Subject line: Affiliations Committee 2020 Mid-Term Election results
Dear everyone,
We are happy to share that Başak Tosun, Bunty Avieson, Jeffery Keefer,
Ravan Al-Taie, and Suyash Dwivedi are new members who have been appointed
to the Affiliations Committee, while Camelia Boban has been re-appointed.
Here are Başak Tosun, Bunty Avieson, Jeffery Keefer, Ravan Al-Taie, and
Suyash Dwivedi, in their own words:
1.
Başak Tosun:
I have been a contributor to Wikimedia projects since 2005. I mainly
contribute to Turkish Wikipedia. For a long time, I was only an online
contributor; I discovered that contributions to free knowledge could go
beyond editing after I joined an international WikiCamp in 2015. Then I
contacted fellow wikipedians to form a user group in Turkey and became one
of the founder members of Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey. I took the
responsibility of Wikipedia Education Programs in the group and organised
Education Programs in several courses at 8 different universities.
Additionally, I take part in organising edit-a-thons, partnership search,
organising local contests.
1.
Bunty Avieson:
I am a media academic at University of Sydney and a member of Wikimedia
Australia. I learned to edit at an Art & Feminism event in March 2017 and
immediately followed up with an online course. I have since hosted
edit-a-thons in Sydney and Bhutan, but my interest goes beyond editing to
the larger goals of the Wikimedia movement, particularly around knowledge
equity and diversity. I’m currently leading two research projects to build
smaller language Wikipedias. One is a collaboration with Tata Institute of
Social Sciences in Mumbai to train two groups of retired Tamils, in both
Sydney and Mumbai, to edit Tamil Wikipedia. The other is a three-year
project funded by the Australian Research Council, to train Bhutanese to
publish on both English Wikipedia and also develop their Dzongkha site. I'm
an active member of Women Write Wiki and Women In Red.
1.
Jeffery Keefer:
I serve as a Wikimedian in Residence for the Patient-Centered Outcomes
Research Institute (PCORI). I started editing Wikipedia three years ago
while attending an open education conference in London where I went to a
workshop and was challenged to learn to try editing Wikipedia. Between then
and now Wikimedia has become my online home, where I edit and teach
students how to use our Wikimedia projects, am active across all three
types of Affiliates, and was one of the writers of the Movement Strategy
Recommendations. I have a PhD in educational research. I am or have been
involved in a number of Wikipedia + Wikimedia projects across the Movement:
Wikimedia Movement Strategy: Integrator, Writer, and Co-Coordinator of the
Capacity Building Working Group; Election Facilitator for the
Affiliate-Selected Board Seats (ASBS) election, 2019; Member of the Board,
Wikimedia New York City; Member, Project Grants Committee; AffCom Reporting
Representative, LGBT+ User Group; Member, Editorial Board of the
WikiJournal of Humanities; Member, Wikimedians in Residence Exchange
Network; Member, Wiki Project Med Foundation Member; WikiConference
North America User Group.
1.
Ravan Al-Taie:
I am Ravan Al-Taie. I'm the founder of Iraqi Wikimedians User Group. I
am an engineer, working as a professional in the Oil industry. I started
editing Wikipedia in 2008, edited Arabic wikipedia and became an admin in
2013 for more than 6 years. In 2015, My mother language is Arabic, but I
speak Kurdish language fluently as well, that's why I helped in Kurdish
Wikipedia and currently helping other colleagues to correctly start Kurdish
Wikipidian user group as per the foundation process because I strongly
believe the more diverse we are the best to be in representing the global
knowledge heritage. I've led several offline activities such as organizing
WLM for 3 years in Iraq, as well as starting the first editathon and
learning workshop in all Iraq with great success. After that, I've focused
on bringing more women to the movement in order to decrease the big gender
gap that we have in Arabic Wikipedia.
1.
Suyash Dwivedi:
I have done my graduation in Electronics Engineering and have been a
Wikimedian since 2013. Mostly I edit on Commons, Hindi, English, Wikidata,
GLAM, Wikivoyage and sometimes on other Wikipedia projects. I have
organized many outreach activities, including conferences and edit-a-thons.
I am the founder member of Hindi Wikimedians User Group. Apart from Hindi,
I also contribute to English Sanskrit, Marathi, and Punjabi language
Wikimedia projects. I was the Lead Organizer of Wiki Loves Monuments 2017
in India, hosted Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy Salon in Bhopal,
organized Wikipedia Asian Month for Hindi and Sanskrit languages in
2016-2017-2018 and 2019 (for Sanskrit). I have also worked on a short term
contract with the Trust and Safety team as ‘Universal Code of Conduct
Facilitator’. Currently, I am working on the Internet in a Box (IIAB)
hardware to make this device easy to install and control in public places.
I also contribute to various other projects like-Creative Commons, ‘Common
Voice’ by Mozilla. Raspberry Pi Foundation (JAM organizer), OSM, OpenCon,
and Internet Archive. I am volunteering in various UN Environment Programme
and campaigns, Google Local Guides (Level 9) and a member of the National
Ataxia Foundation.
Please join me in welcoming the newly-appointed members of AffCom.
Respectfully,
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (she/her)
Chair, Affiliations Committee