Amanda Lawrence steps away from Wikimedia Australia Board
Dr Amanda Lawrence has been involved in the Wikimedia community in Australia for several years. She has held several key roles, including President of Wikimedia Australia from 2022 to 2024 and Secretary from 2021 to 2022. She is stepping out of the president’s role at this year's AGM to undertake exciting new projects. We thank her for her support and dedication to the Wikimedia movement and the Australian editing community.
Amanda is a researcher and librarian specialising in research publishing, digital collections, open knowledge, and public policy. She has actively participated in various Wikimedia projects on the Wikimedia Australia board.
In 2021, she took on the role of Wikimedian-in-Residence for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, writing content for Wikipedia and hosting editathons to expand topics on automated design.
Amanda has also been an active advocate for open and free knowledge projects, regularly collaborating with Wikimedia Foundation staff to raise concerns around digital rights and governance of online public interest projects, including Wikipedia and its sister projects, both at an international level and in Australia.
Under her leadership, Wikimedia Australia has actively engaged Australian researchers and partners for Wikimedia projects, helped develop the East, South East Asia and Pacific Hub (ESEAP) with conferences in Sydney and Malaysia, participated in Wikimanias in Singapore and Poland, the WMF Summit in Berlin, Wikidata events in Taiwan and Wikimedia Australia’s first community conferences in Australia since 2019 - with Wikicon Australia in Brisbane 2023 and WikiCon in Adelaide 2024. During this time, she was also involved in assisting the organisation to undertake consultation with Indigenous communities on their experience and perspectives on engaging with Wikimedia.
Another of Amanda’s achievements has been supporting the establishment of the Craig Franklin Award, which recognises a project or program that has positively impacted the Wikimedia movement in Australia.
Thank you Amanda and the Australian Wikimedia community wish you every success in the future!