Candidates for the Board of Directors

Mia Cai Cariello

Mandatory Disclosures:

(a) I am currently employed at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC) as an Education Specialist. I have worked previous with the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum as their Wikimedia Coordinator. My current role does not require me to contribute to any Wikimedia Projects as part of my official job duties. I do not have any direct or indirect financial conflicts of interest in any ongoing or planned transaction or arrangement undertaken by Wikimedia District of Columbia. However, APAC hopes to host future Wikipedia edit-a-thons, ideally with Wikimedia D.C. and if any financial decisions to partner with a Smithsonian unit were to arise I will excuse myself.

(b) To my understanding, I do not have a conflict of duty that could impact any deliberations or relate to a financial conflict of interest. If my position at APAC or the Smithsonian at large creates a conflict of duty, I will excuse myself from any related decisions or deliberations.

(c) I have not been convicted of a felony in the past 10 years and I have never been convicted of a felony

(d) I do not hold any position or fiduciary duty with the Wikimedia Foundation or any other Wikimedia chapters. I did author a blog post for Wikimedia.org in 2022 (https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/06/30/my-glamorous-introduction-into-the-wikiverse/)

(e) I have been a general member of Wikimedia D.C. since 2023. I have attended several Wikimedia D.C. edit-a-thons. I have also attended virtual WikidataCon and Wikimania. To my knowledge, I have never been subject to disciplinary action by any Wikimedia Project.

I started editing Wikipedia in 2021 during my internship with the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative under Kelly Doyle when I recent graduate from The Ohio State University (OSU), where I had received a bachelor’s degree in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. I had applied to the internship because I believed that Wikipedia was a way to disseminate well-researched information about marginalized groups, especially women and women of color, to the public efficiently. As a women’s, gender, and sexuality studies major, I know that the histories of women and women of color have often been erased, minimized, or dismissed outright. Through this internship, I gained a better grasp on the gender gap on Wikipedia and was equipped with the skills to address them head on. During this internship and my internship extension, I added just over 200k words across Wikimedia platforms.

In the fall of 2022, I was began my master’s program at OSU in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies and applied what I learned with Doyle into my graduate career. I began editing pages of authors I read in class and made sure to incorporate the importance of Open Access, Wikipedia, and projects such as Women in Red into my teaching syllabus.

I became the Wikimedia Coordinator for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum in the summer of 2022. I continued to improve and create Wikipedia articles and Wikidata items and assist with several edit-a-thons. I also co-supervised another Wikimedia Intern with Kelly Doyle in this position. During my time as Wikimedia Coordinator, I added 865k words across Wikimedia projects.

In 2023, I was hired by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center as an Education Specialist and still hold this position today. While my current position does not require me to engage with Wikimedia Projects, I have continued to integrate them into my work as a vital path for educating students and the public about Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander histories. In collaboration with the nonprofit – Act to Chang, I ran a pilot project to teach high school students the importance of Wikipedia and how to research, write, and publish their own notable local AANHPI histories. I taught all of APAC’s 2024 interns how to edit and improve Wikimedia Projects while explaining how and why GLAMs have and should continue to contribute to open access knowledge projects.

Despite my job no longer requiring engaging with Wikimedia projects, I continue to improve and create articles and participate in Wikimedia events such as Wikipedia: Asian Month.

It would be an honor to serve on the Wikimedia DC Board and work with fellow wikipedians who are as passionate in improving and advocating for Wikimedia projects and open access initiatives. If elected, I hope to continue the work of addressing the gender and racial gap across Wikimedia Platforms while also fostering and mentoring new wikipedians.

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 since 2007. I’m user:econterms on English Wikipedia, Wikisource, meta, and Wikidata. I have not been subject to disciplinary actions on these projects.

I'm Peter Benjamin Meyer, User:econterms on Wikimedia. I have been an active member of Wikimedia DC and on its Board of Directors since 2013. I've organized events and helped run WikiConference North America several times by taking charge of the finance side and co-chairing the friendly/safe space teams.

I've been President of Wikimedia DC's Board for two years. We’ve kept things running. The chapter gets grants and contracts. We offer editathons which I love and we’ll expand to offer more professional training. I hope we can partner more closely with other Wikimedia chapters and user group across North America in an ongoing coalition, which would be called a hub. The hub partnership could help sustain the annual conference and do more.

I’m committed to the chapter in any role and to the general wikimedia effort to offer reliable information. I'd like for our chapter to connect to open source software developers, academic researchers, and good-government advocates. Let's cooperate to 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. It's wonderful, and there's a lot more to do.

As for my background and distinctive interests, I worked as a software developer for 6 years, and now I'm a research economist at a US government agency. My main research interest is in how new inventions and industries arise. I use Wikimedia software in this outside research. I created a wiki for research on the history of aeronautics and aviation, with a wiki page for each of thousands of patents. Someday all patents from every country and time period should be indexed in Wikidata.

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.

(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) I had previously worked as a part-time contractor for the Wikimedia Foundation between 2022 and 2023, through a grant from the Structured Data Across Wikimedia initiative. I am currently a Board member of Wikimedia District of Columbia, as well as an organizer for the Ohio Wikimedians User Group, organizer for WikiConference North America, and a reviewer for the WikiCred team (all unpaid positions). I have and continue to receive grants from the Wikimedia Foundation for a variety of Wikimedia-related projects, including WikiPortraits and Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States.

(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; co-founding and organizing the WikiPortraits photo initiative; and helping organize Wikipedia Asian Month, a global online edit-a-thon.

My focus in the last year in Wikimedia DC has been to continue to support WikiConference North America, for which Wikimedia DC has continued to help organize and serve as a fiscal sponsor for. Other wiki-related activities I have most recently been involved with include WikiPortraits, WikiCred, and software development.

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!