Wikimedia: We're all professionals here

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:02:49 -0700

The San Francisco Chronicle recently featured a puff piece about the Wikimedia Foundation. Topics included its 2007 move from Florida to San Francisco and the struggles to maintain user engagement on Wikipedia, but front and center was Wikimedia's hiring of Sue Gardner as executive director.

The interview with Gardner is designed to mitigate some of the negative press the organization has received over the past few years, making special note that Gardner has "instituted a code of conduct for employees of the foundation, outlined a travel and reimbursement policy... and introduced criminal background checks for prospective employees." Those two points address issues the non-profit has had with allegations of mishandling funds, including abuse of travel budgets, as well as the conviction of former COO Carolyn Bothwell Doran on theft charges and leaving the scene of an accident. Notably, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is hardly mentioned in the article.

The Chronicle article highlights a recent trend in Web 2.0 companies. Prior wisdom would dictate that a company's board of directors would replace a founding chief executive with someone with more industry knowledge and experience as the company grew. Instead, possibly due to the popularity and/or notoriety of founders in a sector that is increasingly dominated by a celebrity-esque culture, boards are changing the model. Rather than replacing a founder, the seasoned executives are brought in alongside the founder to serve as a more "professional" public face as well as rolling out changes that may be unpopular with employees.

Facebook may be the most visible example, hiring Sheryl Sandberg as COO. Sandberg's changes have been rumored to be unpopular with employees, but by making unpopular decisions that are supposed to be good for the company, she saves CEO Mark Zuckerberg's public image. Gardner appears to be doing the same for Wikimedia.

More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:

Prediction: Facebook acquires Friendfeed
Prediction: Facebook's 2008 growth less than 15%
News: Judge: Wikipedia is immune from defamation lawsuits
News: As Facebook hits 100 million user mark, twenty percent have already opted in to the redesign

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Wikimedia: We're all professionals here