Dear Katherine, It’s always hard to say goodbye, only one thing I can say, Wikimedia projects won’t be the same without you. I wish you all the best in your new beginning and as you said, “See you 'round the wikis!”
Namaste, Rajeeb. On Fri, 16 Apr 2021 at 14:14, Camelia Boban <camelia.bo...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Katherine, thank you for having been part of our movement. > I assiduously started my activity for diversity and reducing the gender > gap in the movement exactly at the same time of your appointment, at > Wikimania 2016 in Esino Lario. > So my memory is that my work and the birth of WikiDonne is in some way > related to your role as ED at that time, and that important phase for the > Wikimedia movement. > > I wish you all the best ❤, > Camelia & WikiDonne > > > -- > *Camelia Boban* > > *| Java EE Developer |* > > WikiDonne | Wikimedia Diversity Ambassador | *AffCom* > > M. +39 3383385545 > camelia.bo...@gmail.com > *Wikipedia <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utente:Camelia.boban> **| > **WikiDonne > UG <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiDonne>* | *WikiDonne Project > <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:WikiDonne> * > > [image: File:WDG - Wikipedia20 background Cake slim.jpg] > > > > > > > > > > Il giorno ven 16 apr 2021 alle ore 04:18 Gnangarra <gnanga...@gmail.com> > ha scritto: > >> Kaya Katherine >> >> Thank you for taking the movement from its past, to help us work in the >> present, and to look towards the future. You have created a legacy that is >> as significant as every contribution look forward to seeing you around our >> campfires sharing your knowledge in the future. >> >> Boodarwun >> Gnangarra >> >> On Fri, 16 Apr 2021 at 09:47, Katherine Maher <kma...@wikimedia.org> >> wrote: >> >>> Hi friends, fellow Wikimedians, >>> >>> [Apologies in advance, this note is very long, and written in my native >>> English speaker style. Normally I try for shorter and more ESL friendly, >>> but it was hard to do this time. Thank you for indulging or at least, >>> tolerating, me.] >>> >>> It has been my life’s joy and pleasure to be a part of this movement >>> with you for the past seven years.[1] I came into the Wikimedia movement as >>> a believer in open culture, open source, and free knowledge. I leave my >>> work at the Foundation today knowing the Wikimedia movement stands for >>> those things, and something even greater. >>> >>> To be a Wikimedian is to embrace humanity’s curiosity and fallibility, >>> our generosity and irascibility. It is to look across a world that we’re >>> told is divided -- by arbitrary borders, linguistic conquest, fear of the >>> unfamiliar -- and instead see our common interest. It’s to know that we are >>> each flawed, unreliable narrators, and to believe that the best remedy to >>> our intrinsic failings is to patch our individual flaws with our collective >>> strengths. >>> >>> In the spring of 2016, I shared a pizza in Berlin with (our then-future, >>> now former, board chair) Christophe Henner. We were attending Wikimedia >>> Conference one month into my role as interim executive director, and had >>> just finished a challenging day of plenary meetings that brought us >>> together as a community in catharsis. Christophe was a candidate for the >>> Wikimedia Foundation board. He asked me, “What are we here for?” >>> >>> I didn’t know what he wanted me to say, so I just told him what I >>> thought. “We’re here to make the world better.” It was a cliche answer, but >>> true for me. He laughed and leaned back in the chair. “Yes.” >>> >>> This has always been what I read into the unstated part of our vision. >>> “Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the >>> sum of all knowledge.” This is a spectacular, inspiring, aspirational >>> ambition, but it is also missing something critical. For the past seven >>> years, I have imagined this world every day. And every day, I have asked >>> myself, “Why?” Why does free knowledge vision matter? What happens then? >>> What change have we effected in the world?” >>> >>> Even after I leave, I’ll keep asking myself this. And as you continue >>> your work here, as colleagues, as contributors, as volunteers, I ask all of >>> you to ask yourselves as well -- with all that you do, and all that you >>> contribute, and all that you build. What are we here to do? Do our values, >>> our structures, our practices, and our constructs serve our purpose? And >>> how do we ensure they remain as alive and vital as our projects and vision? >>> >>> The former president of Wikimedia Chile, Marco Correa, would say, “The >>> knowledge may be neutral, but the act is not.” I always understood him to >>> mean that while our projects endeavor to serve the most accurate, >>> verifiable, and neutral knowledge, our movement has never been impartial. >>> We have always stood proudly for a set of values: freedom of inquiry, >>> expression, and assembly, the right to privacy and memory, and the >>> foundational value and dignity of every human. We have defended them under >>> duress and must continue to do so. >>> >>> We should never lose sight of how revolutionary the act of producing >>> free knowledge is in the first place. I’ve always been