Okay, this isn't exactly a placeholder, but I've started so many posts in the last year that I haven't finished that calling it one may be the only way I'll publish it. I decided I would publish something after attending Wikimania last week, which was one of the best experiences of my life. Since I haven't updated this blog, I must explain that four months ago I began working for the Wikimedia Foundation as a Software Engineer on their fundraising tech team. This was a hard transition because I had to leave LaborVoices, where I had grown so much and had gotten to solve amazing problems. However, it was made easier because in my then-new role, I get to be working on exclusively open source software, and for an organization with truly global reach and impact.
If I had any doubts about my new role, they were dispelled in the last week. The moment I felt most joyful about the work I get to do was when I sat in this session on how marginalized knowledge can be represented on Wikipedia(s). While there are still huge barriers to that work (that the panel participants described far better than I ever could), I came away feeling proud to in some small way contribute to the platform that allows these conversations to take place.
What made Wikimania so much more fun was that I brought James! Now 14 months old, his presence made it such that a work trip became an adventure. With help from my husband and a wonderful Canadian babysitter we met online (did I mention we were in Montreal?), I was able to do the juggling act that is a work trip with a baby. I'm so lucky to have the flexibility and resources to be able to do that. Pushing a stroller back and forth during a Susan Herman's keynote was pretty fun, though having to run out of a talk on the sustainability of Wikipedia was less so. However, the good far outweighed the bad, as I struck up conversations with other parents who'd brought their babies, or who missed them. Given how afraid I was that having a child would ruin my career, it was very affirming to be in this space and be able to walk (and sometimes blur) the line between my professional self and my mother self.
As I wrote about a year ago, in the last year, while I struggled with burnout at times (especially when sleep was scarce), I have mostly found myself newly engaged with work, really letting go of expectations of my own personal success in the wake of desire to effect real change in the world. I'm still learning how I can do that in a way that uses my skills and limitations but between my old job, my new job, volunteer work with a nonprofit here in Baltimore, organizing work around environmental justice, and returning to creative writing, I'm feeling on a better path than ever before.
As I wrap up this "placeholder", I can see I'm almost gushing. I'm on a post-conference high, so I'll admit that I don't feel this way every day or even close to it. Like so many others in this country, I drown in the news every day, especially this past week. I mourn on a daily basis for my own naive assumptions about fairness and justice that feel mocked by the political reality, not just of this administration, but highlighted by our current president and Congress. I maintain some sanity by taking small steps through work, what activism I feel capable of while caring for James and myself, and challenging myself to keep learning about the work ahead. I'm heartened by Baltimore's decision last night to take down its confederate monuments and am grateful to the amazing people doing the work that made that happen. While I no longer spend as much time doing the "grassroots" work, I hope my skills can support the efforts of those brave souls.
