Wikibase Community User Group/2021 contact election/Candidates

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Candidates for the 2021 election to the position of primary contact for the Wikibase Community User Group should present themselves on this page before 2021-07-08 17:00 (UTC), after which voting will commence.

Any verifiable member of the Wikibase community who feels able to fulfill the responsibilities of the position may nominate themselves, presenting reasons for their election - such as activity relating to the group, relevant skills and any wider experience - and outlining any potential conflicts of interest. Interested parties are welcome to ask questions of the candidates, who may answer them as they see fit.

At most two candidates will be elected as contacts, but support for others may be considered in the event of the departure or absence of an elected member during their term.

Candidates[edit]

GreenReaper (Laurence Parry)[edit]

I've been involved with Wikibase since August 2019 (stepping boldly into an impasse between WMF and WMDE…), joined the community's Telegram chat that September and gave detailed input on federation.

I participated in meetings including last July and in March, April, May and the ones this June establishing this election, which I drafted. Ideally, that might have been done by those not planning to run in it, but here we are!

Wikibase and WBStack feedback, support, testing and development

Over the last year I've spent much time on Telegram supporting users of Wikibase and WBStack, as well as learning about them for myself. As outlined on Twitter I created a WikiFur Data prototype, exhibiting features of the platform such as lexemes and mapped entities, rank-based SPARQL, and the use of Shape Expressions (EntitySchema) for validation and Cradle form-based creation – incidentally identifying various issues.

I've worked with Wikibase developers identifying concerns around Docker/WDQS security and poking about updates, as well as feedback on time intervals and a denial-of-service with Extended Date/Time Format.

Wiki editing, administration, and presentations

I started editing in 2004 as co-founder and promoter of the Creatures Wiki and founder of WikiFur on Wikicities, later known as Wikia. I was the original developer of Extension:MediaWikiAuth to aid WikiFur's migration from Wikia (now Fandom) to our own hosting in 2008-9, including negotiations with its then-CEO over an amicable departure, service mark registration, and setting up a 20+ language wiki farm.

In terms of real-world events, I spoke at Wikimania 2006, giving a presentation on techniques for building, managing and promoting collaborative communities; and attended NYC Wiki-Conference 2009, presenting on starting a WikiProject and making MediaWiki fly, for which I received a real life barnstar. More recently, I attended Wikimania 2014, including its developer days, and handed out flyers.

Much of my editing is related to furry fandom. When WikiProject Furry started in July 2007, I was one of its original members. I placed bounties on the development of good articles and created Furry convention and Samuel Conway (review) myself. I also wrote a couple of feature stories for Wikinews, which led to me taking a more active role in journalism. (The portal I made for WP:FURRY has now gone, but ironically Portal:Portal remains.)

I'm an Inclusionist and much of my time has been spent saving articles from deletion through additional references, etc. Not everything can be saved; that's why I set up WikiFur, and why I think Wikibase has value as a standalone tool for e.g. Furry Convention Map – one example of features I intend to power by Wikibase, as many of the events it covers might never have sufficient references to incorporate into Wikidata.

I previously edited the GalCiv Wiki as part of my duties for a previous employer. All of my current activity is voluntary – I'm not paid for wiki editing or development, nor have I received any grants for it from organizations.

Other experience and activity

I have a degree in Computer Science from the University of Bath. My professional history includes software development and research, testing and documentation at Motorola, Stardock and GameStop. I'm lead administrator of furry art community Inkbunny (WikiFur) and site builder and editor-in-chief of news magazine Flayrah (WikiFur). I was editor of Society/People/Furry and related categories on DMOZ, and on its successor, Curlie.

Shahadusadik (Sadik Shahadu)[edit]

My name is Sadik Shahadu from Ghana. I am currently serving as a regional ambassador for indigenous communities at Art + Feminism, a Mozilla Open Leaders X fellow, a digital activist and a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI). In addition, I am a researcher, Dagbani language translator and a certified Nonprofit Technology Professional with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry.

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. I am currently an advisory group member for the Language Digital Activism Toolkit at Global Voices, a country coordinator for Wiki Loves Folklore and Wiki Loves Earth. Since 2017, I have been an active member of the Creative Commons community and was a member of the advisory committee for the 2018 Creative Commons Global Summit in Toronto. Also, I am a board member of UNESCO ‘Open Education for A Better World’.

As an indigenous ambassador, I work with indigenous communities to promote local languages on Wikipedia and the digital divide across Africa. Some of my most outstanding achievements include:

Questions[edit]

Hi GreenReaper, thank you for your question. Yes, I am currently in a conversation with Georgina from the partnership team at the Wikimedia Deutschland to explore how Wikibase can support the Dagbani language department at the University of Education (school of languages), Ghana. Also, I was a participant of a wikibase hackathon in Berlin at WikidataCon 2019, and have personally installed a wikibase docker image on my local computer in the past. I'm familiar with wikibase and I will like to introduce wikibase to some institutions and communities in Ghana. Regards, Shahadusadik (talk) 07:04, 22 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]
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