Dear all,
As some of you may know, I will soon be joining the Board of Trustees
(August 15), and am therefore required to resign my formal role as Chair of
the Wikipedia & Education User Group. This means a new vacancy had to be
filled in the board composition and a new Chair had to be appointed.
I'm happy to report that in an online board meeting earlier this month the
board chose *Filip Maljkovic* to serve as the new Chair of the
organization.
As for filling up vacancies -- in addition to me leaving the board, another
board member, *Ananth Subray, *has informed the board that due to other
pressing obligations he will not be able to continue his role as a board
member. Ananth has therefore resigned and will move to a position of
"Adviser to the Board". I'd like to take the opportunity to thank him for
his service to the UG's growth in the passing year.
With both me and Ananth leaving the board, 2 vacancies had to be filled.
The board of the W&E UG has always been a working board, keeping it small
but with highly involved members. In order to foster stability in the
organization and an easy as possible transition, the board has chosen to
co-opt 2 members from our UG that has always been involved and already know
the organization well - *João Alexandre Peschanski from Brazil, *who has
served as an adviser to the board since the UG's approval, throughout the
board election process and ever since; and *LiAnna Davis*, Chief Programs
Officer and Deputy Director at *Wiki Education Foundation*, *from the US*.
As some may remember, LiAnna once worked for the Education team at the WMF
and was the one to initiate the creation of the Education Collaborative,
which later evolved into our current UG. She has been involved in the
different stages of our formation and knows well many of the relevant
stakeholders.
Both LiAnna & João were natural choices and bring to the board a wealth of
experience running innovative EDUWiki initiatives. I have no doubt they
will both contribute to the continued growth of the organization, till the
next elections at the end of 2020.
*Thus, the new Wikipedia & Education User Group **board composition is: *
Filip Maljkovic - Chair
Susanna Mkrtchyan - Vice Chair
Krishna Chaitanya Velaga - Membership Admin
João Alexandre Peschanski - Secretary
LiAnna Davis - Treasurer
To summarize, I feel very blessed to be leaving an even stronger board and
look forward to seeing how this organization evolves. I'll remain involved
as an 'adviser to the board' and will continue contributing to EDUWiki
initiatives as a volunteer, educator, researcher and Open Education
advocate.
Best,
Shani Evenstein.
Hi all,
My apologies for posting this message here as I don't know of a better
place to reach out to many chapters, user groups and affiliates at
once. This message is for these groups [0] and in case their
representatives will be attending Wikimania 2019.
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One of the empowering aspects of attending Wikimania for me in the
past years has been to be able to connect to many of you in person: to
build lasting relationships, to understand the challenges that you
face in your Wikimedia related efforts, and brainstorm with you about
how/if research can help you answer some of your open questions. These
conversations have been a source of inspiration for at least a few
projects that the Research team at Wikimedia Foundation has picked up
over the past years [1]. As our team is planning for our presence in
Wikimania 2019 [2], I only hope that we can have even more of this
kind of interaction together while we're in Stockholm.
To this end and in order to make the best use of our collective time
together, I'd like to propose an experimental meet-up during this
year's Wikimania where the interested representatives of chapters,
user groups, affiliates and the members of the Research team to meet.
In order to organize this session, we need your input and I have put
together a few questions at
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe1YZmgxkJJA2lO6jl_nmOL9pwhbNu5GKV…
that I'd appreciate if you answer if you find the idea of meeting up
interesting. If you do not want to go to the link above and still want
to provide your input, please send your responses to the questions at
the end of this email to me privately.
Whether the meet-up idea ends up being a useful one for you or not
will be determined by your responses. Independent of that, I look
forward to touch-basing with many of you soon. :)
Best,
Leila
[0] From earlier conversations with chapters, user groups, and
affiliates I've got the impression that it's useful to have a
dedicated session focused on these groups and their
needs/perspectives. This being said, this is not a hard rule. :) If
you are not a representative of these groups and you'd like to attend,
you're welcome to. Please fill out the survey.
[1] https://research.wikimedia.org/projects.html
[2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T229267
----
Survey questions if you don't want to fill out the survey by going to
the link provided in this email:
Description:
[The following is a tentative description of the event and it may
change based on your responses to this survey. The agenda for the meet
up will be finalized on 2019-08-07.]
Let's use the opportunity of being in Wikimania to get together and
discuss the following and beyond:
* [10-min] An update about what the Research team at Wikimedia
Foundation has done since we met last year in Wikimania. We will
provide updates on "Addressing Knowledge Gaps" and research
contributions to "Knowledge Integrity".
* [5-min] What stopped us from doing more? What challenges did we face?
* [15-min] Let's talk longer term: what does it take to have a global
network of researchers around Wikimedia projects? Why is having such a
network important? Can we work together on this?
* [30-min or more] What are some of the most pressing needs/questions
that chapters, affiliates, and user groups face? (with an eye for
converting them to research questions.)
