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Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos in Albania and Kosovo

Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos Campaign and Edit-a-thon in 2023

Enriching Wikipedia and Wikidata articles with visuals was one of the key moments for the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos Campaign and Edit-a-thon in 2023.

WoALUG joined the 4th edition of the annual campaign of Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos where we tried to address the gap between text and visual content on Wikipedia and Wikidata during 1- 31 August 2023.

The edit-a-thon culmination was the peak of this campaign that brought contributors together online and offline in Kosovo and Albania on August 26th. During the edit-a-thon, contributors uploaded and improved the existing content visually on Wikipedia and Wikidata.

As a User Group, we wanted to highlight the addition of images to articles covering Albanian traditional food articles, diverse topics and using images from local photography contests such as Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Monuments, Albanian Traditional Food, and Wiki Loves Folklore developed by our User Group through years.

The statistics from the edit-a-thon and campaign:

  • Participants: 15 editors
  • Wikipedia: 136 articles illustrated
  • Wikidata: 816 total revisions

Here are some pictures from the edit-a-thon:


Wiki Loves Earth in Albania and Kosovo, 2023

In July 2023, the Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group (WoALUG) participated in the annual international photo contest known as Wiki Loves Earth.

Wiki Loves Earth's primary objective was to gather and preserve the beauty of natural heritage photos from protected natural sites in Albania and Kosovo.

At the beginning of the photo contest, WoALUG extended invitations to photography enthusiasts and partners involved in protected areas to capture and share their images with the Wikimedia community. The aim was to document and immortalize this natural heritage for the benefit of future generations.

During this campaign, participants uploaded a total of 500 pictures from Albania and Kosovo. A jury consisting of three members was tasked with selecting the most outstanding photos among the entries.

Below, you can find the winners from each respective country:


Winners from Kosovo


Winners from Albania

To view the full list of all photos that will be participating in the international contest from Kosovo and Albania, please visit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2023/Winners


Social media

  • We have a public Telegram channel (language used mostly Albanian) if you want to join and discuss Wikimedia projects.

If you want to see more about our activities, you can:



Highlights on Wikimania 2023

Strong presence at Wikimania 2023

A lot has happened in August but our biggest highlight has been the participation of Wikimedia Argentina's Culture and Open Knowledge programme in Wikimania 2023, Singapore. For the first time, both Angie Cervellera and Mauricio Genta were able to travel to the onsite conference, getting to know other GLAM leaders, projects and ideas around the world. The four proposals that were submitted to Wikimanía were fully accepted, and so attendees could learn about many different initiatives promoted by our GLAM programe:

-“Código Cultura: jugar con las colecciones abiertas”. Onsite session that explores the relation between videogames, GLAM institutions and Wiki digital ecosystem. We analyzed “Código Cultura”, the program we developed with the aim of generating videogames and other digital contents with cultural open heritage and knowledge.

-“Cartografías Abiertas: una plataforma colaborativa junto a los pueblos originarios de Chaco”. Onsite pre-recorded video about the collaborative project between Wikimedia Argentina and CDI (Centro de Documentación Indígena del Chaco) whose objetive was creating an interactive and multilingual platform linked with WikiShootMe that visualizes and adds content related to indigenous communities.

- “Archivos en Vigilia: por la verdad, los derechos, y el acceso a la información”. Poster that summarizes Wikimedia Argentina and Archivo Histórico de la UNLP initiative that aims for the open access of memory and Human Rights digital archives in Wikimedia Commons.

- “El Proyecto de Digitalización de Wikimedia Argentina: 8 años de trabajo continuo”. Poster that shows the digitization towards documents of the Academia Argentina de Letras, Academia Nacional de la Historia and Museo de la Ciudad de Rosario, among others.


All these proposals added special value to this year's conference as they are strongly related to its main three topics: collaboration, focusing on the idea that all our efforts are only possible with other joining actively and consciously the movement; diversity, were underrepresented communities and knowledge are empowered with wikimedia projects to become more accesible; and future, as regards how the wikimedia movement can continue being relevant for future -or not so future- generations.

We have also supported other sessions at Wikimanía 2023: Carolina Mattos's (partners) session about Frictionless Data and the Open Definition, BugWarp (WMAR volunteer) and WMDE session on comparing how both communities work towards open culture, and Wikimania's pre-conference at the National Library, with a co-organization role. We have been strengthening bonds between latinamerican local chapters, other GLAM officers around the world and also wikimedians / user groups in the seek of improving new ideas around open knowledge.

See you in Krakov!


Wikimedia Armenia GLAM projects in August

By Beko

Wiki Loves Living Heritage

Gata stamp

As a tribute to the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the “Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage” “Wiki Loves Living Heritage” international campaign was launched in March, 2023.

On August 1, Wikimedia Armenia joined the global initiative through a joint competition-project with the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports and Hovhannes Sharambeyan Museum of Folk Arts. The project consists of two parts - photo contest and edit-a-thon.

The photo contest will last until September 15, the best 5 photos will participate in the international competition. As of August 31, 3 Armenian participants of the “Wiki Loves Living Heritage” project have uploaded 22 photos related to intangible cultural heritage to WikiCommons.

The edit-a-thon will last until the end of 2023. It includes the creation and improvement of articles in Armenian Wikipedia, as well as the creation of pages and data entry related to the intangible cultural heritage values of the Republic of Armenia in Wikidata and Meta-Wiki platforms. As of August 31, 6 participants joined this part of the project by creating 17 articles in Armenian Wikipedia. Pages have been created in Wikidata for all the intangible cultural heritage values of the RA, the descriptions have been filled and, if possible, photos were added.

Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos 2023 in Armenia

In 2023, Wikimedia Armenia joined the WPWP project which is gaining momentum year by year. The project aims to enrich pages of different language Wikiprojects with existing and newly uploaded pictures. The project conditions are to add pictures to those articles which do not have pictures and to add description to added pictures. Articles can be in any language Wiki project. During the month of August, 13 wiki editors from Armenia added 3501 pictures in 20 different wikiprojects.


Activities in Belgium September-December 2023

Photo contests

The summer of 2023 is going to be very busy in terms of photography. From July to September, no less than four photo contests run in Belgium under the motto 'Wiki Loves', on the subject of heritage and monuments.

Two contests are going international (Wiki Loves Living Heritage and Wiki Loves Monuments). There is one national photo competition (Wiki Loves Heritage), and a regional one (Wiki Loves Pajottenland Zennevallei) as an initiative of the Erfgoedcel Pajottenland Zennevallei.

Public related activities

Wikipedia writing sessions in museums and archives

Wikimedia Belgium collaborates with several GLAM organisations. This is an excellent opportunity to encourage volunteers to help document collections and archives.

