Jalexander-WMF

James Alexander Project Manager, Legal and Community Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation "Not all those who wander are lost"

About me I've had an account starting on the English Wikipedia since late 2006 as Jamesofur where I made small edits correcting or updating information as I read through articles (both logged in and anonymous). In 2009 I picked up my interest again mostly because of a fascination with the community model and a desire to see the projects succeed. I worked first on enWiki again and then quickly started getting involved in global governance and anti vandalism and abuse issues. I helped to set up the Global sysops proposal and referendum and still serve as one on my volunteer account, became a Sysop, Bureaucrat and Checkuser on SimpleWikipedia as well as a sysop here on Meta and on EnWikipedia. I've also been a long time agent on OTRS especially with BLP concerns and Intellectual property (Copyright, trademarks and trade secrets mostly). Personally I have a degree in Economics and a huge love of the law both in the United States and internationally (especially Contract and Copyright law and the international and economic side effects). After school I was looking for work in the legal field planning to go to law school in a year or two. I'm a self professed geek and anglophile who loves most of science fiction and British television, computers and technology (I've taught myself a fair bit of coding but have no formal teaching) and surfing. I enjoy taking on a challenge especially something where much of it hasn't been done before.

My work I began at the Foundation for the 2010 Fundraiser for outreach but ended up spending most of my time making all of the lovely banners and landing pages that everyone has come to love ;). In 2011 I got a Community Fellowship to work on new editor retention work focusing on data gathering and research (in prep for the Summer of Research) as well as WikiGuides a project trying to proactively reach out to new users which I presented on at Wikimania in Haifa (The Teahouse is taking up from where we left off!). In July 2011 I was swallowed up by the Fundraiser again to be its 'Business Analyst' working to help manage the priorities of the technical and production teams for the Fundraiser. In the late spring 2012 I became the Wikimedia Merchandise Manager, opening an online store, expanding our products to include a wide array of good quality offerings available at a reasonable price, and developing a community-driven giveaway program that recognized the contributions of individual Wikimedians. I currently work in the legal and community advocacy department on a wide variety of projects and tasks, some of which can take more or less time depending on the circumstances. My primary focus is on building internal, scalable, tools for the team and high profile or time-sensitive community support issues as part of the broader Community Advocacy team. Some specific projects I'm working on now include: Supporting the legal department in the execution of legal process, including DMCA takedowns, warrants, subpoenas and threats of harm on wiki. In that role you may see me doing some 'office' actions and I'd request that you send me an email or drop a message on my talk page if you have any questions about what I did. I co-lead a team that is reviewing advanced permission software tools (particularly Checkuser and Oversight) with focus on system security and privacy features. I am also responsible for the management of WMF staff access to advanced permissions Serve as the designated techie on our generally non-technical team, designing internal tools to help us work more effectively. Continually working on community support or emergency issues as they come up. Like others in the Community Advocacy team I try to help others within the staff understand the community view point and vice versa. Other tasks as assigned Disclaimer: Although I work for the Wikimedia Foundation, contributions under this account do not necessarily represent the actions or views of the Foundation unless expressly stated otherwise. For example, edits to articles or uploads of other media are done in my individual, personal capacity unless otherwise stated. Although I am a member of the Legal and Community Advocacy team, I am not a lawyer. The legal team can only represent the Wikimedia Foundation on legal matters, so we are unable to give legal advice to others, including community members, editors, or contributors. Communications with members of the legal team are not consultations and do not create any confidential relationship.

Contact me Email: Jalexanderwikimedia.org On my Meta-Wiki or English Wikipedia talk page as Jalexander in a staff role. On my Meta-Wiki or English Wikipedia talk page as Jamesofur in my volunteer role. Gtalk: Jalexanderwikimedia.org Twitter: Jamesofur LinkedIn profile