Announcing 15 for 15: Perspectives on Wikipedia’s Quinceañera

Here at Wiki Strategies, we are excited to celebrate Wikipedia’s 15th birthday on January 15, 2016. January also marks my 10 year anniversary as a Wikipedian.

Wikipedia is the world’s most extensive platform for collaboration, as well as being the most widely-read publication in history. It touches the lives and work of nearly everyone, in many different ways. So, to mark the occasion, Wiki Strategies will present 15 video interviews with leading thinkers in different industries and disciplines. How does Wikipedia affect practices like journalism, social justice, education, or politics? We’ve been asking around, and we think you’ll find these perspectives fascinating.

We will kick off this video series at Wikipedia’s 15th Birthday Party in San Francisco, one of many events around the world. The San Francisco event will be held on Saturday, January 16, 2015; it’s a half-day event, including presentations, panel discussions, video links with Wikipedians in other cities, and of course…CAKE! Read more and register here.

For this event, I will interview four people, and lead a panel discussion. Our panelists will include (subject to updates):

Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson, Founder of the Oscar Grant Foundation, and award-winning leader in the Black Lives Matter movement
Catherine Cheney, West Coast Global Development Reporter for Devex, and Ambassador for the Solutions Journalism Network
Cathy Casserly, Vice President of Learning Networks for EdCast, and a widely respected leader in the Open Educational Resources movement
Eugene Eric Kim, founder of Faster Than 20; designer in 2009 of Wikipedia’s broadly inclusive strategic planning process, which engaged 1,000 people in an open planning process.

Below, you can get to know each of our panelists through their work — though I don’t think you’ll hear them mention Wikipedia in any of these videos! Those conversations are yet to come; I hope you’ll join us, whether online or in person.

Uncle Bobby: