Lucy was co-opted through an open, competitive recruitment process. As founder and CEO of the Centre for Net Zero, and the UK government’s AI Champion for Clean Energy, Lucy brings valuable experience in organisational leadership, open data, public policy, and emerging technologies – all highly relevant to Wikimedia UK’s future direction. During the recruitment process Lucy also demonstrated a deep commitment to open access, with experience of leading and implementing open data policies and practice, and a thoughtful, collaborative approach to charity governance. 

Lucy Yu comments:

“I’m very pleased to join Wikimedia UK as the new Chair of the Board. Having built my career around technology for the public good, I am a huge admirer of the Wikimedia projects and often think of Wikipedia as one of the great wonders of our internet world. As chair, my priorities are to drive the widest possible access to Wikimedia’s open content, recognising in particular the role and impact of new AI-based technologies and tools; and to find and nurture the next generation of contributors to these vital resources. I am delighted to inherit an impressive and dedicated set of colleagues in this mission and I am looking forward to working with Lucy Crompton-Reid, Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK, and her team. Many and grateful thanks go to my predecessor Monisha Shah, and interim Chair Alex Ashby.” 

Lucy joins Wikimedia UK as our new Chair at an exciting time, as we reflect on a period of sustained growth in the charity’s income, impact and profile, and look forward to delivering our ambitious new strategy for 2025 to 2030. 

Alex Ashby comments:

“It has been a privilege to serve as Interim Chair during this important transitional period for Wikimedia UK. I’m delighted to welcome Lucy Yu to the role and confident that her leadership will be transformative for the charity. Her collaborative style and strategic insight stood out throughout the recruitment process, and I look forward to supporting her and the Board as we embark on the next chapter of Wikimedia UK’s journey.”

The post Wikimedia UK welcomes Lucy Yu as new Chair of its Board of Trustees appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Ideal candidate

The ideal candidate for this role will bring significant leadership experience within the public or nonprofit sectors, coupled with a strong understanding of charity governance, financial oversight, and strategic planning. Excellent communication skills and a commitment to inclusivity, open knowledge, and the values of Wikimedia UK are essential. Experience in areas such as cultural heritage, education, or climate is desirable.

About the role

The Chair will shape our strategic direction, ensuring effective governance and representing Wikimedia UK externally. Key responsibilities include chairing quarterly board meetings and the AGM and acting as the main liaison with the Chief Executive. 

Time commitment

The expected commitment is at least a day per month, mostly online but with some in-person engagements in London. Reasonable expenses will be reimbursed. The initial appointment will be for two-years, with the possibility of extension by mutual agreement.

How to apply

For more information including how to apply, download the recruitment pack here.

Deadline

The deadline for applications is Sunday 18th May 2025.

This is a unique opportunity to lead a forward-thinking charity. As Chair, you will work alongside a dedicated Board and talented staff to make a meaningful impact in the lives of millions across the U.K. and beyond

The post Join Wikimedia UK – Chair of the Board of Trustees appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

A message from Monisha Shah

“Wikimedia UK is an outstanding example of how fantastic people – trustees, staff colleagues, volunteers – working together with integrity and commitment can ensure that a small charity has a huge impact. The work that it does is important, now more than ever. It has been my privilege to chair WMUK  and to support its core missions. I will miss working with this talented group of people who stand firmly for knowledge equity and information literacy and this distinguished Board who have the courage and commitment to stand alongside them. I wish Wikimedia UK all the best in its future endeavours”.

A message from Lucy-Crompton-Reid – Wikimedia UK Chief Executive

“It has been a real privilege to work closely with Monisha over the past four years, and to learn from her significant experience in charity governance and organisational leadership. I have greatly valued Monisha’s professional but pragmatic approach, her unswerving commitment to the charity and her personal warmth and humour. I wish her all the very best in her future endeavours”. 

Looking Ahead: Recruitment for a New Chair

We have started the process of recruiting for a new Chair. This is a pivotal leadership role, responsible for guiding our organisation’s strategic direction, ensuring strong governance, and representing Wikimedia UK to our community and stakeholders. We are seeking an inspiring leader with a passion for open knowledge and experience in charity governance.

Interested candidates are encouraged to apply before the deadline on 18 May 2025.

