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Kevin Gorman

Joined 26 January 2011
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{{Deceased Wikipedian|Example male}}
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<!-- '''I still exist. I'm currently both busy irl and interfacing with higher level meta concens, like the BoT and the fact that WMF has lost a huge portion of its longterm staffers, more than focusing on ENWP. I will eventually return, at which point I'll probably publicly analyze how broken the AC case against me was, and how it demonstrates the strength of entrenched editors. AFAIK, that was the weakest desysop ever taken. The case was accepted without going through ANY dispute resolution process pre-arb only because an ex-arb brought it. WTT's evidence ''literally included'' evidence of wrongdoing on my part that had been previously endorsed unanimously as the correct call by me by every member of arbcom, none of the other evidence presented has ever been sufficient to desysop anyone else, basically no arbs participated prior to the announcement of the final decision, and it thoroughly demonstrates why arbcom needs reform if it wants to keep useful editors and admins. How I contribute after that will be dependent on my time and other existing committments, whether or not current arbs realize how badly they handled that case, and a few other factors.''' [[User:Kevin Gorman]] | <sup><i>[[User talk:Kevin Gorman|talk page]]</i></sup> 02:09, 13 April 2016 (UTC) -->
I'm Kevin Gorman. I'm a recent graduate of the [[University of California, Berkeley]] with a degree in geography. I'm a Wikipedian (and as of late, somehow also an administrator.) I don't like systemic bias. I also think [[no abstract available bias]] is really frightening. My strongest interest on Wikipedia is making available content that cannot currently be found on Wikipedia in areas that suffer due to our systemic biases. I think that this is some of the most important work that can be done on the encyclopedia at this time. A lot of my other editing is related to personal interests - I'm an amateur mycologist, I'm fascinated with how conceptions of space and place have changed over time, etc. I also spend a lot of time working on articles about living people. Wikipedia has the potential to do a lot of real-world harm if we mess up the biography of a living person, and I think we have an obligation to avoid this as best we can.
 
I'm Kevin Gorman. I'm a recent graduate of the [[University of California, Berkeley]] with a degree in geography, although I'm currently living in SD as my doctors figure out the remnants of last year (in large part I've been here so long because when you need to see a particular specialist because no one else in the Western half of the country is familiar with the subject matter, waits are frequently several months. Until recently, I was an administrator until the Arbitration Committee stripped my sysop bit in what has to have been one of the more poorly executed cases in an arbcom tranche that was not known for good judgement.
Besides for direct content creation, I do a lot of real-world outreach about Wikipedia. I started off focusing on higher education and gendergap related outreach, but have become active in the GLAM sector as well. I'm also one of the moderators of Gendergap-l, the Wikimedia Foundation's listserv aimed at dealing with issues related to our [[WP:gender gap|gendergap]] (although lately the list has been rather moribund.) I've also taken a strong interest in unethical paid editing on Wikipedia, because I think that it too has the potential to do great harm to the encyclopedia. I think paid editing can have a place on Wikipedia, potentially at least, but also think that pretty much everyone currently doing it is damaging Wikipedia. I've put together a few example pieces from the Wiki-PR case in my userspace [[User:Kevin_Gorman/Wiki-PR_Work|here]], so that people who didn't see the work when it was live can get an idea of the quality of their writing.▼
 
I dislike systemic biases; both those caused by our gender, racial, and geographic biases, and those cause by [[no abstract available bias]] and it's kindred. One of my stronger interests on Wikipedia is making available online in a freely available format content that cannot be currently be found on the Wikimedia projects because of our systemic biases. I think that this is some of the most important work that can be done on Wikipedia at this time. While I was Wikipedian in Residence at UC Berkeley, my students wrote articles about topics of significance not present on the English Wikipedia (or at least lacking in quality,) - every year I was there, the number of reads my students' articles got exceeded the total number of visitors to UC Berkeley's library system - the goal of cultural institutions, at least in part, is to spread the knowledge they hold, and Wikipedia is one of (several, but an exceptional one) ways forward. If you are involved in a cultural instituion in Southern California and would like to chat about a collaboration, please drop me a note. Arbcom's exceptionally poor judgement means that there are certain types of collaboration I can no longer perform, but lots of awesome collaborations I can still
If you have a question about an administrative (or for that matter, a non-administrative) action that I've taken, please feel free to ask about it on my talk page. I think much socialization between Wikipedians is good, and '''[[User:Kevin_Gorman/Socialization_is_not_bad|I done wrote me an essay about it]].'''▼
 
