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< GLAM‎ | Newsletter‎ | February 2012


GLAMcamp DC, Princeton Edit-a-Thon, new social media

GLAMcamp DC

A group photo of GLAMcamp DC participants.

Wikimedians and cultural professionals from across North America and the world met at GLAMcamp DC in Washington DC to build a foundation for US efforts in GLAM. Hosted by the National Archives and Records Administration, this tightly-coordinated camp focused on serving the increased appetite for Wikipedia engagement among GLAM organizations and institutions across the US and North America. Work focused on two main areas:

1. Outreach

The one-pager developed for museum professionals.
  • To ensure that reaching out to GLAM organizations was as easy as possible, several Wikimedians contributed case studies and presentations (targeting both museum professionals and Wikimedians interested in outreach) to the GLAM-US Bookshelf.
  • To ensure that GLAM organizations could find us without difficulty, participants redesigned the Wikipedia GLAM portal page for the US to make it attractive and informative for people new to GLAM. Museum professionals, Wikipedians interested in GLAM, and other interested parties will be able to find each other on the Connect page.
  • One of the key outcomes of the camp was a two-sided handout aimed at museum professionals, to be distributed as a brochure at events.

2. Technical projects

Wikipedians mingle with local museum professionals at the GLAM-Wiki Meet up.
  • The need for an easy-to-use bulk uploader was keenly felt at the start of the camp. The Walters Art Museum stepped up as the first cultural organization to directly work with Wikimedians to develop a documented process for uploading images to the Commons. An ongoing project to upload the Walters collections to the Wikimedia Commons is documenting effective practices and producing improved tools, to simplify bulk uploading for other GLAMs around in the world.
  • The Wikipedia citation tool was developed as a web browser extension that allows users to obtain a citation from any online MARC library catalog, and in that specific language version of Wikipedia.

Outreach basics & networking

In addition to documentation and tool development, GLAMcamp also included a GLAM Outreach Basics orientation that introduced all participants to current practices in GLAM cooperative projects. Participants also had the opportunity to attend multiple networking events and tours of local institutions, including the National Archives itself. GLAMcamp attendees went on a private tour of the Archives rotunda and the stacks, as well as guided tours of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Luce Center and Lunder Conservation Center. Creative Commons hosted a GLAM-Wiki meetup at Chinatown Coffee, providing an opportunity for participants to meet local GLAM professionals and museum studies students interested in their work.

The conference was organized by Lori Byrd Phillips (in her second month as US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator), Sarah Stierch, and Pete Forsyth, and was funded by a grant from the Wikimedia Grants program.

Further reading

Princeton's Mudd Library Edit-a-Thon

Mudd Library Edit-a-thon participants

On Saturday, 18 February 2012, a group of sixteen enthusiastic volunteers—including Princeton University undergraduates, Wikipedians from Wikimedia New York City, Princeton community members, and Mudd Library staff—gathered for an edit-a-thon at Princeton University’s Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library. GLAMcamp DC attendee and technical services student worker Q Miceli organized the event. The goal was to write and update Wikipedia articles about Princeton University. Q also created an edit-a-thon how-to after organizing this event.

By the numbers, there were 16 attendees, six usernames created, four articles created, and nine articles expanded. Mudd Library is considering hosting another edit-a-thon around Princeton’s Reunions in late May. Feedback from University Library staff has been favorable, and participants and Princeton alumni who could not attend were eager to be notified if another edit-a-thon occurred.

Further reading

US Cultural Partnerships report

While the majority of the month was spent preparing for and carrying out GLAMcamp DC (see above), other work carried out by the US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator included:

  • A consolidated master list of GLAM contacts was further compiled at GLAMcamp DC, which is now maintained by a small “GLAM Contacts Committee” that is made up of volunteers representing regions across the US.
  • Ongoing follow-up on leads and interest from GLAM institutions.
  • Coordination has continued for upcoming conferences including the American Association of Museums (Minneapolis, May), Communicating the Museum (New York City, June), and Association of Midwest Museums (Indianapolis, July), in addition to Wikimania.
  • Coordination talks between local museum technology contacts and Europeana, who will be collaborating on GLAM tools over the coming year.
  • Upcoming blogging interviews will include the Library of Congress blog and the Technology in the Arts blog.

