Wikimedia Foundation elections/Board elections/2006/Candidates/en

2006 board elections
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Rules for candidates

The English text below is the official text, approved by all three organizers. If any translated text differs from the English original, the English will prevail.

Candidates for election to the Wikimedia Board of Trustees should present themselves on this page before 23:59 August 28, 2006 (UTC). At least one trustee will be elected to a term ending July 2007.

To be eligible as a candidate, you must have more than 400 edits on at least one Wikimedia project; the edits must all be made with the same account; and the first edit must have been made at least 90 days prior to 00:00, 1 August 2006 (UTC). Candidates must also be at least 18 years of age. Candidates should be aware of the obligations of a Board position.

It is not possible to hold a Board position anonymously, so please stand only if you are willing to make your real identity known. Candidates will be required to identify themselves fully to Essjay, Aphaia, Datrio, or another designated individual, unless they have done so for the previous Board election. You will be contacted with further details. Candidates who have been confirmed by one of the Election Officials will have their names emphasised by bold font.

Please copy the template and fill in the following information. To avoid giving preference to one candidate over another, please list your nomination alphabetically by username, according to the Unicode Collation Algorithm.

You may submit your statement in any language(s), however we recommend that you include one in English. We also recommend that statements should not exceed 1,000 characters in length in the original language(s). Volunteer Wikimedia translators will translate your statement to other languages; we will do our best to ensure that all statements are available in as many languages as possible, but cannot guarantee everything will be translated. The more concise and the earlier it is submitted, the more likely a volunteer will translate it.

Finally, please list your name and all the language(s) in which you submit your statement in the Quick view of candidates.

Example

Please post your candidate information in Election candidates 2006/YOUR_USER_NAME/En and add a link toward this page under the "Candidates" section. You must fill the subpage as shown in the following example:

=== [[User:User name]] ===

{{Board candidate/en
|username=
|real name=
|location=
|age=
|userpages=
|joined=
|projects=
|languages=
|contribs=
|statement =
|discussion=
}}

Quick view of candidates

Candidate acceptance has now begun. Candidates have until 23:59 Monday, August 28, 2006 (UTC) to list themselves alphabetically here.

The registration of candidates is closed.

Candidates Cerejota and NicholasTurnbull have not been confirmed, and are stricken.--BradPatrick 20:38, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

• AaronSw

  chr, en, es, eo, fr, hu, ja, sv.

• alex756

  chr, en, eo, fr, hu, ja, sv

• Arno Lagrange

  ca, chr, cs, da, de, en, eo, es, fi, fr, hu, it, ja, nl, no, pl, pt, ru, sv, tl, tr, uk, zh

• Arnomane

  chr, Da, de, en, eo, es, fr, ja, sv

• Cerejota

  chr, de, en, eo, es, fr, it, ja, nl, no, pl, sv, zh

• Charles Matthews

  chr, cs, da, de, en, eo, es, fr, glhu, it, ja, nl, pl, sv, ru, zh

• Cimon Avaro

  chr, cs, de, en, eo, es, fr, ja, nl, no, pl, sv, zh

• Eloquence

  chr, cs, de, en, eo, es, fr, it, ja, nl, no, pl, pt, sv, tl, zh

• Evrik

  ca, chr, cs, de, en, eo, es, fi, fr, hu, it, ja, nl, no, pl, pt, ru, sv, tl, tr, zh

• Improv

  chr, de, en, eo, es, fr, ja, nl, no, ru, sv, zh

• Kelly Martin

  chr, de, en, eo, es, fi, fr, ja, nl, no, pl, sv, tl, zh

• Kim Bruning

  chr, en, eo, es, fr, ja, sv

• Linuxbeak

  chr, de, en, eo, es, fi, fr, it, ja, nl, no, pl, sv, tl, zh

• Mindspillage

  chr, cs, de, en, eo, es, fr, it, ja, nl, no, sv, tl, zh

• NicholasTurnbull

  chr, de, en, eo, fi, fr, ja, nl, no, pl, sv, tl, zh

• Oscar

  chr, cs, de, en, eo, es, fr, it, ja, nl, sv, zh

• Ross.Hedvicek

  chr, de, en, eo, es, fi, fr, it, ja, nl, no, sv, tl, zh

• UninvitedCompany

  chr, de, en, eo, es, fr, ja, nl, no, sv, zh

• Zuirdj

  chr, en, eo, es, fr, ja, nl, sv, zh

Candidates' presentations

Please list your entry in alphabetical order.

You must be at least 18 years old to be a candidate.

The registration of candidates is closed.

edit candidates presentation

AaronSw

-Confirmed.--BradPatrick 15:05, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

User	AaronSw
Real name	Aaron Swartz
Location	Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Age	19
User page(s)	en:User:AaronSw
Wikimedia participant since	following since 2001, contributing since 2003
Projects in which I participate	en.wikipedia, en.wikisource, en.wikiquote
Languages in which I participate	primarily en
Link to user contribution pages	en.wikipedia, en.wikisource, en.wikiquote, en.wikinews, meta.wikimedia, wikimania2006
My candidate statement	Since January, Wikipedia's traffic has more than doubled, and the pressure on the people behind it has grown accordingly. As a result, the Wikimedia Foundation is now at a turning point: it must go from a small group of people to a lasting organization. I am running to represent the community in this transition and to make sure we live up to our core values: Collaboration. Our problems can't be solved by giving power to the right people, companies, or countries; instead, we will need everyone's contribution. Readers should be encouraged to become editors, editors should be encouraged to be policy people, policy people should be encouraged to help set the agenda for the Board. As a Board member, my job is representing the community: publishing details of what the Board is actually doing and soliciting the community's opinion about what it should be doing. Innovation. Software isn't neutral; its design shapes how you use it. Until now, we've been busy just keeping the software running. We must also work on improving it: getting more people involved, adding features the community wants, and making it easy for everyone to fully use. Since, in a very real way, the software controls the site, whoever controls the software has tremendous power. We must make sure the community, not private companies or individual people, decides how it develops. Growth. Alexa reports that 5% of all Web surfers visit Wikipedia. On the one hand, that's pretty impressive. On the other, that means 95% do not. That's a lot of people to bring on board. But even of those who read Wikipedia, few really understand that they can write it, let alone do any of its other tasks. At the same time, though, what we've done is now a model to the world. Leaders in every field hope to apply Wikipedia's magic to their own tasks. Such jobs may require new organizations, new software, or new structures, but our grand goal remains the same: radical collaboration to give everyone unrestricted access to all the world's knowledge. More on all these points... About me: Over six years ago, I built my first web application. I called it theinfo.org, but it was basically the same idea as Wikipedia. Not surprisingly, it didn't take off, but I never stopped thinking about the problem. Since then, I co-authored the RSS 1.0 spec, worked on the specifications for the Semantic Web, and was an early employee at Creative Commons. Most recently, my startup Infogami merged with Reddit, which, after one year, is already in the top 1500 sites on the Internet (according to Alexa).
For questions, please post here	User talk:AaronSw

alex756

-Confirmed.--BradPatrick 03:19, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

User	alex756
Real name	Alex T. Roshuk, Esq.
Location	Brooklyn, New York
Age	50
User page(s)	meta en
Wikimedia participant since	April 2003
Projects in which I participate	Mostly English Wikipedia, I have participated in several other projects, but recently this has been minimal.
Languages in which I participate	English, French (occasionally), some Russian (anonymously)
Link to user contribution pages	en fr meta
My candidate statement	Please view my user page on meta to see my biography. My primary reason for running to be a Trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation is because of my firm belief that the organization is in need of individuals who understand the governance role of trustees and well as understanding something of the Wikipedia phenomenon. In my opinion a board member should not be someone who wants to be a super editor, an adminstrator/bureaucrat/steward to manage, change or implement any policies or direct any movements within Wikimedia projects, board members should be independent of such activities. These various projects must remain independent of board intervention except in the most serious of breakdowns, though at the same time more participants need to work in the various committees, chapters, group activities and affiliate associations that make the Wikimedia communities so vital; and all these groupings need to find various ways to develop avenues of input to the board. We see communities because one do not see just one Wikipedia but a diversity of activities, peoples, groupings and social structures - along all kinds of divisions (not just linguistic). These associations and structures within the broad framework that has developed since the inception of the English Wikipedia in January 2001 are our strength. Pluralism and diversity must be continually encouraged if our variously intertwined communities are to grow, flourish and reach a long term stability; I pledge to stand for such diversity. My experience in the creative arts, technology, law and volunteerism gives me a good mix of skills to help other members of the board to discover the future of the Wikimedia Foundation as the legal entity that continues to nourish and support the various projects that have developed while also fostering future projects. A knowledge of not-for-profit governance and the difficulties that face organizations that deal with creative constituencies is a useful background for such a phenomenal organization. If called to serve my wish is to remain open to all volunteers as a liaison to the board – to help communicate the various opinions of members from various projects to the board to help other board members better understand the diversity of opinion that have made the Wikimedia projects so successful to date, but not to function as some supermember to deal with all kinds of project-internal issues. As a dual citizen (U.S. and Canada and originally trained in law in Canada, but practicing in the United States) I am not only aware of the American perspective that is necessary in an American not-for-profit organization, but of a more international approach to organizational behaviour that is necessary for the organization that Wikimedia is becoming. I firmly believe that thanks to the internet a new kind of transnational cultural pluralism is developing in our world today and such a movement should be further fostered in the developing public internet culture of which Wikipedia is already a strong component. My hope is that a dialogue can develop on a governance level to further the goals of the organization, fundamentally I see this as an issue of freedom for individuals and for individuals associating into groups to further develop their liberties as contributors and users to one of the many Wikimedia projects that resonates with the goal of free access to knowledge for all peoples of the world.
For questions, please post here	See my meta user talk page or alex756 at nyc (dot) rr (dot) com. Thank you and please vote.

Arno Lagrange

Confirmed --Aphaia 02:30, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

User	ArnoLagrange
Real name	Arno Lagrange	Arno Lagrange
Location	Bellegarde-du-Razès, Aude, France
Age	50
User page(s)	eo:Vikipediisto:ArnoLagrange, fr:Utilisateur:ArnoLagrange, Hejmpaĝo (eo fr)
Wikimedia participant since	december the 19th 2002
Projects in which I participate	eo:Vikipedio, fr:Wikipédia, meta, Vikifontoj (eo Wikisource), fr:Wiktionary, Vikivortaro (eo:Wiktionary), en:Wiktionary
Languages in which I participate	eo, fr, en, de (and sometimes in others)
Link to user contribution pages	eo, fr, en, de, meta, wikisource, eo:Wiktionary
'My candidate statement	I am running as a candidate for the board of trustees in order to defend linguistic equal rights. We must try to find a way that any person from any project, speaking any language, can participate in discussions and decisions. Unfortunately, important discussions/decisions all happen in American English, making those who are not good speakers of that language unable to take part. True multilingualism and perspective, provided by an international neutral auxillary language (it could be Esperanto) is absolutely necessary. Read more : Linguistic diversty Halfway thoughts
For questions, please post here	Kandidatiĝo por la Fidataro

Arnomane

-Confirmed.--BradPatrick 16:57, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Arnomane
Real name	Daniel Arnold	Daniel Arnold at Wikimania '05
Location	Gräfenberg, Frankonia, Germany
Age	25
User page(s)	primarily: commons:User:Arnomane, w:de:Benutzer:Arnomane secondary: User:Arnomane, w:en:User:Arnomane, n:de:Benutzer:Arnomane, w:ar:User:Arnomane
Wikimedia participant since	15./16. March 2004
Projects in which I participate	Wikimedia Commons (bureaucrat), de.wikipedia (admin), OTRS, Meta, en.wikipedia, de.wikinews Some of my sub projects (or projects I'm heavily involved in) beside admin work... German language Wikipedia: mainly articles on natural science and technology (main focus Astronomy & Space Exploration), printed Wikipedia (see my WikiPress book Solar system) Wikimedia Commons: Wikimedia Commons interface and complete user guide redesign (see e.g. Help page maintenance and Tool integration), Wikimedia Commons policy issues (like media file licensing e.g. Licensing), requests to third parties for freely licensing their media
Languages in which I participate	German (mother language), English (advanced) and some French (reading is ok but too less for useful participation)
Link to user contribution pages	de.wikipedia, commons, meta, en.wikipedia, de.wikinews, ar.wikipedia, furthermore most of the edits of IP 131.188.24.186 in various language wikis (sometimes signed with my nick, most times not; most of these edits are due to my admin tasks in Commons)
My candidate statement	Motto: Just do things and promote them later - not the other way round. Cross-project communication: Currently many things get solved independently over and over again in our diverse wiki communities. I met quite some people who created nice stuff that just works in one community. Thatfor I want to increase cross-project communication so that the communities benefit from each other. As well I realized the limited technical possibilities for easy communication from inside Commons towards the other communities and thatfor wanted to lower the tensions between projects and get people together. That's why I wrote the very first (now replaced) version of the now central Commons tool "CheckUsage" (see User:Arnomane/Image usage) and together with Duesentrieb I had the "CommonsTicker" idea (of course solely coded by Duesentrieb, please have a look at User:Duesentrieb/CommonsTicker if you still don't know it) among other things. Community board member: My self-conception is that I want to be a community board member. I want to communicate problems and solutions out of our diverse communities to the board. Of course I can also contribute quite some own experience, like for example on "printed Wikipedia" - one of our main goals. So I don't want to be there in order to make "big politics" as I believe in division of work among board members and in open-minded (not group-think) meritocracy in online projects. Empowerment of participation: I believe that equality among our diverse language communities can only be reached by active participation and with the right free software tools. For me all languages and cultures are equally welcome but we cannot achieve working equality by board declarations. So IMHO the current main task of WMF towards equality of communities is (beside local chapters) to ensure that future MediaWiki versions take an even greater emphasis on features that enable people getting more easier in touch across communities and languages.
For questions, please post here	commons:User talk:Arnomane/WMF board election 2006 (English or German)

Charles Matthews

-Confirmed.--BradPatrick 15:32, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Charles Matthews
Real name	Charles Matthews	In 2006
Location	Cambridge, UK
Age	52
User page(s)	en:User:Charles Matthews
Wikimedia participant since	2003
Projects in which I participate	en-wikipedia
Languages in which I participate	English (translations to English, and interwiki)
Link to user contribution pages	[1]
My candidate statement	I'm standing as a candidate with experience and skills useful for the Wikimedia Board. I'm not a technical person, and have not been active on Wikimedia issues, preferring to focus on the English Wikipedia. I come without any specific template for the WMF. For manifesto, I would say that we still have to match up some things. Implementing the best distance learning experiences, when we know that factual content is a Long Tail phenomenon (to speak modishly), means we have to be both cumulatively smart and better in the humanities. The aim is to become comprehensive, but also comprehensible and comprehending on a global scale. These are ambitious slogans. Background: I had 10 years post-doctoral experience in academia (1978-1989), at the University of Cambridge, with years in France and the USA. After that I have been a voluntary worker in a number of contexts, including publicity work and raising sponsorship. I have written two books (one conventional, one with a Korean friend published online), and over 100 articles. I have travelled, outside tourist bubble-wrap, in Japan, South Korea, and recently Uganda, where in June I gave a well-attended lecture on Wikipedia. I speak quite reasonable French, and some Russian. I have been a married parent through all this time. The role of the Board: what other online extended community gets to hire its own support staff? The Board has stewardship of the most important piece of hypertext ever. Some intangibles, such as 'wiki culture', 'motivational working atmosphere', 'adding worth', matter as much as money. The scale of Wikimedia projects now means that straight management sometimes applies, but the biggest challenge remains the harnessing of the folk writing on the wikis to projects in the larger scheme. In the day-to-day operation of the sites, this means not losing sight of the old-school way of thinking. In short, I have outside experience, communication skills, and a traditional wiki approach.
For questions, please post here	User:Charles Matthews/WMF Board Election 2006

Cimon Avaro

Confirmed --Aphaia 14:12, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Cimon Avaro
Real name	Jussi-Ville Heiskanen
Location	Helsinki, Finland
Age	40 ½ years old.
User page(s)	en:User:Cimon Avaro, fi:User:Cimon Avaro (primary, have dozens more that don't see all that much use)
Wikimedia participant since	April 13th 2003 (edited anonymoysly a few days previous)
Projects in which I participate	Projects in which I participate: en-wikipedia, fi-wikipedia, en-wikiquote (also minor edits to scots-wikipedia, simple-wikipedia and interlanguage links to a dozen or more wikipedias)
Languages in which I participate	Finnish, English, Scots
Link to user contribution pages	En-wikipedia, Fi-wikipedia, En-Wikiquote, Meta
My candidate statement	We must bridge the chasm between the WMF & the communities. I will be on IRC channels and E-mail, and mailing-lists to make it so. I will talk with people who value the mission of WMF, one on one . I edit primarily on the english WP, contributing by starting the en:WP:BITE guideline and"Cleanup". My edits won't last; they will. In prior elections first time I kept the debate cordial, and elevated it. The health of WMF needed a challenge by good candidates in the second election. A position is open, so now we shall campaign upon the direction of our mission to benefit mankind. Long term The WMF projects will arc over centuries; all squabbles subsiding into footnotes on the way to their inspection by eternity. WMF is dominant on the WWW, and how we lead, will influence it; ours is benign; "making the Internet not suck". Continuing, we will join force with groups who guard its futurity; such as EFF, FSF, SFLC, and CC. WMF shall "do no evil". Custodially it oversees resources & assets that are entrusted to it; including trademarks of the foundation and the projects & the emblems identifying the body and work, guarding from abuse and dilution. Licencing these should be done on a case by case basis, slowly, sensitive to local cultural/legal frameworks, not presuming any sole model. The committees shall be overseen by the board, so they conform with our mission.
For questions, please post here	User:Cimon Avaro/Candidacy_2006

Eloquence

Confirmed --Aphaia 00:22, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Eloquence
Real name	Erik Möller
Location	Berlin, Germany
Age	27
User page(s)	en.wikipedia, mediawiki (code and wiki), meta, commons, en.wikinews, de.wikipedia (occasional contributor), de.wikinews (occasional)
Wikimedia participant since	December 2001 (registered)
Projects in which I participate	see above
Languages in which I participate	German (native), English (advanced)
Link to user contribution pages	en.wikipedia, en.wikinews, commons (+two bots), meta, de.wikipedia, de.wikinews
My candidate statement	My record: Initiated Wikinews and Wikimedia Commons; lead developer of WiktionaryZ/Wikidata; co-initiator of the Free Content Definition; international speaker and published author about wikis; extensive social network to many organizations and individuals; years of contributions and leadership in many Wikimedia endeavors. See my "Wiki CV". Endorsed by: Angela Beesley (outgoing Board member; Vice President, Wikia), Erik Zachte (inventor of WikiStats, EasyTimeline, and other goodies), Sheldon Rampton (author; founder, SourceWatch; expert on the PR industry), Evan Prodromou (founder, Wikitravel), and others Statement of goals: Ensure that organizational processes are open, i.e., participatory, multilingual, and transparent More info Balance organizational professionalism and volunteer contributions harmoniously More info Promote a continuing, open community dialogue about the future of our projects More info Secure the scalability of all our projects and processes on multiple levels More info Build a vast, global network of partnerships with individuals and organizations More info Accelerate innovation in all existing and future projects More info Make good on the promise of bringing free knowledge to the developing world More info Develop a sound legal defense strategy and ensure consistent legal standards More info Detailed campaign platform, including an interview with the candidate ;-) If you don't want to vote for me, please consider voting for Arnomane, AaronSw (yes, he's young, but very clever), Mindspillage, or UninvitedCompany. Note that you can vote for multiple candidates, though only one seat is open for election.
For questions, please post here	User talk:Eloquence/Platform 2006

