Grants:Conference/Committee/Candidates/Archive

Conference Grants Committee
Archived Candidate Statements

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Conference Grants Committee Candidate Statements

• Being member of the PEG and IEG committee since their foundation, I appreciate if I could join to this new adventure. My background is various, I am a technician certified in project management but graduated in philosophy and literature too. I operate within Wikimedia Switzerland in the organization of events, to manage the community and in national projects. Ilario (talk) 20:14, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
• I am already a member of GAC and I would be glad to work here too: I was quite inactive for recent 4-5 months but now I am back and am sure that will have to work for at least 6 months rubin16 (talk) 18:27, 10 May 2016 (UTC)
• I am member of GAC and I am interested in joining as a member in this committee too. Regards - Violetova (talk) 18:24, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
• I'm already an IEG committee member -not from the beginning-, and I really appreciate if I could participate in this new committee. I have 10 years in the Wikimedia movement (11 years in this June). In the Wikimedia organizations, I was a Wikimedia Chile founder member, and currently, I'm board member of Wikimedia Chile. In the past I've receipt three Wikimedia scholarships to participate in Wikimania (2011, 2013, 2016): I know the effectiveness of the participation in some conferences and talks for minor organizations and volunteers in our movement. In Wikimedia Chile, we was organizer of three conferences: I know the main problems -some solutions too- and other issues about the human resources and other tasks related with the organization of a conference. Thanks in advance Superzerocool (talk) 19:49, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
• I'm a member of WMIL and former board member, and a member the WMIL grants committee. I have been involved in organizing, facilitating or volunteering at Wikimania, the international hackathon, and local WikiAcademy conferences. Also I have participated in Wikimanias in 2011–2015 (so far), and the 2015 Wikimedia conference. Interested in joining this committee to both better understand conference organization processes in other countries, and share my experience with organizing conferences in Israel. —Ynhockey (talk) 10:49, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
• I am Wikimedian since the end of 2005. In wikiverse, I have organized and co-organized many outreach and presentational and PR activities as well as I've been involved in logistics of various international meetings, utilizing my long-term experiences from such area in the real life, so I guess I have quite good overview of needs in this areas. I am very careful about reasonable spending of resources and quite meticulous with processes to prevent misuse or abuse of resources. I have rich experience and significant success with sponsors/donors/partners lookup either in wiki or real life, where the basic principles of dealing with given resources are the same like dealing with grants. So as a person who has many years of experience of dealing with sponsors, donors or long-term partners I can bring also this point of view to the grant process. I am also interested in statistics and comparisons of spendings.
  — Danny B. 10:11, 7 June 2016 (UTC)
• Wikimedian since 2007. I have been planning, executing and/or evaluating project and and annual plans in various roles in the movement: as a volunteer and Executive Director of Wikimedia Serbia and as a member of the GAC and EGC committees. Thereby I could gather a profound understanding of the diversity of needs and contexts of various Wikimedia groups and organizations and gain an understanding of the dynamics of their development over time. I would be happy to bring in this broad perspective and experience of our movement to the committee and to share it with current and potential applicants in a process of mutual learning and capacity building. — MikyM
• I was a member of IEG and being a principal Organizer of the Second edition of the Wiki Indaba Conference I believe I can bring my pre and post conference experience to bear on this Community. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Rberchie (talk) 00:38, 24 June 2017 (UTC)
• I am already a member of GAC and I would be glad to work here too: I was quite inactive for recent 4-5 months but now I am back and am sure that will have to work for at least 6 months Mohamedudhuman05 (talk) 18:27, 12 Feb 2018 (UTC)
• Tulsi Bhagat is my identity; I belong from Nepal. I have been a Wikimedian since 2014 and actively involved in various online and offline Wiki activities. I have dealt with different WMF's grants a few times. Currently, I am playing a major role in organizing Wikicamp Nepal 2018. As a Management student in real life, I have good knowledge of handling the projects and funds. I believe, I have decent level of experience and learning enthusiasm to be the part of this candidates' selection and the committee. Kind regards, — TBhagat (contribs | talk) 16:21, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
• Currently, I serve as the board member of Wikimedia India Chapter. I mostly contribute to English Wikipedia, Hindi Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. I am not only active on-wiki but also have helped the Wikimedia Community in various outreach activities which include conducting edit-a-thon, photo walks, GLAM projects, digitisation workshops, etc. I have attended the Wikimedia Conference and actively contributed towards the Movement Strategy 2030. I was in the Finance Committee for Wiki Conference India, 2016. I hold a Masters degree in Accounting and Taxation, so I am well versed with numbers, viz, budgeting & planning making me a good fit for the role. I also have had experience while working with the United Nations Development Program which involved handling of high-profile project grants. I have served as a board member or advisor on an array of non-profit boards which involved handling money and working within the budgets. My past work experience would reveal that I do possess the required attributes and attitude to constructively contribute to the Conference Grants Committee. Sankoswal (talk) 23:29, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

