Wikimedia Foundation elections/2025/Candidates/James Alexander
James Alexander (Jamesofur)
Jamesofur (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA • AE)
| Candidate details | 
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| Candidate video statement | ||
| Total word count for the whole application (required + optional questions) is 2500 words. | ||
| Have you read the minimum candidate requirements and verified you meet the minimum qualifications and the candidate eligibility requirements? | Yes | |
| Have you read the candidate guidelines and agree to abide by the guidelines? | Yes | |
| Required questions | ||
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| Why are you running for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees? What would you contribute? What would you like to learn more about? | The Wikimedia Movement has been a massive part of my life. It got me through university (ironically, less for the content and more for the mental health benefits of volunteering), helped me find my long-term career (in online and tech safety), and has been the basis of my strongest friendships. That wasn't by accident; I quickly realized that not only had I found my people, but a movement of real global importance. Free knowledge is crucial to promoting growth, peace, and understanding worldwide. Easy access to knowledge has only become more vital in recent years. The Wikimedia movement forms the foundation of what I hope remains a growing trend, but I also fear that it’s increasingly at odds with alternative visions for the world.
I want to continue serving the movement now and into the future. As my career has grown, my strengths and interests have evolved. I joined the Wikimedia Endowment Board's Audit Committee last year because I believed my skills and experience could help secure the movement’s future. Stepping back into the movement more actively with that work has only strengthened my resolve. I’ve long considered running for the Foundation’s board, but I wanted to wait until I could fully contribute. That time is now. We have a great set of Trustees with a wide variety of skills I'd love to learn from but I also believe my background will complement theirs. I have 18+ years in the movement and a degree in Economics. My recent professional work focuses on the ethical and safe use of AI in business technology, and I have 15+ years working in online safety, including over eight years at the Wikimedia Foundation, where I became its first Trust & Safety leader as both the organization and movement grew rapidly. The Foundation and the movement have always occupied a unique position, championing the importance of understanding the past, present, and future while remaining accessible and usable by all as technology evolves. We've long been on a precipice as the world around us changes. I want to be part of helping to guide us through this change, and joining the board is the best way to do that. | |
| Please describe your Wikimedia experience (such as contributions to the Wikimedia projects, memberships in Wikimedia organizations or affiliates, activities as a Wikimedia movement organizer, or participation with a Wikimedia movement ally organization). | I created my current account in 2006. There may have been one or two low (or no) edit accounts before that, but I’ve never been able to track those down. I had some small contributions over the first couple of years but went all in starting in 2009. Some highlights include:
From August 2010 to December 2018, I worked at the Wikimedia Foundation, where I had considerable autonomy in determining my focus. Given the importance of that work, I'll separate some highlights, many of which continue today:
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| From your perspective, what should the Wikimedia Foundation be prioritizing over the next 3-5 years, and why do you see these as the most important priorities? | There will always be new and evolving priorities we need to address, but some will be evergreen for the next couple of years:
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| Please describe your experience with governing bodies of organizations (nonprofit or for-profit), mentioning the scope of your responsibilities, as well as the complexity of the organization (in terms of scale of operations, budget, number of people involved, or other meaningful measures) and the size of the board or body. | The Wikimedia board will be the largest governing board I've been directly a part of, and one reason, of many, I want to join is that experience. Still, I've been involved with governing bodies for many years. In reverse order:
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| Questions from the Community (required) | ||
| These questions were sourced from the community. These questions are required to consider your application complete. If this section is not complete by 23:59 AoE, July 8 (11:59 UTC, July 9), your application will not be considered. | ||
| How do you plan to ensure transparency and accountability in your decision-making processes as a member of the Board of Trustees? | While many conversations and debates require a degree of confidentiality (whether temporary or indefinite), we must strive to be as transparent as possible to facilitate proper governance and honesty. Wherever possible, I will push for transparency in our meetings, discussions, and decisions, not just including the outcomes but the why. I will always make myself available for questions or concerns even if I can't always give someone the immediate answer they might desire, especially given the importance of allowing Foundation staff to operate without undue influence from the Board. This type of feedback is vital to understand what's happening around the movement fully. | |
| What will be the first new issue you would like to bring to the attention of the Board for discussion, and how would you approach it? | I am certain almost any topic I can think of has been discussed at least a little bit either at a Board meeting or between Board members, so it will never be an entirely new issue. Still, aside from the obvious appointment of a new CEO, I would like to discuss how we are approaching AI and technological change. We must approach this strategically, considering both external and internal uses and thinking about the future. My work experience and focus on developing ethical and safe AI products, combined with my long-standing involvement in the movement, bring an essential voice to the table. | |
| How should decisions about trade-offs and prioritisation in Wikimedia technology or product areas be approached? Please explain what the trade-off is in your view. | There are always trade-offs in organizational work, whether technical or otherwise. Sometimes, that's about money or resources; you can only fund and maintain so much. At other times, it's about function and accessibility versus scalability and ease. Wikimedia projects and the information the community creates must remain accessible and easy to create, but that doesn't necessarily mean holding onto technical debt or outdated products forever due to backward compatibility or niche desires. We will do it more than many, but we can't do it forever. You need to approach trade-offs and prioritisation with a cost/benefit analysis. If you can spend a bit of money or time to maintain functionality, you should. If the benefits or savings from the change are significant, then you need to mitigate the cost of the change, especially in a collaborative community like ours. Larger changes require a crucial analysis of short-term versus long-term benefits, which often leads me to lean in favor of the long-term benefits. However, it is vital to help mitigate the short-term costs you may incur, as otherwise, you may lose contributors or goodwill for far longer than you would imagine. | |
