This meeting will be starting in 20 minutes. Please join us!
On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 11:02 AM Gregory Varnum <gvarnum(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
> Hello,
>
> You are invited to our the Wikimedia monthly activities meeting, taking
> place tomorrow (August 29) starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight
> Time). Please note this will be the last Wikimedia monthly activities
> meeting planned by the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department.
> After speaking with our colleagues and reviewing engagement metrics from
> the past few years, we concluded that there are other efforts in place that
> are better suited to achieve the goals of this meeting.
>
> You can join tomorrow’s final meeting via YouTube:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhoJb6rwkfc
>
> And also in IRC: #wikimedia-office
>
> The agenda will include:
> - Wikimedia movement strategy update
> - Wikipedia’s role in Teenagers lives
> - Wikimedia Space
>
> More information on Meta-Wiki:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings
>
> When this meeting first began, it provided insights into data that was
> otherwise unavailable or hard to access. Thanks to the amazing efforts of
> staff and volunteers, those metrics are now available and updated regularly
> online. The purpose of the meeting thus shifted to focus on sharing
> progress updates and information from across the movement. We have realized
> however that this approach limits our ability to connect across languages
> and provide the level of detail necessary to create impact. In addition,
> interest in the meeting has remained steady, but is has not grown, and
> there has been a decrease of interest in presenting.
>
> Fortunately, we have new methods of outreach that allow us to connect with
> wider audiences.. The new Wikimedia Foundation website
> <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>, discussed at last month's meeting,
> has a greater ability to communicate across languages and is already
> helping us reach more people. We are discussing ways to further expand this
> support. The new Wikimedia Space project <https://space.wmflabs.org/>
> that will be discussed at this month's meeting provides a central,
> real-time space to have discussions and share information on activities
> across the movement.
>
> We appreciate all of the feedback people have provided over the years, and
> will continue to reflect on any additional input you may have. I also want
> to personally thank the dozens of people that presented over the years and
> the evolving core team that worked every month to put the meeting on. They
> often made it look easy, and I know that is not always the case.
>
> Thank you, and I will have more on this topic during tomorrow's meeting.
>
> -greg
>
> --
>
> Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)
>
> Communications Strategist
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>
> --
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> .
>
Hello,
You are invited to our the Wikimedia monthly activities meeting, taking
place tomorrow (August 29) starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight
Time). Please note this will be the last Wikimedia monthly activities
meeting planned by the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department.
After speaking with our colleagues and reviewing engagement metrics from
the past few years, we concluded that there are other efforts in place that
are better suited to achieve the goals of this meeting.
You can join tomorrow’s final meeting via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhoJb6rwkfc
And also in IRC: #wikimedia-office
The agenda will include:
- Wikimedia movement strategy update
- Wikipedia’s role in Teenagers lives
- Wikimedia Space
More information on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings
When this meeting first began, it provided insights into data that was
otherwise unavailable or hard to access. Thanks to the amazing efforts of
staff and volunteers, those metrics are now available and updated regularly
online. The purpose of the meeting thus shifted to focus on sharing
progress updates and information from across the movement. We have realized
however that this approach limits our ability to connect across languages
and provide the level of detail necessary to create impact. In addition,
interest in the meeting has remained steady, but is has not grown, and
there has been a decrease of interest in presenting.
Fortunately, we have new methods of outreach that allow us to connect with
wider audiences.. The new Wikimedia Foundation website, discussed at last
month's meeting, has a greater ability to communicate across languages and
is already helping us reach more people.[1] We are discussing ways to
further expand this support. The new Wikimedia Space project that will be
discussed at this month's meeting provides a central, real-time space to
have discussions and share information on activities across the movement.[2]
We appreciate all of the feedback people have provided over the years, and
will continue to reflect on any additional input you may have. I also want
to personally thank the dozens of people that presented over the years and
the evolving core team that worked every month to put the meeting on. They
often made it look easy, and I know that is not always the case.
Thank you, and I will have more on this topic during tomorrow's meeting.
-greg
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/
[2] https://space.wmflabs.org/
--
Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hi everyone,
I have some news to share about recent leadership appointments to our Board
of Trustees.
