Movement Charter/Drafting Committee/Candidates

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This page contains the statements candidates running for the Movement Charter's Drafting Committee. Interested candidates were invited to nominate themselves on this page from 2 August until 14 September 2021 AoE ( UTC). The Committee is expected to start with 15 people.

The elections were held October 12, 10:00 UTC to October 24, 2021 23:59 AoE ( UTC – UTC). According to the set up process, the seven top ranking candidates in the elections will receive places. Other candidates who applied here will be selected by affiliates and the Wikimedia Foundation during a separate process in the same period.

Composition[edit]

Election-chosen members[edit]

The top seven ranking candidates in the open elections will be announced on 31 October 2021 or later:

  1. Richard Knipel (Pharos)
  2. Anne Clin (Risker)
  3. Alice Wiegand (Lyzzy)
  4. Michał Buczyński (Aegis Maelstrom)
  5. Richard (Nosebagbear)
  6. Ravan J Al-Taie (Ravan)
  7. Ciell (Ciell)

Affiliate-chosen members[edit]

The top six ranking candidates in the affiliates selection process will be announced on 31 October 2021 or later:

  1. Anass Sedrati (Anass Sedrati)
  2. Érica Azzellini (EricaAzzellini)
  3. Jamie Li-Yun Lin (Li-Yun Lin)
  4. Georges Fodouop (Geugeor)
  5. Manavpreet Kaur (Manavpreet Kaur)
  6. Pepe Flores (Padaguan)

Wikimedia affiliates were distributed into nine regions on a geographic and thematic basis. Each region was asked to appoint one selector to represent it in the selection process. The selectors from each region are listed in the following table:

Regional discussion Selector
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) NickK
East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Regional Cooperation (ESEAP) Michael (WMHKG)
Latin America & Caribbean Mpbonillap
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Bachounda
North America LiAnnadavis
South Asian Affiliates (SAARC) Suyash.dwivedi
Sub-Saharan Africa Eugene233
Thematic Affiliates Nattes à chat
Western and Northern Europe Claudia.Garad

Wikimedia Foundation-chosen members[edit]

The Wikimedia Foundation had announced its selection before 11 October, thus excluding the two selected people from the candidate pools of both the open elections and affiliate selection. The selection was as follows:

  1. Runa Bhattacharjee (WMF)
  2. Jorge Vargas (WMF)

Countries of applicant candidates[edit]

The candidates are from these countries:

Graphical depiction of the geographical diversity of the applicants of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee
Graphical depiction of the geographical diversity of the applicants of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee
Countries of applicant candidates
Country Count Geography Wikimedia Regions[Country 1]
Algeria 2 North Africa Middle East and North Africa
Australia 1 The Pacific East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific
Belgium 1 Western Europe Western & Northern Europe
Brazil 1 South America Latin America & Caribbean
Burundi 1 East Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
Cameroon 1 Central Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
Canada 2 North America United States and Canada
Colombia 1 South America Latin America & Caribbean
Côte d'Ivoire 4 West Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
DR Congo 3 Central Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
France 1 Western Europe Western & Northern Europe
Germany 1 Western Europe Western & Northern Europe
Ghana 2 West Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
Haiti 1 The Caribbean Latin America & Caribbean
Hungary 1 Central Europe Central and Eastern Europe & Central Asia
China 2 East Asia East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific
India 9 South Asia South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
Indonesia 1 Southeast Asia East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific
Iraq 1 Middle East Middle East and North Africa
Italy 1 Southwestern Europe Western & Northern Europe
Mexico 1 Central America Latin America & Caribbean
Morocco 1 North Africa Middle East and North Africa
Netherlands 2 Western Europe Western & Northern Europe
Nigeria 4 West Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
Palestine 1 Middle East Middle East and North Africa
Peru 1 South America Latin America & Caribbean
Philippines 2 Southeast Asia East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific
Poland 3 Central Europe Central and Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Portugal 1 Southwestern Europe Western & Northern Europe
South Korea 1 East Asia East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific
Russia 2 Eastern Europe
+
North Asia
Central and Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Rwanda 1 East Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
Slovakia 1 Central Europe Central and Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Spain 1 Southwestern Europe Western & Northern Europe
Sri Lanka 1 South Asia South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
Sweden 1 Northern Europe Western & Northern Europe
Taiwan 3 East Asia East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific
Tanzania 1 East Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
Trinidad and Tobago 1 The Caribbean Latin America & Caribbean
Ukraine 1 Eastern Europe Central and Eastern Europe & Central Asia
United Kingdom 3 Northern Europe Western & Northern Europe
United States 8 North America United States and Canada
Venezuela 2 South America Latin America & Caribbean


Candidates[edit]

We are closing this section to manage the translations. As a result, no further edits to candidate statements can be made.

We are also kindly requesting the candidates to confirm their “main wiki project” and define their expertise by naming the project and choosing 3 areas of competency from the respective matrix. We kindly ask the candidates to send this information by October 3, 2021 to strategy2030(_AT_)wikimedia.org

The deadline for the candidates' statements was on 2021-09-24 17:53 UTC.

Dosso Djibril (Djibril016)

Djibril016 (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Profile photo - Djibril
  • Personal:
    • Name: Dosso Djibril
    • Country: Ivory Coast
    • Languages: French
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): French Wikipedia (fr.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2019
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I have participated in three French Wikipedia trainings and online webinars. I am in the WhatsApp French Wikipedia working group in my country, Ivory Coast.
Team collaboration experience In the context of updating articles on French Wikipedia, we worked as a team during and after the training. I also have a good experience of at least five years in the use of collaborative tools.
Statement (not more than 400 words) Wikimedia is very important in the world of research as it contains very important information for pupils, students, researchers, teachers .... It is therefore necessary to combine our efforts for the development of this project that is useful to all humanity. In this regard I am submitting my application to put my know-how, my knowledge, and all my skills forward for the benefit of this interesting project. My qualities are in perfect harmony with the requirements of this movement’s drafting committee.

Tout d’abord, Gestionnaire de l’information documentaire, ma mission étant de mettre l’information à la disposition des usagers, de les former aux techniques de recherches documentaires, les orienter vers les dictionnaires utiles dans le cadre de leur recherche. Faire partie du comité de rédaction du mouvement me permettra de mettre à la disposition de cette équipe toutes les attentes, les difficultés, les informations souhaitées des usagers. First of all, I am a Information Manager, my mission being to make information available to users, to train them in documentary research techniques, and to direct them to useful dictionaries in the context of their research. Being part of the drafting committee will allow me to put all the expectations, the difficulties, the desired information of the users at the disposal of the whole team. Secondly, I am a trainer on several modules in information science and on collaborative tools to boost productivity. I have a perfect mastery of these tools to work in a team, to ensure a follow-up of the activities, and to define a deadline of diverse tasks.

Finally, I will be able not only to promote Wikimedia projects in my networks but also to train other people on the resources available on this project.

Manavpreet Kaur (Manavpreet Kaur)

Manavpreet Kaur (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Picture from a Community event
  • Personal:
    • Name: Manavpreet Kaur
    • Country: India
    • Languages: Punjabi, English, Hindi
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Punjabi Wikipedia (pa.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2014
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
  • Global & Local policy work
  • Governance of Organizations
  • Strategic & Structural Thinking
Wikimedia movement experience Started off as an editor on Punjabi Wikipedia creating content about Forensic Science. Later expanded to Hindi. As a teacher at University, I engaged my students, started planning activities, events & realising my inclination towards outreach & engagement, later moved to designing programs, initiatives and building institutional collaborations with support of other affiliate members in India. Some of the programs organized in collaboration with fellow wikimedians & regional communities are- WikiConference India 2016, Strategy Salon Patiala, 2017, Women TTT 2019, WikiGap 2019, Armenian-Indian collaboration/2019, Wiki4Women 2020, Syberthon 2020, WikiGap-Wiki4Womxn 2021 (India). I have been a resource person to- Train the Trainer 2017, Wiki Awareness Campaign Karnal 2018, Wikigraphists Bootcamp (2018 India), Train the Trainer 2018, Wiki Advanced Training 2018, Strategy Youth Salon 2019, TWLCon (2019 India).

Apart from this, I have shared my work with fellow wikimedians during Conference(s), Summit(s), training(s) and have also been a part of some panels like- Women in the Wikimedia movement for in-depth discussions on experiences, challenges and learning. I am also the Co-founder of first affiliate in India, Punjabi Wikimedians UG.

Team collaboration experience In addition to the shared details, organized a campaign, Wiki Women for Women Wellbeing 2018 bringing together 10 language communities in India with an intent to explore and promote women leadership in different languages (in India), thus helping in bridging the gender gap along with the usual accomplishment of content creation. In addition to this, with Women leads from 10 different language communities in India, organized first Women Train the Trainer program (India) in 2019. Currently supporting an education program in Regional institution with students working in 11 languages & mentors from different communities. Working with AffCom has provided me the experience of community challenges, strengths & collaborative operations.
Statement (not more than 400 words) As a Wikimedian from India, I have learned a lot from the diverse experience & expertise of various communities in India. Our content needs, movement challenges & work scenarios are quite different from other regions which necessitates active engagement in discussions that are going to shape the global movement. As someone from the under represented region in Strategic conversations, I feel responsible for sharing our experiences & thoughts to help build a pathway that caters to the needs of diverse communities. Understanding importance of voicing the regional needs and challenges, I have been an active participant of strategic discussions. As we envision to make the movement stronger & inclusive, I am committed to invest my time & knowledge to ensure together we create a Charter that addresses the gaps & is a reflection of diverse vision(s).

Tito Dutta (Titodutta)

Titodutta (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
In 2017, during a West Bengal Wikimedians meetup in Kolkata
  • Personal:
    • Name: Tito Dutta
    • Country: India
    • Languages: Bangla (native), English, Hindi
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2011
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Policy writing skills
  • Resource allocation
Wikimedia movement experience
  • Wikimedian since 2011 with ~299,000 global edits (~146,000 on English Wikipedia, ~800 article creations, ~73,000 on Wikimedia Commons) (see details)
  • Member of WikiProject India on Wikipedia, I spend a lot of time in maintenance and cleanup of WikiProject India articles.
  • One of the founders of WikiProject India on Wikidata (note although I was on the founders, I gradually became later)
  • Wikipedia admin since 2015 (see RfA).
  • 54,000+ Bangla pronunication upload on Wikimedia Commons (mostly to support Bangla Lexeme on Wikidata)
Team collaboration experience
Statement (not more than 400 words) I am an active Wikimedian, and a participant of different Wikimedia programs/processes. You might have seen my posts or comments on different topics on Wikimediaindia-l or Wikimedia-l or on Village pumps. Wikimedia Strategy is definitely the most important thing at this movement, and the Movement Charter is really crucial. I am showing my interest to serve in the drafting committee, because—
  • possibly I can add my experience and inputs in the process, and the draft preparation.
  • this will give me an opportunity to directly check and try to ensure that we have an effective and community-friendly movement charter.
  • bring forward/highlight the necessities of the affiliates and communities of India, and Global South (I am not really flag-bearing/flag-waving here, but this is the region/area where I have been working for several years now)
  • last but not in least, I believe that this will be a good learning experience.

Abel L Mbula (BamLifa)

BamLifa (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Abel L Mbula
    • Country: DRCongo
    • Languages: French-N, English-3
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): French Wikipedia (fr.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2015
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Governance of organizations
  • Previous phases of movement strategy
  • Writing & editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience Co-founder of Wikimedians of DRCongo User Group, I organize Wikimedia-like events (e.g.: training, hackathons, ediathons...) mostly in the francophone community.
Team collaboration experience I mostly work with fellow wikimedians in the continent in order to run create awareness for Wikimedia projects. We also collaborate within our UG when it comes to run projects as we are living in different cities.
Statement (not more than 400 words) We've been working so hard since 2018 to think how our movement would look like in the year 2030. Today, Wikipedia turns 20 and we are just 9 years away from Wikimedia 2030. This is not so many years left given the amount of work that still needs to be done in order to greet the year 2030. So, we need people with a little knowledge of the movement strategy and who are available to help us moving forward in this implementation phase. I've been involved in the strategy both as a saloons organizer (in DRCongo) and a participant (in East Africa, Uganda). These make me a great fit for the movement Charter's Drafting Committee.

Ashioma Medi (SuperSwift)

SuperSwift (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Participation at 2019 Wiki Indaba
  • Personal:
    • Name: Ashioma Medi
    • Country: Nigeria, Igbo
    • Languages: English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2015
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I've been an active contributor to the English Wikipedia since 2017 and hold the new page reviewer rights. I have contributed to articles relating to women through the women in red campaign. I started editing Wikidata in 2019. Outside of editing, I have worked in the creation of Wikimedia hubs in Nigerian Universities, where I serve as a leader and trainer in different institutions. I have also served as a judge in different contests; from the Afrocine project to the African Women in Media contest.
Team collaboration experience Actively involved in the ongoing memorandum of understanding between the Wikimedia community in Nigeria and the Nigerian National Archives. Member of the Communications Team at the 2019 Wiki Indaba. Reaching an agreement with the Ekiti State University, Nigeria to set up a Wikimedia hub in the school.
Statement (not more than 400 words) It is my desire to help create a Movement Charter that will not be restrictive to individuals, communities, organizations but shares accountability and responsibility as well as ensure equitable opportunities for participation in decision-making and resource allocation. Having cross-cultural communication skills (English and Igbo) means I can actively engage the English community and Igbo Wikimedia community and relay their issues with the movement charter.

My experience as a research fellow at a government & public policy institute has broadened my scope on governance, organization management, board management, legal actions, policy documentation & implementation, and other required knowledge bases. This helped me successfully draft the by-laws with consultation from appropriate authorities for the working of a Wikimedia hub. As a product designer, my skills of design thinking, critical thinking, strategic thinking would help in translating strategy recommendations into structures, help see the gaps to be covered, and would also help in getting things done at the set time.

Rafael Laynes Hancco (RaftaLayns123)

RaftaLayns123 (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Rafael Laynes Hancco
    • Country: Arequipa, Peru
    • Languages: Spanish
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Spanish Wikipedia (es.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2020
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural awareness
  • Participatory and consensus processes
  • Writing and editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience Creator and editor of more than 100 articles
Team collaboration experience I have not worked but will do so after a great translation.
Statement (not more than 400 words) For Wikipedia, those who have joined before and those who will use it. Wikipedia is not just an encyclopedia, it moves us towards the change. #RafaRedactor


Gergő Tisza (Tgr)

Tgr (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Talking about Wikipedia at a copyleft event in 2009.
  • Personal:
    • Name: Gergő Tisza
    • Country: Hungary, USA
    • Languages: Hungarian, English, very limited German
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Hungarian Wikipedia (hu.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2004
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Local policy work
  • Participatory and consensus processes
  • Previous phases of Movement Strategy
Wikimedia movement experience Since finding Wikipedia in 2004, I have gained experience in a wide range of roles - editor, patroller, administrator, translator, OTRS agent, technical volunteer, outreach activist, chapter founder, and board member. Since 2013 I have been working for the Wikimedia Foundation as a software developer (see staff user page here - to avoid any doubt: my candidacy here is entirely in a volunteer capacity) and have focused my free time on wiki software development as well.
Team collaboration experience I have been involved in movement strategy since 2017, first as a member of the Product & Technology working group, then as a recommendation writer. On-wiki, I have been active (mostly between 2005-2012) in mediation, consensus-building, and policy-making.
Statement (not more than 400 words) For all its virtues, the Wikimedia Movement has only been partially successful at empowering its volunteers, whose work it is sustained by. We need to improve equity, in both senses of the word: ensuring we treat each other fairly and impartially, and ensuring we treat those donating their time and efforts to the movement as shareholders, who can participate in the decisions that affect them and their work, and get all the support they need to do that well. The movement strategy is a bold attempt to achieve that, and I'd like to do what I can to help it move forward.

What I hope to bring to the table:

  • Deep familiarity with the strategy process. From 2018 summer to early 2020 I spent most of my free time participating in strategy discussions and helping to give shape to the recommendations.
  • Technology background: with half of all movement funds going to tech, understanding the needs and possibilities of that space is important for resource allocation, one of the focus areas of the Charter. Also, governance of open-source software holds many lessons we can learn from.
  • Familiarity with how the WMF works. Given that the movement recommendations ask for many current WMF responsibilities to be transferred to other movement entities, and the charter and the drafting committee are likely to be the vehicle of that, understanding those responsibilities well is important.
  • Some familiarity with the CEE region and its collaboration efforts. The strategy asks for the formation of regional hubs; I think we should pave the cow paths and build on what regional collaboration already exists, and WMCEE is one of the possible role models and test subjects in that area.
  • A wide perspective. I have spent several years both as a wiki editor and community organizer; on a chapter board; and as paid staff for the largest movement organization. I joined a small wiki, watched it grow into a mid-sized one, and have dipped my toes into contributing to large ones. During that, I have gained an appreciation of how much the needs and experiences of various movement groups can differ.

Zhong Juechen (三猎)

三猎 (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Zhong Juechen
    • Country: Mainland China
    • Languages: zh-N, en-3
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Chinese Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2012 (functionally - account creation 2009)
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Writing and editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience I contribute to several Wikimedia projects, mainly zh.wikipedia. I'm proud to be one of few editors in zh.wikipedia who keeps writing articles on their own instead of translating from other projects without checking references. I review articles and call on the community to realize the seriousness and importance of reviewing, which was the main reason I received the Awards for Professionalism of Instruction. I try my best to help newbies (to some extent, we're all newbies), online and offline. I visited meetups held in various cities of Mainland China and Taiwan to learn experiences, and now I hold meetups in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Also, as a PhD candidate in sociology, I study zh.wikipedia (nationlism, colonialism, gender issues, bureaucracy, knowledge as power, and the wall between veterans and newbies / editors and readers) and published a paper on Taiwan Sociology Association Meeting of 2019.
Team collaboration experience I am used to collaborate with people on an article, a programme, a document. However, I don't treat these experience as team collaboration, but peer to peer collaboration instead.

I tell good jokes. In Chinese, though.

Statement (not more than 400 words) As someone who truly believes that the administrative system of Wikimedia should be taken as *not a big deal*, I couldn't imagine my self being a candidate here. But I just changed my idea, realising that there are thousands of people around the world keeping writing articles, spreading free knowledge, and not caring Wikimedia politics at all, just like me. They may not care, but should be cared. So here I am. My objective is to represent the idea of decentralization.
There're flowers in my home, just beside my computer. I grow flowers, or flowers grow? I think the latter way.

