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Individual Engagement Grant

committee candidates

An archive of committee candidates from past rounds. See the selection process for information on how candidates become committee members.


2013 round 1

  1. I'm familiar with the Wikipedia Education Program, an administrator on the Outreach wiki, and an op on some of the Wikimedia IRC channels. I have over 4500 edits to ENWP, I was a significant contributor to the Mind the Gap publication, and I participate in discussions in various email lists including Research-l and Wikimedia-l. I liked the work of the Fellowships program and I want to see that kind of work continue. --Pine✉ 20:34, 8 January 2013 (UTC)
  2. I've been a Wikimedian for almost five years, and was a Fellow for eight months, working on researching and improving dispute resolution. I think that my work with the fellowship program and the WMF has made me more aware of what is sought in proposals to move the needle, and think I could be useful in assessing grant requests. Steven Zhang (talk) 22:27, 8 January 2013 (UTC)
  3. I've been a Wikimedian since 2010 and a founder member of Wikimedia Kenya. My experience as a project coordinator and my discussion on various Wikimedia mailing lists has helped me be an all round Wikimedian. Being a Wikimedian from Africa with a hands on experience of project management, I hope to apply this knowledge in assessing grant requests. Isaac Kosgei (talk)
  4. Hi, I recently joined the movement, I come from social entreprise and the for-profit world. I've been involved with an early stage incubator program for the past 3 years and have reviewed many applications during that time. Among others for the 2012 Startup Chile global campaign - 390 submissions from 53 countries - 100 finalists, $40M in grants. I hope to bring some value and some experience to the review of individual engagement grants, it's a wonderful program, the seeds we need to create positive change! thank you! Sylvia Ventura (talk) 19:02, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
  5. I am member of GAC and member of Wikimedia chapters. I am familiar with grant proposals of individuals through Grant Committee. --Ilario (talk) 08:23, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
  6. Hi!
    1. I'm familiar with policies at Wikipedia, Wikinews, and Commons, with a particular emphasis on familiarity with licensing (including several grants of license for Wikinews media).
    2. At the first two projects, I exercise an open-minded, catalystic, personal approach to conflicts, issues, problems, and enquiries.
    3. My activity includes development of software for Wikinews in Perl (a mediawiki IRC bot for review queue feed and wikilinks; and a stats website). I like working toward interaction of projects witheachother.
    4. I have no experience handling grants, or being a grantee, inside or outside of wikimedia -- but I believe that my level of understanding of the three abovementioned project policies is deep and I am devoted to helping the individuals, groups, and activities that have a potential of helping the proper evolution of the projects.
    5. I believe that what we are doing here is spotting potential activities as possible grants candidates, and I am confident that I would be ready to new ideas, and to evaluate the submissions competently and wisely. Gryllida 12:14, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
  7. Hi; I'm bobrayner. I'm mostly active on en.wikipedia (with about 35000 edits) where I am involved in outreach and educational work (and I've worked with Steven Zhang on dispute-resolution). I do a little work on other wikis, such as Commons; I'm an admin on Outreach. I am in good standing on each of them. My day job involves a lot of project work - usually working alongside PMs, analysts, and architects to assess their proposals/designs against a list of criteria and highlight possible risks, steering the project through compliance/accreditation, &c. I'm financially literate; I run a small business in an unrelated field (no conflicts of interest). I'd like to see IEG deliver results. bobrayner (talk) 12:31, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
  8. G'day. I've been a Wikimedia Fellow and originator of the GLAM outreach projects including the inaugural Wikipedian in Residence. I've been involoved in many aspects of the community including serving on the board of my country's Chapter, convened several conferences and events, long term participant on many of the mailing lists, co-host of the (former) "Wikipedia weekly" podcast and attended Wikimania since Taipei. Wittylama (talk) 02:38, 18 January 2013 (UTC)
  9. Am involved with a number of projects, primarily en WP but also Wikivoyage and my national chapter along with a thematic group WikiProject Med. Foundation. Do a fair bit of outreach to other organizations and education institutes pertaining to medicine. Self fund most of my efforts thus have a good understanding of the costs associated. Have about 75,000 edits mostly on EN WP where I have been active since 2008. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 11:19, 19 January 2013 (UTC)
  10. I've been an editor at enWP since 2006, and I've written a blog about Wikipedia, The Wikipedian, since 2009. One thing I have not previously done is get involved with any official committee or WMF-approved project, but I was invited by Pine to consider applying, and it's probably time. An important disclosure: I maintain a separate account (WWB Too) for the purpose of proposing changes to articles on behalf of clients. I don't think this presents any inherent conflict here, though it goes without saying I would recuse myself if anything of the sort came up. My primary interest here is exploring ways to facilitate volunteer interest in Wikimedia projects; regardless of whether the horror stories are true, Wikimedia needs to keep innovating, and I'd like to be a part of that. WWB (talk) 14:44, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
  11. I am Mile Kiš, 25, from Serbia. I’ve been a member of sr.wikipedia since 2007, sr.wikinews since 2008, sr.wikisource since 2009 ... I was the Vice President, and now I am the Secretary General of Wikimedia Serbia. Also, I am member of GAC. I have experience with the Wikimedia grant process and I believe that my experience and knowledge can be useful for IEG. --MikyM (talk) 13:24, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
