Hi folks,
We’d love to hear what you think of the Wikimedia Blog, so we can improve it to better serve you.
Could you please take this short survey?
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/wikimedia-blog?c=email-ann
If you are not familiar with the blog, we invite you to visit it before you take the survey:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/
We look forward to improving its contents and features in coming months, based on what you and others tell us.
We will post survey results at the end of March, both on the blog and on Meta.
Thanks for sharing your feedback!
Fabrice
_______________________________
Fabrice Florin
Movement Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF)
Dear friends and colleagues, fellow adventurers on the Wikimedia journey -
Goodbyes are overrated.[1] But since I’m sure this will be au revoir, I’ll
continue: I am leaving the Foundation as head of the Grantmaking
department, at the end of March. This was not an easy decision to make;
this is not an easy email to write.
As some of you know, I have been battling health issues over the past few
months. I’ve learnt sharp and intimate truths about myself as I’ve worked
to get better, and what I’ve kept coming back to is the compassionate but
fierce feminist slogan around self-care and sustainability: ‘what’s the
point of the revolution if we can’t dance?’[2] To reassure you all, I will
be well,[3] but I need a little time and space to focus on getting my
dancing legs strong again.
That said, I am pleased that we have a really solid plan in place as I
leave. As Lila’s email just announced, Luis Villa (our current Deputy
General Counsel) will be taking over the team effective immediately, and
leading the organisation further in our support of Wikimedia communities
worldwide. Luis brings with him a range of skills and qualities that I know
will stand him, the team, and the movement in wonderful stead through it
all. As a friend and colleague, I am so delighted to be supporting Luis
through the next few weeks of transition.
I joined the Foundation in July 2012 to oversee and implement the FDC
process. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of creating and leading a
department of more than twenty remarkable and passionate people who care
about our mission, our communities, and the resources needed to match the
two.
We went from Asaf managing a small grants portfolio on his own, ably
supported on occasion by Winifred, to a fully fledged grantmaking
department with a spectrum of monetary and non-monetary resources. We have
been able to offer these in different ways to different parts of our
movement: to individual volunteers with great ideas in need of project
management, to small groups experimenting with new initiatives, and to
established organisations who form critical content and policy partnerships
in their local contexts. We built an infrastructure for understanding our
collective impact. We learned together about what our different communities
are doing globally, about the successes and challenges we have, and above
all: about how we can, together, create a more powerful set of outcomes for
free knowledge.
In doing so, I’ve had the joy of discovery,[4] of learning from and with
some of the most dedicated volunteers in the world, who believe that
knowledge matters. Most importantly, that it’s not only free knowledge
_for_ all that we seek, but even more critically, that we believe in
knowledge _from_ and _with_ all.
And I’ve discovered that the nerdy, geeky, obsessed-with-data part of me
found a home in this extraordinary universe, where everybody’s “unimaginable,
magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds” can find expression.[5] I
look forward to the day when my worlds find more space on Wikipedia, when
80% of the globe is represented by far more than 20% of the edits, when
much more than 15% of our contributors can self-identify as women. Till
then, I’ll keep fighting notability one article at a time...[6]
So thank you for sharing your worlds with me, and no thanks for turning me
into an obsessive Wikimedian. :-) As I have learnt with you, I know I have
done so with trust, and as I have challenged you, I hope I have done so
with respect. I look forward to continuing our friendships and obsessions
on a wiki near you.
With appreciation and gratitude,
Anasuya
p.s. You can find me in the future at my enWP user page (User:Anasuyas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Anasuyas) or (dare I say it) on
Facebook. Longer diatribes on liff, the universe and everything can be sent
to anasuyaATsanmathi.org
[1] Neil Gaiman, American Gods (Chapter 8)
[2] Urgent Action Fund, a funder of women’s human rights defenders, has
this book on sustainability:
http://urgentactionfund.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/06/WTPR-Final…
[3] And look forward to dancing together on the beaches of a future
Wikimania…
[4] Sometimes frustrating, sometimes unbelievable, sometimes somewhat
insane; but yes mostly, generous beyond belief, and always, joyous. :-)
[5] More Neil Gaiman, from The Sandman:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Sandman#A_Game_of_You
[6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Key_theme_-_Global_South,…
Ask Florence (User:Anthere) for _that_ story!
--
*Anasuya SenguptaSenior Director of GrantmakingWikimedia Foundation*
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
Support Wikimedia <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>
Hello all,
Five years ago, I was part of the work on a strategic plan for the
Wikimedia movement. Much has changed since then. Now, I’m back...and
we’re working on strategic direction again. :-)
Today, we're kicking-off a two-week community consultation about the future
of Wikimedia.
