Hi all,
As you
may have
heard, I am now a full-time, permanent staff member at
the US National Archives employed to work on Wikipedia
initiatives. This makes me, even more clearly so than previous
Wikipedians in Residence which are often temporary workers or
interns, a paid editor.
I have
rewritten
my user page on Wikimedia projects where I am active to
reflect my job (and position with my chapter). I am publishing
my entire job description on Wikipedia. I have also written a
somewhat
lengthy FAQ about my personal history, motivations, and
what I will and will not be doing as a paid editor. This
statement has been approved by NARA, so it represents their
intentions as an agency as well as my personal thoughts. I
would encourage you to read it.
I realize that this is going well beyond the conflict of
interest statement we usually suggest of cultural
professionals editing Wikipedia. I'm essentially doing this
for two reasons. First, out of an abundance of caution, I
would like to demonstrate a high level of transparency and
thoughtfulness, since I am a very public example of being a
paid editor. Second, I am hoping that the way I have expressed
the rationale for my participation on Wikimedia projects can
be an exemplar, both for prospective GLAM partners interested
in best practices, and for the Wikipedia community, which is
probably sorely in need of positive examples of non-advocacy
paid editing right now.
To that end, I'd be interested to hear everyone's thoughts
on this approach generally or specifically on the statements
I've published. I am still willing any necessary changes if
you have a good suggestion.
Dominic