User:Siko (WMF)

I joined the Wikimedia Foundation in June 2011, first as Head of Community Fellowships, then moving into grantmaking focused on individuals, and today leading the Community Resources team. I like to build new projects and help others do the same. I've worked with global online communities for nearly 10 years now, and am particularly interesting in cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration. Before WMF, I worked with organizations like hi5.com, where I built a crowd-sourced community translation program to localize the site into not nearly as many languages as Wikimedia has, and Meedan.org, where I built online community focused on English-Arabic dialogue. I have a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.A. in Middle East History from the American University in Cairo. These days, when I'm not online, I prefer to be at the beach.

I work with a team of program officers to support the Wikimedia community with the resources (funding, mentorship, connections, etc) it needs to make great things happen. I also spend time thinking about ways to address Wikimedia's gender gap whenever I can, am a fan of new experiments in online community organizing, and generally take responsibility for dreaming up ways we can support more community members in partnership with the rest of the Community Engagement team. The best part of my job is learning from community members what we can do together to make this movement even more amazing.

Some projects I've co-created, in partnership with other staff and volunteers, include:

• IdeaLab
• Inspire Campaign
• Individual Engagement Grants
• WikiWomen's Collaborative
• Wikipedia Teahouse

Disclaimer: I work for or provide services to the Wikimedia Foundation, and this is the account I try to use for edits or statements I make in that role. However, the Foundation does not vet all my activity, and edits, statements, or other contributions made by this account may not reflect the views of the Foundation.