Bonum Certa Men Certa

Detecting suspicious transactions in the Wikimedia grants process

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 23, 2024

Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock

On 29 June 2017, one of the Albanians, Redon Skikuli, used the Open Labs forum to announce a FOSSCamp that would take place from 31 August to 3 September 2017 on the island of Syros, Greece.

The Open Labs group had gained a lot of good will through their OSCAL annual conference in Tirana, Albania. Chris Lamb, the former Debian Project Leader, had commented on the high proportion of female participants in these events.

After some careful analysis, it turns out the free software community had been fooled by the men running this group.

A few months before this, the community had elected me as the Fellowship representative in the FSFE. Some of the Albanian women came and told me about the unscrupulous behavior of these men. I wrote a detailed blog about it.

At around the same time that the Albanian women tipped me off, one of the Wikimedia employees in Greece became suspicious about the manner in which the Albanians were not simply having an event in their own country. It had been organized at the last minute and people who don't live in the region would not have the opportunity to get affordable flights. In other words, the Albanians were hoping to get funds from larger groups but not be bothered by the presence of people checking whether any work was done at the Syros beach resort.

Poor behavior????

Jonathan Carter has been spreading rumors about poor behavior. What we see here is an example of integrity, looking through the shady financial dealings and documenting how the women were used as puppets to obtain money for their male controllers.

In most organizations these discussions and names would be handled privately. In September 2018, Chris Lamb and one of the Albanians colluded to spread messages denouncing my work. By violating the privacy of my family and I, they are also violating the privacy of everybody else in these emails.

Subject:        Fwd: Re: Wikimedia funding / FOSSCamp Eligibility queries
Date:   Sat, 21 Oct 2017 09:08:55 +0200
From:   Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro>
To:     ca@wikimedia.org

Confidential
Hi Maggie / Support and Safety team,
I'm writing to make you aware of this because of the possibility that one or more of the women who applied for these grants may have been under pressure from Elio Qoshi and Redon Skikuli.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:ElioQoshi https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Leeturtle (Redon Skikuli)
Elio and Redon are in various roles: - volunteer contributors to Wikimedia projects, speakers, event organizers - board members at the non-profit Open Labs organization, which runs the hackerspace in Tirana - Elio is the founder and Redon appears to be a manager in Ura Design, the company receiving the registration fee discussed below, and at least one of the women, Silva, is their employee
If one or more of these women violated the terms of their grant, it may have been specifically because of pressure exerted by Elio or Redon as employers or as peer pressure, fear of not being part of the group at the hackerspace or a combination of these factors.
I've visited this group several times as part of my work with Debian and Outreachy. I'm also aware of at least one other harassment case that doesn't involve Wikimedia but where a woman was directed how to behave by Elio and Redon.
Regards,
Daniel
-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: Wikimedia funding / FOSSCamp Eligibility queries Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2017 09:58:42 -0700 From: WMF Grants Administrator <grantsadmin@wikimedia.org> To: Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro>, participation <participation@wikimedia.org> CC: auditor@debian.org
Daniel, thank you for your email. I'm looping in the TPS group to make sure the email gets to the appropriate people.
Best,
Janice Tud Grants Administrator
On Fri, Oct 20, 2017 at 9:32 AM, Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro> wrote:
Hi,
I'm writing to you concerning these applications that were approved:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Sido_uku/FOSScamp_Syros_2017 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Nafie_shehu/FOSScamp_Syros_2017 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Silva.1994/FOSScamp_Syros_2017
and I have also been looking at your Eligibility criteria:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Learn#Funding_decisions
In particular "organizations are not eligible" and "We support volunteer participation; participation that is tied to paid work is not eligible for funding."
I was on CC for a funding request sent to the Debian Project for the same event.
After the event, I became aware that one of the requesters, Silva Arapi, is an employee of Ura Design:
https://ura.design/2017/08/25/ura-sha-2017/
and all the funding requests submitted to Wikimedia and Debian included a payment of a registration fee, which has apparently gone to Ura Design:
https://forum.openlabs.cc/t/fosscamp-2017-syros-greece/459/28
Just about everybody at the event requested money for this fee from non-profit free software organizations like Wikimedia and Debian.
In fact, the people submitting the funding requests never mentioned Ura Design (a for-profit corporation), they only mentioned Open Labs (a non-profit group)
As that part of the funding (EUR 40 each) went to an organization, that part appears to violate point 2 in the criteria.
The discussion in that forum topic, at this point, mentions that the organization didn't provide any service to the participants (such as meals or t-shirts) in exchange for that money:
https://forum.openlabs.cc/t/fosscamp-2017-syros-greece/459/12
As some of the participants are employees of the organization and it appears they have made a profit from the event, it may be paid work, violating point 5.
There also appears to be a serious conflict of interest when people make funding requests for money to go to their own employer. The Wikimedia example Grant Agreement appears to require applicants to notify if there is a conflict of interest: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Example_agreement
For clarification, the event did actually take place, some of the participants were definite volunteers and real contributions were made at the event. There are genuine volunteer contributors in the Open Labs community who are not part of these issues.
I would kindly request that you share any information about these matters with the Debian auditor team (on CC)
In the forum discussion, there are requests for a financial statement about the event: would somebody from Wikimedia post a comment in the discussion asking for them to publish a financial report? They said they won't publish it unless you ask them too. It would be very interesting to see what they include in the financial report before making them aware of any of the other matters in this email.
Regards,
Daniel

