Who Should Run Wikipedia Next? Wikipedia’s future depends on making the right hire. What should the next WMF CEO look like?

7/7 Whoever gets the job takes on one of the hardest roles in the nonprofit world. Read the full post here: www.thewikipedian.net/p/wikimedia-...

6/ The real challenge: Wikipedia is publishing, tech, community, and a global nonprofit all at once. No one can be everything to everyone—but the next CEO will have to try.

5/ There’s no consensus on how to respond. Some say WMF needs tech leadership; others say not so fast. Few want a political hire, but the only name offered was former US CTO Megan Smith.

4/ Two dark clouds loom over Wikipedia’s future: generative AI, which depends on it but draws attention away, and rising political threats to open knowledge in the US, UK, and India.

3/ Some wonder if the Foundation is doing the right job at all—raising concerns about its size, fundraising style, and spending. Has WMF gotten too big to keep up with changing media habits?

2/ The good news for Iskander: her leadership got high marks for listening, facilitating, and not playing the hero. The catch? What most people want sounds a lot like... Maryana Iskander.

Who Should Run Wikipedia Next? Wikipedia’s future depends on making the right hire. What should the next WMF CEO look like?

1/ Who should run Wikipedia next? The Wikipedian asked a cross-section of insiders what they want in a successor to WMF CEO Maryana Iskander, stepping down by year’s end. www.thewikipedian.net/p/wikimedia-...

Wikipedia Got a Letter from the Government the Other Day A Trump official's risible letter to the Wikimedia Foundation represents a real attempt to intimidate an institution it cannot control

5/ Wikipedia isn’t perfect. But its flaws are debated in the open, by a community that cares deeply about facts. The WMF now faces a choice: bend to a bad-faith inquiry—or stand up to this intimidation. www.thewikipedian.net/p/maga-wikip...

4/ The right has been laying the groundwork for this for years. Wikipedia is open, collaborative, and built on consensus—everything MAGA hates. Now it’s being folded into the broader campaign to delegitimize institutions beyond its reach. www.thewikipedian.net/p/maga-wikip...

3/ Martin isn’t the IRS. His office has no role in nonprofit oversight. But that isn't the point. Instead, the letter repackages long-standing grievances from MAGA circles as official concern. www.thewikipedian.net/p/maga-wikip...

2/ The letter demands documents and answers to 12 questions by May 15. Martin claims Wikipedia’s global contributors “subvert American interests,” and implies Google and AI companies are laundering biased content via Wikipedia. He cites no evidence. www.thewikipedian.net/p/maga-wikip...

Wikipedia Got a Letter from the Government the Other Day A Trump official's risible letter to the Wikimedia Foundation represents a real attempt to intimidate an institution it cannot control

1/ Last week, Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Ed Martin sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation accusing Wikipedia of political bias, foreign influence, and propaganda. It’s not just overreach—it’s a political threat disguised as a legal inquiry. 🧵 www.thewikipedian.net/p/maga-wikip...

Misinformation Is No Excuse for Failing Institutions If institutions want to regain the trust of the public, they have to first be worth trusting.

A report from WikiCredCon—and why eroding trust in media institutions is a problem for Wikipedia, by @formerlytomato.bsky.social

Loved the deep dive—nothing like exploring a good Wikipedia rabbit hole.

Was Wikipedia manipulated as part of the Blake Lively smear campaign? I think it was. Here's what I've learned.

"Was Wikipedia manipulated as part of the Blake Lively smear campaign?" a compelling investigation + a good read by @dflovett.bsky.social

The Fight for Hebrew Wikipedia Puts the Wikimedia Foundation in a No-Win Situation An existential crisis at the Hebrew Wikipedia mirrors Israel's deepening divides—and the world's. Now, the WMF must decide whether to step in.

Fin/ So what should happen? Should the WMF step in, as it did in Croatia? Or should Wikipedia communities settle this themselves? The future of Hebrew Wikipedia—and maybe more—is at stake. www.thewikipedian.net/p/hebrew-wik...

