On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 11:24 PM, Sue Gardner <sgard...@wikimedia.org>wrote:
> On 22 January 2012 08:30, Kim Bruning <k...@bruning.xs4all.nl> wrote: > > Wikimedia foundation hires lobbyists on sopa, pipa > > http://www.politico.com/morningtech/0112/morningtech377.html > > > > Interesting. Any details? > > I thought we had already discussed this here, but maybe it was only > discussed on the SOPA pages on-wiki? Upshot: the Wikimedia Foundation > engaged a DC firm, Dow Lohnes Government Strategies, to help us better > understand SOPA/PIPA. They are the folks who've been advising us over > the past month or so, helping us figure out how big a threat SOPA/PIPA > are, where they came from, what stage they were at, how likely they > were to pass, what kind of response the blackout was getting, and so > forth. > > When Geoff or anybody from the Foundation was opining on-list or > on-wiki about SOPA/PIPA, it was with the benefit of the expertise of > the DC firm. > > It remains to be determined how or whether we will continue using that > firm (or any other similar firm). We don't have any intention of doing > anything secretive or underhanded. > > There is probably more information on enWP's SOPA-related pages. > > Ah. Thanks Sue for the clarification. I indeed missed that on en.wp, maybe communicating that they were employed for consultation during the blackout might help, internally or even externally? This is the first I heard about the extent of their involvement, it would be great if this could be communicated better. Regards Theo _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
