Hello all, It is time to announce the new and returning members of the 2017 Ombudsman 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[1] tools, on any Wikimedia project for the Board of Trustees. [1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Amending_ the_Scope_of_the_Ombudsman_Commission I apologize for the length of the announcement. :) The application period for new commissioners for 2017 recently closed. The Wikimedia Foundation is extremely grateful to the many experienced and insightful volunteers who offered to assist with this work. As it has for the past few years, this year’s OC will consist of seven members, with a two-member advisory team who will guide the new commission. I am pleased to announce the composition of the 2017 OC. First, the new members are: Vogone User:Vogone has contributed to Wikimedia projects since early 2012. While they began their involvement on the German Wikipedia, they quickly branched out to Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikivoyage, and Wikiversity. They were the first bureaucrat on the Wikidata project. Vogone has worked heavily assisting our smaller projects as a global rollbacker, global sysop, and member of the Small Wiki Monitoring Team. They have experience in translation administration, both on Meta and translatewiki.net. Vogone has shown a keen interest in the technical side of user privacy, including contributing to MediaWiki software around edit suppression. Lankiveil Lankiveil is a long-term user, admin, and oversighter on the English Wikipedia, having made his first edits in 2004. He serves as a clerk to the English Wikipedia Arbcom and as an OTRS volunteer. He also sometimes edits at Irish Wikipedia and Commons. He is a native speaker of Australian English and is a member of Wikimedia Australia. Góngora Góngora, J. Gustavo Góngora Goloubintseff, who primarily edits Spanish Wikipedia, Catalan Wikipedia and Norwegian bokmål Wikipedia. He has been an administrator and bureaucrat on the Spanish Wikipedia since 2007, and an administrator on the Catalan Wikipedia since 2009, where he is also a CheckUser. He was a member of the Spanish ArbCom in 2008, before it was dismantled. He was a board member of Wikimedia España in 2011. He is currently a member of Wikimedia Norge. Richwales User:Richwales has been an active Wikimedian since 2005. He is an administrator, oversighter, and sockpuppet investigation clerk on the English Wikipedia. Richwales also served on the now-defunct Audit subcommittee, which served a similar role to the Ombudsman Commission. Krd User:Krd, who is primarily active on German Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, and also serves at the Volunteer response team as agent and OTRS admin, and was a prior member of German Wikipedia Arbcom for more than three years. In addition, the following experienced OC members will be returning as members of the Ombuds Commission: Pajz User:Pajz is a Wikipedia editor. He was a Wikipedia administrator between 2007 to 2016 and is a member of the Volunteer Response Team ("OTRS team"). He served as one of the OTRS administrators from 2013 to 2015, before being first appointed to the Ombudsman Commission in 2016. Alan User:Alan has been a registered Wikimedian for more than three years, but an anonymous editor since 2006, working primarily across Spanish language projects. He is a global sysop and global rollbacker, an administrator on Commons, as well as having been an OTRS volunteer for ~4 years. In the past he has served as an administrator and bureaucrat on Spanish Wikivoyage. And the following experienced OC members will be returning as advisors to the commission (this advisory role provides expertise when needed, but does not participate in all discussions): Rubin16 User:Rubin16 primarily edits the Russian Wikipedia, where he is a bureaucrat and administrator. He is formerly a member of their Arbitration Committee. He is an administrator on Wikimedia Commons and is a Central Notice and translation admin on Meta. (He is also a translation admin on Commons.) He is a member of Wikimedia Russia. Polimerek User:Polimerek primarily edits Polish Wikipedia (where he is an admin and former arbitrator), Polish Wikibooks and Wikimedia Commons. He also serves the Wikimedia movement as the president of Wikimedia Poland and on the Grant Advisory Committee. He is a former Checkuser. Polimerek joined the OC in 2014. And finally, please join me in thanking the following *outgoing volunteers*, who have given substantially of their time to serve the commission: NahidSultan User:NahidSultan has been volunteering on Wikimedia projects since 2012. He is mostly active on Bengali Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Meta, where he holds administrator rights. Besides these roles, he has also been part of OTRS, a small wiki monitoring team member and a global administrator. Other than his online contributions to the movement, he has also been active doing Wikimedia work offline, working actively for the Wikimedia Bangladesh chapter. NahidSultan joined the OC in 2016. Taketa User:Taketa has been a Wikimedian since 2008. They mostly work on the Dutch Wikipedia, writing content and organising projects. They were a member of the Dutch Wikipedia Arbitration Committee in 2009/10 and 2012/13. They have served as a Wikimedia steward, nlwiki bureaucrat, listadmin for the nlwiki admins and bureaucrats, OTRS volunteer and Wikidata admin. Taketa joined the OC in 2016. Gnom User:Gnom primarily edits German Wikipedia. Gnom, a licensed attorney, has previously served Wikimedia as a legal intern for the Wikimedia Foundation. In 2014, he was elected to the Board of Wikimedia Deutschland. Gnom joined the OC in 2014. Huji User:Huji primarily edits Farsi Wikipedia, where he is an administrator, bureaucrat and Checkuser. He has also contributed substantially to Simple Wikipedia, English Wikipedia and Meta and is a Wikimedia developer contributing to MediaWiki and WMF Labs projects. Huji joined the OC in 2013. Barras Note: Barras resigned from the OC in good standing in November 2016 User:Barras, who is primarily active on the Simple English Wikipedia and Meta. He’s a steward, an Oversighter on Simple English and Meta, and also a Checkuser on Simple and Meta. Barras joined the OC in 2015. --- I'd also like to offer a huge “thank you” to those returning and those coming aboard for the first time, as well as to all those applied. The applications we received this year showed us an extremely able group of volunteers, and while this mix of users may best serve the need for this year, I hope that those who applied will consider applying again in future years. Yours, Karen Brown -- Karen Brown Community Advocate Wikimedia Foundation kbrown(a)wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>