User:Akl

I am Arne Klempert, a communications consultant living near Frankfurt, Germany. I have been involved with Wikipedia and Wikimedia since 2003 in a variety of roles.

Soon after joining the German Wikipedia as an editor I became one of its spokespersons and a few months later co-founded Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia's first chapter. From 2004 until 2009 I served as its vice-chairman and its first Executive Director. During this time I also helped organizing the very first Wikimania conference 2005 in Frankfurt. In 2009 I was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, holding one of the chapter-selected Board seats until 2012.

In my professional life I'm a consultant for (digital) communications, working for larger communication firms. In this context I occasionally advise companies on how to engage with Wikipedia, giving talks and workshops and working with clients on individual strategies in line with Wikipedia's policies, guidelines and best practices. In order to help companies better understand Wikipedia I have developed the Wikipedia Corporate Index, an analytics tool to evaluate company articles on German Wikipedia.

As a matter of principle, I don't edit Wikipedia on behalf of clients, since I believe genuine relationships and transparent dialogue are key to a fruitful collaboration between companies and Wikipedia editors.