User:Abbad (WMF)/Sandbox/en
This page contains the statements candidates running for the Movement Charter's Drafting Committee.
Apply
editCandidates
editAdam Wight
edit
Adamw (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA • AE)
| Candidate details | 
| |
|---|---|---|
| statement (Not more than 450 words) | Problem: Our institutions should reflect our movement. If knowledge is a mountain, then we should be terraced gardens spanning its slopes, rather than a fortress built on the summit. Wikimedians spread themselves out into every subject and language, rather than building a single dominant project in some colonial language. But the Wikimedia Foundation is dominant, its revenue is over 12 times greater than the largest chapter.
Proposal: Progressively increase the proportion of resources going to smaller local organizations, have these take over many of the Foundation's roles. Movement-wide decisions made by a confederation of local groups. Problem: Editors and contributors create all of our wealth, but have minority control over electing the Board's representatives. Proposal: Contributors directly elect the full Wikimedia Foundation Board, one person one vote. This will require the Board to change its Bylaws, and possibly requires conversion (back) to a membership organization. Then, future questions will be resolved according to popular mandate. Problem: The boundaries of our projects are tightly guarded. Any new communities can only launch after a long and difficult process, and only if they are similar to existing projects and rooted in similar values. The many who are denied must turn to commercial or other hosting, with inconsistent safety policies, licensing, and even with imposed advertising. Proposal: We need a diaspora of projects, such as an ad-free, open wiki farm with stable funding and consistent community safety. We might also draw new life into the movement with: real-time collaborative editing, partnering with journalists to fight disinformation, and reaching beyond on-wiki life with initiatives like the Knowledge Equity Fund. About myself: As a Board member, I will push for direct democracy, and will take a pledge to support any recall or referendum vote by the contributors. My priorities are aligned with the strategic recommendations and the outcome of the 2019 governance review, and I'm happy to listen to others and adapt what I advocate as needed. My professional background is mostly as a software developer, or as a manual laborer depending on what I can find. I enjoy community organizing, have helped start a sidewalk food collective, a free school, and along with others attempted to unionize Wikimedia Foundation staff. I've helped maintain industrial arts shops, and see some parallels to what needs to be done as a Board member: set up a structure that lets every individual thrive and be creative, keep the lights on, and talk a lot with everyone. My wiki experience is a total of 9 years staff at WMF and WMDE. I can say that staff universally respect what they call the "Community", and if anything may be slightly afraid of the editors. I'll work to rebuild the Foundation's trustworthiness. | |
| Top 3 Board priorities | 1. Democracy: Elect the full Board, with contributors recognized as the legal owners of the Foundation.
2. Diversity: Phase out some of the roles played by the Foundation, focusing on coordination between chapters, stewardship of trademarks, international law and safety issues. Greatly increase the proportion of funds distributed to local entities. Evaluate splitting out organizations to focus on MediaWiki, and another to provide wiki hosting. 3. Diaspora: Support a non-profit, ad-free wiki farm open to all, with the benefit of a uniform safety framework. | |
| Top 3 Movement Strategy priorities | 1. Equity in decision-making
2. Safety and inclusion 3. Innovation for free knowledge | |
| Verification | Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee | |
Eligibility:  VerifiedVerified by: Matanya (talk) 20:28, 1 July 2021 (UTC) |
Identification: Verified Verified by: Joe Sutherland (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 01:02, 30 June 2021 (UTC) | |
| Trustee Evaluation Form | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vini_175 (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA • AE)
| Candidate details | 
| |
|---|---|---|
| statement (Not more than 450 words) | Our movement is going through major changes as we devise new compass points and discuss new governance models. One such change --that was highlighted in the strategy process-- has been the importance of empowering voices from the Global South and marginalized communities in the Global North. This candidacy arises to some extent from this process.
