Board of Trustees: Difference between revisions

From Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki
Content deleted Content added
Angela (talk | contribs)
m fmt
No edit summary
Line 51: Line 51:
[[Image:TimShell.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Tim Shell, self-photo]]
[[Image:TimShell.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Tim Shell, self-photo]]


Timothy Shell is an internet entrepreneur with an interest in self-organization, and decentralized order, as exemplified by Wikipedia. In 1996 he was pursuing his degree in computer science when he decided to chuck it and go into business, joining up with Jimmy Wales to start Bomis.
Tim Shell is a founding partner of [[w:en:Bomis]]. He lives in the [[Mojave Desert]] but he can't stand the sun. He claims to have had an important role in the creation of Wikipedia, but has no way of proving this.


Shell has lived in Chicago, Florida, and San Diego, and currently resides in Las Vegas.
He likes [[Epicurus]], [[Ayn Rand]], [[Eric Hoffer]], [[Julian Simon]], and [[Friedrich Hayek]] and thinks [[Mark Twain]] wrote better English than just about anyone else.

''I have noticed in reading history that people in every era are held in thrall by ideas that in retrospect are shown to be untrue, even silly. I do not doubt that the current era is any different.''<br>
''I think [[socialism]] and [[creationism]] are in essence the same theory (centrally planned order imposed on the system by a higher authority that exists outside the system). Both theories are equally absurd. I think evolutionists who see spontaneous order in complex natural systems, while advocating central planning in complex human systems, have zero intellectual integrity.''<br>
''I believe in every god I've ever seen.''


== Other links ==
== Other links ==

Revision as of 22:35, 18 September 2004

Template:En-langs

The corporate structure of Wikimedia Foundation is composed of five trustees according to Wikimedia Foundation bylaws, article IV.

The initial trustees (article IV, sec. 2.2.) include the following individuals, three partners and two (other) Wikipedians:

The two elected positions, were selected from volunteer and contributing members of Wikimedia (article IV, sec. 2.3). They were elected by held in June 2004. The election was open to all active members of the foundation who had made their first edit at least 90 days ago.

The Board of Trustees are the ultimate corporate authority in the Wikimedia Foundation Inc. (article IV, sec. 1). The Board has the power to direct the activities of the foundation. It also has the authority to set membership dues, discipline and suspend members (article III), and to amend the corporate bylaws (article VI).

The board elected some officers and set two committees.

Trustees

Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales

Jimmy Wales in Paris.

Jimmy "Jimbo" Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), is an Internet entrepreneur and a wiki enthusiast.

Wales was born in Huntsville, and is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of Alabama. He worked as Research Director at Chicago Options Associates, a futures and options trading firm then located in Chicago. He also admires the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand. In the mid-1990s Wales started Bomis, a search portal focusing on aspects of pop culture, one of the first users of the freely licensed data of the Open Directory Project, and in 2004 founded Wikia, a wiki-style search engine.

In 1999, Wales had the concept of a freely distributable encyclopedia and founded Nupedia, by hiring philosopher Larry Sanger as editor-in-chief and assigning 2 programmers to write software for it. Nupedia failed primarily due to being a top-down cathedral model, as opposed to Wikipedia, which is the ultimate bazaar. After more than 2 years of struggle with the Nupedia concept, Wikipedia was opened to become an instant success.

Wales is currently the president of the Wikimedia Foundation, a Tampa-based non-profit organization that encompasses Wikipedia and its younger sister projects. According to the Herald Sun, an Australian newspaper, Wales has spent over AU$400,000 on Wikipedia and Nupedia; later, Time Magazine reported that Wales spent around US$500,000 on his Wiki projects.

Wales is married, and lives in St. Petersburg, Florida with his wife Christine and his daughter Kira.

Florence Devouard

Florence

Florence Devouard is a French woman of 36, with two children aged six and eight. She is a engineer in Agronomy and currently works in a firm making decision tools in sustainable agriculture. Florence is the vice-chair of the Wikimedia Foundation and acts as Contributing User Representive to the Board.

Angela Beesley

File:WP0007 crop.jpg
Angela in London

Angela Beesley is the Executive Secretary of the Wikimedia Foundation, a post to which she was elected in June 2004. She serves as the Volunteer User Representative to the Board

Angela was born in Norwich, England in 1977 and grew up in Maidstone and Colchester. She holds an honours degree in psychology. During a year out from Aston University, and for a period after graduating, Angela worked as a research assistant in the Aston Dyslexia and Developmental Assessment Centre. She then worked for the National Foundation for Educational Research, based in Berkshire, as a developer of the national statutory assessments for England and Wales.

Angela recently moved to Essex, and currently divides her time between Wikimedia Foundation projects and part-time employment as Community Director for Wikia.

Michael Davis

Michael Davis is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Chicago. Formerly the CEO of Chicago Options Associates, a futures and options trading firm in Chicago, Davis is now retired and lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Tim Shell

Tim Shell, self-photo

Timothy Shell is an internet entrepreneur with an interest in self-organization, and decentralized order, as exemplified by Wikipedia. In 1996 he was pursuing his degree in computer science when he decided to chuck it and go into business, joining up with Jimmy Wales to start Bomis.

Shell has lived in Chicago, Florida, and San Diego, and currently resides in Las Vegas.

Other links