Thank you Kaarel, and kudos to the committee; may the work get off to a solid start.

Bodhisattwa Mandal <bodhisattwa.rgkmc@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, communities in Africa are still the least reached, including proportional to connectivity.)