Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2016-05-02/News and notes



The Swiss Wikimedia chapter was founded on May 14, 2006, almost exactly ten years ago. It counts about 250 paid-up members and is one of only two chapters allowed to process income from fundraising banners directly. Recent discussions on the French Wikipedia have drawn attention to the involvement of some of the chapters' current board members in a paid-editing firm. The Signpost investigated this issue.

Discussions on French Wikipedia
On the French Wikipedia, [//fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Le_Bistro/6_avril_2016#Contributions_r.C3.A9mun.C3.A9r.C3.A9es_de_Wikip.C3.A9diens_exp.C3.A9riment.C3.A9s discussions] began on April 6, 2016 on the paid-editing activities of Swiss firm Racosch Sàrl, whose website states:

In the course of the discussions, outgoing Wikimedia Switzerland (WMCH) board member Gabriel Thullen wrote that it is common knowledge – at least within WMCH – that two of the company's principals have been long-standing board members of the chapter, while a third is married to a WMCH employee. The company's three principals are listed on Swiss company registration websites as Stéphane Coillet-Matillon, Frédéric Schütz, and Nicolas Ray. Coillet-Matillon (Wikipedia user Popo le Chien) and Schütz (Wikipedia user Schutz) are current WMCH board members; Schütz is the chapter's vice-president and French-speaking press contact on the WMCH website.

The involvement of chapter board members in paid PR work has previously led to significant adverse publicity, as evidenced by the 2012 Gibraltarpedia controversy. We contacted WMCH requesting further information and received prompt replies from Frédéric Schütz.

Our questions and Schütz's answers are below.

Q&A

 * 1. Please confirm which present or past WMCH board members or staff are personally involved in Racosch Sàrl, or have close family ties to people involved with the company.


 * 2. On which Wikipedias are Racosch Sàrl editors with such ties to WMCH active?


 * 3. Do they declare their ties to WMCH onwiki?


 * 4. How is the chapter dealing with the potential for conflicts of interest? For example, do you have formal rules forbidding WMCH staff and board members from recommending any particular Wikipedia PR firm to companies, organisations, and members of the public who contact WMCH for advice on Wikipedia?


 * 5. We understand that WMCH board members are elected at the annual general assembly. Are candidates required to disclose to the WMCH electorate potential conflicts of interest, such as involvement in a paid-editing firm; if so, how and where are such disclosures made?


 * 6. How many WMCH members typically attend the annual general assembly? How many voted in this year's and last year's board elections?


 * 7. In the WMCH 04/2016 newsletter, the linked minutes of your most recent general assembly are visible only to logged-in WMCH members. Will you consider making the pages documenting your election process publicly viewable?

General assembly minutes
The general assembly minutes the Signpost received from Schütz contain two references to paid editing:


 * Page 5:


 * Page 6:

WMCH conflict-of-interest policy
The WMCH conflict-of-interest policy Schütz refers to states, in part,

User accounts
On the English Wikipedia, three user accounts presently mention an association with Racosch on their user pages, along with the articles they have made paid contributions to:


 * User:Wicodric
 * User:Pplc (a declared secondary account of User:Popo le Chien)
 * User:Manoillon

All three are also active under the same names on the French Wikipedia, where similar disclosures are made. Schutz's user page on the French Wikipedia has declared Wicodric as a secondary account for paid contributions since April 8, 2016.

The Signpost looks forward to further community discussion, and thanks Frédéric Schütz for his candid and timely replies to our questions.

Ed Dravecky, RIP
Any death is sad, but the death of someone as young as 47 is more so. Long-time and still-active Wikipedia administrator Ed Dravecky died unexpectedly on April 23, 2016 while attending WhoFest 3 in Dallas, Texas. A Georgia Tech alumnus and native of Hunstville, Alabama, he was active in several WikiProjects, including WikiProject Alabama and WikiProject Radio Stations. He claimed at least 145 Did You Know? credits, and received numerous barnstars and other awards. He was active on Commons, where his most recent upload, less than a week before his death, was a crop of Turtle pin.jpg.

Ed had worked in radio, first as a disc jockey and later with broadcast automation systems. He co-founded FenCon (a literary science-fiction event) and WhoFest (a convention dedicated to the iconic BBC series Doctor Who), and was well-known in the science fiction and fantasy communities. He was an Eagle Scout and a graduate of the United States Space Camp. He was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and at the time of his death, he lived in Dallas. His full obituary is here.



Brief notes

 * GLAM Boot Camp 2016: The GLAM Boot Camp 2016, a skills-building workshop for established Wikipedians interested in GLAM-Wiki projects, is now accepting sign-ups. The event will take place in June in Washington, D.C. Travel will be funded for all participants from North America.
 * Milestones: The Japanese Wikipedia has reached 1 million articles.