struck by the myriad >>> motivations that bring people to this movement. There are those who write >>> their language into the future, their identity into public consciousness, >>> who use our projects to grapple with historical injustice. There are some >>> who edit Wikipedia because an act of fact is itself an act of >>> self-determination in places where information is used to suppress and >>> subject. >>> >>> If we let ourselves believe that we’re simply a free encyclopedia, we >>> risk losing sight of the power and possibility of our work. Knowledge has >>> always been a tool of power -- great empire and wealth have been built with >>> its service, and great injustice has been done in its name. The very idea >>> of liberating knowledge from power, decoupling it from access and wealth, >>> and placing its construction, utility, and value in the hands of every >>> person on the planet is fundamentally radical. >>> >>> Wikimedia itself is a radical act. It is a verb, a constant action of >>> interrogation, revision, and evolution. It upends history, it challenges >>> the status quo. It is the confidence to ask ourselves why we believe what >>> we believe and whether our knowledge may change in the future. It is the >>> conviction to defend our values against pressure and threat, while robustly >>> debating among ourselves whether those values continue to serve the world. >>> It is the humility to cooperate, collaborate, and learn from others. >>> >>> Someone asked the other day, “what is the biggest challenge Wikimedia >>> faces?” My answer was the same as on my very first day. Our biggest >>> challenge is ourselves. Our success, our complexity, our size -- it could >>> be easy to believe that we’ll endure forever on our current momentum, to >>> see ourselves as a website rather than a global movement, or to accept that >>> our knots are too knotty to ever properly unpick. It is often easier, and >>> more comfortable, to swim in the eddies of incremental evolution rather >>> than face the urgency of collective change. >>> >>> But we carry out our mission against great odds, and it is essential >>> that we are clear-eyed about both the risks and the opportunities. There >>> are the challenges of competition and scarcity: We operate in one of the >>> most heavily capitalized and competitive sectors in the history of >>> civilization (digital technology), we provide one of the most valuable (yet >>> nonrivalrous!) assets of humanity (knowledge), we aspire to serve the >>> entirety of the world equitably, despite all of the ways in which the world >>> itself builds implicit and explicit barriers to that goal. >>> >>> There are also the opportunities, which are themselves a form of >>> challenge. We see more people connected around the globe, more communities >>> in search of knowledge, more languages represented, more need for >>> trustworthy general knowledge, and sharper, more urgent questions of power, >>> representation, and agency. We see an increase in appreciation for the >>> value of knowledge in society, and for the importance of facilitating >>> agreement on even the most contentious of issues. Whether we make the most >>> of these moments will be up to us. >>> >>> If we are to meet these moments, we will have to find new strengths. We >>> must be more clever, more bold, simply better than we have ever been. We >>> must be uncompromising in our generosity, and adamant in our excellence. We >>> must be more expansive, abundant, and inclusive. We should grapple with the >>> ways in which we have failed in the past, including instrumentalizing >>> participation and recapitulating exclusionary canons at the expense of >>> truly global representation. We must cherish our integrity and >>> independence, while also understanding our interdependence. >>> >>> In recent years, our movement has begun doing just this. We’ve been >>> reconsidering our definition of “community” and “contributor”. We’ve been >>> interrogating our understanding of what knowledge is, how it is >>> constructed, and who is represented. We have been pushing for participation >>> and enfranchisement of underrepresented geographies, languages, and >>> demographics. We have been asking ourselves whether the paradigms of >>> encyclopedic notability and verifiability can sustain our mission, growth, >>> and relevance. We have been exploring what of our current work and >>> practices might need to evolve in order for us to meaningfully live into >>> our mission of every single human. >>> >>> We have been asking questions not only about our knowledge in >>> Wikimedia’s ecosystem, but about the means by which we realize our mission. >>> We have always been committed to open architecture and code, but those >>> commitments have been passive -- common tools, common rules. What does it >>> mean to be actively open? To go beyond protocol to practice, from standard >>> to value? How do we ensure that our technical infrastructure and >>> experiences enable participation, agency, and ownership by everyone, >>> everywhere? How can our projects lead in privacy, security, and openness by >>> the light of their example? >>> >>> In a very real way, this is all in our hands, and in the hands of anyone >>> who might seek to participate. Our