Celebrating Monisha’s Tenure 

During her time, Monisha has been a champion of Wikimedia UK’s mission, helping to:

• Strengthen organisational governance and financial resilience
• Expand strategic partnerships and community initiatives
• Increase visibility and impact of Wikimedia projects across the UK
• Support a diverse and inclusive organisational culture

We sincerely thank Monisha for her dedication, vision, and leadership. Her contributions have laid a strong foundation for Wikimedia UK’s future success. We look forward to welcoming a new Chair to lead our organisation into its next chapter soon.

About Wikimedia UK

Wikimedia UK is a registered charity dedicated to supporting Wikimedia projects and promoting open knowledge and information literacy. Our mission is to enable people in the UK to engage with open knowledge and access reliable information in order to develop their understanding of the world, and make informed decisions about issues that affect them. We work in partnership with organisations from the cultural and education sectors and beyond to unlock content, remove barriers to knowledge, develop new ways of engaging with the public and enable learners to benefit fully from the educational potential of the Wikimedia projects.

Stay Connected

For updates on the board transition or to learn more about our work, please contact us at info@wikimedia.org.uk.

The post Monisha Shah to Step Down as Chair of the Wikimedia UK Board of Trustees appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Aim of the session

Wikimedia UK works on a three year strategic planning cycle, and we are now developing our new strategy for 2022 to 2025. I gave a brief overview of the process that the organisation is currently engaged in and what’s happened so far. Our schedule is aligned with our application deadline for funding from the Wikimedia Foundation, for which we’ll be applying for multi-year funding for the first time.

Introductions

As part of the introductions, everyone shared their aspirations for the meeting, with key themes being to make connections, understand Wikimedia UK’s priorities and engage with the wider community. The meeting was also another opportunity (following our AGM in July) to introduce our new Chair of Trustees, Monisha Shah. Monisha shared a little of her own background, and why access to knowledge is so important to her. She explained that she has a portfolio career focused on board roles within the arts, culture and media sectors, following high level roles at the BBC. Monisha emphasised her interest in hearing from the community. She noted that she is not active on social media but that volunteers were welcome to contact her via LinkedIn or the Wikimedia UK team. 

Blue Sky Thinking

After this introduction, we split into three breakout groups to finish the statement “wouldn’t it be fantastic if…” for what we’d like Wikimedia UK to achieve in the next three years. This generated lots of great ideas and objectives which coalesced into some key themes, as follows:

EQUITY

A high proportion of responses to the prompt question above were focused on equitable participation and representation. This ranged from diversifying the UK’s editors, administrators and membership, through to working with small language Wikipedias, delivering diaspora outreach, and supporting initiatives to repatriate knowledge as a form of decolonisation.  

CLIMATE

There were several responses focused on the climate crisis, with an aspiration for us to be able to offer wide-ranging and trusted information about the climate crisis across multiple languages. There was a question over whether Wikimedia UK should be applying pressure on the government regarding the crisis. On a practical level, it was felt that in the first instance Wikimedia UK needs to identify what we can do to support editors documenting and sharing information about climate change (including those involved with WikiProject Climate Change)

OPEN KNOWLEDGE

Many responses to the prompt statement “wouldn’t it be fantastic if” involved the opening up of knowledge and information. Under this general umbrella was an aspiration that all publicly funded institutions should commit to ethical open access as their default position; and that we are able to address copyright law to ensure that publicly funded research has to be made available under an open licence. Other responses included more partnerships with heritage organisations, local history initiatives and archives; more Wikimedians in Residence; and more work with diverse communities and collections. A number of responses were specifically about images – such as every notable structure in the UK having a photo and Wikidata item, and working with external partners to ensure an image for every UK article. 

EDUCATION

It’s clear that the Wikimedia UK community remains deeply concerned about misinformation and disinformation. There is a strong commitment to helping young people understand how knowledge is created and shared, and develop information literacy skills. There is also a clear ambition to have an impact on the school curriculum – particularly in England (following our success in Wales) – and to have more residencies in Universities. 

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND AWARENESS

A number of responses were focused on the public’s understanding of Wikimedia. In particular, it was felt that there needs to be more understanding that Wikipedia is a tertiary source that can be edited by anyone, and greater awareness and use of the sister projects, such as Wikisource. It was noted that Wikimedia UK should have sufficient technical development capacity to be actively contributing to MediaWiki development for Wikimedia’s sister projects. The perennial issue of the distinction between Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation was also raised.

