Hello, everyone.
I'm writing with information about the Ombuds Commission (OC), the small
group of volunteers who investigate complaints about violations of the
privacy policy, and in particular concerning the use of CheckUser and
Oversight tools, on any Wikimedia project for the Board of Trustees. I
apologize for the length of the announcement. :)
The application period for new commissioners for 2021 recently closed. The
Wikimedia Foundation is extremely grateful to the many experienced and
insightful volunteers who offered to assist with this work.
Because the OC may be asked to provide insights into community governance
issues tied into UCoC[1] phase two this year, we are experimenting with
expanding the Commission. This year’s OC will consist of ten members rather
than eight, with a two-member advisory team who will guide the new
commission and also, if necessary, fill in in the event that the OC is
unable to act due to incapacity or recusal.
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct
I am pleased to announce the composition of the 2021 OC:
Acagastya <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Acagastya>
Agastya has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2014, and is primarily
active on English Wikinews serving as an administrator and has been
accredited reporter since 2017. Agastya is also active on Commons, and
speaks English, Hindi and Gujarati.
AGK <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:AGK>
AGK has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2008. He is primarily active
on English Wikipedia, where he is an administrator, Checkuser, and
Oversighter and has served as an Arbitrator. AGK has been a member of the
Ombuds Commission since 2020.
Ameisenigel <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ameisenigel>
Ameisenigel has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2015. He is primarily
active on German Wikipedia, where he serves as an Arbitrator. He is also
active as an translation admin on Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons and on Meta.
Ameisenigel speaks German and English.
Emufarmers <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Emufarmers>
Emufarmers has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2005. He is a
Metapedian who primarily edits the English Wikipedia; he is also a
bureaucrat and sysop on
MediaWiki.org, and has provided software support to
many third-party, non-Wikimedia wikis over the years. He has served as an
OTRS administrator since 2015. He has served on the Ombuds Commission since
2019.
Faendalimas <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Faendalimas>
Scott Thomson, user:Faendalimas, has been editing Wikimedia projects since
2006. Based in Brazil, he is a taxonomist and evolutionary biologist and
his main editing interest is reptiles and amphibians. He is most active on
WikiSpecies, where he is a bureaucrat, Checkuser, and administrator.
JJMC89 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:JJMC89>
JJMC89 has been contributing to Wikimedia projects since 2015. He is
primarily active on the English Wikipedia, where he has more than 300,000
edits and is an administrator and bot operator, and Commons. He also serves
as a tool administrator on UTRS.
Moheen <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Moheen>
Moheen Reeyad, user:Moheen, has been contributing to Wikimedia projects
since 2010. He is active on Commons, Bengali Wikipedia, Wikidata, and
English Wikipedia and is an administrator on Commons and Bengali Wikipedia.
He is currently a Board member of Wikimedia Bangladesh and lives in
Chattogram. Moheen speaks Bengali and English.
MrJaroslavik <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MrJaroslavik>
MrJaroslavik has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2017. He is
primarily active on Czech Wikipedia and Meta. MrJaroslavik speaks Czech and
English.
ProtoplasmaKid <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:ProtoplasmaKid>
Ivan has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2006. He is primarily active
on Spanish Wikipedia and Spanish Wikinews and as an administrator on both
of those projects. He helped found Wikimedia Mexico in 2011 and was the
Wikimania 2015 Chief Coordinator. He has participated in a number of
movement committees, including Grant Advisory Committee. He speaks English,
Portuguese, and Spanish.
Superpes15 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Superpes15>
Superpes15 has been contributing to Wikimedia projects since 2010. He is
primarily active on Italian Wikipedia and are a member of the Small Wiki
Monitoring Team. He is an administrator on Italian Wikipedia and serves as
a global renamer. He speaks Italian and English.
The 2021 OC advisors are:
Ajraddatz <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ajraddatz>
Ajraddatz has been an active user on Wikimedia since 2010, and has served
in various roles of community trust in that time, including as a Wikidata
Oversighter since 2013, a steward between 2014 and 2020, and a Meta
CheckUser since 2015.
Galahad <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Galahad>
Carlos, currently editing as user:Galahad, has been contributing to
Wikimedia Projects since 2009. He is a member of Wikimedia Venezuela and a
founding member of Wikimedia Small Projects User Group. He primarily
contributes to Spanish-language projects including Spanish Wikipedia and
Spanish Wikivoyage. He has been an administrator and bureaucrat of Spanish
Wikivoyage since 2013. He has served on the Ombuds Commission since 2019.
Their willingness to remain, to bring their familiarity with processes and
their experience to the new arrivals, is greatly appreciated!
Please join me in thanking the following volunteers who are leaving OC, who
have given substantially of their time to serve the commission:
DeltaQuad <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:DeltaQuad>
Amanda has been editing Wikipedia since 2009, when she made her first edits
to English Wikipedia. She has served many roles in the past including being
a sysop, holding advanced permissions and serving on an Arbitration
Committee for 4 years. She will continue to support the English Wikipedia
and reach out to global communities through her service and tools she
develops.
Elmacenderesi <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Elmacenderesi>
Elmacenderesi has been working on Wikimedia projects since 2007, primarily
on the Turkish Wikipedia. There, he has been a CheckUser and a Bureaucrat
since 2008 and an Oversighter since 2011. He is also a member of Wikimedia
OTRS and serves as a global outreach coordinator, working with academic
institutions and GLAMs, for The Wikipedia Library. He has served on the
Ombuds Commission since 2018.
Taketa <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Taketa>
Taketa has been a Wikimedian since 2008 and has held a number of positions
in his time here, including Administrator and Bureaucrat on the Dutch
Wikipedia, Arbitrator on Dutch Wikipedia, Administrator on Wikidata,
Steward, and member of the Ombuds Commission. He has created about 7000 new
articles in several language Wikipedias. He currently serves on the board
of Wikimedia Belgium.
Teles <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Teles>
Lucas became a Wikipedian in 2007 and started to engage with CheckUser
rights in 2009, when he became a local CU on the Portuguese Wikipedia. He
held both Oversight and Checkuser rights on Ptwiki between 2015 and 2017,
when his term with the rights expired. He is currently an administrator on
Commons and Ptwiki. His traditional main focus has been on anti-vandalism
work. In 2012, the global community elected him as a steward, a position he
held until 2020. He served on the Ombuds Commission for 2018.
Uzoma Ozurumba <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Uzoma_Ozurumba>
Uzoma Ozurumba has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2017. She
contributes primarily to Meta, Commons, and the Igbo Wiktionary, of which
she is a founder. She is a co-founder of the Igbo Wikimedians User Group
and serves as a Strategy Liaison for that group. She served on the OC in
2020.
Wikilover90 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Wikilover90>Rupika has
been editing Wikimedia projects since 2014. A free knowledge advocate, she
edits primarily on Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata and is administrator on
Punjabi Wikisource. She organizes events such as Wiki Loves Folklore
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Folklore> and Wiki
Loves Women
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Women_South_Asia_2020>. She has
been supporting in activating the Open Movement in North India via various
Open GLAM initiatives such as Heritage GLAM
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Heritage_GLAM>. She has served on the
Ombuds Commission since 2019.
------------------------
Thanks again to everyone who 's serving, is serving, or volunteered to
serve. And thanks to all of you for reading this wall of text!
-Karen
--
Karen Brown
Trust & Safety Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation
kbrown(a)wikimedia.org