  12. Thanks to Pine for his invitation to apply for this Committee. I've been a Wikimedian for just over 5 years now during which time I have gained a lot of experience and have involved myself in numerous aspects of the community and Foundation's work. A brief summary of some of my roles: I've served as an English Wikipedia administrator for just over 4 years, am also an administator and bureaucrat here on Meta-Wiki, Outreach Wiki and have permissions on a few other wikis. I am also an OTRS agent, IRC channel operator and do admin work with Bugzilla/Mailman. I've been quite heavily involved in the work of the Editor Engagement team, particularly on the Article Feedback Tool, experience which I believe will be helpful for work on the IEG. I'm also on the Sister Projects Committee and have recently been active on Wikivoyage, where I've been helping with the migration and setting up of our newest sister project. Like others I was also interested in the work of the Fellows, and believe the Individual Engagement Grant program will allow that type of work to continue, whilst reducing the administrative burden on the Foundation. Thehelpfulone 23:24, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
  13. Hi, I've been a Wikimedian since 2006. I'm an admin and 'crat in the Spanish Wikipedia, one of the temporary admins in Wikidata, and a rollbacker in the English Wikipedia. In the Spanish Wikipedia I founded the LGBT Wikiproject, which continues to this day. Obviously, I don't have any problems editing basic wiki mark-up. :) I can communicate without problems in English (my native language is Spanish), and am currently in good community and legal standing in all projects. Unless something unexpected comes up IRL, I will be available to actively engage in the selection process during the published schedule for the rounds, or I wouldn't put my name forth. I am currently the Treasurer of the Affiliations Committee. If chosen, I hope to help in this Committee reviewing & supporting fantastic new projects. Thanks, Raystorm (talk) 18:34, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
  14. Hey. I have been a Wikimedian for quite a while now and I would like to help over here. I mostly work on the English and Spanish wikipedias,as well as on Commons (mostly on dispte resolution, content work and templates). On the English Wikipedia, I am one of the founders of the Latin music Wikiproject (and one of its most active contributors) and currently serve as a clerk for the Arbitration Committee; on the Spanish Wikipedia, I am an active mediator on the dispute resolution program established there. I'd be delighted to help as much as possible if I am selected as a member. Thanks. — ΛΧΣ21 14:29, 31 January 2013 (UTC)
  15. Hi, I am Netha Hussain, a Wikimedian from India. I am active in English and Malayalam language Wikipedias. I am one of the pilot volunteers at the WikiWomen's Collaborative. I have conducted outreach programs and coordinated edit-a-thons in India. I hope to help the IEG Committee to review the grant proposals and support new projects. Thanks! --Netha Hussain (talk) 16:38, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
  16. Hello! I'm Ocaasi, an English Wikipedia editor and (new) administrator, and have been involved seriously since about 2008. I have about 25,000 edits mostly to that project. I have a history of article creation and mediation involving current events and medicine, working with new editors, creating help guides, helping out at OTRS, and creating/overseeing partnerships with organizations (like The Wikipedia Library). I'm also involved IRL in outreach to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, participation in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia area Wikipedia-related events, a Wikimania 2012 attendee, and a board member of Wiki Project Med Foundation where I focus on outreach to organizations. I think one of our greatest assets as a community are ideas, and I view this entire project as a way to leverage our minds by helping eachother think-up, improve, realize, and scale the best ideas we have among us. I'd like to help. Ocaasi (talk) 01:50, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
  17. Hi, I am Ansuman. Active on or.wiki, en.wiki, translatewiki, en.wiki acc interface, commons, now here on meta :). I have administrator flag on Odia Wikipedia, am focused there. And you can see I have applied for a Grant here, I hope there is no problem becoming a committee member. I am not sure how much time I can devote, but I'd like to help when I can. Currently I am working as a Research Analyst. -- ɑηsuмaη ʈ ᶏ ɭ Ϟ 07:58, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
  18. Sorry for this late application, but I wish to be added to the team. I am originally from Japanese Wikipedia, a former intern for WMF, and recently active on Commons among others. I wish to help people accomplish projects that will allow us understand and assist the Wikimedia movement. My relevant experiences include several data-oriented research sprints focusing onto new editor interaction. --whym (talk) 14:17, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
  19. It would be an honor if I could join the wonderful members of IEG committee. I have been active on Japanese Wikipedia for 8 years, and have served as a sysop since 2011. I have been particularly interested in GLAM related projects. One example was Derby Multi Lingual Challenge, which I think was one of the most successful and enlightening outreach efforts connecting both online and offline resources. I agree that we cannot overemphasize the importance of outreach effort to accomplish the mission of Wikimedia Foundation and its projects, and grant providing grant opportunity helps us to proceed further toward the goal. It would be the most rewarding opportunity for me if I can help materializing such ideas from scratch. Professionally, I am a Foreign Services officer where I involve with wide range of duties such as information gathering, negotiation, and outreaching. Though I am not directly in charge, I have been closely following the selection process of ODA (Official Development Assistance) and Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects. I would be more than happy if I offer my insight and experience as a member. Thank you for your consideration.--Tomo suzuki (talk) 16:52, 8 February 2013 (UTC)