From September till December 2023 Wikimedia Belgium runs multiple writing sessions in collaboration with Flemish museums, archives, heritage organisations, and archives. You can find here a list, with detailed session descriptions, and possibility to register. You can participate physically on-site, but you can as well participate online. Read about the sessions, and how you can join.

Successful projects of the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund

The Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund has the honour of successfully concluding its first two projects. For the two projects together, we disbursed €9,600, based on invoices and the activity report. These projects were supported by tax donations through the King Baudouin Foundation.

New projects are welcome via friends@wikimedia.be.


4 new GLAM-Wiki partnerships and uploads from several institutions

As we announced in our report of March, Pará is the Brazilian state chosen for the annual project Wiki Loves Pará. This is an one-year-effort for filling the gap of information on cultural, historical, and natural heritage about Pará on Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia in Portuguese. And we would like to present our new GLAM partners in Pará State:

Museu do Marajó is a small museum located in Cachoeira do Arari, at the Island of Marajó, in Pará, Brazil. It was founded in 1972 by Giovanni Gallo, an italian priest and museologist, who collected and protected pieces about the ancient history of the region for telling it to new generations and helping to develop the city socially and economically.

Coleção Amazoniana de Arte is an Art Collection conceived and organized by Orlando Maneschy, professor and researcher, at the Federal University of Pará. It brings together Visual Arts and Fashion works that depict the Amazon region: books, digital files, newspapers and other printed material.

In August, we also signed two new GLAM-Wiki partnerships in other two states:

Projeto Passados Presentes is a research project for registering and disseminating the histories of the 2,5 million african people brought to Brazil for enslavement in the 19th century. Its works seek to honor the victims and celebrate the Brazilian black cultural heritage.

Grupo PET Conexões Saberes Indígenas is an Education Program at Federal University of São Carlos, made up of indigenous students of several Brazilian peoples. They develop research, teaching and extension activities for promoting traditional indigenous knowledge and academic scientific knowledge.

Wiki Loves Monuments Brasil 2023

September is the month of Monuments in Wikimedia! And Wiki Movimento Brasil (WMB) have all the things ready for receiving thousands of photos of Brazilian monuments.

In order to help our photographers to find the heritage in their cities, in 2023, we present an even larger list with more than 18,000 buildings and monuments. Of course, we dedicated some extra time increasing the number of monuments from Pará (our Wiki Loves State project of 2023): we tripled it and scraped all the buildings at historical center of Belém, the capital.

You may contribute uploading your pics through the lists or the map presented in the wikicontest page.

Fiocruz edit-a-thon

Anopheles lutzii Cruz, 1901.
Anopheles lutzii Cruz, 1901.

We started the month of August with an event with our newly signed partner: Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation's teaching, research and extension unit in the wonderful city of Rio de Janeiro.

On August 1st, Amanda Jurno, our education manager, was in Rio de Janeiro for the first Casa de Oswaldo Cruz editathon.

As part of the event's activities, 343 images from the institution's collection were uploaded, including photos, drawings and personal objects of Oswaldo Cruz, as well as a collection of caricatures of him published at the time of his work as a Brazilian sanitarian, and photos from his time in Rondônia, at the Candelária Hospital, during the construction of the Madeira-Mamoré Railroad.

See the COC's GLAM page and the uploaded media.

First upload from RELU

Former Machado Palace in Recife (RELU's collection).
Former Machado Palace in Recife (RELU's collection).

In August, we uploaded the first batch of media from the research group Representações do Lugar (RELU), from Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL). And the images couldn't depict other topic: Maceió, the capital of Alagoas. 195 images of different neighborhoods are now available in Wikimedia Commons. This is also our first set of images about this city.

See the RELU's GLAM page and the uploaded media.

First upload from LAHCA

Moura Ribeiro's residence in Belém (LAHCA's collection).
Moura Ribeiro's residence in Belém (LAHCA's collection).

In August, we also uploaded the first batch from Laboratório de Historiografia da Arquitetura e Cultura Arquitetônica (LAHCA), from Federal University of Pará (UFPA). And the images depict Modern buildings located in Belém, the capital of Pará. 200 images of different neighborhoods are now available in Wikimedia Commons. This is also our first set of images about this city.

See the LAHCA's GLAM page and the uploaded media.

First upload from MAB

In August, we uploaded the first batch of media from Museu da Abolição, a museum settled in Recife, Pernambuco, that safeguards an important collection related to a part of Brazilian history that we should never forget nor repeat.

The collection is very diverse and consists of objects from the period of enslavement as well as items of personal and religious use.

We invite everyone who knows about African cultures to contribute with good descriptions of these items and to use them in as many articles as possible in Portuguese and other languages. Let's spread this knowledge to the world.

  • Otá
    Otá
  • Handcuffs
    Handcuffs
  • Pipe
    Pipe
  • Anklets
    Anklets

See the MAB's GLAM page and the uploaded media.

New upload from NeuroMAT

RIDC NeuroMat (Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center for Neuromathematics) is a long time GLAM partner of Wiki Movimento Brasil and it keeps supporting several other Wiki partnerships, GLAM projects, events, edit-a-thons, and technical training. And, of course, registering these events and uploading images and videos to Wikimedia Commons.

See the CEPID NeuroMat's GLAM page and the uploaded media.

New upload from APESP

Have you ever wondered how to organize, sanitize and properly store 23 million documents?

Well, the Public Archives of the State of São Paulo has that mission and now you can see a bit of the collection and see how some of it is stored. We took a quick guided tour and uploaded a collection of images showing the internal spaces, equipment and shelves (lots of shelves) where all this heritage is carefully stored so that it can be accessed by future generations.

See the APESP's GLAM page and the uploaded media.

Portable Museum in Wikimania program

As we announced in our last report, Carolina Matos presented the Portable Museum project during Wikimania 2023.

You may see the presentation in the youtube channel of the event and the video below (audio in Portuguese and captions in English):


Wiki-Wednesdays: Digital Literacy for GLAM workers

Event Details

You can register for all the sessions or only the ones that work for your schedule. Sign up here.

Topics for Each Webinar

Wednesday, September 6, noon to 1 pm, EST Wiki-Wednesdays GLAM: Kickoff Launch Session Part of the Wiki GLAM September 2023 - December 2023 collection We are thrilled to announce the kickoff launch session of Phase 2 for the Wiki-Wednesdays Free Online Webinar Series!

Wednesday, October 4, noon to 1 pm, EST Wiki-Wednesdays GLAM: SEO & Wikidata with Inga Petri, Strategic Moves. In this interactive workshop, learn to boost GLAM online visibility with SEO, Google presence, and Wikidata with Inga Petri.

