About Me edit
Hello, I'm Dan. I've been a web user and content creator from the early times as part of my work supporting African Studies research and teaching. The first web page I uploaded was in 1996, but I also provided public access to information on Africa using earlier internet technologies beginning with message boards relating to the anti-Apartheid South Africa Disinvestment movement in the 1980s and later providing gopher access to the Somalia News Update on the US-Somalia conflict during the early 1990s.
I've kept up with Wikipedia from its early days and have presented on the importance (and challenges) of its activities and mission in classes since the mid-2000s. My first editorial contribution to Wikipedia was in 2011, but I'm not a frequent or active editor. I have presented to colleagues on the value of scholarly and information specialists contributing to Wikipedia, but I'm no expert on the technical practice of editing these pages. In 2021, I completed 18 hours certified training in WikiData with @wikieducation during the March Wikidata Institute.
Conflict of Interest Statement edit
I am an employee of the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. As a librarian and African Studies Curator at a public, non-profit, cultural and educational institution per WP:GLAM, I am dedicated to advancing knowledge and understanding about Africa through my work as I support scholarly research and teaching to the public. I will only contribute editorial content that is beneficial to the goals of Wikipedia and provides a substantial service to its users. I am committed in particular to improving access to important, free, scholarly sources held in libraries and manuscripts collections or archives. I will modify my editing behavior in response to problems cited by other editors or if my editing conflicts with Wikipedia guidelines. I welcome other editors to contact me via my user talk page if I appear to do anything contrary to Wikipedia etiquette or editorial guidelines.