Hi all,
I am delighted to announce that Wikimedia's Bookshelf Project will be led by Marlita Kahn.
Marlita is a Senior Project Manager/Program Manager with over 15 years experience managing educational, technical, media-rich and multilingual projects. Her employment contract with us started on September 28, 2009, and will end on September 24, 2010. She will report to me.
Marlita comes to Wikimedia from Design Media, where, as Senior Project Manager, she created and guided the product design and content development for a large number of customers. Among her projects were a product set targeted to educators and general public for California State Capitol Museum that won the International Web Page Award (2002), "Concepts of Biology", a high school biology full year multimedia curriculum product and a 3D stereoscopic film commemorating the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire using historic imagery and original 3D animation, script and surround sound that won the Silver and Bronze Telly Awards (2007).
Prior to her work at Design Media, Marlita worked as a Managing Director for the Internet Archive. She managed the Archive from start-up and led the development of the 5 year strategic plan.
Marlita is fluent in Spanish and holds a Master's Degree in English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley.
The Bookshelf Project is one of the Wikimedia Foundation's priorities for 2009-10 and I'm thrilled that Marlita has agreed to lead this important initiative. She'll take the first few weeks to catch up on the thinking that's been done so far, and you'll start hearing from her soon.
Please join me in warmly welcoming Marlita to the Wikimedia Foundation.
Thanks, Frank
-----
ABOUT THE BOOKSHELF PROJECT
The Bookshelf Project aims at creating a core set of awareness/engagement/training public outreach materials, in English, to later be translated, adapted and used for multiple purposes by volunteers, chapters and educational institutions such as schools and universities.
The materials created as part of the Bookshelf Project include basic "first step" documents, compelling invitations to participate, but most importantly, in-depth series of resources targeting potential editors, trainers, and evangelists. The materials also provide models, such as lessen plans, for how teachers, professors, and journalists can use Wikipedia in their professional capacity.
-----
NB. This mail address is used for public mailing lists. Personal emails sent to this address will get lost.
Please join me in warmly welcoming Marlita to the Wikimedia Foundation.
Welcome Marlita!
The qualifications sound amazing.
The Bookshelf Project hasn't really grabbed me so far. I think it's important but I haven't got overly excited about it.
But seeing Marlita's qualifications I think this could be really interesting.
Bodnotbod
I am worried about this passage in the Bookshelf project
The materials created as part of the Bookshelf Project include basic "first step" documents, compelling invitations to participate, *but most importantly, **in-depth series of resources targeting potential editors, trainers, and evangelists.* The materials also provide models, such as lessen plans, for how teachers, professors, and journalists can use Wikipedia in their professional capacity.
I never new the goal of the wikimedia foundation was to evangelize the world. As an agnost I take offence to this.
Waerth
On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 09:18, Waerth waerth@asianet.co.th wrote:
I never new the goal of the wikimedia foundation was to evangelize the world. As an agnost I take offence to this.
In this context, the term "evangelist" is not specifically a religious term; rather, it refers to a highly enthusiastic recruiter for the wiki cause. This usage is somewhat common in English, but I have to admit that it doesn't translate well.
Jim Redmond [[User:Jredmond]]
Jim Redmond wrote:
On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 09:18, Waerth waerth@asianet.co.th wrote
I never new the goal of the wikimedia foundation was to evangelize the world. As an agnost I take offence to this
In this context, the term "evangelist" is not specifically a religious term; rather, it refers to a highly enthusiastic recruiter for the wiki cause. This usage is somewhat common in English, but I have to admit that it doesn't translate well.
Would "propagandize" have been a better word? The OED defines "evangelize" word in terms of conversion to Christianity. Your extended interpretation is indeed common in English, but that includes all the negative connotations that are commonly associated with Christian evangelism.
Those of us who absorbed the wiki notion at an early stage did not need a catechism to do this.
Why does it need to be in English to start with? We have some very capable people in the German chapter who could write this kind of thing, and have it translated *into* English. Other chapters may be just as capable.
The people that this initiative seeks to recruit are ones that we would like to welcome into the wiki family, but terms like "compelling invitations" seem very much like corporatist bafflegab when there are no tools to compel any volunteer to do anything.
Ec
Waerth wrote:
I am worried about this passage in the Bookshelf project
The materials created as part of the Bookshelf Project include basic "first step" documents, compelling invitations to participate, *but most importantly, **in-depth series of resources targeting potential editors, trainers, and evangelists.* The materials also provide models, such as lessen plans, for how teachers, professors, and journalists can use Wikipedia in their professional capacity.
I never new the goal of the wikimedia foundation was to evangelize the world. As an agnost I take offence to this.
I suppose that a lessen plan is not as ominous as a lesson plan. :-)
Ec
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org