Executive summary edit
As of July 2023, I have a Wikipedia:Conflict of interest dealing with a United States Air Force software lab called Kessel Run. From May 2017-May 2023, I had one with articles dealing with Microsoft. From Feb 2008-May 2017, I had one with articles dealing with Google. Presumably these latter ones will run out eventually.
TL;DR edit
Professionally I'm a computer programmer. I've been a Wikipedian since late 2005. As of mid 2018, wrote maybe 70 real articles, not counting redirects and whatnot. Uploaded maybe 700 images for articles.[1] Here's a 2015 interview with me about that, a journalist and author we have an article about asked that I do one with him before he'd release an image.
Google edit
In 2016, I was chatting with my boss's boss at Google; we didn't really have much to talk about, since our department had sort of been grafted onto her department just to have some place to put it. She liked what we did, but wasn't really that involved. I mentioned that I had been doing Wikipedia as a hobby, for maybe 10 years then, she asked how articles were made, I told her about Wikipedia:Notability, the "General Notability Guideline", that we basically wrote about topics that had received significant coverage from multiple reliable sources. She said that she had actually had multiple indepth stories written about her. I said that was probably just interviews about her department, not her personally, and we already had an article about her department. She said, no, they were actually about her. I nodded politely, but later checked, and what do you know, they were, and they were even a really interesting story. So I wrote it.
I knew since I worked for her, I shouldn't just push it live myself, so I went to an admin I knew that was interested in increasing the number of articles about women on the 'pedia, and also is rather proud of being one of the main drafters of the Wikipedia:Conflict of interest policy. She looked it over, made some comments, and when I answered them, approved. A talk page stalker directed me to another admin who was also interested in women scientists, and just happened to be a Wikipedia:Arbitrator, and that year's Wikipedian of the Year. She looked it over, made some comments, and when I answered them, pushed the article live. I saved those discussions on the article talk page.
Microsoft edit
In May 2017, I left Google for Microsoft; to write code, not encyclopedia articles. But I did mention my Wikipedia hobby after working for some time, and by November 2017, word had gotten around. It seems that back in February 2017, a Microsoft PR person had written a draft about company president Brad Smith, and it got rejected. Later the draft even got deleted. Could I maybe help out? I thought I probably could; it was rejected for not meeting Wikipedia:Notability, which I somehow thought the #2 person at one of the most notable companies in the world just might. I asked the draft be restored, and rewrote the article in my user space, before returning the work to the draft. It took quite a while, even though I had the rejected skeleton to start with, because I did it on my own time, not as part of my paid work. (I did most of it during winter vacation.) By February 2018 it was done, and an experienced uninvolved editor reviewed it and pushed it live.
I was asked to continue to help out with articles about the rest of Microsoft's leadership team. Still on my own time, not as a job function, and I'm more advising others than doing it myself (PR actually suggested I do it as part of my job; my manager said he needed me to write code!). I wrote most of one more, but it looks like my advice is taking hold, and the others will be done without my direct involvement.
Kessel Run edit
I joined Kessel Run, the Air Force software factory, as a contractor in July 2023. In theory. In practice, I couldn't actually do anything, except watch onboarding talks and videos, for weeks. Four weeks if not more. ("Do you check under your car for explosives every time you get in?" "Do you refuse to talk to anyone you've never met before in case they're foreign agents?") I again mentioned my Wikipedia hobby at one of the talks, and an Engagement guy asked if we could get a Wikipedia article for Kessel Run. At first I said, no, it would be a pain due to the conflict of interest, etc. But then my fingers got to itching to produce something, so I started to write. (Not while the onboarding videos were playing in other windows. No. That would have been wrong. Not more than 99% of the time.) It was a fun story. The Engagement guy OKd it, and I must have done a good job because after I put it in Draft space, it was pushed to main by an experienced Wikipedia editor I'd never "met" before in less than a day, though I was fully expecting weeks if not months.[2]
Why edit
I'm writing these COI articles for the same reasons I am writing my other Wikipedia articles: because it's fun; because they're interesting stories; because they're a genuinely worthwhile part of the single largest source of knowledge in human history; because it's a good thing to do. I'm not getting anything else out of it. I get to brag about them occasionally - look what I wrote! - but no more than I get to brag about my other articles.[3] I'm not getting paid for it, neither in money, nor favors, nor promotions, not even in dedicated time for it.[4] I get paid for writing code.
Notes edit
- ^ As of September 2023, 105 articles, about 4,000 images. I see I've started finding and uploading a lot more images! As you can imagine, they're mostly for other editors' articles; just under 10% are for this one editor's articles.
- ^ Not quite that simple, actually. I had neglected to put a similar CoI notice on the Draft article talk page when the reviewer was reviewing it, and I was politely reminded of this fact a month later. Whoops. This happens when you haven't written a CoI article for 5 years. I went back to the reviewer and asked whether that would have made a difference, and should the article be returned to Draft status, and he said no, it would have taken him additional half an hour to review, but he would still have approved.
- ^ Other articles I wrote and sometimes brag about:
- the man who turned Harlem black, partly by buying houses and kicking white people out of them
- the successful pulp artist, who gave up being an anarchist after he left a bomb in a Pittsburgh outhouse
- the local marathon runner who never left North America until she ran 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days ... and won them (Antarctica was so cold her iPhone shattered)
- the black, female, Victoria's Secret model ... and iOS app developer
- ^ In May 2018, this note used to say "Not even in ice cream. The local marathon runner runs an ice cream shop, and she loved my article. Do you think she gives my kids free ice cream? No. She does not. Grr." I didn't actually ask her for it, but, it seems she read this page, and has now promised to send me coupons. See our article on Observer effect (physics), I guess. In the proud presidential tradition of doing it for the kids, I shall not turn them down.