<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Barry Newstead</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bnewstead@wikimedia.org">bnewstead@wikimedia.org</a>></span><br>
Date: Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 8:08 AM<br>Subject: [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcement: Hiring of Asaf Bartov and Moushira Elamrawy contract extension<br>To: Announce Mailing List <<a href="mailto:WikimediaAnnounce-l@lists.wikimedia.org">WikimediaAnnounce-l@lists.wikimedia.org</a>><br>
<br><br>I am very pleased to announce that Asaf Bartov has agreed to join the<br>
Wikimedia Foundation as Head of Global South Relationships (pending the<br>
completion of the U.S. visa application process) and Moushira Elamrawy<br>
has agreed to a contract extension to serve as Chapter Relations<br>
Manager. These positions are both part of the Global Development team<br>
and seek to enhance WMF's relationships with and support of chapters and<br>
other groups/individuals in the movement.<br>
<br>
We expect Asaf to join WMF in March 2011 and the position will be based<br>
in San Francisco. Asaf is a long-time Wikipedian and Wikimedian. He<br>
began editing Wikipedia in 2001, his home project is the Hebrew<br>
Wikipedia. His first contribution to Hebrew Wikipedia was to initiate<br>
the article on Homer (not the four-fingered guy from Springfield) in<br>
2003. He has been a member of Wikimedia Israel since 2008, and served as<br>
board member and international liaison. Asaf has been making his living<br>
in software, but has always cultivated a wide range of interests in the<br>
humanities -- studying literature and classics, and then teaching<br>
ancient Greek and Latin at Tel Aviv University -- as well as voluntary<br>
activities in the open source and open content worlds. He is the<br>
founding editor of Project Ben-Yehuda, a free 100% volunteer-run<br>
repository of public-domain Hebrew texts. He is also active in<br>
transforming library technology to 21st-century open standards, having<br>
served as consultant at the National Library of Israel, and an invited<br>
expert at the W3C's Library Linked Data Incubator Group (LLD XG).<br>
<br>
Asaf's primary role will be to support the growth of the Wikimedia<br>
movement in the Global South with a specific focus on working with<br>
chapters, groups who seek to become chapters and mission-aligned<br>
groups/individuals. He will play an advisory role to support these<br>
groups to advance their work in support of the movement. He will manage<br>
WMF's grants program (globally) with the aim of providing funding for<br>
strategy-aligned initiatives with a strong focus on innovation. Asaf<br>
will work with groups to design effective grants and help create model<br>
grants that groups can readily adapt to their local needs. Finally, Asaf<br>
will help improve our knowledge repository of program and grant<br>
experiences with a priority to create systematic means for evaluating<br>
and learning from each program.<br>
<br>
I would also like to announce that WMF has extended the contract of<br>
Moushira Elamrawy, who was serving as Global Campaigns Manager during<br>
the 2010/11 fundraiser, to serve in a Chapter Relations capacity. She<br>
will continue to be based in Alexandria, Egypt. Moushira was introduced<br>
to Wikimedia in April 2007 during filming the footage of "Truth in<br>
Numbers" in Alexandria, Egypt: a few weeks later she was appointed from<br>
Bibliotheca Alexandrina to become the main organizer from the library's<br>
side for Wikimania 2008. Her responsibilities started along with the<br>
bidding process and extended until after the conference was over to<br>
include co-organizing Wikipedia editing sessions, Arabic Wikipedia Day,<br>
and an "Introduction to Free Open Source OS" sessions series. She<br>
continues to help with new initiatives and offline activities concerning<br>
Arabic Wikipedia, including ongoing efforts for creating an Arabic<br>
Wikipedia signpost, organizing events that help attract new users such<br>
as editing and licensee sessions. She recently initiated a cross<br>
collaboration among Arabic users across north Africa, in order to create<br>
a base of user groups across this region. Last fall, Moushira was<br>
engaged by WMF's community department to focus on liaising between the<br>
chapters and WMF during the 2010 fundraising campaign. Moushira has<br>
previously worked for sustainable development projects in desert areas<br>
of Egypt and Morocco focusing on ecological building approaches. She is<br>
a Greenpeace volunteer and retired vegan.<br>
Moushira's role will be to support WMF and chapters in living up to our<br>
responsibilities to each other and to the movement, particularly with<br>
regard to smoothing and systematizing communications mechanisms with the<br>
goal of increased transparency and openness. She will help establish<br>
processes that enable us to meet our commitments to each other and the<br>
movement. She will facilitate the completion of requirements under our<br>
fundraising and chapter agreements relating to revenue sharing,<br>
reporting and accountability. She will support us monitoring progress<br>
against these commitments, designing systems for tracking and creating<br>
simple ways to work together in a manner that achieves mutual<br>
accountability, while keeping the burden on volunteer board members and<br>
other chapter members to a minimum. Moushira will also serve as WMF's<br>
process manager over the next year for key activities such as the<br>
signing of chapter agreements and fundraising agreements, compliance<br>
with agreement requirements and more systematic capture of reports<br>
to/from chapters. Please note that WMF doesn’t intend this role to be an<br>
