Erik Möller (born 1979) is a German
freelance journalist,
software developer
Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...
, author, and former deputy director of the
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...
(WMF), based in San Francisco.
Möller additionally works as a web designer and previously managed his own web hosting service, myoo.de.
As of 2022, he was VP of Engineering at the
Freedom of the Press Foundation.
Published work
Möller is the author of the book ' ("The secret media revolution: How weblogs, wikis and free software change the world").
In the book, Möller discusses the development of a journalistic equivalent to the
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
movement in
citizen media and blogging, though pointing out that most blogs do not compete with mainstream media. The book was first published in 2005 by
Heinz Heise
Heise Gruppe GmbH & Co. KG is a German media conglomerate headquartered in Hanover. It was founded in 1949 by Heinz Heise and is still Family business, family-owned. Its core business is directory media as well as general-interest and speciali ...
and a second edition was published in 2006,
with updated and revised chapters. A review in ''Berliner Literaturkritik's'' saw practical tips but claimed the book focused too much on technical details. Möller's book is cited in the 2006 book ''Wiki: Web collaboration'', in a section discussing "Wikis as an Engine for Social Change", and his term is used.
The authors comment:
In his earlier research on Wikipedia, Möller found in 2003 that Wikipedia's open-source nature garners interest from many individuals, but also leads to gaps in topics of interest to experts. Some of his research was published in ''
Telepolis'', where he compared Wikipedia to the
digital
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Businesses
*Digital bank, a form of financial institution
*Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company
*Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...
multimedia
Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...
encyclopedia
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
Encarta
Microsoft ''Encarta'' is a discontinued Digital data, digital multimedia encyclopedia and search engine published by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. Originally sold on CD-ROM or DVD, it was also available online via annual subscription, although ...
. In his 2003 article ''Das Wiki-Prinzip: Tanz der Gehirne'' ("The Wiki principle: Dance of the brain"), he gives some background of Wikipedia and wikis, as well as on what he sees as the benefits of the project, ways to prevent vandalism to articles, and the
etiquette
Etiquette ( /ˈɛtikɛt, -kɪt/) can be defined as a set of norms of personal behavior in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviors that accord with the conventions and ...
of Wikipedia users.
Web-based projects
Möller, who holds a diploma degree in
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
(''Dipl.-Inform.
FH''),
is the owner and creator of the ''
Infoanarchy'' website which has information on
P2P and
file-sharing technologies.
He has also been involved in the development of the
''FreedomDefined'' website.
At a 2005 blogger conference in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Möller gave a lecture on the
Open Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a California public benefit corporation "actively involved in Open Source community-building, education, and public advocacy to promote awareness and the importance of non-proprietary software".
Governance
The ...
,
free knowledge and
Wikinews
Wikinews is a free-content news wiki and a Wikimedia project, project of the Wikimedia Foundation that works through collaborative journalism through user-created content. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has distinguished Wikinews from Wikipe ...
, discussing the latter in the context of other models used by
Slashdot
''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally billed itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories on science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evaluated by site ...
,
Kuro5hin,
Daily Kos
Daily Kos ( ) is a group blog and internet forum focused on the U.S. Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party and Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal American politics. The site publishes blog posts, polls, election and cam ...
and others. At an Austrian conference on wikis in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
in 2005, Möller discussed the advantages of using wikis to compile statistical data, stating that wikis encourage internal transparency and greater participation among coworkers.
Wikimedia Foundation

Möller has been involved with the
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...
projects including Wikipedia since 2001, both as an editor and as a developer of the
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is free and open-source wiki software originally developed by Magnus Manske for use on Wikipedia on January 25, 2002, and further improved by Lee Daniel Crocker,mailarchive:wikipedia-l/2001-August/000382.html, Magnus Manske's announc ...
software and
Wikinews
Wikinews is a free-content news wiki and a Wikimedia project, project of the Wikimedia Foundation that works through collaborative journalism through user-created content. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has distinguished Wikinews from Wikipe ...
. He drafted the initial project proposal for Wikinews (using the username Eloquence),
and also was instrumental in developing
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons, or simply Commons, is a wiki-based Digital library, media repository of Open content, free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used ...
.
He first proposed the idea for Wikimedia Commons in March 2004. Möller described a difference between Wikipedia and Wikinews to ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' by saying:
explained Möller at a 2005 Citizen Reporters' Forum in
Seoul
Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...
. He stated that ''Wikinews'' published a print edition every day and was working on other formats, including audio versions of articles.
Möller was interviewed by ''Journalism.co.uk'' on the eightfold increase in traffic to ''Wikinews'' on the day of the
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings, also referred to as 7/7, were a series of four co-ordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamist terrorists that targeted commuters travelling on Transport in London, London's public transport during the ...
, and on the effects of free news.
said Möller.
He gave periodic "State of the Wiki" reports at ''Wikinews'', where he defended the project's use of both original material and information synthesized from other media sources.
Deputy director
Möller was appointed the
chief research officer of the WMF in June 2005 but resigned in August that year, citing personal differences with members of the Board.
He had been chief technology officer of Stichting Open Progress, the not-for-profit legal arm of
OmegaWiki, based in the Netherlands.
At Stichting Open Progress Möller was the manager of a group of developers who worked on the implementation of OmegaWiki.
Möller also hosted other wiki communities such as WikiEducator.org.
He was elected in September 2006 to replace Angela Beesley on the
Board of the Wikimedia Foundation, and in October 2006 he became executive secretary. In December 2007 he resigned from the Board and was named deputy director, effective as of 10 January 2008. In this role Möller was involved with financing analysis for the Foundation, and with
executive director Sue Gardner
Sue Gardner (born May 11, 1967) is a Canadian journalist, not-for-profit executive and business executive. She was the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation from December 2007 until May 2014, and before that was the director of the C ...
gave a presentation to
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
in an attempt to gain funding from the company for WMF.
This presentation was later leaked to ''Wikinews''.
As deputy director, Möller was responsible for managing and implementing the technical strategy of the organization.
Möller explained to the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' that the foundation needed to be careful with the kinds of deals they wanted to make, and said: Möller was the Wikimedia Foundation's representative on the institutional council of the
Encyclopedia of Life
The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It aggregates content to form "pages" for every known species. Content is compiled from existing trusted ...
. Through this contact, Möller helped convince the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (a backer of the Encyclopedia of Life) to donate $3million to Wikimedia, the single largest donation Wikimedia has received to date.
In 2014 Möller's account was blocked on the
German Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia () is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia.
Founded on 16 March 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia edition (after the English Wikipedia). It has articles, ma ...
because he created, implemented and used "
superprotect" rights to overrule the German Wikipedia's decision to not enable a new mechanism to view images until legal and technical problems were fixed.
Möller left the WMF on 30 April 2015.
See also
*
List of Wikipedia people
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Erik Möller's homepage*
*
Infoanarchy.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moller, Erik
1979 births
Living people
21st-century German writers
21st-century German male writers
Articles containing video clips
German male non-fiction writers
German non-fiction writers
German technology writers
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees members
Writers from Berlin
German male journalists
21st-century German journalists
German Wikimedians
Wikipedia people
Wikimedia Foundation staff members