Bringing Wikimedians into the Conversation at Libraries/Wiki(p/m)edians in Residence
Wiki(p/m)edians in Residence
The most well described and common way of creating this “empowered champion” role in the Wikimedia community is the “Wiki(m/p)edian in Residence” (WIR) . A WIR is tasked with integrating a strategy for Wikimedia projects and broader OpenGLAM into the workflows and practice of a cultural institution. Their role is not to edit Wikipedia on behalf of the institution (a common misconception), but rather to focus on projects that grow the understanding, skills and capacity of the organization to successfully engage with Wikimedia projects and to improve their broader strategy for open, public engagement with institutional content.
This role usually includes a number of sub-activities, such as creating a free-licensing/open access policy for digital heritage assets, training staff in Wikimedia editing or open-licensing, organizing events, editathons or other contribution activities which utilize institutional expertise, or facilitating the donation of media to Wikimedia Commons. Typically these residencies last at least six months, though some have been shorter; most organizations find that they need at least a year of a residency to fully integrate organizational capacity with a broader “public-access through Wikimedia” strategy -- a handful of these roles have extended to semi-permanent or permanent roles, as it has been at the US National Archives and Records Administration.
The Wikipedian in Residence idea was was first developed and tested at the British Museum by an experienced Australian Wikipedian named Liam Wyatt in 2010. Wyatt, who held the residency as a volunteer for a month, was able to demonstrate how enriching Wikipedia content relating to the museum’s collections increased the number of linkbacks to the Museum’s website and lead to an increase in community engagement activities.[1] Since then residencies have been hosted by well over a hundred institutions within a number of different language and cultural contexts and structural arrangements.[2]
Early iterations of WIR roles were entirely unpaid (building on the idea that a “Wikimedian” is a volunteer, who can be “in residence” at an institution); in the last 4-5 years, many of these WIR roles have at least some sort of compensation, acknowledging that an extended residency at a GLAM institution requires a certain caliber of organizer who should not have to sacrifice their well-being or career development in order to volunteer. Moreover, while the work of a normal Wikipedian might be seen as fun volunteerism (developing content on a topic of personal interest), the work of a WIR frequently requires participating in organizational development and dynamics -- which is clearly not in the scope of full or part time volunteer work. Compensation is usually in the form of a short term contract, funded through either an outreach-focused budget, external grant or existing residency/fellowship/practicum/internship programs for early professionals. That being said, small or under-resourced institutions may be able to build a close relationship with a Wikimedian or other volunteer willing to do a “Wikipedian in Residence” role without this much investment or it might be appropriate for a coalition of institutions to resource a Wikipedian in Residence -- as happened at the York Museums Trust or METRO library association in New York.[3]
Early WIR roles were recruited almost exclusively from experienced Wikimedia Community members, who had a deep understanding of the social dynamics of different Wikimedia projects. However, this has changed with the proliferation of different Wikimedia outreach programs, which in turn has allowed Wikimedia communities to gain experience in developing relationships with institutions, resulting in better documentation of activities which is accessible to professionals. Moreover, the deeply engaged online community only has so many volunteers both capable of setting aside their careers for temporary employment and with the right skills for effective program development at partner organizations. Instead, hiring individuals with moderate-to-little Wikimedia experience, but with demonstrated energy, experience and alignment with digital communities alongside outreach and project management skills has proven effective in a number of situations.
When supported by a broader community of Wikimedians through an affiliate or network, it's even possible to develop effective programs with someone with no Wikimedia experience: for example, West Virginia University Libraries hired Kelly Doyle, a community organizer and educator, who had no previous experience working with the Wikimedia community. Her ability to organize effective events, learn and teach about the social components of the Wikimedia community, and ability to innovate on existing project models, has allowed a much wider variety of impact types around their focus of “gender equity”.
