Hello everybody,
Thank you Nataliia et al. for the warm welcome (and light hazing) and apologies to all for
my late response.
Years ago, a colleague from the Wikimedia Foundation staff reached out to talk about
product & technology at the organization. I still remember how eye-opening that
initial conversation was - discussing the challenges and opportunities behind Wikipedia,
one of my favorite sites that I had used for over a decade at that time, left me with
little doubt that this is a movement I would want to be part of in some capacity. I was
still at Reddit at the time, learning what it was like to shift from using and
contributing to open source software to working in a tech company built around open source
and through active, committed, and vocal communities. My experience at Reddit was one of
the most transformative periods in my career and one of the reasons that I was interested
in volunteering for this role.
I was born and grew up in Brazil, under vastly different circumstances than today. There
was a critical moment in my life when my father placed me, at 8 years old, in a BASIC
programming course which I would practice on our x286 hidden away in a laundry room. My
passion for technology started then, and has only grown since. I believe in technology as
a key path to the furthering of humanity, of knowledge, of quality of life, and of our
collective future. I also believe that this will only happen with the guidance and efforts
of active and inclusive communities that shepherd said technology to positive outcomes.
So now, years later and after my return to Latin America, there was an opportunity to join
the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. I spent the next several months in
conversations with other board members, staff, community members and friends to try and
internalize more about the challenges and opportunities ahead, and most importantly to
learn whether I could indeed make a positive contribution. I join this movement deeply
humbled and inspired by the passion of everyone I met, and with a strong drive to leverage
my experiences as a product and engineering leader to build a world where every single
human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.
In this role, I can only be my authentic self, I will strive for understanding in my
interactions with you, as well as do my absolute best to bring excellence to our product
and technology. I will always be inclusive and welcoming of our differences, and engage in
civil discourse, in service of a movement that is bigger than ourselves.
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute. I hope to connect with many of you directly
over the coming months.
Cheers,
Luis
PS: I see a separate conversation has emerged relating to blockchains and my interests in
that field. I want to clarify that I don’t work professionally in this field, and while
I’m historically an early adopter of technology - in the same way I adopted the internet
in the 90s - I share many of the same thoughts and questions about this new technology’s
future that have been raised in this thread. As a new Trustee, first and foremost, I am
here to learn and to hear more from all of you.