Free Knowledge across borders

Some of you already know me from my work as an event and project manager at Wikimedia Deutschland. I am writing this blog post to let you know that my working area will change within the next months: We are setting up an International Affairs Unit and I will become a liaison for the collaboration between Wikimedia Deutschland and the communities, the Wikimedia Chapters and the Wikimedia Foundation. The position will be officially launched on January 1, 2013, but I am already starting to work on the first ideas and tasks.

I would like to briefly introduce our plans and motives, and ask for your support and invite you to get involved.

From international events…

I have been working at Wikimedia Deutschland since March 2010, when my job started with two of my all-time favourite events: The Wikimedia Conference and the Hackathon aka Developers’ Workshop.

During the last 2.5 years, I have met many international Wikimedians and am so happy to learn so much about our global movement. I am still deeply impressed by the enthusiastic people from all around the world who work together for our shared goal: Free Knowledge!

When participating at Wikimedia events, the most interesting aspects for me are the active contribution and sustainable networking. In the future, I would like to work more focussed on these issues.

Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 meeting at the Wikimania 2011 – By Wikimedia Israel [CC-BY-SA-2.0] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/, via Wikimedia Commons

…to international collaboration

The emphasis of my work within the new unit will lie in the following:

1. Monitor the international activities, networks and contacts and make them available for reuse for our local activities and communities. Publish this information in German on our blog, on mailing lists and in the international portal (coming soon) on DEWP.
2. Utilise international expertise from other chapters communities and the WMF for our work – and vice versa. For example, we can adapt topics like Open Educational Resources and Diversity in Wikipedia to our local acitivities, while the experience from our education department can be valuable for other chapters, too.
3. Cooperate with other like-minded organisations for activities beyond a local scope. For example, we want to contribute to the European chapters’ visibility in Brussels and I will coordinate with other stakeholders to bundle their interests and concerns regarding international agreements or conditions for free and open projects.

My first steps

Within the next weeks and months, I will go more into detail about these first activities; but I would like to share a rough overview with you first. I do this at a very early stage of planning because I am really looking forward to your comments and ideas.

• Wikimedia Deutschland is part of the international Wikimedia movement. We share our know-how, initiate international exchange programmes as well as events and support the development and collaboration among chapters and like-minded organisations.
• We support the establishment of the Wikimedia Chapters Association (WCA) and work closely together with our council member, Markus Glaser.
• Some of our info materials are already published in English (monthly and yearly reports, some brochures, annual plan. We will provide toolkits, best practises and reports and enable others to use them for their own work. Using channels like Meta and Outreach Wiki, Wikipedia Signpost, the WMF’s blog and publishing English articles on our own blog should help us spread the word and others to reuse our materials.
• We help those interested in the development of the Wikimedia projects to make their voice heard. By making international issues more visible within the German language projects and facilitating the discussions, we hope to avoid potential conflicts and come up with constructive solutions.
• Together with everyone interested in international movement affairs, I would like to establish a portal in the German language Wikipedia. This platform should provide background information and updates on topics like FDC, WCA, WMF, Board of Trustees as well as cool and bold projects from other chapters, organisations and communities.
• As you might have already guessed, I am still very much into events. :) I am planning to invite all those interested in shaping our international commitment to a meeting (nice working title: “camp international”). The date is not yet fixed, more will be announced. Ideas welcome!

Be part of it!

If you ask yourself: Wow, how could can one person take care of all those tasks? I must admit: I won’t do this all on my own. My job is to enable and support the work of my colleagues and the internationally active community members.

This new unit is a great opportunity for Wikimedia Deutschland and for me personally. Whew! But it is also a huge challenge that we can only rise to meet with your collaboration, ideas and feedback. I am very curious about your expectations, comments and wishes. You can reach contact me via email, leave a comment on my talk page, find me on IRC (#wikimedia-de, Nicole_WMDE) or meet me in our office or at one of the future meetups. I am really looking forward to a productive and exciting teamwork!