Erik,
I can only +1 most of the comments made here. You have been an important companion since I joined WMDE in 2010 and it is hard to imagine the movement without you. I hope you and your wisdom will remain on our side.
Thank you for your trust and support, and don't forget to swing by and say Hi anytime you are in Berlin. And of course I am looking forward to hearing what you are up to in the future.
Nicole
On 14 April 2015 at 10:46, Hasive Nurunnaby nhasive@wikimedia.org.bd wrote:
Hello Erik, best wishes on your new journey and Thanks to you for everything.
Hasive
On Tue, Apr 14, 2015 at 2:29 PM, Jan-Bart de Vreede <jdevreede@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Dear Erik,
Not sure where to begin :(
Because words cannot begin how important your contribution to Wikimedia so far has been. When I started on the board in 2007 you were a little impatient with your new fellow board member for simply “not getting it” (fair comment, some would argue that 8 years later I still don’t get it so there). In the following months I learned to admire not just your expertise but also your unwavering belief in our mission. You made clear what “being bold” meant on several occasions. Sue could not have picked a better deputy to help her set up the foundation in San Francisco and you deserve a large part of the credit for what we have achieved (as it witnessed in this thread).
But there are two things that have always impressed me beyond all others:
- Knowing what the “right thing” to do is in terms of our movement and
mission. I have sought you out many times for advice, and have not regretted it once. Even if I did not agree your perspective always got me thinking and helped me form a better opinion. 2) Your ability to always be frank, but also take the time to reach out and spend the time to explain things when needed (and take the criticism for it). Several emails to this mailing list are proof of that.
But I can understand your decision that “the time has come”. I might not agree, but I am not sure I will ever agree with it…. working with you has made me a better person and hopefully we will have the chance to do so again somewhere in the future.
As a very small consolation: I am excited to find out what cause you will actively support next, and I am sure that your path and that of our community will continue to cross regularly.
From the bottom of my heart: THANK YOU!
Jan-Bart “your henchman” de Vreede
On 13 Apr 2015, at 20:12, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi all --
As Lila noted, since January 2008 I've worn many hats at the Wikimedia Foundation, and in the six years before that I was a Wikipedian, MediaWiki developer, and member of the WMF board of trustees. I became involved in Wikipedia when I was 22 years old. :) The Wikimedia movement has accomplished amazing things, but I believe it's time now for me to do something different and new.
It's been a long and incredible journey, and one I am privileged to have helped to shape. When I joined the Foundation in December 2007 we were a staff of a dozen people, with barely enough funds to keep the lights on. Since then, we've tackled challenges of a complexity and scale faced by few other organisations. In doing so, we’ve been generously supported by people all over the world who are grateful for the gift of free knowledge.
I’m proud of and happy with what we've achieved. Reaching people on mobile. Pioneering new approaches working with universities. Painstakingly building a visual editing experience on top of wikitext. :) I’m glad we’ve taken a stand when it matters (SOPA blackout, NSA lawsuit) and that we don’t shy away from complex issues such as community health and diversity.
I’m excited that Wikidata is growing in leaps and bounds with the help of Wikimedia Germany, and that more and more powerful tools and services are being built on the basis of Wikimedia APIs and data. I’ve always believed that Wikimedia chapter and affiliate organizations are key to the success of the movement, and I hope they are going to truly thrive in years to come.
But it's time. As the leadership team begins to coalesce under Lila, I want to open up space for the organization to learn and explore anew -- and I’d like to rediscover for myself what it means to tackle challenges outside of my areas of comfort and familiarity.
I’m very interested in the technical challenges of federated collaboration, and am looking forward to getting my hands dirty in that domain. I also want to explore how to make patterns of ethics, policy, and self-governance more accessible and re-usable for communities. In short, I’m itching to immerse myself in new problem spaces and new ideas.
Lila, Damon, Terry, myself and others in the org have been discussing how to organize product going forward to set the org up for success in the years to come, and we’ll have an update on that very soon. This is a very natural point for me to pursue something new.
What Wikimedia does in the world is wonderful & important. I’m sure I will continue to cross paths with many of you in future as I continue to move in free culture circles, and I very much look forward to it.
I’ll continue to be @ WMF full-time through April, and will make myself available as necessary afterwards, for when the org needs human institutional memory that surpasses digital archives. I wish you all success and joy :-)
Love,
Erik
Erik Möller VP of Product & Strategy, Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- *Hasive **Nurunnaby Chowdhury** :: **নুরুন্নবী চৌধুরী **হাছিব* Global User: Hasive http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Hasive
Administrator | Bengali Wikipedia http://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Hasive Member | GAC Committee, Wikimedia Foundation http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Grant_Advisory_Committee Member | IEG Committee, Wikimedia Foundation https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/People Director | Wikimedia Bangladesh Operations Committee http://www.wikimedia.org.bd fb.com/Hasive http://fb.com/itsNCH | @nhasive http://www.twitter.com/nhasive | Skype: nhasive | www.nhasive.com _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe