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
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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
Hi everyone,
I'm delighted to announce that the Wikimedia Foundation's Annual Plan for
FY18-19 is now on Meta[1].
This year, we have organized our efforts around three goals that focus on
making critical improvements to our systems and structures to ensure that
we’re better positioned for our coming work against the strategic
direction[2]. The Foundation’s goals for this year should not only move us
closer to knowledge equity and service, but will prepare us to execute
against the 3- to 5-year strategic plan which we intend to develop this
year in order to guide the Foundation’s work into the future.
As you’ll see, we’ve made some changes to the structure of this year’s
annual plan. This year’s plan is organized around three goals for the
Foundation’s work in the year to come. By restructuring the Annual Plan, we
have written a plan for the whole Foundation, rather than an aggregation
of plans from all of our departments and teams. In this sense, we’re
seeking to become a better-integrated institution, rather than a collection
of teams and departments with disparate goals.
We’ve also reduced the overall length of the published Annual Plan. We
wanted to make sure that the focus and goals of our work don’t get lost in
the details. Of course, we know that many community members enjoy reading
the particulars of our planned work, so you can still access the details of
departmental programs through links to their descriptions on Meta or
MediaWiki.org. These links will provide interested readers with detailed
departmental programs, which describe the specific and detailed program
goals, impact and outcomes. This change does not sacrifice the depth and
rigor of our planning process, but rather, it is meant to keep the Annual
Plan lean and focused while allowing interested readers to dive deep into
the details.
Finally, we’ve expanded the planning framework we instituted last year for
cross-departmental programs to all of our programs across the Foundation.
This allows us to clearly link a program’s resources to outcomes and
measures. As such, we’ve presented the Annual Plan budget in terms of our
investments in the three defined goals rather than in terms of our internal
organizational structure.
Thank you all for your support over the past year. I'm really looking
forward to your feedback on this year's proposed plan during the open
comment period -- a reminder it runs through May 15th.
Thanks!
Katherine
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_
Annual_Plan/2018-2019/Draft
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017
--
Katherine Maher
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery Street, Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
+1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635 <(415)%20839-6885>
+1 (415) 712 4873 <(415)%20712-4873>
kmaher(a)wikimedia.org
https://annual.wikimedia.org
The Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates
Wikipedia, the world’s largest online repository of free knowledge, believe
that the European Union’s proposed copyright directive is a threat to
essential human freedoms. If passed, it would limit free expression, and
cause serious harm to collaboration and diversity online.
Over the last few months, the Wikimedia Foundation has been watching
developments around new proposed copyright laws in Europe very closely.
On June 20, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament voted to
support proposed copyright laws that, if enacted, will significantly limit
the openness of the internet, diminishing the ability of people around the
globe to access knowledge, while stifling innovation and imposing what we
believe will be unreasonable costs on new or smaller websites. We expressed
our opposition to these proposals at the time, and the Wikimedia Foundation
-- along with many in the Wikimedia movement—advocated against them. We now
do so again as we approach July 5th, which will be another critical moment
in the legislative process as the issue comes up for a vote once again.
The Wikimedia Foundation and its projects exist to harness the power of a
free and open web to make knowledge more accessible for everyone. Our
mission to create a world where everyone can share in the sum of human
knowledge requires a web in which all people can freely collaborate to
create and access knowledge.
This flawed EU copyright proposal contradicts that vision.
Instead of truly modernizing copyright for Europe and promoting everyone's
participation in information society, the proposal threatens freedom online
and creates new obstacles to access by imposing new barriers, filters, and
restrictions.
We are committed to remaining a strong advocate and partner for enabling
society’s ability to share and curate knowledge in free and open spaces.
Now is the time to stand up for the free and open internet.
Today we, as Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, *unanimously and
strongly*, urge the European Parliament and Council *to oppose* the
proposed directive in its current version and stand on the side of the
people in Europe. Please read the Wikimedia Foundation's statement on EU
copyright reform
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2018/06/29/eu-copyright-proposal-will-hurt-web-w…>
and take action at Changecopyright.org <https://changecopyright.org/>.
On behalf of the Board,
María Sefidari
Vice Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
Hello everyone,
The next Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting will take
place on Thursday, June 28, 2018 at 6:00 PM UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC
channel is #wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the
meeting will be broadcast as a live YouTube stream.[1] We’ll post the video
recording publicly after the meeting.
During the June 2018 meeting, we will hear about new improvements to maps
on Wikimedia projects and different paths of contribution as an editor on
Wikipedia.
Meeting agenda:
* Welcome and introduction
* Movement update
* Map improvements 2018
* Understanding workflows for editors
* Questions and discussion
* Wikilove
Please review the meeting's Meta-Wiki page for further information about
the meeting and how to participate:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities…
You can also sign up to participate in future meetings on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities…
Due to Wikimania, information about the next metrics & activities meeting
will be coming soon.
Thank you,
Lena
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otAX58IZ6KA
Lena Traer
Project Coordinator // Communications // Advancement
Wikimedia Foundation
Dear members of the Wikimedia community,
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, I write to
confirm that the board has approved [1] the full slate of the FDC’s Round 2
2017-2018 recommendations [2] for the Annual Plan Grants. In this round, 5
organizations will be receiving a total of roughly US $1,517,363. Grants
are made in local currency, so the USD figure is approximate.
The Board wants to thank the Funds Dissemination Committee members and
staff for the time and effort they have put into this process, as well as
all members of the community who have participated in this round of review,
analysis and deliberations. We appreciate and value the efforts put in this
process.
Thank you to all the organizations who submitted proposals in this round,
and for the work that the volunteers and staff of these organizations have
put in to further our movement’s mission.
Volunteers are at the heart of the Funds Dissemination Committee. We are
lucky to have a committee comprised of nine dedicated community members who
give a lot of their time and energy into making this funding program a
reality. We thank you all for your work this year!
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Board_approval_of_FDC_
recommendation_(2017-18,_Round_2)
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_
recommendations/2017-2018_Round_2
Best regards,
antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv, on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of
Trustees
*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working
hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You
should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in
advance!*
Hi all,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees has approved and published
minutes from its meeting on April 19, 2018:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2018-04-19
Best,
Charles M. Roslof
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
croslof(a)wikimedia.org
(415) 839-6885
NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical
reasons I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.