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

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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 under the "Candidates" section as shown in the following example: 

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

'''User name:''' ~~~
'''Real name:''' xxxxx xxxxx
'''Location:''' City, Country
'''Age:'''
'''User page(s):''' xxxxx
'''Wikimedia participant since:''' xxxx
'''Projects in which I participate:''' xxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx
'''Languages in which I participate:''' xxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx
'''Link to user contribution page(s):''' xxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx
'''Candidate's statement:''' (no more than 1,000 characters recommended)
'''For questions, please post here:''' xxxxxx

Quick view of candidates

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


Candidates' presentations

Please list your entry in alphabetical order.

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

Arno Lagrange

User : ArnoLagrange
Real name : Arno Lagrange
Location : Bellegarde-du-Razès, Aude, France
User pages : 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
Your candidate statement:

I am candidate to defend in the board of trustees language equal rights. One must try find the way anybody from any project in any language can participate in discussions and decisions, because iunfortunately every great discussion and decision by any way allways still run only in american-english, making unable to not good american-english speaker take any part in decisons. A true multilinguisme and even the perspective using an international neutral auxiliary language is absolutely needed.

For questions, please post here: Kandidatiĝo ĉe Wikimedia



Cerejota

User name: Cerejota
Real name: Carlos Rivera
Location: Brooklyn, New York, United States
Age: 28
User page(s): Cerejotai
Wikimedia participant since: December 2004
Projects in which I participate: enwiki, eswiki (occasionally) commons, meta (occasionally)
Languages in which I participate: English. Spanish. I can read German, French Italian, Norsk/Nyorsk, but not well enough to participate.
Link to user contribution page(s): Cerejota contribs
Candidate's statement:

Because democracy is more fun when you have a huge playing field.

I will make no appeal to authority, I am running because it would be ultra freaking cool to be a voice of my fellow editors, however, or rather because, of how contentious we all get.

Clarification: My sense of humor can in no way be interpreted as a lack of seriousness to approach the position. I am not only a long time volunteer and professional with a deep commitment to the non-profit sector, but a veteran of the dot-boom, dot-bust and the Web 2.0. I had my first email address in 1992-93, was part of the team who created the first .com in Puerto Rico, and in general was a web pioneer there. Today I am a lead developer at a fast growing corporate tech support company.

My platform:

  • Bring diversity to the Board, english speakers are sometimes from countries who speak other languages;
  • Support the self-development of the community: consensus and reasoned debate among a horizontal playing field, while engaging the community to mitigate the negative impact of instances when this is not true. I think policy can never be a substitute for community;
  • Engage fellow Board members with energy, respect and a great sense of humor. And of course humility.
  • Support efforts directed at institutional development of the Foundation, with a particular interests in targeting beneficial relationships with third parties in seeking a better infrastructure and redundacy. No more locked databases! No more "wikipedia is busy" messages!
  • As a Board Member I will have a dedicated email address for the community to contact me. I will be accountable, and will act upon the consensus that emerges in my talk page, not upon my personal beliefs (except for my pet advocacies below).
  • Help with the outreach and evangelism of Wiki as a software platform, regardless if they are projects of the foundation itself or not, yet of course with a focus around the Foundation's projects.
  • Creation of a Wikibabel: a translator's space dedicated to the process of reducing the language differential among wikipedia language versions.

Personal advocacy points:

  • Advocate that a successful, peer-reviwed membership period in the Moderation Cabal be a pre-requisite for adminship. The tolerance and exposure to different users created in that environment can only benefit the community, and this process will limit the aberration of users who become admins after 2 months and 700 edits;
  • Edit conflicts are what make wikipedia great. I will try to get the board to comment on that: edit conflicts are what guarantee that the encyclopedia both remains current and NPOV. Peer review for the masses, by the masses!!!
  • I forgot to mention I completely and without reservation support the German Userbox Solution, it both guarantees the lively community we need to develop great editing and resolves the namespace issue. A great NPOV solution! Makes me proud to be a wikipedian!