Wednesday, Nov 1, noon to 1 pm EST Wiki-Wednesdays GLAM: Exploring South Asian Culture and Diaspora Identity through Textile and Embroidery with Indu Adiyat. Join Indu Adiyat to learn more about the rich traditions of textile and embroidery in South Asian culture, and its cultural importance in diasporic communities.

Wednesday, December 6, noon to 1 pm EST Wiki-Wednesdays - GLAM: Wikimedian in Residence Webinar How would a Wikimedian in Residence help your cultural organization?

Register for one or more of the sessions here - https://victoriastasiuk.ca/glam/


hybrid GLAM-on-Tour in Potsdam with the Museum Barberini

Cooperation with the Museum Barberini

One of the strengths of de.wikipedia is that many articles on the Impressionist style in general and also articles on Piet Mondrian or on Johan Barthold Jongkind in particular are well elaborated thanks to all the authors. At the same time, we are all aware that Wikipedia will never be finished. This weekend event, deliberately planned as a hybrid GLAM-on-Tour, took us to Potsdam. Together with the Museum Barberini, we were able to get closer to the artists represented in the current special exhibition "Clouds and Light. Impressionism in Holland". During an on-site guided tour of the special exhibition, we were able to learn more about the artists and their works, which was a good opportunity for information and inspiration for our own article work. In addition, there was a virtual zoom tour of the special exhibition for people who could not be there on site. In this way, the artworks could also be experienced by them. There was a handheld apparatus on site and a material folder online for research for the article work. In addition to many new articles for Wikipedia, photos were also taken about the museum and its collection presentation. In addition, some buildings in Potsdam were flown over and documented for the Wikimedia projects. More about the event on the project page and in the Wikimedia Deutschland blog. Before the actual event, more than twenty employees from museums in the federal state of Brandenburg were familiarised with the Wikimedia projects in a training session and were able to edit then themselves.



Summer does not stop the wiki collaborations

Renewed collaboration with Alessandria Hospital

Title page of De morbo gallico, Venetiis, 1566

Wikimedia Italy has renewed its collaboration with the Alessandria (a city in Piedmont) Hospital. The parties have started a fruitful collaboration since 2021 and, in view of the important results that have been achieved, have confirmed their willingness to continue the partnership, with the primary aim of guaranteeing increasing reliability to the free encyclopaedia, thanks to the reliable and authoritative source of the Alessandria Hospital and enriching the wealth of knowledge available to citizens. The activities will focus on (but not limited to):

  • enrichment of articles with scientific and authoritative sources and bibliography, with a consequent impact on the level of Health Literacy of users of the free encyclopaedia;
  • organisation of dedicated events (e.g. collaboration "university projects", entry improvement hackathons with medical students of the University of Eastern Piedmont, nursing and physiotherapy students and on the occasion of the Researchers' Night);
  • uploading on Wikimedia Commons and inserting laboratory images and photographs from the company's historical heritage in the relevant articles;
  • implementation of Wikidata with metadata related to corporate authors and scientific articles;
  • creation of new articles in Wikipedia (e.g. Medical Humanities in Italian).

The hospital has ancient origins, appearing in fact in a document for the first time in 1493. In 1579, with the demolition of a pre-existing building corresponding to the Hospital of San Biagio and the expansion of the Hospital of St. Anthony, it became the 'Spedal Grande dei santi Antonio e Biagio'. Today, it is a nationally important facility and has specialisation skills in numerous fields, is a paediatric hospital and is a centre for recovery and functional rehabilitation. Results of the work done so far can be found here:https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:GLAM/Ospedale_di_Alessandria

  • Penicillium
    Penicillium
  • Blood Culture
    Blood Culture
  • Microscopy image of aspergillus fumigatus
    Microscopy image of aspergillus fumigatus
  • Eggs of enterobius vermicularis
    Eggs of enterobius vermicularis
  • Microscopic image of a positive blood culture for Candida albicans
    Microscopic image of a positive blood culture for Candida albicans

The Puppet Museum on Wikipedia

Puppet Hall, Puppet Museum Palermo

The Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum has joined "Empowering Italian GLAMs", the Wikimedia Italia' project that aims at addressing all Italian museums and heritage institutions in using open tools and the Wikimedia projects for sharing and reusing content related to their digital collections. Besides being one of the first in Sicily to join the project, the museum will also become a case study at a national level, as part of a research conducted by Wikimedia Italia in collaboration with the Department of Economics and Statistics "Cognetti de Martiis" of the University of Turin.

The first Italian cultural practice to be inscribed by UNESCO in the list of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity", the work of the Sicilian puppets has found a home in the Museum named after Antonio Pasqualino, who gathered the first nucleus of the collection. Today, the institution houses a collection of over 5,000 works, including marionettes, puppets, shadows, automata and stage machines from all over the world, which can find a new stage on the Wikimedia projects to be admired, discovered and appreciated.



The Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos in Albania and Kosovo; Wiki Loves Earth in Albania and Kosovo

The Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos in Albania and Kosovo

Enriching Wikipedia and Wikidata articles with visuals was one of the key moments for the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos Campaign and Edit-a-thon in 2023.

WoALUG joined the 4th edition of the annual campaign of Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos where we tried to address the gap between text and visual content on Wikipedia and Wikidata during 1- 31 August 2023.

The edit-a-thon culmination was the peak of this campaign that brought contributors together online and offline in Kosovo and Albania on August 26th. During the edit-a-thon, contributors uploaded and improved the existing content visually on Wikipedia and Wikidata.

As a User Group, we wanted to highlight the addition of images to articles covering Albanian traditional food articles, diverse topics and using images from local photography contests such as Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Monuments, Albanian Traditional Food, and Wiki Loves Folklore developed by our User Group through the years.

The statistics from the edit-a-thon:

Wikipedia: 136 articles illustrated Wikidata: 36 articles created, 19 descriptions added, 816 revisions in total https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/WoALUG/Wikipedia_Pages_Wanting_Photos_2023/home

Here are some pictures from the edit-a-thon:

Wiki Loves Earth in Albania and Kosovo, 2023

In July 2023, the Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group (WoALUG) participated in the annual international photo contest known as Wiki Loves Earth.

Wiki Loves Earth's primary objective was to gather and preserve the beauty of natural heritage photos from protected natural sites in Albania and Kosovo.

At the commencement of the photo contest, WoALUG extended invitations to photography enthusiasts and partners involved in protected areas to capture and share their images with the Wikimedia community. The aim was to document and immortalize this natural heritage for the benefit of future generations.

During this campaign, participants uploaded a total of 500 pictures from Albania and Kosovo. A jury consisting of three members was tasked with selecting the most outstanding photos among the entries.

