Hi,
Wikimedia Polska has had its General Assembly on May 10 in Poznań, Poland.
There was 46 members present (+ 4 voting by their representatives).
The Assemble accepted financial and general report of th Board,
discussed about future plans, and elected new Board, Revision
Committee and "Internal Court".
The new Board consists of:
President of the Board: Tomasz Ganicz (Polimerek)
Vicepresident of the Board: Michał Buczyński (Aegis Maelstrom)
Treasuer: Marek Stelmasik (Masti)
Secretary: Karol Głąb (Karol007)
Małgorzata Wilk (Maire)
Maciej Król (Maikking)
Wojciech Pędzich (Wpedzich)
In fact, the Board is not so new, as there was only change of 2
members: Daniel Malecki (Leinad) moved to Revision Committee and
Natalia Szafran-Kozanecka (Magalia) resigned. They were replaced by
Małgorzata Wilk (Maire) and Wojciech Pędzich (Wpedzich).
The new Revision Committee consist of:
Juliusz Zieliński (Julo),
Agnieszka Kwiecień (Nova),
Daniel Malecki (Leinad).
The detailed report of the Assembly is available here:
https://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Walne_Zebranie_Cz%C5%82onk%C3%B3w/10_maja_2014
There is also a voice recording from the Assembly:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wikiradio/~5/s1x3BDP79XE/Walne-ZebranieWMPL-…
--
Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz
http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerekhttp://www.ganicz.pl/poli/http://www.cbmm.lodz.pl/work.php?id=29&title=tomasz-ganicz
Dear fellows,
The following message is just to keep you informed about the activities
developed in April by Amical Wikimedia.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Amical_Wikimedia/April_2014
Kind regards,
David Parreño Mont
User:Davidpar
Communications, Amical Wikimedia
----
*Source:* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Amical_Wikimedia/April_2014
GLAM-WIKI10 hours edit-a-thon for 100 design students
During April we did the central activity of the project where we are mixing
GLAM and EDU with the Design Museum of Barcelona. Around 400 students in 25
classrooms of 13 design schools are improving Wikipedia Articles. On April
25 we did a 10 hours long design editathon (organized in groups from 10 to
20 people) at the Documentation Center of the Museum. Click here[2] to see
more pics. It was the opening day of the documentation center so students
could behave as beta testers. One of the good points was doing it
graduatelly with small groups so we could help them personally and also
that they could take the books back home (15 days free-rent), so Wikipedia
articles are being improved since then. We also did a backstage pass to the
warehouse of the documentation center and a general guided tour to the
building.
Outreach
- April 3rd- Conference: *Projectes voluntaris i col·laboratius de
traducció* (Volunteer driven translation projects) at Col·legi de
Doctors i Llicenciats (url): 25 attendees - Kippelboy
- 28th January to 14th April — Il·lustraciència Award[3] from Associació
Catalana de Comunicació Científica (Catalan Asociation of Science
Comunication) give to the participants the option to accept Wikimedia
Commons upload of their artworks. Post in the blog 12th february[4].
Results: 211 artworks liberated[5] (upload soon)
- April 10th - Public presentation of Wikiproject Barcelona's popular
culture[6] (done in collaboration with Town council)
- April 25th - 10 hours design editathon at the Museu del Disseny de
Barcelona. (100 attendees)
Projects
- 1st April - Joan Brossa Foundation releases wikiquote material[7] of
the artist and help us referencing existing one.