Iniquity (Iniquity)

Iniquity (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Iniquity
    • Country: Russia
    • Languages: RU-N, EN-3
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Russian Wikipedia, (ru.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2008
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I have been actively involved in Wikimedia Foundation projects since 2008. Was the administrator of some small wikiprojects in Russian. But most of the time I worked as a technical specialist in Russian Wikipedia. Recently I have been paying a lot of attention to the development of cool things from the Growth team in the Russian Wikipedia and try to integrate the community more strongly into the global movement.
Team collaboration experience Since 2017, I has been actively involved in promoting technical initiatives, collecting opinions and finding consensus on Russian Wikipedia. I was a member of technical teams, organizer of projects both inside and around Wikipedia. One of the last, just a project about help to beginners, which accumulates work with newcomers and features of the Growth team.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I love when communities are intertwined. When there is no clear division between English and other Wikipedias. It seems to me that we must move towards globalization towards unification, in terms of information, of all projects. So that the projects of the Wikimedia Foundation become not separate small cells, but really one movement.

One movement is not only the people who participate in the projects, but also the information these projects provide to the readers. It should be diverse, standardized and available in all languages of the world, for all cultures. It seems to me that my knowledge of different communities, understanding of how poorly integrated communities work and what they think, will help fix these problems within the framework of the Movement Charter.

Adi Purnama (Rtnf)

Rtnf (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
The rayleigh scattering phenomenon due to beam of sunlight, passing through water surface. The color contrast of this photograph is amplified by using RawTherapee image processing software. We can see the beam is having the bluish color when it passed through the water surface, and the color is changing gradually into the reddish color when it goes deeper in the water.
  • Personal:
    • Name: Adi Purnama
    • Country: Indonesia
    • Languages: Indonesian Language, English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Indonesian Wikipedia (id.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2021
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Governance of organizations
  • Policy writing skills
Wikimedia movement experience Just a newcomer contributor who occasionally chats on several Wikimedia-related Telegram group and participated in several Wikimedia Online Meeting (ESEAP, Movement Charter, Universal Code of Conduct)
Team collaboration experience I'm already involved with several social/tech movement outside Wikimedia before. For example: Knowledge Management Research Group: Pustaka , Tempat Tempat Project , usaha.click, and OpenStreetMap Foundation. Inside Wikimedia, i and several fellow participants at Indonesian Wikidata Datathon 2021 founded Komunitas Wikidata Indonesia (Indonesian Wikidata Community) to coordinate our effort. We work together to improve Wikidata items related to Indonesian topics in general. In addition, we also focus on translating other Wikidata items into Indonesian language.
Statement (not more than 400 words) The greatest strength of Wikimedia is the talent, dedication and integrity of its members. We should accomodate the diversity of the people in our communities, including our particular interests, motivations and contributions. Some of us write articles. Some of us develop software. Some of us donate money, time or expertise. Some curate data, sources, or media. Some organize events, advocate for copyright reform, or remix artwork. Some are community organizers, educators, or copy editors. Some of us do all of the above, and more. What brings us together is not what we do, it's why we do it. We are all part of this movement because we share a belief that free knowledge makes the world a better place. Every human being deserves easy access to knowledge. And every human should have an opportunity to participate in compiling and sharing back their own knowledge.

But, we are still far from having collected the sum of all knowledge. Most of content we have created is in the form of long-form encyclopedia articles and still images, which leaves out many other types of knowledge. Our current communities don't represent the diversity of the human population. This lack of representation and diversity has created gaps of knowledge and systemic biases. Readers often question the reliability of the content we create, notably because it is not accurate, not comprehensive, not neutral, or because they don't understand how it is produced and by whom.

The low barrier for entry from our early years has now become insurmountable for many newcomers. Some communities, cultures, and minorities have suffered from this exclusion more than others. Toxic behaviors and harassment have had a negative impact on participation in our projects. Other types of contribution beyond editing aren't recognized as equally valueable, and the structures of our movement are often opaque or centralized, with high barriers to entry. We even should change and innovate our services before it was too late. Many readers now expect multimedia formats beyond text and images. People want content that is real-time, visual and that support social sharing and conversation.

We should address all of this issue so we can improve our movement. I hope, Movement Charter could address this issues.

V M (Vis M)

Vis M (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: V M
    • Country: India
    • Languages: Malayalam (ml-N), English (en-5), Hindi (hi-3)
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Malayalam Wiktionary (ml.wiktionary)
    • Wikimedian since: 2011
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Inclusion and diversity awareness
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience My main contributions so far have been maintenance & housekeeping, patrolling vandalism across different projects, adding 50,000+ Malayalam language lexemes at Wikidata, 500+ ml entries at en.Wiktionary, 1000+ uploads to Commons, editing chemistry, materials and manufacturing articles on en.w, collaborating, connecting and assisting people across different projects, widening free knowledge movement, etc. I am active across diverse Wikimedia sister wikis; having 1000+ edits on 4 wikis and 100+ edits on 10 wikis in total.
Team collaboration experience Collaborated as part of a few WikiProjects, mainly LD, KERALA and POLYMER. I participate in many discussion forums of Wikimedia projects and groups. I am also a happy-to-help person, assisting those looking for help. I have always maintained a welcoming atmosphere.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I will try to give importance for ensuring that the diverse groups of people, including the global south and especially the women, all can access and contribute conveniently to different Wikimedia projects. This would include ensuring a safe and welcoming community that keeps to the Universal code of conduct.

Wikimedia should enable everyone to easily contribute from smartphones and preferred devices (The desktop, IMHO, has a gender/demography bias). I have always strived to remove barriers to free knowledge and reduce the learning curve needed to participate and contribute. Those who like to add knowledge should be able to do so without spending time familiarizing stuffs. Things should be designed intuitively.

Proper communication and documentation are other aspects that have been missing so far. The WMF need to communicate with the communities and take in feedbacks of diverse groups of different sister projects. The drafting committee should include it.

Oleksandr Havryk (Oleksandr Havryk)

Oleksandr Havryk (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Oleksandr Havryk
    • Country: Ukraine
    • Languages: Ukrainian-N, Russian-4, English-2, Polski-2
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Ukrainian Wikipedia (uk.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2018
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Communication skills
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
  • Team collaboration
Wikimedia movement experience I am active editor Ukranian Wikipedia and a member of the Wikipedia movement since 2016. I am a participant and co-organizer of several Wikiconferences in Ukraine, one of the co-authors of a special page for the media, which is designed to provide objective and reliable information about Wikipedia for the Ukrainian media. I am actively involved in advocating for Panorama Freedom and distributing free licenses.
Team collaboration experience I have experience of teamwork both in the Ukrainian Wikipedia community and in public organizations. I am a former member of the Board and a former member of the Audit Commission WMUA. I have experience participating in collegial organizing committees both within and outside the Wikimedia community.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I believe that the main task in building the Movement, along with building institutions, is to establish external and internal communication between all the members of the community.

Valentin Nasibu (VALENTIN NVJ)

VALENTIN NVJ (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Sortie Photo aux Chutes Wagenya
  • Personal:
    • Name: Valentin Nasibu
    • Country: DR Congo
    • Languages: French-N, Lingala, Swahili, English-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Wikidata
    • Wikimedian since: 2017
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Inclusion and diversity awareness
  • Team collaboration
  • Writing and editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience As a co-founder and board member of the Wikimedians of Democratic Republic of Congo User Group, I organize awareness-raising conferences, training workshops, edit-a-thons and photo shoots for Wikipedia, Commons and other sister projects. I participate in the International Francophone Contributions Month, Art+Feminis, Wiki Love.
Team collaboration experience On the national level, I work in collaboration with the members of the steering committee of our user group in organizing Wikipermanence (face-to-face and online) and for the production of free content related to Africa on the internet in general and on Wikipedia in particular through the Africa Month campaigns, Africa Wiki Challenge. On the continental level, I participate in the campaigns WikiForHumanRightsin in Morocco, 1Libre1Ref and several collaborations with other African user groups (Ivory Coast, Guinea, Kenya, etc.). On the international level, I participate in Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month
Statement (not more than 400 words) In 2019, I have been involved (with friends) in organizing strategy fares based on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy recommendations; and with my experiences on the Wikimedia movement, I feel able and available to be part of the drafting team of the movement's charter in order for it to be a solution that all affiliates of the Wikimedia community from all corners of the world are waiting for "Ensure Equity in Decision-making".

Yair Rand (Yair rand)

Yair rand (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Yair Rand
    • Country: Canada
    • Languages: en-N, he-1, eo-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): English Wiktionary (en.wiktionary)
    • Wikimedian since: 2009
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Global or local policy work
  • Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Policy writing skills
Wikimedia movement experience I am an administrator on several projects, and an interface admin on English Wiktionary. I've done a reasonably large amount of policy writing on multiple projects, wrote a lot of gadgets and user scripts (some examples include TabbedLanguages on Wiktionary, ReferenceTooltips for Wikipedia, the WikidataInfo.js script for Wikidata, and the SignWriting Keyboard for Sign language projects), worked on Wikidata ontology structuring, and have done a moderate amount of work on content.

I spend far too much time following things on Meta and elsewhere, so I'm fairly familiar with how the various movement structures and systems work.

(I've also been writing "fantasy Wikimedia charters" on my own for ~5 years, which ought to count for something. :) )

Team collaboration experience I'll be blunt: My relevant team collaboration experience is much less than many other candidates. I've never worked as part of any affiliate organization, nor any on-wiki committee, nor any strategy working group. Additionally, both my technical and policy-writing activities have been less "team-based" than is typical.

That said, all Wikimedia activities are pretty inherently collaborative, and if anything is going to be a skill that we've almost all necessarily gotten good at, it's good-faith collaboration in writing something together.

Statement (not more than 400 words) A major goal of the Charter is to "clearly define roles and responsibilities", set boundaries, and define what we're doing and how we do it. It is essential for the future functioning of the projects and supporting organizations, that we create ironclad safeguards against overreach by our institutions, firmly anchor long-standing principles and goals, and establish a solid and effective framework for how the various high-level processes and parts of Wikimedia interact with each other.

The new framework should unambiguously specify responsibilities and authorities, minimize conflict, and allow everyone to get on with their work. The Charter should organize structures to enable projects and groups to receive needed support, while protecting them from inappropriate interference. As expressed in the Strategy Recommendations, all of Wikimedia's supporting organizations should be bound by enforceable basic requirements, and certain structures should be distributed and decentralized.

I would like the creation of the Charter to be an open and participatory process, involving many volunteers directly editing numerous Charter drafts around Wikimedia, moving forward in a wiki-style manner, our many communities and groups cross-pollinating texts and ideas and arguments and points of discussion, and gradually converging towards coherent results with the assistance of the drafting committee.

Whatever the method, the final outcome must be subject to community-wide ratification. Wikimedia is built by the volunteer community; it is the community that must decide whether to go forward with the Charter.

Gilbert Ndihokubwayo (Gilbert Ndihokubwayo)

Gilbert Ndihokubwayo (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Gilbert Ndihokubwayo
    • Country: Burundi
    • Languages: Kirundi, French, English, Swahili, Esperanto
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Wikimedia Commons
    • Wikimedian since: February 2019
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Communication skills
  • Participatory and consensus processes
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience Co-founder of Wikimedia Community User Group Burundi, East Africa strategy summit, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Pages Wanting Photos.
Team collaboration experience East Africa strategy discussions, West Africa Regional Strategy Meetup, Movement Strategy conversation, Wikimedia Community User Group, African Wikimedians (telegram group), Vikimedio en Esperanto (telegram group), Duscussing Wikimedia’s Movement Strategy process.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I am a self-motivated person, and pleased to serve the Wikimedia foundation. In my academic studies, I acquired knowledge in Development Support Communication; I acquired knowledge of different aspects and approaches in communication, including group communication, participatory communication, community consultations, and intercultural communication.

I am available for the activity and promise to act in the interest of the Wikimedia movement, in respect of the Universal Code of Conduct, and following the Strategic Direction and Movement Strategy recommendations. In fact, after different participations in Wikimedia movement events, I am developing skills in Wikimedia projects and plan to grow up. In my professional works I accomplished a consistent database, to coordinate different actors, to find compromises. My practices helped me to test my ability to plan, to be responsive and creative, I have also tested my ability to see gaps that need to be covered, ability of negotiating with different parties.

Galahad (Galahad)

Galahad (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Galahad
    • Country: Venezuela
    • Languages: es, en-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Spanish Wikivoyage (es.wikivoyage)
    • Wikimedian since: 2009
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Safe and collaborative spaces
  • Team collaboration
  • Writing and editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience Sysop of eswikivoyage since 2013, member of Ombuds Commission since 2019. Organizing some events focused on less developed wikimedia projects.
Team collaboration experience Founder of Wikimedia Small Projects in Spanish, member of Wikimedia Venezuela. I've participated in the movement strategy conversation and served as election volunteer on 2021 board election.
Statement (not more than 400 words) The movement is changing and requires new perspectives. From my work supporting less developed projects, I consider it vital that all communities are read, because from them emanates the knowledge that the Foundation hopes to protect.

Kanhai prasad chourasiya (कन्हाई प्रसाद चौरसिया)

कन्हाई प्रसाद चौरसिया (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Hindi wiki conference 2020 (Delhi)
  • Personal:
    • Name: Kanhai prasad chourasiya
    • Country: India
    • Languages: Hindi (Native), English, Bangla
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Hindi Wikipedia (hi.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2019
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I member of the SWMT, I also active doing cross-wiki spammers and Patrolling project from Twinkle preference & Swviewer.
  • My global contribution 40k+ edits.
  • I am currently Auto patrolled, rollbacker at Hindi Wikipedia, Meta wiki.
  • And, I also Sysop at Hindi Wiktionary.
Team collaboration experience
  • Hindi Wikisource edit-a-thon 2019.
  • Delhi hi wiki conference attend 2020.
  • Hindi Wikipedia edit-a-thon 2020.
  • Hindi Wiktionary edit-a-thon 2021
Statement (not more than 400 words) Active project name
  • Hindi Wikisource.
  • Hindi Wikipedia.
  • Hindi wikibooks.
  • Wiki data.
  • Hindi wiktionary.
  • And I try to best some other languages like Bhojpuri, Bangoli, Methali, Punjabi & English.

Josh Lim (Sky Harbor)

Sky Harbor (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Portrait taken at WikiConference North America 2018 in Columbus, Ohio. (NOTE: I actually no longer wear glasses; I don't have proper portraits yet of me without them on.)
  • Personal:
    • Name: Josh Lim
    • Country: Philippines / United States
    • Languages: en-N, tl-N, es-3, pl-2, zh-2, fr-1, he-1, ja-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Tagalog Wikipedia (tl.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: April 7, 2005
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Global and local policy work
  • Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience For the last sixteen years I have played several roles in growing and supporting the Wikimedia movement in the Philippines and the local community that anchors it, as well as the global Wikimedia community at large. These include:
  • Growing Wikimedia affiliates throughout Asia and the world both as a former member of the Affiliations Committee, of which I was proud to serve between 2013 and 2016, and in my involvement with Wikimedia Philippines. The Wikipedia Asian Month, of which I was part of the organizing team in 2015, 2016 and 2017, is the crowning achievement of this work.
  • Organizing the Philippine Wikimedia community into a coherent group of people, which led to the founding of Wikimedia Philippines in 2010. Between 2010 and 2016, the organization was responsible for significantly expanding the reach of the Wikimedia projects in the Philippines, including significant inroads in content, outreach and the growth of our community and volunteers. Today, as the Wiki Society of the Philippines, we continue to work with various stakeholders to improve quality of access to Wikidata in the country, as well as encouraging documentation of historical sites in the Philippines and combatting disinformation on the Wikimedia projects online and offline. This has also parlayed into activities outside the Philippines, such as building the Cite Unseen bias checker tool.
  • Giving at least three editing workshops to members and non-members of WikiProject Never Again, and have played an active role in supervising our growing number of Wikipedians-to-be to ensure that they are properly editing Wikipedia while also preserving the accuracy, neutrality and rigor of our articles on Philippine history and politics, both in Tagalog/Filipino and English. I was also instrumental in developing Southeast Asia's first Wikipedian in Residence program at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani.

I have also spoken at various conferences and fora, internal and external, about the Filipino Wikimedia community and the Wikimedia projects, including at Wikimania, the Wikimedia Hackathon, Open Source Bridge, AlterConf, CredCon and FOSSASIA. My work in the movement has also been covered by both the local and international press, with mentions in The Guardian, FHM, CNN and Scout Magazine, among others.

Aside from my work in the Philippines, I am actively involved in the activities of the Wikimedians of Los Angeles user group, as I currently live in Los Angeles. As part of that group, we're working to grow the community while pursuing impactful events and outreach in Los Angeles and throughout Southern California.

Team collaboration experience I have made community and collaboration the center of my volunteer work and my professional career over the last sixteen years. Many of the activities we've done in the Philippines were inherently collaborative in nature. For example, our work with WikiProject Never Again was only made possible with the complex work of bringing Wikimedians, external partners, volunteers and interested persons together to build a lasting project. Having worked as well in the movement for as long as I have, both in building things like Cite Unseen and the ESEAP Hub, and in working with the Affiliations Committee, I have come to have a deep respect for the need to have everything built collaboratively, in pairs or large groups, whether it be working on solutions to the hardest issues of our time or just finding easier ways for people to communicate and share knowledge.

These lessons on collaboration that were gleaned through the Wikimedian experience were also instrumental in my professional life. Working for DeviantArt, I've come to use what I've learned in the movement to help develop the kinds of activities we should do for our users, or to help inform major decisions that we should make in terms of how we ought to approach the site's development. Working with a team of eight other people, we've had several successes in terms of contests and other community campaigns that we've run on-site, with this extending to external partnerships as well that have led to successes like our campaign on mental health awarness, our annual Holiday Card Project, and more recently our endeavors to celebrate our global diversity through thoughtfully-executed campaigns that showcase our shared common heritage.

I strongly believe that when it comes to collaboration, it is important to be able to both talk and to likewise be a quiet observer when the time calls for it. Although I've become more quiet in the movement over the last few years, ultimately collaboration requires giving way. Participating in community discussions across three continents (in Asia, Europe and North America), both online and offline and in formal and informal settings, is part and parcel of that experience.

Statement (not more than 400 words) The Wikimedia movement deserves, more than ever, to have a definitive statement of our values. I have advocated for much of my time as a Wikimedian a movement-wide document that encapsulates what we stand for, and now that we're at the cusp of having a Movement Charter, I strongly believe we need to have people who have broad-based, deeply-informed and well-grounded experience in working with communities, partners and individuals to best encapsulate what it is we hold dear.

I don't take the work of the Drafting Committee lightly, and I intend to ensure that Wikimedians will be more than adequately represented as we finally put to paper what it is we stand for. I look forward to bringing the lessons I've learned from both the movement and outside it, coupled with my own life experience as someone who has worked with and is familiar with the Wikimedia movement on three continents, to the table: a table that we need to be as representative as possible of our movement's diversity, experience and expertise.

