Talk:Wikimedia Foundation Operations department

Scope

Does somebody know what this department does? Does it have anything to do with finance, as usually a COO does? Nemo 08:16, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

@Nemo bis: I have updated this page with the description as currently appears on the Foundation website: "Executes on the strategy and vision of the organization based on market awareness, data proof points, and operational excellence." Also, curious what your source is for the COO role usually involving finance? The word "finance" does not appear on the English Wikipedia article for COO and that is not something I have previously heard directly associated with the role. I suppose it has "something" to do with finance in that they work with every department. However, the Chief Financial Officer continues to be primarily responsible for the finance team. I hope that helps. --Gregory Varnum (Wikimedia Foundation) [he/him] (talk) 16:51, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

@Nemo bis: There's some info on their activities in the department's Tuning session that was just posted: File:Wikimedia Foundation first quarter 2019-2020 tuning session - Operations.pdf. --Yair rand (talk) 01:41, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

Director of Global Data & Insights

The Director of Global Data & Insights job posting is in my opinion directed to the wrong audience.

I wish this position success with things like ensuring a "theory of change and evaluation plan" and "ensuring that data are shared internally and externally" (but "to inform stakeholders of best practices, lessons learned" is wrong: it's not a one-way street, WMF needs to learn from others just as much as it needs to share its own learnings).

The phrasing of the job posting, however, leaves room for improvement. I understand that this is aimed to older professionals, but some terminology seems quite dated or carries implications which are potentially quite dated, for instance "central database and dashboard", "community of practice for analysts and data practitioners".

Given free culture is central in our mission and values, and open data + open access have evolved as important aspects of free culture, plus WMF Research has a strong culture of research in the open, it's puzzling to see that there isn't even a mention of open data and open science. This will make it harder to attract relevant talent.

There is little excuse for such a non-mention given tons of other keywords were provided: «monitoring and evaluation system, database development, data management, setting data privacy and protection policies, overseeing data collection and quality, data dictionary design, dashboard design and development, database health reporting». Even if open science had been only an afterthought, it would have been easy to stuff it in there. However, it should have been central from the beginning, because closed practices are useless in WMF and Wikimedia anyway. Nemo 08:52, 2 May 2020 (UTC)