oversight function nor do we expect that it’s our role to remind<br>
chapters of their responsibilities: the role is to both help WMF fulfill<br>
our responsibilities and to help us all improve our processes. This is a<br>
big challenge and she will work collaboratively with chapters to achieve<br>
it.<br>
<br>
I am thrilled to add Asaf and Moushira to the WMF Global Development team.<br>
<br>
We will jointly host an IRC at the following times to address any<br>
questions or comments that you might have about these roles.<br>
1. Friday, February 11 at 1500 UTC<br>
2. Friday, February 11 at 2200 UTC<br>
<br>
<br>
________________<br>
<br>
FAQ<br>
<br>
How did we source candidates for these roles?<br>
<br>
The Chapter Development Director position was publicly posted in August<br>
2010, and we interviewed a number of candidates. We had some strong and<br>
interesting candidates, but we did not find anyone who could fulfill the<br>
role as we had initially designed it. Asaf Bartov applied for the<br>
Chapter Development Director and was interviewed by a panel of<br>
interviewers. Moushira Elamrawy did not apply for the position, however<br>
she was fulfilling some functions in the Global Campaigns role that we<br>
saw as needed in our Chapter Development work (items that were listed in<br>
the original job description).<br>
<br>
As such, we decided that the best course of action was to split the<br>
initial role into two that would meet our needs and not require a reset<br>
of the entire process. We did a review of the prior candidates to see if<br>
any would be a good alternative to Asaf and Moushira and concluded that<br>
we were comfortable with them as our selection. Please note that<br>
Moushira’s role is temporary: that’s because the relationship between<br>
the Wikimedia Foundation and the chapters is actively evolving, and so<br>
we think this role may change significantly over time.<br>
<br>
How does the appointment of these two roles change the relationship<br>
between WMF and chapters?<br>
<br>
Our hope is that these engagements will improve our relationship by<br>
providing dedicated resources to our chapter interactions. This will<br>
allow WMF to be more responsive and will provide resources to invest<br>
time in creating new solutions to problems that we have dealt with in<br>
the past, but haven't solved effectively.<br>
<br>
We also hope that Moushira and Asaf will help to enhance the<br>
effectiveness of chapters by serving as advisors on program work,<br>
helping to make connections between program work in different places and<br>
by creating systems that ease the administrative burden on volunteers,<br>
freeing you to focus more time on program activities.<br>
<br>
These engagements do not change the formal relationships between WMF and<br>
chapters. We both will continue to be independently responsible for<br>
meeting our commitments and for solving problems that arise in a timely<br>
and collaborative manner.<br>
<br>
Why is Asaf's position focused on the Global South vs. all chapters?<br>
<br>
We do not have sufficient resources available to expend our resources<br>
equally in all areas and still achieve impact and so we need to<br>
prioritize. The movement priorities set out during the strategy process<br>
set clear targets for our growth in the Global South and we are aligning<br>
our resources to this priority. We will continue to support grants<br>
across the globe and will engage with all chapters, but Asaf's first<br>
responsibility will be to the work focused on the Global South.<br>
<br>
What does WMF plan to do with other groups/individuals in the movement?<br>
<br>
We continue to believe in the principle of a decentralized movement and<br>
the importance of supporting good efforts by volunteers regardless of<br>
organizational affiliation. While we expect chapters to play a strong<br>
role in designing and running programs as well as funding<br>
groups/individuals within their geographies to do such work, we also<br>
want to keep the door open for groups or individuals who want to conduct<br>
program work that supports the movement priorities outside of a chapter<br>
structure. In recent months, this has included, for example, funding for<br>
the Wikipedia in Schools program in Kenya and support for GLAM work by a<br>
US-based volunteer, Aude.<br>
<br>
Does the appointment of Asaf change WMF's view of grant-making?<br>
<br>
We see grant-making as an important process for supporting chapters and<br>
other groups/individuals to achieve movement priorities. The appointment<br>
of Asaf provides us with an opportunity to expand grant-making and make<br>
it more systematic. We believe that many chapters will not be in a<br>
position to generate sustainable funding locally to fund the full array<br>
of programs that may be needed to achieve our goals. Grant-making is an<br>
effective way to fill that gap.<br>
<br>
We would like to see our grant-making work evolve to include much more<br>
community participation in helping chapters and other groups/individuals<br>
design good programs, in helping WMF make good decisions and in<br>
evaluating and capturing the learning from grants after they are<br>
implemented. This will be a core initiative for Asaf in his first year.<br>
<br>
I’ve got other questions that aren’t answered here.<br>
Barry, Asaf and Moushira will host an IRC at the following times to talk<br>
through the roles in more detail.<br>
1. Friday, February 11 at 1500 UTC<br>
2. Friday, February 11 at 2200 UTC<br>
<br>
--<br>
Barry Newstead<br>
Chief Global Development Officer<br>
Wikimedia Foundation<br>
Tel: +1-415-839-6885 x. 6634<br>
Skype: barry.wikimedia<br>
Twitter: @bazanews<br>
<br>
<br>
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