2013 round 2

Candidate:  ℳono  00:45, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Statement:
Answer 1:
Answer 2:

Candidate: Anivar A Aravind - detailed profile is here-- --AniVar (talk) 02:40, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Statement:
Answer 1:
Answer 2:

Candidate: Oarabile Mudongo Detailled profile Oarabile Mudongo

Statement:Helo am Oarabile Mudongo , a Wikimedian from Botswana. I activity contribute to the Setswana and English Wikipedia pages and even on Wikivarsity and Wikicommons too. I have been a Wikipedia editor and writer since 2011. I am the current winner of the Setswana Wikipedia Challenge sponsored by Google.Currently i am the person in charge of the start-up of the Wikimedia Botswana chapter. I have so far conducted an outreach program in South Africa, Cape Town about Wikipedia Zero and in some museums in Botswana lobbying for content collaboration and free release of resources online.
Answer 1: I am deeply engrossed into Wikipedia and strongly believe i can be able to help as an IEG candidate as i work as a Wikipedia Volunteer Community Liaison between the foundation and local communities.I pursue a Bachelors in Computer Science and have good collaborations with other organizations like Mozilla Foundation as a Student Ambassador and WikiAfrica therefore i can be able to build communities and develop projects.
Answer 2: I support the open movement and initiatives of open knowledge, Outreach and technology. Being a social Entrepreneur i don't just focus on the business face rather i also care much about the society and how they can free access to benefit their lives. I am an African Wikimedian who strongly believes in online impact for the change of betterment on how things are perceived.

Candidate: Abhijith Jayanthi: Wikimedia India Hyderabad SIG Chair

Statement: Abhijith Jayanthi is a First Generation Entrepreneur with Business Strategy & Investment Management Experience in the fields of Renewable Energy and Industrial Infrastructure. His experience spans areas such a Business Diligence & Strategy, Technology Diligence, Policy Framework, Investment Advisory and Management having worked extensively across India, Middle East and African Geographies. He currently serves on the board for mid–sized companies, where he is currently responsible for Finance, Strategy and Global Partnerships. Also, he serves as Technical Consultant to World Bank and as a member of National Executive Committees for Solar Energy Society of India and Indian Association of Energy Management Professionals amongst others. Outside his business interests, he is passionate about youth empowerment and is/was associated with various International Non-Profits/Bodies, such as TakingITGlobal, The Pixel Project, and UNFPA amongst others.Also, he presently serves as Under Secretary – Information, India at Global Unification International. Abhijith holds a Bachelor degrees in Electrical Engineering (Power) from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi); in Economics and Management(University of London - LSE) and diplomas/certifications in areas of Public Relations & Advertising, Religion (Harvard University), Design and Innovation Policy in Developing Countries (UNU – MERIT) amongst others. During his free time, he enjoys travelling, exploring new places and has been to 61 Countries. Detailed Profile:[1]- Abhijith Jayanthi
Answer 1: I have been associated with Wikimedia Foundation India chapter – as Hyderabad SIG Chair; and during the course of my involvement, I have had opportunity to meet some amazing wikipedians. Every interaction we have had, not only helped me understand different aspects of being a wiki-person but also gave a first-hand experience to learn about various initiatives that were taken up in past or we could initiate as a SIG, and the impact thereof. Any such initiative – is an individual’s idea, supported by others - meta-participants. I learnt about various aspects of successfully rolling out an initiative, to engage with others, to negotiate and collaborate with necessary stakeholders, devising a mission-oriented action plan amongst others.
Considering we will be working on Individual Grant Application, it is also important to understand the individual’s motivation and support their passion to innovate and create. Being an entrepreneur myself, I can relate to the predicament of starting-up, and the usual fault lines that need to be evaluated carefully – to transform from being a passionate individual with a terrific idea; to an enterprising owner of an initiative in action. With individual focus (stand-alone) in awards of Grants, understanding this aspect of personality traits is important.
I also serve as Treasurer on National Executive Council for IAEMP, a professional body of energy management professionals in India with 15 chapters spread across different cities. Managing 15 different financial accounts with different spend and earning matrices helped me learn a lot, about accounting practices, book-keeping and most importantly, what methodologies of budgeting and spend analysis does not work. I understand it will add a dimension to the committee, to understand and evaluate the budgeting methodology used and possible glitches one could anticipate during its implementation.
I am confident the above presented points, add value to my candidature to serve on the committee. I look forward to be part of it.
Answer 2:From the interactions I have had with various wikipedians, two project schematics I shall be particularly excited to see are projects that work on enhancing the user experience and interaction with any/between two or more of the Wiki-Projects; and projects which bridge the divide – efforts to take Wikimedia/Wiki Projects to external world, better inter-personal experience going beyond the usual Interaction Paradigms - Abhijith Jayanthi (talk) 06:53, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Candidate: Jayanta Nath

Statement: Hi, I am Jayanta Nath, a Wikimedian from India. I am active in Bengali and English language Wikipedias and commons too. I am one of the pilot volunteers in Eastern India. I have conducted outreach programs and coordinated workshop in India. I hope to help the IEG Committee to review the grant proposals and support new projects. Thanks! detailed profile is [2]-Jayantanth--Jayantanth (talk) 16:42, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
Answer 1: I am Executive member of Wikimedia India chapter and Bengali Wikipedia SIG Chair; As Executive member of a Wikimedia India chapter & active volenteer of Wiki conference India 2011, I saw a lot of projects related with Wikimedia movement. Those ideas was related with community, local and tech development of new ideas with low budget. As a non-english speaker and an active member in WM-IN , I helped to evaluate the local projects and trying to improve the goals of every idea and reviewing the budget of the communities.
Answer 2: I prefer the Online, Offline initiatives, Outreach programs and community requests.