COMMUNITY/MOVEMENT

Two out of the three breakout groups identified an objective to diversify Wikimedia UK’s funding base so as to be less reliant on our core grant from the Wikimedia Foundation. It was also suggested that the role of affiliates will be under more scrutiny with the creation of the Movement Charter and Global Council; and that within that context, Wikimedia UK needs to be clear about its purpose and relevance. Other comments were more focused on community engagement, with a number of responses around a theme of developing closer relationships between the affiliate and online communities, and enabling people who engage with our programmes to become more involved with the work of the organisation, contributing to the movement in broader ways.

Emerging Strategic Themes

After this very productive session, I introduced participants to the key themes which have emerged from the board and staff away days held earlier in the autumn. Once these are finalised, they will form the basis of our programme development and delivery over the next three years:

• Knowledge Equity
• Information Literacy
• Climate Crisis

A number of other areas have been identified, which we believe are essential to delivering an effective programme. These are still in draft form, but include community, advocacy, communications, equity, diversity and inclusion, and organisational resilience and sustainability.

It was encouraging to see the extent of the overlap between the themes that emerged from the board and staff away days, and the priorities identified through this community session. 

Engaging Volunteers

At this point I handed over to Daria Cybulska, Wikimedia UK’s Director of Programmes and Evaluation, to lead the final session of the meeting. This was focused explicitly on community, and asked participants to respond to the following questions, in a plenary discussion:

1. As a community member, where do you see an opportunity to get involved in the emerging strategy, and what would you need from WMUK to support that?
2. How could the Wikimedia UK community deliver the ideas generated so far?

These prompted a wide range of responses, contributions and further questions. I’ve summarised the key discussion areas below, all of which have given the team food for thought in terms of volunteer engagement and support:

• Do we have communities of interest or communities of place? Do volunteers see themselves as aligned with a particular project – e.g. English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons – or the chapter? And does this matter?
• People’s journey into Wikipedia is often through competitions such as Wiki Loves Monuments. How can we use this knowledge to galvanise more participation? Other entry points are vandalism and correcting typos. How can we use this knowledge to support editor recruitment? There’s something important about small, accessible tasks as a way to start. It could be correcting typos, or adding categories and references to articles.
• This led to an interesting discussion about the use of the word ‘editathon’ which might suggest something that’s a slog, requiring stamina and discipline. Should we change the language to focus more on words like workshops, training, introductory sessions etc. It was noted that increasingly, work lists for online editing events have tasks across a broad range of activities, reflecting different levels of digital confidence and time constraints.

Wrapping up and next steps

I wrapped up the session by explaining that I would be sharing the draft strategic framework for 2022 – 2025 later this month (November) and welcome feedback on it. Please watch this space for that! And thanks again to everyone who attended. It was wonderful to see people (even if it was over Zoom) and to hear from our community about what’s important to them in the creation of Wikimedia UK’s next three year strategy. 

The post Talking strategy with Wikimedia UK’s community appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

On 16th March 2020, the UK Prime Minister asked the nation to stop non-essential contact and travel; a week before the start of what we now know to be a series of ‘lockdowns’ designed to contain Covid-19. I was working from home that day and immediately called my colleague Davina Johnson, Director of Finance and Operations for Wikimedia UK, to discuss bringing forward the closure of the office. As she works part-time and was therefore not in the office either, we decided that we would both go in the next day – along with any other staff who wanted to do so – to gather files, equipment and other things that we thought we might need if we were working remotely for a few weeks or months. 

Of course, it has turned out to be a lot longer than a few weeks. Writing this blog post at the end of September 2021, I have been in the London office a total of four times since March last year. Whilst some staff have been in the office more regularly (notably Davina, along with a new Operations Coordinator who joined the team in July this year), most have been working at home throughout the pandemic. This has brought some unique challenges, as many of you reading this will be familiar with, but it has also brought some unexpected benefits. Programme Coordinators based in Scotland and Wales noted how, with everyone working from home, they felt more connected to the rest of the team. More effort has been made to share information online, and to find new ways of engaging with each other away from the office; and remote staff were not, as in former times, half forgotten as we all trudged into the meeting room and handed around biscuits and cups of tea while someone tried to make the AV work for a hybrid staff meeting. 

Maintaining this feeling of parity and a shared organisational culture regardless of where staff are based is only going to become more important to Wikimedia UK. For one thing, our team has grown over the past year, and we now have five staff who are fully remote, while ten are notionally based in our London office. As we emerge from the pandemic, we are also moving to a hybrid model of working, in which staff will only be expected to work in the office on agreed days and for specific purposes. 