| The number of Wikimedia affiliates has grown significantly over the past few years, but ensuring adequate resourcing can be a challenge. Given this, how might we rethink the movement ecosystem, including how affiliates are evaluated, engaged, and resourced? | The growth in affiliates has been a huge net positive for the movement ecosystem over the decades, especially with the variety of different types of affiliates that allow for focused support and development of all kinds of communities. I don't pretend to be an expert in the global affiliate space, so I want to listen carefully to everyone engaged now and in the future. Still, my current suspicion is that we may want to lean more heavily on regional groups and larger, more mature entities to help manage a resource space that will always be limited. I don't think it's reasonable to expect enough local community leaders to be able to operate highly mature organizations at a micro-scale, and so offboarding some of that maturity to umbrella organizations or support groups, whether formal or informal, allows us to have the breadth we want with the maturity we need to prioritize resource allocation and ensure transparency and flexibility. | |
| As the Wikimedia Foundation's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position transitions, what qualities do you believe the incoming leader should embody, and how would these contribute to the advancement of the Wikimedia movement? | As the Foundation and the Movement have grown, the demands of the CEO have also grown to the point that we are almost looking for an impossibly perfect person. That said, we need someone who can lead globally and publicly. They are the face of the Foundation and are often seen as the face of the Movement, whether we like it or not. They must be able to do so comfortably around the world. We also need someone who is a technologist. They don't need to have formal training or even experience in these areas (though it could be helpful). Still, they must be comfortable with technology and articulate the importance of technology and our work. Ideally, they'd be a member of our broader community. We may not know who they are yet, but they should know who we are. | |
| Optional questions - Professional Experience, Skills and Education | ||
| These questions are optional. Responses will count towards the total word limit on your application. (Reminder: You will not have other opportunities to provide this information). | ||
| Please describe your professional career experience and relevance to board work. | After working at the Wikimedia Foundation for just over eight years, I worked in Trust & Safety at Twitter from January 2019 until March 2023. There, I led the Illegal Content & Media Operations team, overseeing automated and manual policy enforcement on multi-media content (audio, images, video) as well as content involving terrorism, child safety, and regulated goods. The work there was widespread and varied, encompassing everything from building proper moderation tooling to developing AI detection models for audio and visual media. The global team I led grew to a maximum of 25 full-time employees and 1,500-2,000 indirect contractors. Over the last six months or so, I transitioned to leading our wider safety platform team on the Product side, as well as overseeing the teams that handled internationalization and T&S Project Management. It was challenging work but enormously valuable for me to learn how to manage larger teams and budgets and engage with a diverse range of executive and board-level leaders, from Yoel Roth to Elon Musk.
After a short break from work, where I spent time working with industry groups to discuss AI and moderator safety, as well as restarting my obsession with swimming (ask if you want an earful), I joined Salesforce as a member of their Office of Ethical and Humane Use policy team, where I remain today. There, I focus on content safety across all our products, as well as product and consumer policy for our in-house AI models and AI-driven consumer products. I hope to bring this experience to the Board as we discuss our strategic direction in this space. | |
| Please describe how you handled, or advised others on, a complex problem in an organization. How did you work with others to address the situation? What was the change that resulted from your efforts? | Unfortunately, many examples can’t be discussed publicly, but one more visible case was Twitter’s 2020 shift to remote work. We wanted to ensure that our thousands of contracted moderators worldwide could continue working safely from home. I was part of the leadership task force that drove this, setting up security protocols and home systems while continuing to pay them. Though some couldn’t work for days or weeks, the transition was successful, and strengthened their loyalty to the company and our mission. | |
| Please describe your educational background, including degrees, certificates, and courses of study finished, and their relevance to board work. | I hold a bachelor's degree in Economics, which, although I've never been an economist, has helped me better understand finances, investments, and the broader economy. This will be particularly helpful for the Board, as we've several other great board members with financial experience as well. | |
| Please add any relevant links describing your professional background, experience, profile (such as LinkedIn, staff page, etc.). | ||
| Optional questions - Leadership Experience | ||
| These questions are optional. Responses will count towards the total word limit on your application. (Reminder: You will not have other opportunities to provide this information). | ||
| Please describe ways in which you have helped to form a bridge between multiple communities (such as by working on projects outside your home wiki, or working on a collaboration between multiple affiliates). | I'm proud to say that this has been a significant part of my career, both professionally and as a volunteer, whether that's as an OTRS team member, a global sysop, or an elections coordinator in San Francisco. Every community is a combination of other communities, and it's crucial to recognize this and continually support and bridge those around you. | |
| Can you describe a policy, on wiki or off, that you helped to create or change? What did you learn from this experience? | ||
| How have you been able to empower people to make their voices heard? | ||
| Can you describe how you have demonstrated the ability to guide others in solving problems, adapting to change or achieving goals, particularly at a leadership or management level? | ||
| Optional questions - Strategic Thinking | ||
| These questions are optional. Responses will count towards the total word limit on your application. (Reminder: You will not have other opportunities to provide this information). | ||
| Please describe your experience participating in or leading an organization in planning for its future. How did your work contribute to picking the right path for the organization? | ||
| Verification | Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee | |
Eligibility:  Verified
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Identification: Verified Verified by: – NahidSultan (WMF) (talk) 05:03, 16 July 2025 (UTC) | |