Candidate: Superzerocool

Statement: Hi everyone, I'm a long-time experienced editor from Chile, Wikimedia Chile board member and former Iberocoopian. In the past, I tried to be elected at the AffCom, but well... I'm so "cool" to be a part of them (just kidding, they don't elected me). My native language is Spanish and I have an intermediate skills in English (I can read everything but I don't have a fluent English when I talk). I follow many lists in the Wikimedia movement and I want to help users to do that they like: they have great ideas but they don't have the money or expertice to do it. In the real life I'm a engineer, so I try to optimize the resources based on the needs and the best investments ideas. If you have any question or just want talk me about this statement, please ask me in my discussion page. Regards! Superzerocool (talk) 16:12, 11 August 2013 (UTC)
Answer 1: As board member of a Wikimedia chapter, I saw a lot of projects (and weird ideas ) related with Wikimedia movement. Those ideas was related with community, local and tech development of new ideas with low budget. As a non-english speaker and an active member in WM-ES and WM-AR, I helped to evaluate the local projects and trying to improve the goals of every idea and reviewing the budget of the communities. So, the "new experience" is related with the local experience of Iberocoop (or GS) to help to other to reach their objetives with an IEG.
Answer 2: I prefer the tech or community requests: these projects involves people, and my focus in the movement is related with both type of projects.

Candidate: Bellayet, Detailed profile is bn:User:Bellayet

Statement: I am Belayet Hossain, from Bangladesh. I am active in Bengali Wikipedia, Bengali Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Meta and l10n of Mediawiki in translatewiki.net since 2006. I am a Bureaucrat at Bengali Wikipedia and Sysop at Bengali Wikisource. I am initiator of Bengali Wikisource project. I am an initiator of Wikimedia Bangladesh chapter. I've involved with online initiatives such as "Photo collection for Wikipedia by emails". Also involved with "Offline Wikipedia editing" programs. I've organize, conduct and coordinate many outreach programs such as workshops, meetups, photowalks in Bangladesh. I've successfully lead and coordinate the events on the occasion of "10 years of Wikipedia" in Dhaka on 2011 with the grant from Wikimedia Foundation.--Bellayet (talk) 06:04, 28 August 2013 (UTC)
Answer 1: I've experience in community building and have relations with other similar communities like mozilla, fedora etc in Bangladesh. Also have experiences of working with non-profit organizations and NGOs in Bangladesh. I've completed the courses for my degree in "Masters in Development Studies". So I hope I can help IEG.
Answer 2: Online and Offline initiatives, Outreach programs.

Candidate: Achim Raschka

Statement: I am wikipedian since end of 2003 mainly in the German Wikipedia where I am writing articles. As a zoologist I concentrate on articles on animals but as a guy who's interested in nearly everything, a long list of articles arose and several of them got featured or good articles (in de-wp called "exzellent" and "lesenswert"). In my first year I started to create a writing contest for authors that will be held the 19. time this september - also in that first year I became one of the founders of Wikimedia Deutschland and board member. Now it's nearly 10 years later and I played a lot of wikipedia games, wrote lots of stuff (including an open letter to Sue Gardner that caused a lot of trouble) installed lots of contests and worked in several projects - the latest are the German WikiCup and a photo project for festivals called Festivalsommer 2013 financed by a grant from Wikimedia Germany. This summer I also joined a workshop of the WMF Program Evaluation & Design Team in Budapest and I am aware of evaluation processes. To add, in my private life I am consoltunt for renewable resources and industrial biotechnology, where I am used to join and write grant proposals for projects mainly from the FP7 programme of the European Commission and national pfunding. I am also married and father of five children. -- Achim Raschka (talk) 20:41, 28 August 2013 (UTC)
Answer 1: See above: I think I am very deep in the wikipedia/wikimedia world, even if I am very focussed on ther German projects, and used to projects and programmes in our movement in several different ways. I am open to most ideas and really like innovative aspects and creativity but also I am sometimes very sceptical about quality issues.
Answer 2: I think the main focus of projects should be the rise and improvement of the international wikimedia project. For me this has a focus on the content quantity and even more on the quality base of wikipedia, the commons and all other sister projects. Also the increase of volunteers at every level and the increase of the diversity of editors will be a big issue. I am not that deep in technical aspects but I think that improvements in this area also are becessary. Not in my focus will be the administrative area, the overall idea of free knowledge and the philosophical stuff.

Candidate: Jane023 (talk) 12:45, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Statement: I am a Wikipedian of the English Wikipedia who has created over 1400 articles, mostly short items on heritage sites or biographies of Dutch and Flemish artists. In order to illustrate those articles I have also uploaded thousands of images to Wikimedia Commons. I am an active participant of the Wiki Loves Monuments workgroup in the Netherlands and I have served one year on the board of WMNL. I was asked to join this committee after participating in informal discussions about problems facing Wiki(p/m)edians, editor retention, female editors, and the effects of mobile usage on Wikipedia.
Answer 1: I can help this committee with an international perspective of the GLAM world and what costs are generally associated with meetups and/or software development.
Answer 2: I would like to see projects funded that use Wikipedia content in innovative ways, such as offering innovative mobile access to Wikipedia content through app development, or using games, contests and playfulness to bring people together and encourage contributions, or linking Wikipedia content across projects (Commons, Wikisource, Wikidata, WikiVoyage, etc).

