Hi all,
As you may have heard <http://blogs.archives.gov/aotus/?p=5179>, 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
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dominic>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<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dominic/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
The following constitutes a report from the Election Committee regarding an action taken by ballot by the members of Wikimedia District of Columbia.
The ballot provided to the members contained one question:
(1) Who shall be elected to the Board of Directors of Wikimedia District of Columbia?
A total of 21 ballots were received, including 19 received by mail and 2 received electronically. The number of ballots received satisfies the quorum requirement of 15 ballots.
On Question 1, the ballots contained the following votes:
John Gallagher - 11 votes (52.4%)
Kirill Lokshin - 18 votes (85.7%)
Emily Temple-Wood - 16 votes (76.2%)
There being four open seats on the Board in this election, John Gallagher, Kirill Lokshin, and Emily Temple-Wood are hereby elected as Directors, effective immediately. The fourth open seat shall continue to be held by incumbent Director Nicholas Bashour, pending the appointment of a new Director by the Board.
Certified on October 24, 2013.
On behalf of the Election Committee,
James Hare
—
James Hare
President, Wikimedia District of Columbia
http://wikimediadc.org
@harej / @wikimediadc
Hello folks!
Wikimedia DC will be holding its annual meeting on November 9 from 12 to 4 PM at the National Archives. Lunch will be served and there will be a guest panel on GLAM and Wikipedia.
Be sure to RSVP here: http://wmdc2013.eventbrite.com/
Also: a reminder that tomorrow we have the Smithsonian Libraries meetup and edit-a-thon. Learn more and sign up here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/DC/AAPG_Library
I hope to see you at these upcoming events!
—
James Hare
President, Wikimedia District of Columbia
http://wikimediadc.org
@harej / @wikimediadc
Hey everyone!
We're meeting for dinner at 7 PM on Wednesday, October 23 at Vapiano. As usual, all are welcome to attend. Learn more here: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/DC/43>.
Hope to see you there!
—
James Hare
President, Wikimedia District of Columbia
http://wikimediadc.org
james.hare(a)wikidc.org
@harej / @wikimediadc