A lot of my writing that isn't related to the above is related to various personal interests - I'm an amateur mycologist, I just painstaking xeriscaped my yard, I'm fascinated with how conceptions of space and place have changed over time, etc. I'm also deeply concerned about Wikipedia's articles about living people, or that have the potential to harm real world people. I think we have an obligation to avoid this as best we can.
Since there's currently a pending arbitration committee case against me (for actions that I believe are all either defensible, or mistakes that lasted a very short period of time,) '''I will not be active outside of my userspace and arbspace until the issue is resolved.''' Parts of the toolset (e.g., the ability to block disruptive students,) are important for the type of outreach that I do, and any even remotely questionable administrative decision or content dispute that I am involved in are likely to be brought up by the time any case is eventually heard. If you were looking for admin or content help from me, sorry, but try to find another person.
▲BesidesI've forbeen directinvolved content creation, I doin a lot of real-world outreach about Wikipedia., especially Ias startedrelated offto focusing ongetting higher education andinvolved, gendergapour relateddemographic outreachgaps, butand havethe becomeoffline activeaccessibility ingap therepresented GLAMby sectorgalleries, aslibraries, wellarchives, and museums. I haven'mt alsotried oneto ofmake thea moderators of Gendergap-llist, thebut Wikimedia FoundationI'sve listservrun aimedquite ata dealingfew witheditathons, issuesgenerally relatedthemed toaround our [[WP:gender gap|gendergap]] (although lately the list has been rather moribund.)content gaps I've also taken a strongstong interest in unethical paid editing on Wikipedia, because I think that it too has the potential to do great harm to the encyclopedia. I think paid editing can have a place on Wikipedia, potentially at least, but also think that pretty much everyone currently doing it is damaging Wikipedia. I've put together a few example pieces from the Wiki-PR (one of the larger groups we publicly damaged,a lthough they are still operating) case in my userspace [[User:Kevin_Gorman/Wiki-PR_Work|here]], so that people who didn't see the work when it was live can get an idea of the quality of their writing. A lot of paid editing of this quality or worse slips under the radar in to the main encyclopedia.
 
▲If you have a question about an administrative (or for that matter, a non-administrative) action that I've taken, please feel free to ask about it on my talk page. I think much socialization between Wikipedians is good, and '''[[User:Kevin_Gorman/Socialization_is_not_bad|I done wrote me an essay about it]].'''
==Conflict of interest statement==▼
I have been employed by both the University of California at Berkeley and the Wikimedia Foundation in the past. I will not be editing the main space of the encyclopedia directly about these topics generally speaking, except to address blatant vandalism. Since I've now ended my employment at Berkeley, I'll be revising this disclaimer in the near future. In other words, I might write about the problems that invasive crawfish pose for [[Strawberry Creek]] even though part of it runs through Berkeley's campus, or expand the article about the [[Berkeley Historical Society]], but I won't be editing touting our admissions statistics in the article about [[UC Berkeley]], or removing negative information about the University from any article. I may touch upon certain events of historical importance that directly involve Berkeley such as the [[Free Speech Movement]] or [[People%27s_Park_(Berkeley)|People's Park]], but will be doing so in the interests of improving the encyclopedia, not improving Berkeley's image (I doubt that adding more information about an event where UCB students were killed during a protest related to UCB property could possibly improve Berkeley's image.)
 
I will likely be uploading media that may be related to Berkeley in one way or another, such as previously unreleased photographs of events during the [[Free Speech Movement]] or the anti-Apartheid protests that occurred on campus, but won't be sticking these in articles myself 99.99% of the time - just leaving talk page pointers to them so that uninvolved people can decide whether or not they are worth including. I will be attempting to adhere more or less to [[User:Dominic/FAQ|Dominic's guidelines]] for involved editors, which I think are pretty fabulously written. If you believe I've stepped over the line w/r/t any of my edits and this statement, please point it out to me. I can't guarantee I won't make an occasional error, but if I do, I would like to rectify it promptly. As my relationships with these organizations evolve, and as I put more thought in to it, I will likely make occasional edits to this statement; please point out any that you disagree with.
 
