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Passing along for your information. This release is posted on the
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<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Frank_Schulenburg_named_executive_director_of_new_WEF"
target="_blank">https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Frank_Schulenburg_named_executive_director_of_new_WEF</a><br>
<br>
An accompanying Q&A can also be found here:<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/QA_Frank_Schulenburg_announcement_February_2014"
target="_blank">https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/QA_Frank_Schulenburg_announcement_February_2014</a><br>
<br>
---<br>
<br>
Frank Schulenburg named executive director of new Wiki
Education Foundation<br>
<br>
(San Francisco, California) 12 February 2014 -- The Wiki
Education<br>
Foundation, a new nonprofit organization that supports the
Wikipedia<br>
Education Program in the United States and Canada, has named
Frank<br>
Schulenburg as its inaugural executive director. Schulenburg,
formerly<br>
senior director of programs at the Wikimedia Foundation, will
begin<br>
his new role February 18, 2014.<br>
<br>
"I look forward to leading the Wiki Education Foundation,"
said<br>
Schulenburg. "We are off to a great start, and will build on
the<br>
strong success of the Wikimedia Foundation's Wikipedia
Education<br>
Program to further engage educators, researchers and students
to<br>
provide more high-quality content for Wikipedia's readers."<br>
<br>
Started by the Wikimedia Foundation in 2010, the Wikipedia
Education<br>
Program encourages students to contribute content to Wikipedia<br>
articles on course-related subjects as part of classroom
assignments<br>
developed by their faculty and instructors. Over the past four
years,<br>
more than 6,000 students in the United States and Canada have<br>
contributed content to Wikipedia as part of the Wikipedia
Education<br>
Program, adding the equivalent of 36,600 printed pages of
content to<br>
Wikipedia and significantly increasing the amount of
high-quality<br>
content that Wikipedia offers its half-billion readers.<br>
<br>
In response to that success and to give the program more
focused and<br>
specialized support, in 2012 the Wikimedia Foundation began a
process<br>
to spin off the United States and Canada work into its own,<br>
independent nonprofit organization. The resulting Wiki
Education<br>
Foundation was created in late 2013, and Schulenburg will be
its first<br>
executive director. The Wiki Education Foundation will
continue to<br>
support the Wikipedia Education Program in the United States
and<br>
Canada, and will develop additional programs to promote
academic<br>
research and teaching that engage with Wikipedia.<br>
<br>
"I am delighted that Frank has agreed to lead the Wiki
Education<br>
Foundation as executive director," said Dr. Diana Strassmann,
Carolyn<br>
and Fred McManis Distinguished Professor in the Practice at
Rice<br>
University and chair of the board of the Wiki Education
Foundation,<br>
who began using Wikipedia as a teaching tool in her classes in
2007.<br>
"Under Frank's leadership, the Wiki Education Foundation will
continue<br>
to expand engagement among educators, students, and Wikipedia,
and<br>
will continue to diversify the community of Wikipedians, while<br>
improving the quality and depth of Wikipedia."<br>
<br>
"Frank is the perfect person to lead the Wiki Education
Foundation,"<br>
said Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner.
"Frank's a<br>
very experienced Wikipedia contributor with a long track
record of<br>
inventing and leading successful programs that make Wikipedia
better<br>
and more useful for its readers. I am sorry we will lose him
from the<br>
Wikimedia Foundation, but I look forward to seeing the Wiki
Education<br>
Foundation thrive and succeed under his leadership."<br>
<br>
A longtime Wikipedian and an employee of the Wikimedia
Foundation<br>
since 2008, Schulenburg has focused on broadening
participation and<br>
developing the public understanding of Wikipedia, especially
among<br>
subject matter experts. He has spoken globally about efforts
to<br>
increase the relevance of Wikipedia in academia. In 2006, he
founded<br>
Wikipedia Academy, an event aimed at cultivating dialogue
between<br>
Wikipedia contributors and academics. In 2009, he initiated
the<br>
Bookshelf Project, which created the first educational
materials for<br>
new Wikipedia contributors. In 2010 he designed and
implemented the<br>
Wikipedia Education Program. From 2012 on he was a member of
the<br>
executive management team of the Wikimedia Foundation,
overseeing the<br>
Wikipedia Education Program, Wikipedia Zero, and a new
initiative to<br>
evaluate the impact of programmatic activities across
countries.<br>
Schulenburg has been involved with Wikipedia since 2005, both
as an<br>
author and as a photographer.<br>
<br>
The Wiki Education Foundation board conducted an extensive
search for<br>
an executive director before selecting Schulenburg. The board
includes<br>
educators from a variety of backgrounds, Wikipedia volunteers,
and<br>
other key stakeholders. The Wiki Education Foundation is
currently<br>
supporting university instructors in the United States and
Canada.<br>
Interested instructors are encouraged to send an email to<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:contact@wikiedfoundation.org">contact@wikiedfoundation.org</a>.<br>
<br>
<br>
About the Wiki Education Foundation<br>
<br>
The Wiki Education Foundation supports innovative uses of
Wikipedia<br>
and related projects in communities of teaching, learning, and
inquiry<br>
in the United States and Canada. The Foundation aims to
improve the<br>
breadth, scope, and quality of Wikimedia content; enhance
student<br>
information fluency; and increase the number and diversity of<br>
contributors to the free knowledge movement by engaging
educators,<br>
researchers, and students. The Wiki Education Foundation has
applied<br>
for 501(c)(3) charity status.<br>
<br>
About the Wikipedia Education Program<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://education.wikimedia.org" target="_blank">http://education.wikimedia.org</a><br>
<br>
The Wikipedia Education Program means the end of throwaway
assignments<br>
and the beginning of real-world impact for students. The
premise is<br>
simple: Instructors assign their students to contribute to
Wikipedia<br>
as part of their coursework. The Wikipedia Education Program
is a<br>
global initiative, with activities in more than 60 countries.
The<br>
Wikimedia Foundation launched the Wikipedia Education Program
in 2011<br>
after a successful pilot. It supports the program with
brochures,<br>
online trainings, a MediaWiki extension enabling educators to
track<br>
student work, and other resources.<br>
<br>
About the Wikimedia Foundation<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://wikimediafoundation.org" target="_blank">http://wikimediafoundation.org</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://blog.wikimedia.org"
target="_blank">http://blog.wikimedia.org</a><br>
<br>
The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that
operates<br>
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media
Metrix,<br>
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia
Foundation<br>
receive more than 490 million unique visitors per month,
making them<br>
the fifth-most popular web property worldwide (comScore,
December<br>
2013). Available in 287 languages, Wikipedia contains more
than 30<br>
million articles contributed by a global volunteer community
of<br>
roughly 80,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the<br>
Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is
funded<br>
primarily through donations and grants.<br>
<br>
<br>
Contact for press inquiries<br>
<br>
Frank Schulenburg, Wiki Education Foundation<br>
<br>
+1 (415) 517 0453<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:frank@wikiedfoundation.org">frank@wikiedfoundation.org</a><br>
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