More than ever, it's important that the ones who will set up our movement for success, first with the Movement Charter and then the Global Council, be from a broad base of our community, able to interact with as many people as possible and capable of representing the broadest of opinions in as concise a manner. I look forward to helping steer the important work of this Committee to help us move forward as a movement towards a more balanced, just and representative future: one where everyone, no matter where they're from or what languages they speak or what projects they serve, are adequately represented. The work won't be easy, but I look forward to committing to it should I be called to serve.

On a parting note, please feel free to leave me a message should you have any questions or concerns, and thank you so much for your time.

Félix Guébo (Ivcom)

Ivcom (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Taking part in Wikipedia 20th birthday celebrations in Ivory Coast
  • Personal:
    • Name: Félix Guébo
    • Country: Ivory Coast
    • Languages: French, English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Swahili Wikipedia (sw.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2015
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I have been a contributor to Wikipedia since 2015. I joined the Wikimedia user Group Côte d'Ivoire community the same year as I became a volunteer. In 2016 I was assigned as a communicator within the community, mainly in the position of Graphic designer. According to this title I am in charge of the elaboration of any graphic and physical visual communication support within the community in our country. In 2021, I joined the executive board of Wikimedia Côte d'Ivoire, as Deputy General Secretary, where I am in charge of the community's Secretariat.
Team collaboration experience Particularly at Wikimedia, I have worked in the local team of the Wiki Loves Africa project for the 2015, 2016 and 2017 sessions. My role consisted in helping with the realization of the activity programs, development of the content for publication, management of the teams for taking the photos, training of and support to the volunteers to the project, staying in line with the strategic direction and the recommendations of the Project Manager. This had the aim of a reliable and perfect dissemination of communication materials, the assistance of the local contributors on Commons and finally the realization and the correction of the reports of the project activities. The work was supervised by the Country Project Manager.
Statement (not more than 400 words) With 20 years from its birthday, Wikipedia finds itself as a highly important channel with its own seal of approval. We have done a lot, and we have so much more to do, given that we're only 6 years away from our Wikimedia 2030 goals. Thus, given the ardor of the goals and the intensity of the work to be done, it is essential to bring in quality human resources in order to accomplish a lot of things. Therefore, the need for available people with knowledge of the movement is paramount. As for myself, in regards to the experiences acquired in my country and also the skills gained as an active member in the realization of the work on the Wikimedia 2030 strategy carried out in Côte d'Ivoire, I volunteer to the realization of the drafting of the Wikimedia Movement Charter.

Yao Kouamé Didier (Didierwiki)

Didierwiki (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Yao Kouamé Didier
    • Country: Ivory Coast
    • Languages: French
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): French Wikipedia (fr.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2015
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
  • Team collaboration
Wikimedia movement experience Since I joined the Wikimedia user Group Côte d'Ivoire community in 2015 and I have remained a very active volunteer contributor. I learned a lot of things in a progressive way, such as article creation and editing, training and others. As a very active member of the Wikimedia user Group Côte d'Ivoire community, I was elected General Secretary of the said community and Glam-Wiki Project Leader in this year 2021.
Team collaboration experience I have worked on several local projects in perfect collaboration with the project teams, such as wikikouman, Glam-Wiki, Wiki Loves Africa. I participated in several committees that have reflected on setting up strategies for the realization of certain projects within the community Wikimedia user Group Ivory Coast, I was part of the trainers of the Wiki Class where we worked in synergy. I am part of the Working Group of Wikimania 2021.In regards of Wikimedia volunteering, I work in perfect harmony with other Project Managers.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I would like to be a volunteer in the drafting of the Wikimedia Movement Charter because I have participated in the Wikimedia 2030 Strategy process. 20 years from Wikipedia’s birthday we have to believe that we have a lot to do to reach our goals of Wikimedia 2030. I strongly believe that the Movement Charter will be a document (a compass) for a better future of the movement.

Basheer (Uncle Bash007)

Uncle Bash007 (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Basheer
    • Country: Nigeria
    • Languages: Hausa, English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Hausa Wikipedia (ha.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2019
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and Linguistic Awareness
  • Safe and Collaborative Spaces
  • Writing and Communication Skills
Wikimedia movement experience I am an experienced Wikipedia editor with most of my contributions from Hausa & English Wikipedia. I have organized and participated in a number of Wikipedia campaigns and this lead to increase in new editors in northern Nigeria. I am one of the co-contributors of Hausa Wikimedia user group. I have being a contributor to Wikipedia movement since September 2019 and I want to stay and give more as long as i am alive and able.
Team collaboration experience I have collaborated in many Wikipedia projects which leads to the rapid growth of the Hausa Wikipedia.
Statement (not more than 400 words) Since joining Wikipedia in the late 2019, at first I thought Wikipedia is just a free knowledge sharing mechanism. I was just interested in the art of spreading free knowledge globally. Later on I came to realize that Wikipedia is lot more than just an education sharing platform, rather, a global education movement comprising a diverse set of languages and cultures and at the same time protecting the laws of human rights in respect to cultural and religious differences. I became keenly interested with Wikipedia more especially after attending the Wikimania 2021 for the first time and getting to meet hundreds of different people from round the world with different lifestyle and backgrounds working collaboratively in love and harmony. This is only as a result of equity, fairness and good governance of the WMF. I just feel this is exactly where I belong, as to me 'every person i meet is my superior in some ways' and I have a lot of respect in regards to cultural and religious differences as well, I therefore want to be part of this gigantic movement. I want to give more and am committed to learning more from the movement.

I am confident I have what to give to the chatter as I have experience in governing and I have good speaking and writing skills. I will work collaboratively in defining & structuring policies that will ensure the positivity of the Wikipedia goals and vision.

Robert McClenon (Robert McClenon)

Robert McClenon (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Robert McClenon
    • Country: United States
    • Languages: English (native)
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2005
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I am not sure what is meant by the Wikimedia movement, but my experience with Wikimedia servers and communities is as a builder of the English encyclopedia, and in particular as a mediator in the English Wikipedia
Team collaboration experience A 45-year career of professional involvement with information technology teams, as well as a track record as a mediator in the English Wikipedia
Statement (not more than 400 words) I am not sure that there is or should be a Wikimedia movement in the sense of a social movement for change or improvement. The editors and users of Wikimedia servers and systems make up an interlocking set of communities, a community of communities tied together by maintaining a set of electronic libraries. My objective as a candidate for the Movement Charter Drafting Committee is to represent that practical idea of an electronic community of communities that maintain and build free knowledge. The Wikimedia communities should be self-governing, and should govern rather than be governed by the Wikimedia Foundation. The Movement Charter Drafting Committee should draft an overall charter for a community of editors of multiple electronic libraries, rather than of any sort of movement for social change. The Charter Drafting Committee should focus on the quality of the electronic libraries that the communities are maintaining, not any other social objective, and should write a charter that provides full self-government, with minimal involvement by the Foundation.

Sameera Lakshitha (Sameera94)

Sameera94 (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Sameera Lakshitha
    • Country: Sri Lanka
    • Languages: Sinhala and English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Sinhala Wikipedia (si.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2018
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience Active contributor on Sinhala Wikipedia
Team collaboration experience I am so glad to contribute to makes the internet better.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I am a Sri Lankan wikimedian and I edit English and Sinhala Wikipedia, since 2019.

Érica Azzellini (EricaAzzellini)

EricaAzzellini (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Érica at WikidataCon 2019 📸
  • Personal:
    • Name: Érica Azzellini
    • Country: Brazil
    • Languages: pt-br-n, pt-5, en-4, es-2, it-1, de-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Portuguese Wikipedia (pt.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2016
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I fell in love with Wikimedia through an Education program when I was a Social Communication student. Soon, I started to organize edit-a-thons to tackle the gender gap on Wikipedia.

After my graduation, I became a Wikimedian in Residence at the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Neuromathematics (RIDC NeuroMat), in which I researched Computational Journalism and Wikidata. This led me to develop the Mbabel tool.

I’m a Wiki Movimento Brasil liaison. In my professional capacity, I serve as Communications Manager for the affiliate, which means that I’m involved in community support and consultations, partnership building and Wikimedia outreach. I’m also leading the development of WMB’s own strategy based on the Movement Strategy recommendations.

I’m a member of the Diversity Committee responsible for the elaboration and the implementation of WMB’s diversity plan.

I’m the organization lead for the Brazilian team organizing WikidataCon with Wikimedia Deutschland this year. In this process, I’m also responsible for the Reimagining Wikidata from the margins project.

I’ve been involved in the organization of dozens of activities to tackle diversity gaps on Wikipedia in Portuguese and I’m currently acting to create a Lusophone women user group.

Team collaboration experience I’m an active listener and a non-violent communicator. I’ve been building bridges among different stakeholders and the Wikimedia community for the last years, which wouldn’t be possible without cooperation and teamwork abilities.

I have experience with high level stress/low resource environments and in decision making, especially in the field of Human Rights. I’m a former Communications Adviser for a NGO dedicated to migrants and refugees in a marginalized part of my city, from which I’ve learned how to properly collaborate with people from different contexts and how to fight for their rights.

Earlier this year, I was one of the organizers of the Festa da Wiki-Lusofonia - Wikipedia 20’s celebration - and engaged several user groups and projects on activities and strategic discussions.

Statement (not more than 400 words) This is the time to define what we want to be as a movement from now on. This is the major goal we have set for ourselves for ensuring equity in decision-making. Brazil (as other underrepresented communities) has been systematically excluded and disempowered from the strategic processes and we want to shift the scenario contributing to the sustainability and good governance of the Wikimedia Movement in the long run. It all starts now.

To move forward, we need to define a common ground of principles and practices for decision-making, and develop mechanisms for equitable global representation and meaningful, empowering participation of local communities. As a participatory, community-oriented process, the Movement Chart will embody the Wikimedia spirit and provide a necessary framework for the Wikimedia Movement.

We need to learn from what we have achieved and envision together the future we want to live in. For instance, roles and responsibilities need to be clearly laid out, as transparency is key for our movement procedures and deliberations. Coming from an underrepresented community, I know procedures and deliberations must be empowering and structured in a way that contributes to mitigating unequal capacities to participate in the open knowledge ecosystem.

The success of the Movement Charter --an embodiment of the Wikimedia 2030 strategy process discussions and practices-- is dependent on our capacity to deeply engage our diverse communities in the drafting process. This founding document will not succeed by the relevance of its content and commitment of its initial drafters only; it must be a collaboration across stakeholders, that is, it must be done the wiki way.

Marie-Louise Aembe (WINEUR)

WINEUR (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Marie-Louise Aembe
    • Country: DRCongo
    • Languages: fr-N, en
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): French Wikipedia (fr.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2018
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I have been involved in the movement since 2018. At the moment I am a Wikipedia contributor
Team collaboration experience We also collaborate within our UG when it comes to run projects as we are living in different cities.
Statement (not more than 400 words) Today, Wikipedia turns 20 and we are just 9 years away from Wikimedia 2030. This is not so many years left given the amount of work that still needs to be done in order to greet the year 2030. So, we need people with a little knowledge of the movement strategy and who are available to help us moving forward in this implementation phase. I've been involved in the strategy (in DRCongo) and a participant (in East Africa, Uganda).

Hobit (Hobit)

Hobit (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Hobit
    • Country: United States
    • Languages: English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2007
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I worked on an NSF proposal years ago that involved Wikipedia and was supported by the WMF.
Team collaboration experience I often teach very large courses at the college level sometimes involving a teaching staff of as many as 25 people. While all my work is in English, I work with people from all over the world. During the pandemic I ran meetings online with people from ~10 different time zones.
Statement (not more than 400 words) My main interest in Wikipedia is the notion of self-governance. For all its flaws, I've found en.wikipedia.org to have a very successful governance model that rarely requires outside interference (in fact outside interference is often counterproductive). It is amazing to me that an almost purely volunteer organization has been so successful. I believe the focus on fairness and civility are key to that success.

I don't view myself as a great writer, but I am a strong editor and sometimes have to provide feedback (both on content and writing) on about dozen 15+ page proposals in less than a week.

RfC closures I've made on en are probably the best way I can illustrate my ability to read and understand views from different parties ([1] is the most recent).

I will be fairly busy with work from September until mid-December and there would likely be a couple of weeks in there where I could not provide 5 hours of work. That shouldn't be true again until September 2022.

Alek Tarkowski (Tarkowski)

Tarkowski (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Alek Tarkowski
    • Country: Poland
    • Languages: Polish, English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Polish Wikipedia (pl.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2006
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Governance of organisations
  • Policy writing skills
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience I am a member of the Polish Wikimedia Association and consider myself a member of the Wikimedia Movement, although I am not an active editor. My main affiliation in the broader free knowledge movement is with Creative Commons: I co-founded the Polish chapter in 2005, co-chaired the CC Network strategy process review, and am currently on the CC Board of Directors and the CC Network Executive Committee. Since 2018, I have participated in the Movement Strategy process, and in 2018-2019 I was a member of the Partnerships Working Group. I deeply believe that the Wikimedia Movement Strategy requires the participation of partners from the broader open / free knowledge movement - so I also try to personally engage as much as possible.

Furthermore, my main job is as Strategy Director of Open Future Foundation, a think tank for the open movement. Previously, I have led for a decade Centrum Cyfrowe, a Polish open think-and-do-tank, and I have been for many years a member of Communia, the Association for the Digital Domain. Through these work engagements I have been focused on advocacy and policymaking in support of the commons, which I see as a contribution to the Wikimedia movement - by making sure that the policy and regulatory environment in Europe and globally is favorable to Wikimedia, its creators and users.

Team collaboration experience I have extensive experience in strategy building, also as a collaborative process. In the years 2008-2011 I worked on a team inside the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland, which led the work on Poland's national long term strategy, "Poland 2030". Afterwards, I have been involved in multiple strategic exercises, including Polish Strategy for Digital Skills, strategic organizing of the Open Education movement (including the "Cape Town Open Education Declaration + 10 years" process), the Creative Commons Network Strategy process (which I co-chaired) and the Wikimedia Movement Strategy Partnerships Working Group (mentioned above). I also have experience in participatory workshop design and facilitation, and I am an alumnus of the Leadership Academy for Poland, an adaptive leadership program with a strong soft skills / team collaboration component.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I believe that Wikimedia is the most important free knowledge / open movement effort, and also a unique service on the internet. It is more than just an encyclopedia with associated free knowledge services - it is also a service that is unique in respecting user rights (in today's toxic online environment) and a community which is one of prime examples of peer production.

For this reason, I want to be involved in the Movement Charter process, which I hope will allow the Wikimedia Movement to further grow and be able to fulfill the goals of the 2030 Movement Strategy. I believe that the Charter will be a key element of the next phase in Wikimedia's history, where it's institutions are thoughtfully redesigned in light of strategic goals, needs of the movement and the broader free knowledge environment, which Wikimedia aims to support.

I hope that my extensive experience with strategic work - both at the level of strategy design and at the level of practical team cooperation skills - will be useful in this process. I also want to bring the perspective of a partner movement (Creative Commons), as well as experiences we have with network governance (in which I am actively involved).

Finally, I believe that the Movement Charter process should be highly participatory, and that the Drafting Committee should create a methodology and use tools that will enable broad participation of other movement members in the process. I hope to steer the Movement Charter drafting process in the direction of greatest possible participation. There are interesting methodologies that we can employ, so that the Wikimedia Movement does state of the art peer-to-peer work also in this regard.

Ciell (Ciell)

Ciell (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
10 years go by so quick, but lets move towards the future!
  • Personal:
    • Name: Ciell
    • Country: Netherlands
    • Languages: nl-m, en-3, de-2, fr-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Dutch Wikipedia (nl.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2006
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Participatory and consensus processes
  • Team collaboration
Wikimedia movement experience I have been involved with the movement since 2006. At the moment I am a Dutch Wikipedia admin, temporary admin on the Papiamentu Wikipedia, admin on Commons, VRTS-agent, CN admin on Meta, and hold some other rights like campaign creator for Commons:Montage campaigns for judging photo competitions. Especially as a CN admin I work in a very language and cultural diverse role, that next to this diversity also asks to keep in mind the position and the world's perception of the WMF in the choices and designs we make for the Wikimedia banners and campaigns. I enjoy this challenging role a lot. In intercultural situations I find it a challenge to seek balance between the person approaching me with a request and the general sentiment and rules on the different projects.

I am also involved in Gender Gap, LGBTI+, Accessibility, and GLAM Wikiprojects, both in on- and offline collaborations.

Team collaboration experience Specifically for Strategy I have been involved in many different ways since 2017, sometimes by translating and getting our community to form an opinion on the Strategic Direction 2030 (ex. nl:Wikipedia:Strategie 2030, and by posting about WMF initiatives in our Village Pump, our main channel for internal community communication. I have attended several meetings for the development of the Strategic direction. In the past months I have been involved with the implementation of the new Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) in our Dutch "Beleid Vriendelijk Ruimtes" that the Dutch Chapter (WMNL) uses for their events: the concept is up on the chapters wiki at the moment for community consultation.(Concepttekst nieuw Beleid Vriendelijke Ruimtes)

I have organized several events as well, alone or as part of a team, from small meetings in libraries to multi-day and multinational events like the Wiki Techstorm. I had some smaller supporting tasks in several Wikimania's (2018, 2019, 2021). A short (ever incomplete) resume of my wiki activities in the past 15 years can be found, in Dutch, here

Statement (not more than 400 words) I would like to help create a Movement Charter that will not be to restrictive to our current communities, but does set a decent base line of what is expected for the different roles and responsibilities we have. Through the years I have learned roles evolve and responsibilities change. I therefore would like the Movement Charter to become a clear charter, but flexible enough to be able to excepting additions and amendments, so it will actually provide a solid foundation for our communities in the years to come, and hopefully beyond. A time-proof charter, so to say.