Earlier this year, the Board of Trustees considered the options for future working, looking at what it might mean for the organisation to become wholly virtual, to return to office-based working, or to embrace more flexible working. They all agreed that as a small charity working within the socio-technological space, we have the opportunity to create a work culture and environment that combines the best of home working with intentional moments of in person gatherings across our staff, board and wider community for strategising, creative exploration and social connection.

In practice, we are moving to hybrid working whilst the country still grapples with Covid-19. Although all staff are now fully vaccinated, case numbers continue to be high and include ‘breakthrough’ infections in people who have had the vaccine. We have therefore put in place a series of measures to try to reduce the risk to staff and guests, and to make a gradual return to using the office as safe as we can for everyone. These include a requirement for a negative lateral flow test for any staff, board member or visitor to the office. For the time being we are also restricting the number of people in the office at any one time to a maximum of six. Alongside this, we are consulting with all staff individually to determine what their working pattern might look like within this hybrid model. 

As a small organisation, we have the luxury of creating something that works for everyone, and takes individual preferences into account. But we will almost certainly make mistakes along the way. Over the next six months – or perhaps even longer – we will need to codify our expectations for how often staff will be in the office, and within what parameters they will be required to attend external meetings and events. We also want to consult with members and volunteers about their needs, and the shape of future community-focused activities. For anyone trying to reach us, email is probably still the best route. Whilst staff are now starting to return to the office, we can’t guarantee that there will always be someone there to answer the phones. It will probably be some months before we can be really clear with our stakeholders and the wider general public about how ‘open’ our London office really is; and I hope you will bear with us as we navigate this new reality. For now though, I’m just pleased to be able to meet up with staff and board members in person for the first time in 18 months. It’s been a long haul.

The post Wikimedia UK returns to the office, but trials a new way of working appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

We had a wonderful Annual General Meeting and Community Day on Saturday, and we’d like to thank all of our members, volunteers, trustees, staff and supporters who attended and made the day so special. Thanks to a large number of our members using their votes for our board elections we’re pleased to say we were quorate.

We had an excellent keynote from George Oates in discussion with Nick Poole, which you can catch in the full video of the event on our YouTube. We also heard from five superb lightning speakers; Lorna Campbell on the representation of HIV/AIDS activism on Wikipedia, Jason Evans on the Places of Wales, Dr Martin Poulter and Waqas Ahmed on their visual arts bias research, Dr. Kirsty Ross on the IDEA Network at the University of St Andrews, and Cas Libre on the Core Contest.

Elections

We voted in three trustees, welcoming two new candidates Julian Akodoye Manieson, and Caroline Ball, and re-electing Rod Ward, with huge thanks to all six candidates who put themselves forward for the board this year. We’re excited to welcome new skills onto the board, and retain such a valuable board member in Rod. We also passed all proposed resolutions, allowing the charity to keep running smoothly for the next year.

At the meeting, Nick Poole also announced that following his departure from the board at the end of the meeting, which marked six years since he was elected as a trustee, Lorna Campbell would be stepping in as Interim Chair until October. Nick welcomed our new co-opted trustee and Chair Elect, Monisha Shah. We’d like to thank Nick Poole and Doug Taylor for their outstanding contributions to the board, both as advocates for the chapter and in their unique skills they freely offer to the staff team.

Awards

UK Wikimedian of the Year

Marco Cafolla won the award for their efforts supporting the Scots Wikipedia. They have been a key part of the wiki, organising editathons which not only improved content but fostered a community of editors working together. Having people within a community who can step up and organise is invaluable, and those efforts mean that Scots Wikipedia is improving ever

Honourable Mention goes to Ian Watt who is a tremendously active volunteer and advocate for open knowledge, working with Commons, Wikidata, and Wikipedia. Over the last year he has run public-facing workshops and editathons, and he is hosting and supervising an Edinburgh University post-grad student running a mass transcription of the Register of Returned Criminals (1869-1939).

Up-and-Coming Wikimedian of the Year

Awarded jointly to Abd Alsattar Ardati and Lucy Moore. Abd is one of Wikimedia UK’s accredited trainers and has been proactive in helping his university engage with Wikimedia; his efforts have helped WMUK adapted to the methodology of online training. Lucy is another excellent advocate for Wikimedia – she has organised events at her place of work and encourages people in the museum and archaeology sectors to work with Wikimedia; she is also an active editor and writes articles addressing Wikipedia’s content imbalances.

