2015 AGM/Elections/Statements
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AGM: Elections (Candidate statements · Candidate questions) — Resolutions |
This page contains the statements of the candidates for the board of Wikimedia UK. Please submit questions for the candidates on the 2015 AGM/Elections/Questions.
Please don't edit this page directly. If you would like to nominate someone for election, please follow the instructions at Board/Becoming a trustee.
Neil Andrew Babbage
- Self-nominated
I'm standing for election as I am willing to help address the identified skills gap of software/technology project management. Starting in IT in 1989 I have spent most of my career working either in IT itself or in related fields, such as business programme management. I've spent time as an IT auditor responsible for overseeing large scale project delivery.
For the last 10 years I've been an IT director for a large financial services company. A particular feature of my job has been the delivery of many successful major technology programmes of different types. These have included multi-year programmes, some with as many as 10 overlapping projects, with highly complex deliverables. Within these programmes there has been the full range of solutions from in-house developed applications to package installations, large platform to platform conversions and even application service provider implementations. I've delivered or overseen the delivery of back office mainframe platforms through to mobile and web based solutions. I've used many different project methodologies and I've seen the good and the bad way to deliver projects. As well as financial services my industry experience includes web start-ups, retail and hospitality
I have an MSc in Computing for Commerce and Industry and an ISEB certification in managing IT projects. With all of this experience of first delivering IT projects, then programmes of projects and finally overseeing the delivery of projects I think I can effectively close Wikimedia UK’s identified skills gap.
I am a committed Wikimedian having first edited some nine years ago and still going strong with 50K+ edits across the projects, mainly the English Wikipedia and Wikibooks.
Nancy Bell
- Proposed by Alastair McCapra, seconded by Michael Maggs
I am standing for election because I would like to use my extensive experience working in the cultural heritage sector nationally and internationally to develop closer networks and collaborations between Wikimedia and the GLAM community. There are huge opportunities to extend the reach of volunteers in new communities to create an even more vibrant Wikimedia UK. I am committed to open and accessible information as a guiding principle and would welcome the opportunity to promote this mission widely.
I have served as a Trustee of several organisations, so I am well versed in the responsibilities this role carries. Currently I am Interim-Chair of the National Heritage Science Forum, a charity that brings together higher education and heritage organisations representing a constituency of 3,000 plus, to make better use of research, technology and science to preserve and make accessible cultural heritage collections on site and on-line. I have a strong track record of fund raising - something I enjoy!
I am currently Head of Collection Care for The National Archives, UK a leader in on-line delivery, digital preservation, and information re-use. In my current role I am responsible for the preservation of one of the largest and most significant sources of information in the world dating from Domesday Book to born digital records. I have established an internationally recognised heritage science research programme in collaboration with the higher education sector and industry, and have established a programme to work closely with students and researchers to disseminate their work further as wiki editors.
Greyham Dawes
- Proposed by Simon Knight, seconded by Michael Maggs
Having served on the Board for over two years now, since being co-opted as a charity compliance specialist in February 2013, I look back with awe and admiration at the Board’s achievement in transforming itself from the hands-on management style of its pre-charity days into an entirely credible example of good charity governance and competent financial management in line with the 2013 Hudson Review’s recommendations for best practice. So much so that I am keen to continue helping with the further huge strides that must be taken as a registered charity in order to optimise the Board’s working relationship with the charity’s wider volunteer community in promoting the Open Knowledge concept at the heart of which is Wikipedia, whilst at the same time having to diversify our funding sources in keeping with the needs of our 5-year strategy.
My specialist knowledge of Charity Commission policy and practice in all aspects of regulatory compliance and public accountability has proved to be just the ticket during these two years or so of rapid development and challenge for WMUK. If re-elected, I will be able to continue helping out with the challenges to come, drawing on my years in the nineties as the Commission’s Accountancy Policy Adviser, as well as my ongoing professional experience in my day-job as a technical directors in the Not-for-profit Unit of Crowe Clark Whitehill, an international accountancy practice, to provide useful input for the Board’s policies, strategies, systems and procedures, also on our two Board Committees. My aim will be to help achieve the right relationship also with the Wikimedia Foundation as well as with its family of Chapters around the world, in harmonious collaboration with the dedicated volunteers among our company membership and the wider UK Wiki Community.
Josie Fraser
- Proposed by Simon Knight, seconded by Michael Maggs
I'm delighted to be standing for for election to serve and support the Wikimedia UK community in the role of Trustee.
I'm a committed advocate of the core principles of the foundation - to help people and organisations create and share knowledge accessible and openly for public and social benefit. I have an established international reputation for effective and innovative leadership in the use of technology to support professional and organisational development and change, supported by and championing open educational practice.
I've worked across the education sector with schools, FE and adult education, and universities. For the past five years I have worked in local government as the strategic technology lead of one of the country's largest and most accelerated school building programmes. I manage and have invested circa £30million in technology and staff development relating to the use of technology, to raise aspiration and achievement, supporting young people and families. I have extensive experience of HR, legal, and commercial work, dispute resolution, and in the creation of and recruitment to new roles. I have significant experience of successfully galvanising local, national and international networks. I work across policy, strategy and practice. I have demonstrable expertise in securing funding, building partnerships, and in senior level negotiation, decision making, and risk management. I understand the difficult challenges of effective and sustainable change. I am committed to the principles of public life, equality, diversity and social justice.
If elected, I would work to contribute to the strategic development and good governance of Wikimedia UK. I would actively seek to support growth, to increase practical impact, and to raise the organisations profile to ensure its critical work and role is more widely understood and acknowledged.
Michael Maggs
- Proposed by Simon Knight, seconded by Chris Keating
Having been elected to the board in July 2013, I have been privileged to serve as chair for the last 18 months. More remains to be done to help the charity reach its full potential and I am seeking election for a second term with that aim.
Over the last two years the charity has matured very significantly, and my efforts have been directed to helping us work more effectively and to achieve greater open knowledge impact. The key is making better use of our volunteer resources, expanding those resources, and significantly enhancing our collaborations with other organisations in the open knowledge, cultural heritage, education and academic sectors.
Our governance improvements, five-year strategy, impact measurements, staff restructure and CEO transition have taken significant time and effort but have been very worthwhile in putting us on a secure organisational footing. Now, I would like us to build on this work and take advantage of the huge potential of our charity. We must reiterate our commitment to being a volunteer-focused organisation and make a step change in volunteer engagement, numbers, and real open knowledge impact.
On wiki, I have edited as MichaelMaggs since 2004, mainly on Commons. My main areas of focus have been writing and developing Commons policy and guidelines, and copyright issues, although recently much more of my time has been spent on WMUK than on Commons. I am a bureaucrat and OTRS volunteer. For each of the last two years I was the lead volunteer for Wiki Loves Monuments in the UK.
Prior to my retirement and election to the WMUK board I had 22 years corporate governance experience as a partner of a London IP law firm, with joint board responsibility for a staff of around 130. My specialization was computer and software-related IP.
Nick Poole
- Proposed by Alastair McCapra, seconded by Michael Maggs
I am applying to serve as a Trustee of Wikimedia UK because I am committed to promoting openness as a core principle of public life. I have worked over the past 20 years to open up access to and engagement with knowledge as an inalienable human right – first through my work with the international cultural heritage community and now in my leadership role in the library and information world.
I fundamentally support the Wikimedia UK mission of collecting, developing, promoting and distributing open knowledge both as a personal belief and as the inspiration for my professional work. I also recognise the challenges to embedding these principles during a period of economic transition and am committed to supporting Wikimedia UK in overcoming them.
