This press release is also available on the Wikimedia blog here:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2018/07/20/wikimania-2018/
*Wikipedia volunteers and free knowledge leaders gather in Cape Town for
the first annual “Wikimania” conference in sub-saharan Africa*
*First ever Wikimania in sub-Saharan Africa will be held in Cape Town,
bringing together more than 700 people to discuss how to improve the
diversity of knowledge represented on Wikipedia and Wikimedia sites.*
*Key participants include Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Katherine
Maher, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, as well as notable thought leaders
from across Africa and the world.*
*(Cape Town, South Africa) 20 July 2018* — More than 700 attendees from
nearly 80 countries gathered today for the start of Wikimania 2018—the
annual conference celebrating Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, the
Wikimedia free knowledge movement, and the community of volunteers who make
them possible. This marks the 14th annual Wikimania, which takes place
18–22 July at the Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel in Cape Town, where
volunteers will come together to discuss and share ideas around the future
of Wikipedia and free knowledge globally.
The event kicked off with an opening ceremony featuring a special
presentation by a group of local Sinenjongo high school students welcoming
conference attendees to Cape Town. It continued with remarks by Douglas
Scott, President of Wikimedia ZA, the local South African Wikimedia
affiliate and lead local organizer of this year’s conference who introduced
this year’s conference theme: Bridging knowledge gaps, the ubuntu way
forward, which aims to address gaps in knowledge, particularly those about
African people, cultures, and languages, on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia
projects. As part of this week’s centennial celebration to commemorate the
birth of Nelson Mandela, Scott announced a partnership with the Nelson
Mandela Foundation to make the inspirational writings of the former South
African President’s 1962 diary available to the world on Wikimedia Commons
and Wikisource.
Throughout this year’s Wikimania, attendees will explore sessions related
to development of Wikimedia projects in Africa, global collaborations to
support the advancement of free knowledge, and opportunities to partner
with galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs). Wikimania 2018 is
co-organized by the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia ZA.
Wikimania 2018 will also bring together a diverse mix of attendees,
including seasoned volunteer editors; researchers and data scientists;
members from the medical community; librarians; and other free knowledge
leaders. Confirmed keynote speakers include internet geographist Dr. Martin
Dittus, who will be speaking on economic development, labour, power,
participation, and representation, Joy Buolamwini, a noted artificial
intelligence expert fighting to remove bias in machine learning, and
Professor Sean Jacobs, an esteemed data scientist in digital culture and
digital geography, alongside Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director,
Katherine Maher, and Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales. All plenary sessions
will be live streamed and available for public viewing online. More
information and links to livestream session are available here. [1]
“Wikipedia today is already fascinating and expansive. But it does not
begin to represent the entirety of the world we live in — so much of the
rich history, diversity of language, culture, and peoples of Africa is
missing from the site,” said Katherine Maher, Executive Director of the
Wikimedia Foundation. “We are honored to be hosted by Cape Town for this
year’s Wikimania, the first ever in sub-saharan Africa, and look forward to
speaking with our global communities, South Africans, and more about how we
can begin to hear the critical perspectives that are missing from Wikipedia
today.”
As part of the Wikimania press conference held on Friday, Katherine was
joined by Banks Baker, Head of Global Product Partnerships – Search
Content at Google, to announce the outcome of a recent collaboration
between the Wikimedia Foundation and Google to expand and improve the
representation of knowledge in Indic languages on Wikipedia, called Project
Tiger. Through the project, both organizations, working in close
collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Wikimedia
India chapter (WMIN) and local volunteers, hosted a pilot program to
increase locally relevant content available in 12 Indic languages on
Wikipedia.
Google provided Chromebooks and internet access to support volunteer
editors with content creation as well as insights into popular search
topics on Google that lack information in Indian languages online. Through
a three month writing competition, volunteers created nearly 4,500 new
Wikipedia articles across 12 languages, nearly double the initial
benchmarks for the project. Based on this initial success of the pilot
program, Google and the Wikimedia Foundation will hear feedback from
volunteers about the program in a session on Sunday at Wikimania and
further explore future implementation of these types of programs with other
volunteer communities.
The annual Wikimania gathering will also provide an opportunity for
volunteers to discuss Wikimedia’s future as part of Wikimedia 2030, a
global consultation to define the future of the Wikimedia movement.
