Open Knowledge – Page 4 – Wikimedian in Residence

As this role is a fairly new and interesting-sounding job title, I thought I should intimate what this year-long residency will involve.

In short, I am to facilitate a sustainable relationship between the University and Wikimedia UK to the mutual benefit of both communities.

You’re so Venn: Where the Wikimedian in Residence sits between Wikimedia UK and the University of Edinburgh.

To do this, I will be an advocate of open knowledge and deliver training events & workshops which will further both the quantity & quality of open knowledge and the university’s commitment to digital literacy.

Areas of convergence between Wikimedia UK and the University of Edinburgh’s missions.

More practically, this will involve arranging & delivering skills-training sessions which will fit in with and, importantly enhance, the learning & teaching within the curriculum. I will also stage events outside the curriculum which will draw on the university’s, and Edinburgh’s, rich history & knowledge.

Editathons will be a large part of this, however, there are numerous ways where staff & students can get involved & directly contribute their knowledge & expertise to develop Wikimedia UK’s diverse range of projects, including: Wikipedia; Wikivoyage; Wiktionary; Wikispecies; Wikiquotes; Wikisource; Wikiversity; Wikibooks; Wikinews; Wikimedia Commons; Wikidata; Mediawiki; Wikimedia Labs and more besides. (https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Our_projects)

Not just Wikipedia: Wikimedia UK’s diverse range projects (above).

If you would like to know more about how our main open knowledge project, Wikipedia, fits in with academia then these two recent articles make very compelling reading:

Alternatively, I am based in the Learning, Teaching & Web Services Division within the Hugh Robson Link Building on George Square, Edinburgh, and am very happy to chat to you about the residency.

Contact details

Indeed, should you wish to discuss collaborating on any projects then I would be only too glad to hear from you.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Alice.

Screenshot from ‘Alice in Wonderland’. By Walt Disney (Original Trailer (1951)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“The time has come,” the Walrus said. “To talk of many things.”

By Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons

Exactly one month has flown by since I started my year-long residency at the University of Edinburgh as the new Wikimedian in Residence and I have not stopped to collect my thoughts. The starting of a new blog seems a good place to begin.

In starting this curiously titled new role at the University of Edinburgh, I am reminded how far we have come since I first began my undergraduate course at the University of Glasgow; when mobile phones and the internet were still very much in their infancy and social media (like blogs) and Wikipedia were still all to come.

This is now my third blog; following my WordPress blog (on film, tv & book reviews) and my travel blog covering my travels from Seoul (South Korea) to Glasgow (UK) via Canada, North America and South America. Like millions of others, I also have a Facebook account. It chose recently to ‘share a memory’ with me of the time, six years ago, I sat in the gardens outside Vina Undurraga, Santiago, Chile. In seeking to illustrate my first post with a picture to introduce myself, and until I can get a new picture taken of myself in my new surroundings, this picture seems a good one.

At Vina Undurraga, Santiago, Chile.

Prior to this picture, I had just completed two years’ teaching in Japan & South Korea and I had the option to return directly home to the UK or my employers would also pay for me to fly the equivalent distance elsewhere and I could indulge my curiosity and take the scenic route home.

I chose the scenic route.

The picture shows me mid-trip in Chile after visiting Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Peru and Bolivia and Chile. I had just visited the observatory at Cerro Mammalluca (with the best conditions for stargazing in the world), stood next to a Moai statue from Easter Island, visited Pablo Neruda’s house in Valparaiso and I had a trip traversing the Andes into Patagonia to look forward to.

It reminds me how rich and interesting the world is and how wonderful it is to share knowledge and experiences. I was able to travel from country to country, experience new cultures, stop off at libraries, museums, art galleries, see many natural wonders, learn new languages and read terrific books, travel guides and articles on Wikipedia in-between stops.

At the Natural History Museum, New York.

Since that time, as an English, History & Media teacher, I have been an advocate for lifelong learning and for Open Knowledge; for looking outward to the world and pooling & sharing our knowledge & experiences. In this way, I can think of no better role than a collaboration between Wikimedia UK and the University of Edinburgh to do just that.

Time to roll my sleeves up and get started…

Supporting the University of Edinburgh's commitments to digital skills, information literacy, and sharing knowledge openly

Tag: Open Knowledge

Getting Started – What the residency involves

Wikimedia, Open Knowledge and The University of Edinburgh