I hate au revoirs.
I feel like you've been around for a decade. Perhaps it's because you've bring to us a decade worth of insights, advices, experiences, etc.
I do hope we have turned you into a hardcore Wikimedian and that you won't resist the appeal to stay among us. Thank you for everything you did :)
Congrats to Luis, Siko and Asaf on the new roles. I knew Luis wasn't a true lawyer, and now we have proof of that!
All the best,
-- Christophe
On 20 February 2015 at 09:52, Dariusz Jemielniak darekj@alk.edu.pl wrote:
Dear Anasuya,
there's a lot I've learnt from you and your departure leaves me half way, with a a burning appetite for more. You've been a pillar of the grant making process, and of WMF. Please, do get better soon, and back on your dancing legs!
dj "pundit"
On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 11:20 PM, Anasuya Sengupta < asengupta@wikimedia.org> wrote:
Dear friends and colleagues, fellow adventurers on the Wikimedia journey
Goodbyes are overrated.[1] But since I’m sure this will be au revoir,
I’ll
continue: I am leaving the Foundation as head of the Grantmaking department, at the end of March. This was not an easy decision to make; this is not an easy email to write.
As some of you know, I have been battling health issues over the past few months. I’ve learnt sharp and intimate truths about myself as I’ve worked to get better, and what I’ve kept coming back to is the compassionate but fierce feminist slogan around self-care and sustainability: ‘what’s the point of the revolution if we can’t dance?’[2] To reassure you all, I
will
be well,[3] but I need a little time and space to focus on getting my dancing legs strong again.
That said, I am pleased that we have a really solid plan in place as I leave. As Lila’s email announced, Luis Villa (our current Deputy General Counsel) will be taking over the team effective immediately, and leading the organisation further in our support of Wikimedia communities
worldwide.
Luis brings with him a range of skills and qualities that I know will
stand
him, the team, and the movement in wonderful stead through it all. As a friend and colleague, I am so delighted to be supporting Luis through the next few weeks of transition.
I joined the Foundation in July 2012 to oversee and implement the FDC process. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of creating and leading a department of more than twenty remarkable and passionate people who care about our mission, our communities, and the resources needed to match the two.
We went from Asaf managing a small grants portfolio on his own, ably supported on occasion by Winifred, to a fully fledged grantmaking department with a spectrum of monetary and non-monetary resources. We
have
been able to offer these in different ways to different parts of our movement: to individual volunteers with great ideas in need of project management, to small groups experimenting with new initiatives, and to established organisations who form critical content and policy
partnerships
in their local contexts. We built an infrastructure for understanding our collective impact. We learned together about what our different
communities
are doing globally, about the successes and challenges we have, and above all: about how we can, together, create a more powerful set of outcomes
for
free knowledge.
In doing so, I’ve had the joy of discovery,[4] of learning from and with some of the most dedicated volunteers in the world, who believe that knowledge matters. Most importantly, that it’s not only free knowledge _for_ all that we seek, but even more critically, that we believe in knowledge _from_ and _with_ all.
And I’ve discovered that the nerdy, geeky, obsessed-with-data part of me found a home in this extraordinary universe, where everybody’s “unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds” can find expression.[5] I look forward to the day when my worlds find more space on Wikipedia, when 80% of the globe is represented by far more than 20% of the edits, when much more than 15% of our contributors can self-identify as women. Till then, I’ll keep fighting notability one article at a time...[6]
So thank you for sharing your worlds with me, and no thanks for turning
me
into an obsessive Wikimedian. :-) As I have learnt with you, I know I
have
done so with trust, and as I have challenged you, I hope I have done so with respect. I look forward to continuing our friendships and obsessions on a wiki near you.
With appreciation and gratitude,
Anasuya
p.s. You can find me in the future at my enWP user page (User:Anasuyas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Anasuyas) or (dare I say it) on Facebook. Longer diatribes on liff, the universe and everything can be
sent
to anasuyaATsanmathi.org
[1] Neil Gaiman, American Gods (Chapter 8)
[2] Urgent Action Fund, a funder of women’s human rights defenders, has this book on sustainability:
http://urgentactionfund.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/06/WTPR-Final-...
