User:Sj/Board 2011

Thank you to all who supported me in the 2011 Board elections.

See also my older platforms (2005 | 2009). I believe in term limits and in new blood on the Board; if elected this year I will not run again.

Experience: Some things I have done, past and present.

Projects: My thoughts on current and new Projects.

Outreach: see related issues on the experience and questions pages.

The WMF needs a stronger community voice on the Board from active editors and participants in community projects. Given the number of elected seats, you would think this would be easier, but many of our strongest community representatives have left or taken other positions: Angela, Anthere, Eloquence.

Board candidacy

Samuel Klein (Sj)

Summary details

Samuel Klein.   Credit: Joi Ito Personal: Name: Samuel Klein Age: 33 Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Languages: English, some German, Spanish, French, Hebrew Editorial: Wikimedian since: 23 January 2004 Active wikis: meta(a), en.wikipedia(a), en.wikibooks. Also sw.wikipedia(a) and commons.

Statement

Wikimedia should be a model for open, community-led organizations. I grew up in the USA, and have lived in Germany and Kenya. I studied physics at Harvard, and work at One Laptop per Child, fostering education and offline access to knowledge in the developing world. Since 2004, I have been a Wikimedia editor, translator, organizer and speaker. I started the Meta translators network, and published a Wikimedia newsletter in 5 languages. I served as a steward for 5 years. I have worked on outreach to universities and libraries, and in 2009 organized the Kiswahili Wikipedia Challenge. I led Wikimania 2006, and run the Boston wiki-meetup (since 2005). I was elected to the Board in 2009, and am its secretary. As Trustee I focus on transparency, long-term planning and community empowerment, including the strategic plan and movement roles projects. My current goals for the Foundation are to: Make our wiki platform a joy to use Actively support small and new Projects Invest in better multilingual communication Try other bold ideas to counter editor decline Support new models for affiliates Expand collaboration with education and cultural groups Be transparent, and led by community needs, in resource allocation Trust On the role of trustees on the Board: A trustee should: represent the community's goals to the Board represent all Projects, chapters and languages in discussions promote transparency and participation, providing feedback to the community about WMF work & vice-versa ensure decisions, including financial and long-range planning, are driven by community needs & priorities ensure the WMF plans for the long-term availability of the projects (e.g., through an endowment, and defining core services such as dumps/backups/uptime) support the WMF through public outreach