Handgod Abraham (Kitanago)

Kitanago (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
contributory workshop animation on fr.wikipedia
  • Personal:
    • Name: Handgod Abraham
    • Country: Haiti
    • Languages: French - Haitian Creole
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): French Wikipedia (fr.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2018
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I am a founding member of the Wikimedia Haiti User Group. I participate and lead several workshops on wikimedia projects. I translate articles between English, French and Haitian Creole on the Wikipedia and meta. I maintain the Haitian Literature project on wipedian in French and I participate in several other wiki projects. I am volunteering for the current elections of the board of directors of the Wikimedia Foundation. I have just proposed myself as a member of the regional committee for Latin America and the Caribbean
Team collaboration experience I am a community manager. I have been contributing for about 10 years as a cultural activist and I am executive chairman of the "Marathon du Livre". I am also a member of the Executive Committee of Éditions Pulùcia.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I like to participate in wikimedia projects for its community character. I find it always better to collaborate for the common interest especially by promoting knowledge. I intend to apply my skills by collaborating with other members for the advancement of the Wikimedia Foundation

Ad Huikeshoven (Ad Huikeshoven)

Ad Huikeshoven (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Ad Huikeshoven
  • Personal:
    • Name: Ad Huikeshoven
    • Country:  Netherlands
    • Languages: Dutch, English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Dutch Wikipedia (nl.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2005
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Governance of organizations
  • Participatory and consensus processes
  • Policy writing skills
Wikimedia movement experience Experience in the Wikimedia movement:

Online:

  • Sixteen years of experience co-writing articles for the Dutch-language Wikipedia, uploading photos to Commons, and collaboration on meta, and so on.
  • In 2019, I facilitated the discussion of Discussion Tools on the Dutch Wikipedia. As a result, the Dutch Wikipedia became one of four pilot wikis on which Discussion Tools (reply tool) were tested.
  • In 2021, I led the implementation of the Newcomer features (Growth team features) in the Dutch Wikipedia. I recruited testers and mentors. The result of test work is that these new features became available to newcomers by default on September 1.

Offline:

  • Member of the Audit Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation (2007 - 2012).
  • Organizer of the Wikimedia Conference Netherlands 2011 and attended almost all Wikimedia conferences in the Netherlands.
  • Board member Wikimedia Nederland 2012 – 2016. In 2012, as treasurer, I helped Wikimedia Netherlands to professionalize by ensuring timely and reliable accountability reports, and timely and substantiated annual plans and budgets.
  • In 2020, I initiated the Wiki loves SDGs found a project leader and connected her to Project Everyone.
  • In 2021 I am a member of the working group that implements the Universal Code of Conduct for Wikimedia Netherlands, through an update of the Friendly Spaces Policy.

Familiarity with the Wikimedia movement strategy:

  • Active participant at http://strategy.wikimedia.org in 2009
  • Participated in Movement Strategy process since 2017, attended many Global Conversations
  • Participated in Chapter/Wikimedia Conferences in Berlin (2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) and Milan (2013).
  • Participated in Wikimania Haifa 2011, Hong Kong 2013, London 2014, Cíudad Mexico 2015, Esino Lario 2016, Stockholm 2019, Remo 2021
  • Participated in Wikimedia Hackathon Vienna 2018
Team collaboration experience Experience with team collaboration:
  • In my day-to-day work, I have experience as a project leader of teams of ten to twenty people, I have experience as a product owner in a scrum team, I am a member of a team of financial-economic advisors, and I collaborate in various departmental and interdepartmental working groups.
  • In 2013, I organized and led a meeting on Virtual Friendly Spaces at Wikimania Hong Kong
  • In 2019, I facilitated the Talk Pages Project on the Dutch Wikipedia. As a result, the Dutch Wikipedia became one of four pilot wikis on which the discussion tools (particularly the response function) were tested.
  • In 2019, I was an election facilitator for the so-called Affiliate Selected Board Seats. I took the initiative to draft a new resolution and worked with the team to develop it into a final version that the Affiliates could agree on. The Election Facilitators team consisted of people from three different continents and we were able to recruit candidates from all continents. In the end, two women were selected, perhaps in response to my repeated call for women to become candidates.
Statement (not more than 400 words) Imagine a world in which all editors of Wikimedia projects are happy, and have found balance in their lives. The reality here and now is different. You are addicted to editing one or more of the Wikimedia projects. It's not your fault nor are you to blame that you're addicted: it's quieting the pain of a childhood trauma.

The Wikimedia Foundation shamelessly exploits the fruits of your unpaid volunteerism. You put so much time into it that it comes at the expense of caring for your family, your friends, your job or your school. In case you are financially independent or retired, you are free to spend all your time as you wish - if you do not forget to drink, eat and sleep on time. As long as you are not yet financially independent, you could expect the Wikimedia movement to look after you and provide guidance and support where you need it most.

The Charter for the Wikimedia Movement is the place to establish the rights of unpaid volunteers. I want to work to ensure that locally, in all countries, there is professional support for local volunteers in their own language, which meets the local needs of those volunteers. This includes translation to (and from) local languages of (news) reports about the Wikimedia projects, localization of templates and gadgets, organization of community activities, and what you need to become happy, and find balance in your life.

My intention is to contribute to the drafting of a text that will be endorsed by the communities. This, I believe, will need to be an iterative process of community consultation. The committee will produce texts in several rounds and gather feedback from the communities - and other stakeholders. I will work to ensure that it will be an open consultation process based on making consent decisions. In the feedback rounds, anyone may object to parts of the text. For the Charter to eventually be ratified, the committee must have resolved any insurmountable objections before anyone is asked to ratify the text.


Dušan Kreheľ (Dušan Kreheľ)

Dušan Kreheľ (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Dušan Kreheľ
    • Country: Slovakia
    • Languages: Native Slovak. Understand Czech. Simple English (IT, to read). Simple Croatian, Slovenia and Serbian.
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Slovak Wikipedia (sk.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since:
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Policy writing skills
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience
Team collaboration experience
  • Contributor in Talk:Tech/News/2021/31#New_IRC_server
  • I have been a volunteer at events with a maximum of 400 people (especially in the field of technology and as an animator (participants mostly aged 18+)).
  • I have attended training for volunteers: "Psychology and Anthropology for Volunteers", Project Management, Leadership and Social Skills.
  • Regularly (usually daily) I am playing Supertuxkart in teams in hockey / football mode.
  • I am employed in a small company as an administrator and developer of a website with a number of different types of customers.
Statement (not more than 400 words) The Tech / News translation brought my attention to the global existence of the Wikipedia Movement. This global movement can be beneficial and enriching for a person and the movement can function as another dimension in addition to just contributing and editing some articles in some local Wikipedia.

Technology serves man, not man technology. Technology is a means.

What will happen in the future depends on today's actions and not only actions with short term effects or just looking at oneself and one’s actions.

I like to have a perspective on the whole whole, ie. What are the trends and what are the characteristics.

Just as technology and the presence of articles are needed in the Movement, so are people. Young people are our gift / opportunity.

Osama Eid (Osps7)

Osps7 (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Participation in Wikipedia's 20th birthday
  • Personal:
    • Name: Osama Eid
    • Country: Palestine
    • Languages: Arabic/English/Hebrew
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Arabic Wikipedia (ar.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2016
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I contribute to Arabic and English Wikipedia, have editorial rights to Arabic Wikipedia and English Wikipedia, and have editorial rights to Wiki Commons. I mainly work against vandalism Free knowledge, I have more than 11,000 mods globally, I have been very involved in the Wikimedia movement by disseminating free knowledge in contests and campaigns, and the percentage of achievements, I am an active member of the Wikimedia group in the Levant, and I trust What is happening in the east east. Launching projects in universities for training on Wikipedia.

I manage the educational programs of the Arabic Wikipedia in the State of Palestine, and I also participate in all the campaigns and projects of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Team collaboration experience The Levant Wikimedia Group, and the activities of the Arabic Wikipedia days
Statement (not more than 400 words) I edit articles in the Arabic and English Wikipedia and hold permissions in the Arabic and English encyclopedia. Law demanded. I am very interested in spreading knowledge. I also create edits in all Wikimedia Foundation projects, am a member of the Levant Wikimedia team, and launch educational programs at my university. I would like to be a member of the movement charter drafting team, and this will be a new and wonderful addition to me, and I expect to come up with very important recommendations. I also want to develop a flexible charter for the movement, and that this charter supports all communities and contributes to increasing people's knowledge of the projects of the Wikimedia Foundation.

I also want the charter to be appropriate for all changes and for all societies, and for it to be a just and positive charter.

Sadik Shahadu (Shahadusadik)

Shahadusadik (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Sadik Shahadu at Parliament of Ghana Editathon
  • Personal:
    • Name: Sadik Shahadu
    • Country: Ghana
    • Languages: English, Dagbani, Hausa and Twi
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Dagbani Wikipedia (dag.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2016
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
  • Communication skills
  • Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Inclusion and diversity awareness
Wikimedia movement experience My name is Sadik Shahadu from Ghana. I am a Co-founder of the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group and the Global Open Initiative. I am currently serving as a regional ambassador for indigenous communities at Art+Feminism, a steering committee member of the Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub, and have previously served as a volunteer on the Wikimedia project grants committee.

Over the past six years, I have served as a Wikipedia community leader and a project lead for several Wikimedia projects such as edit-a-thons, workshops, campaigns, and photo walks at the Global Open Initiative and the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group. I have also served as a country coordinator for Wiki Loves Folklore and Wiki Loves Earth 2021. Since 2017, I have volunteered for different Wikimedia communities including the current 3 Wikimedia affiliate User Groups in Ghana. As an indigenous ambassador, I work with indigenous communities to improve the content of Wikipedia in African languages. Some of my works include:

Team collaboration experience Over the past over the past six (6) years, I have collaborated and worked on several Wikimedia-related projects with organizations/institutions such as the University of education's school of languages Ghana (The Dagbani department), University for development studies (UDS Navrongo campus), Wiki Africa Education and Artandfeminism. Outside Wikipedia, I served as a Mozilla Open Leader X fellow working with students to create open educational resources (OER) in Ghana and currently serving as an ambassador for the Mozilla festival 2021. Since 2020, I have served as a MozFest wrangler, working with the Mozilla foundation staff to co-designed the Mozilla festival. In 2017, I was a member of the CC global summit 2018 program committee and a Co-lead for the 'future of the Commons' track. I am currently a program facilitator and panel chair for the Hack4OpenGLAM at the 2021 Creative Commons global summit.

In addition to that, I work with several open leaders and OER experts on the 'Open Education for a Better World' program as an advisory board member to support participants and also help create scholarship opportunities for students from Africa at the university of Nova Gorica, Slovenia. As a digital language activist, I work with individuals and organizations who are interested in digitizing the Dagbani language on the internet.

Statement (not more than 400 words) I believe, open education will provide a lasting solution to the global injustice that is affecting education in Africa. As one of the world's most visited online learning platforms, Wikipedia has proven to be one the most valuable online resources for both students and educators. As a volunteer contributor, I wish to contribute my experience to help this committee thrive. I am a project manager, researcher and a digital language activist with strong internet industry experience. I am passionate about open education, open data, and opensource technology.

My strengths are my interpersonal communication skills and my ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds. I am interested in working with indigenous languages communities, and always happy to discuss how we can bridge the gender gap on Wikipedia and the digital divide across Africa.

Ndahiro Derrick (Ndahiro derrick)

Ndahiro derrick (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Ndahiro Derrick
    • Country: Rwanda
    • Languages: English, Kinyarwanda
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Rwanda Wikipedia (rw.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2019
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Communication skills
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
  • Writing and editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience A founder of the Wikimedia User Group in Rwanda, a jury coordinator for Wiki Loves Monuments international organizing team and a member of the regional grants committee for Middle East & Africa.
Team collaboration experience
Statement (not more than 400 words) I am a Rwandan wikimedian and the Founder of Wikimedia User Group Rwanda and a volunteer in the User Group in Uganda, I edit English, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi Wikipedias, Wikivoyage, English Wikiquote and Wikimedia Commons, since 2019, I have participated in Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Folklore, Wikigap, Wiki Loves Earth and Wiki4Refugees both in Uganda as a contestant where I made it among winners and in Rwanda as the coordinator,

Besides that, I also train newbies from Rwanda, Burundi as a way of recruiting more people in the movement but also pay back to the Wikimedia User Group Uganda, who introduced me and mentored me throughout to the Wikimedia movement.

Besides the above, I also create and improve content on English, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi Wikipedias, something I wont hesitate to call my passion. I believe that team work, mentorship and passion are essential to achieve a collective goal, therefore having a full conviction in possessing the above essentials, I believe they will help me to serve in the Wikimedia Movement under the movement Charter's Drafting Committee and representing East Africa.

One, by engaging every movement Charter's Drafting committee member through listening to their views, without judging, and creating a leveled ground by mainstreaming gender in all operations ,to fight against systematic discrimination of women in the decision making processes.

Am a quick learner, enthusiastic and reliable, I believe in team work and change creation therefore ,The committee having me as part of them, will enhance team work, commitment and reliability not forgetting representation of East Africa on the committee

Irvin Sto. Tomas (Filipinayzd)

Filipinayzd (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Lightning talk at the Wikimedia+Education Conference 2019
  • Personal:
    • Name: Irvin Sto. Tomas
    • Country: Philippines
    • Languages: bcl-N, tl-4, en-3
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Bikol Wikipedia (bcl.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2006
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience In my leadership role, I actively represented PhilWiki Community and presented at the Wikimedia Conference (2017-2018) and Wikimedia Summit (2019), Wikimedia+Education Conference (2019), ESEAP Conference (2019), and the Global Conversations (2020). As a community coordinator and organizer, I represented and served as a presenter at the Philippine WikiConference (2012-2013). Currently, I am the Board Treasurer and the committee chair in GLAM and Education. Prior to this, I have served as a community coordinator (2012-15; 2015-2017), and chairman/president of PhilWiki Community (2018-2020).

As a project lead, I implemented different campaigns including WikiGap Campaign in the Philippines (2019-2020), Wiki Loves Monuments in the Philippines (2018-2020), Wiki Takes the City (2012 and 2015/16), and the Community celebration of the 20th year of Wikipedia (2020) in Naga City, and Bikol Wikipedia's 1st (2008), 5th (2012), 10th (2017) and 13th year (2020).

In the advocacy campaign, I was invited and talked in various fora promoting the activities of the organization and answering relevant issues related to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement. Among these engagements are: at the Bicol Region Librarians Council (BRLC)'s Regional Conference on Reinventing Library Management in the 21st Century (2012), Boses ni Lolo guest Wikipedian on DWRN 657khz (2015) and DWRJ 96.1 (2016), Ini An Totoo DWOK 97.5 TV program on the Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Education policy under the K-12 Curriculum of the Department of Education (DepEd) and Wikimedia Movement (2019), Language Month episode of Abogado Juan "Hapot mo, Simbag ko" on Home Radio 95.1 (2020), WikiGAP: Closing the Digital Gender Gap discussion sponsored by Developh Community (2021), and Wiki Loves Earth and Wikimedia Commons Workshop at the Pagkarahay Art Festival (2021).

I am most active on my local Wikipedia and spend some of my time contributing on Commons and Incubator. I used to be an admin on Bikol Wikipedia and on Bikol Wiktionary. Currently, I am working on Bikol Wikisource and Rinconada Bikol Wikipedia.

Team collaboration experience I am actively involved in various collaborations on and offline in different capacity. As a project team member, I served as the event manager of Wiki Loves Earth in the Philippines (2018-2020). I also served as a final jury in Wiki Loves Monuments in Armenia (2020), and Wiki Loves Earth in Armenia (2020), and the local coordinator of WPWP Campaign (2020) and Wikipedia Asian Month (2018-2020) on Bikol Wikipedia. In 2018, I was part of the communications committee of the ESEAP Conference held in Bali, Indonesia.

As a mentor and volunteer, I taught new editors and participants at workshops such as at the Open Web Day - University of Nueva Caceres (2013), Rinconada Bikol Wikipedia Edit-a-thon (2016) held at Iriga City Public Library, WikiTutorial (2018) held at Central Bicol State University of Agriculture, a teacher's training workshop of Department of Education - Division of Catanduanes (2019), and WPWP in the Philippines at CBSUA (2021).

As a participant, I am proud to have finished 6th over-all in the WikiGap Challenge (2020), and to be recognized among the participants as "meritevoli di menzione" at the Wikipedia 20 concorso di testi poetici by WikiDonne. Together with other global community leaders, I participated in the 2019 Training of Trainers which developed my organizing and leadership skills. Recently, I have been an active participant in the Wiki Loves Art mural painting activities of PhilWiki Community in partnership with Kintab Artists Group promoting Wikimedia and Wikipedia in Education at different public schools and a state university.

Statement (not more than 400 words) ESEAP has to have representation in the drafting of the Movement Charter. Being deeply involved in the movement for quite some time now, I believe I have something to share. To be part of a diverse, and vibrant pool of passionate advocates of free knowledge, is one great opportunity and challenge.

Ravan J Al-Taie (Ravan)

Ravan (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Ravan J Al-Taie
    • Country: Iraq
    • Languages: Arabic, English, Kurdish
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Arabic Wikipedia (ar.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2008
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Communication skills
  • Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Knowledge of Wikimedia
Wikimedia movement experience Through the last 13 years, I've gained a very wide & diverse experience in various Wikimedia projects as a volunteer, an admin, an AffCom member and recently a part time Contractor. I have almost 19,000 edits and around 850 articles created and translated by me.

I've founded the Iraqi Wikimedians User Group back in 2015, the first user group in Iraq, I also co-founded Wikiwomen Prize Competition in 2015. I've created and managed various editathons and workshops, as well as helped in founding Sorani Kurdish User group. I organized WLM competition for Iraq for 3 years. I'm very well engaged in the movement current strategy implementation discussions, further more as I worked for last year a contractor in the foundation, I've gained valuable knowledge about what communities need and where the movement need to get directed?

Team collaboration experience I have been a supportive team member in several teams within Wikimedia movement. I've coordinating projects for Wikimedia Iraq for several years. On wider level, I was an admin in Arabic Wikipedia for 3 years & have served as an Affcom member engaging with different affiliates and communities.

As I participated since 2008 in more than 15 local and international Wikimedian conferences, I've gained amazing friends from around the globe. therefore, according to accumulative and continuous discussions, I've built a valuable skill of collaboration with different cultures effectively. On a professional & personal level, I have a 10+ years professional experience of managing teams & projects. I have worked in projects in Telecommunications, Oil & gas Industry, NGO organizations, Electronics companies around the world.

Statement (not more than 400 words) I believe the 2030 strategy will be a great success for many years to come, and my extensive expertise will help ensure that the charter is written according to that strategy. My time spent in this movement has prepared me for such an opportunity, and I sincerely hope I can contribute in drafting the most important document in the future of the movement. I have wide and detailed knowledge about underrepresented communities which I believe it will be very crucial in the process of bringing all the point of views on the table while drafting the charter. It will be an honor to participate in this drafting committee and I'm fully committed to help on that.

Pepe Flores (Padaguan)

Padaguan (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Portrait taken during the Creative Commons Global Summit 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal. CC-BY 2.0, Sebastiaan ter Burg.
  • Personal:
    • Name: Pepe Flores
    • Country: Mexico
    • Languages: Spanish (ES-N), English (EN-4), Français (FR-2)
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Spanish Wikipedia (es.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2006 (Account created), 2013 (Active)
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Global and local policy work
  • Governance of organizations
  • Policy writing skills
Wikimedia movement experience I have been member of Wikimedia Mexico's board since 2013. I was an ordinary board member from 2013 to 2018, and vicepresident since 2018. I helped as organizer in Wikimania 2015, and represented my chapter at Wikimedia Conference (2015, 2016), WikiConference North America (2016, 2019) and Wikimania (2015, 2019. My main activities in Wikimedia Mexico are focused in outreach, communications, advocacy, regional affairs and community building.
Team collaboration experience As Communications Officer in a digital rights organization, I'm used to work with interdisciplinary groups regarding regulatory and policy discussions, collaborative writing, and legal analysis. I'm capable of working with global stakeholders in different parts of the world, and I'm flexible about time zones and schedules. I have also experience working with related to open culture movements, as part of the Creative Commons Global Network and member of Creative Commons Mexico.
Statement (not more than 400 words) Community is the backbone of the Wikimedia Movement. I'd like to offer my expertise as part of the digital rights community to ensure that the Charter is diverse, inclusive, and respectful of all the different backgrounds. I'd like to promote central discussions regarding privacy, freedom of speech, among other human rights in the drafting process. As Latin American, I'd also want to ensure that the Movement Charter reflects the cultural diversity of my region.

Runa Bhattacharjee (Runab_WMF)

Runab_WMF (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Runa Bhattacharjee
    • Country: India
    • Languages: Bangla/Bengali, English, Hindi
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Bengali Wikipedia (bn.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2013
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I have a personal and a professional role inside the Wikimedia movement. In my personal capacity I am a contributor to Bangla and English Wikipedia, and Commons. In my professional role, I work at the Wikimedia Foundation providing operational support to the Inuka, Language, and Campaigns Product teams as a Director in the Product Department. At various times, I have participated in activities that the teams or the Product department have undertaken for product initiatives.

A notable example is my participation in the development, maintenance, and communication outreach of the Content Translation tool from the WMF Language team.

Team collaboration experience I have been part of open source communities since 2000, and participated in various roles that directly impacted the project’s objective and growth. My primary contributions have been in localization of open source software at a time when internationalization support for Indic languages was at a formative stage.

It was a challenging frontier that provided me the opportunity to understand how software development practices could be optimized towards equitable adoption beyond socio-political and linguistic boundaries. This required continuous collaboration with a globally spread community of volunteers, organizations, policymakers, corporates, and governments. I have participated both in an individual and organizational capacity in such efforts primarily as part of the Fedora, Mozilla, GNOME, KDE, and Ankur Bangla (formerly Bengalinux) communities.

Since 2013, I have been part of the WMF’s Language team, with whom I had earlier collaborated in my other roles, and have been closely associated with language support efforts within the Wikimedia movement.

Statement (not more than 400 words) I believe that the strength of any movement can be determined by how well it can anticipate its preparations for the future. A movement as vast and global as the Wikimedia movement is an ever growing space and will continue to diversify in ways we may not even be able to imagine in the present. What we do know is that the movement has a mission and we can take consistent steps towards its success.

The movement strategy recommendation to ensure equity in decision-making provides rationale for 5 key structures, that not just proposes to fill existing gaps in fundamental operational processes, but also puts forward foundational elements that can make the movement more welcoming, inclusive, and easier to navigate around.

Within the Wikimedia Movement, we have regularly acknowledged the need to bridge gaps of content and participation that currently exist. Big and small efforts have been conducted at various times. Having had the opportunity to closely observe some of these activities, my understanding has been that the success that we achieve through these efforts happens through sheer grit and perseverance of the individuals involved. Our systems and structures could have supported them better if there was more clarity on how we can conduct our everyday work through well established processes, and how we can bring in change to meet new challenges.

As part of the drafting committee for the Movement Charter, I would like to keep our focus on a healthy combination of globally shared standard practices, and flexibility so that the guidance provided through the Charter allows a sense of stability to movement participants at all levels, and retains scope for continuous improvements as we work towards the 2030 vision.

Gnangarra (Gnangarra)

Gnangarra (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Gnangarra at Wikimania 2021
  • Personal:
    • Name: Gnangarra
    • Country: Australia
    • Languages: EN-N, NYS-3, EN.au-N
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Wikimedia Commons
    • Wikimedian since: 2005
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Inclusion and diversity awareness
  • Safe and collaborative spaces
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience Community builder, helped to form Wikimedia Australia, 2 years as President, 4 as Vice President, Currently part of ESEAP leadership group, created Commons Quality Images project, also part of the development of Nyungar language Wikipedia. Former Admin/Sysop on en.wp stepped down in good standing in after about 14 years, admin/sysop on Commons since 2007. current VTRS volunteer since 2019 previously a volunteer for about 2 two years around 2007-10.

Note I have second account User:Gnangcomapp this account is specifically for use with the Commons App on mobile devices to limit admin tools being exposed unnecessarily.

Team collaboration experience Everything we do in the movement is a team effort whether its content creation, event organisation, or Affiliate activity. Last commitment was Wikimania 2021
Statement (not more than 400 words) I cant reinforce enough that everything we do is a collaborative effort. I believe in assuming good faith and giving people the opportunity to learn, grow, and make mistakes regardless of how long they have been contributing, I acknowledge there must be limits on when actions stops being a mistake become pattern characteristic. The Movement Charter must provide a foundation for who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Priorities I see in the charter are for ensuring protection of anonymity, equity in access for everyone through both being able to participate at reasonable local times in what ever language they most comfortable with. Care needs to be taken in nuances of every language and how its translated to ensure that the concepts are presented equally to everyone equity starts with the charters wording must be able to carry the same principles through every translation iteration.

Anupam Dutta (Anupamdutta73)

Anupamdutta73 (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Anupam Dutta
    • Country: India
    • Languages: Bengali, English, Hindi-2, German-2
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Bengali Wikipedia (bn.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: February, 2020
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Policy writing skills
  • Team collaboration
  • Writing & editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience Contributing to Bengali Wikipedia, mainly by translating articles from English Wikipedia ; Editing articles in Bengali, English and other languages ; Contributing pictures in Wikimedia Commons; Sometimes I edit Wikidata and other Wikimedia projects.
Team collaboration experience Served as Secretary and President of Rotaract Club of Tollygunge (under Rotary Club of Tollygunge)
Statement (not more than 400 words) Wish to be part of the historical Movement by collaborating with all the interested fellow Wikipedians and create the Draft which will serve as the "Reference" for all the Wikipedians to follow. At the same time, it should be flexible enough to reflect the passage of time.

Alvonte (Alvonte)

Alvonte (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Alvonte
    • Country: China
    • Languages: Chinese-N, English-5, Spanish-1, French-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Chinese Wikisource (zh.wikisource)
    • Wikimedian since: 2010
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Governance of organizations
  • Resource allocation
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience I have significant experience with Wikimedia projects since 2010, I am:
  • One of the core coordinators of Asian Month for the last several rounds.
  • Member of ESEAP, participated in the 2019 Summit which leads to further regional coordinated effort.

Various on-wiki experience under a former account:

  • Has over 25,000 edits, with less than 50% on any singular site.
  • Was an administrator of a Wikimedia project, and a bot operator on multiple wikis.
  • Was a member of the Volunteer Response Team.
  • Contributed to the development of software on Phabricator.
Team collaboration experience I have collaborated with all kinds of different teams at various stages off-wiki, including but not limited to:
  • Co-chaired a tech conference with a couple of hundreds attendees, primarily responsible for cross-team collaboration with various sponsors. In addition, I drafted and was the point of contact for the Code of Conduct there.
  • Served as an administrator of an online scientific education platform for students.
  • Organized/coached teams for competitions with members from various countries across the world.
  • Agile/Scrum-coached a team of software developers, and mentored several engineers at different stages.
  • Received design thinking training at school. Coached and administered the process at various projects.
Statement (not more than 400 words) Fear, uncertainty and doubt is born out of ignorance. To combat the increasing tribalism and hostility, we must hold dear the values every one of us believe in, all human knowledge must be free and accessible. Wikimedia is not doing nearly enough. Our movement is crucial, a comprehensive un-biased repository of information is essential to combat hate and promote global understanding. Mutual understanding between different people is the cornerstone of a safer, and more sustainable world. We must do more.

I dreamed of a world that belongs to everyone, where every one of us could be anywhere, love anyone, and fear nothing. It would not be possible without increased understanding, without free, accessible knowledge. and I sincerely hope Wikimedia can play a more significant role in combating knowledge inequality worldwide. I hope that Wikimedia would place more value in non-English contributions and provide much more support to non-English contributors. It's never going to be an easy job, but that's what we set out to do. I hope that all of our projects could provide an easier channel for potential editors who are simply not so well-versed in English communication. I hope that many of the disappearing cultural traditions could find their place here, even though our children and children's children will grow up following the brand new traditions of some hyper digitalized world with facebook, twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, crypto, NFT, and a lot more to come. They can at least read about the ways we have lived. I hope that we could one day, realize the dream that Babylon never managed to achieve, where Wikimedia projects will be the lighthouse that stand for our generation and the many generations to come.

Our work is important, and more must be done.

P. S.: I did not think about running initially, but seeing the enthusiasm from the encouraging emails and messages, I feel obliged to at least try. I'm inclined to use a new account since I believe that is the best way for me to contribute onward. Email me if you have any thoughts.

Daria Cybulska (Daria_Cybulska_(WMUK))

Daria_Cybulska_(WMUK) (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Daria Cybulska
    • Country: UK / Poland
    • Languages: English-5, Polish-N, Russian-2
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Wikidata
    • Wikimedian since: 2012
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Global and local policy work
  • Inclusion and diversity awareness
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience
  • Staff at Wikimedia UK since 2012, closely involved in the development of the chapter
  • Member of Wikimedia Poland
  • Participated in 5 Wikimedia Conferences (aka the Summits), including the discussions on the Movement Dialogue, and the opening discussions of the 2030 vision
  • Part of the 2030 Wikimedia strategy project
Team collaboration experience At Wikimedia UK I usually work across teams to deliver projects – this requires soft influencing skills to reach agreement, negotiate common ground and move projects forward. I collaborate with external teams where Wikimedia UK gives grants to partner organisations, or projects pitched by volunteers.

Beyond working with others on the 2030 strategy (see below), earlier this year I was one of 15 people chosen through a competitive application process to work on a collaborative book sprint. I was collaborating with people from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences, some experts within narrow technical fields, some academics. The ‘Collective Wisdom’ book, our end product, can be seen at this link.

I believe that with my team collaboration approach comes a great dose of humility. I know I don’t have the answers. I believe in putting others in focus and learning from them, especially if their context is different than mine. My commitment to equity steers me to seeking solutions and knowledge within the people I work with and support. In practice that means that when I coach my team members, or facilitate group discussions, my primary belief is that the people I work with may already hold the answers to their challenges.

Statement (not more than 400 words) I bring a perspective from the organised part of the Wikimedia movement, and a long standing participant of the 2030 strategy process, while holding an open and learning approach.

I have worked in the UK civil society sector for the past 12 years, and for the last 9 I’ve worked at Wikimedia UK, leading on its programmes to deliver ‘free knowledge for all’ and implement the knowledge equity vision. I’ve been a trustee at two charities, currently at Global Dialogue, a European-wide field building network for civil society organisations working on human rights and democratic space. Being a secretariat space for a number of organisations at various stages of development, it gives me insight into a range of governance models, and into legal structures for developing organisations.

Global Dialogue also brings a lot of funders in the space, which connects to my practical experience within the 2030 strategy process. Throughout 2018/2019 I was a member of the strategy working group focusing on Resource allocation. We looked into progressive philanthropies, barriers that emerging communities are experiencing in accessing funding. We centered on structures of power and privilege that come with grant-making, and programmatic harms resulting from not addressing them. Accountability to donors is also something we investigated. (I also spent a week with representatives of 8 other thematic groups, taking 90 recommendations total and editing them into a coherent set of global recommendations).

A lot of the work done within the Resource Allocation group later informed key principles expressed in the global strategy. However, them being quite abstract and separated from implementation initiatives, I’m concerned that we will not see them realised in action. This would be a big loss, as I think it’s in these principles that we can really envisage a different Wikimedia movement. A Movement Charter is an opportunity to bring that into operation, and I’d hope to help with that.

Reda Kerbouche (Reda Kerbouche)

Reda Kerbouche (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Wikimedia Conference in Berlin 2018
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Russian Wikipedia (ru.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2010
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Global or local policy work
  • Resource allocation
Wikimedia movement experience I am a founding member of Wikimedians of Tamazight User Group and head of communication at Wikimedia Algeria since 2014. I am an active member of the community since 2010. I have organized and led several Wikimedia projects in the last few years. I support all communities, mostly indigenous languages. I have organized with my group several Wikimedia contests. I presented several projects at several conferences around the world about Wikimedia, in 2018 I did a small presentation about the Wikimedia movement at a UNESCO event in Tunis.

I speak French, Arabic, Russian, Tacawit, and work in English. I work for developing African and indigenous languages, in 2019 I was able to start the creation process of the Tacawit Wiktionary (the first language community to found itself on a project other than Wikipedia). I was in the organizing committees of WikiIndaba and WikiArabia. I am also a member of WikiIndaba Steering Committee and a Former member of the AffCom and I was a Candidate of The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. I represent my affiliation in the organization of the collaboration between the francophone groups of the Wikimedia movement (WikiFranca).

Team collaboration experience I have participated in several team collaborative experiences within our movement at different topics and levels.

At the organizational level of the UGs, I can say that I am a very important member for my affiliations. I organize meetings to discuss the situations and solutions that must be resolved or achieved.

My team and I are working on projects of several formats. Organization of contests, example of WLX on Commons, or lastly the contest of Kateb Maktub on WP in Arabic. I also participate in training of young and future Wikimedians in Russia, Algeria and Dubai by collaborating with different affiliations of the region. I participated in the organization of many conferences in Africa and Europe.

We made partnerships to set up educational projects such as MOOCs in Arabic, Russian and Tamazight, working with affiliates and companies in these regions.

I always launch discussions to launch projects or activities wherever I am.

Statement (not more than 400 words) My professional experience has always been related to management and leadership. I started by creating my own company working in the field of culture, then I was invited to work with large European retailers and multinational corporations from France and Sweden. in parallel with my personal projects in the cultural field. From 2019 I am working with cultural associations in Algeria collaborating with UNESCO to promote the material and immaterial heritage. I start an organization in Algeria the Citizen Inventory of Heritage where I am a co-founder and CFO. I have specialist degree and a Ph.D. in management from the University of St. Petersburg.

As an active member of the community at the international level, and with my personal experience, I know that we can do better. many affiliates cannot receive grants to meet their needs and struggle day and night to exist. The big challenge will be to find a solution to help all volunteers to do their work promoting our movement, especially where access to our resources is difficult.

More diversity in the movement, we always say that we have a diverse movement, but in fact, we still have to work on it, especially on gender and minority groups.

My biggest dream is for our movement to live in non-politics so that all peoples, countries, genders, cultures, religions live with the sole purpose of promoting free knowledge.

Dennis Raylin Chen (Supaplex)

Supaplex (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Dennis on Wikimedia Taiwan 10 Anniversary Conference
  • Personal:
    • Name: Dennis Raylin Chen
    • Country: Taiwan
    • Languages: Taiwan Mandarin (Zh-N), Taiwanese Hokkien (Nan-N), English (EN-3), Bahasa Indonesia, (Id-1), German (De-1), Taiwanese Hakka (Hak-1)
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Southern Min Wikipedia (zh-min-nan.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2006
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Communication skills
  • Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Knowledge of Wikimedia
Wikimedia movement experience I started contributing to Wikipedia in 2006, when Wikipedia was an early example of a Web 2.0 site.

Wikipedia brings together a large number of people from different backgrounds to write articles on the scope of human knowledge that is less included in encyclopedias and textbooks. This open knowledge project has encouraged people like me to participate more deeply..

In 2010, I started to participate in community activities in Taipei, and held a few quarterly gatherings to promote the revival of the formerly inactive local chapter of Wikimedia Taiwan.

For people who know the story of the Taiwanese Wikimedia community, they know that Wikimedia Taiwan was successfully revived particularly due to the Taiwanese aborigines which belong to the Austronesian languages group. We assist them in bringing the incubator to an official Wikipedia site.

Team collaboration experience I am the board member of Wikimedia Taiwan and served as the board supervisor.

I co-organized a program track at the COSCUP, which is a large open source conference in Taiwan, together with Wikidata and OpenStreetMap.

About the community, I mainly organize the OpenStreetMap x Wikidata monthly gathering in Taipei. OpenStreetMap and the Wikidata Taiwan community participate in the local promotion and data maintenance of these two projects.

Statement (not more than 400 words) Although speaking Austronesian languages in Taiwan will have a better international recognition, because according to scholars, Taiwan is considered to be the birthplace of the Austronesian languages. However, it is still not widely recognized that there is not only Taiwanese Chinese in Taiwan, but also other Chinese languages, such as Taiwanese and Hakka.

Through the Movement Charter, I hope to preserve the underrepresented languages in Taiwan and other minority languages that need to be protected, And to preserve the digital world through an international Wikimedia Movement.

KAHOU (Kahoutoure)

Kahoutoure (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Afrocine consolidation workshop in Ivory Coast
  • Personal:
    • Name: KAHOU
    • Country: Ivory Coast
    • Languages: French
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): French Wikipedia (fr.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2017
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Inclusion and diversity awareness
  • Participatory and consensus processes
  • Team collaboration
Wikimedia movement experience I participated in several edit-a-thons, especially the 1lib1ref edit-a-thons and the Afrociné projects, Wikikouman, as well as the Wiki Loves Africa contributor evenings, and Wikipedia Class
Team collaboration experience I am the Project Manager of Afrociné Côte d'Ivoire and the Project Assistant of Glam and I actively participate in the different activities of the Wikipedia sister projects
Statement (not more than 400 words) En ma qualité de Producteur des médias et réalisateur, je suis un conservateur d’images et Directeur exécutif d’une faîtière d’archivistes, bibliothécaires et libraires en Côte d’Ivoire (FICCI) Ma formation en gestion de projet et de manager m'a permis d'acquérir de nombreuses compétences parmi celles que vous recherchées. Je possède les atouts qui me permettront de réussir dans le rôle que vous voudrez bien me confier. Motivation, rigueur et écoute sont les maîtres mots de mon comportement professionnel.

As a Media Producer, I am an image Conservator and Executive Director of an umbrella organization of archivists, librarians and booksellers in Côte d'Ivoire (FICCI). My training in project management has enabled me to acquire many of the skills you are looking for. I have the assets that will allow me to succeed in the role you will entrust to me. Motivation, rigor, and listening are the keywords to describe my professional behavior.

My experience as a Project Manager during the VIIIth Games of Francophonie has allowed me to acquire the knowledge necessary for the proper execution of tasks under pressure. Regularly confronted with the ups and downs of the job, I am able to respond to unforeseen events in complete autonomy.