Shani Evenstein Sigalov, currently an EdTech Innovation Strategist and
lecturer at the School of Medicine in Tel Aviv University, will be the
newest member of the Board of Trustees.
Shani has been a part of the Wikimedia movement since 2011, and has focused
her contributions on closing gender and knowledge gaps by supporting female
contributors and thematic groups, working with indigenous communities and
promoting equitable access to knowledge. She has served leadership roles in
several Wikimedia affiliates and thematic groups, including as the
Chairperson for both Wikimedia Medicine and the Wikipedia and Education
User Group, and as a Board member of Wikimedia Israel. She is also
currently a member of the Partnerships Strategy working group as part of
the Movement Strategy. She joins the Board with a depth of experience in
creating successful collaborations between Wikipedia and other free
knowledge projects and educational, cultural and government institutions.
In addition, I have been re-elected as Board Chair, and Nataliia Tymkiv has
been elected as Vice Chair after being appointed for her second term.
Please join me in congratulating Shani and Nataliia! And as Christophe's
term comes to an end, the Board gratefully thanks him for his service and
commitment to the mission, and we hope you will join us in thanking him as
well!
Below (and on the Wikimedia Blog) you will find the official announcement
about these new leadership appointments. You can find below the rest of the
appointments.
Audit Committee
-
Chair: Tanya Capuano
-
Members: Raju Narisetti, Shani Evenstein
-
Alternates: María Sefidari
Board Governance Committee
-
Chair: Lisa Lewin
-
Members: María Sefidari, Dariusz Jemielniak
-
Alternates: Esra’a Al Shafei
Human Resources Committee
-
Chair: Dariusz Jemielniak
-
Members: Raju Narisetti, Tanya Capuano
-
Alternates: Lisa Lewin, María Sefidari
Special Projects Committee
-
Chair: James Heilman
-
Members: Esra’a Al Shafei, Jimmy Wales
-
Alternates: Shani Evenstein
Affiliations Committee liaisons: Shani Evenstein, James Heilman, Nataliia
Tymkiv (alternate)
Funds Dissemination Committee liaisons: Dariusz Jemielniak, Esra’a Al Shafei
Election Committee liaison: Esra’a Al Shafei
Language Committee liaison: James Heilman
Kind regards,
María
Hi everyone,
I’m excited to let you all know that Ryan Merkley, formerly CEO of Creative
Commons, is joining the Wikimedia Foundation as my new chief of staff.
Many of you have met Ryan before -- at CC Summit, Wikimania, Wikimedia
Summit, or MozFest. He’s a leader in open source, open knowledge, and
free-culture communities, and for the past five years, he’s been the CEO of
Creative Commons, initiating programs like CC search to index all 1.6
billion licensed works online. He’s passionate about the power of the
commons, and the role that everyone can play in making it sustainable and
open to all. I couldn’t be happier he’s now bringing this passion and
experience to our movement.
In Ryan’s own words, “My heart has always been in open communities, and
the power of collective acts -- that is, the things that people can only
do when they work together, like building a commons of free knowledge for
every person.”
For now, Ryan’s two top priorities will be bolstering the work of the
movement strategy team and supporting the Board. He’ll support the strategy
core team to move the Working Group recommendations into implementation
within the community and Foundation over the course of the coming year.
He’ll also serve as Board liaison to the Board of Trustees, strengthening
the connections, communications, and coordination between Trustees and the
Foundation. Internally, he’ll support the office of the Executive Director,
acting in my stead on various projects.
I’m excited by this new role for an old friend of the open community. Ryan
knows our movement well. He has spent many hours with many Wikimedians, and
understands the centrality of the community to the Wikimedia mission and
identity. His background as a partner to Wikimedia, and a leader in the
broader open movement will be invaluable to our work, and confirmation of
the importance of community experience in Foundation leadership.
Ryan doesn’t start in his new role until Monday, September 16th. However,
he will be at Wikimania, so for those of you attending, please say hi, and
join me in welcoming him to Wikimedia!
Katherine
P.S. This announcement can also be found on our news page:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/08/13/wikimedia-foundation-welcom…
--
Katherine Maher (she/her)
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>