Challenges with software localisation, the structure of data, and even
newforms of knowledge that Wikimedia has defined as “verifiable”
(text-based, rather than oral, for example) are some of the issues the
movement is grappling with as it moves actively towards incorporating more
diverse forms of knowledge within Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects.
Wikimania also offers conference-goers time to experience the unique
culture of Cape Town and join in the celebrations of Nelson Mandela’s 100th
birthday. The conference’s theme, “Bridging knowledge gaps—the ubuntu way
forward,” captures this spirit and finds its roots in the philosophy and
way of life ubuntu.
“Ubuntu is summarised as the philosophy of ‘I am because you are,’ or
alternatively ‘the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all
humanity,'” explained Wikimedia South Africa President, Douglas Scott.
“Volunteer community-driven projects like Wikipedia and what we are hoping
to achieve at Wikimania in Cape Town capture this ethos well. Wikimedia
South Africa is honored to have this opportunity to share this spirit with
our friends and colleagues around the world.”
The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that supports
Wikipedia, the Wikimedia free knowledge projects, and its mission of free
knowledge for every single person.
To learn more about the conference, please visit:
wikimania2018.wikimedia.org.
You can follow the conference on #Wikimania as well as on:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikimania/
Twitter https://twitter.com/wikimania
[1] https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program#Remote_attendance
About the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that supports
Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a
world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all
knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute
something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to
access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects,
build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia
content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia
possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free
knowledge to thrive.
The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that
relies on donations. We receive financial support from millions of
individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We
also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The
Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization
with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.
About Wikimedia South Africa
Wikimedia ZA is the non-profit volunteer-driven South African Wikimedia
chapter. It exists to promote the free knowledge movement in the country
by supporting Wikipedia editors, contributions to Wikimedia projects such
as Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, and increase access to free knowledge
sources. Membership is open to anyone based in South Africa with an
interest in participating in the free knowledge movement. Wikimedia ZA is
the local host of Wikimania 2018.
About Wikimania
Wikimania is the annual conference centered on the Wikimedia projects
(Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge websites) and the
Wikimedia community of volunteers who contribute to them. It features
presentations on Wikimedia projects, other wikis, free and open source
software, free knowledge and free content, and the social and technical
aspects which relate to these topics. Wikimania 2018 marks the 14th year of
the conference.
About Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the world’s free knowledge resource. It is a collaborative
creation that has been added to and edited by millions of people from
around the globe since it was created in 2001: anyone can edit it, at any
time. Wikipedia is offered in nearly 300 languages containing a total of
more than 46 million articles, and viewed more than 15 billion times every
month. It is the largest, collaborative collection of free knowledge in
human history, and today its content is contributed and edited by a
community of more than 200,000 volunteer editors each month.
In case of any queries, please contact:
Sascha Polkey
Rabbit in a Hat Communications
sascha(a)rabbitinahat.co.za
Tel: +27 83 414 04552/ 21 300 0052
Kui Kinyanjui
Vice President, Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
press(a)wikimedia.org
--
*Samantha Lien*
Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
1Montgomery Street
Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
(To be unsubscribed from this press release distribution list, please reply to communications(a)wikimedia.org with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line)
This press release is also available online at the Wikimedia blog:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2018/07/20/wikimedia-foundation-announces-tanya-…
*Wikimedia Foundation announces Tanya Capuano as new Trustee, alongside
leadership appointments at 14th annual Wikimania*
*Tanya Capuano brings deep expertise in technology, organizational
strategy, and financial planning and analysis to the Wikimedia Foundation
Board of Trustees*
(San Francisco, California and Cape Town, South Africa) — 20 July 2018 This
week, the Wikimedia Foundation announced a new member and leadership
appointments to its Board of Trustees. Tanya Pine Capuano, recently Chief
Financial Officer of the digital marketing company G5 in Bend, Oregon, will
be the newest member of the Board of Trustees. The Board also appointed
María Sefidari as Chair, and Christophe Henner as Vice Chair to lead the
Board of Trustees. The announcement was made at the 2018 Wikimania
conference, the annual celebration of Wikipedia, free knowledge, and the
global Wikimedia community, held this year in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia
Foundation and its work, and serves as the organization’s ultimate
corporate authority. As an incoming Trustee, Tanya will serve a three year
term effective immediately.
