2024:Program/Open Conversation with the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

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Session title: Open Conversation with the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

Session type: Panel

Track: Governance & Strategy (alternatively, Governance or Strategy)

Language: en

Chat with the Wikimedia Foundation trustees about the pressing issues facing Wikimedia.

Description

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees host a session at Wikimania each year to share what they've been working on and connect with community members about the priorities and questions they have. As last year, this session will likely have a short presentation component, followed by a group discussion or breakout discussions. We will select the topics for discussion based on community interest closer to the date, but topics will likely include technical topics, strategy topics, and topics related to affiliates.

https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/WM2024_Day3_Lviv-_Rooms_21%2B22%2B23 Session recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5rg4dIxH0A&list=PLhV3K_DS5YfJ1xyY0LNDNX3RKyRQEXOdB&t=5946

How does your session relate to the event theme, Collaboration of the Open?

This session's specific aim is to foster open collaboration between different stakeholders in the movement. We want to build connections between communities and trustees in order to work toward our shared goals effectively.

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Everyone can participate in this session

Etherpad link

https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/WM2024_Day3_Lviv-_Rooms_21%2B22%2B23

Speakers

• Mike Peel

Astronomer, Photographer, Wikimedian. WMF Trustee.

• Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight

I am a veteran EN-WP editor (2007) and EN-WP admin (2009) who has created >5,000 articles, of which >2,200 are women's biographies. I have uploaded thousands of public domain images to Wikimedia Commons, and am also active on Wikidata. On-wiki, I am the co-founder of Wiki Women in Red (2015), now on 34 language Wikipedias, whose scope is to reduce Wikipedia's content gender gap.

In 2021, I was elected to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees where I serve/served on several committees including Audit, Board Governancee, Community Affairs, and Executive. I am the current Chair of the Talent & Culture Committee, and I am a member of the Sibling Projects Task Force.

I served on AffCom (2016-21), the last 2 years as Chair; on the Board of Wikimedia DC (2016-21), the last 5 years as Vice-President. I am the co-founder of WikiWomen's User Group, WikiConference North America User Group, and WikiCemeteries User Group.

In 2016, I was honored to be named Wikipedian of the Year. Two years later, I was Knighted, in part because of my Wikipedia work.

• Victoria

Victoria Doronina is a Technical Officer in Education Biology and Food Microbiology at the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

Originally from Belarus, Victoria Doronina was awarded a Darwin Trust Fellowship, which led to a PhD in Molecular Biology (University of Edinburgh, UK). After graduating, Victoria worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in several Russell Group (UK Ivy League) universities, specialising in protein translation. She is also an Associate Member of the Advance Higher Education Academy.

Victoria started contributing to Russian Wikipedia in 2006 and became an administrator. The second woman ever to be elected and the first to serve twice on the Russian Wikipedia Arbitration Committee, Victoria is a long-standing mediator in a few of the most debated topics and a Featured and Good articles moderator.

In 2011 Victoria became a Wikimedia Community Fellow. She also served on the Wikimedia Funds Dissemination Committee.

In 2021, Victoria was elected to the WMF Board of Trustees, where she is a member of the Community Affairs Committee, Product and Technology Committee, Executive Committee and the Lead of the Sister Projects Taskforce.

• Lorenzo Losa

Long term wikipedian, former chair of Wikimedia Italy, vice chair of the board of the Wikimedia Foundation.

• Shani Evenstein Sigalov

Dr. Shani Evenstein Sigalov is an educator, lecturer, researcher and Open Knowledge advocate, interested in the intersection between Education, Technology, Innovation and Openness.

Her PhD focused on the Semantic Web, specifically Wikidata, as a learning platform. Her Postdoctoral research includes exploring GenAI's impact on knowledge consumption and production; Linked Open Data and its connection to Digital Humanities; Critical Ignoring; and Self-Regulated Learning.

As of 2019, she serves on the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees.

• Maryana Iskander

Maryana Iskander (she/her) is the Chief Executive Officer, a senior staff officer of the Wikimedia Foundation, overseeing the operations of the Foundation and its professional staff. She reports to the Board of Trustees and is supported by the Office of the CEO.

Maryana joined the Wikimedia Foundation after a decade as the CEO of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a non-profit social enterprise focused on building African solutions to tackle the global crisis of youth unemployment. She has also served as Chief Operating Officer of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a volunteer-led social movement.

Maryana was born in Cairo, Egypt, before emigrating with her parents to the United States. Since then, she has lived and studied in the United States and Europe before settling in South Africa.

Her career has been shaped by work that melds people, impact, and technology to break down barriers and increase access to opportunity.

• Dariusz Jemielniak

Dariusz Jemielniak, professor of management at Kozminski University, faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and vice-president of Polish Academy of Sciences;

• Kathy Collins
• Nataliia Tymkiv
• Raju Narisetti
• Luis Bitencourt-Emilio
• Jimmy Wales

Jimbo. :)