Wikipedian in residence

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The relationship between a Wikipedian in residence and the community. The diagram represents the stakeholders and what each stakeholder provides and receives in a typical Wikipedian in residence project. Wikipedian-in-Residence Scope Diagram Page 1.png
The relationship between a Wikipedian in residence and the community. The diagram represents the stakeholders and what each stakeholder provides and receives in a typical Wikipedian in residence project.

A Wikipedian in residence or Wikimedian in residence (WiR) is a Wikipedia editor, a Wikipedian (or Wikimedian), who accepts a placement with an institution, typically an art gallery, library, archive, museum, cultural institution, learned society, or institute of higher education (such as a university) to facilitate Wikipedia entries related to that institution's mission, encourage and assist it to release material under open licenses, and to develop the relationship between the host institution and the Wikimedia community. A Wikipedian in residence generally helps to coordinate Wikipedia-related outreach events between the GLAM ("galleries, libraries, archives, and museums") and the general public such as editathons.

Contents

Institutions that have hosted a Wikipedian in residence include large institutions like the National Library of Wales, the University of Edinburgh, the British Museum, [1] the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the British Library, [2] the Smithsonian Institution, [3] the Royal Society of Chemistry, [4] UC Berkeley, [5] Columbia University, [6] the University of Toronto, the National Library of Norway, and the Federal Archives of Switzerland and smaller venues like the Derby Museum and Art Gallery and The New Art Gallery Walsall [7] in the UK; the Palace of Versailles in France; the Museu Picasso and the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Catalonia; and the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, [8] Consumer Reports, [9] [10] the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, [11] and the National Archives and Records Administration [12] in the United States.

Role and duties

The primary role of the Wikipedian in Residence (WiR) is often to serve as a liaison between the host institution and the Wikimedia community by assisting with events and training that support the missions of both organisations. Typical training duties include arranging and/or leading training events and editathons [2] [13] and providing explanations to other staff and members of the public about policies and practices, such as policies about conflict of interest. Editing activities may include making contributions to articles relevant to the institution's materials and mission, such as articles about significant cultural objects in an organization's collection, [14] or articles in a specific field of knowledge. [15]

Another common form of collaboration involves digital collections. [16] A WiR can provide training on digitization and help upload media (with any existing metadata) to Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia volunteers can then translate, extend, and reverify metadata, categorizing media [17] [18] [19] and manually transcribing and structuring scanned documents on Wikisource. [20] The description and categorization functions on Wikimedia Commons are sometimes preferred to those of commercial websites [21] and the institution's catalogue software. Media added to Commons are used in Wikipedia, both by the WiRs and by volunteer editors. [17]

A third form of collaboration involves datasets and APIs in their own right; for instance, the Wikimedia Foundation funded a Wikipedian in Residence at OCLC to integrate the OCLC's WorldCat Search API into Wikipedia's citation autocompletion tools, making adding references faster for Wikipedia editors. [22] WiRs have also helped integrate ORCID metadata [23] and rights statement data. [24] Some WiRs work for only a short period, as little as a few weeks, while others have permanent positions. In the case of short-term positions, it is important that the work to be done be well-planned in advance. [17]

Compensation

While Wikipedia discourages direct paid compensation for article editing and prohibits undisclosed advocacy, Wikipedians in residence are permitted to be compensated for work on-wiki [25]  – either by offering credit, stipend, or salary – through their sponsoring institutions provided that they adhere to strict guidelines against engaging in public relations or marketing for their institution.