projects are not owned by anyone, but >>> they are owned by all of us. They are edited, on average, 350 times per >>> minute, representing the opportunity, every moment of the day, to be a work >>> in progress -- to aspire to better versions of our movement, our projects, >>> of ourselves. To change in response to the world around us. Wikimedia >>> changes as we do, and change is what we make of it. >>> >>> This is a constant invitation -- and obligation -- to make and remake >>> ourselves. Do the values that served us from our first day compel us to our >>> future? Are the decisions that we make, as staff, as volunteers, as >>> movement leaders, as community members, in service of our purpose? How do >>> we adapt our work for the world we live in while maintaining our vision for >>> the world we seek? What are we growing toward? What are we here for? What >>> is the point, the purpose, of free knowledge? >>> >>> The answers to these questions may change, but the way we arrive at >>> those answers should not. We are first and foremost a community, and we >>> should arrive at our answers through open dialogue and consultation. We >>> can’t bypass the difficult bits, we must go through them to build the >>> lasting parts. And the only way we can do that is by committing, to >>> consistency, communication, and continuation of difficult discussions such >>> as those raised through movement strategy — questions of power, agency, >>> decentralization, and autonomy. It is in seeking the answers to these >>> questions that we will find the ways in which our movement will thrive. >>> >>> We must see one another as mutual stewards and allies, finding the means >>> to disagree while valuing one another as people united in common purpose. >>> We should practice compassion, courage, and kindness for one another and >>> ourselves, and accept imperfection in the spirit of evolution. As staff, we >>> must show our volunteer colleagues respect as full partners. As volunteers, >>> we must return the sentiment to staff of the Foundation and affiliates. We >>> should break bread together, solve problems together, and see one another >>> as equals. >>> >>> To be a Wikimedian is to place your faith in the goodwill of people >>> you’ve never met. It is to believe in the power of an idea to connect a >>> community; to be an incorrigible humanist, wise to our failings but >>> returning each day to do better. It is to believe in human generosity, >>> curiosity, and general good sense. We not only seek to do the radical thing >>> of making knowledge freely available, we trust the world to use it well. To >>> contribute in good faith, to read us critically when needed, to donate to >>> keep us going, and to criticize us when justified. >>> >>> We place our confidence in the world, and they place it back in us. We >>> serve as stewards, anticipating that our work must support and sustain free >>> knowledge as a public good for decades to come. We forge ahead against the >>> implacable odds, and we somehow keep moving. We throw our lot in together, >>> bind ourselves in our success and failure, and accept that our progress is >>> a work in progress. We believe that we can change the world, because we >>> already have. [2] >>> >>> I am grateful to you all for this time we have had, and the ways in >>> which your passion, empathy, and determination have expanded my world. I >>> have been fortunate to make lifelong friends with many of you, and believe >>> there are still many friendships ahead. I am leaving the Foundation; I am >>> not leaving the movement. I’m easy enough to find on the internet, but for >>> all things Wikimedia you can find me on wiki at User:Maherkr or Telegram. >>> I’m also at katherine.ma...@gmail.com. >>> >>> We are so fortunate to live in Wikimedia’s glorious moveable feast. It’s >>> taught me that there is rarely goodbye, just until we meet again. >>> >>> See you 'round the wikis! >>> >>> Katherine >>> >>> [1] Sure, there have been moments of exhaustion, exasperation, and >>> heartbreak, but those aren’t for right now. And anyway, they’re entirely >>> overshadowed by that bounteous joy. >>> >>> [2] And as of the end of today, this is officially just another >>> Wikimedia essay! YMMV. Thanks for reading! >>> >>> >>> -- >>> >>> Katherine Maher (she/her) >>> >>> CEO >>> >>> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >>> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org >>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >>> <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> >>> >> >> >> -- >> GN. >> >> *Power of Diverse Collaboration* >> *Sharing knowledge brings people together* >> Wikimania Bangkok 2022 >> August >> hosted by ESEAP >> >> Wikimania: https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gnangarra >> Noongarpedia: https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/nys/Main_Page >> My print shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/Gnangarra/shop?asc=u >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >> New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >> <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> >> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> >
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