Thank you, Christophe, for sharing this excellent news.
Those of you who were at Wikimania or watching on the livestream had the
chance to get acquainted with Esra'a through her keynote. I'm certain that,
if you were part of that audience, you'll join me in agreeing that she is
an exceptional and accomplished individual who brings a whole host of
talents to our movement. I'm personally delighted that she will be lending
her perspective and wisdom to our movement and to the governance of the
Wikimedia Foundation. There is so much we can learn from her, and I hope
she finds her tenure on the Board to be rewarding.
Esra'a, thank you so very much for joining our Board and engaging even more
with our movement! It is an honor to have this opportunity to work with you.
Yours,
Katherine
On Fri, Dec 1, 2017 at 1:31 PM, Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Fantastic Wikimania keynote, fascinating addition to
the board, fabulous
addition to our community.
Welcome.
On Fri, 1 Dec 2017 at 22:28, Anna Stillwell <astillwell(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Welcome, Esra'a. Thank you for taking the
time to serve. I look forward
to
your contribution.
/a
On Fri, Dec 1, 2017 at 12:59 PM, Christophe Henner <
chenner(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> With the appointment of Raju to the Board of Trustees a couple of
months
> ago, we were left with a remaining open
vacancy to fill. I am thrilled
to
share
that after several months of searching and discussions, we have
made
another important appointment. At our November
Board Retreat, the Board
appointed and welcomed Esra’a Al Shafei to fill our vacant expert seat.
Esra'a is a prominent international human rights activist and social
entrepreneur. She founded and directs Majal, a nonprofit which utilizes
digital media to amplify under-reported and marginalized voices
throughout
> the Middle East and North Africa. For those of you that heard her
keynote
presentation at this year's Wikimania, I think you will agree she will
make
> a very valuable addition to the Board and brings an important
perspective
> and skillset to the Board's efforts.
>
> Below (and on the Wikimedia Blog) you will find the official
announcement
about
Esra’a Al Shafei. Please join me in warmly welcoming her to the
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and to the Wikimedia movement!
Christophe
Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
P.S. Due to the nature of Esra’a’s work, sharing photos or videos of
Esra’a
may endanger her safety or the safety of others.
To help ensure the
privacy
and safety of Esra’a and her colleagues, we are
not sharing any
photographs
> or videos of Esra'a. We ask that you please join us in supporting this
> important safety consideration.
>
>
> Press release
>
> Header: Esra'a Al Shafei joins Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
>
> Subheader: Bahraini human rights activist and social entrepreneur
brings
to
the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees more
than a decade of
experience
in applying creative solutions to challenges
faced by underserved and
underrepresented communities.
Image:
https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Esraa.png[a]
<https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1wNmwgJkUPp25nVLRVgX5WzU_
LuEi5a9gJDpB7HWEft4/mobilebasic#cmnt1>
[b]
<https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1wNmwgJkUPp25nVLRVgX5WzU_
LuEi5a9gJDpB7HWEft4/mobilebasic#cmnt2>
[c]
<https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1wNmwgJkUPp25nVLRVgX5WzU_
LuEi5a9gJDpB7HWEft4/mobilebasic#cmnt3>
[d]
<https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1wNmwgJkUPp25nVLRVgX5WzU_
LuEi5a9gJDpB7HWEft4/mobilebasic#cmnt4>
San Francisco, California, 1 December 2017 — The Wikimedia Foundation
today
announced the appointment of Esra'a Al
Shafei, a prominent human rights
activist and a passionate defender of free expression, to the Wikimedia
Foundation Board of Trustees.
A native of Bahrain, Esra'a’s work aims to increase and protect free
speech, promote expression for youth and underrepresented voices, and
improve the lives of LGBTQ people in the Middle East and North Africa.
She
> founded and directs Majal, a network of online platforms that
> amplify under-reported and marginalized voices.
>
> “Esra'a shares Wikimedia's foundational belief that shared knowledge
can
facilitate shared understanding,” said Wikimedia Foundation Executive
Director, Katherine Maher. "Her achievements exemplify how intentional
community building can be a powerful tool for positive change, while
her passion
for beautiful and engaging user experiences will only elevate our work.
We
are so fortunate to have her perspective in
support of our global
Wikimedia
> communities."
>
> Esra'a founded Majal in 2006 as Mideast Youth, at the time a series of
> blogs bringing a voice to marginalized and underrepresented young
> people across the Middle East. Today, the organization's team helps
build
communities that celebrate, protect, and promote diversity and social
justice. Their endeavors include
CrowdVoice.org, which curates
crowdsourced
> media to contextualize social movements throughout the world; Mideast
> Tunes, the largest web and mobile app showcasing underground musicians
in
the
Middle East and North Africa who use music as a tool for social
change;
and
Ahwaa.org, an open discussion platform for
Arab LGBTQ individuals
that
uses game mechanics to protect and engage its
community.