Below, you can find the winners from each respective country:


Winners from Kosovo


Winners from Albania

To view the full list of all photos that will be participating in the international contest from Kosovo and Albania, please visit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2023/Winners


Social media

  • We have a public Telegram channel (language used mostly Albanian) if you want to join and discuss Wikimedia projects.

If you want to see more about our activities, you can:


Public sculpture photo trail: documenting Auckland sculptures in Wikidata; Aotearoa's Wikimedia Laureate

Wikidata public sculpture photo trail

Auckland Wikidata sculpture trail, a visualisation using a Wikidata SPARQL query

Earlier in 2023, the Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand website was launched, which documents public artworks installed across the country in the 20th century, many of which are at risk of being lost or damaged. While many of these artworks such as murals are under copyright protection in New Zealand, publicly displayed sculptures, buildings or "works of artistic craftsmanship" lie outside of our country's Copyright Act (i.e. images of these works can be added to Commons without major issues).

This leads to a fun opportunity: by using the website entries, Wikidata items with coordinates can be created for every 20th century sculpture across the Auckland Region. After matching these to images already uploaded to Wiki Commons and Flickr, we can generate a photo trail, showing where all the sculptures without photos are!

Over the last few months, more sculptures in the Auckland Region have been added to Wikidata, thanks to other databases such as Auckland Public Art and NZ Outdoor Art. Many of these artworks only have minimal footprints on the Internet, especially many which are in difficult to access locations, artworks which may not be immediately recognised as sculptures, or some that do not even have labelled plaques (such as John Lyall's Lace Pavilion (2002): nobody visiting Te Atatū would easily be able to identify the artist or work name if they walked past). There are now over 200 New Zealand sculptors with Wikidata items, with many more yet to come. The project has allowed many anonymous artworks in Wiki Commons to be properly labelled, and for these artworks to be added to the Wikipedia pages of the artists who constructed them.

See what the local freedom of panorama laws are like for your area! There may be wonderful public artworks hiding where you least expect them.

Our Wikimedia Laureate

Siobhan Leachman in cartoon form and in person at Wikimania Singapore

One unexpected and charming surprise from Wikimania was seeing the face of Siobhan Leachman (User:Ambrosia10) appear on the big screen during the Wikimedian of the Year awards. To recognise her years of hard work, evangelising, speaking, and writing on the Wikimedia Movement, she was awarded Wikimedia Laureate – the first New Zealander to ever be honoured with any international Wikimedia award. Siobhan has been a beloved and respected member of the Wikimedia community in Aotearoa for years (well known for her quest to add every New Zealand moth to Wikipedia), and co-organises a successful monthly meetup in her home town of Wellington, but she has a significant international profile from her work with biodiversity and conservation data and recognising the unheralded contributions of women in biology. You can hear Siobhan's enthusiasm in this Radio New Zealand interview following the award.


Presentation for school librarians at Wikiteka, Ongoing projects

Presentation for school librarians at Wikiteka in Katowice

Title slide for the presentation by Kamila Neuman

Kamila Neuman, Open Culture Manager, during the second edition of Wikiteka, shared her passion for GLAM-Wiki collaboration with school librarians. In her presentation on how GLAM-Wiki projects can serve as a source of inspiration for their educational activities, she explained what GLAM-Wiki partnerships entail, their effects, how they can be used in school education, and how to creatively utilize digital resources and content on Wikipedia related to culture and art. The presentation also served as an introduction to the Wikimedia Commons project and demonstrated how to search for unique resources within it and use them correctly.

What is WIKITEKA? It's a project by Wikimedia Poland launched in 2022 as part of the long-term WIKISCHOOL program. We invite school librarians to join us in creating new educational spaces, exploring a new framework for the school library as a place for equalizing educational opportunities, generating open educational resources, and initiating community projects together. At the end of August, the second edition of Wikiteka began in Katowice, where a new group of school librarians started their journey with Wikimedia projects.

Ongoing projects in August

Meeting of Wikimedia Poland Staff in Warsaw, August 2023

While August is usually a time for relaxation and vacations, the Wikimedia Poland team was also busy with intensive work on our ongoing projects. Our Open Culture Manager, along with interns and volunteers, has been working on the new version of the GLAM-Wiki website. Preparations are also underway for an editing campaign related to the painter Jan Matejko at The National Museum in Krakow. The end of August provided an opportunity for the entire Wikimedia Poland team, which primarily operates online, to meet in Warsaw. Together, we reviewed our activities for the year and initiated the planning process for the upcoming year.


A month in the shine of Wikidata and new cooperation

The GLAMorous Wikidata

The GLAMOROUS Wikidata campaign was organized from August 15th to 31st. A total of 9 editors participated and edited over 1,300 items with 3,200 properties, and a total of 235 references were added. In this way, continuity in the improvement of cultural heritage on Wikidata is ensured.

New Wikipedian in residence coming soon

Cooperation with the National Museum of Kraljevo has been established, with which the implementation of the Wikipedian in residence project will begin in early October for a duration of two months.

GLAM Wiki Conference

A scholarship for participation has been accepted for the GLAM Wiki Conference which is happening in Montevideo from November 16th to 18th, 2023.


Showcasing collaboration with the Nordic Museum at Wikimania 2023; Working with Swedish folk high schools

Showcasing collaboration with the Nordic Museum at Wikimania 2023

100 000 Photo Memories – museums and Wikimedians in synergy

In 2023, Wikimedia Sverige is working together with the Nordic Museum, one of Sweden's major museums dedicated to cultural history, on sharing thousands of previously unpublished archival photographs. The project is called 100 000 Bildminnen, or 100 000 Photo Memories, and at the year's Wikimania we had the opportunity to introduce it to an international audience. In their presentation, Josefine Hellroth Larsson and Alicia Fagerving focused on the innovative nature of the project: this is the first time WMSE has had an opportunity to work so close to a GLAM institution as they're digitizing their collections. Furthermore, the museum is not just sharing their files; they are actively seeking support from the Wikimedia community, as the edits made on Commons, such as categorization and improved descriptions, are eventually going to be included in the museum's own database. An interesting case study on how two actors can work together in a way that benefits both of them.

Watch the presentation if you're interested in novel ways of working with GLAMs, including the difficulties and pitfalls - but also unexpected moments of joy that can happen at an edit-a-thon!

Working with Swedish folk high schools

In our project Wikipedia for all of Sweden (in Swedish, Wikipedia för hela Sverige) we have now started working actively with Swedish folk high schools and have been on site for lectures and workshops. We have been to Östra Grevie folkhögskola, Önnestads folkhögskola and Södra folkhögskolan Helsingborg, all of them in Skåne. Folk high schools have a long tradition in Sweden and one of the goals of the project is to show all the possibilities with Wikimedia's platforms and that they can be used in several ways in teaching.