Developing interest

Interactive map of Wikimedians in residence listed, sorted by year Wikimedian in Residence map 2019.png
Interactive icon.svg
Interactive map of Wikimedians in residence listed, sorted by year

In 2010, Australian Liam Wyatt became the first Wikipedian in residence when he volunteered at the British Museum for a period of five weeks. [1] [26] He noted the need for Wikipedia to strengthen partnerships with museums to create the most up-to-date and accurate information, [8] saying "we are doing the same thing for the same reason, for the same people, in the same medium. Let's do it together." The Children's Museum of Indianapolis became involved with the program after Wikipedian Lori Phillips volunteered for a GLAM event in 2010, [8] becoming the second Wikipedian in residence. The third, Benoît Evellin, spent six months at the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France. [27] The Museu Picasso in Barcelona, Spain [28] and the Derby Museum and Art Gallery in Derby, England were also early adopters of the idea. [29]

In 2010, the Smithsonian Institution expressed interest in the idea, which led to the hiring of Sarah Stierch in July as Wikipedian in residence. [3] [30] [31] [32] The following year, the National Archives and Records Administration followed suit and hired Dominic McDevitt-Parks, a student from Simmons College, who was pursuing a master's degree in history and archives management, to work at its Archives II location in College Park, Maryland. [12] [33] McDevitt-Parks had been editing Wikipedia since 2004 and was hired for this position by David Ferriero. [33] [34] [35]

In July 2011 Wikimedia UK engaged Andy Mabbett, an editor since 2003, as an "outreach ambassador" in residence at the Bristol-based wildlife charity Wildscreen, working on the ARKive project. [36] Since then Mabbett has been a Wikipedian in residence at other organisations such as the New Art Gallery Walsall [7] and the Royal Society of Chemistry. [4]

In January 2013, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library became the first presidential library to hire a Wikipedian in residence, when they hired Michael Barera, a master's student at the University of Michigan. [11] In September 2013, the National Archives and Records Administration became the first organisation to employ a permanent full-time Wikipedian in residence when it hired Dominic McDevitt-Parks to join its Office of Innovation in that capacity. [35]

In March 2014, Harvard University posted a job listing seeking applicants to be their Wikipedian in residence at the Houghton Library. [37] In October 2014, the University of Victoria Libraries announced that in collaboration with the Electronic Textual Cultures Lab (ETCL) and the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences that Christian Vandendorpe had been named honorary resident Wikipedian in residence for the 2014/2015 academic year. [38] Constance Crompton took on the role from 2014 to 2016, followed by Erin Glass from 2019 to 2020 and Silvia Gutiérrez De la Torre from 2020 to 2021. [39]

By 2016, more than 100 Wikipedians had taken part in the role, [37] most of whom were paid by either the institution where they work or a Wikimedia-related organization, and others as volunteers. From July 2018 to June 2019 Mike Dickison was the first "Wikipedian at large", undertaking many short residencies at various institutions throughout the New Zealand, such as Wellington City Archives, the University of Canterbury, and Auckland Museum. [40] [41]

Reception

One such advertised post has been reported positively by others as being a "unique opportunity to help enrich Wikipedia and its sister projects and share with the world ... resources and knowledge." [14] Conversely, journalist Andrew Orlowski criticized another advertised post as a waste of government funds. [2] In 2013, a part-time temporary position was advertised by the National Library of Scotland and was noted as being "the first large-scale partnership" between a Scottish institution and Wikimedia UK. [13] This initiative was followed by the University of Edinburgh, where a Wikimedian in residence was appointed in December 2015. [42]

See also

Related Research Articles

Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one for each language. The project's aim is to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has expanded to become a general-content library. The project officially began on November 24, 2003, under the name Project Sourceberg, a play on Project Gutenberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikimedia movement</span> Group of global contributors to Wikimedia projects

The Wikimedia movement is the global community of contributors to the Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia. This community directly builds and administers these projects with the commitment of achieving this using open standards and software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikimedia UK</span> UK charity and chapter of the Wikimedia movement

Wikimedia UK (WMUK), also known as Wikimedia United Kingdom, is a registered charity established to support volunteers in the United Kingdom who work on Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia. As such, it is a Wikimedia chapter approved by the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), which owns and hosts those projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikimania</span> Annual conference of the Wikimedia movement

