> From: jorlowitz@gmail.com
> Date: Fri, 20 May 2016 17:23:53 +0000
> To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] New GLAM-Wiki Role at Wikimedia Foundation
>
> 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
>
> jorlowitz@wikimedia.org
>
> --
>
> 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
>
> astinson@wikimedia.org
>
> [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
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