About me: I want to change the world to make it fairer and more democratic, and more aligned with a radical understanding of social justice. This is the exact vision which led me when I was 14 years old to make my first edits on Wikipedia in Portuguese, in 2007, and that has oriented my engagement with the movement ever since. I am currently the vice-chair of the Brazilian affiliate Wiki Movimento Brasil and have served as its liaison with the WMF. I am especially active in our diversity and our communications committees and our projects around decolonization, and have been involved at different periods with other affiliates, especially Wiki Project Med, as a former board member. Wikipedia in Portuguese is my home wiki. My volunteer time availability is compatible with expected workload as a Wikimedia trustee. I live in Brazil and work as a physician in impoverished neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro. I am also a professor at the School of Medicine at the Estácio de Sá University. I am an activist in the movement for access to essential medicines and for universal health coverage. I am a gay man and an active supporter of LGBTQIA+ rights in my home country. About my goals: To fulfill our mission we need to move towards an architecture and a governance system that ensures greater diversity of users and content. We have progressed in envisioning this system; we now need to make sure decision-making processes are empowering, meaningful and equitable for all. We need more Wikimedians from the Global South and from marginalized communities in the Global North on key movement instances, including the Board of Trustees. Greater diversity will contribute to fostering more engagement from communities and demographics that have been systematically disempowered in our movement; it will also be associated with the emergence of new local and regional leadership that we need as we move towards a more decentralized structure. Greater diversity will also contribute to increasing accountability and devising innovative community consultation designs. To sum up, my goal as a trustee is to contribute to bring about the vision we have laid out in the Movement Strategy, knowing that the Wikimedia Foundation should lead by example. | |
| Top 3 Board priorities | 1. Ensure Equity in Decision-making.
2. Invest in Skills and Leadership Development. 3. Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement. | |
| Top 3 Movement Strategy priorities | 1. Ensure empowered participatory governance.
2. Ensure diversity and equity in decision making processes. 3. Defend an internet for and from all, in which we invest in democratizing the access to and production of knowledge, empowering Global South communities and marginalized communities in the Global North. | |
| Verification | Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee | |
| Eligibility: Verified Verified by: Matanya (talk) 20:29, 1 July 2021 (UTC) |
Identification: Verified Verified by: Joe Sutherland (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 18:11, 29 June 2021 (UTC) | |
| Trustee Evaluation Form | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mike Peel (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA • AE)
| Candidate details | 
| |
|---|---|---|
| statement (Not more than 450 words) | I am primarily active on the English Wikipedia, Commons, and Wikidata, with over 350k edits combined since 2005. I work both on content creation (new articles, article expansion, new photographs), and wikignoming (e.g., linking Wikipedias, Wikidata, Commons). I authored the multilingual Wikidata infobox used in over 3 million Commons categories, operate Pi bot (over 8 million edits, mostly on Wikidata and Commons) and co-originated the term ‘editathon’ with the first event at the British Library in 2011.
I co-founded Wikimedia UK and was a trustee of it for its first 5 years as it was created as a charity and grew into an established organisation. I served on the Funds Dissemination Committee for four years, both on its initial committee in 2012–14 and another term in 2015–17. I have been part of Wiki Movimento Brasil since 2019 (informally since 2016), actively contributing to a thriving affiliate in an emerging community. This has widened my understanding of the diverse challenges our movement faces, particularly given local realities and the need to embrace diversity. By day I am a radio astronomer working for international collaborative telescope projects. I have lived in the UK and Brazil, and am currently working in Spain (I've been learning Portuguese and Spanish). I would like to bring my expertise from across the Wikimedia movement to the WMF board. My experience has given me a broad overview of the Wikimedia movement, understanding diverse affiliates by both being part of several and reviewing their activities through the FDC. At the same time I am an active on-wiki community member, and understand the different viewpoints across multiple Wikimedia projects as well. Linked with the overall Wikimedia movement strategy, I would like to see less centralisation at WMF of movement expenditure and resources, with a corresponding increase in making use of (and growing) the expertise and leadership of the Wikimedia affiliates in their geographical areas and/or specialisms. I would also like to see the Board (and WMF more generally) become more transparent, and engage more with the community. | |
| Top 3 Board priorities | 1. New ED hiring, onboarding, and overall transition process
2. Increase transparency and engagement of the WMF board and organisation with the Wikimedia community 3. Provide guidance to rebalance the work done by the WMF vs. affiliates vs. community | |
| Top 3 Movement Strategy priorities | 1. Increasing engagement with emerging communities, while making the best use of the strengths of more privileged communities
2. Sustainable and innovative technical development 3. Increase engage with fellow-traveller organisations (e.g., GLAM) | |
| Verification | Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee | |
| Eligibility: Verified Verified by: Matanya (talk) 20:21, 1 July 2021 (UTC) |
Identification: Verified Verified by: Joe Sutherland (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 18:14, 29 June 2021 (UTC) | |
| Trustee Evaluation Form | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight
edit
Rosiestep (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA • AE)
| Candidate details | 
| |
|---|---|---|
| statement (Not more than 450 words) | About me I became an English Wikipedia editor in 2007; administrator since 2009. In 2014, I founded WikiProject Women Writers. As a strong believer in the power of volunteerism and community organizing, I have been very active in the affiliates’ world. In 2015, I co-founded Women in Red and WikiWomen's User Group. In 2016, I joined the Board of Wikimedia District of Columbia (WMDC); was elected a member of the Affiliations Committee (AffCom); and was honored as co-Wikimedian of the Year, while Women in Red was shortlisted for the ITU/UN Women GEM-TECH award. I was co-grantee for WikiConference North America 2016, and co-founder of its User Group. In 2017, I was elected WMDC vice-president and AffCom secretary. Involved with movement strategy (MS) since 2016, I joined the Community Health Working Group in 2018. In the same year, I was knighted by the Republic of Serbia, my family’s homeland, in part because of my Wikipedia work. Since 2019, I am associated with WikiCred. In 2020, the article I created on Maria Lauder was honored as the 6th million article on English Wikipedia. Also in 2020, I was elected AffCom chair; re-elected this year. I hold a BS degree in Business Management and a Master of Business Administration. My professional career focused on contract management, project management, talent acquisition; retired in 2016. I have served as an adjunct professor (organizational behavior; healthcare administration) also lecturer (talent acquisition). In 2017, I was WMF contractor, Gender Diversity Mapping project, first of its kind. Since 2017, I am a Visiting Scholar at Northeastern University.