Do engage me at my wikiabode: enwiki talk page

Cimon Avaro

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

User name: Cimon Avaro 15:52, 1 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
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: 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 page(s): En-wikipedia, Fi-wikipedia, En-Wikiquote, Meta
Your candidate statement:

Critical
for the Wikimedia Foundation in the immediate future will be to bridge the divide between the board and the communities in the various projects. To this end I will endeavour to be accessible to the maximum of my ability and linguistic skills, via IRC channels (where I almost constantly hang out) and E-mail (cimon_avaro@yahoo.co.uk), and also begin to be active on the significant mailing-lists. Besides recieving comments and responding to same, I will actively consult on my own initiative people one on one who I see are doing good work in the projects and appear to have the mission of the foundation to their heart.
My involvement
With wikimedia has been mainly on the english Wikipedia where I count as my lasting contribution the inception of the Do not bite the newcomers guideline and the Cleanup project (for which I had valuable assistance both from Stevertigo and Angela). The articles I have written and edited do not belong to me, and will not for long retain many of the edits and additions I made, but those two would not have begun (at least so early in the projects evolution) if I had not taken initiative.
In Board of Trustee Elections
I have been a candidate both times trusteeships were up for election so far. First time my contribution to the election was an attempt to keep the discussions cordial and by gentle persuasion try to minimize back-biting between the candidates, and elevate the debate over the future direction of the newly instated Foundation. The second time I felt it useful for the continued health of the Foundations governing structure to offer the incumbents a genuine challenge from credible candidates, in full knowledge that they had the trust of the community. This time as the second position is genuinely open, I will do my utmost to be elected, while fervently hoping that all good candidates decide to run, and make this a genuine debate over the future direction we decide to take for this noble undertaking for the benefit of all mankind, our planet, and beyond.
Longer term
I see the future of Wikimedian projects shall arc over decades and even centuries, and it will well suit us to keep that in mind; all the petty squables naturally smoothing over time into footnotes in all of the projects passage towards scrutiny under the inspecting eye of eternity. In the following decades Wikimedia will assume an even more dominant position on the Internet, and the way we lead, will influence the whole of the WWW, and so far our influence has been an unequivocably benign one; "making the Internet not suck". To this end we must of necessity intermesh with the various groups who share and guard the same principles as we do; including such as EFF, FSF, Software Freedom Law Center, and Creative Commons.

For questions, please post here: en:User talk:Cimon Avaro

Improv

User name: 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 page(s): en
Candidate's 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. I believe in the following:

  • There should be established an endowment for the foundation to provide a financial cushion from the fundraising efforts and ideally eventually cover all IT costs
  • Seek out other 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
  • Avoid building costs and "hard" infrastructure when avoidable, 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

If elected, I promise to take the duties seriously, giving the time and effort needed to be a productive member of the board.

For questions, please post here: Bored? Board Questions for Improv

Kelly Martin

User name: Kelly Martin
Real name: Kelly Martin
Location: Niles, Illinois, United States
Age: Old enough.
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 page(s): enwiki, commons, meta
Candidate's statement:

I am running for the Board because I've been encouraged to do so by people whose opinions I trust. I had not intended to do so, but when people I trust approach me to ask me to do something, I tend to take their requests seriously.

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.

For questions, please post here: enwiki talk page

Linuxbeak

Confirmed Aphaia 22:34, 6 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

User name: 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 page(s): enwiki, commons, meta
Candidate's 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

NicholasTurnbull

User name: NicholasTurnbull
Real name: Nicholas Turnbull
Location: Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom
Age: 18
User page(s): enwiki
Wikimedia participant since: September 2004 as IP; December 2004 as current username
Projects in which I participate: enwiki
Languages in which I participate: English; occasionally, French (undeniably rough, alas).
Link to user contribution page(s): enwiki contribs
Candidate's statement:

For a while, it has been my opinion that the most difficult challenges facing Wikimedia - those caused by "scaling" of projects to a far larger user base, particularly in the case of the English Wikipedia - will be the issues most crucial in the long-term.

Those challenges I believe we are seeing now; an increased amount of recourse to organised dispute resolutions, community schisms relating to policy and process, inefficiency in authority structure, financial constraints, and site technical issues. Communication with the communities of Wikimedia projects has also been very far from optimal. All these problems need solutions, and need solving rapidly to ensure the continued success of Wikimedia's projects.

These are among the many challenges that I wish to take up. I seek to be of service to Wikimedia projects to the best of my abilities, and thus, I hope I shall have the opportunity in 2007 to make a difference.

For questions, please post here: enwiki talk page, or alternatively e-mail me: nicholas (dot) turnbull (at) gmail (dot) com

Ross.Hedvicek

User name:Ross.Hedvicek
Real name: Ross Hedvicek
Location: near Tampa, Florida
Age: over 50
User page(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ross.Hedvicek
Wikimedia participant since: Under this real name since March 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
Candidate's 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.
For questions, please post here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Ross.Hedvicek

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