We have a lot in common with the Swedish folk high schools in the view of knowledge, and the hope is that in the longer term the folk high schools will actively incorporate editing into school work. After all, it is also general education to know how Wikipedia works and that being able to edit Wikipedia is a good competence later in working life. If there are more projects in the GLAM sector that work with folk high schools, please contact us!


Swiss GLAM Programm

E-Helvetica

To ensure that the Wikipedia source of knowledge is securely preserved and accessible for future generations, the Swiss National Library is building a digital collection in which it compiles Wikipedia content related to Switzerland, archives it permanently, and makes it freely available online. The Wikipedia collection is listed in the library catalog Helveticat and can be searched and consulted in e-Helvetica Access, the entry portal to the Swiss National Library digital collections. Wikimedia CH welcomes and supports this new digital collection. The two organizations are working closely together to realize it.Diff Wikimedia The difference between the archived form of the article and the live Wikipedia article is that the archived article is “frozen” and no longer changed in the long-term archive. The live Wikipedia article, on the other hand, can evolve at any time thanks to the collaboration of volunteer contributors.


LibreABC Event

The LibreABC event was a one-day event (31st of August) featuring workshops, conferences and debates on software and open source culture in the world of archives, libraries and documentation centres. 10 years after the first event organised by the EPFL and CHUV libraries and the Lausanne Cantonal and University Library in 2013, this new edition is broadening its scope to include archives and the ecological and ethical aspects of open source software.

The GLAM Team, Sandra Becker and Amandine Cabrio, gave a talk about the "VSA Map Integration Project". This project, in partnership with the Swiss Archivist Association aims to map the archives in Switzerland on a searchable map, available on the website of the Swiss Archivist Association. The map will be based on the Wikidata entries and a query.


Community Space Opening Schaffhouse

The 2nd of September, Wikimedia CH and FATArt association opened a community space in Schaffhausen.

The Swiss art association Femme Artist Table (FATart) is offering the Wikipedia community a new joint meeting and editing space in Schaffhausen starting from June 2023. Located on the 4th floor of the “Kammgarn West” district, this space organizes year-round activities with an exhibition program specifically dedicated to female artists. It offers ample space for discussions, women’s host workshops, coworking and a café-bar service. Wikipedia authors can meet there over the coming year to make researches, edit, network and exchange experiences. The aim of this innovative space is above all to contribute to more female representation on Wikipedia and its sister projects.


Islamic art exhibitions and heritage innovation

Khalili Foundation

Folio from the Blue Quran that formed part of the Heaven on Earth: art from Islamic lands exhibition

After previous success with Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam, I have worked on documenting more public exhibitions of Islamic art.

  • I acquired the printed catalogue of Heaven on Earth: art from Islamic lands, a 2004 exhibition, and checked all the items that came from the Khalili Collections. If an image of the object exists on Wikimedia Commons, I added it to this image gallery. The objects for which we have not yet shared images are listed at commons:Category_talk:Heaven on Earth: art from Islamic lands. These are images we could prioritise in a future bulk upload. The next task is to start a draft Wikipedia article on the exhibition, using this detailed list of content.
  • Empire of the Sultans: Ottoman Art of the Khalili Collection was a travelling exhibition held in 16 different locations in the 1990s and 2000s. I found 15 different newspaper reviews of the exhibition and some other news items — plus a statement from US Senator John Edwards — and summarised them in a draft. The catalogue of the exhibition is on its way to me and I will use that to list and summarise the exhibition's content. I have started a gallery at commons:Category:Empire of the Sultans.

I have continued extending and restructuring English Wikipedia's articles on Cultural diversity and Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. After a few more changes, the plan is to submit these articles for community review to get ideas for making them even more accessible.

On Wikidata, I have created 22 new representations, including adding paintings from the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art for the Sum of All Paintings data set, drawing from the Heaven on Earth catalogue. There are now 152 paintings from the collection listed in the data set, or which 29 were added in the last two months. Now, for example, if we ask Wikidata for objects related to Mohammad Shah Qajar, it tells us the Khalili Collections have a miniature portrait of him.

The GLAMorgan tool reports 4,520,153 views for Khalili Collections images in August. We always have a drop in image views during Summer holidays, but the drop is more shallow this year.

There are two draft articles for which I'm still waiting for curator feedback on before publishing, but which are pretty much ready to go. There are no new image uploads this month, and no new translations.

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about my work describing Khalili Collections manuscripts in Wikidata. This month, Digital Scriptorium — a consortium of researchers from institutions including the University of Oxford and University of Pennsylvania — was recommending the blog post as a starting point for their own work describing pre-modern manuscripts on Wikidata. See this Tweet. I also found out this month that Toby Burrows of the Bodleian Library wrote an academic paper citing the blog post and arguing that Wikidata could be used to create links between many different catalogues of manuscripts.

The Heritage Innovation Fund: exploring barriers to participation

The full 86-page is report produced from the HIF-funded research project is on Wikimedia Commons.

August saw the publication of the report on Wikimedia UK's Heritage Innovation Fund project.

Last year, the National Lottery Heritage Fund set up a funding stream, the Heritage Innovation Fund, to encourage learning, experimentation, and innovation in the heritage sector. Wikimedia UK were one of the successful applicants. Our aim was to find out what barriers to participation groups and organisations face in the cultural heritage sector. Time and money are a given, and we wanted to dig deeper.

The work drew on Wikimedia UK's Connected Heritage project which since 2021 has sought to improve the digital skills of small and medium-sized cultural heritage organisations. The research was carried out by Lucy Moore and involved a mixture of surveys and interviews.

There are a raft of recommendations for how Wikimedia UK can better meet the needs of the heritage sector. They fall into three main categories:

  • Advocacy – sharing what has worked, raising the profile of the organisation in the sector, and advancing the case for open access
  • Empathy – tailoring our approach to the context of difference audiences and finding ways to accommodate their needs
  • Informal education – developing learning resources and signposting them to build confidence

We have started to incorporate these recommendations into our work and will continue to explore how we can better work with the heritage sector. The interviewees were positive about what Wikimedia UK can offer to the heritage sector, so there is appetite for more work with the Wikimedia projects. On a personal note, I was especially pleased that "Six participants commented on the Connected heritage programme specifically, identifying the quality of the training and the warmth of the team as key to enabling them to engage with the offer." The Connected Heritage project is specifically intended for the GLAM sector, and this is testament to the excellent work of Lucy Hinnie and Leah Emary.

The full report is worth a read, and while it is specific to the UK context it may be useful to others working in the GLAM sector. Thank you to Lucy Moore for her exemplary work conducting the research and writing the report. This is an important piece of work for WMUK's relationship with the heritage sector.


