user:Peaceray
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- We are a passionate community of volunteers who are trying to create a free encyclopedia for every single person on the planet.
- We are Wikipedians. This means that we should be: kind, thoughtful, passionate about getting it right, open, tolerant of different viewpoints, open to criticism, bold about changing our policies and also cautious about changing our policies.
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- I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
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- A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.
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Photos
File:Peaceray portrait at WikiPortraits studio at Sundance 2025.jpg|At the WikiPortraits studio during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival
File:Using Wikipedia films and film makers red links to seed Wikidata.pdf|One of my four presentations at WCNA 2024
File:Expanding book citations with WorldCat session at WCNA 2024 (CR).jpg|Another presentation at WCNA 2024
File:Seattle Wiknic 2024 - 01 (cropped).jpg|Some of the Seattle Wiknic 2024 attendees; I am in the yellow cap and purple shirt in the back
File:WikiConference North America 2023 GJS 293.jpg|With some other WCNA 2023 organizers
File:WikiConference North America 2023 GJS 292.jpg|Showing off our Wikidata socks at WCNA 2023
File:WikiConference_North_America_2023_GJS_53.jpg|Q&A at Sue Gardiner's keynote at WCNA 2023
File:WikiConference North America 2023 GJS 244.jpg|WCNA 2023: I must have said something interesting
Why (I) edit Wikipedia
Like you, I have a unique set of knowledge that includes things that few other people know or connections of which others are unaware.
Nearly everybody has interests. I am no different. In my late teens, I helped to run coffee houses. When I started college, I took great pleasure in roaming the university library stacks and perusing microfilm spools, in search of the history of coffee houses. I learned that:
- The first coffee house in London opened in 1652, and by 1700, there were thousands of coffee houses in London.
- It was popular to send letters to a coffee house that a person frequented, and this was one reason the King of England tried to outlaw this practice and suppress coffee house as this practice competed with his General Post Office.
- Bach's Coffee Cantata is about a young woman who will not give up coffee, even to marry.
- The Boston Tea Party may have started in a coffee house, the Green Dragon. See [http://www.web-books.com/Classics/ON/B0/B701/17MB701.html Introduction of Coffee into North America] and [http://www.ico.org/coffee_story.asp The Story of Coffee].
A recent vegetarian at that time, I also researched vegetarianism in the U.S., and learned that Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's vegetarian recipes were purloined by his brother, Will Keith Kellogg, and a former patient, C. W. Post, which they used in forming their respective corporations, the Kellogg Company and Post Foods.
Of course, I learned much more over the years, both substantive and trivial. Yet with whom could I share this? When I was young, the only means of sharing was by word-of-mouth, mimeograph, or by writing something and getting it published as an article or a book.
Then, in early 2010, while looking for analysis of a Shakespeare play that I had recently seen, I began perusing Wikipedia and other texts, happily exploring the former by following link after link and enjoying serendipity. Then one day, I realized that there were missing articles, and that I could write them. Just like you, I could share my knowledge and research with the world. As someone who studied Library Science and English, I could also add or improve citations and do grammatical copyedit. Moreover, I did this: [https://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools-ec/?user=Peaceray&project=en.wikipedia.org Analysis of Peaceray's Wikipedia / Wikimedia contributions] (requires Wikipedia user logon).
Why I am volunteering for the [[Wikipedia:GLAM|GLAM-Wiki initiative]] ('''g'''alleries, '''l'''ibraries, '''a'''rchives, and '''m'''useums)
If I have spent anytime in your town or city, I have most certainly visited a museum or attraction there. Sometimes while traveling, I make a detour just to see a museum that I have not visited. Once I settled down, also started joining museums.
I was fortunate to have a local YMCA that sponsored day trips for preadolescent boys. Among the places they took me were the Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Aquarama, Independence National Historical Park, the USS Olympia, the Philadelphia Zoo, and Gettysburg National Park.
