Two new affiliate-selected trustees

The Wikimedia affiliates have announced their selection of the twoaffiliate-selected trustees they recommend every two years to the WMF board:Frieda Brioschi from Italy andPatricio Lorente from Argentina will start their new terms from the first board meeting after 1 July. The board hasdetermined that for the first time since this system began in 2008, not only chapters but thematic organisations should vote for whom to recommend to the board. This change did not include user groups, of which there are an increasing number. Aresolution of the chapters and the one thematic organisation was passed in March, governing the conduct ofthe 2014 election.

Announcing the result, Chris Keating set out the mechanics. In step 1 of counting in the preferentialsingle transferable voting system, one of the two incumbents,Patricio Lorente, won more than 50% of the vote (15.5 of 27 votes), and was declared a winner. In step 2,Anders Wennersten from Sweden was eliminated, and his second-preference votes were redistributed to the two remaining candidates; this leftFrieda Brioschi with more votes than the other two incumbents, and a final total of 17 votes of 27, bringing her over the 50% mark afterAlice Wiegand from Germany was eliminated in step 3. Remarkably, only 27 of the 41 eligible affiliates voted.

Frieda Brioschi was born in 1976 and by profession is a computer scientist—specifically a digital communications consultant who works on "tech projects, web strategy, community creation and management, [and] social media". She has presented three TEDx talks: two about Wikipedia, and one about lateral thinking applied to problem solving. She was a co-founder in 2005 of the Italian chapter, an administrator or bureaucrat on several Italian-language sites, and an OTRS admin.

Patricio Lorente was born in 1969 and has qualifications in philosophy and law. He has extensive professional experience in social development cooperation, particularly with NGOs, and in university management. Since 2004 he has served in the administrative management of La Plata University, the second-largest university in Argentina. His first two-year term as a chapter-selected trustee, as they were then known, is coming to an end.

• Ukraine: The Ukrainian chapter has turned five, the latest in a series of achievements for the Ukrainian wing of the Wikimedia movement—despite ongoingunrest that borders on civil war andclaimed the life of Ihor Kostenko, a prominent editor. The Ukrainian Wikipedia celebrated its tenth anniversary on 30 January and crossed the 500,000 article rubicon on 12 May.
• Beta Android app: The Wikimedia Foundation hasreleased a beta version of its upcoming new Android app. New features include keeping track of what the user has recently viewed, an interactive table of contents, and perhaps most importantly to regular editors, the ability to edit articles directly from the app.
• Toolserver death imminent: TheToolserver, a Wikimedia Germany-run project that has provided useful scripts to Wikimedians since 2005, will beshut down on 30 June. Its role in the movement has been taken over byWikimedia Labs.
• UK wants advice from Wikipedians: The UK's Speaker of the House of Commons,John Bercow, has started a new initiative—the Commission on Digital Democracy—so Parliament can learn how they "can use technology to better represent and engage with the electorate, make laws and hold the powerful to account." Wikimedia UK and a British think tank are spearheading aproject to encourage participation from the Wikimedia community.
• Wiki Loves Pride: TheWiki Loves Pride 2014 campaign has begun. It will run through the month of June, including a multinational edit-a-thon on or around 21 June.
• Wikidata Game: A newgame that eases editing of the Wikimedia Foundation's newest sister project,Wikidata, has taken the site by storm. According to the game's creator, as of 3 June "643 players have made an astonishing 352,710 decisions through the game, many of which result in improving Wikidata directly, or at least keep other players from having to make the same decision over again."
• WikiConference USA: Amajor conference was held from 30 May to 1 June in New York City, with around 250 Wikipedians and members of the public in attendance. The first two days had scheduled sessions, while the third was in anunconference format. The German Wikipedia'sKurier described the highlights as "the view from Jake Orlowitz (Ocaasi)on the future of the Wikipedia Library, an analysis by Sara Marks (Librarygurl)on the impact of Sarah Palin interviews to the article aboutPaul Revere (for background see ablog post from theNew York Times), a report byKevin Gorman onserving as the first Wikipedian in Residence at an American university, as well as the presentation of journalism professor Andrew Lih (Fuzheado), in which Andrew explained how his students in a course at the American University in DC havepartnered with museum and archive staff to put on edit-a-thons [and other events]." In addition, Sumana Harihareswara's opening keynote wassingled out for its brilliance. Further insights are available fromWikipedia Weekly, which hosted four shows during the conference. Future US conferences are being planned on an annual basis.

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• Sad that 13 out of 40 communities didn't care to vote. As for me, I voted in the Wikimedia Españasub-votation to determine our vote. I cared to read the information about all four candidates. Another twenty or so people in WMES did so, and we had a quite contested votation. So I wonder why one third of possible voting organizations didn't care about WMF Board. Would have they liked anon of above option? Do they have any problems with the Board? Any other reason?B25es (talk)05:09, 8 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
• Sorry, it's41 counting Amical, our only thematic organisation.Tony(talk)05:18, 8 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

• It was not thecommunities who did not vote, but theaffiliates. Anyway, I'm also interested in learning more about the reasons for that. I think it shows a disrespect for the candidates and the community not to take part in such an important ballot. I think this should have consequences for the affiliate organisations. They should be obliged to vote.--Aschmidt (talk)13:45, 8 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]