Partnership of the Year

London College of Communication won the award for the Decolonising Wikipedia Network was set up in 2020 involving students and staff to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of under-represented topics. The Student Changemakers (who had a prominent role in leading the decolonisation efforts) were powerful advocates for the project and presented to staff and fellow students. The successful project will expand over the next academic year to include the whole of University of Arts, London, of which LCC is a part.

Honourable Mention goes to the Scotland, Slavery and Black History project at the University of Edinburgh. History students were invited to improve public knowledge of Scotland’s Black history, and to help make Scotland’s deep connections to Atlantic slavery better understood. They have provided videos on their reflections on this work to local Edinburgh secondary schools who are also interested in Dundas and improving black history on Wikipedia.

Honorary members

We’re pleased to award honorary membership, which waives the requirement to pay an annual membership fee, to Rosie Chapman, Mike Peel and Martin Poulter. Honorary Members have the same rights and responsibilities as regards to the charity as any other member, and do not constitute a separate class of membership. The board reviews its recognition of all Honorary Members at least annually. The memberships were awarded by the Board of Trustees in recognition of the outstanding contributions to the chapter; Rosie for her support in governance for the last six years, Mike for his valuable contributions during the early days of the chapter, and Martin for being an outstanding advocate and contributor in his work as Resident and beyond.

Thank you again to everyone who made Saturday so enjoyable, and welcome to our new trustees. If you’d like to become a member so you can vote in future AGMs and help shape the charity’s governance and strategy, please sign up here.

The post Our 2021 AGM and Community Day appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Wikimedia UK is delighted to announce the appointment of a new Chair of the Board of Trustees, Nick Poole. 

Nick Poole is the Chief Executive of CILIP, the UK’s library and information association. His previous roles, before joining CILIP in 2015, include CEO of Collections Trust and National Policy Adviser at the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. Nick was previously Chair of the International Council of Museums UK and of the Europeana Network. He has lectured and presented worldwide on topics relating to cultural heritage, technology and the arts, and is a visiting lecturer at several Universities.

Nick was elected to the board of Wikimedia UK in July 2015, and so already has an in depth understanding of the work of the chapter and the aims and ambitions of the Wikimedia movement. During the time that Nick has already been on the board, Wikimedia UK has benefited from his extensive knowledge of the cultural sector, his strong connections and influence with senior leaders and policy makers, and his passionate commitment to openness as an essential element of social justice. I’m extremely pleased that Nick has been appointed Chair of the Board and am looking forward to working with him more closely in this new role. 

At the same time, it’s with sadness that I have to announce Josie Fraser’s departure from the Wikimedia UK board – after nearly five years of service – due to increasing time constraints given her new role as Head of Digital Policy at National Lottery Heritage Fund. Josie became Chair of Wikimedia UK in July 2017, and has been an inspiring and supportive leader to me and to the rest of the organisation over the past few years. Josie’s deep understanding of and connections with the open sector, learning technology and Open Educational Resources has been hugely beneficial to the development of our profile and programme over the last few years and she will be hugely missed. I know Josie will also be missed by international colleagues, as she has forged strong relationships with the Chairs of other chapters and user groups across the global Wikimedia movement. 

For more information about the role of the board and details of our other serving trustees, please see Wikimedia UK board.

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2019 board elections and resolutions

Thank you to all members who attended our AGM on Saturday or voted by proxy. We had an excellent response from eligible voting members, receiving 91 votes in total – ensuring that the meeting was quorate and helping us to elect five board members and agree all the proposed resolutions. The full minutes of the AGM will be on wiki soon, but in the meantime we’re happy to announce the election of:

• Sangeet Bhullar
• Lorna Campbell
• Andrea Chandler
• Josie Fraser
• Rod Ward

Sangeet, Lorna and Josie were all existing trustees who were standing for another term, so we’re very pleased that Wikimedia UK will continue to benefit from their considerable expertise. We’re also delighted to welcome Andrea and Rod as new trustees, and look forward to seeing how their skills and insights can enrich the Wikimedia UK Board. 

We’d also like to take this opportunity to formally thank the other members who stood for the board and encourage you to consider standing in future years, and continue to work with the charity in other ways in the meantime. 

Presentations and workshops

We were delighted to hear from a range of speakers on Saturday, and our Communications Co-ordinator is currently editing a film of the talks so that they can reach more of our members. Brandi Geurkink, European Campaigner from Mozilla Foundation, gave a fascinating and informative keynote talk on the information supply chain and combating misinformation online; calling for those of us working in and passionate about open knowledge to support this work. Our programme co-ordinator in Scotland, Sara Thomas, wove a magical story of ogres and witches to shine a light on recent on-wiki activities to remember Scotland’s hidden historical women; and four other members gave Lightning Talks on subjects including Wikimedia and Museums, the Central and Eastern European Wikipedia article writing contest, Wiki Loves Monuments, and the WiciMon project in Wales – which you can learn more about by watching this video.

We had a stimulating discussion about how the policies, structure and culture of Wikipedia impact on the behaviour of its contributors. The conversations as a plenary and in smaller facilitated groups proved to be highly insightful and informative, and we are pulling together the notes from this session to inform our work on community health going forward. As an alternative to this workshop, several members went on a photography walk around the Old City in Bristol to capture some of the landmarks missing from Wikimedia Commons.

Awards

Lorna Campbell announced Wikimedia UK’s Partnership of the Year and Wikimedian of the Year, along with honourable mentions for both categories.

The Partnership of the Year Award went to Amnesty International for their collaboration with Wikimedia UK on the BRAVE campaign. This project – focused on women human rights defenders – saw 550 articles created or expanded across seven languages, as well as new relationships and partnerships between local Wikimedia groups and Amnesty sections. An ‘honourable mention’ in this Award category was given to The Dumphries Stonecarving Project, which celebrates the sandstone heritage of Dumfries. 

Wikimedian of the Year went to Dr. Jess Wade, whose work is making women in science more visible through the creation of a high number of biographies on Wikipedia about prominent women in STEM; and who has inspired others to do the same in science and other disciplines. Andrew Gray received an honourable mention for his extensive and valuable work on his Wikidata project focused on British politicians.

More details about the winners and honourable mentions can be found here.

Honorary members

Former Chair and outgoing trustee Michael Maggs introduced the charity’s first Honorary Memberships, awarded by the Board to those members who have contributed significantly to the progress of the chapter. These were presented to Carol Campbell and Greyham Dawes in recognition of their outstanding work as Chair of ARC and Treasurer of Wikimedia UK respectively, and we were especially pleased that Carol was able to make the journey to Bristol to accept her Honorary Membership. 

Thank you to everyone who made the AGM such an enjoyable day. You can find an online version of the Strategic Report that was in the delegate packs here, and a video about the day will be on wiki soon.

The post Wikimedia UK’s 2019 Annual General Meeting – election results and more appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Earlier this month I took some time out from my Edinburgh work to travel to Vienna to take part in the Wikipedia for Peace editathon organized by Wikimedia Austria to coincide with Europride 2019. The event brought together twelve editors from all over the world to create and edit LBGT+ articles in a range of European languages over the course of four days. Unfortunately I missed the first day and half of the event as my travel plans were thwarted when a tree brought down overhead power lines on the West Coast mainline, my train to London was cancelled and I missed my flight. Not the most auspicious start! I eventually managed to get to Vienna on Thursday afternoon in time for a walk around the city visiting significant queer sites, including the home of Josef Kohout, whose experiences of incarceration in a Nazi concentration camp are recorded in Heinz Heger’s The Men With the Pink Triangle. Later in the day we made our way to Wikimedia Austria’s offices for an online meeting of the LGBT+ User Group, which is in the process of scoping a role for an LGBT+ Wikimedia at Large.

On Friday our group spent the morning discussing LGBT+ strategy within the global Wikimedia movement. Issues that were raised included addressing homophobia and discrimination in some Wikipedia chapters and communities, educating Wikipedians around issues relating to gender identity, the need for multilingual LGBT+ style guides, particularly addressing how to write about trans individuals on the encyclopedia without misgendering them. We also felt strongly that as a condition of funding, the Wikimedia Foundation should require chapters to demonstrate how they are actively supporting and promoting equality and diversity, while acknowledging that how chapters are able to do this will look very different across the world.

