etc.

HRIP7 wrote:

Midsize Jake wrote:Jimbo posted a talk page entry about this today in which he stated they were "nearly done with the filing documents to register the organization formally," and named the "human rights lawyer" he'd hired to run the organization - this turns out to be a Ms. Orit Kopel, an Israeli national with a law degree from Hebrew University (and a recently-obtained Master's in International Law from the London School of Economics) who also has spent some time in the US, apparently. Impressive educational credentials, but very little experience - I guess that's understandable though, since $500K isn't really all that much seed money, when you get right down to it - someone with a track record would probably take up half the principal in salary over the first 2-3 years, assuming the ride lasts that long.

Ms. Kopel tweets in Hebrew, but from what I gather she's firmly enough on the Israeli side of the Israeli-Arab dispute to likely make the UAE's Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum somewhat miffed about how his money is being spent. Which, to a cynical person such as myself, could represent a deliberate move by Jimbo to prove to his critics that he can't be "bought." I guess I can't really blame him, though, and more importantly, if this does end up amounting to something real and positive, we'll probably owe him an apology for doubting his intentions (though to be fair, Jimbo's own track record did make those doubts justifiable). Oh well!

According to her LinkedIn profile Ms Kopel has for the past year been...

Special Adviser of Human Rights Law to Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
2014 – Present (1 year)Europe
Special Adviser of Human Rights Law to Jimmy Wales, the Founder of Wikipedia, in relation to the Expert Advisory Council to Google on the "Right to be Forgotten".

• Analysing the desired Google’s policy and advising on the relevant conflicting ethical and legal considerations, primarily in regard to the balance between freedom of expression and privacy rights.
• Strategic advising: possible implications on the internet community and the freedom of information.
• Advising on policy issues: geographic considerations, notification to users and controllers, cultural aspects, etc.

So he's retaining someone he's already retained?
That's economical.

Here's her wiki account.

One of her first edits (from that account anyways), in January 2011, was to remove a link to Bomis from Jimmy's Hebrew wiki bio.

Oh, I have to add this to our massive Jimbo article....