Alex / catilepticMay 27

"TLDR: In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire job was to listen to volunteers. Most of the people they fired were union organizers. Wikipedia’s editors are now threatening to strike in solidarity. The Foundation is sitting on $296 million in reserves and a freshly profitable AI revenue stream. This is a confrontation with global implications"

https://medium.com/@jakeorlowitz/wikipedia-is-doing-the-capitalist-thing-56a393232943

Big Tech’s Anti-Labor Playbook Has Come for Wikipedia

TLDR: In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire…

Medium
Show threadAline Blankertz

@catileptic Having worked at the second biggest organisation of the Wikimedia family after the Foundation, I am not surprised at all.

The management puts pressure on employees who are part of the workers council, questions about substance are turned into communication challenges, and the internal “AI” inevitability doctrine was not to be questioned, among other things. (Plus a very unhealthy culture…never worked in a place that hierarchical - but pretending the opposite)

May 28 at 5:46amWeb