7/ Now the WMF must decide: intervene and risk inflaming critics, or do nothing and watch Hebrew Wikipedia become even more insular? It’s a test of whether institutions can still act—or if they will continue standing by as consensus collapses. www.thewikipedian.net/p/hebrew-wik...

6/ This isn’t the first time a Wikipedia has been "captured" by one side. In the 2010s, Croatian Wikipedia was taken over by a far-right faction. The WMF finally intervened in 2021, stripping power from admins and resetting governance. www.thewikipedian.net/p/hebrew-wik...

5/ The conflict is influencing site content, too. In 2021, Hebrew Wikipedia changed the article "Israeli occupation of the West Bank" to "Israeli rule in Judea and Samaria"—a nationalist framing. The fight over content is also a fight for control. www.thewikipedian.net/p/hebrew-wik...

4/ The secular editors want the WMF to step in. The nationalists say the other side engaged in its own off-wiki coordination, and besides, most hewiki editors agree, and by the way they most every claim in the RfC is false. www.thewikipedian.net/p/hebrew-wik...

3/ This fight isn’t just about Wikipedia. It’s happening against the backdrop of Israel’s biggest political crises in decades—from the October 7 Hamas attack and Gaza invasion to Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul and the dominant far-right coalition. www.thewikipedian.net/p/hebrew-wik...

2/ In December, an 11,000-word Request for Comment (RfC) dropped, alleging that a religious-nationalist faction had seized power in hewiki. The claim: they mass-banned progressive and secular editors, then used the bans to cement control in the next election. www.thewikipedian.net/p/hebrew-wik...

The Fight for Hebrew Wikipedia Puts the Wikimedia Foundation in a No-Win Situation An existential crisis at the Hebrew Wikipedia mirrors Israel's deepening divides—and the world's. Now, the WMF must decide whether to step in.

1/ A major battle is raging on Wikipedia—this time not on English Wikipedia, but on Hebrew Wikipedia (hewiki). A political faction is accused of taking control, banning opponents, and rewriting rules. Will the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) intervene? 🧵 www.thewikipedian.net/p/hebrew-wik...

The Right’s War on Wikipedia is Just a Repackaging of its War on Journalism In its exaggerated critique of Wikipedia's standards for reliable sources, the Media Research Center attempts a striking feat of false equivalence

8/ The bottom line: Wikipedia isn’t "leftist". It just values accuracy over ideology. And that’s why right-wing activists are trying to turn it into another culture war battleground. www.thewikipedian.net/p/right-wing...

7/ Wikipedia has become too institutionally important for the right to ignore. Like their broader war on journalism, conservatives are attacking it not because it’s unfair, but because it won’t bend to their narrative. www.thewikipedian.net/p/right-wing...

6/ MRC also ignores that _some_ right-leaning outlets pass Wikipedia’s reliability tests. The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph, Reason, and The Economist? Reliable. Newsmax, OANN, and Daily Caller? Not so much. The difference? Journalism vs. propaganda. www.thewikipedian.net/p/right-wing...

5/ Right-wing media wants to be treated like NPR or The Atlantic, but refuses to do the work of real journalism. Wikipedia’s sourcing guidelines reward fact-checking & accountability—not political alignment. That’s why MRC is crying foul. www.thewikipedian.net/p/right-wing...

4/ Let’s talk about those results. Wikipedia prioritizes fact-checking, editorial oversight, and accuracy. That’s why mainstream outlets—yes, even left-leaning ones—get better marks than sites like Breitbart, which has a history of misinformation. www.thewikipedian.net/p/right-wing...

3/ Last week, MRC’s NewsBusters blasted Wikipedia for "blacklisting ALL right-leaning media". It’s an alarming claim—but also misleading. Wikipedia applies the same reliability standards to all sources. MRC just doesn’t like the results. www.thewikipedian.net/p/right-wing...

2/ In 2024, conservative agitation against Wikipedia reached new heights. From Elon Musk’s trolling to the Manhattan Institute’s claims of bias to the Heritage Foundation’s plans to “target” editors, the right ramped up its attacks. Now, they’re doubling down. www.thewikipedian.net/p/right-wing...