Last week, a bit of controversy erupted surrounding Wikipedia, after claims surfaced of contributors with paid consultancies editing with a conflict of interest after having been paid to use their Wikipedia savvy to promote their clients. While it is not my intention to get into the particulars of that case here—feel free to read more [...]

On May 23, 2012, the White House released the Digital Government Strategy, which outlines how all federal agencies will work to make information and services easily accessible on the internet, anytime, anywhere, and on any device. President Barack Obama said, “Ultimately, this Strategy will ensure that agencies use emerging technologies to serve the public as [...]

  I’m happy to announce that the National Archives is partnering with Wikimedia D.C. on Wikimania 2012, which is being held in Washington D.C this year, July 12-14. We are thrilled to be able to work together with Wikimedia D.C. on its conference in order to promote our common values: citizen engagement, collaboration, innovation, and [...]

Today’s post comes from National Archives at Kansas City staff members, Archivist Elizabeth Burnes and Exhibit Specialist Dee Harris. Photograph, Improvement Missouri River in Vicinity of Glasgow, MO, August 1881. RG 77, Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, Omaha District.  (National Archives at Kansas City) The National Archives at Kansas City welcomed [...]

This is a guest post by Lori Byrd Phillips, US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator for the Wikimedia Foundation. Lori has also served as the Wikipedian in Residence at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis since 2010 and is currently a museum studies graduate student at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. It’s a well-known fact that Wikipedians love NARA [...]

Starting today, we need your ideas, comments, and votes to help us revise the Open Government Plan of the National Archives.  Please visit the Open Government Idea Forum and take a few minutes to let us know what you think we should be doing to strengthen transparency, participation, and collaboration at the National Archives. Two [...]

David Ferriero’s recent post over on the AOTUS blog made mention of NARA’s Wikipedia ExtravaSCANza in the context of a discussion of the “Yes We Scan” initiative and a broader digitization strategy. I want to take the opportunity to recap the citizen archivist scanning the National Archives has been hosting for Wikipedians in recent months. [...]

Throughout this holiday season, we encourage you to participate in the exciting activities featured on the Citizen Archivist Dashboard, which is available starting today. Check it out and try tagging, transcription, editing articles, uploading digital scans, and participating in contests all related to the records of the National Archives. We hope that you’ll share any suggestions [...]

A few weeks ago on The Text Message, I introduced Wikimedia’s Wikisource project to you. A sister project of Wikipedia, Wikisource is a free repository of primary-source texts which are transcribed, proofread, and arranged—like Wikipedia—collaboratively by a community of online volunteers. It is my pleasure to announce that, since August 15, Wikimedia’s presence now extends [...]

  On Saturday, August 6, more than a dozen Wikipedians attended the backstage pass tour and scanathon at the United States National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The day began at around 11 a.m., as attendees mingled casually among snacks and swag in a lecture room while others passed through security and registered for visitors [...]