* ...
-------
To learn more about the Research team at Wikimedia Foundation and what
we do, please visit https://research.wikimedia.org/ .
-------
Question 1. Are you interested to attend a meet-up with Wikimedia
Foundation's Research team?
Question 2. If your answer to the above question is Yes or Maybe,
please let us know which affiliate, user group or chapter do you
represent or are a member of?
Question 3. What is a good outcome of the meet-up for you if you
choose to attend it?
Question 4. If you have specific times and days that you cannot attend
the meet-up, please indicate them below.
Question 5. Anything else you'd like to share with us and we should
take into account when planning for this event?
--
Leila Zia
Principal Research Scientist, Head of Research
Wikimedia Foundation
Dear Community Members,
I am happy to inform you that the Wikimedia Foundation has approved the Wiki Indaba 2019 scholarship recipients list. The Scholarship Review Committee has contacted scholarship recipients.
Due to the short time available to plan Wiki Indaba 2019, applicants for the scholarships are encouraged to check their email and confirm their acceptance of the scholarship within 7 days. Deadline for scholarship acceptance is August 14th, 2019.
Scholarship recipients are required to please reply with a scanned copy of their international passport data page and notify us if they need a Visa to Nigeria.
If you require further information, please contact info(a)wikimedia.org.ng.
Thank you.
Kayode YussufCommunications LeadWiki Indaba 2019 LOC
Hi everyone!
I'm very happy to announce that the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
has approved the recognition of Wikimedia Medicine [1] as a Wikimedia
thematic organisation.
Over the past several years, Wikimedia Medicine has successfully planned
and executed a significant program portfolio, attracting new contributors
and forming partnerships with both movement affiliates and external
institutional partners around the world. Wikimedia Medicine is an
ambitious, innovative, and highly effective organization that has
demonstrated a substantial record of independent programmatic impact and
continues to foster innovation and collaboration with numerous other
entities across the Wikimedia movement.
Wikimedia Medicine's efforts to deliver critical medical information to
underserved and underrepresented communities reflect the principles of
infrastructure and inclusiveness espoused in the Wikimedia movement
strategic direction, and represent a key potential area of growth for
emerging movement communities. The recognition of Wikimedia Medicine as a
Wikimedia thematic organisation reinforces the our movement’s shared
commitment to this direction, and will support Wikimedia Medicine's future
partnerships with high-profile government institutions and NGOs.
Wikimedia Medicine is our first truly global thematic organisation, and we
hope that this recognition will be the first of many as our community of
globally-focused Wikimedia user groups continues to evolve.
I want to thank everyone who has been involved with setting up the new
thematic organisation, and recognize their commitment and patience over the
past year as we've worked through the thematic organisation recognition
process. Please join me in congratulating the entire Wikimedia Medicine
team for their accomplishment!
Regards,
Kirill Lokshin
Chair, Affiliations Committee
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Project_Med
Dear all,
Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong has released the following
statement about ongoing protests carried out in Hong Kong.
****
Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong (the Hong Kong Wikimedia
Community) has released a resolution on April 16 about its stance on the
Extradition Bill [1]. However, the ongoing developing situation requires
the local community to issue the following statement. We request the global
community, particularly East Asian Wikimania Participants, to be alerted
about the ongoing development of the Hong Kong Protests against the
extradition bill.
Recent development of protests against the extradition in the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region has developed in an unintended way, where
news reports, including local and international news outlets showing the
pro-government councilors cooperating with local triads in attacking
passers-by (in Yuen Long), and protesters “battling” the force using
block-and-run tactics.
Local strikes, non-cooperation movements from protesters, and police
threats in recent days has disrupted local traffic and harmed the safety of
individuals staying in Hong Kong.
Furthermore, strikes from airport staff has led to partial closure of the
Hong Kong International Airport, where the airport only operated on a
single-runway, which had led to delays and cancellations of flights.
The Hong Kong Wikimedia Community is well aware of the associated safety
risks and risks of delays, and recommends international conference
participants not to arrange participants, and participants not to use Hong
Kong as a transit point.
At the same time, the Hong Kong Wikimedia Community has been notified from
our members that there are at least three members living within the
conflict zone. Currently, none of our members are hurt or charged with
crimes associated with the extradition bill protests.
We also hope all members of the general public, including the police,
government itself, protesters, etc. to stay calm and not to initiate
violence against their opposing parties.
[1] & Original Statement:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Hong_Kong/Re…
****
The statement is also released through Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaUGHK/posts/1282637515229584/
----------------------------
William Chan
Community Liaison, Educator
Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong
User group : meta page <http://bit.ly/WMCUGHK> | facebook
<http://fb.me/WikimediaUGHK>
Personal : linkedin <https://www.linkedin.com/in/the23333/> | telegram
<http://t.me/theonly23333>
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