Primary Wikimedia projects: Portuguese Wikipedia and Meta
Language capabilities (language and level of proficiency): Portuguese (native), English-3, Spanish-2
Regional experiences: Latin America and the Caribbeans Middle East and North Africa
What experience do you have participating on committees, within or outside the Wikimedia movement?
My name is Lucas Teles, I am Brazilian and work as a doctor in "real life". I'm a wikimedian since 2007, started out editing on Wikipedia in Portuguese, but I've gone through different projects and taken on different wiki roles since then. Among my motivations for volunteering, the one I consider fundamental is to ensure that users are able to successfully interact in projects. I recently improved my work on mentoring newcomers, helping outside groups to perform their activities on our projects respecting our internal rules. This inclination leads me to be interested in helping as an AffCom member. I was an active member of Ombuds commission for three years and, since 2012, I am a Steward, so I am used to deal with conflict management, sensitive information, different languages and groups. I have participated of two Wikimanias (2014 and 2019) and many other Wikimedia-related smaller events. I am a founding member of Wiki Movement Brazil and saw our members to become more and more engaged, professional and not only technically skilled, but we also have matured our ability to handle conflicts. As for myself, I still have a passion for Wikimedia, but at the same time I have acquired the ability to better deal with opposing opinions and come up with friendly solutions. I hope to be able to add this experience also in the area of conflict resolution of the committee. From 2019 to 2020, I worked as a strategy liaison [1] for Wikimedia Foundation in one of the phases of the Movement Strategy. That was a new experience for me, where I could improve many skills, like communication, task prioritizing, working with deadlines, besides getting to know better our communities. Nowadays, I remain active on helping Wiki Movement Brazil. We just met a few days ago [2], and passed our plan of activities [3]. We are likely of one of the most active user groups. I understand that I am going to be absent from any decision that may be related to this group, but I honestly believe that our growth process and experience can be helpful to other communities that may face similar issues. [1] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/People#Strategy_Liaisons [2] - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:WMB_meeting_in_Belo_Horizonte_in_2023 [3] - https://br.wikimedia.org/wiki/Usu%C3%A1rio:EPorto_(WMB)/Sandbox/Plan_of_Activities
What skills, experience, or perspective would you bring or contribute to the committee, if appointed?
I have a strong bond with editorial community, but I'm also engaged with outreach activities. I have seen and acted in many conflicts, frustrations, differences in expectations when users coming from these two strands of our volunteer bodies come together. For example, when a edit-a-thon activity involves the creation of articles on Wikipedia, it is common for such conflicts to arise when there is not good preparation. I believe, therefore, to be able to improve relations between these communities and facilitate the entry and stay of new members or affiliates in the projects, adjusting their willingnes to work on projects with editorial community expectancies. Countries that speak Portuguese face many different issues. In 2021, I had the opportunity to work with editors of Guinea-Bissau. This group still have a strong interest on engaging more with Wikimedia projects, but struggle to overcome issues, such as poor internet connection, mobile access, and even fear of political persecution. We need to find ways of providing solutions in order to reach them and facilitate their potential, without bringing risks and harm. That takes time, discussion, listening and lots of thinking-outside-the-box.
Is there any other pertinent information that you would like us to take into account when reviewing your application?
Yes. I was an Affcom advisor last year for a very short term. Here is my application [4]. I would like to clarify why I had to step back from that position that quickly. This is a personal issue, but I have no problem on making it public. A few days before stepping back from the position, I learnt that I would become a father. My wife had just found out that she was pregnant, and that made me rethink many things. I was afraid of not being present enough and choose to step back from AffCom while I wasn't too much involved. Looking back, I think I decided in a rush, and many of the problems I thought I would have never came up thankfully. Today, she is almost eight months old, by the way, and I feel it is safe to keep working on wiki areas that I love. I have reviewed many AffCom document pages, I understand we are in a moment of change and would like to offer my help as I did for many years in other areas. I have reviewed requirements, engagement norms, and I accept those terms. [4] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Advisors/2022#Lucas_Teles_(Teles)
Which sub-committee are you interested in working with (Conflict Intervention, Recognitions)?: Conflict Intervention sub-committee
What do you think are the benefits and responsibilities of functioning as formal affiliates, and when is a group of Wikimedians ready to form an affiliate?
