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[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcoming Wikimedia Foundation’s new CTO, Grant Ingersoll
Hi all,

I’m excited to officially welcome Grant Ingersoll as our Chief Technology
Officer! Grant will be starting September 23. He’ll be based in Charlotte,
North Carolina.

Grant comes from a long history of working on open source projects. Most
recently, he served as the Chief Technical Officer of Lucidworks, an
AI-powered open-source search services company which he co-founded. He is a
Lucene and Solr committer, co-founder of the Apache Mahout machine learning
project, and a long-standing member of the Apache Software Foundation. He’s
an author, having written a book for Java developers on how to wrangle
unstructured text for search, text-mining, and the like. He’s also a
long-time, committed remotee, having worked with the distributed Lucidworks
team from his home in North Carolina for nearly a decade.

In Grant’s own words, “The power of learning and knowledge have always
stood as key pillars in my career. I'm a big believer that access to free,
trusted knowledge is of vital importance as society looks to tackle large
scale challenges. My wife, Robin, and I recently moved from Chapel Hill,
North Carolina, our home for 10 years, to Charlotte, North Carolina, where
our daughter lives. We also just dropped our son off at college for his
freshman year. We're adjusting to the empty nest life with our dog Allie (a
black lab mix). When not traveling or exploring Charlotte, I can usually be
found on a bike, out kayaking, or writing code.”

Grant will be working with myself, Erika Bjune (who is transitioning to VP,
Technology), and others in the leadership of the technology department to
determine a set of priorities for his first year. I expect these will
likely focus around evaluating our current capacities and co-creating a
vision for the continued evolution of our technical platforms, supporting
the staff of the department, working with the finance and operations folks
on planning and budgeting for the future, and of course, getting to know
our technical community and the broader movement. Under Grant’s leadership,
we will continue the work of improving and modernizing our technical
ecosystem to respond to our future needs, as laid out in the movement
strategy.

I’m thrilled to have the CTO role filled, and to bring Grant in at a time
when the movement is digging into the question of what it means to “become
the essential infrastructure of free knowledge.” From our first meeting, I
was struck by his curiosity. He was genuinely interested in how Wikimedia
works, and was willing to get into what I often think of “Wiki PhD” level
conversations about the nuances of our community and values. I have
generally found that the folks who bring that sort of openness and humility
to their work are the folks who thrive in the challenges of our mission and
movement. As our movement expands, I’m glad to have Grant’s experience,
curiosity, and passion for building things on board here at the Foundation.

I want to also thank Erika Bjune for her work as interim CTO. She
passionately advocated for the importance of our platforms, embodied
partnership and cooperation, and her expertise on the interview panel was
invaluable. I’m thrilled she’ll be working so closely with Grant as we move
forward.

Please join me in welcoming Grant to the Wikimedia Foundation!

Katherine
--

Katherine Maher (she/her)

Executive Director

Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcoming Wikimedia Foundation’s new CTO, Grant Ingersoll [ In reply to ]
On Wed, 18 Sep 2019 at 17:55, Katherine Maher <kmaher@wikimedia.org> wrote:

> I’m excited to officially welcome Grant Ingersoll as our Chief Technology
> Officer! Grant

It is UTTERLY OUTRAGEOUS of Katherine to post this...

> In Grant’s own words

> We're adjusting to the empty nest life with our dog Allie (a
> black lab mix).

...without linking to at least one cute pic of Allie ;-)

--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcoming Wikimedia Foundation’s new CTO, Grant Ingersoll [ In reply to ]
Le mer. 18 sept. 2019 à 19:44, Katherine Maher <kmaher@wikimedia.org> a
écrit :

> Hi all,
>
> I’m excited to officially welcome Grant Ingersoll as our Chief Technology
> Officer! Grant will be starting September 23. He’ll be based in Charlotte,
> North Carolina.
>

[...]


> Please join me in welcoming Grant to the Wikimedia Foundation!
>

Welcome and good luck with your future wiki (data) challenges!