- 28th April - "Colita: la reivindicació de la mirada"[8] conference
press pass for a Wikimedia Commons contributor. Judesba
- Ongoing project: Wikiproject Public Libraries
- Ongoing project: Wikiproject Miró
- Ongoing project: Víctor Balaguer Museum project
- Ongoing project: Music Museum in Barcelona
- Ongoing project: Museu Morera in Lleida
- Ongoing project: CCCB, Contemporary cultural center in Barcelona
- Some other smaller GLAMWIki projects
Meetings
- April 3rd - Scientific Committee meeting for organizing "Libraries and
heritage conference" at Ateneu Barcelonès in Nov 20. Kippelboy
- April 4th - GLAMwiki projects planning meeting with Museu Blau-Natural
History Museum in Barcelona. Vàngelis Villar
- April 22d - GLAMwiki projects planning meeting with National
Archaeology Museum in Tarragona- Kippelboy & Lluis_tgn
- April 22d - GLAMwiki projects planning meeting with local
*Hemerotèque*in Tarragona- Kippelboy & Lluis_tgn
- April 22d - GLAMwiki follow up meeting with Victor Balaguer Museum-
Kippelboy
- April 28th - Meeting with Lavinia Productora to talk about a project
proposal- Kippelboy
- April 29th - Follow up Meeting with Head of Catalan Public Libraries
Network- Kippelboy
- April 30th - Introduction GLAMWIKI Meeting with Sitges Museums
Director- Kippelboy
Education1s Wikipedian in Residence in a EU University.
User Jey is the brand new Wikipedian in Residence of the Open University of
Catalonia[9]. Project has been designed in phases. On this phase 1 his main
goals will be mapping the already published Open Materials in the universty
(CC-BY-SA docs, Opencoursewares,...), specially focusing on Audiovisual
materials (videos). Also mapping the teachers who are already doing
Wikipedia-related projects and trying to scale this opportunities to the
rest of the proffessors. The first phase of the residency will last from
April to July 2014.
Outreach
- April 8th - Wikipedia Editing course at La Bisbal d'Empordà Highschool
- Anskar
- April 24th - Kick of meeting for the First ever Wikipedian in
Residence in an European University[10] (UOC) - Kippelboy Jey
- April 28th - Wikipedia presentation to 35 teachers of the Barceloneta
high-school, organized by Barceloneta library - Kippelboy
- April 28th - Wikipedia presentation to 80 schoolars (9 & 10 y.o.) of
la Garriga (els Pinetons school) - Amadalvarez
- April 29th - Amical's representation at the awards ceremony of the
websalpuntcat award (Teenage Catalan language websites contest) - Kippelboy
- wikiArS
- April 1th to 30th. Exhibition wikiArS: contribució de les escoles
d'art i disseny a Viquipèdia[11] (*wikiArS: contributions from art &
design schools to Wikipedia*) in the Badalona central Library Can
Casacuberta.
- April 25th. Talk Imatges per a la Viquipèdia: l'aportació de les
escoles d'art i disseny[12] (*Images for Wikipedia: the art & design
schools contribution*) in the Badalona central Library Can
Casacuberta.
- April 29th. Exhibition of the illustration of hipotetic Augustus
sculpture by Cristina Toro next to marble toe discovered in
Tarragona roman
temple. During the talk Una estàtua d'August a Tarraco?[13] by Professor
Joaquín Ruíz de Arbulo at Nacional Arqueological Museum of Tarragona.
Projects
- Ongoing project: Wikiproject Design Museum in Barcelona (1st year: 400
students)
- Ongoing project: WikiArS
- Ongoing project: GRACMON wikiproject (2nd year: around 75 students)
- Ongoing project: ESMUC wikiproject (1st year: around 40/50 students)
- Ongoing project: Viquiclàssics Wikiproject (1st year: around 50
students)
Meetings
- April 8th - Wikipedian in Residence at Open University of Catalonia
planning meeting- Kippelboy
- April 8th - Design edit-a-thon planning meeting- Kippelboy
- April 8th - Wikipedia introduction meeting with Dr in Maths didactics
from UPC (Joan Gómez)- Kippelboy
- wikiArS
- April 10th - Meeting at Nacional Arqueological Museum of Tarragona
with Museum curators and four students from School of Art that are in
intership with Amical. See the assignments here[14]. Lluis_tgn, Dvdgmz
- April 28th - Meeting at Llotja, supervision of 10 students in
internship, with teachers Alicia Gallego and Elvira Dominguez. Dvdgmz
- April 29th - Meeting with I.Labastida from UB. Exploring options of
participation in wikiArS. Dvdgmz
Other Catalan Cultural Challenge
On april 15ht ended the first edition of multilingual Catalan Cultural
Challenge[15] on Wikipedia: *792 articles* created or expanded by
*50*volunteers in *92
languages*. It was a public writing competition around Catalan culture. The
goal of this first edition was to improve and translate this list of 50
notable people into as many languages as possible. Winners got great Prizes
and Barnstars. It run from 00:01 16 March until 23:59 15 April 2014 (CET
UTC+01:00). The contest was simple in structure, based on a KISS point
system: You get points while improving articles, with the goal for each
participant to gain as many points as possible. Our primary mission and
goal (Amical) is for the sum of all human knowledge to be available in
Catalan and for all knowledge about Catalan culture to also be available in
every language. This project has been just one of our first international
steps.