Candidate: L235

• Hi, I'm Kevin; I've edited Wikimedia projects for about five and a half years, during which time I've been to a large number of Wikimedia conferences and meetups, including a couple I've organized or co-organized (see w:en:User:L235/Meetups). (In particular, I was the lead organizer and WMF grantee for Stanford Wikipedia Day 2019.) I hold leadership positions in a number of nonprofit groups, including a board seat on a nonprofit with an annual budget over US$500,000. Within Wikimedia, my primary project has been the English Wikipedia, where I'm currently an administrator, CheckUser, Oversighter, and Arbitration Committee clerk.
  Conferences, when done right, can have a huge payoff. The first conference I attended, WikiConference North America in San Diego, really changed my relationship with the Wikimedia movement. I was feeling some burnout at the time and probably would have stopped editing around that time had I not attended WCNA. After WCNA, having had that first incredible experience meeting other Wikimedians in a large group, I left invigorated with new projects and connections. Conferences can be a great way to invigorate and connect hundreds of Wikimedians at once, both in established communities as well as for communities that we hope to nurture and grow (such as in the Global South). The other thing that conferences have been excellent at is creating a space for focused collaboration and work on narrower topics, which is something I experienced especially at WikiCite. At the core of all good conferences, too, of course, is a superb organizing team.
  Please let me know if I can provide anything else that would be helpful. Best, Kevin (aka L235 · t · enwiki) 03:39, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Candidate: Masssly

• I have been active on the Wikimedia projects for more than 8 years since 2011, and have been a grantee to a number of projects. I am a community leader who has led a number of Wikipedia and Wikidata workshops in my region. I'm involved in various structure groups of the Wikimedia Foundation, including the Wikimedia Foundation Board Election Committee, WikidataCon 2017 Program committee, Wikimedia Foundation Communication Committee, co-editor of the Wikimedia Research Newsletter and past member of the Wikimedia Volunteer Response Team. I've had the pleasure of working in the past as an intern with the Community Resources team of the Wikimedia Foundation, during which period I helped facilitate Wikimedia Foundations’s Funds Dissemination Committee deliberations, and supported Community Capacity Development research in emerging communities in the Global South. I'm currently a member of the leadership collective of Art+Feminism, which is an annual worldwide edit-a-thon to improve coverage of women and feminism on Wikipedia. The combined effect of these experiences has broadened my perspective of Wikipedia’s diverse demographic communities and given me a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by our volunteer community and partners. I also have a clear understanding of how the general public engage with crowdsourced projects like the Wikip[m]dia projects, and their perceptions of open-access information. In my personal life, I work as a university teacher in Ghana. I have in the past deliberated the impact of Wikimedia Foundation grants especially in the Global South, and I am looking for an opportunity to be able to add a voice to advance equity and diversity in the evaluation of Conference & Event Grants.—M@sssly^✉ 13:01, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Candidate: Celestinesucess

• I became a member of the Wikimedia volunteer community in 2015 since then, I have been very active, contributing content as an editor and recruiting new volunteers through my organization of projects. I have led and been part of the organising team of several Wikimedia Foundation projects including Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Folkore, Art and Feminism, Wiki Indaba 2017 Conference, Twi Wikipedia Translatathon, Wiki Tours the North of Ghana and many more. I am currently leading a one year project funded by the Wikimedia Foundation which seeks to create awareness about Wikidata and establish partnerships with GLAM institutions in Ghana with the goal of training them to share their collections on Wikidata, Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. I currently serve as the Executive Director of the Global Open Initiative, the Regional Anglophone ambassador of Artandfeminism and a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Project Grants Committee. An opportunity to serve on the Conference Grants Committee will not only give me a chance to learn more but it will also serve as a platform for me to share and put to use my experiences. Also, adding my voice to advance equity and diversity in the evaluation of Conference & Event Grants will mean so much to me and at the same time inspire other young females from my community whom I mentor.
  In the book, Think and Grow Rich, it was said that Napolleon Hill analyzed hundreds of successful men and discovered that all of them had a habit in common, which was to exchange ideas through conferences. It was said that, whenever these successful men had problems to solve, they sat together and talked freely till they discovered a solution. I believe this is true and it works because I have witnessed this through the non Wikimedia and the few Wikimedia conferences I have attended so far. Conferences create a space for Wikimedians to sit together, learn from each other, discuss the challenges we face in our communities and then try to come up with effective solutions which can solve our problems.
  Another reason why I believe conferences are so important is that, again through the few times I participated in Wikimedia conferences I had the chance to meet and network with diverse people who were either WMF staff or volunteers and for some, we ended up collaborating on projects together.
  Again for me, every time I attend Wikimedia conferences I return to my home country very inspired, motivated and gingered to continue to do more for my community. Celestinesucess (talk) 13:46, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