By becoming an affiliate, its members are expected to initially gain recognition for their previous efforts and more desire to continue working. There is a closer relationship between the local community and others, knowledge of rules and expected conduct. The interest in continuing to work is formalized and, firstly, there is moral support to continue moving forward, in addition to other resources. More important, it is then expected that groups work towards the same objective, which is to increase access to free knowledge, but adding their local expertise. The formalization of this process, with activity reports, definition of contact members, definition of successful goals, facilitation of obtaining resources, allows groups and the community in general to understand how growth is going, their needs and difficulties, their progress and how everyone can collaborate to follow and speed up this process. I believe that a group is ready when it has a minimum number of editors with regular participation, who can share their editorial knowledge, have a similar goal, are open to attract new participants and are engaged in maintaining contact, following conduct, sharing their problems and discussing solutions.
Please describe your experience working with conflict resolution, and how you have helped build consensus and support diversity.
As described above, I had the opportunity to participate in different processes, such as Steward and Ombuds, dealing with bans, different languages and cultures. It is always possible to learn from previous experiences, regarding what others (or even myself) could have improved to avoid or resolve a conflict. I was able to hear different voices and perspectives as a liaison to the Strategic Movement. I learned that other communities may have different problems one could never imagine that require different solutions and helping with predefined solutions will not always solve them. I closely followed all the Wikipedia Zero issues that, even though with the best intention, could not help as intended. I know that right now there are many lusophone potential editors that are taken out of projects to technical restrictions, while others are volunteering with poor conditions. I would like to work on that. My user group had to deal with important conflicts. We learnt from them and the bittersweet knowledge about this is also considered relevant. Dealing with differences, frustrations and still maintaining the desire to volunteer to bring knowledge to every people is an experience that I would like to pass on to others and, whenever possible, prevent others from having to go through the same difficulties. Thank you for your consideration. I hope you will accept my return. Best wishes.
@KuboF Hromoslav, thanks for your support. I can’t avoid suggesting you to respectfully review your approach though as demanding an answer to your questions and opposing those that decided not to is kind of agressive. I am pretty sure that everyone here have a similar opinion as my reply was just standard. I hope you can revisit that specially if elected. AffCom decides as a group and not by a single person’s heroic move. I notice that there’s is some background I am not aware, but bringing that to the very moment of electing new members won’t solve it. Best of luck. —Teles «Talk ˱CL@S˲» 19:17, 14 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I do no want to disccuss deeply on a candidacy page, so I invite you to use other place. In a nutshell, my strong support for WMF Guiding Principles is well informed by AffCom's last years (in)activity, and I believe that helping to appoint only people committed to the Principles will improve the situation. And while I am sorry for the short-term inconvenience, I believe that this is an investment that will pay for next at least 3 years and maybe will even help to have future appointments much nicer. --KuboF Hromoslav (talk) 12:58, 15 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Strong support. One of the best Wikimedians I know, with real experience on our metawiki universe and on challenges/opportunities affiliates from the Global South face. He will be a major asset for AffCom. --Joalpe (talk) 16:56, 22 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Strong support Long term activist in many roles related to AffCom, and Teles's answers to my questions shows clear commitment to the WMF Guiding Principles and even mature and objective way of dealing with (possible) conflicts inside of one's own group. --KuboF Hromoslav (talk) 22:22, 13 November 2023 (UTC)
Support I never heard anyone talk bad about him.--Alexmar983 (talk) 22:12, 8 December 2023 (UTC)