Great North American Wiknics

Smithsonian Gender Gap Intern

Smithsonian Wikimedia training selfie, July 2023

Kelly Doyle Kim and Mia Cariello (User:CarCai) mentored Allie Pae (User:APae02), who served as a summer intern for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum (SAWHM). Mia Cariello was previously Kelly's Wikimedia summer intern in 2021.

Allie's internship focused on Wikimedia's gender gap, specifically about increasing the representation of Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) women from Smithsonian collections on the Wikimedia platforms. Allie contributed 254,000 words, created 33 new article / properties, and added 2,710 references to Wikipedia / Wikidata.

Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado) and Kelly led a Wikimedia overview training for all SAWHM summer interns in July.

This is now the 4th year Kelly has developed Smithsonian internships specifically focused on Wikimedia and the gender gap. This model has proven to be successful and sustainable and something we hope to document in more detail this year for the rest of the GLAM-Wiki community.

Andrew Lih, Allie Pae, Mia Cariello, & Kelly Doyle Kim

Seattle Wiknic 2023

Cascadia Wikimedians held a meetup, Seattle/Wiknic/2023 at Washington Park Arboretum.

August 2023 Wiknic

San Diego User Group held a meetup, August 2023 Wiknic at Vacation Isle, San Diego.

Wiknic 2023

Wikimedia NYC held a meetup, NYC/Wiknic 2023 at Governors Island.

Wiknic 2023

Wikimedia DC held a meetup, Wiknic 2023, at Rock Creek Park.


Wikidocumentaries to import images from the web to Structured Data on Commons – a Google Summer of Code project

Wikidocumentaries is a project by AvoinGLAM that navigates the content of the Wikimedia projects based on the data contained in Wikidata. It explores other open repositories for media and geodata and displays them alongside Wikimedia content. This explorer is envisioned to be used to effortlessly bring more materials to Wikimedia projects while maintaining the best possible source metadata, and eventually, allow the users to reuse the content, for example by creating wikidocumentaries.

This vision is gained bit by bit. Until now, Wikidocumentaries has been read-only.

Google Summer of Code

This summer, we embarked on a Google Summer of Code project with Zexi Gong, a master student in computer science at Northeastern University in San Francisco. She was mentored by Tuukka Hastrup and Susanna Ånäs.

The Wikidocumentaries to import images from the web to Structured Data on Commons project established an image import pipeline where the user can select an image displayed on Wikidocumentaries to be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons with SDC statements. The images originate from external repositories, and they are dynamically displayed in Wikidocumentaries via the open APIs of the repositories. We focused on working with Finna, the Finnish national aggregator, and once this workflow has been established, it can be used to power the import of images from other media repositories with some adjustments.

  • Tuukka Hastrup, Zexi Gong and Susanna Ånäs celebrating the completion of the GSoC period
    Tuukka Hastrup, Zexi Gong and Susanna Ånäs celebrating the completion of the GSoC period

First step: Authenticating at Wikimedia

To access authentication and to display information about the user status, we added a new pulldown in the main toolbar. The authentication uses the OAuth 2.0 authentication method.

Clicking on the user icon triggers a dropdown menu that provides options for logging in or logging out, along with displaying the username if the user is logged in.
Upon clicking the login option, users are redirected to the Wikimedia Commons authentication page. After successful login, users are automatically redirected back to the previous page in Wikidocumentaries.


Second step: Uploading media files

The upload component of the project introduced a new actions menu displayed in the corner of each image and in the image viewer. The menu allows the user to choose to upload the image to Wikimedia Commons. The action opens an interactive popup that displays essential image information, including title, description, copyright license, category, creator, and date. The user can associate the name of the creator, originating from the external repository, with a Wikidata item.

Information is prepared for both the Information template and the SDC statements. The integration of this popup interface, along with the conversion of image metadata into Wikitext, was achieved through a combination of user interface design and backend logic.

In the popoup, the user may view and test, and in some cases edit some of the metadata about the image.

  • File name is constructed by combining the title of the image, the creator and the year.
  • The caption is based on the original title
  • The user can identify a matching Wikidata item for the creator using a pulldown, or enter Wikidata to create a new item.
  • The creation date uses a normalized year value provided by the Finna API.
  • The Commons category is read from the Wikidata statements of the page topic.
  • The information page of the image at Finna is displayed and clickable.
  • The topic of the page is added as a depicts (P180) statement.

We have left fine tuning the options until later and believe that once the groundwork is done, it will be easy to incrementally enhance the process.

To complete the upload, users can click the "Upload" button within the popup. Behind the scenes, the image information is parsed into wikitext for the Information template. The parsed information is then combined with the uploaded image and submitted to Wikimedia Commons through the API.

If the license information from the source of the image indicates that the license is not in the list of allowed licenses, the upload button will be disabled and show a message that tells the user about the license constrains. We are allowing the display of images that use any Creative Commons licenses. A major reason for this is that many public domain images are incorrectly licensed with restrictive Creative Commons licenses. By displaying them, the users have the ability to report errors.

The upload component encountered challenges due to outdated and oversimplified examples in the upload API documentation. The discrepancy between the documentation and the actual process complicated the implementation, and we had to invest significant effort into structuring the API requests correctly. Additionally, the error messages received during the upload process lacked specificity, causing us to struggle with pinpointing and resolving issues. For example, the permission denial error appeared frequently without clear indications of which permissions were lacking. Developers have to test many times or communicate with the API developers in order to solve this error.

Third step: Structured Data on Commons (SDC)

The structured data aspect of the project focused on generating meaningful structured data statements for media files uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. These statements would enhance the contextual information available to users exploring the media, and will open up new possibilities for discovery and tools, also in Wikidocumentaries.

When the file is uploaded, it will be placed in the correct Commons category. In addition, a structured data depicts (P180) statement is added, representing the topic of the page where the image was found. At this stage we did not work with the keywords originating from Finna or allow adding more depicts statements in the upload process.

The integration of this functionality involved interaction between the uploaded image's metadata, the selected category, and the Wikimedia Commons' structured data system. This feature enhances the overall quality and accessibility of media files on Wikimedia Commons, aligning with the platform's mission to provide accurate and informative content.

Links to code

https://github.com/Wikidocumentaries/wikidocumentaries-ui/pull/108

https://github.com/Wikidocumentaries/wikidocumentaries-api/pull/31

Future work

With the core aspects of the project now essentially completed, there remain a few openings for questions that will need to be addressed in the future. These potential avenues for further enhancement and refinement could significantly contribute to bolstering the project's overall effectiveness and elevating the user experience.

