[Foundation-l] New members of Language committee

[Milos Rancic]

I am glad to announce that Language committee is stronger for three
new members. By the time of getting their applications, the list is:

Ζαχαρίας Διακονικολάου (Zaharias Diakonikolau) (meta:User:ZaDiak)
* languages spoken: el, en-4, de-2, grc-2, pnt-1
* living in: Europe, Greece, Rhodes
* reason for inclusion: A couple of months ago Language committee
announced that it is searching for members from the [types of]
projects which don't have Wikipedia-like dynamics. Zaharias has passed
as an applicant from Wikiversity (he is admin at Beta Wikiversity and
bureaucrat at Greek Wikiversity). However, his qualifications go
further: he is actively working on creation, editing and promoting
projects in various Greek languages. Knowing that he is young, he will
be our long term investment, too.

Oliver Stegen]] (meta:User:Baba Tabita)
* languages spoken: de, en-4, sw-3 <small style="color:gray;">nl-1, fr-1</small>
* living in: Africa, Kenya, Nairobi (from Europe, Germany)
* reason for inclusion: Oliver is a linguist who is working for SIL on
East African languages. We'll have one ultra-relevant expert in
LangCom thanks to Jon Harald Søby, one of the LangCom members, who met
Oliver in Nairobi.

Santhosh Thottingal]] (meta:User:Santhosh.thottingal)
* languages spoken: ml, hi-3, en-3, ta-2,
* living in: Asia, India, Chennai (Madras)
* reason for inclusion: Santhosh is a free software guru interested in
languages. He will help us in articulating projects for covering
language-related needs of Wikimedia projects.

I want to add one more point related to Santhosh. He has passed as a
LangCom member not because he is from India, but because he has
relevant expertise and right attitude. Although he speaks three Indian
languages, he has become a member of LangCom because he is a free
software guru interested in languages. Before Santhosh's application,
we would have been happy to see anyone with this qualification and
this attitude, no matter of location of birth or residence.

However, Bishakha's question and subsequent conversation helped, as it
gave impulse to Santhosh to submit the application. And that brings to
my mind that it would be good to pass the whole world periodically and
raise the geographical equality issue. And it is not a joke. That's
obviously giving people courage, or at least the idea, that they have
the same right to become members of any Wikimedia body, as any
Westerner has. Sometimes the qualifications won't be relevant for
particular position, sometimes they will.