Wikimedia Foundation elections/FDC elections/2013/Candidates

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The election ended 22 June 2013. No more votes will be accepted.

The results were announced on 24 June 2013.

Smallbones

Smallbones (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA)

Candidate details	Personal: Age: 58 Location: suburban Philadelphia, PA, USA Languages: English (native), Russian-3 Editorial: Wikimedian since: November 28, 2005 Active wikis: English Wikipedia, Commons, meta.wikimedia
Statement	Wikimedia’s ability to raise millions of dollars means nothing to the success of the movement unless we can assure effective use of the funds according to the goals of the WMF board (a legal requirement), donors (a practical consideration), and the editors and readers of all Wikimedia projects (the communities we serve). To do this the FDC needs to: A. Continue to gain the confidence of all Wikimedians by showing competence in doing its tasks. This means hard work by its members, conservative interpretation of its mandate, no surprises, and avoiding Wikidrama. B. Emphasize funding for the Global South C. Solve this year’s key question: Should the FDC fund the fixed costs of running chapters? Since the FDC has no mandate to fund multiyear projects, I believe that the fixed costs should generally not be funded as such by the FDC, but that money to get chapters or specific projects started should be funded. The FDC should not penalize groups when their projects succeed, but should encourage them to seek outside funding, while gradually reducing FDC funding for overhead. D. Find a way to get user groups and projects involved, as was originally planned. Judgment is needed here and all FDC members must work together in solving these issues, so I would never try to impose these ideas on the whole committee.

Cristian Consonni (CristianCantoro)

CristianCantoro (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA)

Candidate details	March 2012. Credit Niccolò Caranti Personal: Name: Cristian Consonni Age: 26 Location: Trento, Italy Languages: Italian-N, English-3, French-3, German-1, Chinese-1 Editorial: Wikimedian since: August 24, 2007 Active wikis: Italian Wikipedia
Statement	In my opinion the goal of the FDC is solving the tough task of ensuring the highest standard of accounting (to make sure that the donors' money are well spent) and the need to empower the people all over the world with excessive bureaucracy being an obstacle to all this (we should not forget that volunteer time is precious for them and for us as a movement). Whilst the growth of chapters and affiliate organizations is not a goal per se in my opinion having a solid and healthy ecosystem of Wikimedia-related organization is the best way to ensure long term sustain and stability for the projects. Moreover strong local Wikimedia organization (where local can either mean "territorially local" or "focused on a theme") can polarize efforts from like-minded organizations and becoming a reference for everybody interested in open culture (FLOSS, open access, etc.) I am a member of Wikimedia Italia and my history as a Wikimedian (see below) has allowed me to develop a fairly good background in how the affiliate organization manage and organize their projects and I would like to bring my experience to the FDC. As a final note, it is worth noting that Wikimedia Italia does not participate in FDC funding (for legal reasons related to Italian law in charities) and it is self sustaining since 2012 (for WM-IT's financial reports see here).

Delphine Ménard (notafish)

notafish (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA)

Candidate details	Delphine Ménard - by Mathias Schindler - CC-BY-SA Personal: Name: Delphine Ménard Age: 41 Location: Germany (I'm French though ;)) Languages: French-N, English-4, German-3 ½, Italian-2, Spanish-2 Editorial: Wikimedian since: October 2004 Active wikis: meta.wikimedia, occasionally on the French Wikipedia and on Commons
Statement	The FDC's biggest challenge consists in allocating fairly and adequately part of the financial resources of the Wikimedia movement. The first rounds showed a great disparity in the way different Wikimedia organizations understand programmatic activities, as well as unveiled a discrepancy in their ability to strategize and prioritize their future development. As member of the FDC, I wish to work on the following points: Enable all Wikimedia organizations entering the FDC process to do so with a full understanding of what responsibilities they are undertaking. This includes strengthening pre-request support so that organizations ask themselves the right questions about mid and long term strategy, growth and sustainability. Ensure that communication between the FDC and the requesting organizations runs smoothly. Noone should be advantaged or disadvantaged because of their command of a language or understanding of the culture that drives the FDC process, particularly around the concepts of organizational development and grant-making. Seek wider input in order to increase constructive and helpful criticism from all parts of the movement, especially from the wider Wikimedia communities.