Taking part in the Drafting Committee of the Movement Charter represents for me a real future commitment in which my aptitude and my experience will be able to express themselves fully.

Anne Clin (Risker)

Risker (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Anne Clin
    • Country: Canada
    • Languages: En-N, Fr-2
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2005
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Participatory and consensus processes
  • Previous phases of Movement Strategy
Wikimedia movement experience Current:
  • Member of Wikimedia Communications Committee. Although not formally a part of this role, I frequently participate in media and other interviews
  • Advisor to Toolhub project
  • Volunteer Response Team (formerly OTRS), mainly in English Wikipedia Oversight and CheckUser queues
  • Administrator, CheckUser and Oversighter on English Wikipedia

Recent:

  • Member of Roles & Responsibilities Strategy 2030 team
  • Member of Funds Dissemination Committee for 5 years, chair for one year

Historical:

  • Member of English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee for 5 years. During this period, worked closely with WMF to develop multiple programs and projects that benefit all community members, including but not limited to development of what is now the Trust & Safety team, the Legal Fees Assistance Program, and processes to assist editors who are being harassed off-wiki.
  • Creator of "Risker's checklist", now routinely incorporated into developer processes for MediaWiki software
  • Member of Elections Committee in 2013, facilitating the first multiple-role election (Board, FDC and FDC Ombud). Advisor to this committee in 2015.

Other:

  • Frequent attendee at Wikimania, Wikimedia Conference, Wikiconference North America; presenter at multiple events on a wide range of topics.
Team collaboration experience Most of the committees and teams I have worked with have been highly collaborative. Of particular note is the work of the Roles & Responsibilities strategy team, the FDC, and the Arbitration Committee, whose success was dependent on collaborative work. Although less visible, there is also significant collaboration amongst both the local and global CheckUser group; and as part of the Arbitration Committee and later as an oversighter, I have worked with local oversighters to create and maintain a highly collaborative and mutually supportive environment.
Statement (not more than 400 words) My personal background is different from that of a lot of other candidates. I have always seen myself as primarily an editor with an interest in the global organizational aspects of the Wikimedia movement, rather than a member of any particular group. I’ve been a Wikimedian for over 16 years, and have a very broad range of experience at both the local and global levels. I’m familiar with a lot of the history that has had an impact on how the movement has developed over the years, and a good understanding of the sensitivities of different sections of the movement.

My current and past movement activities have reinforced to me the necessity of co-operation, collaboration, and compromise in order to meet broader goals. I recognize that it will not be possible for this drafting committee to meet all of the expectations of all of its members, let alone all of the expectations of every member of the movement; however, I believe that by working together we can achieve a balance that will gain acceptance from our broad global community.

I firmly believe that the individual projects – the Wikipedias, Commons, WIkidata, Wikisource, and the many other “sister” projects – are the centerpiece of the movement, and the movement infrastructure must be designed to help these projects to grow and develop in a healthy way. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of any Wikimedia affiliate organization; nonetheless, my work on the FDC and the 2030 strategy project has inculcated a deep and abiding respect for these organizations and their value to the movement as a whole, as they are important aspects of the project support infrastructure.

Kishore Kumar Rai Sheni (Kishorekumarrai)

Kishorekumarrai (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Kishore Kumar Rai Sheni
  • Personal:
    • Name: Kishore Kumar Rai Sheni
    • Country: India
    • Languages: Tulu
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Tulu Wikipedia (tcy.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2014
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience
  • Co-founder of Karavali Wikimedians User Group Karnataka, India.
  • Organized Tulu, Kannada, Konkani edit-a-thons in Mangaluru.
  • Attendee of number of conferences, events, and training sessions.
  • Currently I am a board member of Karavali Wikimedians User Group
  • I am active across diverse Wikimedia sister Wiki Projects.
Team collaboration experience
  • With regards to my Wikimedia experiences, I have worked collaboratively in several processes.
  • Found -5- more College associations along with Tulu community and different colleges of Coastal belt of Karnataka.
  • I have vast experience in bringing up my Tulu community from being in the incubator, to being made a fully fledged Wikipedia and trying to make Tulu Wiktionary go to live.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I would be happy to participate at the drafting of the Movement Charter for several reasons. As a Principal of College, I am motivator to my fellow students of our region, so I have always believed that knowledge is the only thing that grows the more it is shared.

Jorge Vargas (JVargas (WMF))

JVargas (WMF) (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Photo for the Wikimedia Foundation staff and contractors page by Myleen Hollero Photography
  • Personal:
    • Name: Jorge Vargas
    • Country: Colombia (Native) - USA (Resident)
    • Languages: Spanish-N, English-N, Japanese-2
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): '
    • Wikimedian since: 2013 (as WMF Staff)
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience I joined the Wikimedia Foundation in September 2013, allowing me to connect with the Movement across several forums and geographies in many opportunities. In my role with the Foundation's Partnerships Team (initially with a focus in Latin America, and now leading the Regional Managers team for almost 5 years), I've had the opportunity to meet and work with Affiliates and movement leaders globally, and better understand more particularly the needs of those outside of the United States and Europe.

I have been actively involved in the Movement Strategy process since it started, from the New Voices Research in 2017 that led to the Strategic Direction, to co-charing the Diversity Working Group in 2018–19.

Team collaboration experience Collaboration is in my DNA. As a Sr. Partnerships Manager, working successfully with others is essential to my team's goals and success. Impactful partnerships (within or outside the Wikimedia movement) always require team collaboration. I collaborate with other WMF teams constantly, engaging with people across themes and areas of work.

Leading Regional Partnerships also means closely collaborating with a range of actors, from UN agencies, tech companies, other non-profits, governments, and multilateral agencies. This work has also allowed me to partner with Wikimedia affiliates and movement leaders globally, building bridges between the movement and different partners with the goal of furthering our mission and making Wikimedia a well-known, diverse, and relevant space on the Internet. The 8+ years of tenure serving the Wikimedia movement also trained me well in what cross-cultural collaboration truly means, leading with empathy and understanding of cultural differences, navigating diverse personal and professional approaches towards problem-solving, multiple time zones, and across geographies.

Statement (not more than 400 words) Being an active participant and leader in the Movement Strategy process helped me to really understand the big importance the Movement Charter will have for the future of our Movement. I'm excited to take this work into tangible and needed actions towards our mission. Although not an active on-wiki contributor, I'm a Wikimedian at heart in a variety of ways, truly understanding the needs, gaps, strengths, and flaws of our movement, and more particularly, in underrepresented parts of the world whose voice is not present in our projects.

While participating in the Movement I've seen first hand the unfortunate bias Wikimedia (and the Internet) has towards US/Europe and English language centrism. During my time with Wikimedia, it became evident that as a social movement we need to strongly address the multiple blockers that exist to really allow our vision statement to become a reality. The Movement Charter will be instrumental in this goal. Trained initially with a legal background that transitioned in my last 7 years of experience to partnerships and business development, I also think I have the skills to be part of a drafting committee of a document such as this Charter, as I can bring the voices and ideas of others and my own into text that's understandable and clear. The Movement Charter needs to be a strong foundation towards that goal, and I strongly believe my professional and personal experience gives me the skills and tools required to be a part of the Drafting Committee, and represent both my professional side as a WMF staffer, as well as my personal interests and motivations in the Wikimedia movement.

Nethi Sai Kiran (Nskjnv)

Nskjnv (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Personal image
  • Personal:
    • Name: Nethi Sai Kiran
    • Country: India
    • Languages: Telugu, English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Telugu Wikipedia (te.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: December 2020
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Strategic and Structural Thinking skill
  • Team Collaboration
Wikimedia movement experience Active contributor on Wikipedia, Wikidata & Wiki commons.
Team collaboration experience Working closely with Telugu Wikipedia community in growth project and welcome message structure for improving new user contributions.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I am a budding Wikimedian contributing majorly towards Telugu Wikipedia, although my journey with the Wikimedia movement is short I have had enough opportunities to build content and interact with the community. I am participating in the 100 wiki days challenge and on the 98th day as of 10 September 2021. I contributed to over 7500 pages in wiki pages wanting photos competition and stood 6th in the world & 1st in Telugu Wikipedia. I also actively take part in community activities helping new wikimedians to edit on Wikipedia through growth project, proposing changes in content and outreach activities at Telugu Wikipedia.

Christophe Henner (schiste)

schiste (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Christophe Henner
    • Country: France
    • Languages: FR-N, EN-4
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): French Wikipedia (fr.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2004
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Governance of organizations
  • Resource allocation
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience
  • Wikimedian since 2005'ish
  • Sysop, Arbitrator, CU on frwp a long time ago (circa 2005 to 2008)
  • trustee, vice-chair and chair of Wikimedia France from 2007 to 2016
  • Chair and vice-chair of Wikimedia Foundation from 2016 to 2019.
Team collaboration experience I had many collaboration experiences during both my wikimedian and professional lives, some key ones:
  • In 2012 when we had a huge fight within the movement regarding fundraising and fund dissemination, I organized the Paris Finance meeting which not only built bridges between organization but ultimately led to the creation of the Funds Dissemination Committee. This was possible only by rebuilding a high enough level of trust to tackle heads on those hard questions.
  • In 2016, I was elected chair of the Wikimedia Foundation right after of crisis, and I helped move from a place of uncertainty to a place of collaboration all across the movement that materialized into the Wikimedia 2030 Strategy process.
  • In my daytime work, as a Chief Operating Officer/Managing Director, part of my job is to be able to create cooperation between teams with different language, stakes and goals.
Statement (not more than 400 words) The drafting committee will have to ensure that the whole process respects the recommendations from the Wikimedia 2030 strategy. The recommendations are to explore and set-up how we can move from a centralized movement to a decentralized and truly global movement. That move will require all of us to be able to have all the discussions that we need to have and never hide behind how the way are today, but find solutions to design what we need to become. In that endeavor, I did show across my Wikimedian life that I have no problem challenging the status quo to improve the movement.

To me, the main role of the drafting committee will be to structure the work to allow for community collaboration all across the writing process and not just at the end for the ratification.

On top of that, to also ensure we don’t take the easy path to conserve things as they are but that everything we keep as it is today is kept that way because it actually contribute to the movement being global and decentralized.

As for my vision, I do strongly believe that we should be having those discussions very directly and not shy away to open tough discussions and options. And have them by always trying to find ways to apply a subsidiarity principles.

The discussion we are about to address are key, important and sometime very emotional topics. Through the different hats I wore (editor, chapter chair, Wikimedia Foundation chair) and my professional curriculum (which has been about governance and running organizations for almost ten years and the last two in the size range of the Foundation staff-wise) I believe I also will be able to bring not only experience or knowledge, but also perspectives. As I have sat at the different side of the table I can empathize with the different stakeholders of that discussion.

Finally, the charter will become our guiding document to ensure we have shared alignment on where we go, trust and empowerment in the institutions and processes so that we can focus on making the world a better place and not on “how do we disseminate funds?”.

Yang Shih-Ching (imacat)

imacat (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Wikimedia Conference 2018
  • Personal:
    • Name: Yang Shih-Ching
    • Country: Taiwan
    • Languages: Chinese (̠Zh-N), English (EN-4)
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Chinese Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2006
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience # Board member of Wikimedia Taiwan (2017.12 - present)
  1. Founder of WikiWomen Taiwan (2015.03)
Team collaboration experience Working as a community organizer of the Taiwan local female STEM communities since 2010, I founded Women in FOSS in Taiwan (2010), PyLadies Taiwan (2013), and WikiWomen Taiwan (2015).
Statement (not more than 400 words) As a transgender women and an advocator for the women and LGBT rights, I think it is very import to make sure the goal of the Wikimedia movement covers the gender-based diversity, is for all people. Not only that the knowledge itself is free for all people, but the content of the knowledge covers all people, and is created by all people. It's thus very important to devote resources in order to promote friendly spaces to encourage women, LGBT and other minorities to contribute to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Movement. I would like to contribute my efforts to the committee.

As a Taiwanese and a member of the Chinese Wikipedia, as Chinese Wikipedia is one of the largest Wikimedia projects, I think more voices should be heard in the committee, in order to accomodate the problems the Chinese Wikipedia is facing, and the cultural issues that should be included into the Wikimedia Movement. I would also like to contribute my efforts for us to be heard.

ellif d.a (ellif)

ellif (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: ellif d.a
    • Country: Republic of Korea
    • Languages: Korean-M, Japanese-3, English-2
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Korean Wikipedia (ko.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2005
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Inclusion and diversity awareness
  • Policy writing skills
  • Previous phases of Movement Strategy
Wikimedia movement experience For Wikipedia, I had started Korean Wikipedia in Feb 2005. The whole editing experience was dreadful, including several ‘fights’ and block requests from other 'users' until now. A lot of disagreeing with policies in the KO-WP made me afraid of participating with Korean Wikipedia, and I had to start a new one in 2012, for fulfilling the Sum of the Knowledge. And now, I regard myself as a user of the Korean Wikimedia movement, not about Wikipedias.

For the Non-WP experience, I have participated with the first day of Wikimedia (South) Korea and photographed most main events in Wikimedia Korea, which one of them are included in the foundation's press release for the WM-KR recognition. And I have initiated several editathons in the Republic of Korea before the COVID-19. The main project is about the participating researchers on humanities into Korean Wikipedia to enhance articles' qualities. Also, I have participated in the recent global conversations by the Strategy team. In these events, I emphasised the importance of including wikimedians with Disabilities and Wikimedians who are not enabled to speak in English.

Team collaboration experience (Had several projects completed, but not public)

For Wikimedia projects, I was an representative for the Wikimedia South Korea before KWA organized, and participated for making Korean Wikimedia Association. I also served one year in the OTRS(2012-2013) for Korean service.

Statement (not more than 400 words) Current Wikimedia movement has several severe problems. First of all, our projects forgot the way to include users, which enable enhance user diversity. For example, many users with disabilities, especially those with Neurodivergent/autistic traits, usually have negative experiences with their communities, making them stop the editing or block them by the Admins. Their experience never researched or covered any Wikimedia movements. Also, many researchers, which has rich knowledge about their research field, are worth participating in the projects, are unwilling with our projects. We also have a few women editors, which the foundation are endeavour for increasing. The foundation has to find the methodology for including these groups.

Secondly, the methodology that blocks the discriminative attacks, aiming to get out users who have different viewpoints with their groups, should be made. The current 2030 strategy or UCoC policy do not have any mention or procedure of it. For an example of KO-WP and JA-WP (See Wikimania submissions by Kitamura Sae), some people are making edits with aggressive speeches or argue they are not ‘logical’ or ‘rational’: for intimidating users in opposition with them. These attritional debates, which cause heartbreak to many users, and weaken the community, should handle in this charter.

The charter should be the start point of the change that we need. We have to admit our communities are eliminating the diversity in the community, which are essential to thriving our project. I want to participate in this committee for this purpose, for the Wikimedia projects enable to get the sum of the knowledge from all human beings.

Abdulrahman (itzedubaba)

itzedubaba (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Abdulrahman
    • Country: Nigeria
    • Languages: Hausa,English,fulde
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Hausa Wikipedia (ha.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2021
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience Member Hausa Wikipedia user group
Team collaboration experience Participate in various Wikipedia programs such as wikimenia 2021
Statement (not more than 400 words) I have lofty and noble professional dreams of helping as many vulnerable people as I can to be safe and happy.

As a graduate student, I will aim to master the gambit of strategies that are most effective at promoting progressive social change. Being a caring person is intrinsic to social work, along with the drive and high motivation to challenge clients to realize their full potential. Social workers must honor the individuality of each client and empower them to move forward and achieve improvement. The fullest respect of client dignity helps to foster a sense of worth leading towards self-realization and -determination, and helps to produce participatory citizens rather than burdens to the system. The fight against social injustice is intrinsic to social work as I see it, in addition to advocacy, always with an eye on achieving the best outcomes for one’s clients. I personally feel strongly that serving as a voice for the oppressed should come naturally for social workers as they fight for justice and progressive change in their communities. While working with individual clients in the micro setting is my primary and immediate goal, I think it is complimentary to never lose sight of the broader picture and the way in which our own efforts are part of a larger movement towards greater levels of equality and dignity in our society.

James Hare (Harej)

Harej (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: James Hare
    • Country: United States
    • Languages: en-N, fr-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Wikidata
    • Wikimedian since: 2004
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience Volunteering since 2004 in a number of capacities, including individual content and technical contributions (mainly bots). I have also worked on behalf of Wikimedia affiliates to plan outreach and training programs, including Wikimania 2012, and I have also run those kinds of programs as a representative of a partner institution. More information is available on my user page.
Team collaboration experience I have worked with volunteer and hybrid volunteer–professional teams to organize events as large as over 1,000 people, run affiliate boards, plan events both large and small, build and maintain relationships with partners, and develop software collaboratively with the communities as a Wikimedia Foundation staffer. I served on the boards of two affiliates, Wikimedia District of Columbia (2011-2018) and Wiki Project Med (2017). I also was briefly on a Wikimedia Foundation conference grants committee and I served as a facilitator for the 2014 affiliate-selected board seat process.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I have been a part of Wikimedia for way too long. I remember when Wikipedia was a radical experiment that no one took seriously. We proceeded anyway. Fast forward twenty years and Wikipedia is now looked upon as one of the last bastions of reliable nonpartisan information. I consider this to be a massive failure of the part of our society to take this kind of work seriously as a priority, but also a testament to the strength and resilience of Wikimedia's movement. One that is built organically around a common belief around the importance of sharing information. One where you do not need to formally join an association in order to participate.

With the movement charter we are presented a challenge to develop a governance framework for the Wikimedia movement. A decentralized movement which has, historically, resisted most forms of consolidation and imposition of hierarchy. This is a feature of our movement, not a flaw. But without a formally recognized institution like the Global Council, we are left with various scattered power structures that favor the well-organized and well-resourced. In practice this leaves volunteers feeling like they have no control over what the Wikimedia Foundation does even as the Foundation spends millions of dollars improving its community relations. The system may somewhat work but the belief will persist that it doesn’t.

If the movement charter drafting committee is successful, it will create a new polity that has been sorely missing: the organized counter-voice to the Wikimedia Foundation. Even with the best intentions, the current arrangement, with a few large organizations and many poorly organized volunteer communities, will inevitably produce conflict. There are sincere disagreements over what should be prioritized and why, and given how spending power is allocated, people will perceive the process to be unfair. And I honestly don’t think corporate hierarchies like the Foundation’s scale well to movements like ours; this is reflected in the velocity at which the Wikimedia Foundation makes improvements to the projects.

I consider these the top three priorities for the movement charter:

  • Build legitimacy in the process and institution by establishing clear and explicit power arrangements;
  • Empower the everyday and occasional Wikimedians to have say in the decisions made by movement-funded actors;
  • Help movement-funded organizations like the Wikimedia Foundation scale management and oversight of their work to the hundreds of language communities, sister projects, affiliates, and so on.