  • OAuth Token Renewal: A potential future improvement would involve addressing the issue of OAuth tokens expiring. Currently, users need to manually refresh their tokens. Implementing an automated token renewal mechanism could streamline the user experience, ensuring uninterrupted authentication for prolonged user sessions.
  • Handling Special Characters: The project encountered challenges related to special characters in image filenames. To provide a seamless user experience, it's advisable to implement a mechanism that handles special characters and encodes them appropriately during the upload process. This would prevent potential errors and inconsistencies in image handling.
  • Popup Structure Enhancement: One observed issue is that the current popup structure sometimes causes the "upload finish" UI to become invisible, effectively trapping users within the upload process. To rectify this, the popup structure could be refined to ensure a clear and visible path for users to complete their uploads and navigate through different stages without confusion.
  • Error Handling and Feedback: Enhancing error messages and providing more comprehensive feedback in cases of server errors or unsuccessful actions could greatly improve user understanding and troubleshooting. Clearer error messages would aid users in identifying and addressing issues during their interactions with the application.
  • Continuous Documentation: Maintaining up-to-date and comprehensive documentation is crucial for the project's longevity. Continuously updating the documentation to reflect changes, improvements, and troubleshooting tips would be immensely beneficial for both contributors and users.

Incorporating these future work suggestions would not only enhance the project's functionality but also contribute to an improved user experience and a more seamless workflow for contributors and users alike.

Sequence diagram of the upload process


Hub updates at Wikimania 2023; Supporting Wiki Loves Monuments teams

Hub updates at Wikimania 2023

At Wikimania 2023, Wikimedia Sverige's work on establishing a Content Partnership Hub was featured in several presentations by our staff members. Don't miss them if you're interested in updates on what we've been up to this year.

First off, the work of the Helpdesk was highlighted by Eric Luth. The Helpdesk is a support structure for members of the Wikimedia community who would like to engage more actively with content partnerships, such as uploads of files and data from GLAM partners. But how does it actually work, what happens when you submit a request, who makes the decision on whether it should be fulfilled and how? In this presentation, both the concept and the process of the Helpdesk are explained, so that you can get a better understanding of it. We want the community to not only be aware that the Helpdesk exists, but also understand how it can help them.

➡️ See this session on Youtube.

One example of the type of support we do is cleaning up and uploading data about the world's cultural and natural heritage to Wikidata. This is particularly appreciated by the organizers of the Wiki Loves competitions, as it makes it easier to organize and work with the data. In a short workshop, Alicia Fagerving provided an introduction to how the data on Wikidata can be used to enrich the photographs in the competitions using Structured Data on Commons. Linking photos to the items of the objects they depicts seems like a daunting task - there's a backlog of thousands of files and not everything can be done by bots. But the more people join in, the better! Through this session, we hoped to encourage more people to make their first steps as SDC editors.

➡️ See this session on Youtube.

We also spoke about our current experiments with Wikibase where we're making an attempt to build an infrastructure for storing organizational knowledge in a structured form. That is, data about everything a Wikimedia chapter does - edit-a-thons, projects, GLAM collaborations, documents and educational resources. Using a linked data platform for this sort of information makes it easier to query and analyze. You can see the platform itself on [1]. In the fall of 2023 we're going to fill it with the data about Wikimedia Sverige's activities and we hope this is just the first step towards making something bigger. If the platform does fulfill our chapter's needs, we would like to take it further and invite our chapters and user groups to also participate with their data.

➡️ See this session on Youtube.

Supporting Wiki Loves Monuments teams

Fall means Wiki Loves Monuments, and we have been working on improving the coverage of monuments on Wikidata in preparation for the competition. Two events are worth highlighting here. For one, we imported the data about monuments in Uganda from Wikipedia lists to Wikidata. Our collaboration with the Ugandan community has led to organizing a joint learning clinic as part of the Let's Connect program, which will have its first session on September 14. Its purpose is to introduce community members, especially those interested in running Wiki Loves Monuments or similar initiatives, to efficient use of Wikidata - all the way from making their first edits to working with OpenRefine to process large amounts of data.

We are also working with monument data from Ukraine, which will run its WLM in October. The majority of the data is still in the form of lists on Wikipedia, and there are a lot of Commons categories that are not linked to any Wikidata item. With over 90 000 monuments, and an impressive number of photos collected over the years of participating in WLM, there's a lot of material that could benefit from being better linked and organized. Our hope is to have those monuments on Wikidata before the competition starts, so that they're easier to find, search and analyze.


Open call: OpenRefine-Wikimedia train-the-trainer course, November 2023-April 2024

Apply to become a certified OpenRefine-Wikimedia trainer!

Illustration remixing a vintage, 1950s-style illustration of a female teacher in front of a classroom with children. The teacher points to a 'blackboard' which actually shows an OpenRefine screenshot.

From November 2023 until April 2024, there will be an intensive online train-the-trainer course for candidate OpenRefine-Wikimedia trainers.

Do you want to help spread knowledge about OpenRefine, support Wikimedians and their partners (cultural and other knowledge institutions) in using OpenRefine to contribute to Wikimedia Commons and other Wikimedia projects? Then apply for this course. There is room for up to 8 motivated participants.

You can find more info about the course, and a link to the application form, on Wikimedia Commons.

Timeline

  • September 1 until September 15, 2023: application period. Read more and apply here.
  • October 1, 2023: all applicants are notified.
  • November 1, 2023: train-the-trainer course starts with a maximum of 8 participants.



Looking back, looking ahead

  • Located in a historic building erected in 1915, the Tekka Centre Wet Market is home to nearly 300 food stalls. Wet markets represent a rich part of Singapore’s history and food culture, being a primary place where people gather and get their daily essentials. Photo by Kari.Shouur, CC BY-SA 4.0.
    Located in a historic building erected in 1915, the Tekka Centre Wet Market is home to nearly 300 food stalls. Wet markets represent a rich part of Singapore’s history and food culture, being a primary place where people gather and get their daily essentials. Photo by Kari.Shouur, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • From September until early October, the Nine Gods Festival comes to temples across Singapore. In the finale of the festival, devotees tug paper boats into the sea and set them alight. Photo by Rodney Ee, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • A woman wanders through a market on Arab Street in downtown Singapore, admiring colorful Turkish lamps. Photo by Henry Vante, CC BY-SA 4.0.
    A woman wanders through a market on Arab Street in downtown Singapore, admiring colorful Turkish lamps. Photo by Henry Vante, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Wiki Loves Living Heritage at Wikimania

Page: https://w.wiki/7EMt

The photo contest

The photo contest Wiki Loves Living Heritage in Singapore was fantastically featured as a key event at Wikimania. The contest produced an impressive amount of 1,180 images. The partners, the National Heritage Board of Singapore and the National Youth Achievement Award, extended their collaboration to several areas of the program. The young volunteers from NYAA offered their invaluable help throughout the conference.