Ben (ImperfectlyInformed)

ImperfectlyInformed (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA)

Candidate details	Personal: Name: Ben Age: 27 Location: Pacific Northwest, USA Languages: English (native), Spanish (a few college classes) Editorial: Wikimedian since: 16 August 2007 Active wikis: en.wikipedia
Statement	My goal is to help bridge the communication gap between the English Wikipedia community and the foundation. My core concern is technology. Wikipedia is behind the times. In my years here, I have seen a few features roll out, but it seems that the new features don't turn out as planned. There also seems to be some half-finished projects and unfulfilled wishes. While I will give chapter support grants due weight and review, I expect this committee to have a broader mandate. According to the portal FAQ this committee will administer "funds for dissemination to movement entities ... for activities that support the mission goals of the Wikimedia movement". Page 56 of the 2012-3 Annual Plan shows 25% of spending under FDC. If something should be worked on and the grantees aren't the right fit, then a Request for Proposal may be appropriate. Failing that, I may recommend that the Foundation invest in adding employees to fill potential gaps. We should not be handing out money to whoever is asking for it.

Abbas Mahmood (Abbasjnr)

Abbasjnr (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA)

Candidate details	Abbas Mahmood at the 2011 Chapters Meeting. Personal: Name: Abbas Mahmood Age: 24 Location: Kenya Languages: Swahili-N, English-4 Editorial: Wikimedian since: 21 November 2009 Active wikis: meta.wikimedia, occasionally on the Swahili Wikipedia
Statement	I believe that the FDC needs to increase its efforts to reach out to non-English communities and support their involvement in Wikimedia's governance. Over the past year, the FDC has been recommending funding on a year-to-year basis; I believe that they should start thinking about how to go about multi-year project funding. I would also expect the FDC to be more transparent in its decision-making, giving more feedback to applicants and making sure that the community has a good understanding and insight into the FDC process.

Mile Kiš (MikyM)

MikyM (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA)

Candidate details	Personal: Name: Mile Kiš Age: 25 Location: Belgrade, Serbia Languages: Serbian (native), Bosnian-5, Croatian-4, English-3, Spanish-3, Romanian-3 Editorial: Wikimedian since: 21 February 2007 Active wikis: meta.wikimedia, Serbian Wikipedia, Serbian Wikiquote, Serbian Wikinews, Serbian Wikibooks, Serbian Wiktionary
Statement	Thanks to continuous development and successful fundraising process, the WMF is capable of supporting annual plans of local chapters through the FDC program. Directing of funds and supporting of projects for development is the right way to accomplish Wikimedia’s missions, and the FDC has crucial role in this matter. Some of the FDC tasks are: Understanding of applications; Rational recommendations for financing annual plans (which will provide reasonable handling of donors’ money and also support the improvement of local chapters); Continuation of transparent work; Ability to respond to upcoming challenges of disproportional numbers of fund requests with limited budget; Progression of informing the people about the whole process; Providing mentors (whose assignment will be to advise what should be upgraded) for every applicant who needs improvement; Focusing on submissions that are requested from different parts of the world, especially from the developing countries, which have specific situations in their community / programs. I am willing to contribute in all these tasks, as well as in all the other obligations which the FDC provides.

Michał Buczyński (Aegis Maelstrom)

Aegis Maelstrom (talk • meta edits • global user summary • CA)

Candidate details	Michał "Aegis Maelstrom" Buczyński, 2012. Author: Polimerek. CC-BY-SA Personal: Name: Michał Buczyński Age: 31 Location: Warsaw, Poland Languages: Polish (native), English-4, German-1 Editorial: Wikimedian since: 2004 Active wikis: Polish Wikipedia, meta.wikimedia
Statement	Wikimedia face a number of challenges, including: avoiding a burnout and a loss of volunteers in Chapters similar to what we have already observed in communities of mature Wikipedias, decentralizing the Movement and growing local competence centres while assuring rising standards; more assistance from both WMF and other Affiliates understanding its diversity and local circumstances, which cannot be simply called a "Global South" or "Rich Europe" :-) communicating; frameworks for reporting, programme planning and evaluation - these are less breathtaking but needed tasks. assessing particular programmes, offering consulting, money and other resources in both fair and strategic-wise manner. FDC is an important vehicle in a position to deal with these issues and I would like to help. My vision is a global and living Movement. My goal is to empower more people, support activism and promote our free and wiki culture everywhere. My aim is to assist leaders, services and competence centres all over the globe. My task would be: listen to my partners, help them with reporting, seek a just assessment and communicate my feedback. My inner accountant says: "Save the Money! But wisely..." :) And my motto says: Be In Charge and Be Humble. Therefore, I am offering my service.