Archive:Press releases/Sue Gardner joins Global Voices board of directors

Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner named to the Board of Directors at Global Voices

SAN FRANCISCO -- January 16, 2013 -- The Wikimedia Foundation is happy to announce that Sue Gardner has been named to the Board of Directors at Global Voices. Global Voices is a community of more than 1300 authors and translators in dozens of countries around the world that publishes reports from global citizen journalists, with an emphasis on voices that aren't ordinarily heard in major international media.

"Global Voices does great work, and I'm really looking forward to sharing experiences and expertise with the people involved there." said Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. "The Wikimedia Foundation and Global Voices hold a lot of the same values, and for me the most important is our shared commitment to freedom of expression. The world needs strong voices advocating for internet users' right to express themselves and to access information without impediment."

Global Voices works at the intersections of citizen media, information production, and volunteer communities. It was founded in 2005 by anti-censorship advocate and former journalist Rebecca MacKinnon and technologist and Africa expert Ethan Zuckerman, while they were both fellows at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

"Sue brings to Global Voices a unique combination of knowledge and experience that is particularly beneficial to the organisation. We're really happy to be working with Sue, learning from her experience at the Wikimedia Foundation," said Ivan Sigal, Executive Director of Global Voices. "We're also looking forward to having her presence and creative thinking enlivening our board conversations."

The Global Voices nine-member board meets four times per year, and has been an active, engaged and vital part of their community since its inception. The board is composed of its two founders, three community representatives and four external members.

About Global Voices

Global Voices aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online - shining light on places and people other media outlets often ignore. Our international team of volunteer authors, regional editors and translators are guides to global citizen media. Every day, they provide dozens of links to interesting blog posts, social networks, podcasts, photographs and videos from their regions, and translate, analyze, and explain what's happening around the world in citizen media.

Press contact: Ivan Sigal; Executive Director; Global Voices; +1 202-361-2712; ivanglobalvoicesonline.org

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 483 million unique visitors per month, making them the fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, November 2012). Available in 285 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 24 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of roughly 80,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.

Press contact: Jay Walsh; Senior Director, Communications; Wikimedia Foundation; +1 415-860-8166; jwalshwikimedia.org