Talk:Michael Witmore

Welcome

This began as my talk page for a draft in my sandbox, "User talk:EFerington/sandbox", about "Michael Witmore" who is the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 14:34, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

Author's note re Conflict of Interest (COI)

This is similar to my COI note for Emily Jordan Folger, an article that I produced in 2008. Since then I have also continued to make edits to different articles in Wikipedia that are unrelated to my work. [Again, I am listing this in keeping with the Wikipedia COI guidelines, which encourage full disclosure of any conflict of interest to provide transparency.]

Following Wikipedia's conflict of interest (COI) guidelines, I'm noting here that I have a conflict of interest (COI) because I am a freelance writer and editor who has done work for the Folger Shakespeare Library, including an edit of the Folger Shakespeare Library article to remove public-relations-style language and make it more neutral, as noted on the talk/discussion page for that article, and the creation of the Emily Jordan Folger article, as noted on the talk/discussion page for that article, also in 2008.

The Folger Shakespeare Library asked me to produce a neutral biographical entry on Michael Witmore, the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Under Witmore, the Folger just completed many programs and activities related to the 400th anniversary in 2016 of Shakespeare's death and Witmore and the Folger continue to be included in news and feature stories about Shakespeare, Shakespeare in American life (education, theater, research, etc.), "early modern" topics from Shakespeare's era, and modern related topics, as well as the digital humanities.

In preparing this article, I discovered that the "Wikipedia Drawing Board" that I used in 2008, and cited in the notes for Emily Jordan Folger, does not exist anymore. Instead, I have created the article in my User:sandbox and submitted it for approval there. As with the advice I received for the Emily Jordan Folger article, I have tried hard to make the article neutral and made my COI clear in a note (this note) on the talk page. I also think it's clear that Witmore is a "notable" person based on the reference sources I supplied, most of which are cited in this article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 14:34, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

Reverting a category change

I received an email on June 7, 2021, that one of the Categories for Michael Witmore had changed, as follows:

Editor's summary: removed "Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni" and added "Category:UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni."

I am planning to do a reversion to this change (ie, reverse it and go back to the original Category). Michael Witmore received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric, which is a traditional humanities subject, from the University of California, Berkeley, also called UC Berkeley; he did not attend the College of Engineering. The original Category is correct.

Here is a current link to the Rhetoric graduate program: https://rhetoric.berkeley.edu/graduate-program/

His graduate degrees in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley or the University of California, Berkeley, can be confirmed in multiple public sources, several of which are cited in the entry's References (footnotes), including his Curriculum Vitae, Folger Staff Directory biography, Amherst announcement of his appointment, and others. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 10:31, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

Changes and updates to links included in citations

In early March 2023, a Wikipedia editor made a number of changes that were focused especially, though not exclusively, on the citations and the linked sources in the citations, including updating them. Many of these changes immediately resolved the issues that the editor identified, including replacing older Folger website links with new Folger website links and adding citations to other Folger web pages. Other citations were flagged as having a "dead link" or as having "failed verification." On March 3, 2023, I addressed those citations.

For the "dead link" citations, I typically substituted a new, live link to a different source. For the "failed verification" citations, noted because they had "No mention of Michael Witmore," I found that most were explainer pieces for Folger projects launched in the years after he became the Folger director, but which did not specifically refer to him. In some cases, I deleted the citation. In others, I found and linked to a different source on the same topic that mentioned Michael Witmore, sometimes at length. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 02:45, 5 March 2023 (UTC)

Changes and updates to article, April 2023

The original article was published in 2017. I have just updated the information in the article to the present (April 2023) based on public sources, which I've included in additional citations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 16:52, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

Editor's note re changes and updates to article, November 2024

In my COI statement above, I followed Wikipedia's conflict of interest (COI) guidelines to note that I had a conflict of interest (COI) because I am a freelance writer and editor who has done work for the Folger Shakespeare Library, including on this article (see notes above for specific details). For these changes, I had a similar conflict of interest (COI) in making relatively modest changes intended to update this article, which I did on behalf of the subject, Michael Witmore. The changes reflect the fact that in June 2024, the Folger Shakespeare Library reopened after a major renovation closure and Michael Witmore, who had been the director since 2011, completed his tenure after the Folger reopened. I updated the article to reflect these changes, so that he is, for example, no longer listed as the director. I documented all changes with public sources, which I've included in additional citations. I also added a 2024 interview to "Further reading" and added another Category ("digital preservation"). — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 19:58, 1 November 2024 (UTC)