Welcome to Wikimedia, Selena. It is very good to see this role being filled by someone with your level of experience - especially your experience in the open source and free knowledge communities.
I am sure many people will be looking forward to meeting you and getting to work with you, even those of us in the non-tech/non-product areas. Risker/Anne On Mon, 13 Jun 2022 at 13:24, Selena Deckelmann <sdeckelm...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > Hello! > > I’m so excited to join you all, and I am grateful to Maryana and the many > people I’ve met on my journey to today’s announcement. Thank you for this > opportunity to introduce myself! > > My grandfather was a TV repairman and I grew up watching him tinker and > fix things, but college was when I decided to explore electronics and > computers. I started college thinking that I would play jazz violin and > maybe get a chemistry degree! A year later, I’d learned about the Internet > which resulted in skipping classes to install Linux from floppy disks, and > landing a job at a help desk. > > My first programming language was TI-Basic > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-BASIC>, and my second was C++. I spent > many years with Perl (I’ve had dreams in Perl!), SQL > <https://www.reddit.com/r/SQL/comments/doukj2/is_sql_considered_codingprogramming/> > and later Python, and I’ve dabbled with wikis, including Federated Wiki and > MediaWiki. I admire Ursula Franklin > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Franklin> and love her book The > Real World of Technology. > > As I explored computers back in college, I felt compelled to share. The > experience didn’t feel complete if I was alone. I vividly remember the > people I connected with – who mentored me, who I wrote software with and > who just listened. My love for the internet, its freedoms and > connectedness, came from discovering a world of knowledge freely shared > beyond anything I had imagined before. > > During my interviews with Wikimedia, I felt that strong connection again. > I heard each person share their reasons for joining this movement and their > hopes for its future – often in the form of very challenging questions! > > In the last few years, I’ve worked on problems at the intersection of > Mozilla’s mission to help create an internet for the benefit of > individuals, and its business. Very recently, this work resulted in > shipping Total Cookie Protection, making several major changes to the UX of > Firefox and launching a small advertising business called Firefox Suggest, > designed with lean data practices from the start. I loved doing this work > because of the difficulty of it, how intensely those involved had to work > to understand one another and the communities they served, and that my > pragmatic optimism had a part to play in getting things shipped. > > I also reflected on this moment in my own life: I grew up in Montana > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana>, where I attended public school. > I love talking about, reading about > <https://www.caseyjohnston.net/ask-a-swole-woman-archive/2021/10/23/how-do-i-even-get-started-with-lifting-weights> > and sometimes doing weightlifting. I’m hapa > <https://www.janm.org/exhibits/hapa-me>, and I met the Chinese part of my > family as an adult. I think privacy and freedom > <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2175406> are > intimately connected, and that exercising freedoms is a good way to keep > them. I’m married to a high school teacher, and I have two kids who love to > crash video meetings, including my interviews with the Wikimedia > Foundation. > > All of that, together, is why I’m joining the Foundation. Wikipedia is the > promise of collaboration on the internet and the movement for free > knowledge made good on, in practice not in theory. I believe that Wikimedia > projects have successfully demonstrated a model that produces trustworthy > knowledge, and have created a home on the internet that the world > profoundly trusts. I want to help make and ship things to advance free > knowledge using the skills I have, while also continuing to learn from this > ever expanding community of people all around the world. > > I plan to follow Maryana’s lead, and will start by meeting many people to > really understand what we collectively need to create a global, equitable > and inclusive future for free knowledge. > > Although I will join officially in August, I would love to hear from > anyone interested in sharing directly with me at sdeckelm...@wikimedia.org > . > > -selena > > > On Mon, Jun 13, 2022 at 10:09 AM Maryana Iskander <miskan...