Candidate: Anne Delong - Anne Delong (talk) 21:41, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Statement: I am a retired teacher-librarian, a former computer resource teacher and software author. I am an active genealogist, an amateur musician. I hold a degree in psychology/mathematics and one in computer applications, both rather outdated now. I understand statistical analysis and the basics of double-entry bookkeeping. In my profession I made extensive use of rubrics, made numerous professional development presentation, and worked on an advisory committee which directed the hardware and software budget of a large school board. I maintain websites for several small organizations. I was recently chair of a conference with about 600 attendees and a budget of about $40,000. I have throughout my adult life always been an executive member of at least one, and sometimes as many as four, non-profit organizations, and have worked on the organizing committees of about 18 conferences of various sizes. I speak only English, but have a fair understanding of written French.
Answer 1: I joined Wikipedia last year, and started by creating several articles using the "Articles for creation" process. I benefited from the Teahouse project and the various other help pages, and soon became a Teahouse host. Here I participated in a survey planned by User:Ocaasi, who has now invited me to apply to be part of this committee. I have participated in the New Pages Patrol, and I have reviewed about 1000 articles in the Afc. I have enjoyed helping new editors get a good start in Wikipedia. Although I occasionally create an article, I have also been involved in rescuing abandoned or underdeveloped Afc articles and improving poorly sourced mainspace articles created by others. Recently I have been working on improving the encyclopedia in other ways, such as finding articles in need of history merges, moving misplaced articles, participating in deletion discussions, and checking out copyright problems.
Answer 2: I would like to see outreach programs to involve more retired people in Wikipedia. Many older people are not interested in social media such as facebook and twitter, but may enjoy collaborating online in a more goal-oriented way, and have a wealth of experience and knowledge of sources to contribute. I am also interested in projects which help students and educators to make use of and/or contribute to Wikipedia, and particular to learn how to back up their information with reliable sources. I'd also be interested in projects to help the current volunteer editors and reviewers evaluate the reliability of sources, especially online ones, as more and more of the traditional media migrate to web-only presence.

Candidate: Ailura (talk)

Statement: Hi, I am Andrea from Austria. I started editing Wikipedia in 2007, my account exists since 2010 mainly taking photographs für Commons. I've been active in the "Austrian Monuments Project" that won the Zedler Price in 2012 and was in the teams organizing "Wiki takes Oberes Murtal", an austrian "Wiki loves Monuments" event in summer 2012 and the "Parliament Project Lower Austria", where a group of photographers and authors worked on politician's articles and Commons categories in the Landtag. I'm menber of the board of Wikimedia Österreich since 2012.
Answer 1: I have a long personal history of voluntary activities and participated and led several Wikimedia projects
Answer 2: Involving the volunteer community in getting better content for commons and wikipedia


2014 round 1

Candidate: Nurunnaby Chowdhury, Detailed profile is bn:User:Nhasive

Statement: I am Nurunnaby Chowdhury, from Bangladesh. I am active in Bengali Wikipedia, English Wikipedia, Simple English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Meta since 2008. Now i am a Sysop at Bengali Wikipedia. Beside that i am also Bangladesh Ambassador of Open Knowledge Foundation. I am an initiator of Wikimedia Bangladesh chapter. I've involved with online initiatives such as "Photo collection for Wikipedia by emails". Also involved with "Offline Wikipedia editing" programs. I've organize, conduct and coordinate many outreach programs such as workshops, meetups, seminar in differnt area of Bangladesh. I've successfully lead and coordinate the events on the occasion of "First Bengali Wikipedia Unconfernce" in Chittagong on 2012. I hope to help the IEG Committee to review the grant proposals and support new projects.
Answer 1: I've experience in open source community building and have relations with other similar communities like mozilla, open knowledge, open source network etc in Bangladesh. Also have experiences of working with non-profit organizations in Bangladesh. I involve with lot of projects related with Wikimedia movement. Those ideas was related with community, local and tech development of new ideas with low budget. As a non-english speaker and an active member in WM-BD , I helped to evaluate the local projects and trying to improve the goals of every idea and reviewing the budget of the communities. So I hope I can help IEG.
Answer 2: I prefer the Online, Offline initiatives, Outreach programs and community requests.


Candidate: rubin16 (talk)

Statement: I am the oldest bureaucrat of Russian Wikipedia, I am also a sysop of Commons, OTRS-volunteer and member of Wikimedia Russia chapter. I am familiar with project-based work as in Wikipedia, as in my real life: in Wikipedia I implemented Article Wizard (editor engagement), unificated and formalized bot policy (bot building) and now I am working on the financial transparency and stability of Wikimedia Russia. I am the member of Wikipedia for 6,5 years and am quite familiar with wiki-markup :) I wasn't alleged in any improper behavior, am good at English (both written and spoken) and have desire to contribute my time into IEG process. I have experience in working with budgets - that's my professional sphere as I am working in finance sector; I am also responsible for financial reporting and analysis of performance of Wikimedia Russia (non-profit) - I prepare regular reports, analyze efficiency and work on effectiveness/economy/efficiency. I am also native Russian speaker and can understand Tatar though I would prefer not to write in it as I have too little practice.
Answer 1: I would bring my non-profit experience from working with finance in Wikimedia RU chapter and all my knowledge from my professional sphere: I have skills of financial analysis, I know how to evaluate whether funds requested are reasonable and know how to evaluate future benefits received. I am fan of transparency and would try to make work of IEG committee transparent, clear and fair.
Answer 2: I am mostly interested in technical grants (that would make editing and participating in Wikipedia easier) and editors' engagement grants - I believe that we shouldn't support usual volunteer tasks (e.g. we shouldn't pay grants just for articles' creation) but we should pay for some specific skills and actions that are not usual and widely spread - for example, writing new gadgets, extensions, specific researchs, etc.)

