Chapter-selected Board seats/2012/Candidates/Salmaan Haroon

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Salmaan Haroon (Theo10011)

General info Salmaan Haroon Name: Salmaan Haroon Username: Theo10011 Nomination by: Wikimedia Australia and Wikimedia Indonesia Statement of support by WMAU Wikimedia Australia has come to know Salmaan Haroon as an enthusiastic and passionate contributor to the Wikimedia projects, and more importantly to the governance and organisational support of these projects. Salmaan Haroon has worked closely with many chapters and the Wikimedia Foundation, and has encouraged all movement organisations to develop their strengths, collaborate more, and strive for excellence in financial stability and transparency, to each other and to the community. By listening and participating in discussions, he has come to understand many of the issues that chapters face. Salmaan Haroon was a key supporter of the Movement Roles project, which has recently been ratified by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. It is the belief of Wikimedia Australia that his enthusiasm and determination will bring about positive changes at all levels of this movement. Statement of support by WMID Wikimedia Indonesia nominated and supported Salmaan Haroon as a candidate for Wikimedia Foundation Chapter-selected Board of Trustees based on the Resolution which can be found here: http://wikimedia.or.id/wiki/Resolusi:Pengajuan_Calon_Kedua_Dewan_Pengawas_Asosiasi_Wikimedia_2012 Statement I am known to most people within the community as Theo - a name of my own choosing. Why? I wish to explain now. The selection process for which lasted a whole 10 seconds, 10011 was added because 'Theo' was unavailable at the time. I am not sure why I chose 'Theo' at the time, I wasn't listening to Thelonious Monk or reading any articles about Theocracy, it was just the first innocuous thing that came to my mind. I felt what I had to say at that point mattered more than that name, or what it revealed about me. I wanted to use something generic and random. The edit that I felt was more important, was a proposal on strategy wiki. It was my first page, a proposal to create a Wiki-Fund, an endowment fund for WMF, so it could limit its reliance on the annual fundraiser and be sustainable. I subsequently discussed and explained my idea to others, even got a chance to bring it up to a couple of board members. One thing led to another, and I ended getting more involved in the process, and became an admin there. My area of interest was, and is, financial sustainability. It is one thing, I feel I have something to contribute in. I somehow, remained active in the process till it ended, became active on English Wikipedia, and eventually migrated to Meta for my daily activities. I still chose to go by that name, not because I didn't have a chance to change it or use my real name. I liked remaining relatively anonymous, I liked being known for what I say than who I am. I have built my standing from what I say, rather than where I am from, the language I speak or what I do in my day-job. I like fading into an ocean of anonymity, I would have been known as an IP address if I could, but 'Theo' is good enough, I suppose. I value people by their contributions, not their names or identities. That culture of meritocracy, is the idea behind our movement. I value people for what they say and know, what they can prove and not who they are or what qualification they have. That is why Wikipedia is written by just about anyone, you, me, teenagers, housewives, teachers, students, not only grey-haired, primarily anglo-saxon scholars, that came to represent the establishment when it came to knowledge. They came to represent the keepers of the gate to knowledge for centuries; our movement, to that extent, is breaking the door down, and removing those barriers. Later that year, I appeared in a series of videos created by WMF at Wikimania in Gdansk, then got hired to work for WMF during the fundraiser, and I thought there went my anonymity. I became more active on IRC and the mailing lists. My interaction also changed inside the community, I eventually found my voice as I became more active in governance related discussion, too active, by some accounts. I believe WMF and the movement is at a critical juncture now than it has ever been. Decisions, taken now will shape what our movement will look like in years to come. I strongly believe each chapter should strive to be independent, financially and organizationally, to pursue 100 different goals at any given point, for a 1000 different volunteers all across the world. Coordination should not be confused with control. I have strong opinions on subjects related to governance. I have never been shy of expressing them. I continue to engage in tense discussions, I believe I'm least likely to retire and pull away from controversial topics and heated debate. The board needs strong direction now with decisive actions. I would do everything within my power to be the best representative of the chapters and the wider community as possible. Within every ideology, philosophy, there are voices that occupy a spectrum. There are moderates, who can continue month after month of writing reasoned letters without losing their focus, there are extreme voices, usually passionate, inarticulate fools that scream at the top of their lungs, and there are silent protesters; the underlying