Wikimedia Foundation elections/Board elections/2011/Candidates/en
The results were announced on 17 June 2011.
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| 2011 Board elections |
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| Organization |
Claudi Balaguer (Capsot)
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I am Capsot, the editor sorely praised in the high places. I deem that the core of the projects is its editors who deserve much more than what they get now. If elected, I would try my very best to:
As you can deduce from my general block a while ago, and still in Meta, some prominent people in the high places fear me ; so take your chance to frighten them as well voting for one of the few candidates really committed to change, truth and transparency. |
Harel Cain (Harel)
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| Statement | In my day job I'm a computer security engineer and also translate books.
I joined the Hebrew WP in 2004. I’ve been an admin for 6 years and a bureaucrat for the last 4 years. I am one of the founders and the secretary of WM Israel. I give many outreach talks in different forums. I’m involved with nascent GLAM efforts in Israel. I’m deeply involved with Wikimania 2011, where I manage registration and scholarships, act as the program chair and handle OTRS. I presented in Wikimania ‘07 and ‘10, and attended ChapConf11 too. I believe in a grassroots movement that is large, decentralized and varied, with ample room for the community, the WMF, the chapters and other stakeholders to have their own unique positions, working together to accomplish our mission. If elected to the board, I intend to support activities to:
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Ting Chen (Wing)
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| Statement | I was born and grew up in China. I studied Electric Engineering in Germany and am now living and working there as an IT Specialist. My work in the projects are mostly grassroots: editing, translating, administrative works, try to resolve disputes and try to help new comers whenever I can. I was elected a trustee in 2008 and reelected 2009. Currently I am the chair of the board.
In case of being reelected my goals are:
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William H. DuBay (Bdubay)
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| Statement | I am a professional writer and readability consultant.
I was a writer in public relations and technical writing for 21 years. I am on the Readability SIG of the International Reading Association and a member of the Society of Technical Communications since 1985. I have been very active in the Plain Language Association International since 1995. Since 2001, I have been a consultant in plain language and readability. My clients include the National Aviation Administration, California Public Utilities Commission, Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs, and the Los Angeles Department of Public Social Services. I have written extensively on readability and my publications include Smart Language: Readers, Readability, and the Grading of Texts, Unlocking Language: The Classic Readability Studies, The Principles of Readability, and the Plain Language at Work Newsletter, all offered free on my Website with many other instructive materials. I enjoy contributing to Wikipedia very much. I was a major contributor to the English pages on The history of Los Angeles, Readability, George R. Klare, and William S. Gray. My interest in joining the board is to make the language of Wikipedia more accessible to the general reader. There is a vast body of research on readability that could make a major impact on increasing readership. I also am interested in working with the Simple Wikipedia editors and creating a Plain Language Project. I am also interested in the discussions on general editing policies. |
James Forrester (Jdforrester)
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| Statement | As a long-time Wikimedian I have done a bit of everything. I became an enwiki sysop in 2003 and founded its ArbCom; I'm now an enwiki CheckUser/OverSight, and Commons sysop. I help out each Wikimania, ran IRC, and even wrote bits of code. I was the Foundation's Chief Research Officer, Wikimedia UK's founding Secretary, and a few more rôles, but now outside the Wikimedia bodies (just a member of Wikimedia NL), I've gained some perspective. I work to open up the British Government, leading data.gov.uk on strategy, technical issues, governance and finance, so the Board's duties are familiar to me.
I share community worries about some critical items for the Board:
We need better understanding between the projects - it's tough to find out what's going on to learn or offer help. As someone who only speaks English, I rely on translations, which are vital. I'd have regular project updates shared, as with Chapters, and restart the Embassy. |
Lodewijk Gelauff (Effeietsanders)
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| Statement | I care a lot about relationships in Wikimedia. Between the editors, organizations and our readers. The Foundation is an important central organization in this movement, but not the only one.
Since I got involved in Wikimedia in 2005 I have been active in many fields in the movement; including as a steward, sysop on several wiki's, five year (founding) board member for Wikimedia Netherlands and (still) a member of the Chapters Committee. I have organized Wikimedia conferences, chapter meetings, and am a lead organizer in the international Wiki Loves Monuments project. In daily life I study Chemistry & Science Based Business (MSc) at Leiden University. I care especially about:
I recognize I have not all solutions for the world's (or even Wikimedia's) problems - but I try to be open for them. On many issues I have opinions, but I'm willing to change given good arguments. I would be happy to become an accessible, critical but constructive board member at the Wikimedia Foundation. There is much more I'd like to share in this limited space. However, please ask any questions you may have. |
Joan Gomà (Gomà)
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| Statement | I would like to take the values of the movement one step further.