Candidate: Smirkybec

• I am Rebecca O'Neill, the Project Coordinator for Wikimedia Community Ireland and an active member of the Wikimedia movement since 2014. I have been involved in all the activities of WCI since its inception, from Wiki Loves Monuments, editathons, workshops, teaching Wikipedia editing in education, partnering with GLAMs, helping in the organisation of a conference focused on Wikipedia in university education in Maynooth University in 2018, and more recently the first virtual edition of the Celtic Knot Conference 2020. I have attended two Wikimanias (London and Mexico), several Wikimedia Conference/Summits in Berlin, the Celtic Knot conference since 2017, the Wikimedia Diversity conference in Stockholm, as well as a number of smaller GLAM meetups in Europe.
  Having been involved in the more traditional conference organisation in Maynooth and a completely virtual and remote Celtic Knot, I have had first hand experience of the benefits and challenges each of these formats presents. While there can be very positive effects from the communal experience of a physical conference, with the recent pandemic as well as increased awareness of the negative effects of air travel, moving to more virtual access or virtually hosted conferences and events may be the way to overcome a number of issues with accessibility to our wide range of Wikimedia conferences.
  Having been involved in one of the working groups in the Movement Strategy, I have become aware of the many barriers many people face when wanting to engage with the Wikimedia movement meaningfully through conferences. These barriers can be visas, lack of spare time or other capacity, or disabilities for which no provision has been made. For me, designing events (in-person or virtual) needs to reflect and take action on how it can be the most welcoming and inclusive event or space possible. Ideally this should be pro-active and not reactive, and not place the onus on those wanting to attend to raise any potential barriers, but instead be designed to be as open and inclusive as possible from the outset while also being aware of needing to flexible if not all barriers were identified. Smirkybec (talk) 14:52, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

Candidate: T Cells

I have been actively involved in the Wikimedia movement for more than 6 years with experience in project management, volunteer recruitment and retention. I am a sysop on the Yoruba language Wikipedia and I have lead over 35 Wikimedia trainings/workshops and mentored at least 10 editors who are not only active in Wikimedia projects but also drive the Wikimedia movements in Africa. I am one of the two founders of Wikimedia User Group Nigeria (now Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc.) and I am currently the Board Secretary of Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc. In addition, I am a cofounder and executive member of Yoruba Wikimedians User Group.

I am the founder and coordinator of the WPWP Campaign, an international campaign to promote the use of images hosted in Commons on Wikipedia articles.

I have the relevant experience to serve on the Conference Grant Committee as a serving member of the Project Grant Committee and a former member of the Individual Engagement Grant Committee. In addition, I cochaired the Wiki Indaba 2019 and served as the Chair of the Scholarship Review Committee (SRC). I have also been recently elected as a member of the Wiki Indaba Steering Committee (WISCOM).

Conferences are valuable to the Wikimedia movement as it provide a platform for learning, capacity building and sharing of experiences and ideas by volunteers and staff members. Conferences also provide opportunities for face-to-face rapport-building, connections between existing Wikimedia volunteers and community members to strengthening personal relationships between the participants and to improve the community health of the Wikimedia movement.

As someone who has co-organized a regional conference, I am very familiar with the key factors that are most important for planning an effective conference. These factors include but not limited to understanding the goals of the conference, the safety of attendees, good venue (it's size, accessibility, internet), timeline and good program design to mention a few.

