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
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- ↑ 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/
