User:Anthere

Anthere
Anthere
— Wikimedian —
Name	Florence Devouard (she/her)
Country	France
Current location	Marseille
Time zone	[[UTC+1]]
Hobbies, interests, and beliefs
Aliases	Anthere
Interests
	Conflict resolution, Gender gap, Africa, IP Rights, Governance
Contact info
Website	www.devouard.org
Email	fdevouardanthere.org
Userboxes
	This user is involved in Wikimedia France.
	This user is one of the organizers of Wiki Loves Africa.
	This user is a Participant of the Wikimedians for Sustainable Development User Group
	This user is a member of Wiki Loves Women.
	This user is a member of the Wiki Loves Women Focus Group

Florence Devouard (she/her)

Wikimedian at large

I think of you as a center in a very large collection of inter-connected webs.

The webs carry information, and you help direct it where it can create positive changes.

-- Amgine irc 20:41, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

About me

I was born in Versailles (France). I grew up in Grenoble, and have been living since then in several French cities, as well as Antwerpen in Belgium and Tempe in Arizona.
I am an engineer in Agronomy (ENSAIA and also hold a DEA in Genetics and biotechnologies (INPL). I have spent a while in public research (INRA), working in flower plant genetic improvement, later in applied research, in microbiology, to study the feasibility of heavily polluted soil bioremediation. I spent some time in Tempe University (Arizona), following courses in computer science and civil engineering.
After a break to take care of my first two kids, I joined a small french firm, Quantix Agro, whose activity was related with decision tools, in finances, insurance, agriculture and agri-business. My part was in the agri-business, and I mostly worked to conceive decision-making tools in sustainable agriculture until 2006 when I born a third and last child
I settled as a freelancer in 2008 and have been since then. In 2017, I co-founded Wiki in Africa, a South Africa based association along with Iolanda Pensa and Isla Haddow-Flood.
As of mid 2025, I am 58, and live in Marseille. I work part time at Wiki in Africa as co-ED and I am a Wikimedian in residence at WIPO (since Jan 1st 2022).

My work

I discovered Wikipedia in late 2001 and have been an editor since February 2002.
I first started editing only the English Wikipedia anonymously, then under the pseudonym Anthere. I joined the French Wikipedia when it had possibly 200 stubs. In English, I mostly focused in editing (in particular in Agricultural Sciences), while in the French Wikipedia, I also took a lot of time building the project, its rules, and the community.
I was elected to join the Board of Trustees of Wikimedia Foundation, and then served as its second Chair until July 2008. In 2008, I was honored to be made knight in the French National Order of Merit.
I co-founded Wikimedia France in 2004 and was its vice-chair for a while.
I have been a steward for over four years.
Late 2012, I decided it was time to move on. My focus since then has been diversity (or lack there of...). I co-create or participate to projects with the explicit goals of

getting more African editors and more African-related content onto Wikimedia project or
projects related to the Gender Gap or
projects focusing on involving or bringing knowledge to people with poor or no internet connexion

Contact me

E-mail: fdevouardanthere.org
Twitter: @anthere
Website: http://www.devouard.org
LinkedIn: Devouard

fr-N	Cette personne a pour langue maternelle le français.

en-4	This user has near native speaker knowledge of English.

This user is an administrator on Meta-Wiki. (verify)

This user is an administrator on the French Wikipedia. (verify·CA)

This user is a bureaucrat on the French Wikipedia. (verify·CA)

This user is an administrator on the English Wikipedia. (verify·CA)

This user is an administrator on Wikimedia Commons (verify).

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If you find this page on any site other than a Wikimedia one, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated, and that the user whom this page is about may have no personal affiliation with the site. The original page is located at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Anthere.

More on my work

As Founder and then co-ED of Wiki in Africa, I launched many different programmes, some of which became pretty notable in the Wikimedia ecosystem, such as

Wiki Loves Africa, a photo contest across Africa since 2014,
the WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique, an education project running on Vikidia since 2017,
the Wiki Loves Women, a capacity building project around Gender Gap since 2016, with several declinations such as SheSaid
WikiFundi, a software solution to create Wikipedia articles offline since 2016
Or the c:ISA Tool, a microcontribution tool to add structured data on Commons since 2019

I also work on other topics such as

the Research:Wikipedia Primary School SSAJRP programme (2015-2017) at SUPSI (applied research on Primary School curricula in South Africa).

My affiliations (as of 2025)

Main affiliations

Co-Executive Director of Wiki in Africa (non affiliated association)
Wikipedian-in-Residence at World Intellectual Property Rights (WIPO)
Former Chair of Wikimedia Foundation
Co-founder, former Vice-Chair and currently member of Wikimédia France Chapter
Member of the Wikimania Steering Committee
Former treasurer of WikiFranca (hub-to-be for French speaking wikimedia groups) and now member representing Wiki in Africa
(Contact) member of Wikimedians for offline wikis UG
Member of the Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network UG
Financial Auditor and member of m:Les sans pagEs UserGroup (contact member for the affiliate)
Board member of Open Food Facts
Vice-Chair of Ynternet.org