Wikimania is the Wikimedia movement's annual conference, organized by volunteers and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Topics of presentations and discussions include Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, other wikis, open-source software, free knowledge and free content, and social and technical aspects related to these topics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GLAM (cultural heritage)</span> Galleries, libraries, archives, and museums

GLAM is an acronym for galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, and refers to cultural institutions with a mission to provide access to knowledge. GLAMs collect and maintain cultural heritage materials in the public interest. As collecting institutions, GLAMs preserve and make accessible primary sources valuable for researchers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uzbek Wikipedia</span> Uzbek-language edition of Wikipedia

The Uzbek Wikipedia is the Uzbek-language edition of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. It was founded in December 2003. Articles in the Uzbek-language edition are written in the Latin script. In August 2012, a Latin-to-Cyrillic converter was added to allow users to view Uzbek Wikipedia's pages in both the Latin and Cyrillic scripts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikipedia community</span> Volunteers who create and maintain Wikipedia

The Wikipedia community, collectively and individually known as Wikipedians, is an online community of volunteers who create and maintain Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. Since August 2012, the word "Wikipedian" has been an Oxford Dictionary entry. Wikipedians may or may not consider themselves part of the Wikimedia movement, a global network of volunteer contributors to Wikipedia and other related projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">QRpedia</span> QR codes linking to Wikipedia articles

QRpedia is a mobile Web-based system which uses QR codes to deliver Wikipedia articles to users, in their preferred language. A typical use is on museum labels, linking to Wikipedia articles about the exhibited object. QR codes can easily be generated to link directly to any Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), but the QRpedia system adds further functionality. It is owned and operated by a subsidiary of Wikimedia UK (WMUK).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WikiConference India</span> Wikipedia conference in India

WikiConference India is a national Wikipedia conference organised in India. The first WikiConference India conference was held in November 2011, in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was organised by the Mumbai Wikipedia community in partnership with Wikimedia India Chapter with the support of the Wikimedia Foundation. The conference is positioned as the annual national flagship event for Wikimedia in India and is open to participation from citizens of all nations. The focus is on matters concerning India on Wikipedia projects and other sister projects in English and other Indian folk languages. WikiConference India 2023 took place in Hyderabad from 28 to 30 April 2023. Wikiconference India 2025 is in the planning phase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monmouthpedia</span> Collaborative project

Monmouthpedia is a collaborative project linking the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia and the town of Monmouth in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edit-a-thon</span> Editing collaboration on a specific topic

An edit-a-thon is an event where some editors of online communities such as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, and LocalWiki edit and improve a specific topic or type of content. The events typically include basic editing training for new editors and may be combined with a more general social meetup. The word is a portmanteau of "edit" and "marathon". An edit-a-thon can either be "in-person" or online or a blended version of both. If it is not in-person, it is usually called a "virtual edit-a-thon" or "online edit-a-thon".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikimedian of the Year</span> Annual award established by Jimmy Wales

The Wikimedian of the Year is an annual award that honors Wikipedia editors and other contributors to Wikimedia projects to highlight major achievements within the Wikimedia movement, established in August 2011 by Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales. Wales selects the recipients and honors them at Wikimania, an annual conference of the Wikimedia Foundation—except in 2020, 2021, and 2022 when the recipients were announced at online meetings as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2011 to 2016, the award was named Wikipedian of the Year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WikiConference North America</span> Conference of Wikimedia community from North America

WikiConference North America, formerly WikiConference USA, is an annual conference organized by the Wikipedia community in North America. The first two events were held at New York Law School and Washington, D.C.'s National Archives Building in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The third conference, rebranded WikiConference North America, was held at San Diego's Central Library in 2016, with a pre-conference day at Balboa Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felix Nartey</span> Ghanaian social entrepreneur and 2017 Wikipedian of the Year

