Rohini Lakshané
Researcher, Technologist, and Wikimedian in Mysuru, India
[GPG Fingerprint: C965 255B BF45 51C1 C228 9BEE 1261 931D 4CAB 36BC]
Rohini Lakshané is a technologist, interdisciplinary researcher and Wikimedian. She is a consultant/ adviser with a few different not-for-profit organisations and businesses. She is a Fellow at Factor Daily.
An engineer by training, Rohini has worked on several research and advocacy projects at the intersection of technology, policy, and civil liberties. Her body of work encompasses diverse territories such as the application of technology and policy to solve issues of gender inequity and violence; access to knowledge; openness; patent reform; making tech spaces diverse and inclusive; and the cross-hairs of gender, sexuality and the Internet. She regularly speaks at regional, national and international events on these topics. She enjoys writing and teaching.
She was a Wikimedian-in-Residence (pilot project) in Mumbai (2013), and Chairperson of the Gender gap Special Interest Group, Wikimedia India (2013-14), and served on the Simple Annual Plan Grants advisory committee (2017-2021).
In 2014 and 2015, Rohini served on the jury of The Best of Blogs, an international award honouring excellence in online activism, instituted by Deutsche Welle. For her research, she was profiled in the 2019 book “31 Fantastic Adventures in Science: Women Scientists in India”. Her longform article, "The trouble with being a woman in FOSS" was a part of the “Deep Dives -- Sexing the Interwebs” series, which won the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity - Web (Best Special Edition) category in 2017.
In a previous avatar, Rohini worked as a technology journalist and editor in the print and web domains, ferreting out stories on human interest and online civil liberties.
You may speak with Rohini in English, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Sanskrit, Bengali, Spanish and Japanese.
Rohini goes on trips often (not of the opium kind), tweets @aldebaran14 and blogs at Aarohini.
For speaking or teaching engagements, please email first name dot last name at gmail.