Hi folks,
I am happy to announce that I will be joining the Wikimedia Foundation's
Communications team as Movement Communications Manager for a period of six months.
I have really enjoyed my work as product manager at WMF in the past 3 years, leading the
development of new tools like Notifications, Thanks, Beta Features, Media Viewer and other
multimedia products [1].
One of the lessons I learned during that time is that 'better communications' are
really important to make our movement more effective. I also think that growing a
'culture of kindness' is key if we want to engage a broader community [2]. I hope
to support both of these goals in my new role.
Starting this week, I will be working with the communications team on the Wikimedia blog
and general WMF/movement communications. My focus for the blog will include improving
contributor workflow for community members and WMF staff, and providing editorial guidance
for contributors. I will also act as the main contact point for authors submitting new
blog posts, and shepherd the publication process. Within movement communications, I will
work to improve the availability, distribution, and timeliness of communications from the
WMF to the broader community. I will also manage a range of movement communications tasks
previously handled by Tilman Bayer, who is transitioning to the WMF Product team as Senior
Analyst.
Going forward, senior engineer Gilles Dubuc will lead the multimedia team and take on some
of my responsibilities as product owner, until a new product manager is assigned to that
team. Please contact him directly with any questions related to our multimedia work.
I’d like to thank all my colleagues on the multimedia and product teams -- as well as our
many community champions -- for being such wonderful collaborators over the past few
years. I am proud of what we accomplished together, and I hope that the features we
created can help many more people share knowledge productively in years to come. Special
thanks to Erik Moeller for his thoughtful guidance throughout the past three years -- and
for making this transition possible.
I'm delighted to take on this new assignment, and look forward to more collaborations
with you all in the coming year.
Onward!
Fabrice Florin
Movement Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
[1] Fabrice's user page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF)
[2] 'A Culture of Kindness' blog post:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/12/23/a-culture-of-kindness/