Candidate: Mabeenot (talk)

Statement: I have written the weekly WikiProject Report for The Signpost for the past four years at the English Wikipedia. During that time, I have interviewed several hundred Wikipedians about the challenges of collaborating on articles, managing WikiProject resources, hosting backlog drives, creating unique initiatives, dealing with the shortcomings of the Wiki community, and a variety of other topics. I have also partnered with bilingual editors to conduct interviews with WikiProjects in other languages. I work in sales and have plenty of budgeting experience, although it is primarily from a business perspective.
Answer 1: I regularly keep a finger on the pulse of the English Wikipedia community and try to bring attention to the innovative ideas of others as I wander Wikipedia's vast network of WikiProject communities. I introduced "WikiWork" to a wider audience and it was adopted by the Version 1.0 Editorial Team shortly thereafter for assessment templates across the entire English Wikipedia. I helped the Guild of Copy Editors attract their largest turnout (103 editors) for a backlog elimination drive in 2010. I wrote a special report on neglected geographic areas last year and recently conducted an interview with a WikiProject that combats systemic bias in Wikipedia articles and within the community as a whole.
Answer 2: I would like to see development of the collaborative and social functionality of Wikimedia sites, better analytics for measuring and keeping track of the various Wiki communities, stronger ties between different languages of Wikipedia, better standardization of useful tools and templates, a greater abundance of unique initiatives and contests, efforts to improve coverage of underdeveloped topics and neglected geographic areas, plans to correct the movement's gender and cultural imbalances, and ways to make all Wikimedia sites more inviting for potential long-term contributors. Some of these wishes may be too ambitious for the Individual Engagement Grants to achieve, but progress only comes when people are willing to take a chance.

Candidate: AddisWang (talk)

Statement: I'm Addis Wang, the editor and administrator from Chinese Wikipedia. I also a community coordinator, holding over 30 times offline or online activities in past four years, including the Wiki Loves Monuments in China last year. I was a grantee of IEG, for my social media project, which is a platform and pivot of the outreach for Wikimedia Movement in China. Except the endless works as an admin, I'm focusing on how to bring more readers to Wikipedia and enlarge the usage of Wikimedia projects in China.
Answer 1: I developed and helped other to build many kinds of projects to improve Wikipedia. Some of them are success, but most of them are failed. These experience make me be aware of the potential challenges or shortcuts on trying new things. As a grantee, I'd like to use my own experience on IEG, to help others.
Answer 2: projects focus on "diversity", "repeatability", "innovation" and with some "challenge".

Candidate: Shrinivasan (talk)

Statement: I am contributing to commons. I wrote a python script for uploading photos to commons. [[3]] I am one of the organizers of Tamil wikipedia 10th year anniversary events. I am training college students on contributing to wikipedia by articles, media and programming. Creating awareness on creative commons and encouraging writers and bloggers to release their works under creative commons. Publishing Free ebooks in creative commons license. http://FreeTamilEbooks.com
Answer 1: Wiki projects need more improvements to make the contributions. As I train wiki editing to more newbies, I feel the issues the newbies face. I will help the committe to select the projects that solve the issues for newbies and help the contributes to do the activities even easier.
Answer 2: Projects that make ease of the contributions, language tools, innovative projects using wikidata, innovations in commons media

2014 round 2

Candidate: Calliopejen1 (talk) 23:29, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

Statement: I am a long-time Wikipedian, and I'd love to get more involved in the workings of the Wikimedia Foundation. I'm most active on the English-language Wikipedia, where I have over 100,000 edits and have created around 2,000 articles on a wide variety of topics. I also have been very involved at Commons, where I have uploaded (or coordinated the bot upload of) around 3,000 images. Outside of those two main projects, I have also contributed occasionally to the Spanish Wikipedia and to Wikisource, and I have recently become involved in Wikidata. I have been involved as an ambassador in the Education Program, and lately I have been working to jump-start the Wikimedia community in Los Angeles, where I have organized edit-a-thons in conjunction with museums, arts institutions, and libraries. Online, I have also been involved with editor mentoring through the now-defunct Special:Feedback, the Teahouse, and elsewhere. Outside of Wikimedia activities, I am an attorney at a national law firm. I can read and write Spanish comfortably but with occasional grammatical errors, and I can read French--and to some extent other romance languages--at a passable level. (I might also be able to write in French, but it's been so long since I've tried that I'm not sure!)
Answer 1: My experience organizing real-world meet-ups has given me insight into how outreach works and doesn't work, as the case may be... I have also been around Wikipedia long enough to have a sense for what sort of initiatives succeed and why, and to grasp Wikipedia's pressing problems (user recruitment and diversity, to name two). I would like to think that my lawyer's way of thinking -- critically identifying weaknesses, and then attempting to remedy them -- will be useful when evaluating proposals.
Answer 2: I'm most interested in technical grants, because I think these sorts of projects are least likely to happen without funding. More specifically, I would be eager to see proposals about improving the Wikipedia user experience, which is crucial to attracting new contributors. I'm also interested in the development of tools that enable users (including new users) to contribute in small but measurable ways. Take the recent Wikidata game, for example. Imagine a tool like this as the top banner on the Community Portal link of Wikipedia -- an easy way for users to get involved and feel like they're making a difference without needing to wade through code and possibly encountering early hostility. Cross-language collaboration, including but not limited to translation, is another area I'm interested in. Finally, I'm interested in grants for activities intended to combat systemic bias. (However, I think outreach grants in this arena merit scrutiny as to their sustainability after grant-related activities have ceased.)