Outreach
- April 10th - Wikipedia workshop at Sabadell Astronomical Group.
Leptictidium Davidpar
- April 10-13th - Attendance to Wikimedia Conference 2013 in Berlin:
Kippelboy Arnaugir Micru and F3RaN
Meetings
- April 10th - Wikiwomen project planing meeting with Barcelona
Towncouncil Gender gap deputy and programme managers.- Kippelboy
Organization Amical is awarded with National Culture Prize
The National Council for Arts and Culture (CoNCA) decided to award one of
its ten annual prizes to Amical Wikimedia in recognition for its work of
promoting Catalan language and culture and the free knowledge. The award
ceremony will be celebrated on June 2nd with the presence of the Catalan
president, Artur Mas. The prize is supplied with 15,000 euro.
Other
- April 16th — Monthly meeting via IRC chat[16] of the Catalan Wikimedia
community.
- The Jury formed by Arnaugir, KRLS, Quimgil and MuRe decides to grant
all 7 candidates which asked for receiving a scolarship to attend Wikimania
2014 in London. The initial expected amount was €350 (for each one of the
10 available scolparships), but since fewer have been granted, the amount
has increased to €500. The grantees are the following users:
- Coentor, from València (Valencian Country)
- Lluis tgn, from Tarragona (Catalonia)
- ESM, from Mollerussa (Lleida, Catalonia)
- F3RaN, based in Berlin
- dvdgmz, from Premià de Mar (Barcelona, Catalonia)
- barcelona, from Barcelona (Catalonia)
- Davidpar, from Palafrugell (Girona, Catalonia)
- Renewed our presence in the Census of entities for the promotion of
the language[17] of the Catalan Government ("Cens d'entitats de foment de
la llengua"), which exempts donations for Amical from paying some taxes
- Finished Amical's first quarterly FDC report[18].
- Amical joins the Statement of Intent[19] proposed by the Free
Knowledge Advocacy Group EU.
Media
- April 19th: La nació de Tlön[20], Màrius Serra. La Vanguardia
- *Wikiars: joves creadores i coneixement lliure*. Judit Montenegro.
Weekly newspaper *La Directa* number 359.
- WLE coverage: Europa Press, Generalitat de Catalunya
- Coverage of WiR at the Open University of Catalonia : La Vanguardia,
Barcelona TV, UOC
- National Prize for Culture coverage: La Vanguardia, Cultura 21, El
Confidencial, VilaWeb, Europa Press, El País, El Periódico, El Punt Avui,
324.cat, Ara, Llengua catalana, Ara, *Ara* editorial.
