Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-03-26/Departures

In separate and apparently unrelated announcements, Wikimedia Foundation employees Brad Patrick and Danny Wool both announced their resignations this week, both citing disagreements with the Board of Trustees.

Wool first made his announcement late Tuesday, when he removed his name from the list of "current staff" on the Wikimedia Foundation website. He removed his rights on all wikis on Wednesday, and on Thursday, formally announced his resignation in a mailing list post:

Patrick, meanwhile, also announced his resignation on Thursday, while noting that his resignation was not related to Wool's:

In an interview with Wired News, Patrick criticized the Board's ability to handle the tasks of running the Foundation: "A board that is tasked with the responsibility of running a 501(c)3 should have the competences to run a 501(c)3 and get all the help they can from as many people as they can, including outside people, to do that. I've said before that the board could just as soon have a pie-eating contest or flip a coin or Tiddly Wink to determine who the next board member would be and it would have the same legitimacy as an election."

Developer Tim Starling noted that, unlike Patrick's announcement, which had already been given privately to the Board of Trustees, Wool's announcement came with no prior notice: "...Brad gave about a month's notice. Danny left last Tuesday with no prior notice. Danny's resignation caused some comment on internal-l. Anthere decided that since we were talking about resignations, this would be a good time to announce Brad's pending resignation, also to internal-l."

The moves represent the first full resignations in the history of the Wikimedia Foundation. Patrick was interim executive director until February (see archived story), but remained in his role as general counsel. Prior to the Foundation's existence, Larry Sanger resigned from the project on March 1, 2002, after Jimbo Wales and Bomis became unable to fund his position as "chief organizer" of Wikipedia and editor-in-chief of Nupedia.

The Foundation has already announced a search for a new legal coordinator to handle many of the duties that Patrick previously handled. It has not yet been announced whether Wool's position will be filled in the near future.

In other Foundation news, Foundation Chair Florence Devouard announced that the Foundation has hired Rob Halsell as a full-time IT and networking professional, working at the Tampa data center and in the St. Petersburg offices.