Felix Nartey is a Ghanaian social entrepreneur and advocate. He was named the Wikimedian of the Year in 2017 by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales at Wikimania. He is co-founder of Open Foundation West Africa and Creative Commons Ghana, where he is also the chapter lead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Dickison</span> New Zealand Wikipedian, zoologist, and museum curator

Michael R. Dickison is a New Zealand museum curator, zoologist and Wikipedia editor. He was New Zealand's first Wikipedian at Large, in 2018–19, receiving a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanna Mkrtchyan</span> Armenian Wikimedian (born 1949)

Susanna Mkrtchyan is an Armenian professor of database and system research, PhD of technical sciences, Wikimedian. She founded and leads the Wikimedia Armenia chapter (2013–2020), which organizes outreach and workshops to improve the Armenian Wikipedia, including an annual conference. She conceived and turned into reality the vision of wikicamp and wikiclub projects, which were recognized as the coolest projects accordingly, in 2014 and 2016. During Wikimania 2015, she received an honourable mention in the context of the annual award Wikimedian of the Year attributed by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. In 2018, Susanna Mkrtchyan was elected Vice President of the World Wikipedia and User Education Group and served until 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siobhan Leachman</span> New Zealand citizen scientist and Wikimedian

Siobhan Leachman is a New Zealand citizen scientist, open knowledge advocate, and Wikimedian whose work focuses on natural history. In 2023 Leachman was awarded the Wikimedia Laureate award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Moore (Wikipedia editor)</span> American Wikipedia editor (born 1980s)

Jason Moore is an American Wikipedia editor among the English Wikipedia's most active contributors by edit count. Editing since 2007 as "Another Believer", he has specialized in current events, with coverage including the COVID-19 pandemic, George Floyd protests, and the culture of Portland, Oregon, where he is based. On Wikipedia, Moore has created and developed editor affinity groups for joint work on these topics. As an organizer in the Wikimedia movement, Moore has hosted meet-ups and edit-a-thons to train new editors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikigrannies</span> Wikimedia user group

Wikigrannies is a group of Wikipedia authors and Wikimedians of elderly age, partly organized as a Wikimedia user group. As a user group, they originate from Bashkortostan, and tend to include participants and colleagues from other regions and countries.