- April 14th: Una editorial alemanya vol llançar la Viquipèdia en
paper[21], Ara
- "Dia Internacional de la Dona", *Revista de Palafrugell*, 246, p. 17,
on WikiWomen Edit-a-thon
[1]
https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquiprojecte:Museu_del_Disseny/Viquimarat%C3…
[2]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Editathon,_Museu_del_Disseny_de…
[3] http://illustraciencia.cat/en/informacio/
[4]
http://www.wikimedia.cat/2014/02/12/il%C2%B7lustraciencia-convida-als-parti…
[5] http://illustraciencia.blogspot.com.es/search/label/wikimedia
[6] https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquiprojecte:Cultura_popular_de_Barcelona
[7] https://ca.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joan_Brossa
[8]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Colita:_la_reivindicaci%C3%B3_d…
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_University_of_Catalonia
[10] https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquiprojecte:UOC
[11]
http://badabiblios.cat/exposicio-wikiars-contribucio-de-les-escoles-dart-i-…
[12]
http://badabiblios.cat/xerrada-imatges-per-a-la-viquipedia-laportancio-de-l…
[13]
http://www.wikimedia.cat/events/66/conferencia-una-estatua-daugust-a-tarrac…
[14]
https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:WikiArS_assignments_with_EADT
[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Catalan_culture_challenge
[16] https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:Reunions_per_xat
[17]
http://www20.gencat.cat/portal/site/Llengcat/menuitem.b318de7236aed0e7a129d…
|18]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round1/Amica…
[19] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Statement_of_Intent
[20] http://www.hoteldilluns.blogspot.com.es/2014/04/la-nacio-de-tlon.html
[21]
http://www.ara.cat/media/editorial-alemanya-llancar-Viquipedia-paper_0_1120…
Dear community:
Below you will find the report of activities of the month of April 2014
done by the volunteers of Wikimedia Mexico. Please don't hesitate to get in
touch with us if you require extra information about this activities or
only to make some suggestions.
The report is also available on Spanish and English in our wiki:
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Abril_2014/ (Spanish)
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Abril_2014/en (English)
Kindly regards on behalf our chapter.
Carmen Alcázar (User:Wotancito)
WMMX Secretary.
==Migrahack Mexico City==
Wikimedia Mexico was part of the initiative of running a migrahack in
Mexico City and supported the organization. The point of the event was to
gather together journalists, academics, students, NGOs and programmers to
collect and put order to disperse data about migration in Mexico and to do
some data mining to obtain new knowledge on that topics, and generate
statistics. Wikimedia Mexico, trough our volunteer and Board member Alan
Lazalde gave some talks to show the importance of free knowledge and open
access to data in order to create new knowledge based on that.
The results of the Migrahack are in the web page ot the Institute for
Justice and Journalism.
==Aldea Digital 2014==
For the second year in a row, Aldea Digital was held at Mexico City, a
digital inclusion event at the main square of Mexico City, with a very high
attendance. A strategy covering the full 17 days of the event was planned,
but a few days before the event its organizers made changes to its program
and thus only required Wikimedia Mexico's presence during only one day of
talks and a keynote by Iván Martínez.
On April 11, the Wikimedia Mexico team gave a full day of introductory 20
minutes talks of Wikipedia. According to organizers stats, about 1,300
people attended to our program of talks given by volunteers Omar Sandoval
(10 talks), Christian Cariño (5 talks), Andrés Cruz y Corro (5 talks),
Adrián Cerón (5 talks), Rodolfo Galicia (5 talks), Anny Garcia and Gustavo
Sandoval Kingwergs (5 talks). This event required a high effort on our
part, but was a very grateful experience for our chapter. In order to avoid
the fatigue of talking for several hours in a row, our volunteers took
turns giving the talks, reducing the overall tiredness and encouraging
everyone to become a better speaker for future Wikimedia Mexico events.
On April 21, Iván Martínez gave the keynote "Freedom in the Free
Encyclopedia. The Foundations of Wikipedia's Freedom". The talk, with a
duration of an hour and a half, was attended by 131 participants and was
presented as one of the main contents of the event by Aldea Digital's
organizing staff. In the same stage Steve Wozniak, Moshe Hogeg (Mobli
creator), Walter Bender (MIT researcher) and Yin Lou (Coursera) gave a
keynote each. -
// Photo: Andres Crúz y Corro during a talk in Aldea Digital:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andres_Cruz_en_Aldea_Digital.jpg
==Children's Day at Biblioteca Vasconcelos==
The Biblioteca Vasconcelos (Vasconcelos Library), venue for the next
Wikimania 2015, held an event organized on occasion of Children's Day,
celebrated annually in Mexico on April 30. The Library gave us the option
to read stories to children. However, when the Wikimedia Mexico community
realized the public was expected to be aged 3 to 10 years, we decided to
innovate and make an original story based on the core values of
Wikipedia: free knowledge, sharing, curiosity and freedom.
