This is the userpage of a user who was a member of the Wikimedia Foundation staff or served as a contractor to the Foundation. To maintain a historical record, it has not been deleted; however, any contact information given may be incorrect, as this user is no longer employed at the Foundation.
Fabrice Florin
Fabrice Florin
Product Manager, Wikimedia Foundation
"Let's be kind to each other."
About me
I worked at the Wikimedia Foundation from October 2011 to June 2015. For the first three years, I served as product manager, coaching our teams to improve the user experience on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites. During that time, I led the development and release of a wide range of new software tools, such as Notifications, Thanks, Beta Features, Media Viewer and other features.
In my last six months, I worked with the foundation's communications team, where I managed and edited the Wikimedia blog, a global hub that connects our diverse communities (see my final report). I believe that better communications are really important to grow our movement -- and I advocate a 'culture of kindness' to help make that happen.
Before joining the Wikimedia movement, I founded and led NewsTrust, a nonprofit social news network, which was acquired by the Poynter Institute in 2012. Our news literacy tools helped people find good journalism online, to make more informed decisions as citizens.
My previous ventures include: Handtap, a multimedia content provider for mobile devices; shockwave.com, a web entertainment site at Macromedia; Apple Computer's Multimedia Lab, a research and development group; and Videowest, a producer of rock journalism. Read more about my career on LinkedIn.
I would like to thank all the community and team members I have had the pleasure to work with over the years. It has been an honor to serve our movement together and to help our contributors share free knowledge with each other and the world.
Going forward, I will be using my personal account on Wikipedia and its sister projects.
My work
Here are some of the projects I managed at the Foundation:
Other work
I am the producer of "Hackers", a documentary about the heroes of the computer revolution -- and the 'hacker ethic' which made the Wikimedia movement possible. I was also elected an Ashoka Fellow for my work as social entrepreneur.
My work has been widely covered by publications such as the BBC, Atlantic Monthly, the Guardian, Le Monde, Newsweek, the New York Times, Scientific American, Time, the Washington Post, Wired and many more.
Disclaimer: I work for or provide services to the Wikimedia Foundation, and this is the account I try to use for edits or statements I make in that role. However, the Foundation does not vet all my activity, and edits, statements, or other contributions made by this account may not reflect the views of the Foundation.
I love to develop new products based on ideas from our community. For the past few years, I have asked Wikimania conference participants for their suggestions on how to improve Wikipedia. Thanks for the inspiration -- and keep them coming!
To improve Wikipedia's editor engagement tools with the help of our community, I hosted this roundtable discussion at the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco on June 22, 2013. We brainstormed a variety of new features together, and gained many new insights from these conversations. Learn more about this Roundtable.