▲==Conflict of interest statement==
I've also as of late been involved in happenings involving UC Berkeley such as the scandal around [[Geoff Marcy]], which means that there are a number of pages about UCB that if I wasn't going to avoid before, I shall mostly avoid direct edits to (except to revert, say, an undiscussed change by an editor with an undisclosed COI) now.
I've been involved in enough organizations that have interests at least tangentially related to Wikipedia that listing them all would be a fool's errand. I will generally avoid making CoI edits, and if I do happen to make one that strikes out to me, I'll note it. Probably a few of the most significant roles I've held that were closely related to Wikipedia; I was the Wikipedian in Residence for the University of California at Berkeley, and also the Regional Ambassador for California and Hawii before the WEF abolished such roles. I've also served as an unpaid, physically present intern directly for the Wikimedia Foundation, and later as a paid contractor.
 
==Outreach work==
Until early 2015 I was the [[Wikipedian in Residence]] for the American Cultures Program at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], and until the WEP abolished such roles, I was also the Regional Ambassador for the US Education Program for California and Hawaii. As Wikipedian in Residence at UCB, one of my main roles was be interfacing closely with American Cultures courses participating in the US Education Program to ensure that they flow smoothly, and result in net positives for Wikipedia, the students involved, and the instructors involved.) American Cultures at Berkeley is a program centered on the study of race, ethnicity, and culture in the United States - areas that we currently lack solid coverage of, partly due to the demographic biases of Wikipedia's editors. I'llve supervisedbeen students on-wiki closely, and also be interacted with them in person on a much more regular and intensive basis than is normally done in the USEP. Whileinvolved at Berkeley, I didn't choose to work with classes unlessat I believed there washalf a soliddozen alignmentother between my interests, Wikipedia's interests, the students' interestsschools, and theran instructors'editathons interests.at at Ileast also ran or helped run quitehalf a few editathons indozen thecultural Bayinstituions.
 
Most of the classes I've been involved in as an RA have been confined to the [[San Francisco Bay Area]], although I'd love to branch out as time permits. Besides for my roles as an ambassador and as a WiR, I've also been a participant in several USEP classes in the past, and have taught two. Having participated in the program as a student, instructor, and ambassador, I strongly believe that the program has a huge potential for good. I also realize that it can be catastrophically disruptive, and recognize that for the good of both Wikipedia and the students involved, the program must be managed carefully. Please feel free to reach out to me with USEP related questions or concerns, even if you're outside of my ostensible geographical area.
 
Besides for my higher education involvement, I give presentations on issues such as our gendergap when I am invited to. I'm also talking with the [[Internet Archive]] about accepting a Wikipedian in Residence position there that would deal with many things, but perhaps most important would literally mean no more dead links on Wikipedia (although the fruition of that project is at least a couple of months away.)
 
==This is a very outdated list of things had once intended to do, and probably will eventually==
==Online work, and a bit of a to-do list==
*Some time ago I started to revamp the article on [[Temescal, Oakland, California|Temescal]], a neighborhood in Northern Oakland. I'd like to finish up my revamp, and also work quite a bit towards getting more bay area local history on Wikipedia. I'm hoping to cooperate with the Oakland LocalWiki project on this where I can - they have a lot of excellent content, but it's often not cited in a way that can be directly ported here.
 
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I'm not going to ask why we didn't have an article about Alison Jaggar. I understand that well enough. 90% of Wikipedia editors are men, and most are not philosophers. Philosophy as a field has a significant gender skew itself. It makes total sense that these demographic biases multiply in a way that means we end up without articles about people like Alison Jaggar. The fact that there's a reasonable explanation for it does not in any way make it okay. Instead of asking we the article was missing, I would like to pose a different question: '''Given that we're the #1 source of information in the world, how is it morally conscionable that because of our systemic biases we are missing articles about people like Alison Jaggar?'''
 
===Other stuff===
My first real username on wikipedia was kgorman-ucb, because I first started editing Wikipedia seriously in relation to my coursework (I have an old username from 2005 that had maybe two dozen edits - [[Special:Contributions/Czaemon]]. Boy were sourcing standards different back then.) Once my courses finished, I went ahead and got my account renamed, because I did not want to falsely imply an institutional affiliation. I have a second user account, [[User:Kevin (WMF)]], that I initially created while I was a communications intern at the Wikimedia Foundation, and later used when I had a contract with the Foundation to produce a retrospective report on the operation of the first few years of the [[m:Grants:Grants Program]]. You can see a copy of that report [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Retrospective_2009-2012 here.] I'll only be using this account again if I have an affiliation with the Foundation in the future.
 
===Articles I have created===
*[[Agaricus cupreobrunneus]]
*[[Agaricus californicus]]
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