I hope you'll participate in the online discussion about new internet
trends and how Wikimedia responds to these changes, which will help to
shape the future of Wikimedia.
The discussion is on meta, at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2015_Strategy/Community_consultation
For more background on this consultation, check out this blog post:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/02/23/strategy-consultation/
Your vision matters. I look forward to hearing from you as we chart the
way forward.
Regards,
Philippe Beaudette
Director, Community Advocacy
Wikimedia Foundation
*Philippe Beaudette * \\ Director, Community Advocacy \\ Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc.
T: 1-415-839-6885 x6643 | philippe(a)wikimedia.org | : @Philippewiki
<https://twitter.com/Philippewiki>
Lila, Anasuya, and everyone else-
Lila, thank you so much for the opportunity, and thank you Anasuya, Geoff,
and Erik for your long-term work with the GLEE, CA, and CL teams — you’ve
laid a strong foundation to build on. I would also like to congratulate
Siko on her expanded role — I am looking forward to working together with
her and the rest of the team on some of our most complex challenges.
I am excited to have the opportunity to work with our current leaders and
teams. We are lucky to have some incredible people on the team, and I look
forward to collaborating, learning, and creating even better engagement and
results together.
As Lila mentioned, I’ve been a contributor to a variety of open
communities, large and small, for over a decade and a half. Since the first
time I hacked on Lego software with someone on another continent, I’ve been
a strong believer that healthy communities and personal relationships are
the core of the special thing that we do. I expect to carry that forward
into the leadership of this team, with a focus on making the Foundation a
strong, supportive partner of growing, diverse, global Wikimedian
communities.
The creation of this new team within the Foundation shows a renewed
dedication by WMF to deepen our relationship to the people who create and
drive the projects. This focus will be critically important as we seek to
support and grow our mission. There are a huge number of opportunities to
get us ever-closer to our goal of a world of free knowledge.
Luis
--
Luis Villa
Sr. Director of Community Engagement
Wikimedia Foundation
*"Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment."*
Dear Wikimedians,
Among the WMF’s top priorities for 2015 is strengthening our engagement
with Wikimedia editors and volunteers. Today we are taking the first step
by bringing together the people who know our communities best and asking
them to break barriers and improve engagement. Everyone at the WMF who
carries responsibilities directly related to the communities will join a
new Community Engagement department.
I have asked Luis Villa to lead the Community Engagement organization as
the Senior Director of Community Engagement, reporting to me. Promoting
from within the WMF for this critical role will allow us to leverage the
knowledge and experience with our communities and reinforce the strengths
of our people.
Luis’s experience with communities is lengthy and deep. He has been
involved in open communities since the late 1990s, from communities as
small as the Lego Mindstorms hackers to those as large as Mozilla. He
worked in open communities as a lawyer, a programmer, a bugmaster, an
engineering lead, a community leader, and a board member. Luis has
performed exceptionally within the Foundation and supported some of our
most fruitful community engagements. The Grantmaking, L&E, Education,
Community Advocacy and Community Liaisons teams will join the new Community
Engagement department [2] under his leadership.
Unfortunately, Anasuya Sengupta -- our beloved leader of grantmaking --
will be leaving us due to personal health concerns at the end of March. We
will invite you soon to celebrate her time with us, her work at the WMF and
the deep insight she brought to the Foundation. We are saddened to see her
go. The team she has nurtured will provide an important foundation for our
upcoming work.
Siko Bouterse will move up to lead the day-to-day work of the Grantmaking
team as Director of Community Resources, supervising all department Grant
programs and the Global South strategy. Siko has been instrumental in
innovating programs at the WMF, including initiatives like the Teahouse[1]
and the IdeaLab[2] combining vision with strong support for volunteer
community, tough decision making, and great project management skills.
These changes are an opportunity to improve the coordination of our work
supporting the communities. To accelerate this, I have asked Luis to lead
an internal “tiger” team to better understand the needs, concerns and
priorities of our volunteers, and to develop recommendations for future
programs. This work will be shared with all of you as it becomes available.
Please join me in congratulating Luis and Siko and in supporting our teams.
The Wikimedia communities are what makes the projects strong, unique, and
irreplaceable. This is the next step forward in our support to them, and in
service of our mission.
