Internal:Board election (2020)/Candidates

Peter Meyer

Mandatory Disclosures:

(a) I do not have a financial interest in ongoing or planned transactions or arrangements of Wikimedia District of Columbia.

(b) I am not subject to laws, regulations, agreements, or covenants that prevent me from taking full part in the deliberations of the Board of Directors.

(c) I have not been convicted of a felony.

(d) I am not an employee, director, officer, or agent of the Wikimedia Foundation or any chapter besides Wikimedia DC.

(e) I have participated in Wikimedia Foundation projects for nine years. I am active on English Wikipedia and English Wikisource, and sporadically active on other projects and sites as User:Econterms. I have not been subject to disciplinary actions on these projects.

I'm Peter Benjamin Meyer, and User:econterms on Wikimedia. I have been an active member of Wikimedia DC and on its Board of Directors since 2013. I have organized many editing events, and helped many new editors. I am the chair of the Public Policy committee, which studies and advocates on issues related to Wikimedia.

I'll continue to support cooperation between the Wikimedia movement, open source programmers, academic researcher, and government agency staff to help build the best online reference works that we can imagine. Wikimedia's works include historical source materials, equations, footnotes, maps, photos, sounds, moving images, and text in many languages. They are easy to use. We can do more yet, and do it better.

The District of Columbia chapter has been successful in encouraging this, and keeping high morale and a friendly safe environment for its events. Continuing on our path we can succeed further.

Among my specific activities:

• I actively encourage U.S. federal government participation in the Wikimedia projects and in using Wikimedia software. I'd welcome tips of opportunities to work with federal agencies on wiki matters. My ambition is that every U.S. government employee would have a way to edit a government wiki so as to enable the efficient sharing of information, expose problems and opportunities, and to communicate with the public too in citizen-science contexts.
• I attend conferences on wikis and Wikimedia. I learn from the annual worldwide Wikimania conferences, the North American conferences, and sometimes the academic WikiSym conference, and will continue to do this as much as possible.
• I encouraging others to bring their diverse and unique capabilities to the projects. Encouraging others is sometimes the most valuable thing one can do.
• I work on making historic patent data available. I created a wiki for research on the history of aeronautics and aviation, and started Wikidata's WikiProject Patents.

My background: I worked as a software developer at Symantec for 6 years then went to graduate school in economics. Now I am a research economist at a federal government agency. My main research is on how new inventions and industries arise. I can show with statistics how information-sharing institutions like wikis, conferences, journals, and clubs help these things happen.

I ask for your votes. With your support, I will continue on the Board of Directors doing the good work of the chapter.

Kevin Payravi

Mandatory Disclosures:

(a) I have no direct or indirect financial interest in any ongoing or planned transaction or arrangement undertaken by Wikimedia District of Columbia. For transparency's sake, I am currently employed as a software engineer by Capital One.

(b) I am not subject to any law, regulation, agreement, or other covenant that would prevent me from taking full part in the deliberations of the Board or would require me to excuse myself from such deliberations in circumstances other than those related to a financial conflict of interest.

(c) I have not been convicted of any felony.

(d) In addition to being a current Board member of Wikimedia District of Columbia, I am currently an organizer for both the Ohio Wikimedians User Group and WikiConference North America, both Wikimedia affiliates. I am also the grantee of an ongoing grant from the Wikimedia Foundation, Wiki Loves Monuments 2020 in the United States. I have received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation in the past for projects that have since concluded.

(e) I have participated in projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation as well as Wikimedia chapters. This includes being an active contributor to several Wikimedia projects, primarily the English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. I have also participated or organized several offline and online Wikimedia events through Wikimedia DC, the Ohio Wikimedians User Group, and WikiConference North America. I have never been subject to disciplinary action in any of these contexts.

My name is Kevin Payravi (User:SuperHamster on Wikipedia). I have been on the Board of Wikimedia District of Columbia since 2018, and am running again for the opportunity to continue my service to help ensure the organization's continued impact, programming, and success.

I joined the English Wikipedia in 2007 and have since been an active contributor to the project and the Wikimedia movement at-large. In addition to typical day-to-day editing, I have organized many online and offline initiatives, such as founding the Ohio Wikimedians User Group; serving as a core organizer for WikiConference North America since 2017; being a primary organizer for Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States since 2016; and helping organize Wikipedia Asian Month, a global online edit-a-thon.

My latest focus for Wikimedia DC has been fostering our relationship with Credibility Coalition and MisinfoCon, which led to the credibility-focused WikiConference North America 2019. After the conference, myself and several other members of Wikimedia DC partnered with MisinfoCon to establish WikiCred, the grants program that supports research, software projects and Wikimedia events that explore information reliability and credibility. I also helped consult for the August Vaccine Safety Editathon, in which Wikimedia DC and NewsQ partnered with the World Health Organization's Vaccine Safety Network.

I believe I have a diverse mix of projects and engagement with the Wikimedia community, and hope that this will help me be a positive asset to Wikimedia DC. Thank you for your consideration!

Diane Shaw

Mandatory Disclosures:

(a) I have no direct or indirect financial interest in any ongoing or planned transaction or arrangement undertaken by Wikimedia District of Columbia.

(b) I am not subject to any law, regulation, agreement, or other covenant, whether as a condition of employment by a party other than Wikimedia District of Columbia or otherwise, that would prevent me from taking full part in the deliberations of the Board, or that would require me to excuse myself from such deliberations in circumstances other than those related to a financial conflict of interest.

(c) I have had no felony convictions in the past 10 years (or actually, ever).

(d) I am not an employee, director, officer, or agent of the Wikimedia Foundation, or of any Wikimedia chapter other than Wikimedia District of Columbia; nor do I otherwise hold a fiduciary duty to said organizations.

(e) I have never been subjected to disciplinary action with regard to my participation in Wikimedia projects (including, but not limited to, the imposition of any restriction on my ability to fully and freely participate in said project) by the community of said project, or by any body convened for the purpose of undertaking such disciplinary action on said project.

I am running for a third term on the Board of Directors of Wikimedia District of Columbia, on which I am currently serving as secretary. I’ve been actively editing English Wikipedia since 2012, and have lately been putting most of my effort into editing Wikidata. As a member of the GLAM community, working full time as a museum librarian in the Washington, D.C. area, I have first-hand knowledge of the great work that Wikimedia District of Columbia has been doing in offering training and support to local cultural and scientific organizations, even during the recent challenging months of the COVID-19 era. Wikimedia District of Columbia is a strong and vibrant community dedicated to fostering the creation and enhancement of free and open knowledge on the internet, with ties and influence which stretch well beyond its base in the metropolitan DC area. I enthusiastically support the work of Wikimedia District of Columbia and look forward to continuing my service on the Board of Directors if I should be re-elected. Thank you.