Janeen Uzzell

Wikimedia Foundation appoints Janeen Uzzell as Chief Operating Officer

The Wikimedia Foundation is excited to announce the appointment of Janeen Uzzell as Chief Operating Officer. Janeen joins the Foundation after 16 years of executive leadership at General Electric (GE), most recently as GE’s head of Women in Technology, where she worked with GE’s global CEOs to increase the number of women in technical roles….

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A bunch of media just entered the public domain. Here’s why that matters.

The black-and-white film flickers as a wealthy young woman, sitting on a bench in a garden, bats her eyes at the gardener’s son she is not allowed to marry. In her self-portrait, an artist wears masculine clothes against a bleak urban backdrop, dark eyes meeting the viewer’s gaze from the shadow of a broad-brimmed riding….

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How does the world see Wikimedia brands?

That’s what a recent global brand study sought to research as part of the Wikimedia movement’s planning towards our ambitious 2030 strategic goals. The study was led by Wolff Olins, an international brand consultancy, and directed by the Wikimedia Foundation’s Communications department. The results showed high support for Wikimedia’s mission and strong interest in contributing….

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Problems remain with the EU’s copyright reform

It was almost exactly five years ago that a reform of EU copyright was included in the European Commission’s list of priorities. The setting of that priority was followed by several public consultations, countless public events, and many face-to-face meetings. In 2016, the Commission made a proposal for what this reform would look like. Since….

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Victoria Coleman steps down as Wikimedia’s Chief Technology Officer

The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that supports the free knowledge platform Wikipedia, today announces that Victoria Coleman has stepped down from her role as Chief Technology Officer. “Victoria joined us two years ago with the mandate to expand our system redundancies and refine our approach to technical program operations. I appreciate all her contributions and….

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Lisa Lewin

Wikimedia Foundation announces Lisa Lewin as new Trustee

Lisa Lewin, Managing Partner at Ethical Ventures, a New York City based management consulting firm, will be the newest member of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees. The Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia Foundation and its work, and serves as the organization’s ultimate corporate authority. As an incoming trustee, Lisa will serve….

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WikiAfrica Education initiative teaches South African students to decolonise the internet with Wikipedia

“I’m editing the page for the star Proxima Centauri. It’s missing something about the planet Proxima b, so I should fix it”. These are the words of 12-year-old Michael—surprisingly confident for someone contributing to Wikipedia for the first time. “Have you found a reference for it?,” asked a Wikimedia volunteer editor, to which Michael replied with his….

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Wikimedia Foundation appoints Valerie D’Costa as Chief of Community Engagement

The Wikimedia Foundation is excited to announce the appointment of Valerie D’Costa as Chief of Community Engagement. Valerie joins the Foundation after a decade at the World Bank Group, including nine years as leader of InfoDev, an initiative to facilitate sustainable development through access to data and information. Altogether, Valerie brings more than 25 years….

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Our favorite weird and the wonderful images from the grand re-opening of the public domain

It’s been just over three weeks since the public domain started growing again in the United States, and works from 1923 became available for anyone to freely share, remix, and enjoy.[1] Since January, hundreds of files from 1923 have been uploaded onto Wikimedia Commons, including books, images, movies, and music. It would be impossible to showcase….

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We applaud the Cleveland Museum of Art’s new open-access policy—and here’s what remains to be done.

This week, the Cleveland Museum of Art implemented a clear and permissive open access policy, removing all copyright restrictions on photographs of 30,000 items and releasing all metadata related to the 61,000 works in their collection. In short, this means that anyone, in any context, can access, reuse, and remix the collections. With this decision,….

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