Evrik

-Confirmed.--BradPatrick 03:21, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Evrik
Real name	Bruce Andersen	Bruce Andersen
Location	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Age	42
User page(s)	en:User:Evrik
Wikimedia participant since	July, 21 2005 with first recorded edit John Doe. First anon edit (Urbanization) on January 21, 2004
Projects in which I participate	commons, wikt, wikisource wikibooks, wikiquote and meta
Languages in which I participate	en, de and es
Link to user contribution pages	en, es, de, commons ,wikt, wikisource, wikibooks, wikiquote and meta
My candidate statement	I am continually amazed by the things I see at wikipedia and its sister projects. My first experience with computers was programming simple games using punch tape, and the on an Apple_II_Plus. I got my first email account in 1986 and started poking around on newsgroups, MUDs and the Internet shortly after. I see the wikis as a great example of the possibilities of the Internet to disseminate knowledge and to build civil society. As a board member, the issues I would focus on issues in three broad areas: 1. Building community Peer review is what makes wikipedia great. Petty infighting is aggravating and drives people away. I would work on ways to prevent conflicts Admins and sysops are a great group of people. We need to promote their work by improving the ways they are selected Promote communities of individuals with interest and expertise in specific topics. This in turn will improve article quality. 2. Promoting articles that expand knowledge, are accurate and fair Promoting interlanguage coordination – reducing the difference between articles in different languages and strengthening the projects with a smaller number of articles by making translations easier. Building partnerships with verified resources (encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.) to improve the accuracy of articles and improving the reliability the information Promoting groups of technical experts in key areas (like copyright issues). Improving the brain trust involved in key issues will help with reducing conflicts between contributors. 3. Building a strong financial base for the foundation Increase the financial stability by expanding the donor base of the foundation. This includes promotion of an endowment. Work to recruit volunteers and donors to the foundation and acknowledgement of those donors. Explore ways that we can use technology to improve how information is delivered. Build our technical infrastructure I have the experience in non-profit management and the technical knowledge to contribute to the wikimedia foundation.
For questions, please post here	en:User talk:Evrik

Improv

-Confirmed--BradPatrick 12:21, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Improv
Real name	Pat Gunn
Location	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Age	28
User page(s)	en (other userpages exist but have no significant content)
Wikimedia participant since	Late 2002
Projects in which I participate	primarily enwiki
Languages in which I participate	English. I occasionally read articles on the german, spanish, and japanese wikis, but I don't trust my grammar enough to contribute
Link to user contribution pages	en (As older account Pgunn)
My candidate statement	I've been involved with Wikipedia (and Usenet, and various other community-based projects) for many years. Reading several of the meeting notes, I believe I can contribute to the kinds of discussions involved in management of the project. Ideas: Establish an endowment for the foundation to provide a financial cushion from fundraising efforts Seek out sources of funding that don't require us to fundamentally change our no-advertisements, open nature The board should continue to be conservative in official day-to-day action on the wiki, reluctant to act except when it is necessary for the good of the project Be skeptical about accepting new recurring costs and "hard" infrastructure without a strong justification, in order to make certain that the project remains solvent, noncorrupt, and flexible Explore ways to present the data we have so far in more formats than the web (e.g. TTS, mobile devices, etc), for the benefit of humanity Take great care to avoid risks that may place the project in legal jeopardy Continue efforts to reunify Encyclopedia Libre and the Spanish Wikipedia, as well as encourage/establish outreaches for projects in different languages, to work more closely with other language Wikis to try to prevent similar problems, ensure legal compliance, and share ideas on policy
For questions, please post here	Bored? Board Questions for Improv

Kelly Martin

Confirmed --BradPatrick 04:28, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Kelly Martin
Real name	Kelly Martin
Location	Niles, Illinois, United States
Age	Late 30s.
User page(s)	enwiki, dewiki (more or less), Commons, meta
Wikimedia participant since	December 2004
Projects in which I participate	enwiki, commons, meta (occasionally)
Languages in which I participate	English. I can read German, but not well enough to participate.
Link to user contribution pages	enwiki, commons, meta
My candidate statement	I had not originally planned to run for the Board, but was recently talked into it by a particular someone who asked me to run. I do find myself frequently frustrated at the curious way the Foundation does things -- at all levels -- and I do have some vague hope that I could help to resolve some of those "curiosities" as a member of the Board, and it would be my intentions, if elected, to take actions to deal with some of our more serious misguided practices. The worst of these, in my opinion, is our highly fractured and very ineffective internal communications systems, something which I am already trying to help through membership in the Communications Committee. I believe that a lot of our failures to get things done (or to do them badly or incompletely) are due to communications problems. My platform: Ensure the Foundation remains accountable to its supporters and users; Build the infrastructure we need to respond to the massive increase in public attention Wikipedia gets, and to leverage this public interest to the benefit of the other projects; Improve communication within the Foundation, between the Foundation and the projects, and between the projects and the developers; Recruit volunteers, and when necessary, staff, to ensure that things that need to get done get done right and get done on time; Cultivate partnerships with others who will respect our core principles and benefit our mission; and Work toward reasonable growth and economic sustainability in a manageable timeframe. Conflict statement: I am not, nor have I ever been, an employee, officer, or agent of the Wikimedia Foundation; Wikia, Inc.; or any entity organized as a Wikimedia chapter organization. To the best of my knowledge, neither myself nor any of my past or present employers has directly or indirectly done business with any of the above entities, except that I am an occasional donor to the Wikimedia Foundation, and my housing at Wikimania 2006 was obtained by payment made through Wikimania's organization.
For questions, please post here	meta talk page

