Hi folks,
I am delighted to announce Erik Moeller as Deputy Director of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Erik will take up his new responsibilities in our San Francisco headquarters beginning
January 10, and will report directly to me. As part of this transition, and as you know
already from Florence's announcement yesterday, Erik has resigned from his role as
Board member.
Erik is well-known in the Wikimedia community. A twice-elected board member, he has been
active in the projects since 2001. Through his six years of volunteer participation, he
has made thousands of edits and uploads, contributed to the MediaWiki software, helped
launch Wikinews and Commons, and supported the organization in numerous other ways. He is
also the author of "Die heimliche Medienrevolution," one of the first books to
include an in-depth analysis of wiki collaboration.
Most recently, Erik has been Chief Technology Officer of Stichting Open Progress, where he
managed a decentralized team of developers in the implementation of OmegaWiki, a
collaborative ontology database. He also provides hosting for several wiki communities,
including
WikiEducator.org, and has project-managed other wiki software development
projects such as the LiquidThreads discussion system.
Our chief technical officer, Brion Vibber, will report to Erik. In addition, I will be
delegating specific projects to him, and he will act on my behalf when I am traveling or
otherwise unavailable. He will also play an important role in orienting the new San
Francisco staff, and helping them to understand the processes, history and values of the
Wikimedia projects.
Since I joined the Foundation in June, I have been impressed with Erik's commitment,
hard work and evangelism on behalf of Wikimedia. I know he will now be able to make an
even greater contribution to what we do, and I'm very pleased he's agreed to join
the staff in the new office.
Please join me in welcoming Erik to the staff of the foundation.
Sue Gardner
Executive Director,
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.