Wikimedia Foundation elections/Board elections/2007/Candidates/Ivankinsman/questions

2007 board elections
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Polish

You said you participate in English and in Polish, but I can't find your Polish contributions. Do you have a link to them? —METS501 (talk) 12:40, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I am an Englishman living in Poland and speak a bit of Polish but have made no Polish contributions as my language skills are not proficientIvankinsman 14:58, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Inexperience

How do you feel that your relative inexperience with Wikimedia will affect you in this election and ultimately if you are elected to the Board? You've only participated in a corner of Wikipedia, are not an administrator, and don't know how to do much with the site beyond edit (not that any of this is really a bad thing, but it comes in to play when running for the Board). Are you aware of the wants and needs of smaller Wikimedia projects? —METS501 (talk) 12:40, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I know that I am relatively inexperienced with specific regard to Wikimedia projects, but, as with any new situation, one has to start somewhere and learn and grow with the role. I believe I have good enough qualifications and mental ability to be able to handle any complexities. Yes, I have only been editing but I have been learning more as I have been going along regarding the way Wikipedia works.Ivankinsman 15:02, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Office evolution

In what way do you forsee the office (and staff) evolving under your tenure as a board member, should you be elected? i.e. would you be in favor of expansion, contraction, status quo, more interns, new positions, less, what?

Let me refer you to the Wikimedia position on current employee levels:

Employees

The functions of the Wikimedia Foundation are executed almost entirely by volunteers. As of October 4, 2006, the Wikimedia Foundation had 5 paid employees: two programmers (software manager Brion Vibber in California and server administrator Chad Perrin in Tampa); "to answer the phones", administrative assistant Barbara Brown, to handle fundraising and grants, Danny Wool; and to manage, interim executive director Brad Patrick. [16] As of December 8, 2006, the Wikimedia Foundation's list of current staff also names three other technical independent contractors (part-time hardware manager Kyle Anderson in Tampa, full-time MediaWiki software developer Tim Starling, and part-time networking coordinator Mark Bergsma). In January 2007 Carolyn Doran was named Chief Operating Officer and Sandy Ordonez came on board as Communication Manager.[17] The Foundation added a new position, Chapter Coordinator, and appointed Delphine Ménard, then a position of Volunteer Coordinator, in April 2007, and appointed Cary Bass to fill it. Most recent addition was Vishal Patel, to assist in business development. [18] The number of current staff members is still less than ten.[19]

If the number of current staff members is still less than ten, then I feel that this is a considerable achivement given the scope of Wikimedia's remit. Should more staff be required to service this effectively, then I would be in favour of expanision. I feel that it would also be very useful work experience for interns so would also offer them vacancies if this would be of benefit.Ivankinsman 16:23, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]