Affiliate-selected Board seats/2016/Nominations/Susanna Mkrtchyan/en
Name:
- Susanna Mkrtchyan
Wikimedia username:
- SusikMkr
Questions for all candidates - Questions for this individual candidate that do not apply to other candidates
Statement
I'm really obsessed with Wikipedia and all Wiki projects. I believe its a great tool for self education and self enhancement that synergizes of participant’s abilities. What a wonderful impact Wikipedia will bring to our global society if contributing will be scaled up to the larger communities around the world.
I became passionate in contributing to Wikipedia since 2010. Since that time all my thoughts and activities are connected to Wikipedia. Firstly I was disappointed in state of Armenian Wikipedia as on quantity, as well as on the quality of articles what I have seen. I was enthusiastic to contribute for its betterment first. Parallel to my own contribution, I started to investigate the experience of other countries, and the level of awareness about Wikipedia in our society that was poor.
As I used to system approaches (that comes from my background) by designing large database systems (my PHD thesis: Design of Human Interface for Database Management System ”INES” ), I shaped conceptual vision of development of Armenian Wikipedia, a program for offline and online activities, which we put together with a group of experienced wikipedians and started to implement it in a real life. Here are some example of system approaches - to develop Wiki Camps, Wiki Clubs, Wiki Campaign "One Armenian, One Article". In addition we joined to already running well known projects like Wiki Loves Monuments and started a new one: Wiki Loves Science, to improve essentially the level of articles in Armenian Wikipedia. In 2015 we started new project: Western Armenian Wikipedia.
By implementing our program we achieved greater results in improvement of Armenian Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikisource, etc., and enlarged WikiCommunity essentially both locally (within Armenia) as well as around the world (Armenia is having a large diaspora across the world that is triple times bigger than the population of Armenia itself).
During these years I gained a confidence in my abilities, that I do something very essential for the larger communities. The already achieved results and my experience provide a soil for my usefulness of my activities in the Board.
In general, I am sure that not only many things successfully can be implemented in other chapters too, but also I believe that the responsibility for a larger scale will give me an opportunity for novel ideas and projects. I can be a good adviser and a mentor to overcome the difficulties emerging on the way of other communities that may face. In addition I am sure that I can bring new wave to the board by my own creativity, as well as with my ability of out of box thinking.
Based on those efforts at the end of 2012 we have signed a contract to Armenian Encyclopedia Authorities for existing and future contents to use under LCC. On 26 March 2013 WMF recognized Wikimedia Armenia as a Chapter.
On 14 May 2013 we have registered Wikimedia Armenia Scientific-Educational NGO as a legal entity in the Republic of Armenia. In March 2013 I applied to Armenian Assembly to get FOP on copyright Law and we succeeded (Armenia at present had most favorable FOP).
During Wikimania Conference 2015 I was honorable mentioned by Jimmy Wales of Wikimedia of the year. In Armenia I am honorable mention within our Community as “Wiki-Tatik” (Wiki Grandma).
Résumé
I am PHD of technical sciences with exceptional experience in automatic management systems, databases, system research, managed larger teams of engineers, expert in design and deployment of frontend of data base management systems, automatic management systems, data bases.
Work Experience
1996 to present: Institute for Informatics and Automation Problems (IIAP) of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia
- Leading researcher
1986-1996 State Planning Committee of Republic of Armenia, Computing Center
- Head of department "Automatic data bases"
- Personal Accomplishments:
- Design of data bases of Land reform and food industry of Republic of Armenia
- Design and deployment of data bases of foreign relations of Soviet Union, subsystem Armenia
1987-1988 Polytechnic University of Armenia,
- Lecturer "Automatic management systems"
1983-1986 Institute of System Research of Academy of Sciences of USSR (Moscow)
- Personal Accomplishments:
- Design of User Interface for DBMS of "INES"
1977-1983 State Planning Committee of Republic of Armenia, Computing Center
- Head of section
- Personal Accomplishments:
- Design and deployment automatic system of planning and management for Armenian government
1971-1977 Yerevan's Institute of Mathematical machines.
- Senior engineer
- Personal Accomplishments: Interpretator of computer "NAIRI" on EC system
Education
1983-1986 Institute of System Research of Academy of Sciences of USSR (Moscow)
- PHD of Technical sciences.
1966-1971 Yerevan State University
- Applied Mathematics Department
Media
Here are my interviews and articles about me on media.
Eligibility
I am eligible to serve in the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Endorsements
Hereby, Wikimedia Armenia is pleased to endorse Mrs. Susanna Mkrtchyan for her membership at the Board of Trustees at Wikimedia Foundation.
Susanna is the most dynamic member of Wiki family and the key driving force to bring a change to the Wiki community in Armenia. Since 2010 when she began to edit, she immediately volunteered to work on launching Wikimedia Armenia scientific-educational NGO, then Wikimedia Chapter in Armenia and pioneered to implement number of projects that created a groundbreaking wave within wiki community by scaling it up quickly.
She has brought the number of novel ideas and approaches to grow the highest interest among the volunteers and newcomers to grow a strong community and has overcome this quick transition time with success.
From the very first day of her work in Wikimedia Armenia Susanna has had an amazing impact on the development of Wiki movement in Armenia. When she began to contribute in Wikimedia the Armenian Wiki community was fragmented and idled, resources were not much coordinated, there were very low number of articles, people worked isolated and alone. In a very short time with systematic efforts the Wiki movement was inspired with a new energy, the produced articles were boosted and as a result Armenian has risen in the Wikipedia world rating from the 92th place to the 38th since 2013.
Susanna is a strong character and has outstanding organizational skills. She is devoted and caring for the colleagues and communities. She acts like a perpetual driver, always coming up with original ideas like creating novel projects never exercised before, such as Wikicamps, Diaspora projects through Gulbenkian Foundation, “Wiki Loves Science” initiative, a campaign “One Armenian, one article”, etc.
Wikimedia Armenia is confident that Mrs. Susanna Mkrtchyan is a great asset for the Wiki community at large. Her experience, technical background, managerial skills, system approach towards the planning and success in Wiki Projects, the hard working personal type with a firm commitment to bring a change, her interpersonal relations and negotiation skills all are the extraordinary strength and quality to contribute at Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
— Wikimedia Armenia Board
- At the Wikimedia NYC March 2016 public meeting, attendees took part in an open vote to endorse Susanna's participation as a candidate in this election. This is part of our chapter's policy to encourage a more diverse and more transparent process for the WMF board elections.--Pharos (talk) 17:50, 18 March 2016 (UTC)