I am currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, a community of more than 13,500 librarians and information workers. My previous roles include serving as CEO of the Collections Trust, a network of some 26,000 museums and cultural heritage institutions and as Chair of the Europeana Network. In this capacity I have advised Governments and NGOs on policy relating to copyright, the digital agenda and the Creative Industries. I have also been able to secure more than EUR19m in new investment in digital programmes from the European Commission and other funders.
I am able to bring to this role extensive knowledge of and influence in the international GLAM community, strong connections to policymakers and funders in the UK and Europe and more than a decade’s experience of supporting charitable organisations as a Trustee and Treasurer.
A full version of my CV is available online in support of this application at http://nickpoole.org.uk/onlinecv/.
Joseph Reddington
- Proposed by Simon Knight, seconded by Michael Maggs
I'm Joe and I'm standing for election to be a trustee of Wikimedia UK. I think I have a lot to offer, particularly in the areas of education, volunteer management/engagement and GLAM.
I'm comfortable with the duties and overall responsibility of being a trustee. I was a trustee for the charity Signalong and this year I left my job as a computer science researcher (I worked on the design of semantics for programming languages amongst many other things) to start the social enterprise eQuality Time. I now work on social projects full time and this has given me valuable experience in fundraising: we've had grants approved by NESTA, the National Lottery, the Awesome Foundation, and London Catalyst.
I've been making use of collective wiki-like principles in education for some years. I designed the process behind http://www.whitewaterwriters.com (you can see me talk a little bit about it at http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Your-book-in-your-hands-Joe-R-2) and over the last six weeks alone I've co-ordinated 20 volunteers who are leading teams of young people to create their own collaborative novels (stories like this one: http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Big-Read-Writing-project-shows-novels-child-8217/story-26687891-detail/story.html) all over the country.
One of my major passions is disability, particularly communication. I lead the open projects CommuniKate and AzuleJoe and you can see me talk a little bit more about them in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0nJN5Tddx0. I've also released open data sets looking a provision of assistive technology across the UK http://joereddington.com/aac-and-the-domesday-dataset/. For the last three years I've run the Flowers for Turing (http://flowersforturing.joereddington.com/) event, raising money for the charity Special Effect. I'm interested in finding ways that we can make wikimedia events more accessible.
When I'm not running my own projects I enjoy climbing and blogging at joereddington.com (this might be of particular interest to wikipedians: http://joereddington.com/4534/2014/11/24/the-list-of-uk-politicians-most-likely-to-be-making-up-facts./)
Doug Taylor
- Proposed by Michael Peel, seconded by Harry Mitchell
I've edited Wikipedia as User:RexxS for over seven years. I've written featured content (both article and list) and have an interest in accessibility where I've collaborated in improving the English Wikipedia particularly for visually-impaired visitors. I'm the principal author of the Wikidata module used to import information from Wikidata into Wikipedia. I'm also involved in WikiProject Medicine and serve on the Board of WikiProject Medicine Foundation, a Thematic User Group, affiliated to WMF.
I taught in 11-18 schools for 25 years, before starting an IT career 18 years ago, where I taught FE and HE as well as adults. I was a member of examining boards for 30 years, including 6 years as Chair of The West Midlands Examination Board, a registered charity, and Vice-Chair of the OCR committee that deals with malpractice. For over ten years I was Chair of the board of Job Change, a registered charity dedicated to helping the unemployed back into work. My hobby is scuba diving, and I've been a National Instructor for over 20 years.
I've served on many committees in different roles, from Secretary of a local teacher's trades union to Chair of Governors of both primary and secondary schools. I was a Trustee of WMUK from 2012-13 and was heavily involved in the setting up of Board sub-committees. I am currently a director of COL, the subsidiary of WMUK that looks after QRpedia.
I am now happily retired, and keen to devote my time and skills to helping WMUK. I am a Lead Trainer for WMUK and over the last few years, I've organised and/or participated in many outreach events in Liverpool, Manchester, Plymouth, Coventry, and London, including a whole day editathon hosted by Barclays, for which I trained around 500 new editors by video from around the world.