[3] And look forward to dancing together on the beaches of a future Wikimania…
[4] Sometimes frustrating, sometimes unbelievable, sometimes somewhat insane; but yes mostly, generous beyond belief, and always, joyous. :-)
[5] More Neil Gaiman, from The Sandman: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Sandman#A_Game_of_You
[6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Key_theme_-_Global_South,_...
Ask Florence (User:Anthere) for _that_ story!
On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 2:15 PM, Lila Tretikov lila@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Dear Wikimedians,
Among the WMF’s top priorities for 2015 is strengthening our engagement with Wikimedia editors and volunteers. Today we are taking the first
step
by bringing together the people who know our communities best and
asking
them to break barriers and improve engagement. Everyone at the WMF who carries responsibilities directly related to the communities will join
a
new Community Engagement department.
I have asked Luis Villa to lead the Community Engagement organization
as
the Senior Director of Community Engagement, reporting to me. Promoting from within the WMF for this critical role will allow us to leverage
the
knowledge and experience with our communities and reinforce the
strengths
of our people.
Luis’s experience with communities is lengthy and deep. He has been involved in open communities since the late 1990s, from communities as small as the Lego Mindstorms hackers to those as large as Mozilla. He worked in open communities as a lawyer, a programmer, a bugmaster, an engineering lead, a community leader, and a board member. Luis has performed exceptionally within the Foundation and supported some of our most fruitful community engagements. The Grantmaking, L&E, Education, Community Advocacy and Community Liaisons teams will join the new
Community
Engagement department [2] under his leadership.
Unfortunately, Anasuya Sengupta -- our beloved leader of grantmaking -- will be leaving us due to personal health concerns at the end of March.
We
will invite you soon to celebrate her time with us, her work at the WMF
and
the deep insight she brought to the Foundation. We are saddened to see
her
go. The team she has nurtured will provide an important foundation for
our
upcoming work.
Siko Bouterse will move up to lead the day-to-day work of the
Grantmaking
team as Director of Community Resources, supervising all department
Grant
programs and the Global South strategy. Siko has been instrumental in innovating programs at the WMF, including initiatives like the
Teahouse[1]
and the IdeaLab[2] combining vision with strong support for volunteer community, tough decision making, and great project management skills.
These changes are an opportunity to improve the coordination of our
work
supporting the communities. To accelerate this, I have asked Luis to
lead
an internal “tiger” team to better understand the needs, concerns and priorities of our volunteers, and to develop recommendations for future programs. This work will be shared with all of you as it becomes
available.
Please join me in congratulating Luis and Siko and in supporting our teams. The Wikimedia communities are what makes the projects strong, unique, and irreplaceable. This is the next step forward in our support
to
them, and in service of our mission.
[1] As Director of Community Resources, Siko will oversee the IdeaLab, Annual Plan Grants, Project and Event Grants, and Travel andParticipation
Support. Her team will include Katy Love, Winifred Olliff, Alex Wang, Janice Tud, Jonathan Morgan, and Asaf Bartov. Asaf will also take on a
new
title as Senior Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities.
[2] Rachel DiCerbo, Philippe Beaudette, Siko, and Anasuya’s other
direct
reports, and their respective teams (CL, CA, and Grantmaking/GLEE) will report to Luis. The Engineering Community team will be part of the
tiger
team but will continue to report to Engineering.
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab
Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list WikimediaAnnounce-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
--
*Anasuya SenguptaSenior Director of GrantmakingWikimedia Foundation*
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! Support Wikimedia https://donate.wikimedia.org/ _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
--
prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak kierownik katedry Zarządzania Międzynarodowego i centrum badawczego CROW Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego http://www.crow.alk.edu.pl
członek Akademii Młodych Uczonych Polskiej Akademii Nauk członek Komitetu Polityki Naukowej MNiSW
Wyszła pierwsza na świecie etnografia Wikipedii "Common Knowledge? An Ethnography of Wikipedia" (2014, Stanford University Press) mojego autorstwa http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=24010
Recenzje Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml Pacific Standard: http://www.psmag.com/navigation/books-and-culture/killed-wikipedia-93777/ Motherboard: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/an-ethnography-of-wikipedia The Wikipedian: http://thewikipedian.net/2014/10/10/dariusz-jemielniak-common-knowledge _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/GuidelinesWikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe