"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 Philadelphia 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 prior committee member and advisor with WMF Individual Engagement Grants, and a huge supporter of Wikipedia's role in Global Education. I currently reside in Santa Cruz, California while working on Wikipedia projects and exploring. I love my boxer dog and daydream about great days on the open ocean paddling around on my SUP.
My work
I run The Wikipedia Library, a nonprofit project to give top Wikipedia editors access to reliable sources and reference tools. We have partnered with JSTOR, Oxford University Press, Elsevier and over 60 publishers 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 Visiting Scholars at Institutions), Technical Development (Building the Wikipedia Library Card platform), Archives (Surfacing related content from DPLA on Wikipedia), Students (Running a Library Interns program), global campaigns (#1lib1ref) and promoting open access in Wikipedia's citations (OABOT). I've been around for a while in several roles so feel free to ask me any question you have about Wikipedia, any time!
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, and edits, statements, or other contributions made by this account may not reflect the views of the Foundation.
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