Job Description

Summary The Wikimedia Foundation Culture & Heritage team is looking for a Wikisource Technical Fellow to join our team, reporting to Satdeep Gill. As Technical Fellow, you will be responsible for working on existing and new tools & features to support different strategic initiatives projects such as Wiki Rescues Manuscripts (a project that supports Wikimedia communities and partner organizations to digitize manuscripts on Wikisource) & Transkribus (a handwriting recognition tool that can potentially support Wikisource communities) pilots. In this role, you will be working on on-screen keyboards and integrating new OCR technology with Wikimedia OCR among other things. We're looking for a talented developer to join this team, and help our contributors to do their extraordinary work. As you would expect, we use open source tools as much as possible, and always open source our own work (https://gerrit.wikimedia.org). Developers at the Foundation have autonomy and responsibility, and can have a large and immediate impact on the future of the site and the movement. Our world is vast and can be complicated, so we value communication, enthusiasm, and eagerness to learn as much as certificates or degrees. This is an ideal opportunity for a member of the Wikimedia/Wikisource community to leverage their skills and experience and help the Foundation support the community better. You are responsible for:

• Supporting Balinese and other languages with on-screen keyboards based on the community requirements
• Integrating new OCR technology such as Transrkibus into Wikimedia OCR
• Fixing or building other features or tools according to the needs of the projects

Skills and Experience:

• Programming experience with PHP and Javascript
• Experience with the Wikimedia community, or a similar open source or collaborative community
• Willingness to work collaboratively and discuss methodology and conclusions with the technology team, project team, and the Wikimedia community
• Ability to operate effectively in multiple cultural and technical contexts
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a globally distributed team
• Experience using a wide variety of communications and collaboration tools, including wikis, mailing lists and IRC
• Proficient English speaker
• Pursuing or completed BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or equivalent work experience

Qualities that are important to us:

• A desire to make meaningful contributions to knowledge equity, free culture, and open access
• An emphasis on communicating clearly in both synchronous and asynchronous channels

Additionally, we'd love it if you have:

• Programming experience with Python
• Experience with MediaWiki, other wikis or other participatory production CMS environments
• Experience with Test-Driven Development and agile methodologies
• Any other free/open source software development experience is highly welcome
• Understanding of the free culture movement
• Active participation as a Wikimedia volunteer would be an asset, though not a prerequisite

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive. The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA. As an equal opportunity employer, the Wikimedia Foundation values having a diverse workforce and continuously strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate against any person based upon their race, traits historically associated with race, religion, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy or related medical conditions, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristics. If you are a qualified applicant requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability, you may contact us at recruiting@wikimedia.org or +1 (415) 839-6885. More information Wikimedia Foundation
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