I grew up within bicycling distance of Archmere, Arden, Brandywine Battlefield, the Brandywine River Museum, the Darley House, the Delaware Art Museum, Hagley Museum, and Winterthur Museum, and an easy drive to Longwood Gardens.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Centennial exhibition, Masterpieces Of Fifty Centuries, began a life-long love of art museums and galleries for me. At this point in my history, it would simply be too long a list to recount the museums, buildings, historical parks, libraries, galleries, and monuments that I have visited.
Once I became a parent, I took joy in sharing my fondness for museums with my kids. I like to think that all the visits to art museums helped supplement my younger son{{'}}s natural inclinations towards art. He is an alumni from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
My affection for museums is only part of my motivation for volunteering for GLAM. I have spent a lot of my life in libraries, have an M.S. in Library and Information Studies from Drexel University, and worked 8½ years as a part-time university reference librarian.
I moved to the Seattle area in mid-2014 and immediately became part of the nascent Cascadia Wikimedians User Group, subsequently becoming a board member and officer. I am pleased to have filled a contact vacancy for Washington on the GLAM/US/Connect Information by state list. I am excited about working with area institutions to improve their presence and integration with Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
On citations
{{quote|text=Доверяй, но проверяй
Having been a part-time university librarian and instructor, I am acutely aware of the need for proper citation for verification and avoiding plagiarism. I am also concerned with access to knowledge.
An informational page describing a communal consensus on Wikipedia:Free speech states that "Wikipedia is dedicated to expanding access to the sum of human knowledge." Citations are a vehicle to knowledge beyond what is contained in Wikipedia. I attempt to first find free online sources, or print sources available in libraries, or both. For print sources, I try to provide the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Number. A reader can click on the OCLC Number and will be taken to WorldCat.org, "a union catalog that itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories ..." Given a reader’s location, WorldCat will then display a list of the nearest libraries that hold that publication in their collection. If there are multiple online sources (free or subscription), WorldCat usually links to those as well.
For online sources that are subscription only, I will mark them as a requiring subscription. i.e., setting |subscription=yes in a citation template. I also add a
There is an axiom that a good librarian is not necessarily someone who knows the information, but rather someone who knows how to find the information. A good citation enables the reader to find the source as directly as possible.
More photos
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File:WikiConference North America 2022 logo.png|I did the 2022 logo; Kevin fixed the fonts
File:Post-WNCA 2021 Peaceray selfie.jpg|At the end of the WikiConference North America 2021
File:NA Indigenous Language coverage in Wikipedia.pdf|One of my presentations at WikiConference NA 2021
File:Converting Harvard citations to shortened footnotes (sfn).pdf|My presentation at WikiConference NA 2020
File:Wikimedia Summit 2019 - Portrait Peaceray.jpg|Portrait at the Wikimedia Summit 2019
File:Wikimedia Summit 2019 - 51.jpg|With Dr. Mel, Wikimedia Summit 2019
File:Wikimedia Summit 2019 - Group photo 4.jpg| Wikimedia Summit 2019 group photo; by railing in center
File:Wikimedia Summit 2019 – 283.jpg|Wikimedia Summit 2019-03-31
File:Wikimedia Summit 2019 - 317.jpg|Wikimedia Summit 2019-03-31
File:WikiConference North America 2019 -1-146.jpg|WikiConference North America 2019
File:WikiConference North America 2019 Group Photo VHG 8222.jpg|File:WikiConference NA 2019 group photo; I am flashing the shaka sign behind the Seattle Sounders fan.
