The Signpost: 1 August 2023

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:38, 1 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thoughts on propaganda?

Hello Jimbo. What are your thoughts about Wikipedia forcefully used as propaganda? Wikipedia relies on reliable sources, but oftentimes historically reliable sources have been muzzled and used to only publish narratives favorable to the official narrative. For example in Guatemala, during the armed conflict that lasted around 40 years, the government routinely killed journalists, activists, critics that dared to speak too much against its interests. As a result, reliable sources during many years did not publish freely what they wanted but were likely heavily censored by the government. Even currently, a newspaper was shut down by the government. Its owner Jose Ruben Zamora and his lawyer were jailed on a disproportional persecution. Best regards, Thinker78 (talk) 02:49, 4 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think it is important to use diverse sources, particularly those outside the reach of authoritarian goverments. In the case of a country like Guatemala this may be easier than in other places, since there are many other Spanish-language news sources outside Guatemala.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 10:46, 4 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Endowment

Mr. Wales, do you know the current value of the Wikimedia Endowment? If so, can you share it? Why is it so secretive about its value and holdings? Sandizer (talk) 23:25, 9 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Secretive, Sandizer? Not really. It took me less than one minute on Google to find this WMF document. Cullen328 (talk) 23:39, 9 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
That's a year old, has a single digit of precision, and says nothing about holdings. What does it invest in? What has it invested in in the past? How often does it change investments? What are the criteria for how and how often to do so? These questions are important because as the next generation of AI billionaires attempt to launder their reputations through philanthropy, the Endowment is likely to benefit. Sandizer (talk) 23:44, 9 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Per its Forms 990N (available by searching "87-3024488" on https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/), it had "Gross receipts not greater than" $100,000 from 07/01/2021-06/30/2023, so I'm not sure where the $100 million number in the Foundation's annual report is coming from. — Mdaniels5757 (talk • contribs) 00:12, 10 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I think that may be because the bulk of its funds were held for management by the Tides Foundation, presumably until a few weeks ago(?) Sandizer (talk) 02:38, 10 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I do not personally know the day to day valuation of the endowment - it fluctuates of course with market conditions. I think it highly unlikely, as a side note, that AI billionaires seeking to launder their reputations would start with the WMF Endowment fund, since the endowment clearly has no ability to impact that whatsoever. At the last board meeting, I advocated (with universal agreement from the rest of the board) that we should publish more information, more often, because the accustions of "secrecy" do give rise (unfairly) to strange ideas that are not true.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 08:30, 10 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
While I was being somewhat facetious, I am still very curious as to why there's never been a published comprehensive financial and investments statement. I understand "an update on the Endowment's activities" is expected by the end of the year. But, for example, do you think the total donations to date should be published on https://wikimediaendowment.org? Do you think the operational and investment update mentioned on meta:Wikimedia Endowment/Meetings/July 20, 2023 should be published? Sandizer (talk) 08:40, 10 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I think the latest published financial information should be posted on https://wikimediaendowment.org/. I'm surprised that it isn't, if it isn't. I do think that the operational and investment update mentioned should be published - this was indeed the document we discussed at the board meeting as a good thing to share. Now that we have a separate 501(c)(3) rather than being a fund at Tides, I think that sort of thing will become routine. Such materials do take staff time to prepare, of course, and they need to be really carefully checked for accuracy by finance and legal folks I would imagine, and I suspect that's that "by the end of the year" was mentioned somewhere. (Not sure where you saw that, but it sounds to me like a desire not to overpromise on the timeline!)--Jimbo Wales (talk) 08:47, 10 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You say you advocated (with universal agreement from the rest of the board) that we should publish more information, more often. I am surprised to see you say that. A couple of days ago I wrote a draft piece for the upcoming Signpost issue noting that you appeared to have decided to do the exact opposite at that meeting:

Collapsed for readability
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

(Signpost draft) Wikimedia Endowment board minutes becoming ever more minimalist

A couple of weeks ago, the Wikimedia Foundation's Jayde Antonio posted the approved minutes for the January 19, 2023 Endowment Board Meeting on Meta. The minutes are remarkable for not divulging any new information at all – apart from noting the approval of the Endowment grants that had already been announced in a Diff post back in April.

