The Oasis by Shiro Miyake
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There’s this historic house in my home city. Not the most culturally or historically significant, but old by US standards and a handsome specimen of its time. It sat catty-corner to the warehouse/mailroom my dad use to work from before he retired. In 2016 it was purchased and renovations began. My dad would watch the folks work and was curious about the house. We were able to find the completed National Register of Historic Places Registration Form online for the home and learned a lot about the house from the research work within.
About two years ago I started a draft article about the house for Wikipedia 1 and used that document as a foundation. At the urging of a fellow Wikimedian I attended an editing party last week and got the article in a good enough state to move to article namespace on English Wikipedia. It now lives at Dr. George Ashe Bronson House.
At the same time I applied for a library card through the Wikipedia Library to get access to newspapers.com. I wanted to see if I could find out more about the owner of the home, Dr. George A. Bronson, a predominate local dentist. I did, and added a few additional citations to the article.
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Along the way I found out about the history of the Japanese garden the doctor built on the premises. Called, “The Oasis”, it was designed by Shiro Miyake from Nio, Sanuki, Japan. 2
Miyake came to St. Louis as part of the Japanese exhibit for the 1904 World’s Fair. He was a dentistry student at Washington University and graduated in 1909. He worked with Dr. Bronson to build the garden as his “houseman”.
According to old records from Washington University he was the Sergeant at Arms during his time at the school and his favorite occupation was “grinning”. His favorite song? “Just Fill Them Up Again”.3 And his ideal [person] was “Battling Nelson“.
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It appears he later lived in Denver at one point and, if this is him, died in California in 1952.
While Miyake himself is not notable enough for his own Wikipedia article, I like that I was able to find out a little more about him through online resources and include his contributions to this well-respected garden in the article.
Five Years Later…
I’ve been at the Wikimedia Foundation for five years now. I don’t often speak publicly1 about what it’s like to work at the non-profit behind one of the biggest social movements, website, and community on the planet. Also one of the few that aren’t backed by squicky dude-bros who care more about money than humans. AAAAANNNYYYHOW, there’s something special about the number five and so here are my thoughts.
Where is the Foundation now?
I think the Foundation is in a better position than in the past five years – both internally in how the organization is structured and work is managed, but also in what we work on and where our focus is. We’ve learned a lot from the lumps garnered in the past (deservedly or not) and with Movement Strategy and strong focus on Objectives and Key Results (ORKs) it’s more transparent (and apparent) that our work is tied to the needs of the movement.
Better, not perfect.
For example, the recent strategy and board work are both well-staffed – with regional support. The teams (from my perspective) are taking it slow and giving folks a chance to talk and listen. Doesn’t mean we’re going to do everything (we can’t) or hear everyone (we can’t) but that we are trying to acknowledge gaps and biases.
Product has been kicking butt in building tools that help. In particular the Growth team, mobile web, and the desktop refresh. I still love Community Tech after five years. I think I will after another five. If I were a billionaire they’d get 100 million a year just to do more of this.
I still feel like new teams/initiatives/people still sometimes get burned. Unclear expectations, combative community, crossed wires. We’re working on that. I am seeing less of it. Still a few spots of things we should be doing IMHO, but aren’t. Like Maps and visualizations. Like search and the portal. We need to make a decision about the weird stuff kinda floating out there.
Have you seen the multimedia search for Commons? It’s a media search that’s useful! No more “site:commons.wikimedia.org dog” searches on Google.
Onboarding staff new to this wacky world is a challenge. It’s inconsistent and it takes six months to even get up to speed – if not longer! I know smart people are working on this, so I have optimism for the future. It’s still going to be a struggle. We are a multifaceted organization2 and an even more multifaceted movement. And we’re continuing to grow. Obtaining knowledge about the river in which the ship is moving in, while the ship is moving, is tricky. Making this more systemic and process-driven will help, but we still have so much information about our volunteers and the relationship, in well, individual relationships with people. I mean, it should be that way. Humans connecting to humans, but hoo boy does that not scale easily.
Foundation is investing into listening. I mean, I’m on a team literally charged with improving Movement Communications. With Diff, and our needs assessment work, I’m feeling jazzed about moving the needle on the relationship with communities. The Foundation has been inconsistent in talking to folks and connecting our work to theirs. We need to be better storytellers, listeners, and force multipliers. Especially in emerging communities and places of the world where we have communities but know little about them (and therefore can not support them).
I feel like my work is contributing in a more strategic, positive way with Diff. Working with and amplifying the work of people where we can treat each other like teammates and not combatants. It’s encouraging and impactful. Fun Fact: Diff saw 86,865 views from 65,935 visitors in January. Higher than any expectations I had.
As I was drafting this blog post our ED announced she was stepping down. I’ve reflected on all that has happened under her leadership and I think it make sense to mention it here. Katherine has put the org – and by extension the movement – on a solid course.
- Gained the role in the midst of a terrible era of trust (both internal to the Foundation and with community).
- Lead with grace and dignity in every interaction I had that was reassuring and respectable.
- Got a movement strategy rolling for the future and in solid shape to get us to 2030 and beyond.
- Leadership at the C-level and below shored up (Hiring new folks for gaps, new needed roles, sorting out HR, etc.).
- Clarifying governance (Board make up, sort out the board/Foundation responsibilities, bylaws, election).
- Movement-wide Code of Conduct.
- Endowment is nearly at it’s 100 million goal.
- Organizational growth and capacity.
I mean, the next CEO can step in and goof off all day for ~4 years and still leave successful – assuming they don’t muck with stuff too much. 😉
Where is the movement now?