| |
| Top 3 Board priorities | Hire and onboard a new CEO
Improve Board governance + community relations Continue to support Movement Strategy | |
| Top 3 Movement Strategy priorities | Ensure equity in decision making
Provide for safety and inclusion Invest in skills and leadership development | |
| Verification | Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee | |
| Eligibility: Verified Verified by: Matanya (talk) 20:20, 1 July 2021 (UTC) |
Identification: Verified Verified by: Joe Sutherland (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 18:18, 29 June 2021 (UTC) | |
.jpg){kind=link}
| Trustee Evaluation Form | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discott (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA • AE)
| Candidate details | 
| |
|---|---|---|
| statement (Not more than 450 words) | President of Wikimedia South Africa (2015-2020), lead organiser of Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town and co-organiser of the first Wiki Indaba conference in 2014. I have been an active editor on English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons since 2006.
Currently I am deeply involved in trying to get South African copyright law amended to include Freedom of Panorama and Fair Use against much resistance from major industry stakeholders. The proposed legal conventions and terms will make editing Wikipedia much easier in South Africa. I am involved in and supportive of expanding the community in emerging countries, most specifically in Africa, a part of the world that I strongly feel will play an increasingly important role within the free knowledge movement. This, along with my experience working with a wide and diverse range of community members from many different Wikimedia projects (both online and offline) has equipped me with a good understanding of the many different views within our diverse community. My professional background as a criminologist has developed my skills in conflict mitigation and resolution in different environments. As a local community leader I have found this to be a useful skill in maintaining and strengthening community health within the South African chapter. I feel that my career as a researcher and technologist has given me a strong grounding in many of the technical aspects of our movement. I strongly believe in the importance of expanding the community's presence on the board through direct elections. If elected I will consistently work for a stronger community role on the Board of Trustees by calling for a greater ratio of seats to be occupied by elected community members instead of appointees. My vision as a member of the board, should I be elected, is to see greater inclusion of, and support for, our community in emerging countries. I would also like to see the board become more transparent and have a deeper level of engagement with the community. Additionally, I would strive for the decentralisation of community resources in the WMF and a stronger role for the community in WFM decision making. | |
| Top 3 Board priorities | 1. Expanded engagement between the WMF organisation and the board with the Wikimedia community whilst increasing transparency.
2. Hire and onboard the new WMF CEO – who ever occupies this role will have a very large and long lasting impact on the movement. A person with a deep and genuine belief in the free knowledge movement and the collaborative inclusionist non-commercial volunteer culture of the community is very important. 3. Re-balancing WMF/Community relations so as to strengthen the role of the community within the WMF | |
| Top 3 Movement Strategy priorities | 1. Increased representation and support for emerging communities
2. Improved community health and board governance 3.Sustainable and innovative development of new technology to support the community | |
| Verification | Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee | |
| Eligibility: Verified Verified by: Matanya (talk) 20:38, 1 July 2021 (UTC) |
Identification: Verified Verified by: Joe Sutherland (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 18:18, 29 June 2021 (UTC) | |
| Trustee Evaluation Form | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Interviews
editHere is a short list of some of the discussions and interviews I have given about my candidacy.
- WikiAfrica Hour : Episode 3: WMF Board Demystified (25 Jun 2021)