ideas are always the same. I have occupied the entire spectrum from my involvement in Wikimedia governance issues. As a staff member once put it, the idea of chapter independence has always been a bit of fiction, it is statements and perceptions like those that I wish to alter permanently. And with that, I wish to announce my acceptance of nomination from Wikimedia Australia. I am generally a pessimist, so whatever the outcome of the elections, I hope to not let any of my friends down. Resume Real life Resume Salmaan Haroon (User:Theo10011) is an Indian businessman, a self-described finance geek and an amateur economist. He attended Delhi University as a Bachelor of commerce student. His foray into the business world involved managing his family business since he was 17. He subsequently worked as a trader in commodities, currencies and stock futures for several years. He was temporarily involved in the trading of polymer resins from the MENA region. During the course of his work, he has lived and worked from several places within the MENA region, South-east Asia and most recently Brazil. He has traveled extensively, dealing with client/supplier negotiations in a multicultural environment. Salmaan is a bilingual, his mother tongues are Hindi and English, along with some variation of dialect and written systems. He can understand Spanish and to a certain degree, Portuguese. He is also learning Latin. Wikimedia Resume Salmaan's involvement in Wikipedia started when he became a contributor to the English Wikipedia, under username Theo10011. He was extensively involved in the WMF strategic plan formulation, primarily focusing on financial sustainability. He proposed a Wiki-fund, an endowment fund for WMF as one of his first contributions. He remained active within the strategy-space, going through majority of the research material and information about Wikimedia and other similar organizations, on strategy wiki and Meta. Salmaan briefly worked for WMF on the fundraiser, which gave him a different perspective, working in proximity of other staff members. He was later involved in the Movement Roles group, where he proposed a Chapters council and a abstract classification system for all entities in the movement. Recently, he has been heavily involved in the fundraising discussion suggesting a tiered approach, and being a strong proponent of decentralized fundraising. He has vocally spoken out against attempts to centralize fund collections and dissemination, and undermining the existence of chapters. He has helped organized several meetups and events in his city and the local community. Most of Salmaan's activity on Meta these days, is li mited to Wikimedia and governance-related areas. Focus Salmaan believes that WMF and the movement is at a critical juncture. He strongly believes that decisions, taken now will shape what our movement will look like in years to come. Wikimedia foundation is in a much stronger position now than it was 2 years ago, the number of staff members is more than twice of what it was, the budget too, has expanded several times, in the same period. The focus, he believes, should now be on better international representation, multicultural interaction, better financial control, and know-how about target geographies. He is in strong favor of using chapters to expand in target geographies and increasing outreach efforts. He believes in better communication from the board, with clear, decisive actions, along with proper communication of the thought-process behind a decision. He strongly respects the project and community's sovereignty, and is against any change or modification against the community's wishes, like the controversial-content filter. He is against proliferation of random, continuous and ongoing research projects, which don't have any measurable ROI (Return on Investment) for the community. He believes a large portion of annual revenues are wasted in research projects that don't yield any conclusive results, instead of going directly towards supporting the community and its activities. He would like to see more development within Mediawiki, to better customize it for non-flagship projects. He is also not in favor of rapidly expanding the staff with more consultants, designers and analysts, without addressing the core issues of the day. He believes each chapter should be a strong, independent organization within its own country, capable of standing on its own, financially, and organizationally, to defend the common interest of our movement. Responses to the questions by nominator Are you willing and eligible to serve on the board of a US charity (the Wikimedia Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization registered in Florida)? Yes. Are you committed to the Wikimedia Mission (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Mission)? Yes. Are you able to speak English to a standard sufficient to take part in detailed and technical written and spoken discussions? Near-Native English Speaker. Do you think you have sufficient time to devote to the role? Yes. Are you able to approach the role from an international point of view? Yes. Are you willing and able to travel? Yes. Are you willing and able to work as part of a team, both with the rest of the WMF Board and with the larger Wikimedia movement? Yes. Please tell us your brief experience in dealing with Wikimedia Chapters, either from external dealings with chapters of