Kim Bruning

-Confirmed.--BradPatrick 03:30, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Kim Bruning
Real name	Kim Bruning
Location	The Netherlands
Age	28
User page(s)	en:User:Kim Bruning
Wikimedia participant since	Editing ~ regularly since 7 Nov 2003. (First edit: 7 Nov 2001)
Projects in which I participate	My home wiki is en.wikipedia. I've helped out advising nl.wikipedia and en.wikinews, I'm also occasionally involved in pushing development of tools like vandalfighter, and I'm currently trying to get people to really do some social statistics on wikipedia. People who have been at wikimania may have been to one of the talks resulting from that.
Languages in which I participate	I learnt Dutch, English, German, French and Latin in school at some point or other. I'm a native speaker of Dutch and English, I'm passable at German, and my French and Latin are not so good anymore.
Link to user contribution pages	* wikien
My candidate statement	I normally don't approve of voting on-wiki, but this is an off-wiki vote for a real life entity. For one thing there's no revert button in real life, so the bold, revert, discuss method for obtaining consensus won't quite work. Bother. I am a contributor to wikimedia projects because I strongly believe in copyleft and free/open content. Some people here bring impressive resumes to the table, or have made interesting election promises. I'm only going to make a small number of big promises, because each of them would be difficult to achieve in real life. If I only pick a few, I'll have a realistic chance actually achieving all of them. Note that with approval voting, you can simultaniously also vote for other candidates with similar programs. If you like a particular idea, please also vote for those other candidates with that program. Internal communications: Currently, wikimedia is very fragmented. I'd like to get all those fragments talking with each other, I hope to achieve this by weaving a web; one link, one person at a time. I could do this without being on the board, but the additional opportunity for communication a board member is exposed to makes this much easier. If you'd like this to happen, also consider voting for AaronSW, Arnomane, and Oscar. Transparency: Right now, particular parts of the foundation have closed doors and are essentially running without proper community oversight. Some things have to remain secret, but there's decent methods to allow people to even check private processes. Only the board can actually force people to apply these methods, so someone on the board needs to take up this task. If you'd like this to happen, also consider voting for Eloquence and Improv Long now: Wikimedia should be around for at least 100 years ('till the year 02101). One way to ensure that is to establish an endowment. Encouraging individual wikis to look at the way they are managed also goes a long way. Running the Foundation in a lean and efficient manner (with as little money as possible) also ensures longetivity If you're interested in this, also consider voting for Improv Finishing the term. I promise to stay on the board up to the end of the term, to ensure continuity.
For questions, please post here	en:User Talk:Kim Bruning/board or User talk:Kim Bruning

Linuxbeak

Confirmed --Aphaia 22:34, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Linuxbeak
Real name	Alex Schenck
Location	North Scituate, Rhode Island, United States
Age	19
User page(s)	enwiki, Commons, meta
Wikimedia participant since	March 2005
Projects in which I participate	enwiki, commons (on occasion, and usually anonymously), meta
Languages in which I participate	English. Can read and speak French (with some difficulty) and can read some German.
Link to user contribution pages	enwiki, commons, meta
My candidate statement	I am running for the Board because I feel that the board needs a more "involved" member to better understand and manage the rapidly evolving Wikimedia environments. As a Wikipedia bureaucrat, an IRC group contact and a heavy participant of Wikipedia, I feel that I could provide the board with refreshed positive energy. My platform: Advocate for Wikimedia project users in cases that require Board attention; Help shape how the world views Wikimedia projects so that public enthusiasm expands; Provide a "for the people" viewpoint to the Board; Cut bureaucracy and unnecessary red tape as to make the projects more productive; Reaffirm Wikimedia's, and especially Wikipedia's, underlying goal of building an encyclopedia Serve as a conduit for ideas, concerns, and suggestions
For questions, please post here	enwiki talk page

Mindspillage

Confirmed --Aphaia 00:21, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Mindspillage
Real name	Kathleen (Kat) Walsh
Location	Herndon, Virginia (near Washington, DC), United States
Age	23
User page(s)	en.wikipedia, meta, wmf, en.wikinews
Wikimedia participant since	June 2004
Projects in which I participate	Wikipedia and Wikinews (English), Meta, OTRS admin.
Languages in which I participate	English; basic Spanish
Link to user contribution pages	en.wikipedia, meta, en.wikinews
My candidate statement	My involvement in Wikimedia has included correspondence, dispute resolution, and the Communications Committee. I have also represented WMF to the press, in presentations, and to organizations such as the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Library of Congress. My objectives: Increase communication between the worldwide community and the WMF, maintain contact with and participation in the community of editors, and consider the concerns of all projects. Establish clearer guidelines on the relationship between WMF and community and their roles and responsibilities Seek out skilled persons for needed tasks Take an active and responsible role in WMF decisions Encourage research in order to better focus our efforts Develop partnerships between the WMF and organizations who can help further our mission Support and defend our mission to provide and produce free copylefted content Inform the worldwide community about Wikimedia and its mission and projects through public involvement (Of course, I have more to say, but as the guidelines suggested keeping this short I have attempted not to go on at the length I would like! Please ask anything else you would like to know on my candidacy discussion page.)
For questions, please post here	User talk:Mindspillage/Board candidacy.

