Wikimedia Foundation elections/2022/Candidates/Egbe Eugene Agbor
Eugene233 (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA • AE)
| Candidate details | 
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| Introductory statement / Application summary. This section to be translated. (150 word maximum) |
I Joined the movement in 2016 as both a developer and an editor working on projects such as Wikidata, Commons and Wikipedia an others. My main focus has always been to develop tools to help underrepresented communities contribute to these projects by simplifying the complexity of contributing. I have served for the past one and half years as ED for the Wikimedia Community in Cameroon and also as a mentor in the Wikimedia community of Africa.
I wish to address the problem of underrepresented communities and their involvement in Wikimedia projects especially in the language domain and with the movement strategy in place, I will like to see more communities adhere to the Wikimedia recommendations given their realities, hence get more support in accomplishing their goals. | |
| Contributions to the Wikimedia projects, memberships in Wikimedia organizations or affiliates, activities as a Wikimedia movement organizer, or participation with a Wikimedia movement ally organization. (100 word maximum) |
I joined the Wikimedia movement in 2016 as liaison between the English and French sub-communities in Cameroon by assisting in all events and campaigns. I have served as a Wikimedia Foundation contractor and also with other Wikimedia affiliates on projects like the FormWizard extension, Scribe, WikiKwatt, ISA tool, African German Phrasebook, Wikidata trainings and as Wiki Kouman representative of Cameroon. from 2021, I was elected president of the Cameroon User group where I coordinate all projects and programs. As a mentor, I have been involved in training new developers in the GSoC program and the WMA project. | |
Expertise in skill areas identified as needs by the Board.
(150 word maximum) |
Despite my software analysis and development skills, I do have skills in project management, monitoring and evaluation, mentoring, community liaison, capacity building, organization strategy and community management. | |
| Lived experiences in the world. We are especially interested in reading about lived experiences in the regions of Africa, South Asia, East and South East Asia & Pacific, and Latin America & Caribbean. We believe that experience in these regions could help expand the board’s ability to fulfill the movement strategy goal of more equitable participation, although we recognize that other experiences may also provide important contributions. (250 word maximum) |
Being an English speaker growing in a French-speaking part of my country with a totally different culture from mine, and also getting involved with several communities in Africa and around the world while struggling to contribute to the sum of all knowledge, I can say that cultural adaptation is key and that is what has helped me so far to accomplish the projects and programs which I have been involved with in the past. The region which I hail from is a minority in population and has been marginalized for more than 30 years and coming from this part of the community to lead projects and programs has not been an easy task to accomplish but this has given me the drive to keep pushing and bringing significant changes by braving the odds which are considered as norms in the other parts of my community. This is not only particular to my local community for example, in the context of the African German phrasebook project, while visiting some habitants in villages where our community is not represented, we were chased out of these places due to the thought that Wikipedia is fake and we want to take information and sell to the foreign world. Nevertheless, with assist from some of our partners we are now able to reach out to these communities and effect our projects. | |
| Cultural and linguistic fluency with regions and languages additional to your native region and language. Intercultural awareness helps build bridges in our multicultural community. (250 word maximum) |
My interest and participation in languages with the so many partners and communities in and out of my country has brought to my attention that there is need to learn a little about each language and culture of a particular region before approaching their communities. For example the context of the AFrican German Phrasebook, I've had to learn at least how to introduce myself and how to dress in over 7 languages and communities other than where I stem from in a bid to get access to the native language speakers. Aside this, I have collaborated with several people from South Africa, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Tunisia which makes me receptive to all cultures and people of different communities easier. | |
| Experience as an advocate for creating safe and collaborative spaces for all and/or experience in situations or contexts of censorship, repression, or other attacks to human rights. (250 words maximum) |
I have made quite an attempt to support advocacy for human rights but for personal reasons I prefer not to share the details here. | |
| Experience in relation to (or as a member of, to the extent you choose to share) a group that has faced historical discrimination and underrepresentation in structures of power (including but not limited to caste, race, ethnicity, colour, national origin, nationality, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, language, culture, education, abilities, income and environment). (250 word maximum) |
Growing from the English part of my country, it is no lo nger news that a majority of the community faces the issue of underrepresentation. As for the details, it could be found on credible sources online. | |
| Verification | Identity verification performed by Wikimedia Foundation staff and eligibility verification performed by the Elections Committee | |
Eligibility:  VerifiedVerified by: Matanya (talk) 09:02, 17 May 2022 (UTC) |
Identification: | |