“When I first encountered Wikipedia shortly after obtaining an internet
connection in the early 2000s, I felt that the true purpose of the
internet
> was realized. With Wikipedia, I accessed research regarding persecuted
> communities in my home country and the wider region: ethnic and
religious
minorities whom we were discouraged from learning about, and whose
histories and beliefs were dictated to us from a singular government
perspective. Wikipedia’s open source and crowdsourcing practices would
inspire the platforms I built to advocate for underrepresented
communities,
> and the internet would shape my life’s work in advocating for freedom
of
expression and identity around the world,” said Esra'a.
Esra'a received the Berkman Award for Internet Innovation from the
Berkman
Klein Center for Internet & Society at
Harvard Law School in 2008 for
"outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society."
The
> World Economic Forum listed her as one of "15 Women Changing the World
in
> 2015." She has won the "Most
Courageous Media" Prize from Free Press
> Unlimited, and the Monaco Media Prize, which acknowledges innovative
uses
> of media for the betterment of humanity.
>
> She has been featured in Fast Company as one of the "100 Most Creative
> People in Business;" in The Daily Beast as one of the 17 bravest
bloggers
worldwide; and in Forbes' "30 Under 30" list of social entrepreneurs
making
an impact in the world.
Esra'a was a keynote speaker at Wikimania 2017 in Montreal, the annual
conference centered on the Wikimedia projects.
“Esra'a brings tech expertise and a valuable perspective to the Board -
coming from a region where access to information is not taken for
granted.
I was impressed by her talk during Wikimania 2017
on 'Experiences from
the
> Middle East: Overcoming Challenges and Serving Communities'. I think
her
> experience in that region will be important
to our efforts around the
> globe,” said Nataliia Tymkiv, Governance Chair for the Board.
>
> Esra'a is a senior TED Fellow, an Echoing Green fellow, and a
Director’s
Fellow at
the MIT Media Lab. She received a Shuttleworth Foundation
Fellowship in 2012 for her work on
CrowdVoice.org.
Esra'a joins nine other Foundation Trustees
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%
3Dhttps://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees%
26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1512164054873000%26amp;usg%
3DAFQjCNHvsp86oFFv5hD8SZzexjBIHdrkWA&sa=D&ust=1512164054901000&usg=
AFQjCNGS6qlGUSUBQzF5PmvviPecf7Kw4A>
who
collectively bring expertise in the Wikimedia community, financial
oversight, governance, and organizational development; and a commitment
to
advancing Wikimedia’s mission of free knowledge
for all.
She was approved unanimously by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of
Trustees.
> Her term is effective December 2017 and will continue for three years.
> Please see the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
> <https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%
>
3Dhttps://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees%
> 26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;ust%3D1512164054873000%26amp;usg%
> 3DAFQjCNHvsp86oFFv5hD8SZzexjBIHdrkWA&sa=D&ust=1512164054901000&usg=
> AFQjCNGS6qlGUSUBQzF5PmvviPecf7Kw4A>
> for
> complete biographies.
>
> About the Wikimedia Foundation
>
> The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that supports
and
operates
Wikipedia and its sister free knowledge projects. Wikipedia is
the
> world’s free knowledge resource, spanning more than 45 million articles
> across nearly 300 languages. Every month, more than 200,000 people edit
> Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, collectively creating and
improving
> knowledge that is accessed by more than 1
billion unique devices every
> month. This all makes Wikipedia one of the most popular web properties
in
the
world. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation
is
a 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily
through donations and
grants.
>
> Esra’a Al Shafei profile
>
> Esra'a Al Shafei is a human rights activist and the founder and
director
of
> Majal, a nonprofit which helps build communities that celebrate,
protect,
and
promote diversity, and social justice.
A native of Bahrain, Esra'a works avidly to increase and protect free
speech, promote expression for youth and underrepresented voices, and
improve the lives of LGBTQ people in the Middle East and North Africa.
She
> founded Majal in 2006 as Mideast Youth. The organization has built
online
platforms
that creatively facilitate the struggle for social change in
the
Middle East and North Africa.
Esra'a received the Berkman Award for Internet Innovation from Berkman
Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School in 2008 for
"outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society."
The
> World Economic Forum listed her as one of "15 Women Changing the World
in
> 2015."
>
> She has won the "Most Courageous Media" Prize from Free Press
Unlimited,
and the
Monaco Media Prize, which acknowledges innovative uses of media
for
> the betterment of humanity.
>
> Esra'a is a senior TED Fellow, an Echoing Green fellow, and a
Director’s
Fellow at
the MIT Media Lab. She received a Shuttleworth Foundation
Fellowship in 2012 for her work on
CrowdVoice.org. She lives in the
Middle
East and North Africa region.
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