O frabjous day! Dedicated WMF support for GLAM-Wiki activities is something that has been a loooong time coming. Congratulations Alex, and thank you!
-Liam / Wittylama On Friday, 20 May 2016, Jake Orlowitz <jorlow...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > As you may have noticed in the Annual Plan, the Wikimedia Foundation has > proposed more support of GLAM-Wiki. I want to happily announce that *Alex > Stinson* will be expanding and transitioning his role as Wikipedia Library > Coordinator to lead this new position as *GLAM-Wiki Strategist *within the > Community Engagement department at WMF. He will continue to report and > work closely with me in Wikipedia Library land, which I'm very happy about! > > I'll let Alex introduce himself and his thoughts on the position, why it > matters, and what its goals are. > > Best, > Jake Orlowitz > > User:Ocaasi (WMF) > > Head of the Wikipedia Library > > jorlow...@wikimedia.org <javascript:;> > > -- > > Hi all! > > I am particularly excited to be shifting towards helping with GLAM-Wiki > support. I plan to bring my long history of working in Wikimedia outreach, > first as a volunteer in GLAM and the Education program and then as an > employee with the Wikipedia Library, to improve our global GLAM impact [1]. > > As we point out in the proposed annual plan, [2] GLAM-Wiki has a long > history as a programmatic strategy for volunteers and affiliates. These > programs have collected some of our best content, pushed our technologies > beyond their limits, and created a considerable volume of contributions > from both Wikimedians and experts for over 8 years. > > However, as these practices become more and more sophisticated and varied, > volunteers from smaller communities without connections to the leaders of > successful projects have found themselves unable to replicate this success, > or replicating many of the mistakes from earlier projects. At the same > time, larger initiatives have been hindered by a lack of investment in > infrastructure and technology. > > WMF has been a great supporter of GLAM through grants and affiliate > support, but we can do more. We haven’t provided consistent global > connection, communication and support for GLAM-Wiki resources and tools. > My goal is to help GLAM spread throughout our communities and potentially > tens of thousands of organizations that - as folks like Liam Wyatt have > been advocating from the beginning - share our same values: freely sharing > knowledge with the world. > > Below I have outlined our approach for the GLAM-Wiki Strategist role [3]. I > want to use the next few months to listen and evaluate the needs of the > communities actively involved in GLAM-Wiki work to make sure that I > prioritize projects correctly. I am also going to be at Wikimania, and have > already talked to a number of GLAM-Wiki leaders at Wikimedia Conference. > > My role as strategist is to consult, collaborate, organize, and plan. So, > please reach out to me with your questions, thoughts, needs or other > feedback. > > Cheers, > > Alex Stinson > > GLAM-Wiki Strategist > > Wikimedia Foundation > > astin...@wikimedia.org <javascript:;> > > [1] A little about me > > I have been working with the Wikipedia Library since May 2014, developing > the Library’s publisher partnerships, building relationships with dozens of > community and language leaders across our volunteer movement, crafting a > broader strategy for engaging the largest libraries and international > reference networks, and project managing tool and metrics improvements for > our program. > > I also designed and deployed the successful #1Lib1Ref campaign ( > 1lib1ref.org) > that drew nearly 30,000 viewers, 5 million tweet-impressions, and hundreds > of participants from the library world to Wikipedia in our first ever > viral, global micro-contributions drive for quality improvement. > > In my volunteer, time I try to stay active as User:Sadads, where I am > mostly active on English Wikipedia ( >98,000 edits). I have been actively > writing content about literature and novels since 2008. I have always > thought of our movement as a community with a lot of opportunities around > partnerships and collaboration. > > I was also one of the early adopters of GLAM-Wiki in the US: While still > in college, I approached the Smithsonian in 2010 about a partnership, > establishing the dialogue which grew to one of our most successful > long-term cultural partners within the movement. I have learned from those > early attempts and have led GLAM-Wiki relationships with a handful of > smaller organizations while in school and as a volunteer. > > I am also a long time supporter of the Education program: I was trained as > part of the Public Policy Initiative's first round of "Campus Ambassadors", > the project that became first the U.S. and then the Global Education > Programs. > > I am based in Southern Vermont, where I enjoy hiking, the local and the > local food culture. In my spare time, I try to produce sustainable food > through my garden and homebrewing-- I just put in 4 rows of potatoes, and > am about to start most of my summer crops. > > > [2] *Annual Plan for GLAM* > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2016-2017/draft#Program_5:_Give_more_support_to_GLAM_partnerships > > > [3] Some thoughts on the GLAM-Wiki Strategist Role > > What I hope to do: > > * Help lead efforts to evaluate and improve our GLAM-Wiki documentation, > and develop resources that make GLAM-Wiki a more approachable strategy for > volunteers, especially in communities which don't have much experience in > partnerships with formal organizations. > > * Connect with and learn from the network of community leaders supporting > partnerships with GLAM and other organizations > > * Help document and share the most successful, repeatable GLAM-Wiki project > models coming from our communities. > > * Connect community leaders and outside organizations who approach > Community Engagement and other Wikimedia Foundation departments about GLAM > partnerships with the best volunteer leaders, resources, or learning > materials. > > * Communicate GLAM and GLAM-Wiki needs with teams and departments within > WMF, including Community Resources, Strategic Partnerships and Engineering > teams. I have already started these conversations, and hope to be able to > share what I have been working on in the next couple months. > > * Support strategic movement relationships with global organizations > (IFLA, ICOM, UNESCO, OCLC, Internet Archive, etc ) which can expand > opportunities for GLAM-Wiki programming and partnerships by local > affiliates. > > What I won't be doing: > > * Creating partnerships with local cultural heritage organizations > > * "Coordinating" in any strong sense of the word -- It's not my role to be > “in charge” of what others are doing in the GLAM-Wiki space -- instead my > aim is to facilitate access to better tools and resources that help > community > leaders coordinate these partnerships more easily and effectively. > > What I would like to learn from the community and GLAM program leaders in > the next few months: > > * Where does our community of GLAM-outreach leaders need the most support? > > * What are the greatest technology barriers preventing the creation of > easy-to-create and scalable relationships with cultural heritage > organizations? > > * What are the best opportunities for expanding GLAM-Wiki strategies to new > or emerging communities with less partnership experience or affiliate > support? > > * How can we help a greater range of Wikimedia volunteers participate in > partnerships with our GLAM allies? > > I am very optimistic about the opportunities for GLAM-Wiki work, especially > as Wikimedia becomes leaders of open and linked data, through projects like > Wikidata -- and I want to make sure our communities have the tools and > support to take advantage of that leading role in sharing cultural heritage > knowledge around the world. > > > -Alex > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org <javascript:;> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org <javascript:;> > ?subject=unsubscribe> -- wittylama.com Peace, love & metadata _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>