[Wikimedia-l] Announcement: Jan Eissfeldt joins Wikimedia Foundation as Community Advocate

[Philippe Beaudette]

Dear all,

I am delighted to announce the expansion of the Wikimedia Foundation's
Community Advocacy team to include our newest hire, Jan Eissfeldt, whose
work will be focused on the German and Spanish language sites.  Jan, who
made his first contributions to the German language Wikipedia in early 2004
and works on modern philosophers on the Spanish language project, will help
us with his specialized academic background. Jan holds a German BA in
social science and philosophy with an intercultural profile.  His main
theme - carried over into MA studies - is argumentation theory. This
combination of being rooted in the editing community and providing
analytical skills will help us to better understand the German and Spanish
projects, and to serve our non-English language communities in general.
English language folks might have come across his name during 2012 as he
edited the Signpost's feature News & Notes.

The community advocacy team, you may recall, is an attempt to shore up the
Foundation's knowledge of non-English speaking projects, and facilitates
strategic change by providing knowledge and skills about communities that
the Foundation increasingly interacts with through the Engineering team's
frequent technical improvements, through grant-making, our legal work, and
the other activities of the Foundation.  In our attempts to learn more
about these communities, get their input during the formation of
initiatives, and figure out how best to deliver initiatives to them, Jan
will be joined by one more hire (soon to be announced, I hope).

Jan will work from his home in Germany, will report to me, and will also
work closely with Maggie, who will serve as his mentor and will help to
organize and lead our community advocates as they are hired.

Please welcome Jan to the Foundation, though he's been a part of the
movement for years!

pb
___________________
Philippe Beaudette
Director, Community Advocacy
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

415-839-6885, x 6643

philippe at wikimedia.org