References

  1. 1 2 Cohen, Noam (5 June 2010). "Venerable British Museum Enlists in the Wikipedia Revolution". The New York Times . Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Orlowski, Andrew (16 February 2012). "British Library seeks taxpayer-funded Wikipedia-fiddler". The Register . Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  3. 1 2 Cohen, Noam (12 July 2010). "Success may be Wikipedia's biggest challenge". The Boston Globe . Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  4. 1 2 Mabbett, Andy (7 September 2015). "A year as Wikimedian in Residence". Royal Society of Chemistry . Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  5. ↑ Cockrell, Cathy (30 November 2001). "Berkeley's Wikipedian-in-residence is a first". UC Berkeley. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  6. ↑ "GSAS Student News: November 2018". Columbia University. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  7. 1 2 Brown, Julie (17 June 2013). "The New Art Gallery Walsall". Museums Association. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 "Museum Hires First Wikipedian-in-Residence". Inside INdiana Business . Indianapolis, Indiana. 19 August 2011. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  9. ↑ "Consumer Reports Appoints Lane Rasberry as Wikipedian in Residence". www.consumerreports.org. Retrieved 27 August 2022.[ permanent dead link ]
  10. ↑ "Consumer Reports on the value of a Wikipedian in Residence | Wiki Strategies". wikistrategies.net. Archived from the original on 27 August 2022. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  11. 1 2 Kaczmarczyk, Jeffrey (17 January 2013). "President Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum appoints its first Wikipedian in residence". MLive . Grand Rapids, Michigan: Booth Newspapers . Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  12. 1 2 Baughman, Julie (13 July 2011). "National Archives hires 'Wikipedian in residence'". The Baltimore Sun . Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  13. 1 2 "National Library of Scotland recruits 'Wikipedian'". BBC News . 24 April 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  14. 1 2 Woods, Steve (18 April 2013). "National Library of Scotland seeks Wikipedian in residence". Bristol Wireless. Archived from the original on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  15. ↑ O’Connor, Siobhan; White, Alice; Thomas, Sara; McAndrew, Ewan (24 January 2019). "Editathon – Wikimedian in Residence" . Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  16. ↑ "GLAM/Model projects - Outreach Wiki". outreach.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  17. 1 2 3 Chemello, Marco; Leva, Federico (15 September 2018). "The effectiveness of a Wikimedian in permanent residence: the BEIC case study". JLIS.it. 9 (3): 141–147. doi:10.4403/jlis.it-12481. ISSN   2038-1026. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  18. ↑ Fawcett, Kirstin (8 February 2017). "Met Museum Makes 375,000 Images Freely Available Online". Mental Floss. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023.
  19. ↑ Voon, Claire (7 February 2017). "Metropolitan Museum Gives Unrestricted Access to 375,000 Images". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 4 December 2023.
  20. ↑ King, Mary (1 June 2011). "Meet Our Wikipedian in Residence: Dominic McDevitt-Parks". NARAtions. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  21. ↑ Schlosser, Melanie (10 December 2013). "Wikipedian-in-Residence visit". The Libraries, Ohio State University. Archived from the original on 21 February 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  22. ↑ "OCLC and Wikipedia Library link citations to millions of library materials, expanding access to quality sources". OCLC. 11 December 2017.
  23. ↑ Meadows, Alice (15 January 2016). "Meet our Wikipedian-in-Residence, Andy Mabbett!". orcid.org.
  24. ↑ "RightsStatements in Wikidata". rightsstatements.org.
  25. ↑ Wikipedia:Conflict of interest#Wikipedians in residence, Wikipedia.
  26. ↑ Cohen, Noam (19 March 2014). "Warming Up to the Culture of Wikipedia". The New York Times . Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  27. ↑ GLAM Château de Versailles project page, Wikipedia.
  28. ↑ GLAM Museu Picasso project page, Wikipedia.
  29. ↑ GLAM Derby project page, Wikipedia.
  30. ↑ Switzer, Cody (28 July 2011). "Wikipedian-in-residence helps share Smithsonian archives". The Chronicle of Philanthropy . Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  31. ↑ Shen, Aviva (4 April 2012). "How many women does it take to change Wikipedia?". Smithsonian Magazine . Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  32. ↑ Gallagher, Paul (10 January 2014). "Wikipedia fires editor who enhanced entries for cash". The Independent .
  33. 1 2 Rein, Lisa (2 June 2011). "National Archives hires first 'Wikipedian'". The Washington Post . Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  34. ↑ "National Archives appoints a 'Wikipedian'". Tampa Bay Times . 3 June 2011. Archived from the original on 8 November 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  35. 1 2 "Breaking New Ground Again". National Archives and Records Administration. 19 September 2013.
  36. ↑ Zaba, Christina (16 September 2011). "Bristol 'Wikipedians' taught to edit online encyclopaedia". Bristol24-7 . Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
  37. 1 2 "Wikipedian in Residence". Outreach Wiki. Wikimedia . Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  38. ↑ "Honorary resident Wikipedian: Professor Christian Vandendorpe – Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences". Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences . Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  39. ↑ ETCL (Electronic Textual Cultures Lab) (2020). "Honorary Resident Wikipedian". ETCL. Archived from the original on 30 March 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  40. ↑ Easther, Elizabeth (18 September 2018). "Mr Wiki: Mike Dickison is NZ's first Wikipedian at large". North & South . Noted. Archived from the original on 20 October 2018. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  41. ↑ GLAM New Zealand Wikipedian at large project page, Wikipedia.
  42. ↑ Ho, Amanda (13 October 2015). "University of Edinburgh to employ 'Wikimedian in Residence' web editor". The Student . Retrieved 7 May 2016.

Selected bibliography

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