I believe I have the relevant experience and knowledge to serve on the committee. T Cells^Talk 22:35, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

Candidate: Paulina Lordméndez

• I’m Paulina Lordméndez, current secretary of Wikimedia Mexico and member of the Communications Comittee. I’ve been editing Wikipedia since 2014 and volunteered for Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City. Since then I’ve atended to several conferences such WikiWomen Camp 2017 in Mexico City, WikiConference North America 2018 in Columbus, Ohio and Wikimedia Summit 2019 in Berlin.
  I think conferences for Wikimedia are important for sharing knowledge about our projects but also because you get to know the people that are actually making things happen and this is one of the most important things for our movement, this is the moment when we really build our community. This is when we connect face to face as human beings and apart from a screen, when we get to know the person behind the username.
  This being said, it’s extremely important to continue in this path being aware of what is important and necessary for our community, prioritize matters and analize how are we covering them. This is why we need a very diverse comittee that help us get sure the community is well represented and the movement is getting close to support equally each of our chapters, user groups, volunteers, editors, and so on.
  I would like to be in this comittee because I’m part of a chapter that is actively organizing events to grow mexican community, we work close to other latin chapters and got lucky enough to get to know the people behind the movement. What I can bring to this comitte is that knowledge I’ve gain as volunteer, but also my professional skills in managing budgets, strategic planning, events planning, communications, marketing, content and media. Paulina Lordméndez (talk) 01:20, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

Candidate: Discott

• Douglas Scott, president of Wikimedia South Africa, lead organiser of Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town and co-organiser of the first Wiki Indaba conference in 2014. I have been an active editor on English Wikipedia since 2006. Currently I am deeply involved in trying to get South African copyright law amended to include Freedom of Panorama and Fair Use. Legal conventions and terms that will making editing Wikipedia much easier in the country. In my day job I am a criminologist.
  My involvement in conference hosting have given me considerable experience in many aspects of conference organisation. Ranging from scheduling, catering, accommodation, to securing visas (a particular issue for participants from African countries) and accessibility as well as inclusivity. As a volunteer community leader in Wikimedia South Africa I have organised, hosted and lead many community events. Both face-to-face and digital. Ranging from editathons to GLAM events, partnership building, hosting meetups, to photographic competitions (I was the lead organiser of Wiki Loves Monuments South Africa in 2013, 2014, and 2015). As lead organiser for Wikimania 2018 I worked hard to increase the inclusivity of the event for people generally and people from Africa especially. The focus on Africa for Wikimania 2018 was due to the lack of access to community events experienced by most African community members due to cost, visa and other reasons; thereby resulting in the unintentional geographic based exclusion of this community. This dovetaled with the theme of Wikimania 2018 that sought to increase diversity within the community by encouraging a greater diversity of community members and how that benefits the movement.
  I am a strong believer in community building events like Wikimania and our regional conferences. I believe that the free knowledge project (such as Wikipedia, Commons, etc.) can only be successful if our community is strong. The community building and knowledge sharing aspects of our conferences is a vital tool to build and strengthen our community. I feel that both my experience and commitment makes me a good candidate to serve in on this committee.--Discott (talk) 10:34, 11 September 2020 (UTC)

Candidate: Felipe da Fonseca

I conceived and organized the first Wikisul meeting, held in conjunction with the Federal University of Santa Catarina. [[1]]

2.Why do you think conferences are valuable to our movement? OR What three factors are most important for planning an effective conference?

I believe that face-to-face events are of the utmost importance to strengthen the bonds of the community; this is, without a doubt, the main advantage of face-to-face meetings. Until today I have a close contact with the Wikimedians I met at the first Wikisul meeting, and the trust between us is very strong.

3. Please include a brief statement about yourself.

From my user page: About me: I have a degree in law and philosophy, a master's in philosophy, and a doctorate in philosophy in a binational doctorate (Brazil and Germany), with a thesis written and defended in German on the application of Practical Philosophy to Law. I have a post-doctoral internship in Philosophy and am currently researching topics in Philosophy of Globalization. I am an amateur triathlete and an amateur water marathoner. As a triathlete I focus on 70.3 races and as a water marathoner I have just created and completed a 16km race in my region the Travessia Três Fortalezas.

My work: Currently my work within the wikimedia movement consists of three fronts: a) administration of pt.wiki, which I center on blocking issues, both in judging concrete cases and in restructuring our current blocking policy; b) creation and development of Wikisul, a user group that aims to bring Wikimedia closer to universities; c) create a more effective bridge of communication and work between Meta and WMF on the one hand and pt.wiki on the other. Felipe da Fonseca (talk) 22:52, 17 May 2021 (UTC)