Meeting:2011 AGM/President's Report

Looking back over the past year, I'm proud to see how Wikimedia Australia has been positioning itself to make an impact on the information well-being of Australia.

The historically sudden emergence of the information-rich environment on the Internet is occupying an increasingly prominent place in the public and private lives of Australians. Democratising information, particularly cultural products, is set to become one of the issues of our time. Wikimedia Australia will be a key player in this process, and we with active participation by members are evolving into a leadership role. Following on from WIKI-GLAM in 2009, Wikimedia Australia members have been meeting with Australian cultural organisations from Melbourne to Cairns, inland as far as Miles, in Adelaide and along the Western coast of Australia. Our members have also been forging strong connections with Wikimedia contributors in nations in our region, meeting with New Zealanders and Indonesians; one of our members has been based in Samoa this year.

In addition to the achievements and connections established over the past year, and the steady growth of the membership, I believe that the foremost success of the 2010–11 committee will be our opening the doors of our organisation to non-members. Anyone can now join in on the discussions on our website, gratis. I urge all of our readers to request an account, and to join our members in building our organisation together.

Thanks

I would like to thank all the committee members for their investment into Wikimedia Australia over the past 12 months, guiding us through our first fundraiser and our empowering members to initiate projects which further our mission. Special thanks to Brian for taking on the important tasks that come with being our public officer and returning officer.

Thanks also to

Linux Users of Victoria, for providing web hosting
Andrew Garrett, our volunteer sysadmin