Ian Wilker

Current

Community Manager at Brighter Planet
consultant and sole proprietor at roots.lab LLC

Past

Managing Editor, NRDC.org at Natural Resources Defense Council
Senior Producer at GORP.com
Writer / Editor at self-employed (Self-employed)

Co-Owner / Editor at Gowanus Books, Inc.,
Editor at Macmillan General Reference
Copy Editor at Chelsea House Publishers

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Ian Wilker’s Summary

I'm a communications and IT consultant; I specialize in helping nonprofits connect with their natural constituencies via compelling storytelling, participatory media, and emerging web technologies.

Prior to hanging out a shingle in Asheville, North Carolina, I worked in New York as a book editor, travel writer, website producer, and most recently as website managing editor for the Natural Resources Defense Council. I continue to do a lot of work for NRDC, managing online-community initiatives and serving as OnEarth Magazine's new-media editor, among other things.

Ian Wilker’s Specialties:

mission-driven blogging, content development; website project management; managing/nurturing online communities; information architecture; online branding and identity; online advocacy campaigns; social-media models and emerging technologies; training and coaching staff to blog effectively and to leverage other social-web tools; web2.0 services and their integration into an enterprise's internal/external communications and workflow; writing/editing, fluent knowledge of environmental issues.

Ian Wilker’s Experience

Community Manager

Brighter Planet

(Online Media industry)

2009 — Present (less than a year)
consultant and sole proprietor

roots.lab LLC

(Online Media industry)

January 2007 — Present (2 years 7 months)

My consultancy, roots.lab, helps nonprofits leverage the social web. Chief business remains aiding NRDC in connecting with new constituents and deepening existing relationships via staff use of social media. Sampling of current projects:

» Developed, evangelized, and now advise on a broad social-web strategy for NRDC that includes extensive employee blogging and widespread staff adoption of various social-web tools and services -- all within guidelines for public Internet discourse that have gained hard-won institutional adoption.

» Manager of switchboard.nrdc.org, an enterprise blogging platform for NRDC staff. (Launched mid-2007, site now has some 100 staff contributors and pushes fresh, topical content into numerous NRDC websites, widgets, and social-web presences.)

» Project lead on strategy and IA portions of relaunch of www.onearth.org, the website of NRDC's award-winning OnEarth Magazine. (Developed in partnership with Digital Pulp, an NYC web agency.)
Managing Editor, NRDC.org

Natural Resources Defense Council

(Non-Profit; 201-500 employees; Online Media industry)

January 2001 — December 2006 (6 years)

Directed the day-to-day editorial and production operations of this large nonprofit advocacy group's web team; develop and execute special projects and initiatives that further NRDC's fundraising, strategic-communications, and policy goals.

» Soup-to-nuts editorial development of numerous web features and minisites;

» Manage three direct reports — two production associates and a staff writer;

» Hire and direct consultants and vendors including writers, editors, designers, photo researchers, illustrators, cartographers, programmers, technologists, and html producers;

» Oversee the publication of 5–20 new or revised documents on the nrdc.org site each week;

» Daily updates to the NRDC homepage and other top-level pages;

» Establish and enforce editorial style, production protocol and standards, other quality-control mechanisms.
Senior Producer

GORP.com

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Online Media industry)

September 1998 — December 2000 (2 years 4 months)

Editorial project manager for market-leading outdoor-recreation website. Project leader and primary architect of numerous major editorial additions, including:

» “GORP City Weekender”: architect and project lead on program to create new content and refit existing content to maximize relevance for residents of 40 U.S. cities. Hired and supervised local outdoors writers in 20 cities.

» Complete editorial and packaging revamp of GORP's guides to national parks and other public lands.

» “20 Best” series, map-based trip-planning guides to outdoor adventures in popular international destinations.

» GORP Community. Oversaw redesign of GORP Community page; developed/produced weekly Community updates and features.

» Writer, GORP newsletter -- weekly email regarding new content and site improvements (circulation: 75K)

» Helped establish basic editorial-management procedures in fast-growing start-up.
Writer / Editor
self-employed (Self-employed)

(Self-Employed; Publishing industry)

1989 — 1999 (10 years)

» Editor, National Geographic’s National Parks Atlas & Travel Planner. Packaged by Melcher Media for GeoSystems Global Corporation and National Geographic Maps; canceled by publisher just prior to delivery of mechanicals.

» Clients for editorial consulting, project editing, travel writing, text editing, copyediting, proofreading, and indexing have included Random House, Oxford University Press, Stonesong Press, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, St. Martins Press, Disney, Grolier, Chelsea House, and Columbia University Press.
Co-Owner / Editor

Gowanus Books, Inc.,

(Partnership; 1-10 employees; Publishing industry)

1996 — 1997 (1 year)

Partner in start-up book-packaging and editorial-services company.

» Supervised editorial and production of three new titles in a 4-color illustrated YA sports-history series for Grolier Publishing Company (Watts History of Sports: Football, Basketball, Hockey, and Auto Racing. Published Fall 1998).

» Provided rewrite, line editing, and copyediting services for National Geographic’s The American Road, packaged by Melcher Media, published July 1998.

» Packaged Outside Magazine's Guide to Family Vacations for the magazine.
Editor

Macmillan General Reference

(Public Company; Publishing industry)

1991 — 1996 (5 years)

» Series editor, Outside Magazine's Adventure Guides. Created this series of regional, multi-sport outdoor-recreation guidebooks. Developed concept through to final series outline, format guides, style guides, and detailed book outlines for each title. Assigned and supervised work-for-hire writers for first four titles. Initiated effort to partner with Outside Magazine, and negotiated many aspects of licensing deal. Supervised a junior editor. Wrote sections of the Adventure Guide to New England.

» Part of a major effort to overhaul editorial and design of Macmillan's mainstream travel-guide line, the Frommer's Guides. Developed numerous titles from scratch, including all six Frommer's Guides to Mexico, Frommer's Alaska, and Family Vacations in America's Best-Loved National Parks.

» Line-edited dozens of Macmillan travel titles, working with writers, writing cover copy and features, editing manuscripts, and supervising production.
Copy Editor

Chelsea House Publishers

(Privately Held; Publishing industry)

1990 — 1991 (1 year)

First editorial assistant and then staff copy editor for publisher of nonfiction Young Adult and Juvenile books.