from being active within chapter. I was an active participant in the strategy process during 2009, I was supportive of decentralized fundraising model. I was first exposed to the chapter world Wikimania 2010, in Gdansk. I subsequently worked for WMF during the 2010 fundraiser, in close proximity of chapters and had access to several chapters. I signed on as a participant for the Movement Roles group in early 2011, because I wanted Wikimedia and the chapters to retain a decentralized structure. I subsequently proposed a Chapters council and worked on internal classification system for all entities. I first attended the Chapters conference in 2011 in Berlin as a Movement Roles group participant, I spent that time attending presentations and meeting different chapter representative. I got a chance to talk, make friends with many of the representatives. How do you consider yourself in communicating your ideas and listening to the ideas of the others? I believe I am proficient in communicating my ideas to others. I try and be responsive to other's points. Please state any experience you have with international affairs. I have traveled extensively for work within Asia, Middle-east and of late, Europe and South America. I have had exposure to a lot of different cultures, and personalities. I believe I have a strong handle on issues related to Multicultural environments and interaction within them. Please state any experience you have with governance issues. The majority of my exposure to governance issues has been related to Wikimedia. I was actively involved in the Strategic planning process, I wrote proposals for financial sustainability. I was then involved in Movement Roles process, where I worked on a Chapters council. Besides those, I have been involved in minor project related governance issues. Please state any experience you have in large non-profit operations. I worked for Wikimedia Foundation as a contractor for 3 months, beyond that the majority of my past work has been in the for-profit area. Besides that, I have been an active supporter of several other large and small non-profits. Please state your ability in thinking strategically. My background has been working in the strategic area related to Wikimedia. I was very actively involved in the strategic planning process, working with other community members, staff, and consultants. I frequently consider strategic placement and implications of ideas within a context, I suggested Chapters council, to fill a strategic gap that I perceived. In your opinion, how do you recognize both the specific interests and challenges of chapters and how to best place them into the overall Wikimedia context. Chapters within the Movement are at an especially sensitive time. The decisions taken now, will shape what the movement will look like in years to come. Either the chapters will come out stronger and thrive, or they will be reduced to branch offices. The biggest challenge is remaining united through this process, and later. This is a sensitive time within the movement for chapters, if divisions form within chapters and there is internal conflict, the larger issues that affect all chapters will get overlooked. What chapters need now, is to form a cohesive group, and above all, continue to work with each other. Even without this issue, my biggest focus and area of interest, would be to promote inter-chapter cooperation as much as possible. We really need to have an active network of chapters/ Could you explain your vision of relations between chapters and Wikimedia Foundation? I strongly believe that a chapter should be independent. Independent of Wikimedia foundation, independent of other entities, and outside influence. Chapters are self-contained organizations that should be supported till they become self-sustaining. That should be the goal for the movement. I see them, as equal and separate entities from WMF. WMF has professionalized and invested in internal capacity and infrastructure, the focus should now move to the chapters to support the same. In an ideal world, Wikimedia Foundation supports chapters, so they become internally sufficient to stand on their own. Investing in a chapter's internal capacity and infrastructure should be the focus, once a chapter achieves that status, the focus should be making it self-sustaining and independent of WMF. I strongly believe WMF should focus on making each chapter independent and able to stand on its own. Please describe the location where you live right now should it be from the part of the world not represented in current Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustess. I am based in New Delhi, India, "Global South" - wherever that might be. I have lived and worked from Dubai, parts of Europe, and most recently Brazil in the last year. I feel India is well represented within the WMF priorities, I believe that the Indian chapter deserves more focus than WMF India operations, after working in proximity to both. I also feel a stronger focus should be placed on other Asian and South-American chapters. Majority of Asian chapters are overlooked, and excluded from the "global south" distinction, a stronger focus should be placed on them, along with the South-american and Iberocoop chapters, the Iberocoop initiative is a shining example of how strong inter-chapter ties can make a tight-knit network between chapters. I wish to support and promote more initiatives like that.