User:Econterms/Candidate for Board 2013

I am a candidate for the Board of Directors in the Feb-March 2013 board election

Following the stated rules, I'm addressing the requirements for a nomination package literally by following these statements at the board election page.

To submit your candidacy for election, please prepare a nomination package containing the following information: (1) Your full legal name; (2) A statement certifying that you meet the eligibility criteria listed above; (3) A statement regarding each mandatory disclosure listed above; and (4) A candidate statement up to five hundred (500) words in length.

My full legal name is Peter Benjamin Meyer. I edit under the identity Econterms.

My statement about eligibility requirements

I hereby state that as of Feb-Mar 2013 I meet the eligibility criteria. Specifically: (a) I'm a member in good standing of Wikimedia District of Columbia; (b) I'm over 18 years of age; (c) No order of court has declared my mind to be unsound; (d) No order of court found that I breached a duty as an organization's director; (e) No final order of court prohibits me from serving as a director; (f) I do not not owe more than $100 in outstanding debt to the District of Columbia.

My statement of mandatory disclosures

(a) I do not have a financial interest in any ongoing or planned transaction or arrangement undertaken by Wikimedia District of Columbia; (b) I do have minor "conflicts of duty" that could arise occasionally. My employer is a federal statistical agency whose rules regarding activities in outside organizations may require me to avoid taking public stands on legislation or candidates. I will follow those rules and norms. This won't affect my role in most activities of Wikimedia-DC. Also I help run, speak about, and advocate for internal federal government wikis and for government staff to participate directly in the Wikimedia projects. I cannot see how this would create a conflict with Wikimedia-DC; it should help. (c) I have not been convicted of any felony; (d) I have no fiduciary duty to, nor am I an employee, director, officer, or agent of, the Wikimedia Foundation, or of any Wikimedia chapter other than Wikimedia District of Columbia; (e) I participate in editing Wikipedias especially in English, and in editing Wikisource, and have not been subject to disciplinary action in those contexts.

My candidate statement

I want to support cooperative links between the Wikimedia movement, academic research, and government agencies.

• I'm keeping track of government wikis with broad audiences. I give talks on this subject including one at Wikimania 2012.
• I also track of the rules regarding government employees making edits to Wikipedia and other outside sites. Outside of the GLAM context we do not have many active partnerships with federal agencies, and if we can find open doors, I am looking to create more such partnerships. There are many specialists in the government who can help our open content.
• I support, attend, and will host edit-a-thons with professional groups.
• Each year I attend WikiSym (a symposium on wikis with presenters from many academic fields), Wikimania, and several academic conferences in social science fields and the history of technology. I can represent Wiki-DC at some of these conferences and report back to the membership on the great analytical work that is going on.
• I'd like to support editing in languages other than English, ideally with a special edit-a-thon if we can find a supportive partner institution.
• I think the chapter is running well. Some aspects of what the chapter does are not clear to new attendees at its meetings, and I will put clarifying information on the Wiki-DC wiki when I can.

My background: I have a college degree from Harvard College in Applied Mathematics, a PhD in Economics from Northwestern University. I worked as a software developer at Symantec for some years then went to graduate school and now I am a research economist at a federal agency. My research is mainly on technological change, specifically on how new inventions and industries arise. Information-sharing institutions like wikis, conferences, journals, and clubs help these things happen.