User:Benoit Rochon

Benoit Rochon

Coordinator, Wikimedia Canada

About me

I am a French Canadian from the province of Québec. I have studied in radio journalism, French literature, sommelier studies.

Between 1997 and 2003, I had the chance to visit twelve countries by hitchhiking, which made me curious about cultures, usages, languages, art, history, architecture ... I even discovered a passion for photography! Which explains my interest in Wikimedia projects!

Hitchhiking on route 132 in Gaspé Peninsula.

Since 2003, I work full time for a national telecommunications company. I am lucky that this company is philanthropist and encourages voluntary initiatives such as the Wikimedia projects, which gives me a lot of latitude within Wikimedia Canada. I also like sports, gastronomy and wines.

My work

I discovered Wikipedia in 2003 during a search of recyclable materials for a university course. First I corrected a mistake, then having more material accumulated for my research that Wikipedia had, I timidly started to complete related articles for recycling. Since that time, I did not spend a single day without Wikipedia, a love story!

In 2011, the Canadian chapter is approved by the Wikimedia Foundation and I am elected to the Board of Directors. My role is to coordinate the efforts of Canadians Wikimedians who wish to manage projects, meanning to initiate a project in line with the mission of Wikimedia, finding funds, creating local Wikimedians craze and bring the project to fruition.

In the French-speaking province of Quebec, several active Wikimedians occur and I co-founded the Quebec Committee, a working group was particularly active in French Wikipedia. To date, we are the most active group of Wikimedia Canada, we have forged links with Wikimedia France and we have a lot of success with our projects: