Lydia Pintscher, Head of Section – Advocacy & Awareness, is the Portfolio Lead for Wikidata at Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. and a passionate advocate for free software and open knowledge. With over 18 years of experience contributing to free software projects, she studied computer science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and serves as Vice-President of KDE e.V. In her role at Wikimedia, Lydia has been instrumental in leading Wikidata to become one of the most influential open data projects globally, working to democratise access to structured knowledge for developers, researchers, and the wider public. Her dedication to the open knowledge movement and efforts to foster inclusion and diversity have inspired a global community to embrace transparency and collaboration. She was awarded the Advocacy & Awareness Award for her ongoing impact, stating,
“I am honored to receive one of the inaugural European Open Source awards. It is an important recognition of the fantastic work being done by thousands of people all around Europe every day to help build and maintain infrastructure where we can be in control of our digital lives and enjoy freedom and privacy. It is my hope that this award will inspire a new generation of free software contributors who are ready to build, tinker and share their creations with the world.”
