Introductory statement / Application summary (maximum 200 words): Why are you running for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee? What would you contribute?
When I was recovering from a long personal crisis, I started contributing to Wikipedia with pictures and videos. Many of my contributions are in the areas of freedom rights, human and civil rights, women and LGBTIQ rights, disability rights, climate protests. My early contributions include pictures from the first same-sex wedding in Germany and the Women's March the day after Trump was sworn in. I photographed Greta Thunberg at her first public appearance in Germany and I took pictures of the Tibetan and Uyghur protest that were then viewed several million times in the English Wikipedia article alone during the Olympic Games in Beijing. Even outside the WMF projects, these and other images are used again and again. I accompanied the protests on the occasion of the EU's Digital Copyright Directive and took pictures of the first demonstrations after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas attacks in Israel. I have acquired images for Wikipedia e.g. from the Respekt-Preis of LSVD or memorial events for Natenom. When I am approached on my photo tours, I try to motivate people to participate in Wikipedia. I am trying to make Wikipedia and the World a little bit a better place.
Please describe your Wikimedia experience (such as contributions to the Wikimedia projects, memberships in Wikimedia organizations or affiliates, experience working on conduct issues in your community, activities as a Wikimedia movement organizer, or participation in building Wikimedia policies).
I contribute with fotos and videos that I take myself. A lot of these are from demonstrations and protests. Others are from events, when I got accredited to the event. If I don't have the opportunity to attend an interesting event, I try to convince the organizers of the event or an fotographer attending the event to donate fotos to wikipedia. At demonstrations and in social media I explain, when asked, Wikipedia and my way of contributing and try to convince people to contribute to wikipedia also. Apart from Commons, I add information to WikiData, if it is connected with the media files I contribute. Sometimes I add images to the Wikipedias in different languages. I have filed some bug reports and feature requests at WM's Phabricator. A number of years ago, I started to add MetaData (EXIF) to all my videos. These motivated one of the developers of the MediaWiki software to add the feature of display the MetaData of video files on the description page of the videos. This new feature is beneficial to all users of video files on commons as the metadata of all video files are now visible to users. It also makes the detection of Copyright violations easier. In the last time there has been work done to allow upload files of up to 5GiB and to make uploading files less fragile. I helped in testing this updates by uploading new revisions of one of my videos (of the One Billion Rising demo in Hannover this year), because this specific video turned out to be extremely difficult to handle by the uploading process (this is continuing work).
Professional Experience, Skills and Education
Please briefly describe 3 situations that show how you worked on, or advised others on, a complex conduct or policy issue. How did you work with others to address the situations?
Manaf Halbouni, a german artist from Syria, created the sculpture Bus Monument that recreates the buses that were used as a shield against snipers in Aleppo. The sculpture was shown first in Dresden, then in Berlin and later in Amsterdam. I and other Wikimedians made fotos and videos. However the sculpture is not considered permanent by Wikipedia and therefore Freedom of Panorama is not accepted. I guided Halbouni through the process of a VRT permission (a process that he described as difficult and strange) and succeded to secure not only the already uploaded fotos and videos but also future media of other showings of the sculpture. In the past i created fotos and videos from the Respekt Preis of the LSVD. The price was also awarded during the Covid restrictions but without attending journalists. Before the recording of the ceremonies in 2020 an 2021 i contacted LSVD and was able to give the information needed by LSVD, so that LSVD published the video from the ceremony under a wikipedia compatible free license, allowing me to import the videos to commons and extract video captures from the videos. The very first demonstration with respect to the planned digital copyrigth directive of the EU (Article 13) happened with short notice. No contributer of Wikipedia attended. I later contacted a fotographer with connections to influencers Gronkh and Pandorja who had attended the protest and was able to provide him with the information on how to tag his fotographs so that i was able to import the fotos to commons.
Leadership Experience
Can you describe a policy, on wiki or off, that you helped to create or change? What did you learn from this experience?
Before I started to contribute to Wikipedia I worked for a large internet company and then for a small internet agency. At both places i was involved in enforcing compliancy. At one place i wrote software, that helped the company acquire evidence of cases of CSAM and then report it to state authorities. Based on information found with the help of tools i created colleagues testified at court in cases of CSAM. I will not disclose more information about that time of my life.
How have you been able to empower people to make their voices heard?
A number of times I succeded in convincing people to donate images to wikipedia or helped people to publish files at commons. Among the media i created and published are fotos and videos of Aktion Standesamt 2018, the movement that lobbied for the recognition of a third gender in Germany.
Sometimes in professional situations, there are personality conflicts. Explain how you remain productive even with personality conflicts.
In Hamburg activists had illegally posted signs about topfreedom and a person on social media had taken a photo of it before authorities removed them. I contacted the person and she agreed to upload the image at Flickr using a free license, but not directly at Wikipedia. To avoid later accustions of Flickr washing I contacted VRT and disclosed the conservation with the photographer. Sadly the ticket was claimed by a VRT agent who later got globally banned for the very kind of wrongful conduct that he used in this case. I have to commit, that i failed to secure the imported image for wikipedia, even though I contacted another VRT member for help.
Strategic Thinking
In your opinion, how can the U4C be a positive influence in the Wikimedia movement?
As this is the very first election of the U4C it has to be shown by the elected members, that the U4C has a positive influence on the Wikimedia movement. If I get elected i will do my best to make the U4C this positive influence.
How would you help the Universal Code of Conduct develop and improve over time?
My PoV is that of a photographer at events and protests and someone who interacts with people who can provide images to commons or can allow taking photos or video at events. Therefore i get first hand feedback on how Wikipedia is experienced by people who do not contribute to Wikipdia but experience that Wikipedia writes about them (as an example I met the Hamburg attorny Gisela Wild, who sued the german state about the "Volkszählung" at the 40 years of information freedom ceremony (the first step into what became the GDPR) and talked with her about her biography in Wikipedia. At social media i discussed Wikipedia policys with anti-semitism commissioner Michael Blume). If elected, I would see it as my duty to give input about the way Wikipedia is seen by the public.