For example, the meeting agenda posted back in February 2023 contained the following item:

6:25 - 6:55 pm UTC: Fundraising Update (Board Chair, Jimmy Wales and Endowment Director, Amy Parker)

  • FY22-23 year to date update
  • Campaign strategy

The Meeting Minutes now published cover this point as follows:

Fundraising Update (Amy Parker)

  • FY22-23 year to date update
  • Presentation of campaign strategy

Contrast this to the minutes of the January 2022 Board Meeting. They were not exactly detailed either, but did at least contain a financial summary:

8) Fundraising update

  • Overview, lead by Caitlin Virtue
  • Review of Fundraising Report, lead by Amy Parker
  • Summary: As of December 31, 2021, the Endowment held $105.4 million. There is currently $99.33 million in the investment account and $6.07 million in cash. An additional $8 million raised in December will be transferred to the Endowment in January 2022.

In fact, this summary marks the last time the Endowment Board Meeting Minutes contained a dollar figure for the Endowment's total value (cash plus investments). Requests for an updated figure remain unanswered.

Unlike the Wikimedia Foundation, the Wikimedia Endowment has never to date published audited financial statements detailing its revenue and expenses.

(End of draft piece).

The Signpost would, I am sure, be happy to publish ...

... if you could be so kind as to provide this information here on this page. I would then update the draft article copied above accordingly. Regards, --Andreas JN466 09:35, 10 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

When you write "you appeared to have decided to do the exact opposite at that meeting", you are mistaken. At the meeting we discussed, to universal agreement, that we should publish more information and more often. I will check on each of the items that you mention - I'm on vacation at the moment and heading to Wikimania in Singapore tomorrow, so it will take a bit of time. I also don't know if the precise information you are asking for is what will be shared. I very much recommend that you not publish a story claiming that anything is becoming "more minimalist" since that's just not true. Be very careful and thoughtful with the timelines: at the summer endowment board meeting, the discussion about publishing more information and more often came about in no small part because the January minutes were something that I felt were not good enough in terms of being open and informative. (A financial report is forthccoming - I haven't seen it yet - but delayed because the relevant person creating it has taken a bit of family leave.) --Jimbo Wales (talk) 09:17, 11 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Actions speak louder than words. Please allow us to report on the former as well as the latter. (If the January Meeting Minutes are duly expanded, giving a meaningful summary of Amy Parker's presentation, it would be my pleasure to report on this.)
As you are no doubt aware, the information I have asked for is no more than what the Endowment would have been legally required to disclose for the past 7.5 years if the Wikimedia Foundation had fulfilled its repeated promises, made since 2017, that it would soon convert the Wikimedia Endowment into a transparent 501(c)(3) charity making annual IRS disclosures of these data.
There is another thing I have noticed here. While the 501(c)(3) has now been operational for over a year, it appears that most of the money continues to be with Tides, and perhaps even to be sent to Tides. Is this true? At any rate, the most recent Form 990N (thanks for locating these, Mdaniels5757) shows Gross receipts not greater than: $50,000 on the 2022 Tax Year Form 990-N (e-Postcard) – Tax Period: 2022 (07/01/2022-06/30/2023). The Endowment averaged over $20 million per annum during its first five years. So what happened to all the Endowment donations made since July 1 2022? It appears they were not declared as revenue for the 501(c)(3).
Lastly, I second Sandizer's questions above about the nature of the Endowment's investments. More transparency in that area would be welcome as well. Regards, Andreas JN466 11:29, 11 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
First, I don't have any ability or desire to "allow" or "disallow" you to write whatever you like. That's an odd way to phrase it. Second, as I said above, a financial report is forthcoming, although the relevant person has taken some family leave. You might find this document interesting: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Endowment#/media/File:Tides-Transition.png --Jimbo Wales (talk) 16:45, 11 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
According to the graphic, the Tides transfer has been "initialized", though it does not provide a completion date.
I note you say at meta:Talk:Wikimedia_Endowment#Update_on_endowment: We ended the last fiscal year with $118 million in the WIkimedia Endowment and are projecting to grow the corpus by approximately $6.5 million depending on market performance and after expenses.
This is a start. Providing a figure for the year's revenue and expenses, and the split between investments and cash, would be further steps in the right direction. Regards, Andreas JN466 19:20, 11 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
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