Chief Research Coordinator

The Chief Research Coordinator (CRC) is a volunteer whose primary responsibility is to act as the first point of contact for anyone who is interested in analyzing Wikimedia's content, organization and community, and to pursue interesting research projects on their own.

The CRC is directly in charge of organizing meetings with volunteers around different work areas (such as user surveys, content studies, and so on), and may also independently contact organizations who may be interested in collaborating with us on research projects. They report to the Executive Director (ED) and, if relevant, the Chief Technical Officer (CTO).

It is up to the CRC to decide to continue, reorganize or discontinue the current "Wikimedia Research Network", a group of volunteers who have expressed an interest in Wikimedia content and technology research.

The CRC has the authority to propose workgroups to the ED; these workgroups may be given specific authority or access depending on their focus of activity. They are not committees, but are dissolved once their given task is completed.

The CRC does not have authority to grant release of any data beyond that which is publicly available already or derived from it, and must consult with the ED upon any issue that may affect users' privacy. The CRC does not have any authority over the CTO, but may make recommendations to the ED for strategic software development initiatives.

As a minimum, the CRC is required to send a report of their activities to the Board every two weeks. Such reports, at least initially, should also be forwarded to the Board. The CRC may also be consulted by the Board or ED for specific questions that fall within their domain of expertise.