File:Seattle Wiknic 2019 at Washington Park Arboretum.jpg|Seattle Wiknic 2019 at Washington Park Arboretum
File:WikiConNA 18 - Sunday Coffee Social 1.jpg|WikiConference North America 2018 Sunday coffee social
File:WikiConference North America 2018 - Friday Group Photo.jpg|WikiConference NA 2018 reception, behind Bluerasberry
File:People at WikiConference North America 2018 GJS (0089).jpg|WikiConference North America 2018 editathon
File:Cascadia Wikimedians' Wiknic 2018.jpg|Cascadia Wikimedians' Wiknic 2018
File:Wikimedia Conference 2018, Group photo (2) with logo.jpg|Wikimedia Conference 2018 group photo, at rail with blue shirt in middle of right third
File:WMCON18-wikidata-meetup.jpg|Wikimedia Conference 2018 Wikidata meetup
File:Wikimania 2017 Closing Ceremony Group Photo-1.jpg|Wikimania 2017 Closing Ceremony Group Photo (4th row, 12th from left)
File:CWUG May 6 2017 editathon.jpg|alt=May 2017 Art+Feminism editathon at UW's Jacob Lawrence Gallery in Seattle|May 2017 Art+Feminism editathon at the [https://art.washington.edu/jacob-lawrence-gallery Jacob Lawrence Gallery] on the UW Seattle campus
File:Editing as Activism edit-a-thon at UW Bothell, 2017-02-23 — 05.jpg|alt=Editing as Activism edit-a-thon at UW Bothell, 2017|Editing as Activism edit-a-thon @UW Bothell, 2017
File:WikiConference North America 2016 group photo - 02.jpg|alt=WikiConference North America 2016 group photo|WikiConference North America 2016 group photo, left of Orange Mike
File:Seattle Wiknic 2016 group photo.jpg|alt=At the Seattle Wiknic2016|At the Seattle Wiknic 2016
File:Peaceray-IMG 3279.jpg|alt=Peaceray at Wikimania 2016|Peaceray at Wikimania 2016
File:Wikimedia Conference 2016 – Saturday – 94.jpg|alt=At Wikimedia Conference 2016|At Wikimedia Conference 2016, in middle with blue sweater, with Geoff Brigham & Christian Rickerts
File:WikiConference USA 2015 330.JPG|alt=At WikiConference USA 2015|At [https://web.archive.org/web/20151013144144/http://wikiconferenceusa.org/wiki/2015/Main_Page WikiConference USA 2015]
File:Wikimedians Pine and Peaceray at Cafe Allegro.jpg|alt=Wikimedians Pine and Peaceray at Cafe Allegro|Cascadia Wikimedians Pine and Peaceray at Café Allegro, August 2015
File:Peaceray and Jonathan Morgan at Wikimania 2015 Reception at Museo Soumaya.jpg|alt=With Jonathan Morgan at Wikimania 2015 Reception at Museo Soumaya|With Jonathan Morgan at Wikimania 2015 Reception at Museo Soumaya
File:Seattle Wiknic 2015.JPG|Seattle Wiknic 2015
File:Wiknic2015Sage008.jpg|[https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia Wikimedia-Cascadia Mailing List] signup @Wiknic
File:Peaceray, Pine and LiAnna.jpg|alt=With Pine & LiAnna Davis, Director of Programs for the Wiki Education Foundation|With Pine & LiAnna Davis, Director of Programs for the [http://www.wikiedu.org/ Wiki Education Foundation]
File:I Love To You Critical Edit-a-thon at UW 3, 2015-02-13.jpg|Peaceray at the I Love To You Critical Edit-a-thon at UW 3, 2015-02-13
File:Seattle Wikipedia meetup at Café Allegro, 2014-10-15.jpg|alt=Seattle Wikipedia meetup at Café Allegro, 2014-10-15|Seattle Wikipedia meetup
at Café Allegro, 2014-10-15
File:Seattle Wikipedia meetup, 2014-10-14, portrait 06.jpg|alt=Is he listening intently, or lost in this thoughts?|Is he listening intently,
or lost in his thoughts?
File:Seattle_Wiknic_2014_minus_2_attendees.jpg|alt=Seattle Wiknic 2014 minus 2 attendees|Seattle Wiknic 2014
minus 2 attendees
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Category:Wikipedians attending Wikimania
Category:Wikipedians in Seattle
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