2020 sucked. I’m inspired by the folks who keep on trucking. And reminded by those that took a step back that you can’t keep others warm by setting yourself on fire. It’s amazing that folks have continued the amazing work, supporting one another, and moving the needle of trust and free knowledge. I was on the committee for Wikimedian of the Year and in all honesty I would have nominated everyone. They were all inspirational and all so human.
There are still folks who like to be edgy jerks and stoke the fire on the whole WMF/Community divide. I think it’s unconstructive. It’s also super demoralizing. It’s also something you can’t do anything about. But I have noticed less petty picking-of-fights over a lack of clarity and supposition with fear and doubt that The Foundation is evil. So that’s nice. I also am caring less about the loud minority of folks as I give more of my attention to those who want to work with me within the system. You know, like you would anywhere else in life.
Where am I now?
Five years is the longest I’ve been at any prior organizations. It’s also easily the longest I’ve been in the same position. Or roughly the same position. Community-facing communications.3 Five is also half a decade. A lot can change in five years. When I joined the Foundation my youngest daughter was less than two years old. She’s now kicking my butt (and the world’s) as a smart six-year-old.
I still care and am still invested in my work and the movement. A little less than in the past. I don’t know if that’s me trying to learn how not to give a fuck or if that’s burnout over all the changes the last few years have brung. Ya’ll, the work is hard, the work is plentiful, and working remotely can feel isolating. Not gonna lie.
I worry more about my co-workers than myself. They’re the smart ones I rely on to appear intelligent. 🙂
Working remotely is challenging because getting an attaboy or acknowledgment of your work is really hard when you don’t see your boss in the hallway. This sort of encouragement, I know, is very American, but I like to have a sense of knowing where I stand in organization and how I’m doing with my work. So far, I think I’m doing pretty good. Still a struggle to be OK with ambiguity and chaos.
Remote work productivity tips
So yeah, let’s end this on an up-beat note. I’ve been working from home for five years now. Full-time. I’m super privileged to be able to afford the time/money/space to have built my studio. If you cannot do the same, I still want you to take your self-care seriously. Here’s some advice. Don’t feel bad if it doesn’t work for you. It sometimes doesn’t work for me.
- Get a white noise machine. I even have a portable one for when I travel. Helps focus from distracting house-noises.
- Don’t work in spaces that distract you. Find yourself feeling unproductive after a day at Starbucks? Don’t work there.
- Setup your space to be organized and keep it separate from where you do your personal computering.
- Use a quick launcher. I have saved billions of trackpad taps (and seconds) by using a nice launcher. My go-to is Alfred. I was a Quicksliver user for over a decade. Alfred is just so nice. Keep your hands on the keyboard as much as you can. Learn the shortcuts for your commonly used apps. Yell at the ancient gods when you can’t use command-K to add a link in Slack.
- Everything is a draft, that’s ok. Perfect is the enemy of good – and feeling like you’re not getting anything done isn’t productive. Even organizing your bookmarks or deleting old email is production. Don’t beat yourself up on slow days.
- Work from libraries – in my suburban area we have public libraries with quiet study rooms you can borrow for an hour or two. Lots of comfy seating. People around you, and most are trying to be quiet – unlike a Starbucks.
- Write it down.
- Listen to music? I can’t listen to anything new to me or anything with lyrics. The best for me is a chill playlist, music in another language, or the creme de la creme – video game soundtracks.
So, five years down. Maybe I’ll do this again in another five?
Don’t Use Your Charging Cables for Data Transfer
I recently got a little external enclosure to use with a SATA SSD that was going unused. Nothing fancy, this one if you’re curious. I’ve been using it without issue with the short cable that it came with (and a USB A to C adapter) to connect to my 2019 Macbook Pro.
Today I was being lazy and instead of getting my butt out of my chair to get the cable from my bag, I just grabbed the closest USB-C cable to transfer some files to the SSD. The cable I happened to use was the one that came with my 2020 iPad Pro 11″. Hooked it all up and started copying over some files. Usually an operation that takes a few minutes. Ten minutes later? Still transferring. Confused I loaded up Blackmagic Disk Speed Test and ran some comparisons for fun.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20210430013722im_/https://clkoerner.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/SSD-iPad-Pro-cable.png)
That’s not right! 41 MB/s is super slow. So I tried the cable the drive enclosure came with.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20210430013722im_/https://clkoerner.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/SSD-drive-cable.png)
439 MB/s! Ok, that’s much better. Then I tried a few more cables. How about the nice long and thick USB-C cable that came with my Macbook Pro?
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20210430013722im_/https://clkoerner.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/SSD-Macbook-cable.png)
Yikes! Super slow. For giggles (and it’s what I had laying around) the cable that came with my Pokeball Plus.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20210430013722im_/https://clkoerner.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/SSD-Pokeball-Plus-cable.png)
Again, super slow. These cable are just for charging, not for data transfer. To illustrate how slow, here’s a test using my external spinning disk Western Digital 4TB drive.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20210430013722im_/https://clkoerner.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/HDD-drive-cable.png)
Not as fast as the SSD, naturally, but 100 MB/s faster than using the wrong cable on the SSD. 🙂
I know this might be common knowledge for some folks, but I was kinda surprised. Use the right cable folks!
Racial views of Donald Trump
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As of this post there are exactly three Wikipedia articles titled, “Racial views of <person>”. One is for Winston Churchill, the second Adolf Hitler (which is actually a redirect). The third, Donald Trump.
The article on Trump’s views is, by no exaggeration, three times larger than that of Adolf Hitler.
This image is a zoomed-out view of the first half of the article.