Ocaasi (WMF)

Jake Orlowitz

The Wikipedia Library, Wikimedia Foundation

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." -Mr. Einstein

About me

My name is Jake Orlowitz, you might know me as User:Ocaasi (my personal account). I grew up in the Philadelphpia suburbs and studied political theory at Wesleyan University before starting a tutoring company in Colorado. I started editing in 2007 as an ip. Early on I worked on articles about religious groups, political movements, and alternative health. Around 2010 I shifted focus from editing to helping new users, working in the irc-help channel and developing the Plain and Simple guide for New Editors and its COI counterpart. In 2012 I began developing projects through the Individual Engagement Grants department at WMF. With a great team I built The Wikipedia Adventure, a playful interactive game to onboard new editors. I also began establishing and expanding donation partnerships in The Wikipedia Library, providing free research access to top article contributors. I also help out as a board member of Wiki Project Med Foundation, a committee member and advisor with Individual Engagement Grants, and a huge supporter of Wikipedia's role in Global Education. I currently split my time between U.S. coasts while working on Wikipedia projects. I love my boxer dog and daydream about singularities both creative and futuristic.

My work

I run The Wikipedia Library, a nonprofit project to give top Wikipedia editors access to reliable sources. We have partnered with JSTOR, Oxford University Press, Elsevier and over a dozen other publishers or platforms to advance our mission of sharing knowledge while exposing their collections of scholarly works. The Wikipedia Library also conducts projects and outreach with University Libraries (placing research affiliates at Institutions), Technical Development (Writing an on-wikipedia embedded link resolver with OCLC), Archives (Surfacing related content from DPLA and Europeana on Wikipedia), and Students (Running a Library Interns program). Pretty much, any question you have about Wikipedia, come and ask me!

Disclaimer: I work for or provide services to the Wikimedia Foundation, and this is the account I try to use for edits or statements I make in that role. However, the Foundation does not vet all my activity, so edits, statements, or other contributions made by this account may not reflect the views of the Foundation.

Contact me

On my talk page:
User talk:Ocaasi

Via email:
jorlowitzgmail.com

On Twitter:
@WikiLibrary
@JakeOrlowitz

Contact TWL: Email wikipedialibrarywikimedia.org or ping User:Samwalton9 (WMF)