Jamie Li-Yun Lin (Li-Yun Lin)

Li-Yun Lin (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Wikimedia Summit 2019
  • Personal:
    • Name: Jamie Li-Yun Lin
    • Country: Taiwan
    • Languages: Chinese (̠Zh-N), English (EN-4), French (FR-2), Japanese (JP-1)
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Chinese Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2014
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Global or local policy work
  • Governance of organizations
Wikimedia movement experience Board member of Wikimedia Taiwan (2016.03 - present)
  1. Director of Wikipedia Asian Month (2019.09 - present)
  2. Chinese interpreter and translator for Wikimedia movements (2017.09 - present)
  3. Member of Community Health team for Wikimedia movement 2030 (2018.11 - 2019.12)
  4. Program committee member of ESEAP conference (2018 2017.08 - 2018.05)
  5. Project manager of Taiwan WikiProject Med (2016.03 - 2019.06)
Team collaboration experience As a board member of Wikimedia Taiwan, I worked as a volunteer manager for Taiwan Wikiproject Med for three years, also assist the Taiwanese community and WMTW can have better conversations/ cooperation with international Wiki communities and involve in more movements. Besides the duties from WMTW, I also participate in several regional organizations and Wikimedia movements. such as joining the program committee of the ESEAP conference to design and arrange programs for participants, discussing and writing recommendations as a Community health team member for 2030 movement and so on. Starting from 2017, I keep assisting improve the Chinese translation quality for Wikiprojects and movements; what's more, working as a Chinese interpreter for Wiki global conversations. I have plenty off-Wiki and on-Wiki collaboration experience. I am currently the director of Wikipedia Asian month (events and user group), cooperating with more than 60 Wiki teams from worldwide to promote Asian cultures via Wikipedias and Wikimedia projects. I am a full-time PhD researcher/ PhD candidate in real life, my major research field is immunology, virology. I shared my Wiki experience in some universities before and now have a lot of cooperation with other research teams all over the world.
Statement (not more than 400 words) Since the feedback from Chinese communities has been ignored for a long time, now it's time to make a move: participating in the draft committee to make some changes. Besides the ignorance; in my Wiki years, I suffers from the insult due to my ethnicity, gender, academic degree, accent and so on, those are definitely something that should not last and let the newcomers suffer like me. Hope I can bring my experience and Wiki expertise, also as diverse voices as possible to the draft committee. I am looking forward to making our future achievement more comprehensive and creating a more diverse, equal, safe and friendly environment for everyone to devote themselves to volunteer work without fears.

Galder Gonzalez (Theklan)

Theklan (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Galder Gonzalez at the 2019 Wikimedia Summit
  • Personal:
    • Name: Galder Gonzalez
    • Country: Basque Country (Spain)
    • Languages: Basque, Spanish, English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Basque Wikipedia (eu.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2006
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Previous phases of Movement Strategy
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience I started as a wikimedian really early, in 2006. I have been mainly collaborating at my main wiki, but since 2017 I have been involved in the Wikimedia movement. I'm currently an staff member at the Basque Wikimedians User Group, where I work mainly on our education program. As a devoted wikimedian on education, I was part of the team which organized the first Wikimedia+Education conference. I have been part of the Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy team, focusing on Diversity. I have volunteered in other Wikimedia events, such as Wikimania. As a volunteer, I also like to help small Wikipedias to work with automatic templates from Wikidata, a project where I also spend some volunteering time. I have organized the WLM contest three times in the Basque Country and I have a broad knowledge about how we are organized.
Team collaboration experience I have worked on communications before, especially co-ordinating big campaigns, so I can work with a team. I have also volunteered at the Movement Strategy and I'm experienced working both online and asynchronous.
Statement (not more than 400 words) As a member of the Basque Wikimedians User Group, I have a good approach of what is happening in smaller wikis and smaller communities. During the Movement Strategy (long) discussion I had a good perspective on how we should handle differences and go beyond our current status. I think I can be useful in this moment, as the Movement Charter will handle many of the arguments we had about governance during those long long long online and offline discussions.

Aliyu (Aliyu shaba)

Aliyu shaba (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Aliyu
    • Country: Nigeria
    • Languages: English, Hausa
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Hausa Wikipedia (ha.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2020
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Policy writing skills
  • Writing and editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience Since I joined Wikipedia I have learned many things such as creating editing and translating articles.
Team collaboration experience I have participating in various Wikipedia programs such as wikimenia 2020
Statement (not more than 400 words) I want to contributes wikimedia projects for improve their content . It is always good to work together for the benefit of everyone, especially through education. I intend to use my expertise in collaboration with other members to develop the Wikimedia Foundation

Ian Ramjohn (Guettarda)

Guettarda (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
At the Wiki Education Foundation All Staff meeting in San Francisco, July 2021
  • Personal:
    • Name: Ian Ramjohn
    • Country: Trinidad and Tobago — United States
    • Languages: en-n, Trinidadian Creole-n
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2004
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Governance of organizations
  • Inclusion and diversity awareness
  • Knowledge of Wikimedia
Wikimedia movement experience I am a founding member of Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group, and serve as part of the leadership team. Since the group's formation at WikiConference North America in 2018, I have helped organise and lead our events, including recruiting a noted artist and cultural activist to take part in WikiCari Fest 2020. I have been a staff member (as User:Ian (Wiki Ed)) at the Wiki Education Foundation since 2014 where I have supported tens of thousands of new editors (10–14,000 each year) as they navigate making their first contributions to Wikipedia and using the Wiki Education Dashboard (the 'older sister' of the Programs & Events Dashboard). I co-authored our Wikidata training modules in 2019. I have been an active Wikipedia editor since 2004, an administrator on the English Wikipedia since 2005 where I have contributed Featured Articles, Featured Lists and Good Articles.
Team collaboration experience I work in a very collaborative environment at Wiki Education. We are a small organisation where everyone works closely together to get things done. In our work with university instructors and student editors (our Wikipedia Student Program) I work very closely with colleagues on a daily basis. In my role in our Scholars & Scientists Program where we train faculty and professionals to edit Wikidata and Wikipedia, I collaborate with colleagues to run these course. Our procedures for writing our annual plans, annual reports and strategic plans are collaborative, and I work closely with my colleagues to edit blog posts and other communications and to co-author a chapter in the recent Wikipedia @ 20 book.

Prior to this, I worked for a decade as an instructor in higher education; shepherding classes of undergraduates through semester-long courses, coordinating with other instructors, teaching assistants, and lab prep staff, requires a team that collaborates effectively, week after week. Before that, I worked in environmental consulting. Designing, collecting, and analysing field survey data, and working with my colleagues to get reports written, delivered to clients, and getting revisions done in response to their feedback required considerable collaborative team work.

Statement (not more than 400 words) I am an active content contributor to the English Wikipedia, our largest and oldest community. While no one person can speak for a community that large and diverse, I can speak from it. As a 17-year contributor and admin, I’m an insider, but as a non-white person, a citizen of the Global South who showed up because I wanted the chance to tell our stories and challenge the top-down process of knowledge creation, I am also an outsider. Having directly supported more new editors than anyone else in the movement, I have a sense of their needs and the issues they experience.

I've chosen to use my social capital to be heard in places where newcomers pushing for equity are likely to either be overwhelmed or ignored. I have pushed back against Wikipedia's colonised bones, and worked to help empower others to work for equity. I have collaborated with people making huge strides to bring historically excluded groups into our mission.

The people chosen to draft the Movement Charter should understand the need to balance the interests of the large communities with the needs of the small groups, especially those who have been historically excluded. They must also be willing to listen to what people within the community have to say, understanding that the collective wisdom of the community, there are always better ideas than any individual might bring.

I have a sense of the breadth of what exists in our movement. I have worked on large projects like the English Wikipedia, and collaborated to help develop small ones like WikiSpore. I have experience with an organisation with a formal governance structure and paid staff that obtains the majority of its funding from funders outside WMF, and one with a more informal structure run with no budget gives me an understanding of some of the contrasts among affiliates.

I am a good writer and a better editor. I am an effective and experienced cross-cultural communicator. I have experience building systems of support that helped Wiki Education go from supporting 2,747 students with two dedicated half-time staffers in Fall of 2014 to supporting 6,820 students in Fall 2020 with one dedicated staffer (me). I have experience with policy development on en.wp; one of my first major forays was an (unsuccessful) attempt to standardise Era notation in 2005.

These skills and experiences should help me draft effective and efficient procedures.

Jaseem Ali (J ansari)

J ansari (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Wikipedia Conference Kolkata-2019
  • Personal:
    • Name: Jaseem Ali
    • Country: India
    • Languages: Hindi-N, English, Urdu
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Hindi Wikipedia (hi.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2016
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Writing and editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience I have been contributing to Wikipedia and its sister projects for more than 5 years. After attending, Hindi wiki conference 2018-19 and WAT 2018, I felt there is a lot of work to do in the field of awareness of Wikipedia among societies and outreach activities so, other than online editing I am more involved in conferences, meetups, GLAM, online and contests like Wiki Love Monuments, Wikipedia Asian Month 2017-18, Wikimedia Tiger project-2018-19, etc.

I was Joined to Wikipedia and Wikimedia as a Reader in the year 2011 but I have registered this account year 2016. After joining the Wikimedia Movement, I led several contests in the form of an organizer in Edit A Than and Offline, Online The event. In which Hindi Wikipedia conference Delhi 2018. And Hindi Wikipedia conference Kolkata 2019 contributed as an organizer in. I am currently contributing to the Hindi Wiki Library and Hindi Wikipedia education program as a coordinator. I am an advisor in Wikisource GLAM Heritage India Project For Hindi Wikisource.

I mainly contribute to the projects of Hindi Wikipedia. Where I have important rights. As I Was a sysop on Hindi Wiktionary and Hindi Wikivoyage. And I am an autopatrolled, reviewer, Rollbacker on the Hindi Wikipedia. As well as being the most active contributor to Hindi Wikipedia, I have created more than 1400 articles based on geography. Political science etc. I've edit numbers more than 31K.

I am the founder member of the Hindi Wikimedians User Group I am a founder member of Hindi wikivoyage and Hindi Wikiversity. I am a translator of the weekly technical newsletter for Hindi Wikipedia.

  • My global contribution more than 31K+ edits.
  • I am a global Rollbacker, Auto patrolled, Rollbacker and Reviewer. at Hindi Wikipedia.
  • I am One of the Founder member of Hindi Wikiversity, Which is First Indic Wikiversity.
  • I have been created more than 1400 articles on several wiki projects
Team collaboration experience There are briefly my past Wikimedia involvement.
offline activities
(Online) Edit-a-thons
Statement (not more than 400 words) As a Student and a Wikimedian I spend more time of my daily exposure on Wikipedia and its sister projects. Which is why I share my experience with social media channels, Whatsapp, telegram, Hangout and Wikipedia. Since joining Wikipedia 2016, at first I thought Wikipedia is just a free knowledge sharing mechanism. I'm interested in the art of spreading free knowledge globally. I would be happy to participate at the drafting of the Movement Charter for several reasons.an active Wikimedia, and have a lot of experience in Wikimedia movement, this will be great opportunity for me in Wikimedia movement.

Michael Baker (Tango Mike Bravo)

Tango Mike Bravo (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Michael Baker
    • Country: Italy
    • Languages: English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2008
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Global or local policy work
  • Revenue generation
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience My main experience is creating and editing pages on en.wikipedia. I have also contributed to Wiki Loves Monuments in 2017 and attended Wikimania in 2014 in London where I was living at the time.
Team collaboration experience In 1994 I founded Electronic Frontiers Australia and was on its board, first as chair, then as board member for several years. During that time I was the EFA representative on the Global Internet Liberty Campaign. With others I was responsible for drafting several of the GILC statements that were subsequently signed by many of the GILC member organisations. On en.wikipedia was part of an ad-hoc team that merged Template:Family tree into Template:Tree chart. This involved editing every template and page that used the former template to check and if necessary make minor changes so that the template use did not break.
Statement (not more than 400 words) Grew up in Scotland (can translate Glaswegian to English), went to universities in Scotland and England, later moved to Australia where I became a citizen and now live in Italy with my wife. Currently learning Italian. At The Open University was Vice President Constitutions of the students association, responsible for managing changes to the organisations constitution. Before moving to Australia was involved in The Hunger Project for which raised over £10,000 by gathering pledges only payable if at least £10,000 in pledges were made. Founded Electronic Frontiers Australia which included drafting the first constitution and for which was first chairperson. Being an EFA board member and representative on the Global Internet Liberty Campaign involved both national and global policy work, both for the organisations and understanding and criticism of national and international policy with respect to online civil liberties. On en.wikipedia have been involved in:

Richard (Nosebagbear)

Nosebagbear (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Richard
    • Country: United Kingdom
    • Languages: en-N
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2018 (functionally - account creation 2012)
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Policy Writing Skills
  • Previous phases of the Movement Strategy
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience After a false start back in 2012 I fell into the rabbit hole in 2018 and have been active since. One of my most active fields is as an OTRS (now VRT) response agent, primarily working with those with absolutely no Wikimedia experience, aiding in navigating what can be a distinctly byzantine process. I also became an en-wiki admin in 2019, which was also around the time that I became highly active in the Strategy side of the movement. This has run from participation in every phase of almost every recommendation, the prioritisation discussions, the UCOC, and every discussion we've had to implement the 2030 strategy. This included helping craft the compromise selection method for the MCDC.
Team collaboration experience The bulk of my career has been as a Strategy Analyst for a multi-national - a small team with a primary remit for acquiring the different views and priorities of a dozen different business units, and then drafting a viable strategy that can be lived with by everyone.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I wondered what to put here - everyone appears to have their own views on the statement's use, but I'd think you'd want to know what I'd actually do if chosen (albeit in short-form!).

This is a crucial process, but critically we need to make it as little about the specific drafters and as much about the Community's viewpoints (stressing the plural). We shouldn't be attempting to drive through a controversial position with 51% support, and I would not. I am a strong supporter of "subsidiarity" - that is, anything that can be done at the broadest level (the local communities and the meta-community), should be.

  1. We have broad areas that everyone agrees should be included, but these are all huge. I'd start with an open listing where anyone can add in areas they think should be discussed for inclusion. MCDC (the less popular alternative band?) members could add their ideas like any other editor. We could also measure initial indications of concern about certain aspects being included – indicating potential "hotspots".
  2. Once an (absolutely preliminary) list has been agreed, the MC is too big to even try to craft an entire version at once, so split into areas. Rather than do as many other WMF projects have done and create a draft and show it to the Community, I find that encourages drafters to get locked into an idea of minimal changes. I'd like to have each topic have an initial community discussion, coupled with the usual calls, etc, to get detailed indications of views, and then create a draft, and then 'multiple phases of drafting/revision.
  3. My personal preferences on level of detail are roughly in line with the ad-hoc polls - "broad brushstrokes" on movement principles, light or medium detail on existing bodies and their roles, more detail on new bodies, and the most binding detail on transparency. And that transparency has to start with us.
  4. Most critically: ratification - another area that needs nailing down early. Otherwise it fosters distrust and encourages proposing a softer ratification process when we're nearly done, and that should be avoided. I have some personal ideas: majority support by all of: local communities, active editors, affiliates, and the BOT. But maybe you disagree - discuss!

Finally, I'm open to functionally any level of questions. If there ends up a cap on the formal process, ask on my talk page

Georges Fodouop (Geugeor)

Geugeor (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Amazing Contributors attending to WikiIndaba 2018
  • Personal:
    • Name: Georges Fodouop
    • Country: Cameroon - Belgium
    • Languages: French-N, English-2
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): French Wikipedia (fr.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2013
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Cultural and linguistic awareness
  • Inclusion and diversity awareness
  • Knowledge of Wikimedia
Wikimedia movement experience I am an active member and Co-founder of Wikimedians of Cameroon User Group. I have contributed to Wikimedia projects since 2013. During all these years, I have coordinated several projects: Wiki Loves Women, like Wikimedian in residence, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Earth, Afripedia, the WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique project... I coordinated several other local projects: Promotion of local Cameroonian languages in the Wiktionary through Lingua Libre. I am also a member of Wiscom (WikiIndaba Steering Committee); 1Lib1Ref ambassador for French-speaking countries. I am a member of the grants commission (Microfi) of Wikimedia France. I have also actively contributed to the organization of several strategic salon which have enabled us to make our modest contribution to the future vision of the movement. Cameroon UG Reports.
Team collaboration experience I participated in several collaborations through the projects that I coordinated or the responsibilities that I held. Whether locally or internationally.

Locally, I contributed to the creation of the Cameroon User Group with other founding members; so we have worked on setting up all the procedures leading to affiliation and laying the foundations for the future. The Wiki Loves Women project opened the doors for me to the Wikimedia movement; I worked extensively with both the principal coordinators of the project and the national coordinators of countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. This was the case with the project coordinators Wiki Loves Earth and others.

As a member of the Wiscom (WikiIndaba Steering Commitee), I discovered the place of the movement in Africa and contributed to its evolution and impact through the organization of annual conferences.

In the French-speaking world, I have several collaborations:

  • I am a WikiFranca referent in Cameroon; in addition to the activities organized, I contributed to the drafting of the governance charter and to the structuring of this future chapter.
  • I collaborated in the promotion of local Cameroonian languages in Lingua Libre and the Wiktionary
  • I am a member of the microfinance (Grants) commission and I help to publicize the activities of this commission among francophone groups and also to the regular processing of funding requests.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I have contributed to the movement's 2030 strategy from its inception, whether through the various strategic exhibitions organized, through the meetings in which I participated or through the exchanges that I had regularly with the main team of The strategy.

I remain determined to make my modest contribution to getting things done through the contribution to the Charter of the Movement. I am motivated to take up a new challenge in the movement especially with the experience that I have acquired first in Africa and now in Europe.

Jastin Boniventure Msechu (Justine Msechu)

Justine Msechu (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
justine Msechu
  • Personal:
    • Name: Jastin Boniventure Msechu
    • Country: Tanzania
    • Languages: Swahili and English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Swahili Wikipedia (sw.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 8 February 2021
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience Since joining Wikipedia I have learned many things such as creating, editing and translating articles. I have also attended various Wikipedia sessions especially the Movement Charter.
Team collaboration experience I am participating in preparing various wikimedia swahili programs here in Arusha.
Statement (not more than 400 words) I’m a very flexible and resourceful person. Even when things change at the last minute, I’m able to adjust accordingly and meet tight deadlines. So i bilive its a great opportunitie to be in Movement Charter Drafting Committee so as we can so that we can develop Wikipedia and achieve the goal by 2030 and also to share my experience and learn from others.