Candidate: Rjensen (talk) 22:37, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Statement: I have added 91,000 edits since 2005, primarily in the area of American history and modern history. My specialty is beefing up the bibliographies, as well as adding content in political, economic, social and military history. I am a retired history professor, and over the years have directed about two dozen large grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), as well as NIH and other foundations, including the Rockefeller, Spencer, and Japan foundations. Half of these dealt with training programs for humanities scholars in using online and computerized resources. I have served as a referee and panelist evaluating grant proposals for NEH, NSF, NIH and other foundations. Back the 1990s, I set up H-Net, a network with over 100 e-mail discussion lists for humanities scholars and graduate students. For 20 years I was the daily editor of the H-ETHNIC discussion group on ethnicity and immigration. I have done research on military history in libraries and museums around the world.
1. I have been active in the Wikimedia education program for the last three years, as a member of the planning committee that set up the Wikipedia Education Foundation. I serve currently as a regional ambassador. I wrote two grants this year to run workshops on Wikipedia editing for academic librarians and local history librarians. They were funded by Humanities Montana, and the Missouri Humanities Council. I have given presentations at Wikimania 2012, and at several history conferences in the US and Canada on Wikipedia, and have published a major scholarly article on how Wikipedia handles military history.
2. I would like to serve on the subcommittee that deals with offline outreach or partnerships. I would like to see partnerships with local and academic libraries and historical societies, as well as museums oriented toward military history. Richard Jensen Rjensen (talk) 22:37, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Candidate: Thepwnco (talk) 14:38, 20 September 2014 (UTC)

Statement: I am a fairly new contributor to WMF projects, having just completed a Round 8 FOSS Outreach Program for Women internship with Wikidata. During my internship, I worked specifically on outreach and engagement related activities, including the development of an on-wiki interactive tutorial for new editors (using the Guided Tours extension and loosely modelled after a previous IEG project, the Wikipedia Adventure). I also reviewed, revised, and created site documentation with a focus on communicating the value of Wikidata to those who either don't come from a technical background or aren't familiar with structured data concepts. I enjoyed learning about aspects of online community management and how to work more openly in order to engage others and encourage feedback. I'm passionate about building capacity for non-coders or programmers to contribute to open source projects and so also blogged about pathways for involvement for non-technical people over the course of my internship. As for my life outside of WMF contributions, I'm a recent graduate of a library & information studies master degree, and just started a new job this month working as a librarian for a non-profit. During my degree I completed a specialization in human-computer interaction and have just been accepted to CSCW 2015 for an original research submission on user experience.
Answer 1: I believe my being successful in the FOSS OPW application process (requiring the identification and proposal of a short-term project that could be completed within the 3-month internship period) demonstrates that I have some level of understanding of how to assess the feasibility of a WMF project. Through my participation in the program, as well as attendance at AdaCamp in Portland this past summer and professional activities related to research ethics and library programming, I also think I bring some working knowledge and awareness of what works (and what doesn't) when it comes to increasing diversity and capacity in outreach initiatives.
Answer 2: I'm most interested in projects that work towards increased and substantive diversity among contributors from marginalized or underrepresented communities, particularly if they are community-led projects. As a librarian with a preference for open source options and without access to a large budget for spending on technical infrastructure, I am also interested in GLAM projects with technical components that are collaborative (i.e. proposed by several partners or stakeholders), sustainable, and scaleable.

Candidate: --Poupou l'quourouce (talk) 18:59, 20 September 2014 (UTC)

Statement: I am a female Wikipedian, contributing since 2005, active mainly on de-Wikipedia where I am also an admin, with some minor contributions also to Commons and recently to Wikidata. While I regard myself mainly as an author of articles (see the articles I started/contributed to substantially here), I have also been initiator and/or participant of a number of online and offline community projects over the years. Among these are OTRS work, being member of a project to clean up after a major copyvio case, organizing real life workshops such as OTRS-agents workshops, writing contest jury meetings, administrators' conferences, organizing regular socializing meetups, editing meetups, was a flow funder etc. I have closely followed the sometimes fierce debates about grantmaking and funding procedures in the German community and have only recently been working on an improvement of grantmaking guidelines of Wikimedia Germany.
Having a legal background, I am well acquainted with having to understand a complex idea based on written documentation in short time, to take various views into account and to assess risks and evaluate potential outcomes. Last but not least I think it important to be able to explain reasons for a decision to applicants, and generally to involve them in the process, while at the same time maintaining a firm approach regarding the application of criteria and guidelines.
Answer 1: I have been a recipient of grants and scholarships within the Wikimedia movement, but also in the academic context myself, so I know the receiving side quite well. As a long-time-Wikipedian I have over the years seen a great number of initiatives come and go - and I think I have an idea, why some of them proved successful, while others did not last. Sometimes a few minor changes to a project's scope or setting could have made the difference. I would see my role therefore not only in the assessment of final proposals, but also in providing feedback to applicants during the idea stage of their projects. As a lawyer I am dedicated to bring the intentions behind rules and criteria to work.
Answer 2: While I would like to see the committee fund a great variety of projects, I would want to concentrate on online and offline community projects. Involvement of other community members as well as sustainability would be important to me. That means I would like to see that projects are supported by a number of community members, are open to a broad range of participants and have a lasting impact or can easily be adopted by others.

