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Welcome to Friends of the Internet Archive.
This wiki contains the first few steps towards the idea of an independent, hopefully one day non-profit organization, "Friends of the Internet Archive", that would fulfil the community and outreach functions of the Internet Archive in a more global and consistent manner.
Currently, Internet Archive's employees and collaborators share a patchwork set of communication channels and spaces, and willing volunteers trying to enter into projects either successfully do so, or are unaware of the scope of what is available. To counter this, Friends of the Internet Archive would serve a variety of solutions.
- Documentation and Help: Besides the Internet Archive's own internal and on-site documentation, entire additional documents could be written for specific or general-purpose users who wish to have a comprehensive overview on working with the archive's programming, environment, and systems. Many of these exist in a variety of places already, but having "the missing manual" next to a comprehensive set of links to reports and walkthroughs would be a vital improvement. Currently, there is a Guide_to_the_Internet_Archive Wiki that is available for editing.
- Volunteerism and Organization: The Archive often has projects or in-person events, as well as shared-online tasks that volunteers might want to play a part in helping with. A clearinghouse for these would be welcome.
- Meet-Ups and Dinners: Some organizations have monthly meetups organized through their websites or mailing lists for fans and staff to meet up. The Internet Archive has "Friday Lunch", held onsite at headquarters every Friday, but it's a big-wide world, and a regular meeting list, both in-person and online, would be a real improvement.
- Support and Advocacy: A group of informed users and collaborators creating easy-to-understand explainers of the Internet Archive's many resources, as well as possibly providing pamphlets and one-sheets for dissemination, could be a real boost in bringing awareness of the Internet Archive to the world.
- Communication and Social Spaces: The Friends could assemble servers (IRC, Matrix, Mastodon, etc.) that would allow the day to day communication of fans and users in a space well-moderated and given the attention needed, instead of a side project of employees. The chances to increase interaction and contribution would likely be huge.
There are likely to be more, but these are some of the basic ideas. In coming days and months, the Friends will designate more, and a needed structure and accountability framework can be put in place.
Current Projects and Affiliate Sites
- Discussion of this idea is happening at a Discord: discord.gg/VXuQyDTMd5
- There is a Wiki providing "The Missing Manual" to Internet Archive at internetarchive.archiveteam.org