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

EPO Staff Representatives Confront the President Who Says 'F--king' in Front of Female Workers Over Measurable Discrimination Against Female Colleagues
Central Staff Committee versus Lukashenko's sponsor
IBM Layoffs in 'RTO' Clothing Reported by Thomas Claburn
This "hey hi" (AI) nonsense is just a go-to excuse that IBM and GAFAM (and many others) use
Still Waiting for the EU to Abolish the Illegal and Unconstitutional Court Linked to EPO Corruption and Lobbyism by the Patent Litigation Industry
Sadly, all the blogs that used to talk about those issues have been infiltrated and then completely hijacked by the very perpetrators of the illegality
[Video] Richard Stallman Questions and Answers Session in Google's YouTube or Invidious
From last night
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles Published by Bots, Dominating Google News
So a lot of the Web is Microsoft chatbot-generated anti-Linux FUD
 
Gemini Links 13/02/2025: gwit and Restart
Links for the day
Links 13/02/2025: Algorithm Bots and 'Teleport' Breakthrough
Links for the day
Social Engineering of the Free Software Movement is a Corporate Takeover With Code of Conduct (CoC) to Drive Out or Expel Dissent
Richard Stallman (RMS) covered "cancel culture"
Links 13/02/2025: Mass Layoffs at Google (Disguised as "Buyouts"), Telecoms Price Hikes as Collusion/Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/02/2025: Broken Watches and Naming Types
Links for the day
Corrupt Bill Gates Worming His Way Into Richard Stallman Videos in Google's YouTube
Reputation laundering riding other people's names?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 12, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Links 12/02/2025: Crytek Layoffs, Security Holes, and Giving Ukraine to Russia
Links for the day
Relaying GAFAM Talking Points and Lies Using GAFAM LLMs, or Slop Pasted in by Brittany Day
linuxsecurity.com is relaying slop, i.e. misinformation
Photos From This Evening's Talk by Dr. Richard Stallman in Torino, Maybe a Video Soon
The talk that Dr. Richard Stallman gave today (a few hours ago) was recorded and streamed
IlSoftware.it Covers Richard Stallman's Visit to Give Talks in Italy
The publication is in Italian, the talk was in English
Macho Patent Office
At the EPO there's always room for women in top roles
Gemini Links 12/02/2025: "Bream Gives Me Hiccups", Making Chinese Tea, and More
Links for the day
This is Why Codeberg Issues an Apology Today
This response was clear and relatively swift
The Register Studies (to Affirm) Reports of IBM Layoffs "at the Finance and Operations business unit"
something about that specific unit
Links 12/02/2025: SSL FUD, DEI Phase-out, Felonies Committed by MElon (Data Breaches)
Links for the day
Italian Media Covers Richard Stallman's English Talk Ahead of Tonight's Public Appearance
article in La Stampa
Destruction and Distortion of Information, Including Facts About Linux (Bonus: This is Destroying the Planet)
All that LLMs have going for them is hype, and moreover media that intentionally misrepresents them and their supposed capabilities
Google Seems to Have Just Killed All Instances of Invidious
YouTube is rapidly becoming just "another Neflix"
Microsoft Skype in a Freefall: About 20% Decrease in Site Traffic in 3 Months (Amid Microsoft Phasing Out Credits)
Microsoft axing more services/features may mean that now they scrape the bottom of the barrel and Skype will simply die, discontinuing service (like ICQ) in a matter of years
Gemini Links 12/02/2025: Depression, Gabbro, WikiTok, and More
Links for the day
Links 12/02/2025: Health, Security, and Monopolies
Links for the day
Gemini Protocol is Increasingly Important to the Net
Gemini Protocol will turn 6 this summer
Former EPO Manager Warns That the Illegal 'Court' for "Unitary Patents" Enables “Law Shopping”
Daniel X. Thomas opposed the very existence of the UPC, which any honest person could recognise was both illegal and unconstitutional
Like GAFAM, the EPO is Passing the Financial Pains to Staff
the EPO is operating illegally at this point
Morale at Microsoft Ruined by the Company Labelling Thousands of Workers 'Low Performers', Sacking Them on the Spot and Denying Them Basic Benefits
people laid off as "low performers" go to social control media to bemoan the label
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Links 11/02/2025: Current state of the Internet and Smallnet Information Services (SIS)
Links for the day
Conservative Estimate: Over 10,000 IBM Workers to Be Laid Off in the Next Two Waves
The morale is low and layoffs are expected soon, with mass layoffs likely happening next month and then again later
Links 11/02/2025: Trade Wars and "Crisis for American Universities"
Links for the day
Parasitic LLM Slop Sites Destroy the Ability to Find "Linux" News in Google News
Remember that Google News laid off lots of its workers
Richard Stallman's English Talk in Italy Less Than 24 Hours Away (Torino) and Then Another Talk in Italy Scheduled (University of Bozen-Bolzano)
He's active and he travels a lot in spite of his medical condition
IBM Layoff Rumours, Large-Scale Implementations Weeks Ahead (in March 2025)
There are some people corroborating
Links 11/02/2025: Nutritional Poverty, Closure of USAID, More Fictional 'Valuations' Around Buzzwords
Links for the day
Perl Programming Leftovers
recently in perl.org
Microsoft in Africa: From 98% to Less Than 10% in Just 16 Years
Microsoft being on less than 1 in 10 Web-connected devices in Africa is a very big deal
Almost as If MElon Reads Techrights
The joke we started appears to be spreading
Microsoft Blasted for Adding Insult to Injury: Workers Laid Off Without Prior Notice, Without Severance Payment and Basic Coverage (Like Health), Then Stigmatised as Bad Performers So They Cannot Find a Job Elsewhere
Such stereotypes end entire careers
Gemini Links 11/02/2025: NeoVim and Deploying Other People's Code
Links for the day
BetaNews is Still Publishing LLM Slop/SPAM About "Linux"
Assuming it is indeed LLM slop, it seems clear BetaNews has no intention of improving or is simply unable/unwilling to improve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 10, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, February 10, 2025