Tanya replaces the role formerly held by Kelly Battles whose term on the
Board concludes this month along with longtime member Alice Wiegand. The
Board thanks its outgoing Trustees for their service to the Board and the
Wikimedia movement and mission.
Tanya has wide-ranging experience including strategy, mergers and
acquisitions, and financial planning and analysis in technology from her
roles at Intuit, Hewlett-Packard and G5. She has also served on several
nonprofit Boards supporting education including Education Pioneers, Los
Altos Educational Foundation, and “I Have a Dream” Foundation’s San
Francisco chapter, which she also co-founded.
In addition to her deep commitment to education, especially expanding
access to higher education, Tanya brings with her a passion for Wikimedia’s
values and vision.
Tanya joins Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Board Chair María Sefidari, Vice
Chair Christophe Henner, and Board members Esra’a Al Shafei, Raju
Narisetti, Dr. James Heilman, Dr. Dariusz Jemielniak, and Nataliia Tymkiv.
Newly appointed Board Chair, María Sefidari, succeeds Christopher Henner,
who will serve as Vice Chair, the role María previously held. María is a
professor in the Digital Communications, Culture and Citizenship Master’s
degree program of Rey Juan Carlos University at the MediaLab-Prado. Born in
Madrid, Spain, where she still lives today, María served on the Wikimedia
Foundation Board from 2013 to 2015 and re-joined the Board in 2016.
“The Wikimedia movement has been an important part of my life for over a
decade and it is a great honor to be able to serve it as Chair of the
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees,” María said. “The Wikimedia 2030
movement strategy we are in the midst of developing is the most significant
and expansive discussion about our long-term future we have undertaken
since our founding. We have much to accomplish in the upcoming year to be
ready to implement our new strategy, and I am thrilled to able to
contribute as Board Chair.”
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
* María Sefidari, Board Chair
* Christophe Henner, Vice Chair
* Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
* Dr. Dariusz Jemielniak
* Esra’a Al Shafei
* Dr. James Heilman
* Nataliia Tymkiv
* Raju Narisetti
* Tanya Capuano
About Tanya Capuano
Tanya Pine Capuano most recently was the chief financial officer (CFO) of
the digital marketing company G5 in Bend, Oregon.
Originally from San Jose, California, she has wide-ranging experience
including strategy and financial planning and analysis in technology. In
addition to her recent role at G5, she previously held leadership positions
at Intuit, Hewlett-Packard and APM Management Consultants/CSC Healthcare.
She has also supported numerous education initiatives throughout her
career; including serving on the Boards of Education Pioneers, Los Altos
Educational Foundation, and “I Have a Dream” Foundation San Francisco, an
organization whose San Francisco chapter she co-founded.
She is very involved with Stanford University alumni life, having earned a
bachelor’s in economics, a master’s in education, and a Master of Business
Administration from the university. After graduating, she worked as the
university’s Director of Alumni Relations for the Graduate School of
Education and Development Director for the Initiative on Improving K-12
Education. She has also served on the board of the Stanford University
Graduate School of Business Alumni Association.
Tanya lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two
teenagers. They enjoy traveling as a family and experiencing the great
outdoors.
About María Sefidari
María Sefidari Huici is a professor in the Digital Communications, Culture
and Citizenship Master’s degree program of Rey Juan Carlos University at
the MediaLab-Prado.
Born in Madrid, Spain, where she still lives today, María graduated with a
Psychology degree from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and later a
Master’s degree in Management and Tourism at the Business faculty of the
same university. She was a 2014 Techweek Women’s Leadership Fellow, which
showcases, celebrates, and supports emerging female leaders in business and
technology.
María started contributing to the Wikimedia projects in 2006, and has since
served in many different roles across the Wikimedia movement. Maria was a
founding member of Wikimedia España and Wikimujeres Grupo de Usuarias, and
also created Spanish Wikipedia’s LGBT Wikiproject. She has served on
several Wikimedia governance committees, including the Affiliations and
Individual Engagement Grants committees. In her time on the Affiliations
Committee, María served as the first Treasurer of the committee,
effectively overseeing and monitoring disbursement of the committee’s
budget. From 2013 to 2015, she was also a member of the Wikimedia
Foundation Board.