The winners of the photo contest were awarded in the closing ceremony. The photo contest was featured in the Diff blog by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Presentations

On the second day, the program in the plenary was opened by a keynote from Dr. Kirk Siang Yeo from the National Heritage Board. He presented the activities the Singapore Heritage Board is taking to safeguard Living Heritage in the country.

It was followed by the overall presentation of the Wiki Loves Living Heritage program by Susanna Ånäs and Alan Ang.

Hackathon

We also proposed Hacking ideas for hacking at the hackathon. They are still valid, pick your choice!

Coming up

In the latter part of the year, we will be looking back as well as forward, beyond the festive year by featuring more local activities, making introductions to living heritage at events, facilitating data imports and sharing experiences in the blog.

The Wiki Loves Safeguarding Living Heritage in Europe contest will be ending in September. Hurry up to be part of it!

  • 13 September 18:00 CEST – Local Contexts organizes Supporting Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Cultural Authority in Collections and Data as a pre-event to GLAMhack23 (online, join)
  • 28–30 September – GLAMhack23 in Geneva. Wiki Loves Living Heritage hacks together with Local Contexts to explore bringing content labelling into Wikimedia projects.Join the hackathon onsite or online.
  • 3–6 October CC Summit in Mexico City. Wiki Loves Living Heritage will be presented online.
  • 10–12 October – Presentation of Community Heritage Archives, a concept for a Wikibase for communities, will be presented by Ina Blümel, TIB - Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and Susanna Ånäs, AvoinGLAM at Europeana Tech (online).
  • Let's Connect sharing session will be arranged in October. They will be introductions of the working methods: collaborations with the local authorities and data imports, to inspire new activities for this year and beyond.
  • 28–29 October – Wikidata Conference. Bring your heritage to Wiki Loves Living Heritage! features a presentation of the data imports of national inventories to Wikidata (online).
  • 3–5 November 2023 – We wish to arrange a Wiki Loves Living Heritage Bazaar event at WikiIndaba.
  • 16–18 November – We will join GLAM-Wiki Conference in Uruguay and wish to present and discuss the project.

Explore Wiki Loves Living Heritage

See pages for heritage elements on the UNESCO Lists and registers of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the locally maintained inventories as well as country pages that feature all of these plus elements that have been nominated by the editors.

  • See the page Elements on UNESCO Lists and its subpages to view the heritage elements that have been inscribed in the UNESCO Lists and Registers of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
  • See the page Inventories for a list of all recorded inventories. You can view the elements of an inventory by clicking on the button below the image if elements have been added to Wikidata and if the page has been created.
  • The countries page links to pages that collect all the different types of items together by country: Elements on UNESCO Lists and Registers, in locally maintained inventories as well as elements that anyone has wished to include in the Wiki Loves Living Heritage projects. Check out below how to add your favourite heritage element.

Things you can do

Write a blog post!

We are vitalizing the Wiki Loves Living Heritage blog in the coming months. If you have an interesting concept for a project, an important perspective, or would like to share your experiences working with living heritage, drop us a line at wikiloveslivingheritage@gmail.com.

Add your inventory

If you are interested in facilitating the import of the heritage elements from your country to Wikidata, there will be many online opportunities to learn about that during the autumn. Here's a quick outline of the process to get you started right away.

  • Navigate to Inventories to see if your inventory has been added to Wikidata.
  • If you represent a heritage organization, read Contributing to Wikimedia as a cultural heritage organization before you start. The Contacts page lists Wikimedia affiliates around the world who will be able to help you in your journey. If there is no affiliate in your country, look for ones in the neighboring countries or internationally operating ones.
  • As a Wikimedian, join the upcoming presentation at WikidataCon, or start working following the guidelines above. You can decide to offer assistance also for other countries and add yourself to this list.

Add your favorite heritage element to Wiki Loves Living Heritage pages

Regardless of whether your favorite festival or local snack is included in an inventory or not, or if the inventory is not added to Wikidata yet, you can add any living heritage element to the project yourself.

  • Search Wikidata to find the living heritage element.
  • Make sure a country has been added in either Country (P17) or Country of origin (P495). Remember that you will need to base your claim on a source.
  • Once the Wikidata item is updated, navigate to the page Wiki Loves Living Heritage/Intangible Cultural Heritage of <your country name here>.
  • Update the the list by clicking on the link "Manually update list" and return to the page when the update is ready.

Add translations and images

At the end of each inventory or country page, you find grey boxes with tasks that you can do. Choose the simple tasks to translate inventory or heritage element names and descriptions to you language and to add missing images.

Make contacts locally

To get started with local collaborations between authorities and Wikimedia affiliates, start by browsing the directory of Contacts. You can also plan to arrange a Bazaar, a meeting in your country or region.


Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network at Wikimania Singapore

Wikimania group photo

Several members of the WREN attended the annual conference Wikimania in Singapore.

The Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network (WREN) is a recognized Wikimedia user group and affiliate which arranges professional networking among Wikimedians in residence to share peer to peer support with each other, although any Wikimedian is invited to participate in WREN activities.

Several sessions were of interest to members and some were directly proposed by the members of the network. A curated list of GLAM-related sessions may be found here, many of which have been recorded and are available on YouTube.

I facilitated two GLAM sessions myself.

First Learn and discuss with member of the Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network - I organized and facilitated that session, meant to learn about and discover the activities of WREN. Additionally, a member of the network (James Gaunt) collated and published a diff for the user group. Mike Dickison's closing thoughts were powerful, pointing to the need to fixing and supporting metrics or WiR will "disappear ». This discussion session was very lively and very well attended.

Second Joining forces: Partnering with intergovernmental organizations creates new opportunities for the Wikimedia movement - I facilitated this panel conversation. It was a slightly challenging thing to do given that I was alone on stage ... and sound management on the big stage was not optimal. All other panelists, from WIPO, Unesco, OECD, FAO, and Wikimedia Sweden attended online... Also, the initial organizer of the session, Eric Luth, had to cancel his participation to Wikimania entirely and was replaced online on the fly by one of his colleague, Josephine. But ultimately, I believe this was a useful session for the audience as well as for the panelists themselves :)

A major topic discussed this year during Wikimania was the disastrous state of several popular tools, largely unsupported. There is currently a very involved conversation on the GLAM Wiki Telegram group about how to fix the metrics and other parts of the toolchain. It's long, but there is widespread interest in keeping this momentum going. https://t.me/c/1723589369/2842

September's GLAM events

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Wikidata Days 2023 - Lisbon, Portugal
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Wikidata Days 2023 - Lisbon, Portugal
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Wikidata Days 2023 - Lisbon, Portugal
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