Chris Keating (The Land)

The Land (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Chris Keating
    • Country: United Kingdom
    • Languages: en-n, fr-1, de-1, British Sign Language-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2004
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
  • Governance of organizations
  • Participatory and consensus processes
  • Writing and editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience On-wiki
  • English Wikipedia editor since 2004
  • Administrator since 2006
  • Main author of 4 Featured Articles and contributor to the first (only?) Featured Article written as part of a GLAM-WIKI collaboration.
  • Wrote an essay on the relationship between the Wikimedia Foundation and the rest of the Movement
    Off-wiki
  • Chair of Wikimedia UK from 2012-13
  • Board member of Wikimedia UK from 2010-2016.
  • Roles and Responsibilities Strategy Working Group member 2018-19 (the one that originated the idea of a Movement Charter)
  • Organised the first strategy and governance training sessions for affiliate board members
  • Attendee of countless conferences, events, and trainings
Team collaboration experience I was part of the Roles and Responsibilities strategy working group, which developed the idea of a Movement Charter. This was a cross-cultural, multilingual team with a big job to do - just as the Drafting Committee will be. In this situation, I am very aware of my own privilege as a native English speaker, and take care to encourage and support others to express their views as well as contributing. I am also aware of the importance of communicating with project communities. I was one of the few working group members to take part in on-wiki discussions about the draft recommendations.

I was Chair of Wikimedia UK at a time when the Chapter was going through many changes. During my time as Chair we went through a Governance Review and implemented its findings, including making our Board much more diverse and inclusive. This was the first time a Wikimedia organisation had asked for detailed professional scrutiny of its governance. Implementing its findings needed a lot of diplomacy, tact and determination.

I have also been involved with dozens of other voluntary groups - from large charities to small volunteer committees, in areas ranging from political campaigning to medical research to the orchestras in which I play the violin.

Statement (not more than 400 words) As one of the authors of the original recommendations that led to the Movement Charter, I care deeply about making this work. Not just creating the Charter and Global Council, but the other key aspects of the recommendations like setting up regional Hubs and decentralising power to make the Movement more open and participative.

I believe drafting and building acceptance for the Movement Charter will be a significant challenge. I believe the Drafting Group can only be a success if there is a big, open process to reach out to communities and build the Charter on their needs and aspirations. I've set out my views on how this should work at more length here. To make this process work, we need to be clear as early as possible about how communities will be asked for input and how the development / ratification process will work.

I have extensive experience of working on movement governance issues - not just in the strategy process. As Chair of Wikimedia UK I helped resolve some significant governance problems in that chapter, and have also been in a participant in many previous rounds of discussions between communities (the Fundraising and Funds Dissemination discussions in 2011-2, Superprotect, FramBan, the many changes at the WMF in the last 10 years). While the Movement Charter looks to the future, I feel I can bring some important 'institutional knowledge' with me.

I believe the Movement Charter - and ultimately the Global Council - will play a vital role for our movement in the future. If they work, then this can set the whole Movement going in the right direction. We can start to address long-standing problems of about mistrust and imbalances of power. But this have to be done right. I believe I can help steer this project in the right direction, which is why I'm standing for the committee. If you would like to discuss things then please drop me a line!

Michał Buczyński (Aegis Maelstrom)

Aegis Maelstrom (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Michał Buczyński, user:Aegis Maelstrom
  • Personal:
    • Name: Michał Buczyński
    • Country: Poland
    • Languages: Polish-N, English-4, Deutsch-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Polish Wikipedia (pl.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2004
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Governance of organizations
  • Resource allocation
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
Wikimedia movement experience pl.wiki, en.wiki editor since 2004
  • pl.wiki admin since 2005, translator, Wikimedia Polska member since 2006, member of the first pl.wiki ArbCom.
  • In 2012-2018 vice-president, since 2018 president of the Wikimedia Poland, a wonderful, mission-oriented chapter working with volunteer support, GLAM, education, and more.
  • Proud part of international community thanks to the Wikimedia Central and Eastern Europe, public speeches, grants comm, collaborations among affiliates incl. capacity building, and more. Twice elected to the Funds Dissemination Committee, also member of the Resource Allocation Wikimedia strategy working group.
Team collaboration experience Diverse, mission-oriented and driven by passion teams are the crucial part of the Wikimedia Movement. Be it Wikipedia or Wikimedia projects and programmes, I find starting/joining and further developing a spirited team representing various skills and perspectives as a highly rewarding and effective way to achieve our goal: equitable, quality, developed together knowledge. The same I strive to use in my professional life, including work in a multicontinental team and in multinational expert groups in banking.
Statement (not more than 400 words) Wikimedia are the most successful novel knowledge institution and the distributed organization in the world. 8 billion people need us: both as an access to convenient, free, structured arts and information - but also as an empowerment to create, edit and self-govern. After 20 years, we need to ensure our achievements will be constantly improved and passed to further audiences and generations. While we reinvent ourselves to serve the world better, we should build on the sources of our greatness and uniqueness, and fill in large gaps which we still have.

I believe in empowered individuals and their associations, in the wisdom flowing from their diversity, and the motivation stemming from the equitable treatment. I also believe in the diversity of the approaches and organizations, empowerment of affiliates, in their equity and adaptability to local contexts and future needs. Wikipedia taught us that self-governance, grassroot and partnership prevailed over centralization and strict hierarchies; similar lessons come from great initiatives of the individuals, groups, chapters and the teams of the WMF.

By 2030, we need to be less centralized and more attentive to local ideas, opportunities and needs. We need to operate as a much wider graph of successful organizations, developing and testing new ways to serve the needs of their audiences. We need to create a better space for collaboration and invention, for leadership and learning, for Wikimedians from the past, and the Wikimedians of the future.

I believe, that both my Wikimedia experience of an editor, affiliate person and grant assessor, as well as my education and professional experience (economics/psychology/MBA working in risk/finance) help me to recognize the needs of particular community members, bring valuable perspective and help coin the great charter.

Ybsen M. Lucero (Ybsen lucero)

Ybsen lucero (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Me at Iberoconf 2019, Santiago, Chile
  • Personal:
    • Name: Ybsen M. Lucero
    • Country: Venezuela
    • Languages: Spanish-N, English-2
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Spanish Wikipedia (es.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2010
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
Wikimedia movement experience Co-Founder, Board Member and former Executive Director of Wikimedia Venezuela. I've been organizing Wikimedia-like events (e.g.: workshops, edit-a-thons, contests..) for more than 10 years. I translate articles from english to spanish.
Team collaboration experience Active member within the Venezuelan and Iberocoop community since 2010, I've participated in global and local events since 2014, including Iberoconf 2014 and Wikimedia Conference from 2016 to 2018. I've participated in the Iberocoop strategy discussions, Movement Strategy conversation, Wikimedia Venezuela, Iberocoop (telegram group), Wikimedia en Español (telegram group), Discussing Wikimedia’s Movement Strategy process.
Statement (not more than 400 words) As a Wikimedian, I have always believed that knowledge is the only thing that grows the more it is shared. And as a human being I am aware that the best actions are those that have clear, concise and plural bases and rules. This drafting process requires people with diverse mentalities and points of view and at the same time similar to the Wikimedia movement. I'll always find the better way to collaborate for the common interest especially by promoting free knowledge. I intend to apply my skills by collaborating with other members for the advancement of the Wikimedia Movement.

Alice Wiegand (lyzzy)

lyzzy (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Alice Wiegand
    • Country: Germany
    • Languages: de-N, en-3
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): German Wikipedia (de.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2004
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Governance of organizations
  • Policy writing skills
  • Previous phases of Movement Strategy
Wikimedia movement experience I started in 2004 as an editor on German Wikipedia. Besides editing I was an administrator, bureaucrat, OTRS agent and more. Early on, I realized that for me there is more to it than writing articles. My participation during the global strategy process in 2010 was the initial spark for my international focus. I joined the Board of Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE) from 2008 to 2011 and was a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Board from 2012 to 2018.

Currently I am a board member of Wikimedia Deutschland again. During the development of the 2030 strategy recommendations I was a member of the Movement Strategy Working Group Advocacy. I have been following the Movement Strategy closely since then and participated in the global conversations and events to support the process moving ahead.

Team collaboration experience With regards to my Wikimedia experiences, I have worked collaboratively in several processes, like movement roles in 2010-11 or working group (2018-20) or, of course, in different committees during my board tenures. Still, I think we need to be open to experiment with new methods and ideas to bring people, ideas and processes together on the global level to identify what unites us. What is in my comfort zone may not be the best way to do things for others, in other parts of the world and in different cultures. That’s where we all need to be open and not set our own experiences and assumptions as the lone center of wisdom.
Statement (not more than 400 words) For me the Movement Charter is the essential foundation to make our movement, our efforts for free knowledge and access to free knowledge ready for the future.

I deeply believe that we have to rethink some of the things we never really questioned with consequences. Equity in decision making is what we strive for. What does this mean with regards to the types of organizations we create, their relationship/dependency to the Wikimedia Foundation and among each other, and the roles of the communities in global decision making? We have to step into negotiations and balance out interests, power and rights.

The Movement Charter will set the foundation for new structures like the Global Council, which has to bring those interests together again and serves the entire movement. Including contributors and volunteers as well as our organizations and staff.

In my understanding, the drafting group is bringing together the necessary research, already done work from the working groups, and effective input from Wikimedians. It’s more conducting than creating. I’m thinking of iterative circles with the community, in small steps, not waiting until everything is in a shape which is hard to change. That may be the most challenging part of the work. But I strongly believe that we have more wisdom in our movement than a group of 20 can have. And we need all of it when we create a common basis for the future.

Anass Sedrati (Anass Sedrati)

Anass Sedrati (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
At WikiArabia 2019 in Marrakesh
  • Personal:
    • Name: Anass Sedrati
    • Country: Morocco - Sweden
    • Languages: ar-N, fr-N, en-4, sv-4, es-3, Berber-3
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Arabic Wikipedia (ar.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2013
    • Top expertise (see the matrix): {{{expertise}}}
Wikimedia movement experience I am active in Wikimedia projects since 2013. I edit Wikipedia on several languages, and contribute to launch new versions in under-resourced languages as well. I am a co-founder of Wikimedia Morocco User group (Board member), Wikimedians of Tamazight User Group, and Arabic Wikimedians User Group. I have participated actively in different projects and initiatives, including being a Wikimedia 2030 Working group member (advocacy), the strategy liaison for Arabic language (WMF - contractor), member of the transition design group, and member of the connectors group, participating in writing the final 2030 recommendations.
Team collaboration experience I have participated in several team collaborative experiences within our movement at different levels. Locally, I have been project coordinator for Wikimedia Morocco for several years, and the co-chair of WikiArabia conference in 2019. Internationally, I was the volunteer manager for Wikimania 2019 in Stockholm, and have served as program committee member and scholarship committee member at many local and regional conferences. I am also a member of the Simple Annual Plan Grants Committee.

Regarding strategy, I have been collaborating with Wikimedians from all corners, when being a working group member, but also across the different conferences, projects and events where we met. This gave me an important insight and a valuable experience of how to collaborate cross-culturally, in different time zones, and also on how to manage different ways of working, but still manage to deliver the needed result.

Otherwise, I have a 8+ years professional experience as project manager, and my daily life is about team collaboration. I have worked in projects in IT, Telecommunications, health, public sector, finance, with several teams and companies around the world.

Statement (not more than 400 words) I have been involved in the Wikimedia 2030 Strategy process since its beginning wearing several hats. Having participated in writing the final recommendations, I firmly believe that the Movement Charter will be a crucial document (and guide) for the future of our movement. It is important therefore to give it the place it needs, and ensure that the best possible team will work in it.

I would like to bring my background, as an interdisciplinary Wikimedian, who lived in three countries, to be part of this drafting committee. I am connected to several communities in the movement, and strive to share the different perspectives and contexts I am aware about, to reflect them into our global context. Diversity and inclusivity are among my important drivers, and ensuring that all our stakeholders (including the eventual future ones) is something I would like to achieve.

As a community leader, I have been involved in several governance discussions, and my PhD dissertation regards IoT (Internet of Things) Governance, containing a full chapter about Wikipedia governance :)

I reiterate my affirmation that the Movement Charter is a very important document (comparable to a constitution), and that it should be a priority for those who can join this initiative. I will be honored to build this with the drafting team. If anyone has a question or needs an information from me, please feel free to contact me at my talk page, and I will return to you as soon as I can.

Adel Nehaoua (Nehaoua)

Nehaoua (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
Me in 2010
  • Personal:
    • Name: Adel Nehaoua
    • Country: Algeria
    • Languages: Ar-N Fr-4 en-2
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Arabic Wikipedia (ar.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2009
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Participatory and consensus processes
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
  • Writing and editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience current Administrator in Arabic Wikipedia and arabic Wikisource, I contribute to the Arabic and frensh Wikipedia, and I have more than 102,000 modifications at the global level, I translate articles between English, French and Arabian on the Wikipedia and meta.
Team collaboration experience Active member within the Arab and Algerian community since 2019. I am member of organization team of Wikiarabia 2021
Statement (not more than 400 words) Since I started engaging closely with the French and Arabic communities, I knew that communities need to build good relations with the foundation and its projects. I supported the Wikimedia strategy 2030 and thought the recommendations would lead the movement to achieve its mission and vision. Hence, participating in implementing the recommendations is a common interest among all communicates and the foundation. As an individual, I think I can benefit in the Charter Drafting Committee; I would like to share my thoughts and exchange ideas and experience with others. In addition to my interest in cooperating with committee closely, I will play a connector role between the committee and my community and will not preserve any effort to serve the needed efforts and time needed to draft an ambitious charter that meets the expectations of wikimedians around the globe.

Sofia Matias (Girassolei)

Girassolei (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Sofia Matias
    • Country: Portugal
    • Languages: Portuguese and English
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Portuguese Wikipedia (pt.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2020
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Governance of organizations
  • Resource allocation
  • Writing and editing skills
Wikimedia movement experience Started editing in 2020 with Wiki Editoras Lx, since then I have participated in several events promoted by various Wikipedia groups, including wikimedia portugal and Wiki Movimento Brasil
Team collaboration experience I'm a member of Wiki Editoras Lx that is a group of women that tries to fix the gender gap in portuguese Wikipedia by creating articles about women and at the same time teaching new editors. i was in the team that organized Festa da Wiki-Lusofonia (2021);
Statement (not more than 400 words) I'm not sure what to write here. I decided to apply because I fell in love with the project.I'm a relatively new editor on Wikipedia and i think that the Movement Charter is crucial, so that it doesn´t lose the foundations on which it rests and doesn't lose sight of the goal which is to share knowledge.

Richard Knipel (Pharos)

Pharos (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Richard Knipel
    • Country: US
    • Languages: en-N, fr-1, es-1
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Wikimedia Commons
    • Wikimedian since: 2004
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Strategic and structural thinking skills
  • Team collaboration
Wikimedia movement experience I've been active in the community movement since 2004, and have served as an administrator on English Wikipedia and Meta-Wiki, and formerly on Commons as well. My first editing area was WikiProject New York City, which I started, and my very first article was U Thant Island, about an obscure little urban island with a fascinating history. I have tried to balance the local and the global, in both my editing and in my community organizing.

I have been active in the following organized groups, among others:

I also started these Commons and GLAM initiatives:

In response to last year's branding controversy, I and others helped organize these strategic initiatives:

Team collaboration experience Wikimedia is a deeply team-based movement, and my efforts have not been as an individual, but always in concert with and learning from others.

I have helped bring together individuals and communities, and have assisting in convening many meetings, both project-based and geography-based (including WikiConference North America), in an attempt to foster greater community dialogue.

In addition to the COLOR and SWAN initiatives, I have also tried to foster global community understanding through Wikipedia Weekly Network over the past year, and especially for the 20th anniversary with Wiki 20 Countdown/Asia-Pacific and Wiki 20 Countdown/Africa.

Statement (not more than 400 words) We need a truly decentralized and democratic movement, and I believe I can be in a postition to help forward that goal. We need a charter document that guarantees real independence and resources for the communities. I will draw on this past year's experience with the COLOR letter and the SWAN global meetings, and will work to hold movement actors to account with a meaningful and enforcable document. Strategy is about distribution of power and we shouldn't pretend that isn't. What we're looking at is a fair way of allocating resources and establishing consensus among the many elements of our movement globally.

Therefore, I commit myself to these principles:

  • Democracy and diversity, both necessary and both indispensable
  • Decentralization, which means devolving power away from the Wikimedia Foundation in the United States
  • Transparency, in the drafting process itself and also in the resulting structures it creates
  • Consensus, this whole thing only works if we do the hard work of talking to each other and making compromises

I believe in a community driven iterative on-wiki process, not something written in a black box in a dark room. I will commit to ensuring these principles in the process and in the product, and I believe I have the experience, the diplomacy, and the nuance to be effective in this task.

Abdul-Rasheed Yussif (Din-nani1)

Din-nani1 (talk meta edits global user summary CA)

Candidate details
  • Personal:
    • Name: Abdul-Rasheed Yussif
    • Country: Ghana
    • Languages: English and Dagbani
  • Editorial:
    • Main wiki(s): Dagbani Wikipedia (dag.wikipedia)
    • Wikimedian since: 2015
    • Top expertise (see the matrix):
      *Inclusion and diversity awareness
  • Knowledge of Wikimedia
  • Team collaboration
Wikimedia movement experience I am a very active Wikimedian from 2015. English and Dagbani Wikipedia are the Wikipedias that I edit most. Being a co-founder of Dagbani Wikimedians User Group, I worked tiredlessly for the realisation of the group's objective. Due to the hardwork of the team and volunteers, the group (language specific) was given a [[[:dag:Solɔɣu]] fully fledged Wikipedia] that was announced on July 1, 2021. I, being a pioneer of the group trained alot of volunteers to acquire editging skills to be able to contribute to Wikimedia projects.I have participated actively in different projects and initiatives, including being GLAM ambassador for GOIF,event organiser for Art and Feminism and a trainer/project manager for Dagbani Wikimedians User Group.
Team collaboration experience I have participated in several team collaborative experiences within Dagbani Wikimedians User Group at different levels and that lead to successfully carrying out several useful projects such as Bachinima project, Wiki loves Folklore and My Northern achiever project. The accumulation of which landed us into having a fully fledged Wikipedia. I have vast experience in bringing up my community from being in the incubator to being made a fully fledged Wikipedia.
Statement (not more than 400 words) This is my first time of applying to part of the movement strategy Committee and the purpose of doing it is to contribute my skills gained to support WMF at large. I am so passionate about making the marginalized and endangered languages get the chance to contribute to Wikimedia projects or consume content published on Wikipedia hence I channel a chunk of energy in working on the Dagbani Wikipedia. Translating English content on Wikipedia to Dagbani Language and also creating new content for the usage of those that can not read in English.