María re-joined the Wikimedia Foundation Board in 2016 to fill an
community-nominated seat vacancy, and was later re-confirmed for a second
term in August 2017.
In her spare time, María travels around the world, runs wiki-workshops to
engage new editors, and supports Real Madrid Club de Fútbol.
About Christophe Henner
Christophe Henner is the former Board Chair of Wikimedia France and current
Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Blade Group, a cloud computing company
headquartered in France. At Blade, Christophe is scaling up operations to
support the company’s transition from a start-up to a global company.
Originally from Lavaur, Christophe studied economics and law at the
University of Toulouse. He has deep and varied experience across the
marketing sector, holding a variety of leadership positions including Head
of Marketing at the online media group, L’Odyssée Interactive, Chief
Marketing Officer at an international digital media group, Webedia, and
later deputy Chief Executive Officer of Webedia’s gaming division.
Christophe has been an active member of the Wikimedia community for more
than 12 years. In 2007, he joined the Board of Wikimedia France and has
remained an active Board member in various positions for the past ten
years. Nearly three of those years on the Board were spent in leadership
roles, including Chair and Vice Chair of the Board.
During his time on the Board, Christophe helped lead Wikimedia France
through a significant period of growth. This included leading the
development of the chapter’s brand and supporting the development of a
clear organizational strategy and vision for the chapter.
Wikimedia Foundation press contact
Kui Kinyanjui
Vice President of Communications
press(a)wikimedia.org
--
*Samantha Lien*
Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
1Montgomery Street
Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
(To be unsubscribed from this press release distribution list, please reply to communications(a)wikimedia.org with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line)
This press release is also available on the Wikimedia blog here:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2018/07/18/wikimedia-foundation-and-kiwix-partne…
Foundation and Kiwix partner to grow offline access to Wikipedia
*The Wikimedia Foundation and Switzerland-based Kiwix announce a global
collaboration to increase offline access to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia
projects.*
Lausanne, Switzerland, and San Francisco, USA, 18 July 2018 – The Wikimedia
Foundation has announced a partnership with Kiwix, the free and open-source
software solution that enables offline access to educational content, to
expand and improve access to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects
globally. This partnership will include a $275,000 contribution to Kiwix to
further enhance offline access to Wikipedia in parts of the world where
consistent, affordable internet connectivity presents a significant barrier
to accessing Wikipedia.
“Our hope is that one day everyone will have access to the internet, and
eliminate the need for other offline methods of access to information.”
said Kiwix CEO Stephane Coillet-Matillon. “But we know that there are still
serious gaps in internet access globally that require solutions today.
Kiwix is a tool to start fixing things right now.”
The Wikimedia Foundation and Kiwix have had a long-standing collaborative
relationship to expand access to Wikipedia around the world. This includes
recent support to Kiwix and WikiProject Medicine to improve the
availability of offline Wikipedia medical content [1], as well as
improvements to the Kiwix desktop experience.
Through this partnership, the two organizations will collaborate to create
a long-term strategy for third party reuse of Kiwix’s free access platform,
fix longstanding code debt, improve Kiwix’s usability across mobile
platforms including Android, and integrate Kiwix’s and the Wikimedia
Foundation’s technical operations more closely for improved Wikipedia
offline experiences.
“As part of the 2030 direction for Wikimedia’s future [2], we’re thrilled
to be partnering with Kiwix to invest in solutions to address one of the
critical barriers to participating in Wikipedia globally: reliable internet
access,” said Anne Gomez, Senior Program Manager at the Wikimedia
Foundation. “We have made a commitment as an organization to actively
address the challenges and barriers to reaching our global Wikimedia
vision: a world in which everyone can freely share in knowledge. Today
marks an important step toward realizing that commitment.”
The Wikimedia vision is global: a world in which everyone can freely share
in the sum of all knowledge. While there has been a significant reduction
in high mobile data costs and other barriers to participating in Wikipedia,
more than half the world’s population is not yet online. [3]
Today, Kiwix sits at the heart of the offline ecosystem with more than 3
million users from more than 200 countries. It can store millions of
Wikipedia articles from any of Wikipedia’s nearly 300 languages along with
thousands of books and videos on a single flash drive or microSD card for
access on smartphones and computers. Kiwix has also worked with nonprofits
such as the Orange Foundation, Human Rights Foundation, Internet in a Box,
WikiFundi, and Digisoft to scale distribution of offline education
materials around the world to students, teachers, and the general public.
