Job openings/Community Liaison

YOU ARE ...

... an experienced Wikimedian with established contacts within the community. You are motivated by the desire to see the impossible realized in a defined, repeatable manner. You are not overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of the Wikimedia projects, and you're an effective advocate in discussions. You are probably the type of person with a huge email address book - you could find the name of a favorite coworker or teacher from years ago, and put someone in touch with them very quickly.
...rather than being stymied by chaos, you thrive on it. You love finding new and creative ways to involve people. You likely have a broad range of diverse interests, but you're totally committed to the Wikimedia ethos, and love explaining to people why Wikimedia should make the sum of human knowledge available to everyone in the world.

JOB TITLE

Community Liaison [CLOSED]

REPORTS TO

Head of Reader Relations

SUPPORTS

Wikimedia volunteers and staff

JOB SUMMARY

The Community Liaison must be an experienced editor/contributor on a Wikimedia project. This role is an entry point for volunteer contributors to get answers to questions about the Foundation, or for introductions to Foundation staff, or to better understand a decision-making process or path. The job of the Community Liaison is to be a friendly face who is never "too busy" to talk with contributors who have genuine questions or issues for the Foundation. The liaison steps into difficult discussions to explain details and context to staff and contributors to promote mutual understanding and healthy communication.

The liaison also helps to integrate new Foundation staff into the Wikimedia community by teaching them how to use Mediawiki, social norms of contributing on the projects, and guidelines for working in the community.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Answer questions about the Foundation from community members, or connect them with appropriate staff at the Foundation and shepherd ensuing conversations.
• Proactively support volunteer contributors and new Foundation staff, encouraging healthy integration into the Wikimedia community.
• Keep up with the weekly and daily developments in the Wikimedia movement, by following multiple communications channels (IRC, email, mailing lists, chat) and proactively recruiting volunteers to serve as "eyes and ears" on the projects.
• Help to maintain the database of community contacts.
• Promote the increased number of actively involved community members.
• Communicate with key stakeholders in a precise, detail-oriented manner.
• Help visiting Wikimedians be productive and comfortable in the Foundation office and in San Francisco.
• Other duties as required.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experienced Wikimedian with established contacts within the community.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills and interpersonal skills are a must.
• Intellectually curious, particularly with regard to organizations, social movements and large-scale and distributed collaboration problems.
• Ability to work in an open, transparent and collaborative environment.
• Ability to adapt quickly and easily to changing requirements in a fast-paced, tech based non-profit organization.
• Ability to adhere to deadlines and perform high quality work under general supervision.
• Demonstrated ability to work as part of an integrated team, as well as to perform well on individual tasks.
• Candidates should have extremely high levels of skill and comfort in communication (especially writing), qualitative and quantitative analysis, management and self-management.
• Candidates must have a strong record of contributing to Wikimedia projects.

ABOUT THE WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION AND COMMUNITY DEPARTMENT

Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects are authored and edited entirely by communities of volunteer contributors. The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) maintains the technical infrastructure to support these communities and pursues a permanent agenda of technical and programmatic innovation. It also supports an incredibly diverse global community of editors and readers through global conferences, public outreach activities, and strategic relationships which support the cause of free knowledge. It is a highly transparent, collaborative organization. A global network of Wikimedia chapter organizations conducts important activities to support the movement in a fast-growing number of countries.

The WMF Community Department collaborates with and works as a part of the broad Wikimedia community — including readers, donors and editors/contributors — to encourage the health and growth of Wikimedia communities and the projects they create and manage.