Hi everyone!
I'm very happy to announce that the Affiliations Committee has recognized
[1] Wikimedistas de Ecuador [2] as a Wikimedia User Group. The group aims
to disseminating, promoting, developing, and fostering the use of Wikipedia
and its sister projects within the national territory of Ecuador.
Please join me in congratulating the members of this new user group!
Regards,
Jeffrey Keefer
Chair, Affiliations Committee
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Recognit…
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedistas_de_Ecuador
Hello everybody,
please find WikiDonne's User Group report on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiDonne/Reports/Report_2022-2023>. For
now only in Italian, as soon as possible will follow the English
translation too.
Warm regards,
Camelia
--
*Camelia Boban (she/her)*
WikiDonne UG Chair & Co-founder
Dear all,
This is a reminder of the upcoming community conversations on 8 November to learn more about joining the Affiliations Committee, the Case Review Committee and the Ombuds commission. See more details and get the link to attend on Meta-wik\i [1].
I also want to let you know that the deadline to submit applications to join AffCom is coming soon. Submit your application or encourage someone you know to do so by 17 November 2023 [2].
1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Legal_department/Commi…
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Legal_department/Commi…
Best,
Keegan Peterzell
Lead Committee Support Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation
Hello everyone,
The war in Gaza and Israel and the danger it has posed and continues to
pose for community members is of deep concern. We are examining ways to
support our communities and any threats to our projects as it continues. We
wanted to provide you with an update on these efforts and direct your
attention to this Meta Wiki page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team/Impact_of_the_war_in_Gaza…>
with advice to enhance the safety and well-being of individuals at risk.
The Human Rights Team <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team>
in cooperation with other teams at the Foundation is actively monitoring
the conflict and human rights concerns for Wikimedia volunteers, while
consistently refining our safety and security plans. Proactively, we
reached out to administrators and community members of the Arabic and
Hebrew Wikipedia platforms, offering support, conducting safety check-ins,
and ensuring them of our availability to assist through the Human Rights
and Trust and Safety Teams with issues where we can support.
The Foundation has joined the #KeepItOn coalition
<https://www.accessnow.org/campaign/keepiton/> to raise awareness and take
action against internet shutdowns. The Foundation is also in communication
with the Freedom Online Coalition
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Online_Coalition> about efforts to
maintain internet access in Gaza.
Additionally, we have created a comprehensive guide
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/10/25/the-internet-outages-guide/> with
resources on how community members can stay connected during internet
outages.
The Foundation's Disinformation Team
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/10/03/challenging-disinformation-in-the-wik…>
and wider Trust and Safety
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety> are working to respond
to reports related to the conflict from the community and other
organizations. They are also monitoring pages related to the conflict,
particularly in English, Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi, for any coordinated
efforts to manipulate content. When such coordinated efforts have been
identified in the past, we have connected with local functionaries to
discuss approaches and are ready to do so again if such coordinated
activity is detected in relation to this crisis. Maintaining vigilance
against any coordinated efforts to manipulate information on Wikimedia
projects is a collective responsibility shared by both the Foundation and
Wikipedia's dedicated volunteers.
We are here to support you. You can reach the Human Rights team for
non-urgent human rights issues at talktohumanrights(a)wikimedia.org or for
emergencies involving Wikimedians at humanrights(a)wikimedia.org (monitored
24/7).
We encourage everyone to be cautious and alert us to any safety and human
rights concerns through private channels to avoid putting our fellow
volunteers at risk.
--
Stephen LaPorte (he/him/his)
General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
*NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical
reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*
Dear all,
I am writing with an update on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
Audit Committee Chair search process.
You may recall that in July 2023, I wrote about the Board’s need to
identify a replacement for trustee and Audit Committee chair Tanya Capuano
[1] and the requirements that the Board had identified for the position
[2]. The Governance Committee conducted a search over a months-long
process, which included a search firm as well as a call for candidates
through the communities; the main components of the recruitment process are
described here [3]. In August at Wikimania, the Governance Committee made a
recommendation to the Board to move forward with the top finalist, and the
Board accepted it [4]. I am pleased to announce that Kathy Collins [5] will
be joining officially at our next Board meeting on December 6, 2023.
Kathy has extensive financial and nonprofit governance experience that she
brings to this role. She has worked as a financial expert for her entire
career, across both higher education institutions and state and federal
governments in the United States. She was Vice President of Finance at Rice
University in Houston, Texas for nearly 20 years, a position she held until
last year when she retired. She has also been a trustee at Mount Holyoke
College in Massachusetts, where she served in multiple Board leadership
roles including Vice Chair of the Board, Chair of the Finance Committee and
member of the Audit, Governance and Development Committees and the DEI
(Diversity,
equity, and inclusion) Task Force. Her experience and expertise are very
relevant to the challenges we as the Board are seeing for this role.
Please join me in welcoming her!
This is a planned role succession, with a very clear profile needed, and as
I mentioned before [4], over the past year, there have been quite a lot of
intentional improvements to all of our processes (e.g., recruitment,
appointments, onboarding, succession planning), so that Trustees with no or
limited Wikimedia experience can start engaging in community conferences,
events, and on-wiki discussions as soon as possible, and as the role of a
Trustee is complex, it is better if the process can start before the
official appointment, when already a certain level of knowledge is expected
to start making informed decisions. And Kathy has wasted no time in
pre-onboarding to the Wikimedia Foundation and learning about the Movement
and Board. She has been joining the Audit and Governance Committee meetings
for the past few months. Kathy also will also be joining other Trustees in
person at the WikiConference North America event in Toronto, which will be
her first community event, and also an opportunity to get to know some of
her future colleagues on the Board better.
I would like to thank Tanya Capuano for continuing to support the
Foundation while Kathy is pre-onboarded to the Audit Committee and the
Board. Tanya has also graciously agreed to remain an Advisor to the Audit
Committee after her term officially ends in December.
Recently, Maryana Iskander announced Talking: 2024 [6], conversations to
share, listen, and learn with intention as we all continue to plan our
future as a movement. If you would like to talk to me about this or any
other Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees topics, you can use the Let’s
Talk feature to sign up for a time to speak with me [7].
[1]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Governance_Committee/B…
[3]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees/Recruiting_procedure
[4]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
[5]
https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/11/01/wikimedia-foundation-welcom…
[6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Comm…
[7]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Comm…'s_talk
Best regards,
antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv
Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
*NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working
hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You
should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in
advance!*
Hello everyone,
I am thrilled to announce the formation of "Wiki Club Jamia", an
extra-curricular club at Jamia Millia Islamia University, in New Delhi,
India. The club aims to engage the varsity's students in global knowledge
through the Wikimedia movement.
This club has been formed as a part of the Deoband Community Wikimedia
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Deoband_Community_Wikimedia>'s Leadership
Development and Skills Infrastructure Program and a total of seventeen
students and research scholars are credited as its founders.
The Chenab Times has covered this. Please take a look at the news piece
<https://thechenabtimes.com/2023/10/31/students-establish-wiki-club-at-jamia…>
and
find the Meta-Wiki page here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Club_Jamia>.
Best regards
Aafi