Board of Trustees elections Hi I m editor in chief of the Wikipedia Signpost We re doing candidate profiles for the Board elections We publish in a matter of hours so I hope you can answer them before press time The questions we d like you to answer are below Talk to if you have any questions he ll be covering the elections this year Thanks Hello The Wikipedia Signpost a community newspaper in the English Wikipedia is covering the Board of Trustees elections and will be featuring each of the candidates in next week s issue As such we would appreciate it if you would take some time to answer a few interview questions Each candidate will be asked the same questions by no means though feel obligated to answer any or even all of them though we would greatly appreciate it if you did Some of the questions may be a bit redundant to the candidate information you have filled out already This is both for convenience and for giving you the opportunity to expand on some of them a bit However we ask that you keep all responses brief limiting them to no more than one or two paragraphs each You may leave replies to my English Wikipedia talk page or on my meta talk page As always the Signpost reserves the right to re distribute the questions and replies shorten any responses if necessary and take any other editorial action deemed appropriate Thanks again for your time and please don t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions Your name Aaron Swartz Your username most commonly used AaronSw Your current geographic location along with your age Cambridge Massachusetts USA 19 Projects with significant contributions please both name the language and project and link to your contributions en wikipedia en wikisource en wikiquote en wikinews meta wikimedia wikimania2006 Do you have any rights i e admin bureaucrat or positions i e dispute resolution CheckUser etc on any of those projects If so which ones When did you get elected or promoted for each one no Do you hold any universal rights i e steward etc for Wikimedia Projects If so since when no When did you first start contributing to Wikimedia projects Why and how did you initially join I started midway through 2003 when I begun studying Internet and constitutional law and wanted to write down all the things I was learning for others Briefly describe your career real life How do you think this will help you be a successful Board member I m currently a co founder of Reddit Of all the candidates right now why do you stand out from the field What makes you the best candidate A knowledge of several languages has been cited as a key requirement for a Board member Do you speak any other languages other than English Why do you think language is or isn t critical to the Board What do you expect to do while serving on the Board What are your expectations What can you bring to the Board What can you contribute to the Wikimedia Foundation Describe the one issue that you think is most pressing and pertinent to the Foundation right now and how you would approach the situation What is your vision of the Board in the Foundation heirarchy How do you feel about the current leadership As a Board member you will be serving as a representative of the communities Do you think you can represent the community and understand its concerns Why What do you think of the Wikimedia Foundation and its mission in general If you could change one thing about the running of the Foundation what would you change If elected can and will you devote the appropriate time and other resources needed to serve on the Board Have you ever attended Wikimania or any other meetup What role do you think these meetups play Please list and link any other pages where you have gotten questions and comments pertaining to the Board elections we are compiling all of the questions and would appreciate this What would you say to a potential voter who is undecided right now Is there anything else you would like to mention NE