Our volunteer Andrés Cruz y Corro, also a NaNoWriMo participant, wrote a
story called "An adventure called knowledge". This story was told on April
27 and was very well received by the children as a way to convey the values
behind Wikipedia in a fun and different way. We encourage other Wikimedia
colleagues to use this story as a way to reach out to younger children and
instill the seed of free knowledge. A translated copy of the story to
English will be available in a few days.
// Watch the gallery in Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Children%27s_Day_at_Biblioteca_…
==Journal==
- April 1
*Second day of the Wikipedia workshop by Nohemí Chilpa at the Universidad
Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Iztapalapa (UAM-I) as part of CEUAMI's Semana
de Talleres del Capitulo de las Ciencias de la Computacion de la
UAM-Iztapalapa (Worhshop Week at the Computer Sciences Chapter of UAM)
*Meeting of Wikipedistas en Puebla with SocialTic.
- April 3
* Q & A session by Christian Cariño with Prof. Adriana Álvarez' class under
WMMX's Education Program at National Autonomous University of Mexico's
(UNAM) Philosophy and Letters Faculty within the Historical Analysis
Seminar.
// Read the full report:
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes_abril_2014_Seminario_FFyL_de_la_UNAM
- April 8
* WMMX's Participation at Universidad Tecnológica Emiliano Zapata's
Technology Fest 2014 event in Morelos State: Omar Sansi imparted a
Wikipedia workshop and Christian gave a talk about the encyclopedia.
// Read the full report:
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Abril_2014/UTEZ
- April 11
*Participation in Aldea Digital. A total of 30 Wikipedia workshops, each
for 30 people during 20 minutes, offered by Wikimedia México's (Omar
Sansi/Omar_sansi, Christian Cariño/User:Christian Cariño, Andrés
Cruz/User:Andycyca, Adrián Cerón, Rodolfo Galicia, Anny García and Gustavo
Sandoval Kingwergs/User:Correogsk) The event was organized by Telmex and
Mexico City's Government.
-April 11 to 13
*Participation of Ivan Martínez, Carmen Alcázar and Salvador Alcántar in
the Wikimedia Conference 2014, Berlin, Germany.
// Read the full report:
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Abril_2014/Wikimedia_Conference_2014
// Photo:
Representatives of the Wikimedia Iberocoop chapters at the end of the
meeting within the Wikimedia Conference 2014:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMCON2014_-_Foto_final_reuni%C3%B3n…
-April 16
*Meeting of José Flores with Alejandro Alonso for the implementation of
WMMX's Education Program at Instituto Nacional de Ecología, Xalapa,
Veracruz.
-April 19
*Meeting of Wikipedistas en Puebla for define the Annual Plan to share
photos in Wikimedia Commons from Fototeca Lorenzo Becerril, Puebla.
-April 20
*Master keynote by Iván Martínez in the main stage of Aldea Digital 2014.
Zócalo, Ciudad de México.
-April 21
*Meeting of Jorge Luis Esquivel Zubiri with the Foreign Affairs office of
Gobierno del Distrito Federal for Wikimania 2015.
*Wikipedistas en Puebla meeting. Planning for "Puebla 100" project.
-April 22
*Q & A session by ProtoplasmaKid with Prof. Adriana Álvarez' class under
WMMX's Education Program at National Autonomous University of Mexico's
(UNAM) Faculty of Philosophy and Literature within the Historical Analysis
Seminar.
- April 21 to 24
*Meetings for Wikimania 2015 with Hoteliers Association of Mexico City and
Majory of the City staff.
-April 24
* Iván Martínez was interviewed by Leopoldo Gómez Ramírez in the program
"So Close, So Far: A Voice of Mexico in the United States of North
America", a bilingual radio program (Spanish and English) transmitted by
91.1FM of Amherst, radio station from the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst.
* Gustavo Sandoval Kingwergs, in substitution of Iván Martínez, gave the
talk "How to collaborate in Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects?" within
FLISoL Aragón 2014 (Department of Physics-Mathematics and Engineering, FES
Aragón, UNAM).
-April 25
*Participation of Christian Cariño in FLISoL Acatlán, with the talk
"Wikipedia México"
*Participation of Iván Martínez in FLISoL of the Universidad Autónoma
Metropolitana campus Azcapotzalco with the talk "Lo libre en Wikipedia".
Mexico City, Mexico,
-April 26
*Wikipedia Monthly workshop at TelmexHub, offered mainly by Andrés Cruz y
Corro (second level) and Carmen Alcázar (beginners), with additional
contributions by Iván Martínez, Omar Sansi and Gustavo Sandoval Kingwergs.
-April 27
*Children's Day activity at Biblioteca Vasconcelos with the story "An
adventure called Knowledge" written by Andrés Cruz y Corro and read by
Wikimedia Mexico's volunteers Iván Martínez (4) Carmen Alcázar (2) and Omar
Sandoval (1)
The Wiki Education Foundation's monthly report for March 2014 is now
available on Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_Education_Foundation_-_Monthly…
And a wiki version is on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Education_Foundation/Monthly_Reports/2…
The March report contains:
* Information on the $1.39 million grant the Wiki Education Foundation
received from the Stanton Foundation.
* An update on student progress this term.
* Information about the Wiki Education Foundation's participation in the
Education Cooperative kick-off meeting.
I welcome any suggestions for what would make this report more useful in
the future.
LiAnna
--
LiAnna Davis
Head of Communications and External Relations
Wiki Education Foundation
(This press release is also posted on the WMF wiki at
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/WMF_announces_new_ED_Li…)
Wikimedia Foundation names Lila Tretikov as its new Executive Director
(San Francisco, CA) May 1, 2014 -- The Board of Trustees of the
Wikimedia Foundation today announced the appointment of the
Foundation's new Executive Director, Lila Tretikov. The Executive
Director is the chief executive officer for the non-profit Wikimedia
Foundation, the organization that operates Wikipedia, and is
responsible for setting strategy and managing operations. It is a
central position in a complex global volunteer-driven movement, which
is building the largest collection of shared knowledge in human
history, used by over a half-billion people around the world.
Lila Tretikov is a respected leader in open source technology. She is
known for her intellectual curiosity, highly collaborative style, and
deep passion for her work. She served most recently as Chief Product
Officer at SugarCRM in Cupertino, California.
"As growing numbers of people around the world rely on Wikipedia and
our sister projects for free information, our movement will be
strengthened by the leadership of Lila Tretikov," said Wikimedia
Foundation Board Chair Jan-Bart de Vreede. "She is an exceptional
leader with a passion for knowledge, a deep technical and product
background, and highly collaborative approach. We are all very excited
to have brought her on-board. "
"When I got the news, I thought, 'This is big in every way: A big
website -- the fifth most popular in the world. A big community --
80,000 active Wikimedians from around the globe. And a big mission --
nothing less than making the sum of all human knowledge freely
available to all,'" said Lila Tretikov. "When I thought about why I
wanted to take on a challenge this big, the answer was clear: Becoming
a Wikimedian is an opportunity to be part of something bigger than
ourselves."
Lila spent most of her childhood in the Soviet Union. In 1994, she
came to the United States to study computer science and art, combining
two very different disciplines to build exceptional products for the
emerging tech industry. Prior to her work at SugarCRM, Lila worked on
open source projects at Sun Microsystems and designed software to
provide free visualization of the newly mapped Human Genome as part of
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory research. She studied at
Lomonosov Moscow State University and the University of California,
Berkeley.
"Running the Wikimedia Foundation is a unique role that requires an
unusual mix of skills and capabilities, and I think Lila has exactly
what we need," said Sue Gardner, the Wikimedia Foundation's outgoing
Executive Director. "The Wikimedia Foundation needs a leader who is
open and flexible and consultative, but who also knows when to stand
firm and be brave, particularly against efforts to censor Wikipedia or
intimidate Wikipedians. I believe Lila will be flexible where
possible, but firm when necessary."
Lila's appointment is effective June 1, 2014, at which time Sue
Gardner will become a special advisor to the Wikimedia Foundation.