Oscar

-Confirmed.--BradPatrick 12:53, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Oscar
Real name	Oscar van Dillen
Location	Rotterdam, Netherlands
Age	48
User page(s)	meta, nl.wikipedia, nl-projects, commons; basically i have userpages scattered throughout the projects referring to my userpage here on meta. except on a few projects where the name had already been in use, i am user:oscar throughout.
Wikimedia participant since	feb 23, 2004 (registered)
Projects in which I participate	nl.wikipedia and other dutch-language projects such as nl.wikinews and others, some contributions to en, fr and de.wikipedia and the author of (according to a zh user) the "stubbiest stub ever": nushu ;-)
Languages in which I participate	i am a native speaker of the dutch language, but a near native in english and german, fluent in french and some working knowledge of spanish, swedish and italian. basic knowledge of turkish, spoken cantonese and written egyptian hieroglyphs. my username is oscar throughout the projects, except on spanish, where i am oscarami.
Link to user contribution pages	a short resume: editor and bureaucrat at nl.wikipedia and other dutch-language projects, few other edits scattered over various projects. as a steward since may 2005, i've endeavoured to help and advise many projects in many languages, for example i developed a good contact with and love for the turkish language vikipedia and its community i am a member of the special projects committee and currently chair of the dutch chapter. having already talked my candidacy through with the dutch chapter's board members: i will step down as chair if elected for the board of trustees.
My candidate statement	the deadline for the candidates' statement being a bit awkward for me, i am writing this from a camping in the auvergne, france. i am sorry to have witnessed angela's resignation, i greatly value her contributions to the projects, which i am happy to hear will not cease. in view of a temporary replacement being absolutely mandatory however, i decided to volunteer despite my busy life, since there is a lot of work waiting to be tackled as well as many problems waiting to be resolved by the wmf-board; solid decisions need to be taken rather swiftly in my humble opinion. i decided to volunteer, but not after first having consulted some of my fellow wikians, whose comments and views on this matter i greatly value and respect, so here i am: my candidacy should not come completely unexpected. please see my dutch userpage for some of my personal views; please bear with me, this is no scientist (nor technician: i confess to sometimes still struggle with codes), but rather an artist speaking... i am a professional composer and teacher at the rotterdam conservatory. even as such, i do not believe in copyright, especially not in copyright on ideas, and have long resisted joining the copyright organizations of which composers have to be a member of. finally i had to submit, since i found out that without joining it is virtually impossible to publish one's works, especially on cd. i am a firm believer in copyleft in general. prior to having become a professional composer, i worked as a manager in corporate life, with experience in both profit- and non-profit organizations in the netherlands ('87-'95). i discovered britannica (oops, wrong text, should i mention this at all??) at the age of 10 in 1968 and have been in love with the gathering and spreading of knowledge all my life :-) i am an advocate of real-life meetups whenever feasible, which in my small country have proven to be relatively easy to arrrange (i organized the rotterdam symposium where in september 2004 jimbo, anthere and angela for the second time met irl), and actually believe that, next to regular conferences on irc, the wmf-board should meetup in real life at least three times a year at the present state of things (not to mention meeting at wikimania as well), in order to be able to work most efficiently. i am rather quick at learning languages and would not mind at all to learn some more along the way... whether we are constructing an ark of noah for human knowledge, or "just" boldly working at the gradual completion of the tower of babel still remains to be seen, but i strongly believe that such is in our own hands for a larger part than could "reasonably be expected". please let it be clear that it is for this very reason that i most emphatically believe in the importance of the wmf's mission, and have been devoting most of my free time for 2,5 years now to the consolidation and further development of its projects and communities. i will continue to do so, no matter the outcome of these elections.
For questions, please post here	my meta talk page or email at oscar<dot>wiki<at>gmail<dot>com. endorsements: jimmy wales, elian, Absar.

Ross.Hedvicek

-Confirmed.--BradPatrick 15:07, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Ross.Hedvicek
Real name	Ross Hedvicek
Location	near Tampa, Florida
Age	over 50
User page(s)	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ross.Hedvicek and http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedista:Rosta (http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Hedvicek)
Wikimedia participant since	Under this real name since March 2006, otherwise since early 2004, on Czech Wiki since 01/01/2006
Projects in which I participate	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ross.Hedvicek
Languages in which I participate	English, Czech, Croatian
Link to user contribution pages	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Ross.Hedvicek and http://cs.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Speci%C3%A1ln%C3%AD:Contributions&offset=20060101171538&limit=50&target=Rosta
My candidate statement	I think that there are some serious problems in management of Wikipedia and I am willing (if elected) to help to solve the problems. I'm a candidate for the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees. My platform is not to change anything drastically, but to improve the current situation. For example - I am aware of cases of blatant abuse of power on several language branches of Wikipedia in eastern Europe. I made the board aware of these cases. However, no action was taken by the board. This was not because they weren't aware of the problems but because of the language barrier preventing them from making reasonable decisions and possibly due to lack of familiarity with the history, realities and facts of life in that part of the world. I am more than qualified to rectify this situation. My election slogan is: The crap has to stop - vote for me - it is your chance for change. I have a reputation to uphold!
For questions, please post here	User_talk:Ross.Hedvicek

