Michael Snow

Some information about myself, adapted from my English Wikipedia user page

I work for the central research office of a major American university. This is not to say that I am a scientist (well, I studied political science if you want to count that) or that I conduct research myself. Rather, by profession I am a lawyer, so in this context my role is to negotiate the legal framework within which specific research proposals are funded and sign contracts related to these projects.

When I was a university student myself, I also majored in history, which is really the field of study I love best. Part of my interest in history, however, is that I consider it a field with the potential to incorporate all human knowledge (though other fields might also make that claim). So naturally I find the objective of Wikipedia worthwhile. My legal training also gives me a perspective on the problem of balancing opposing positions (and having to present arguments for a position one does not agree with). I fully support the neutral point of view policy.

In a project of this nature, I expect that people will pursue personal interests in their contributions. That is much of what I do with my own contributions, although I will not trot out here a list of everything I'm interested in. As I indicated before, I'm interested in everything, it's just that some of my interests have been developed to a greater extent. I recognize that contributing based on enthusiasm for the subject is itself arguably a form of bias, whether in myself or others, but I don't consider that a problem here. If we are truly going to cover the sum of human knowledge, then we simply need to attract more enthusiasts until all subjects are covered.

The Signpost

I started The Signpost, a weekly community newspaper for the English Wikipedia. As you might gather from the information above, one field in which I do not have any particular experience is journalism (but for a little work on a single issue of a high school student newspaper). So I welcome contributions and input there from anyone who wants to help The Signpost provide better, more complete coverage of important news in the Wikimedia community.