"On behalf of the Wikimedia movement, I would like to sincerely thank
our outgoing Executive Director, Sue Gardner," said de Vreede. "Over
the past seven years Sue's leadership has built the Wikimedia
Foundation from a tiny non-profit into a highly-effective, purposeful,
well-funded and well-managed organization. I look forward to Sue's
ongoing counsel and support in the months and years ahead."
Official biography of Lila Tretikov found at
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Lila Tretikov
High resolution images can be found at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lila_Tretikov
About the Wikimedia Foundation
http://wikimediafoundation.orghttp://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 495 million unique visitors per month, making them
the fifth-most popular web property worldwide (comScore, March 2014).
Available in 287 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 30 million
articles contributed by a global volunteer community of roughly 80,000
people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation
is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through
donations and grants.
Contact for press inquiries:
Communications, Wikimedia Foundation
+1 415-839-6885 ext 6633
jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org
(To be unsubscribed from this press release distribution list, please
reply with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line)
Dear fellow community members,
On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am delighted to announce that the new Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation will be Lila Tretikov. Lila is a widely respected Bay Area technology leader, most recently with SugarCRM.
As many of you know, about a year ago Sue Gardner announced she planned to step down as our ED. As we launched the search for her successor, we spent some time working through the most critical requirements for the role. We decided the new ED should be someone with a product/engineering background, ideally in an open-source or other online community context. We wanted someone experienced with organisations that were growing, who'd managed staff and budgets comparable to ours, and who had experience creating continuous delivery of technology improvements in an agile context. We wanted a person who is oriented towards collaboration, transparency and openness, with some experience with complex stakeholder environments, and with an international orientation. We knew we needed someone with courage and strong personal integrity, who wouldn't be intimidated by attempts to censor the projects.
Lila is precisely what we set out to find.
Lila was born in the Soviet Union and moved to the United States alone, as a teenager. She's been working for technology companies, primarily in open source, in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. In 1999 she started her career at Sun Microsystems. Shortly afterwards she founded GrokDigital, a technology and design company. She spent three years as senior director of development at Telespree, a company that provides cloud-based wireless data services for mobile carriers. For the past eight years, she was at SugarCRM, where she held positions of increasing responsibility as the organization grew, including being in charge of internal IT, marketing, customer support and professional services, engineering, and product development. She has a stellar reputation as a leader who is highly skilled, collaborative, open, passionate and curious.
We think Lila will be a terrific fit for the ED role. The Transition Team (Phoebe, Alice, Kat, Sue, Erik, Geoff, Gayle and I) voted unanimously to recommend her to the Board, and the Board voted unanimously to accept the recommendation. She strikes all of us as smart, brave and unpretentious, and we believe she has the skills the WMF needs.
Lila is going to spend the next few weeks in learning-and-listening mode, and will take over the ED position from Sue at the end of the month. Her first priority will be to immerse herself in deepening her understanding of the Wikimedia projects.
I want to close this announcement by saying a heartfelt and deeply appreciative thanks to Sue, who has been the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation for the past seven years. When the Board and I hired Sue in 2007, we were just a chaotic little non-profit in small-town Florida, with a tiny staff and not much money. Over the past seven years, Sue's leadership has built the Foundation into an effective, well-funded and well-managed organisation, with integrity and a clear sense of purpose, and her steady and committed presence throughout the search process was integral in helping us come to this excellent result. We will be forever grateful for her leadership and vision, and I hope we can continue to rely on her support in the months and years ahead.
In June Sue will move into a new role as a special advisor to me and Lila. She'll also take a well-earned holiday, and maybe even a bit of a wiki-break, before beginning to think about what she's going to do next. Many of us will get a chance to see her in London, at Wikimania, in August.
The Wikimedia Foundation is delighted to have reached such a successful outcome to the search. My thanks to Lisa Grossman of m/Oppenheim for helping us with it, and I ask you to please join me in extending a warm welcome to Lila Tretikov, our new ED.
Jan-Bart de Vreede
Chair
Wikimedia Board of Trustees
