Thank you Kaarel, and kudos to the committee; may the work get off to a
solid start.
Bodhisattwa Mandal <bodhisattwa.rgkmc(a)gmail.com> writes:
Coming from South Asia and looking at ESEAP, I am not
at all excited
considering the geographical representation of the committee as per
Wikimedia regions[1], excluding WMF appointed candidates who will represent
WMF instead of the regions itself
Hi Bodhisattwa,
I don't believe the idea is for anyone to explicitly represent their
geography, affiliations, or organizations -- rather to draft a meaningful
and empowering starting point for us all.
Of course broad geographic and project backgrounds, and good language
diversity (within the drafting group and through available tools to support
work with others) are important for this work. But please don't exclude
any participant from that, based on the experimental mix of selection
processes. We are all wikimedians. Runa and Jorge for instance have been
advancing the global movement towards free knowledge, culture and tools for
a very long time. And having a translation expert actively involved should
help amplify different voices :).
SJ.
PS - There are still many, many systemic gaps and biases in our communities
and our knowledge. The focus on elevating and connecting regional hubs may
help address this, and I dearly hope to see thriving hubs in Asia. But I
wouldn't say the next billion participants, editors, and learners will come
from any one region; rather from underserved communities everywhere in the
world! (And by stats like readership
<https://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/animations/wivivi/wivivi.html>,
communities in Africa are still the least reached, including proportional
to connectivity.)