I am a Prof. Dr. Eng. at Barcelona Polytechnic University, former director of the Fundació Centre CIM and the President of Amical Viquipèdia. I helped translate the book Wikipédia into Catalan. I organized a program promoting the use of Wikipedia in 17 Spanish universities. I am one of the developers of the translation support bot used on the Catalan Wikipedia. |
Samuel Klein (Sj)
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| Statement | Wikimedia should be a model for open, community-led organizations.
I grew up in the USA, and have lived in Germany and Kenya. I studied physics at Harvard, and work at One Laptop per Child, fostering education and offline access to knowledge in the developing world. Since 2004, I have been a Wikimedia editor, translator, organizer and speaker. I started the Meta translators network, and published a Wikimedia newsletter in 5 languages. I served as a steward for 5 years. I have worked on outreach to universities and libraries, and in 2009 organized the Kiswahili Wikipedia Challenge. I led Wikimania 2006, and run the Boston wiki-meetup (since 2005). I was elected to the Board in 2009, and am its secretary. As Trustee I focus on transparency, long-term planning and community empowerment, including the strategic plan and movement roles projects. My current goals for the Foundation are to:
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Patricio Lorente (Patricio.lorente)
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| Statement | I've been involved in es.Wikipedia and Commons since 2005. I am President of Wikimedia Argentina since 2007 and was lead organizer of Wikimania 2009. I took part in many Wikimedia-related initiatives, such as GLAM (Wikipedia takes..., free release of national TV historical footage), collaboration with the educational system and building an Ibero-American cooperation framework (Iberocoop). I'm also public leader of Creative Commons Argentina.
If elected, I will work to:
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Gerard Meijssen (GerardM)
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| Statement | So far most attention has gone to the big Wikipedias with the argument that we gain the most by building on our strengths. As a result the development of other projects and projects with problems with their script have been stunted. I have actively sought solutions to alleviate this discrimination and I am involved in translatewiki.net and the development of extensions like LocalisationUpdate, Narayam and WebFonts.
I am a prolific blogger and have written about Wikis and what not for several years. When I am elected to the board, I will advocate a Wikimedia Foundation that has the widest possible impact on our eco-system and on our goal of bringing information to all people of this world. I will seek this more in changes of the details then in a "revolution". We are doing great work but we can do better for all our languages and projects when we show a bit more flexibility and agility. I have been involved in GLAMs from the start and, I will seek improved outreach to our GLAM partners by at least providing timely data on their impact. Social issues prevent further development of our community, this will be one of my priorities. I will continue to blog in order to improve the discussion and communication of our movement. |
Tom Morton (ErrantX)
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| Statement | Within the WM family I am an editor and sysop on the English WP, am lightly involved in Wikibooks/Commons and was previously active on Wikinews. I am British, an Electronic Engineering graduate and work in information security (forensic analysis & software development).
I have a deep interest in freedom of speech and knowledge. I believe that free and open content of all kinds is essential to our future culture, after all “Knowledge is power”. The WMF provide a crucial cornerstone in the task to bring that power to everyone. If elected I will help secure the ideals of neutrality, freedom and collaboration that the board is tasked to defend. I am very approachable and can bring a unique mixture of free thinker, developer, writer and free content evangelist to the board to help support the project in an exciting new decade. As a highly active editor I’d hope act as a conduit between the broad work/perspective of the board and the views/ideas of the community. I’d work to make the board more accessible to the community, support the high level of independence of the Wiki’s and help foster greater camaraderie and stronger ties amongst all our volunteers. |
Marc-André Pelletier (Coren)
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| Statement | The Wikimedia projects are, in my opinion, one of humanity's noblest and most important endeavours. Free knowledge is the vision that brought us all together to collect millions of bits of wisdom, art, and culture for all to share and spread.
Yet, without the support and guidance of a strong vision our projects flounder. The smaller projects become vulnerable to small self-selecting groups that care little for our founding principles, and even the biggest and healthiest of our project calcify into ineffective bureaucracies unable to deal with the responsibilities of being the greatest source of knowledge of Internet. There is a fine but critical line between avoiding interference in the projects and abandoning them without support or guidance, and my objective is to guide the foundation back to our roots. Neutrality, a welcoming collaborative environment, and true openness are not options, nor are our responsibilities to the readers – and subjects – of our projects. The Foundation must support those principles by action, not by looking away. Outreach is good, but let's first make sure our house is in order before inviting more guests. |
Milos Rancic (Millosh)
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| Statement | I am a steward, member of LangCom, ChapCom, RCom and Board of WMRS. I was the first president of WMRS and member of NomCom for its existence. I am actively working on various issues related to improving Wikimedia's capabilities. I am programmer and operator of a couple of bots.
I am sysadmin by profession and linguist by education. If elected, my focuses will be:
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Jane S. Richardson (Dcrjsr)
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| Statement | I contribute organized sets of biomolecular-structure & mountain/flower images to Wikimedia Commons, edit molecular structure & graphics articles on en:wikipedia (POTD 2009-11-19), and introduce Wikipedia editing in classes.