~~~~Lila
[1] As Director of Community Resources, Siko will oversee the IdeaLab,
Annual Plan Grants, Project and Event Grants, and Travel and Participation
Support. Her team will include Katy Love, Winifred Olliff, Alex Wang,
Janice Tud, Jonathan Morgan, and Asaf Bartov. Asaf will also take on a new
title as Senior Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities.
[2] Rachel DiCerbo, Philippe Beaudette, Siko, and Anasuya’s other direct
reports, and their respective teams (CL, CA, and Grantmaking/GLEE) will
report to Luis. The Engineering Community team will be part of the tiger
team but will continue to report to Engineering.
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab
Dear community:
Below you will find the report of activities of December 2014 and January
2015 done by the volunteers of Wikimedia Mexico. Please don't hesitate to
get in touch with us if you require extra information about this activities
or only to make some suggestions.
The report is also available on Spanish and English in our wiki:
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Diciembre_2014
(December/Spanish)
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Diciembre_2014/en (December/English)
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Enero_2015 (January/Spanish)
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Enero_2015/en (January/English)
Greetings from the Wikimedia Mexico community.
On behalf
of
our chapter.
Carmen Alcázar (User:Wotancito)
WMMX Secretary.
==Journal December==
December 1
*Transmission of Möebius radio show: "From Hospital de la Castañeda to Pink
Floyd.
December 3
*Meeting with Archivo Tomás Montero A.C. towards a possible donation of
pictures as part of the Tlatelolco Cultural Centre.
*Backstage tour on the Fonoteca Nacional (National audio archive)
December 8
*Transmission of Möebius radio show: "From Jack Thomas Andraka to Cake"
==Journal
January
==
January 5
*
Transmission of Möebius radio show: "From Tres Tenores to Brazilian Girls"
January 10
*
Wikimedia Mexico Board meeting at Puebla.
January 12
*
Transmission of Möebius radio show: "From Ñusta to Michael Jackson"
January 15
*
Presentation of GLAM projects with Circuito Cultural Norte Chapultepec:
Museo de la Basílica de Guadalupe, Museo Casa Carranza, Museo de la Biblia,
Mapoteca Orozco y Berra, Museo Indígena, Museo de los Ferrocarrileros,
Museo Tecnológico de la CFE, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Museo de
Antropología e Historia, Museo Casa de la Bola, Museo del Chocolate and
Museo Soumaya.
Following meeting with Cineteca Nacional for February 14th editathon.
Planning meeting about Wikipedia gender gap project with NGO partners:
Impetú, Social TIC, Mujeres Construyendo, Luchadoras TV and La Sandía
Digital.
January 20
*
Presentation of the GLAM projects to the Instituto Carlos Slim de la Salud
staff.
January 21
*"Creative Commons como alternativa autoral" talk by Iván Martínez in the
Seminario Permanente de Investigación-Producción en Arte y Diseño de la
Facultad de Arte y Diseño de la UNAM, session: “El problema de la
apropiación, el plagio y los derechos de autor en las artes visuales, el
diseño y la comunicación visual”. Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco.
January 24
*
Monthly Wikipedia editing workshop, by Christian Cariño.
January 26
*
Transmission of Möebius radio show: "From JLo to Madonna"
*
Meeting with Luz María Silva, teacher from ITAM, about Wikipedia Education
Program
January 27
*
Meeting with Instituto de la Juventud de la Ciudad de México (Mexico City
Youth Institute) for their participation in the Wikimania 2015 Volunteer
Program.
*
Transmission of "Editatona" program in LuchadorasTV, RompevientoTV internet
television channel.
(http://rompevientotv.mediafire.com/?5nt81iuedc5d420)
January 31
*First ''Editatona'' editathon from
Gender Gap project. Instituto de Liderazgo Simone de Beauvoir, Mexico City.
Dear all,
Here is Vincent from Wikimedia Hong Kong. Our annual activity report of
year 2012-2013 have been updated to the the report page. Please to read the
session of "Wikimedia Chapters & Thematic Organizations" at page "Reports"
on meta (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports#Wikimedia_Chapters_.26_Thematic_Org…),
or directly access via
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7f5kfngnd704lmw/AnnualReport201213_full.pdf?dl=0
For the report of 2013-2014, it will be considered in the next AGM in
mid-summer 2015. (According to Companies Registry of Hong Kong Government,
the report of 2013-2014 should be submitted at/before September 2015)
--
Vincent C.Y. TSUI
Secretary, Secretariat,
Wikimedia Hong Kong (Charity registered No. 91/9316)
Tel : +852 9553 4303