Minutes:2004-07-04
 | These are official minutes from a meeting of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Please note that in the event of any differences in meaning or interpretation between the original English version of this content and a translation, the original English version takes precedence. |
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La Maison des Metallos, Paris, 4 July 2004.
Present: Angela Beesley, Florence Nibart-Devouard and Jimmy Wales.
Wikimedia website
The aim of the Foundation website is to increase the visibility and transparency of the Foundation and to provide a central location and summary of all the information.
It was decided to host the Wikimedia Foundation website on a separate wiki (see wikimedia.org/wiki). This allows other users to add translations, and to help with the addition of technical details, including page views. Some pages, such as the mission statement, will be protected and editable only by the Board. Users can suggest changes to these on Meta-Wiki, and the changes will be adopted onto the main site following Board approval.
A number of translations will be needed for widely spoken languages, including those which currently have only small Wikipedias, such as Spanish.
Information for the press will be included in a summarized format. Efforts will be made to keep this up to date, unlike the current pages on Wikimedia.
Global policies, such as privacy and terms of use, will be included on this website. While respecting the "wiki way", these will need to be approved by the board before they are changed for legal reasons.
The wiki will not be open to anonymous edits and only authorized accounts will be opened.
Developer issues
The creation of a developer committee was proposed, with one or two developers to be assigned official positions by Board.
Sub-committees should be developed, such as one to discuss ways of checking performance. It was noted that Looxix had requested shell access to help with the tracking of performance related issues.
Assignment of shell access was discussed and the issue of whom should be allowed to hand out such access was raised. It was proposed that when a developer committee is formed, they work on a policy to cover such issues.
Plans for downtime are needed. The developers should be aware of who is responsible for ensuring downtime notices are placed on the site, and that the relevant people, such as Brooke Vibber, are informed of downtime.
Plans to avoid unnecessary downtime should be made.
When planning the hardware architecture, it was noted that we need to think longer term about this.
Grants and Official Positions
When making grant applications, it is important to present a united front. We should not be presenting multiple applications from different users without knowing who is sending what. We must appear to be collaborating on this, so all applications should be logged at one central location.
Some grant applications require an authorized signature. It was proposed that grant applications be double signed by the person making the application and by one member of the Board. This requirement will be noted on the Wikimedia Foundation website to prevent non-authorized applications which are not made in the name of Wikimedia.
The Board does not believe there should be any requirements that people be qualified in any particular field to hold an official position. We should not limit these places to professionals.
Trademark
There is a requirement for certain standards to be met in the places our logos are used. We should aim to be NPOV rather than give the impression that the Foundation is endorsing anything. Particular care should be taken in printed versions that advertising is appropriately marked as such, and does not appear to be an endorsement.
A policy for situations in which the logo may be used will be developed. This will ensure it is only used in a way which is consistent with the community's values.
The situation regarding the rights to use the logo is not yet clear. Jimbo is in contact with David Friedland (Nohat) about this. It was felt important that David would not have veto rights over where the logo is used.
Board members
Tim Shell and Michael Davis will have less active involvement than the other members of the Board but Jimbo stated that their presence on the Board would not mean the votes of Angela and Anthere would be automatically overridden. It was suggested that the Board should be enlarged at some point, possibly later this year, and that prominent people external to Wikipedia could be invited to hold positions on the Board.
AOB
Jimbo will contact a German lawyer regarding the registration of the Wikipedia trademark in Germany, which someone else is currently attempting to register.
Alex Roshuk is completing the forms required to gain 501(c)3 status.
Approval was given for the proposed email from the German Wikipedia to wissen-de regarding the copyright violation that wissen-de claimed.
Daniel Mayer was appointed to the position of Chief Financial Officer. He will work closely with Anthere on financial matters. Jimbo will ask Michael Davis to take on the role of treasurer. Michael will have the role of overseeing the finances at the end of the year, and occasionally during the year, but Anthere will be responsible for this on a more day-to-day basis.