Wikipedia's Felonious Financial Functionary Back in the News

"Felon Became COO of Wikipedia Foundation" Carolyn Bothwell Doran is in the news again.

There's no evidence that she did creative bookkeeping while handling the Wikipedia Foundation's finances. That said, she's lived an interesting life. We knew about the

• DUI convictions (including one that killed somebody)
• Petty larceny
• Theft
• Passing bad checks
• Unlawfully wounding her boyfriend with a gun shot to the chest.

Now we find out that

• Her father was a CIA official (probably)
• She shot her boyfriend in 1989 - possibly because someone said he was beating her - and got probation after he asked for the case to be dropped (this might be the "illegal shooting" we read about before)
• A former roommate of Carolyn's was accused in 1995 of poisoning a man for insurance money - Carolyn helped investigators get evidence, but defense attorneys say that she did so to get a break in a credit-card forgery case that was open then
• Her husband, intelligence officer Sean Doran, drowned during their honeymoon in 1999

Quite an exciting life: a perforated boyfriend, involvement in a lethal (I assume) insurance scam, a brand-new husband who died romantically, DUIs - one of which killed some poor nobody - theft, petty larceny, and passing bad checks.

Either she's among the unluckiest people on the North American continent, or she's not the sort of person you'd want to have handling a major foundation's finances.

I don't usually go on at length like this, but I think the Wikipedia situation warrants it. I use Wikipedia regularly, particularly now that they've started encouraging their editors and contributors to say where information came from. However, I also remember when Wikipedia was a wonderfully idealistic people's encyclopedia, one that assumed that 'errors' would be corrected by the well-meaning cooperation of the readers.

I'm concerned that Wikipedia's got problems beyond growing pains and an overdue audit (see previous harangue: "Felon Balanced Wikipedia's Books"
(December 16, 2007). "Good old boys" networks were roundly disparaged, back in my college days. Today, I wonder if the Wiki people have made the transition from non-discriminatory hiring to indiscriminate hiring.

Repeating from a post of about a week ago, Doran's disappearance was noticed by a Wikipedia editor. "Pray tell, what happened to Carolyn Doran?" was the editor's question for the Foundation board. "I've asked on a number of fronts and been met with stone walls...The Chief Operating Officer of a top ten web property vanishes, with no explanation of any kind?"

Here's Wikimedia Foundation chairman, Florence Devouard's, answer: "Has it ever occurred to you that Carolyn herself may have preferred so?" Devouard wrote. "If the issue disturbs you so much, I have a suggestion. Just give Carolyn a call...she is still living in Florida. You may try to find her contact on internet, or white pages? I think that when you want to know something, the best you can do is to ask directly the person. No?"

Online text communication is always a little risky. With no tone of voice or expression to modify the words, a reader can read emotions into a message that weren't intended.

That said, I 'hear' a little condescension in Ms. Devouard's reply. I could be wrong, but sounds to me a bit too much like an executive suppressing (reasonable) concern about one of his/her buddies.

When that happens in an organization with the budget, and cultural importance, of Wikipedia and the Wikipedia Foundation, I get concerned.