More information about the Wikimedia Foundation’s work to expand access and
participation to Wikipedia globally, including information about this
partnership with Kiwix, can be found in the Wikimedia Foundation’s
2018-2019 annual plan. [4]
About the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit 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.
About Kiwix
Kiwix is an open-source software that brings internet content to millions
of people without internet access - be it because of cost, poor
infrastructures or even censorship. Websites like Wikipedia, TED talks, the
Gutenberg library and many more can be stored and browsed as if users were
online. Kiwix is available in more than 100 languages, and runs on all
major desktop and mobile platforms. Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, Kiwix
Association is a registered Swiss Verein that is funded solely through
donations and grants. For more information, see www.kiwix.org.
Press contacts
Wikimedia Foundation
Kui Kinyanjui
press(a)wikimedia.org
Kiwix
Stéphane Coillet-Matillon
+41 79 215 8510 or stephane(a)kiwix.org
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Stephane/Kiwix/Offline_medic…
[2] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/11/03/wikimedia-movement-new-direction/
[3] https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_Readers/Annual_Plan_1819
--
*Samantha Lien*
Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
1Montgomery Street
Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
(To be unsubscribed from this press release distribution list, please reply to communications(a)wikimedia.org with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line)
*This letter is also available on Meta-Wiki here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/?curid=10631068
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/?curid=10631068>*
*Please consider supporting with translations. *
Dear friends,
On Tuesday, the highest court in the United States, the Supreme Court,
ruled in favor of the current U.S. administration’s restrictions[1] on
travel and immigration from seven countries.[2] In a 5-4 ruling, the Court
found that the restrictions were lawfully created, despite their breach of
the longstanding ideals of the U.S. immigration system and disturbing
comments [3] made by the current administration about the religious basis
for some of these restrictions.
Of the seven countries named, at least three have active Wikimedia
communities. The Wikimedia chapter in Venezuela, Iranian Wikimedians user
group, and proposed Libyan user group represent the reality that our
movement has no borders. Our mission does not discriminate, it unites: in
these and other countries, we have friends, allies, and fellow Wikimedians.
To our fellow Wikimedians, particularly those from or with family in
affected countries: we stand with you and reject the premise of this
outcome. Our movement is possible because of the belief that everyone,
everywhere, should be able to contribute to shared human understanding. We
believe in a world where every country, language, and culture can freely
collaborate without restriction in our shared effort of making free
knowledge accessible to every person. Wikipedia is proof of what can happen
when these freedoms are unrestricted. When our ability to come together is
limited, the world is a poorer place.
The Wikimedia Foundation has opposed the restrictions since earlier
versions were first introduced. We responded to an executive order in early
2017[4] by joining many other organizations and companies in signing a
series of amicus briefs before the courts hearing these cases.[5] We have
posted an update on the Wikimedia blog detailing our position on the most
recent outcome of this case. [6]
We are mindful that these restrictions may have real impacts on individual
staff and community members, as well as our families and communities. The
Wikimedia Foundation rejects the spirit of this ban and similar
restrictions in place around the world that treat some more equally than
others. Our commitment to our global ethos and shared vision will continue
to guide our policy efforts into the future, as we strive to uphold the
values that make our movement possible.
Katherine
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13780
[2]
https://www.apnews.com/3a20abe305bd4c989116f82bf535393b/High-court-OKs-Trump's-travel-ban,-rejects-Muslim-bias-claim
[3]
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/donald-trump-calls-halt-muslims-ente…
[4] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/01/30/knowledge-knows-no-boundaries/
[5] See
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/02/06/amicus-brief-immigration-travel-restr…,
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/03/15/amicus-brief-us-travel-restrictions/,
and
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/09/18/amicus-brief-us-travel-immigration/
[6]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2018/07/02/supreme-court-immigration-wikimedia-v…
--
Katherine Maher
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery Street, Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
+1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635
+1 (415) 712 4873
kmaher(a)wikimedia.org
https://annual.wikimedia.org