@wikimedia.org> > wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> When I started in January, I shared with you that one of my top >> priorities >> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chief_Executive_Officer/Maryana%E2%80%99s_Listening_Tour/My_Incoming_Priorities> >> coming to the Wikimedia Foundation was to actively step in and support the >> Foundation’s product and technology teams while we recruited executive >> leadership of these mission critical functions with a new Chief Product and >> Technology Officer. >> >> I am delighted to introduce you to Selena Deckelmann, who will be joining >> the Wikimedia Foundation on August 1. She is based in Portland, Oregon in >> the United States. >> >> Selena is currently the Senior Vice President at Mozilla, where she has >> been for the last nine years. She leads the Firefox organization of more >> than 400 people responsible for all Firefox product and technology >> functions including desktop, mobile, web platform, and browser services. >> >> I have gotten to know Selena over several months and also learned from >> people who have worked with her over many years. She is known for >> successfully driving change by getting stakeholders aligned around what’s >> needed, and being seen as a trusted partner. Selena has built strong >> credibility over many years with colleagues and also with a broader >> developer community. She is described as a leader who can make the tough >> decisions, develop skills, grow diverse contributors, and inspire teams. >> She also has a great laugh and looks for joy in her work! >> >> As context for the recruitment process: given the critical need to get >> this right, we used two firms with global search expertise who >> specialized in product/technology executive leadership roles. This meant >> double the work, but allowed us to more quickly build a large, globally >> diverse pool of over 500 candidates. Once we identified a smaller number of >> finalists, they participated in real-life case studies of some of our >> current challenges and met with Wikimedia stakeholders over the course of >> many months. >> >> As you all know, we have a highly unique and sometimes difficult >> environment with a multifaceted mission, complex structure, and often >> competing stakeholders. This is going to be a challenge for anyone, >> especially given the steep learning curve at Wikimedia (which I can confirm >> from my own experience!). I hope you will sign up to help me successfully >> onboard Selena as she gets started! >> >> Selena will share her own message with you shortly, and she can be >> reached directly at sdeckelm...@wikimedia.org. >> >> Maryana >> >> Maryana Iskander >> >> Wikimedia Foundation CEO >> >> *** >> >> https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2022/06/13/wikimedia-foundation-welcomes-selena-deckelmann/ >> >> >> Wikimedia Foundation welcomes Selena Deckelmann as Chief Product and >> Technology Officer >> >> 13 June 2022, San Francisco — The Wikimedia Foundation today announced >> the appointment of Selena Deckelmann as Chief Product and Technology >> Officer. Selena is currently serving as Senior Vice President of Mozilla, >> where she was responsible for Firefox. She will officially join on August >> 1, 2022. >> >> Selena will lead the product and technology teams at the Wikimedia >> Foundation. These teams support the technology infrastructure and >> innovation that powers Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, one of the >> most visited websites in the world with more than 16 billion pageviews per >> month. They also enable more than 300,000 global volunteers to edit >> Wikimedia projects each month. >> >> “Selena has a proven track record of delivering results by enabling >> individuals and teams to tackle unique and often complex challenges,” said >> Maryana Iskander, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation. “She has dedicated her >> career to open source technologies for empowerment and inclusion.” >> >> At Mozilla, where she has been for nearly a decade, Selena currently >> leads the Firefox organization of more than 400 people responsible for all >> Firefox product and technology functions including desktop, mobile, web >> platform, and browser services. She oversaw some of the company’s most >> significant achievements including performance projects like Quantum Flow, >> architectural changes like Project Fission, key features like Enhanced >> Tracking Protection and Total Cookie Protection, and services such as >> Firefox Monitor. In her nine years at Mozilla, Selena held various other >> roles including Vice President for Firefox Desktop, Senior Director for Web >> Platform Engineering and Gecko Runtime, and Senior Manager for Gecko >> Security Engineering. >> >> Selena also brings experience from her previous roles as co-founder of >> Prime Radiant, a software as a service business that explored how to >> improve business processes at scale with checklist automation software, and >> as Consulting Director of Development for The Ada Initiative, an >> organization that was dedicated to increasing the participation of women in >> open source and technology communities. She was a major contributor to >> PostgreSQL, one of the largest free and open source databases in the world. >> >> “Open collaboration produces better solutions for the world, and >> technology is a critical enabler of making this true,” said Selena. “I look >> forward to contributing to Wikimedia’s inspiring free knowledge mission.” >> >> As Chief Product and Technology Officer, Selena will work with Wikimedia >> Foundation staff, technical contributors, volunteer developers, >> researchers, and communities to support Wikimedia’s 2030 Movement >> Strategy >> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Direction> >> to advance free and open access to knowledge. The majority of the >> Foundation is focused on product and technology development in service of >> our mission. >> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/XO27SCB2UKZ6H6YRKFZLBR4URFW2VPGW/ > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
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