Why?
Lila Tretikov Has Resigned from Wikimedia Foundation
71–80 of 87 posts
Re: Lila Tretikov Has Resigned from Wikimedia Foundation
#72Honestly, this all sounds pretty typical of non-profit organizations. I've been working with various different ones since I was 7. Sometimes as a volunteer, sometimes as an employee, sometimes as an executive, and sometimes as a board member. I have never seen a functional non-profit. For whatever reason, non-profits seem to attract all kinds of people who are motivated by things I can only describe as "weird." And i…
My experience has been somehow similar.
What I think these organizations mostly lack is a clear incentive structure. Money flows in on one end and is spent on... stuff.
There's not a strong incentive for tracking performance or impact. If you spent the money, got something out of it and didn't kill anybody in the process, you're gold. Actually, most non-profits I've worked with are very averse to the idea of measuring the impact of their activities.
There's also the problem of failure; most just don't recognize failure as a necessary step to success. I regularly see complete failures being spun into successes. The very admission of failure is enough to get you fired or shunned.
I'm actually looking at what comes out of YC (e.g. Watsi, Bayes Impact) to see if a new model of non-profits emerges, one that moves fast and embraces result-driven approaches.
Re: Lila Tretikov Has Resigned from Wikimedia Foundation
#73Honestly, this all sounds pretty typical of non-profit organizations. I've been working with various different ones since I was 7. Sometimes as a volunteer, sometimes as an employee, sometimes as an executive, and sometimes as a board member. I have never seen a functional non-profit. For whatever reason, non-profits seem to attract all kinds of people who are motivated by things I can only describe as "weird." And i…
You're painting with a broad brush and your characterisation is greatly at odds with many of the functional non-profit organisations I know here in Australia: * the St Vincent de Paul Society * the National Heart Foundation * Cancer Council of Australia * Opera Australia * Unicef * National Disability Services I could go on. My point is, non-profit organisations encompass a huge spectrum of activity. Many operate lik…
You worked internally in of all these and more?
Sorry if I'm a little doubtful but that's quite a resume.
Re: Lila Tretikov Has Resigned from Wikimedia Foundation
#74Honestly, this all sounds pretty typical of non-profit organizations. I've been working with various different ones since I was 7. Sometimes as a volunteer, sometimes as an employee, sometimes as an executive, and sometimes as a board member. I have never seen a functional non-profit. For whatever reason, non-profits seem to attract all kinds of people who are motivated by things I can only describe as "weird." And i…
[deleted]
Re: Lila Tretikov Has Resigned from Wikimedia Foundation
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're painting with a broad brush and your characterisation is greatly at odds with many of the functional non-profit organisations I know here in Australia: * the St Vincent de Paul Society * the National Heart Foundation * Cancer Council of Australia * Opera Australia * Unicef * National Disability Services I could go on. My point is, non-profit organisations encompass a huge spectrum of activity. Many operate lik…
You worked internally in of all these and more? Sorry if I'm a little doubtful but that's quite a resume.
How do you define functional such that the only way to identify it is to work there?
Re: Lila Tretikov Has Resigned from Wikimedia Foundation
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're painting with a broad brush and your characterisation is greatly at odds with many of the functional non-profit organisations I know here in Australia: * the St Vincent de Paul Society * the National Heart Foundation * Cancer Council of Australia * Opera Australia * Unicef * National Disability Services I could go on. My point is, non-profit organisations encompass a huge spectrum of activity. Many operate lik…
You worked internally in of all these and more? Sorry if I'm a little doubtful but that's quite a resume.
[deleted]
Re: Lila Tretikov Has Resigned from Wikimedia Foundation
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're painting with a broad brush and your characterisation is greatly at odds with many of the functional non-profit organisations I know here in Australia: * the St Vincent de Paul Society * the National Heart Foundation * Cancer Council of Australia * Opera Australia * Unicef * National Disability Services I could go on. My point is, non-profit organisations encompass a huge spectrum of activity. Many operate lik…
You worked internally in of all these and more? Sorry if I'm a little doubtful but that's quite a resume.
I don't think they ever implied they "worked internally in all of these and more".
Re: Lila Tretikov Has Resigned from Wikimedia Foundation
#78Honestly, this all sounds pretty typical of non-profit organizations. I've been working with various different ones since I was 7. Sometimes as a volunteer, sometimes as an employee, sometimes as an executive, and sometimes as a board member. I have never seen a functional non-profit. For whatever reason, non-profits seem to attract all kinds of people who are motivated by things I can only describe as "weird." And i…
I've worked in startups and large ivy league universities... the latter has more focus on social capital than necessarily delivering value or customer service because there is less survival risk, so the emphasis is on social organizational capital (family-like, countryclub departments) than monetary profit (except for university profit-centers). I've also seen massive corruption, empire building, laughable leadership…
Both my parents are professors at a tier one university. My mom has been there for most of her adult life, going on 55+ years. My father has been a professor since just after he got back from WW2. Yes, he's that old. 96, and I'm in my mid 30s. Yay me.
I have seen both of them have to deal with all kinds of insane bullshit. For the sake of the conversation, I must point out that my individual observations and experiences do not in any way constitute something I could call a general idea.
My thoughts about non-profits and academia are limited to my own personal experiences.
There are probably some great academic or non-profit places to work. Not disputing that.
In fact, I'm working for a very healthy one right now in Brooklyn. But you know what the structure of that org is? Total artistic dictatorship.
Re: Lila Tretikov Has Resigned from Wikimedia Foundation
#79Huh. I absolutely hated the new "Media Viewer" and the WYSIWYG editor, but I didn't know there is this big drama behind it. (Plus all the Knowledge Engine thing, which I didn't hear about. But neither did more senior editors, it seems.)
Truth to be said, I do really like Wikipedia's mobile layout and mobile website in general. I still think they should do something with the discussion system, as I think having wiki-style discussions that nobody ever opens is not really good for anything, but I don't know what to do instead. :)
Re: Lila Tretikov Has Resigned from Wikimedia Foundation
#80Huh. I absolutely hated the new "Media Viewer" and the WYSIWYG editor, but I didn't know there is this big drama behind it. (Plus all the Knowledge Engine thing, which I didn't hear about. But neither did more senior editors, it seems.) Truth to be said, I do really like Wikipedia's mobile layout and mobile website in general. I still think they should do something with the discussion system, as I think having wiki-s…
I really like the Visual Editor, as a novice editor - it makes things such as adding citations and links wonderfully easy.