Friday afternoon was devoted to editing. When I applied to Wikimedia UK for a project grant to attend Wikimedia for Peace, I said that I hoped to create some articles around bisexual topics and individuals, which are sometimes marginalised in the LGBT+ community. The first article I created was Bi Academic Intervention, group of bisexual academics, researchers, scholars and writers, which was formed at the 11th National Bisexual Conference in Notttingham in 1993, an event that I coincidentally attended.  I also translated articles on Sápmi Pride and Serbian gay rights and peace activist Dejan Nebrigić, who was murdered in Pancevo in 1999. That article prompted one of our participants to write a new Serbian article on Arkadija, the first LGBT+ organisation in Serbia, founded by Nebrigić and colleagues in 1990. I translated that article into English too, though it still needs a bit of work to bring it up to scratch.

The total outputs of the Wikipedia for Peace editathon are:

• 113 new articles created and translated
• 5 articles improved
• 5 meta pages improved
• 21 new Wikidata items created
• 9 Wikidata items improved

Plus hundreds of images of the Europride village and parade. This is a huge achievement for the event, and a significant contribution to improving equality, diversity and queer representation on Wikipedia.

The parade itself took place on Saturday in 38 degree heat. How the drag queens in their finery and the kinksters in their leather and latex survived is beyond me. I haven’t seen a final estimate of how many took part in the parade, but one press report the following day said 500,000 people attended the event, which I can quite believe. The whole atmosphere was very friendly and laid back and I particularly appreciated the fact that the parade was un-ticketed and open to all. Like Pride parades the world over, there was a visible corporate presence but it was much less obvious than at some other events. Like everyone there, I took a ridiculous number of pictures of the parade, 60 of which I uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of the Wiki Loves Pride competition. Huge thanks to all the amazing participants who were so happy to be photographed.  It’s been a joy to see more and more pictures of both Wikipedia for Peace and the Europride Parade being uploaded to Commons over the last fortnight.

I’ve carried on working on my Wikipedia articles since getting back from Vienna, and am hoping to create a new article on Scottish Aids Monitor as part of Wiki Loves Pride. So much of the queer history of Scotland and the UK is poorly represented on the encyclopaedia, if it appears at all, so I hope I can make a small contribution to improving representation, and work with the Wiki community to address equality and diversity across the movement.

I’m immensely grateful to Wikimedia UK for funding my travel to Wikipedia Loves Peace, to Wikimedia Austria for organising and supporting the event, to all those who participated (it was amazing to meet you all), and last but not least, to Thomas for making it all happen and for looking after us so well during our time in Vienna ♡

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We are very pleased to announce the recent appointment of three new trustees to Wikimedia UK’s board. Sangeet Bhullar, Jane Carlin and Marnie Woodward bring a range of skills and experience to the board including financial management, strategic partnerships and digital literacy.

Sangeet Bhullar joined the Wikimedia UK board in January 2019. She is the Founder and Director of WISE KIDS, which focuses on New Media Literacy Education, Digital Citizenship, Online Safety and Digital Well-being. In the last 17 years, Sangeet has worked with thousands of young people, parents and professionals in the UK, Singapore and Malaysia, addressing these themes. She is passionate about amplifying young people’s voices and about rights and agency in addressing risk, harm, opportunity and well-being online. Sangeet is based in Wales and is a member of a number of Welsh government and non-government committees. She will sit on Wikimedia UK’s Partnerships Advisory Board, helping to shape the chapter’s education programme.

Jane Carlin has been a trustee of Wikimedia UK since September 2018. She has served in a wide range of senior finance roles within the publishing and wider media sector, including educational publishing, and brings strong finance and compliance skills to the board. Jane is a chartered management accountant and is Chair of Wikimedia UK’s Audit and Risk Committee.

Marnie Woodward also joined the board in September 2018. She is a chartered management accountant, and has been involved in the charity sector as a finance director for several decades, having worked with the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Mental Health Foundation, the Musicians Benevolent Fund and RPS Rainer among others. Previously she was a trustee and the chair of the Finance and Administration Committee of the Church Urban fund. She brings knowledge and experience of financial and organisational issues across a range of charitable enterprises. Marnie sits on the Audit and Risk Committee and is Treasurer for Wikimedia UK.

We are delighted to have attracted trustees of this calibre to the Wikimedia UK board, with such an impressive range of skills, knowledge and experience, and are looking forward to the new insights they can offer the charity over the next few years. There will be a number of additional board vacancies at Wikimedia UK this year, and we encourage members of our community to consider whether they could play a role within the governance of the organisation.

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