UninvitedCompany

-Confirmed.--BradPatrick 12:55, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

User	UninvitedCompany
Real name	Steve Dunlop
Location	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Age	40
User page(s)	meta, en, commons
Wikimedia participant since	March 27, 2003
Projects in which I participate	Wikipedia, Meta, with minor involvement at commons and Wikibooks
Languages in which I participate	English
Link to user contribution pages	en, meta
My candidate statement	I believe the role of the board of directors should be: To set up a decisionmaking structure rather than to make individual decisions itself To review financial, legal, and personnel matters on an ongoing basis To respect the independence of each project and language To refrain from major changes that could jeopardize the success we have already achieved To advise officers, paid staff, and volunteers working for the Foundation I believe the role of the foundation should be: To provide a financial and legal framework for the operation of Wikipedia and its sister projects To serve as a single voice to the public in matters such as press and donor relations where unity is important To support and empower appropriate leadership within each project while maintaining our community-driven traditions If elected, the first things I would advocate as a board member would be: Identification of one or more "foundation contacts" for each project in each language More extensive and more organized use of volunteers to deal with the daily work of the Foundation Increased focus on accurate and timely internal communications With regard to non-English projects, I believe that: Most such projects should ultimately become independent of the U.S.-based foundation (in 5-10 years) Trusted leadership in each language should be cultivatived, that shares the core values of freely redistributable content, NPOV, and openness The background I bring to the board includes: Three years of participation in the English Wikipedia including an ongoing interest in policy and governance Prior participation in the board of directors of the Wesleyan Broadcast Association, Inc., a non-profit corporation that operated radio station WESU-FM Prior paid employment as a corporate officer in a U.S. business which gave me a degree of familiarity with the legal, financial, tax, and corporate structure issues that face the Foundation Some prior international travel, mainly in Spain and Mexico since I speak some Spanish Technical background in software development and IT Some things I wish I could bring to the board but can't: I respect the international nature of the Foundation and wish I could speak fluently in languages other than English I dislike travel and live in an out-of-the-way place. Though I am prepared to engage in some travel if elected, I may not be able to attend all board-related events in person As important as Wikipedia is to me, I cannot let it become my full time job.
For questions, please post here	my talk page on meta

Zuirdj

-Confirmed.--BradPatrick 13:08, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

User	Zuirdj
Real name	Juan David Ruiz
Location	Santiago de Chile, Chile
Age	30
User page(s)	es-wikipedia, Commons, en-wikipedia; user accounts in almost all projects.
Wikimedia participant since	march 27 2003 as registered user
Projects in which I participate	es-wikipedia; commons; meta; en-wikipedia (ocassionally); pt-wikipedia (ocassionally); OTRS-es; several conferences and workshops about wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in Chile and Argentina; colaborator in Gleducar and Educalibre, projects based in the collaborative construction of free knowledge using MediaWiki and contents of Wikimedia projects.
Languages in which I participate	spanish; intermediate level of english, especially written; intermediate level of portuguese, especially spoken and I can read with no problems; I can understand some italian and french
Link to user contribution pages	es-wiki, Commons, Meta, en-wiki.
My candidate statement	The efforts of a community of volunteers interested in free, high-quality content, available in different languages for users throughout the world, have resulted in a project which would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Every challenge has been a new one and because of that we have had to create new ideas to resolve them. The task has neither been easy nor problem free, like the Spanish Wikipedia fork issue. I arrived at the Spanish Wikipedia project after the split when there were almost no native speakers contributing. That situation was very extreme, at odds with the diverse spirit that is the foundation of our projects. It is because of that diversity that I'm running as a candidate. Wikimedia Foundation is beginning a new age: our communities are starting to get interested not only in the creation of content, but in projects that will allow that content to be seized by professors, students and the world at large. Our volunteers seek to eliminate the language and geographical barriers that split us, as is shown in the recent participation in Meta. With my candidacy, I want to express the new age that is upon us, conscious of my coming from a diverse project, with language barriers that cannot be disputed and with a geographical gap that could be seen as a hardship, but that it is also an advantage because it lets me see the project from a different perspective. I'm aware that there are several candidates whose ideas, resumes and virtues put them at the top of the preferences, and the elected candidate among them will make an excellent member of the board. But I'm also concerned that these candidates lack the diversity that should characterize us: almost all of the candidates come from the anglo-saxon or European world. If our ideal is to create content that can benefit all the corners of the world, then, is it unrealistic to dream of representing a community from one of these corners? I see my chances of being elected as very slim, but my candidacy goes beyond election: it is a reminder that our projects are built upon a foundation of diversity and that we should take pride in that. If you are interested in my vision, please see my ideas in detail here.
For questions, please post here	User_talk:Zuirdj/Board