---

Amirouche ~ amz3 ~ https://hyper.dev
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcoming Wikimedia Foundation’s new CTO, Grant Ingersoll [ In reply to ]
> ...without linking to at least one cute pic of Allie ;-)
>

Well, Wikipedia is not a social networking service like Facebook or Twitter.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_blog,_web_hosting_service,_social_networking_service,_or_memorial_site>
Although fun and uplifting comments are always welcome, please notice that
your mail can be understood in many different ways, neither of which is
beneficial.
Thank you.

Aron
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcoming Wikimedia Foundation’s new CTO, Grant Ingersoll [ In reply to ]
Of all the useless pontificating that happens both on this list and on
Wikipedia, *this* is the comment that you call out? smh

On Wed, Sep 18, 2019 at 3:57 PM Aron Manning <aronmanning5@gmail.com> wrote:

> > ...without linking to at least one cute pic of Allie ;-)
> >
>
> Well, Wikipedia is not a social networking service like Facebook or
> Twitter.
> <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_blog,_web_hosting_service,_social_networking_service,_or_memorial_site
> >
> Although fun and uplifting comments are always welcome, please notice that
> your mail can be understood in many different ways, neither of which is
> beneficial.
> Thank you.
>
> Aron
> _______________________________________________
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcoming Wikimedia Foundation’s new CTO, Grant Ingersoll [ In reply to ]
Well, I'm thrilled about this, especially after having had a look
through https://www.slideshare.net/lucidworks/searching-for-better-code-presented-by-grant-ingersoll-lucidworks

Honestly, though, it's only the third best thing that happened this
week after Valerie Plame entering politics and the UC system divesting
from fossil fuels.

Grant, welcome! My advice is to set make a long list of concrete KPIs
for contributor (e.g. editor) support, reach, and cloud support, in a
way that can be used for fundraising. The fundraising messaging has
been stuck for years on this thing about, "if everyone reading this
contributed the cost of a cup of coffee, then _some goal here_," which
is okay, but could be so much better flipped with the KPIs as the ask,
e.g., "Each $CURRENCY you donate will pay to support N additional
$CONTENTS," where the wikipedias can use ops measurements of the
resources typical to, e.g., take an article from Start to B class, for
example, or how much time, server electricity including idle time, and
other resource it takes to get a new word added to Wiktionary to some
level of proficiency. If these units relate to the potential donor's
language or geography, all the better. People geolocated in the
developed world using languages with highly developed wikipedias and
wiktionaries can be told how much it would cost to, for example,
eliminate units of the various WP:BACKLOG items you find suitable in
multivariate e.g. Latin squares donation message testing. (Or add new
technology projects like an intelligibility- and natural spoken
feedback version of https://www.speechace.co/api_sample/ hint
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T166929#5473028 hint.)

Also please take Curecoin instead of Bitcoin, even if that means
paying the extra transaction fee before converting the Curecoin to
cash. It is the height of folly to be as close to endorsing wasted
electricity-based cryptocurrency as we already do, when alternatives
with a benefit are less commonly known. The only other blockchain
thing I like is that long-term state-sponsored censorship mitigation
program can be based on copying the dumps to IPFS, but please also
support the CDN efforts like Encrypted-SNI:

https://twitter.com/jsalsman/status/1142172682751864832

https://twitter.com/jsalsman/status/1142940652851695616

https://twitter.com/jsalsman/status/1053786384463355905

Please let me know your thoughts.

Best regards,
Jim


On Wed, Sep 18, 2019 at 12:31 PM Andy Mabbett <andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 18 Sep 2019 at 17:55, Katherine Maher <kmaher@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> > I’m excited to officially welcome Grant Ingersoll as our Chief Technology
> > Officer! Grant
>
> It is UTTERLY OUTRAGEOUS of Katherine to post this...
>
> > In Grant’s own words
>
> > We're adjusting to the empty nest life with our dog Allie (a
> > black lab mix).
>
> ...without linking to at least one cute pic of Allie ;-)
>
> --
> Andy Mabbett
> @pigsonthewing
> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcoming Wikimedia Foundation’s new CTO, Grant Ingersoll [ In reply to ]
On Wed, Sep 18, 2019 at 12:32 PM Andy Mabbett <andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk>
wrote:

> On Wed, 18 Sep 2019 at 17:55, Katherine Maher <kmaher@wikimedia.org>
> wrote:
>
> > I’m excited to officially welcome Grant Ingersoll as our Chief Technology
> > Officer! Grant
>
> It is UTTERLY OUTRAGEOUS of Katherine to post this...
>
> > In Grant’s own words
>
> > We're adjusting to the empty nest life with our dog Allie (a
> > black lab mix).
>
> ...without linking to at least one cute pic of Allie ;-)
>




Frankly I am shocked ... shocked! that a woman of Katherine’s obvious
talents must be reminded of this basic pillar of the movement: If you
invoke a cute puppy, you better be prepared to prove it.

Geez, K, have we taught you nothing in the, what, half a decade, that
you’ve been part of this movement?

-philippe

>
> --
Philippe Beaudette
philippe@beaudette.me
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcoming Wikimedia Foundation’s new CTO, Grant Ingersoll [ In reply to ]
Congratulations to Grant on his new position, and to the Foundation on
the new CTO! I look forward seeing your work.


On 19.09.19 07:35, Philippe Beaudette wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 18, 2019 at 12:32 PM Andy Mabbett <andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk>
> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 18 Sep 2019 at 17:55, Katherine Maher <kmaher@wikimedia.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I’m excited to officially welcome Grant Ingersoll as our Chief Technology
>>> Officer! Grant
>>
>> It is UTTERLY OUTRAGEOUS of Katherine to post this...
>>
>>> In Grant’s own words
>>
>>> We're adjusting to the empty nest life with our dog Allie (a
>>> black lab mix).
>>
>> ...without linking to at least one cute pic of Allie ;-)
>>
>
>
>
>
> Frankly I am shocked ... shocked! that a woman of Katherine’s obvious
> talents must be reminded of this basic pillar of the movement: If you
> invoke a cute puppy, you better be prepared to prove it.
>
> Geez, K, have we taught you nothing in the, what, half a decade, that
> you’ve been part of this movement?
>
> -philippe


Can someone explain to me why it’s so funny to repeat the exact same
toxic tone that this mailing list is notorious for, but this time
jokingly? It’s not like this is a fun, harmless reminder of a dreadful
past we’ve long left behind us…

Cheers,
Lucas

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Welcoming Wikimedia Foundation’s new CTO, Grant Ingersoll [ In reply to ]
Welcome to your new role Grant, looking forward to working with you and
perhaps meet you in person one day.

Kind regards,
Bobby Shabangu

On Thu, 19 Sep 2019 at 11:47, Lucas Werkmeister <mail@lucaswerkmeister.de>
wrote:

> Congratulations to Grant on his new position, and to the Foundation on
> the new CTO! I look forward seeing your work.
>
>
> On 19.09.19 07:35, Philippe Beaudette wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 18, 2019 at 12:32 PM Andy Mabbett <andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> On Wed, 18 Sep 2019 at 17:55, Katherine Maher <kmaher@wikimedia.org>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> I’m excited to officially welcome Grant Ingersoll as our Chief
> Technology
> >>> Officer! Grant
> >>
> >> It is UTTERLY OUTRAGEOUS of Katherine to post this...
> >>
> >>> In Grant’s own words
> >>
> >>> We're adjusting to the empty nest life with our dog Allie (a
> >>> black lab mix).
> >>
> >> ...without linking to at least one cute pic of Allie ;-)
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Frankly I am shocked ... shocked! that a woman of Katherine’s obvious
> > talents must be reminded of this basic pillar of the movement: If you
> > invoke a cute puppy, you better be prepared to prove it.
> >
> > Geez, K, have we taught you nothing in the, what, half a decade, that
> > you’ve been part of this movement?
> >
> > -philippe
>
>
> Can someone explain to me why it’s so funny to repeat the exact same
> toxic tone that this mailing list is notorious for, but this time
> jokingly? It’s not like this is a fun, harmless reminder of a dreadful
> past we’ve long left behind us…
>
> Cheers,
> Lucas
>
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