Outcomes from WIR range widely, based on the organizational strategies, project pursued, and capacity within the organization to prioritize resources and open-license content for use in the partnership. But documented outcomes and descriptions of the experience by host institution staff, tend to be very strong, resulting in: positive organizational culture changes, theoretical public impact (through visibility of topics of importance to the institution) and tangible metrics in terms of large pageviews of new content created on Wikipedia and media uploaded to Wikimedia projects, as well as an increase in referrals from Wikimedia websites to institutional resources.[4]
Residencies can be described as successful based on just tangible metrics and impacts. However evaluating and implementing the WIR model in isolation often struggles to leave any lasting institutional impact on Wikimedia’s projects and mission once the residency ends. Meaningful strategic impact, particularly in larger GLAM’s, can take a very long time and may meet with resistance from staff with conflicting priorities and targets. In order to aid a lasting Wikimedia collaboration, the WIR must work closely with the institution to build a sustainable model for engagement. This might involve establishing a volunteer community under the management of permanent library staff who acts as the champion after the residency, securing policy change within the timescale of the residency, expanding written job descriptions to include Wikimedia related duties or building content release or donation into digitisation workflows.Wikipedia Visiting Scholars
Wikipedian in Residence roles are high risk/high reward roles for institutions: they cost a fair amount of money, in terms of the role itself and supervising the role, but it ensures that someone in the staff has the energy and time to integrate Wikimedia, either through its projects or at the least its values of openness and public access, into the organizational strategy. However, when an organization isn’t ready for that kind of strategic commitment, it’s still worth designating an advocate from outside the organization, to experiment within existing collections or resources. Increasingly, institutions are turning to the concept of a “Wikimedia Visiting Scholar”: someone whose real expertise is on creating Wikimedia content and exposing the institution to the relationship between institutional knowledge and Wikimedia, while not focusing on capacity development.[5]
Visiting scholars, like Wikipedians in Residence, usually have some experience with Wikimedia projects, but need that experience to be very targeted on developing high quality content. To create such a role, an institution works in partnership with an affiliate or a champion to find a Wikimedian editing in a certain topic area relevant to the collection, and then invites that Wikimedian to fill that “Visiting scholar” position. Modeled off “visiting scholar” positions at academic institutions, the Wikipedian gains some type of unique access arrangement, such as access to materials licenced by a research library or direct support from a handful of the staff, that allows them to more effectively research so that they can contribute around an agreed upon field of knowledge. These Visiting Scholar roles provide an interface with the Wikimedia community: humanizing the activity, introducing staff to the creation of content on Wikimedia projects, and helping staff examine the relationship between organizational knowledge and Wikimedia projects.
Typically, Visiting Scholar roles are initiated for a window of time, usually for six months to a year and often remotely, to contribute a certain amount of content (i.e. 15-30 Quality Wikipedia article, or integration of a dataset into Wikidata), with a presentation or collaboration with staff at the end which highlights the relationship of the Wikimedia content to the organizational goals. Some Wikipedia Visiting Scholars have asked for closer collaboration with their host institutions, creating the stepping stone for a Wikimedian in Residence type position; while in other situations, the temperament or interests of the Wikimedian don’t lend themselves to deeper collaboration, but they sustain contributions to Wikimedia projects in collaboration with the institution.
- ↑ British Museum Wikipedia project page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/British_Museum
- ↑ For an incomplete list, see https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedian_in_Residence
- ↑ See the program page for York at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/YMT and a reflection on the METRO role on the Wikimedia Blog: Dorothy Howard. “On Consortium-Based Wikipedian in Residence Positions.” Wikimedia Blog, November 15, 2013. https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/15/wikipedian-in-residence/
- ↑ The most thorough evaluation of this has been by Wikimedia United Kingdom, who did a review of their program in 2014: Chris McKenna and Daria Cybulska. “Wikimedian in Residence Programme Review.” Wikimedia UK, 22 July 2014. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedian_in_Residence_Programme_Review_-_WMUK_2014.pdf. Though the report has some learnings specific to Wikimedia Organizations within the Wikimedia Community, the examination showed that overall impact from institutional perspective, has been positive.
- ↑ Documentation for this model of collaboration can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Visiting_Scholars