My research is on 3D structure of biological macromolecules. I am a Professor at Duke University; MacArthur Fellow; National Academy of Sciences USA; American Academy of Arts & Sciences; Institute of Medicine; President-elect, Biophysical Society. Our lab (joint with my husband User:DavetheMage) runs the MolProbity structure-validation web service (at http://kinemage.biochem.duke.edu), distributes our open-source software and open-access papers, contributes to the RNA Ontology Consortium and the worldwide Protein Data Bank Validation Task Forces, and is a development team on the PHENIX crystallographic software project.
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Ferdinando Scala (Ferdinando Scala)
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| Statement | As a child, I dreamt to be an author of the Encyclopedia Galactica, the repository of the universal knowledge described by Isaac Asimov in his Foundation saga. I had the occasion to see something similar in my lifetime and, moreover, to contribute. Telling “thank you” for making my dreams come true is my deepest motivation to volunteer for serving the WMF community.
In my daily life I’m a digital communications professional, specifically focused on strategic planning, digital evolution and social media development. I’m an expert marketer and public speaker, with practice as a trainer in the corporate and academic sectors. If elected, I will put my skills on disposition to:
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mischa vetere (mvart4u)
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| Statement | used to work as senior trust relationship mgr for 15 yrs with citibank/csg. in between i have sucessfully restruct. our fam. business. began with 18 as illustrator / editor of high quality books.
loved medium-longterm strat. consid. are also asset 2day, as writer/painter: « teatime, samurai », compar. dalai LAMA with GANDHI, helped 2009 & counter proposal 2 OBAMA / court to postpone google-agreem. started in dec 2010 THE HOPE CYCLE (http://vetere.blogspot.com/) with marocco & egypt (?!) - with happenings in libya, on 21st of feb 11, posted the new blog on fb white house with saying from 2010: "human rights are not, not negotiable." on 23rd of feb OBAMA quotes by amending: « nowhere » - on apr 15 human rights commission, UN geneva, fully adhered to official complaint dated 25th of nov 10 against wished apartheid in switzland (vote of 28th of nov. reverted!). I contribute since 2010 to commons, mainly to own categ. mischa vetere - due to heavy censorship 2010, all works are O.T.R.S. approved now, a lot – due to fascist tendencies - against discrim., world problem no. 1: HUNGER, education. here an example, used for recent german conf. about north afr. Revol.: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Mischa_vetere_pro_memoria_MANIFEST_AND_FURTHERMORE_2010.jpg following the invit. of ting chen, i would love to help to bring the wiki project further with all its diversity, increasing the quality level by encouraging participants. my contribution: to listen carefully, obtain a full overview, bring in strategical ideas. i am at the top of creativity - 2010: 1300 paintings! |
Urs Wäfler (Urs.Waefler)
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| Statement | I was born and grew up in Switzerland. I studied at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, which I left without diploma. I worked for the World Economic Forum at its Annual Meeting in Davos, I was a teacher at secondary school. Nowadays I work in software industry, and I continue to study business informatics.
In case of being elected my goals are:
Education can take place anywhere and everywhere. It is our most valuable asset, it must be an open world, accessible by everyone - humankind advances only through collaboration. |
Kat Walsh (mindspillage)
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| Statement | I'm one of the current board members, a role I've held since 2006. I have a JD and passed the Virginia Bar; I'm currently a researcher in copyright, patent, and internet policy, a patent agent, and a classical musician, and was recently a technology policy analyst for the American Library Association.
I'm fortunate to have been able to be part of Wikimedia as it has grown; because of my experience on the projects and OTRS learning the legal challenges of free knowledge projects, I pursued law as a profession to help further the goals of Wikimedia and like-spirited groups. As the longest-serving elected board member, I've learned to put WMF's challenges into context, bringing experience and institutional knowledge along with the perspective of a longtime community volunteer. I see my main role as ensuring WMF upholds its core principles and values while meeting ever greater goals, and so this is my platform rather than a specific agenda. I want us to continue initiatives that make the projects part of everyone's life, and keep building relationships with institutions and communities that expand our ability to fulfill our mission. The role of the board is to take the long-term, big picture view, ensuring that WMF projects remain free, neutral, independent, and actively-developed far into the future. I believe this style of thinking is one of my particular strengths and hope to bring it to the next Wikimedia board. |
Esteban Zárate (Ezarate)
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| Statement | In my day job I'm a teacher on secondary schools in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.
I started to edit on the Spanish Wikipedia on Apr 30 2008, I was sysopped there on March 2010. I am sysop also on Commons and I frequently edit on spanish Wikinews where I am reviewer. I am system engineer and I am a teacher of computer sciences on secondary schools of Tandil, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. If I elected to the board, I intend to help in:
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