Dear Wiki Community,
It is with great pleasure that we - the Wikimania Steering Committee[1] - announce that
Wikimania will be hosted virtually from August 13-17th, 2021 [2] and that the Core
Organizing Team (COT) has been selected and fully onboarded. Since 2021 marks the 20th
anniversary of Wikipedia, Wikimania 2021's theme is 20 years of Wikipedia and all the
humans that make it possible. We'll look back at our history and celebrate our
future.
We thank everyone who applied to the call for volunteers [3] - it was a tough selection
process given the impressive number of strong applicants we received. However, The
Wikimania Steering Committee is pleased to announce that after due deliberation and
assessment, we selected a total of 9 individuals from our broad community who will lead
the way in organizing the first ever virtual Wikimania.
The official Core Organizing Team members are the following:
Vanj Padilla
Anna Torres (Anna Torres (WMAR)
Susanna Mkrtchyan (WikiTatik)
Winnie Kabintie
Lea Lacroix (WMDE)
Yamen Bousrih (Yamen)
Gnangarra
Bodhisattwa
Lodewijk (Effeietsanders)
We trust that each COT member has the skills, dedication and willingness to come together
and bring to life our very first virtual edition of Wikimania and to help create the
necessary spaces for our community to continue to thrive and work together. We had
originally foreseen the need for 4-6 individuals to form the COT but after such strong
applications, we decided to extend that number to 9 individuals, given the great team that
we identified could work together and flourish.
We invite you all to participate in Wikimania 2021 and to contribute to its content and
success. The COT will be reaching out to some applicants who marked their availability to
be volunteers in their application, but we also encourage you to let us know if you would
like to be considered for volunteer roles and opportunities for Wikimania 2021.
With this said, as the functioning Wikimania Steering Committee, we would like to make
public our endorsement of the Core Organizing Team and our trust that they will move
forward with the great responsibility and excitement of bringing to life Wikimania 2021.
The COT will soon be announcing more information around Wikimania 2021 and how you can get
involved - so please stay tuned. Please save the dates in your calendars, we hope to see
you there!
Sincerely,
The Wikimania Steering Committee
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_Committee
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_Committee>
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2021
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2021>
[3]
https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2021:Call_for_volunteers
<https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2021:Call_for_volunteers>