Dr. Shani Evenstein Sigalov

Dr. Shani Evenstein Sigalov is an educator specializing in technology & learning, researcher, lecturer, and free knowledge advocate. Her research explores the intersection of Education, Technology, Innovation and Openness, with a special interest in bridging gender, language and social gaps in free knowledge projects.

As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Shani has led a variety of research projects: Exploring Generative AI (GenAI) adoption in Israeli academia via an online learning community; Examining organizational response to GenAI, focusing on the case study of the Wikimedia Movement, in partnership with the University of Cambridge; Researching the effect of Linked Open Data in Digital Humanities with the Center for AI & Data Science at Tel Aviv University; and exploring the new phenomenon of Critical Ignoring in the context of Digital Curation. She also engaged in designing a chatbot for 5th-8th graders, aimed at developing students’ Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) and Problem-Solving (PS) skills, funded by the Ministry of Education. Shani is also investigating GenAI’s effect on knowledge consumption and production, with the Digital Humanities Research Hub (DHRH), University of London, where she serves as a Visiting Research Fellowship. Her PhD, chosen for funding by the Azrieli Foundation’s Research Fellows Program, explored the Semantic Web as a learning platform, focusing on Wikidata, a Linked Open Data (LOD) database accessible to humans and machines. 

As part of her work at Tel Aviv University, she served as an EdTech Innovation Strategist at the School of Medicine for a decade, and since 2013 has been a lecturer in various courses on campus, designing and leading academic courses focusing on Wikimedia projects, Users engagement in online environment, and most recently, on Generative AI. In 2013 she opened the first for-credit course in the world focusing on medical content on Wikimedia projects, with her students contributing over 13% of Hebrew Wikipedia’s medical content. In 2015 she opened a second academic course focusing on using Wikipedia as a platform to gain skills and have social impact, available to all undergraduates at TAU, and in 2018 she opened the first academic course in the world to feature Wikidata. Content created via her academic courses over the past decade has gained 75 million page views, demonstrating a positive social impact.

Shani is currently serving her second term as a Wikimedia Foundation Trustee, and has completed a 3 years term as the Board’s Vice Chair. During her first term, she founded and served as the Chair of the Community Affairs Committee – a Board committee designed to strengthen the relationship between the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia communities in working toward the joint mission and vision of the Wikimedia movement. She is also an active member of the Product & Technology Committee since its inception, and a member of the Governance Committee. Among other board roles, she served as Board Liaison to the Affiliations Committee (AffCom) and the Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC), and was the Chair of the ad-hoc Brand Committee. Prior to joining the Board of Trustees, Shani served as the Chairperson for both Wikimedia Medicine and Wikipedia & Education User Group. She is also a founding member of the Wikipedia & Libraries User Group, and a former board member of Wikimedia Israel. Besides contributing to Wikimedia projects, Shani also serves as Chief Editor and Chairperson for Project Ben-Yehuda, a free online library of Hebrew writings, and a Board member of the Public Knowledge Workshop (Hasadna).