Wikimedia Foundation elections/2022/Candidates/Kunal Mehta/sw

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Kunal Mehta (Legoktm)

Legoktm (talk meta edits global user summary CA  AE)

Candidate details
Me speaking at the 2017 Wikimania hackathon
  • Personal:
    • Jina: Kunal Mehta
    • Location: New York City, USA
    • Lugha: en-N
  • Editorial:
    • Wikimedian since: 2007
    • Active wikis: English Wikipedia, MediaWiki.org, Commons, Meta-Wiki, Wikitech
Taarifa ya utangulizi / muhtasari wa maombi.
Sehemu hii itatafsiriwa. (Upeo wa maneno 150)
Nimekuwa Mwanawikimedia tangu 2007, na nilikuwa mfanyakazi wa zamani wa WMF kwa miaka 8 (tazama wasifu kamili). Kutokana na majukumu haya yote mawili, nimepata ufahamu mkubwa wa mahitaji ya kiufundi na ukweli wa harakati.

Jumuiya ya kiufundi yenye afya na endelevu ni ile inayoongozwa na wafanyakazi wa kujitolea, washirika na wafanyakazi wa WMF pia, ndiyo maana nimefanya kazi kuwashauri na kuwawezesha watengenezaji wa programu wa kujitolea. Nimeelekeza kazi yangu ili kuunda vipengele na zana zinazowapa udhibiti watumiaji kwenye wiki, kama vile AbuseFilter, SpamBlacklist and global CSS/JS.

Sehemu muhimu ya kazi ya WMF ni kutengeneza na kudumisha vipengele vya kiufundi—ni muhimu kwamba bodi ifanye maamuzi yenye uelewa kuhusu mipango ya kiufundi na vipaumbele. Kama mtu ambaye ana ujuzi wa kiufundi kiutendaji wa kushughulikia maendeleo, kusambaza na kudumisha vipengele vinavyokidhi mahitaji ya kipekee ya Wikimedia, ninaamini uzoefu wangu na mtazamo wangu unaweza kusaidia bodi na WMF kuhudumia harakati vyema zaidi.

Michango kwa miradi ya Wikimedia, uanachama katika mashirika au washirika wa Wikimedia, shughuli kama mratibu wa harakati za Wikimedia, au ushiriki na shirika mshirika la Wikimedia.
(Upeo wa maneno 100)
As a Wikimedian since 2007 and a former WMF staffer for 8 years (see full bio), I have a strong understanding of the technical needs and realities of the movement. I work to build features and tools that give control to users on-wiki. A healthy and sustainable technical community is one led by volunteers, affiliates and WMF staff alike, which is why I’ve worked to mentor and empower volunteer developers. Wikimedians are disappointed with the WMF’s recent technical output; I would like to bring my experience in successfully creating, deploying and maintaining technical projects to the WMF board.
Utaalamu katika maeneo ya ujuzi yaliyotambuliwa kama mahitaji ya Bodi.
  • Mkakati wa shirika na usimamizi
  • Teknolojia ya jukwaa la kiwango cha biashara na/au ukuzaji wa bidhaa
  • Sera ya umma na sheria
  • Sayansi ya data ya kijamii, uchanganuzi mkubwa wa data, na kujifunza kwa mashine

(Upeo wa maneno 150)

I bring significant experience in “Enterprise-level platform technology and/or product development” as well as “Organizational strategy and management” to the board. Wikimedia technical development is radically different than the rest of the web, with an intense focus on privacy, security, transparency, internationalization, and user freedom. Blending my experience as a longtime volunteer contributor and as a WMF engineer, I understand the desires for new features and bugfixes while balancing the day-to-day needs of building and defending a secure platform. I’ve developed new features for editors and resolved sitewide outages during late nights and weekends. I regularly give input on technical roadmaps, favoring a bottom-up approach for determining strategy.
Uzoefu wa kuishi ulimwenguni. Tunavutiwa sana kusoma kuhusu matukio ya maisha katika maeneo ya Afrika, Asia ya Kusini, Mashariki na Kusini Mashariki mwa Asia na Pasifiki, na Amerika ya Kusini na Visiwa vya Karibi. Tunaamini kuwa uzoefu katika maeneo haya unaweza kusaidia kupanua uwezo wa bodi wa kutimiza lengo la mkakati wa harakati la ushiriki wa usawa zaidi, ingawa tunatambua kuwa uzoefu mwingine unaweza pia kutoa michango muhimu.
(Upeo wa maneno 250)
As a journalist, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to others, tell their stories and amplify their experiences. I’ve interviewed homeless university students, victims of assault, as well as politicians and activists. In 2018, I traveled to Italy and Greece to report on the ongoing refugee and migrant crises firsthand. On the island of Lesbos, we visited Moria (aka “the worst refugee camp on earth”), interviewing refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war, as well as residents on the island who were living with the influx of refugees.

Telling these stories and more have allowed me to gain a better appreciation for experiences I personally haven’t lived through. I do my best to make sure as many other people can gain that same appreciation by releasing as much content as possible under free licenses.

Outside the bubble of the English Wikipedia, my experiences have given me a unique perspective on the technical needs of our diverse communities, which I’d like to bring to the board. During SUL finalization, I worked with stewards on implementing a new global renamers group. To empower cross-wiki patrollers and global sysops, I rolled out global CSS/JS. Wikisourcians particularly felt the pain of musical scores being disabled, and helped test it when we re-enabled it. And they, along with Commons uploaders, raised awareness of large file uploads being broken and helped with debugging until we found the cause and fixed it.

Ufasaha wa kitamaduni na lugha pamoja na maeneo na lugha za ziada kwa eneo lako la asili na lugha. Uelewa wa kitamaduni husaidia kujenga madaraja katika jumuiya yetu ya tamaduni nyingi.
(Upeo wa maneno 250)
I learned how to program via Wikibooks and Wikipedia, and it eventually grew into my dream career. I regularly interact with people from across the world through talk pages, IRC, etc., many of whom I now consider friends. I’ve spent my summers mentoring and working alongside GSoC/Outreachy students from Cameroon, India and Taiwan, not to mention many others from around the world through guidance on bugs, patch review and casual conversations.

Despite only speaking English (and fragments of Gujarati and Spanish), my key skillset is bridging the communication and culture gap between technical and non-technical users. I’m fluent in technical jargon and can translate that into plain language when helping people out over chat, in person and on technical village pumps. And I’m able to diagnose user complaints, turning them into actionable bug reports on Phabricator.

A key part of the WMF’s work is in developing and maintaining technical features – it is crucial that the board has someone who has real experience developing, deploying and maintaining features that meet Wikimedia's unique technical requirements. I regularly hear that the board and WMF upper management are out of touch with the needs of the developers and editors doing the work on the ground, and don’t realize the full scope or implications of projects they sign off on. Having collaboratively developed user scripts, gadgets, Toolserver/Toolforge tools, and MediaWiki extensions to benefit a diverse group of contributors, I’d bring a bridge to the technical community that is desperately lacking.

Uzoefu kama mtetezi wa kuunda nafasi salama na shirikishi kwa wote na/au uzoefu katika hali au miktadha ya udhibiti, ukandamizaji au mashambulizi mengine dhidi ya haki za binadamu.
(Upeo wa maneno 250)
As an administrator, IRC channel operator, and member of the Technical Code of Conduct Committee, I have significant experience ensuring users can work together in safe/collaborative spaces by working to catalyze and de-escalate situations, stepping in with sanctions to protect contributors as necessary.

I've invested time developing and improving anti-abuse/power user tools that give control to users on-wiki like AbuseFilter, SpamBlacklist and GlobalCssJs.

Creating safe spaces requires identifying and reducing power imbalances. In the technical community, there is a de facto power disparity between paid WMF developers and volunteer developers. To counteract this, I regularly mentor and support newer developers and nominate them for “+2” merge rights (which WMF staff get by default). A thriving and empowered volunteer developer community is essential to sustain the Wikimedia movement.

WMF staff also need a safe space, and must not be constantly in fear of being re-organized at the whims of a constantly changing upper management. The board must support the unionization of staff in addition to the previously promised ombudsperson.

I regularly fight attempts at censorship through my work with Kiwix, the offline Wikipedia reader, by packaging it for Debian, which makes it easier for users to install. Recently I wrote a guide showing how to set up a local mirror of the Russian Wikipedia using Kiwix and Debian.

At my day job, I’m privileged to continue the work that the late Aaron Swartz started in SecureDrop, building and supporting software to protect whistleblowers and journalists.

Uzoefu kuhusiana na (au kama mwanachama wa, kwa kiwango unachochagua kushiriki) kikundi ambacho kimekabiliwa na ubaguzi wa kihistoria na uwakilishi mdogo katika miundo ya mamlaka (pamoja na lakini sio tu kwa tabaka, jamii, kabila, rangi, asili ya kitaifa, utaifa, utambulisho wa kijinsia, kujieleza jinsia, mwelekeo wa kijinsia, umri, dini, lugha, utamaduni, elimu, uwezo, mapato na mazingira).
(Upeo wa maneno 250)
I am a person of color and do not feel comfortable sharing more than that publicly.
Verification Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee
Eligibility: Verified
Verified by: Matanya (talk) 09:03, 17 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Identification: Verified
Verified by: Joe Sutherland (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 23:55, 18 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

2022 Board of Trustees Analysis Committee Rating

This table shows the candidate rating provided by the 2022 Board of Trustees Analysis Committee
Candidate Name Wikimedia Background Sought Skills Sought Regional Experience Human Rights & Underrepresentation Overall rating from the average score of the four categories Overall rating from the average score of the nine criteria
Kunal Mehta Gold Silver Silver Silver Silver Gold