Candidate: Kirill Lokshin (talk) 23:49, 20 September 2014 (UTC)

Statement: I’m a long-time contributor to the Wikimedia projects, having started in June 2005. Most of my editing activity takes place on the English Wikipedia, where I've served as a coordinator of the Military History WikiProject since 2006 and in numerous other roles.

I was one of the founding members of Wikimedia DC, and continue to serve on the chapter's Board of Directors. In that capacity, I've been involved with both grant-writing and grant-making activities, having helped to develop Wikimedia DC's submissions to the PEG program and implement the programs funded by those grants, as well as reviewing applications to Wikimedia DC’s own small grants program. In addition to my work with grants in Wikimedia DC, I was a member of the GAC in 2012–13, where I had the opportunity to participate in reviews of grant applications from a number of other movement entities.

I am fluent in English and Russian, and have a basic knowledge of French.

Answer 1: As someone with a long history of participation in high-impact projects both on-wiki and off-wiki, I believe I can provide some useful insight into why certain projects can successfully achieve their objectives while others do not. I think that, in many cases, project effectiveness can be greatly enhanced (or, alternatively, greatly hindered) by how a project is initially defined and conceptualized; by leveraging the experience of veteran community members, the IEG program can enhance this definition process and ultimately produce more successful and impactful projects.
Answer 2: I'd like to see more projects focused on on-wiki editor engagement, such as the Wikipedia Cooperative or the Teahouse (which was admittedly not funded through the IEG program). There have been numerous successful projects for off-wiki engagement and outreach, but relatively few that address the many issues impacting on-wiki processes, structures, and communities. By supporting such projects, the IEG program can more effectively promote editor engagement and retention not only in small pockets of off-wiki activity, but across the broader spectrum of the online Wikimedia movement.

2015 round 2


☠MarkAHershberger☢(talk)☣:

I'm a former WMF employee and contractor and I'm very interested in MediaWiki and its role as a central part of Wikipedia's infrastructure as well as an open source software used outside of the Foundation. I've worked on the MediaWiki release team and am working on new projects like the HitCounters extension. I think I can provide expertise in reviewing technical MediaWiki grant requests and I'd like to help IEG fund grant requests (and review grantees) in this area.

Wikicology(talk)

I'm conversant with the Wikipedia Education Program, an Outreach Coordinator of "The Wikipedia Library" and founding member of the Wikimedia Community User Group Nigeria. I had created about 500 articles with 6 "DYK" to my credits on the English Wikipedia with about 6000 edits to other articles. I participate in discussions in various email lists and on talk pages. I'm currently the Manager, Wikipedia Education Program Nigeria. On 10th January, 2016, I and my teammates will be engaged in education outreach to train over 10000 students and academic staffs in 10 tertiary institutions in Nigeria on how to contribute to Wikipedia. I had earlier engaged in similar outreach tagged, "adopt a school series" in Nigeria.

Hubertl(talk)

I am an active Wikipedian from Austria since 2004, I was formerly a member and spokesman for the German CPB, the grant commitee of Wikimedia Germany in 2012, a three-year Wikipedian in Residence at the National Heritage Office of Austria and the initiator and still promoter of the Austrian Heritage Monuments project for Wikipedia. For two years now I'm active in schoolworkshops and since 2015 as a lecturer at the University of Vienna (a Wikiversity project). In addition, I am an active photographer and organizing and participating photo projects and give technical lectures to Wikipedians.
My concern is primarily to strengthen the existing capabilities of the Wikimedia-community, to encourage them to pass on existing and acquired knowledge. I see the loss of authors the biggest problem at the moment. Projects, which serve a sustainable promotion of newcomers, I consider high priority. But I am also open for new ideas, preferable using the existing wikimedia infrastructure in a creative way.

YuviPanda (talk)

I have been an active technical contributor to Wikimedia Projects since 2010 and a WMF employee since December 2011, working in various areas (Gadgets, API/Backend stuff, Mobile Apps, Tools/Labs/Operations). I've been a volunteer Tool Labs admin for the last two years, and a member of the ops team handling Labs for the last year. I also have experience running technical workshops for newbies, introducing them to both general programming techniques and towards contributing to Wikimedia. I have never applied for a Grant nor been in a commitee of any sorts before, however. I have helped IEGs in the past with technical advice and implementation (Revscoring, primarily). I can speak/read/write Tamil (my native language) and English. I do have enough time in my schedule to fit the asks as defined.
Answer 1: I'm primarily interested in helping do technical evaluations of projects that involve code that runs on the Wikimedia Infrastructure - which is most of them. I've broad experience with almost all parts of the Wikimedia Infrastructure (from frontend all the way to the bare metal), which I think the Revscoring team found very helpful :) I can do technical feasibility evaluations of IEGs, both their proposed solutions (and if required) the applicants themselves, and provide guidance on tweaking it to make the IEG actually meet its goals.
Answer 2: I would like IEGs to fund more technical experiments that seem out of scope of the WMF - I believe this is a great space for people to quickly try out different, 'grassroots' solutions to common problems that the WMF cannot/willnot address. These often involve subject matter experts in a particular technical field for whom the IEG format is best suited (Professors, Designers, etc). I'd eventually like the WMF to provide more technical resources to help IEGs reach completion, but until then can offer my volunteer time :)


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