I soon move to New York City to work as Wikipedian in Residence for Consumer Reports. A Wikipedian in Residence is a Wikipedia ambassador to an organization. In my case, I will work at Consumer Reports and help the organization establish relationships with Wikipedia. Consumer Reports is a famous United-States based consumer advocacy group. It is located in Yonkers, which is north of the Bronx in New York City.
I had seen Pete Forsyth around on Wikipedia sometime earlier, but when I setup WikiProject Open Access in January 2010 he listed himself as a member. I tried to schedule a talk with him but we did not manage to connect until 21 March, and I made that chat appointment with him about two weeks before then. Sometime after I made the appointment and before we talked he advertised a job notice for a position which would address the problem about which I wanted to discuss with him – the issue of how research institutions should engage Wikipedia. I had that chat with him and he advised me to apply for this position. In the meantime some other friends became aware of this position and sent it to me with a note that I had been talking about this position for many months, and that now it existed. I sent in my resume. I first interviewed by phone for this job on 3 April. I had a follow-up phone interview on 12 April. Sometime after that I went to a Wikipedia editathon in Portland and met Pete in person, and somehow I had a couple of other calls about this. I actually feel like I interviewed for this job a dozen times with many organizations but this was the first time that the organization actually was ready to hire someone, and I was absolutely tickled and enthused to be the recipient of a job I had imagined but which did not exist when I conceived it. It was a huge boost to my esteem to think that an idea I had was independently developed at Consumer Reports, which was an organization I already knew and greatly respected.
I was given a hiring offer and I accepted it. I posted on some Internet forums and luckily met a Consumer Reports employee without anyone’s direction, and he gave me advice on where I should live if I was to work there. I searched for a place in Marble Hill, the northernmost part of Manhattan, and found a shared housing situation in a great location which suited me well. I have been able to videochat with housemates before I moved in, so I feel safe that we will get along and that I will like my space.
The position is temporary and they only are promising that three months is certain, but they have at least six months of work. Still, I decided to get rid of all my stuff in Seattle and not pay rent on my place. When I return I can get new stuff.
I leave the afternoon of Wednesday 25 April after I give a final presentation to Kelly Edwards’ bioethics class for which I am Wikipedia campus ambassador. A clinician from the malaria trial is meeting me at that class to draw blood for a last time. I will not be finishing that study, but they infected me three times and they got all the data they needed to use for their primary outcome so I still was able to give the most useful biospecimens.