News in brief

  • GLAM-Wiki hits social media. The GLAM-Wiki US community now has a Facebook group that will share US-based GLAM-Wiki news and resources for both Wikipedians and cultural professionals. This is in addition to the now active @glamwiki Twitter account, which represents the project as a whole.
  • GLAM gets a shout out on National Public Radio In a news story titled Truth and the World of Wikipedia Gatekeepers, the GLAM initiative and GLAMcamp were mentioned live on the National Public Radio (NPR) program Talk of the Nation regarding the recent debate on "Undue Weight of Truth in Wikipedia." In an interview alongside Wikimedia Foundation community organizer Steven Walling, Wikipedia author, journalist, and commentator Andrew Lih pointed to the GLAM movement as one potential answer to issues surrounding scholarly contributions to Wikipedia.
  • Minneapolis Central Library holds first successful Edit-a-Thon The Minneapolis Central Library was covered by news stories in the Star Tribune and in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, detailing its first Edit-a-Thon on Minneapolis history.
  • US Cultural Partnerships Fellow Lori Phillip's second feature at the Center for the Future of Museums In her second guest post for the Center for the Future of Museums blog, Lori Phillips had an opportunity to discuss the role of Wikipedia as a platform for museums to more broadly engage community discourse in an article titled Open Authority and the Future of Museum Ethics.
  • GLAM-Wikipedian Gaurav Vaidya writes first post about collaboration and museum archives for Center for the Future of Museums Also on the Center for the Future of Museums blog, GLAMcamp DC attendee Gaurav Vaidya co-wrote a post titled, The Curator of Collaboration: Experiments in Mobilizing Museum Archives. The post describes a transcription/annotation project on biologists' field notebooks at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. Searching for a platform on which to share and improve their transcriptions and annotations, they settled on Wikisource; side-by-side transcription and easy-to-extend Mediawiki templates were a huge help in annotating their content. They are now reaching out to the community for further help.
  • WikiWomen's History Month is being celebrated in conjunction with Women's History Month in March. GLAMs around United States are collaborating with Wikipedians to develop content online through offline events, including the Smithsonian Archives. Learn more about getting involved here.


British Library seek Wikipedian in Residence; Black Country Museum Backstage Pass

British Library looking for a Wikipedian in Residence

Wikimedians at the British Library during the January 2011 editathon there.

It was announced this month that the British Library (in collaboration with Wikimedia UK) were in search of a Wikipedian in Residence, for a six-month, paid position at their St. Pancras building. The job description states that the WiR will be expected:

“
  • To encourage and increase the direct participation of S&C staff in the provision of content for Wikipedia.
  • To develop new articles and edit existing entries relating to AHRC projects and British Library items and collections on Wikipedia, in conjunction with curators and other colleagues.
  • To test and implement processes for exploiting the British Library's Access and Re-use of Digital Collections Policy within Wikimedia Foundation projects.
  • To establish links between S&C curatorial staff and Wikipedia volunteers.
  • To cultivate the relationship between Wikimedia UK and the AHRC/British Library with a view to creating possible joint projects.
 ”

It should be noted that at the time of publication, application is closed.

Black Country Museum Backstage Pass

Wikipedians love archives - including these at the Black Country Living Museum

On 18 February, the Black Country Living Museum, based in Tipton, near Dudley, held an editathon attended by around ten editors (a mix of Wikipedians and new recruits), as well as representatives of Birmingham Assay Office, The Pen Room, Smethwick Local Heritage group and the Black Country Society. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing) gave a presentation on past GLAM-Wiki successes, including the Derby Museum and Art Gallery collaboration; and QRpedia and Wikimedia-UK chairman Roger Bamkin spoke about the work of the UK chapter, encouraging everyone to join. Then, after being treated to "backstage pass" tours of the museums extensive stores and archives, the editors set to work on new articles, uploading pictures they had taken to Commons, and training the new recruits.

Examples of articles created or considerably improved include:

and work continues, with several individuals planning to visit the museum's library in the near future.

Nomnomnom!

However, it was generally felt that the highlight of the day was the superb, complementary fish and chip lunch, provided by the museum's 1930s chippie!

Our thanks to the museum for their hospitality, the attending organisations for the generous access to reference material and objects, and to West Midlands Conurbation Museums Officer Emma Buckler for her role in facilitating the day.


Continuation of the GLAM projects, GLAM Conference in Belgrade

GLAM-Wiki conference in Belgrade

The GLAM-Wiki conference in Belgrade

Adrienne Alix (Serein) attended the GLAM-Wiki conference organized by Wikimedia Serbia in Belgrade on the 24 and 25 February. Her report is as follows.

On Friday, February 24 was held in Belgrade, Serbia, the first GLAM conference organized by Wikimedia Serbia. Wikimedians interested in GLAM projects from all over the world came to support Wikimedia Serbia and share their experiences in the event. Jan from Czech Republic, Orsolya from Wikimedia Hungary, Cristina from Lettera27 (the Italian foundation that supports WikiAfrica), Noopur from Wikimedia India, Kiril from Wikimedia Macedonia and me from Wikimédia France.

The conference was aimed at Serbian cultural institutions, to encourage them to work with Wikimedia Serbia to open their content and participate in the Wikimedia projects. There was obviously some heads of Serbian institutions in the hall, but also students. The conference was mainly in Serbian, but the presentations of the Wikimedian guests were predominantly in English.

The whole GLAM theme was covered: Mile Kiš, Serbian Wikimedian and organizer of the conference, began by explaining the organization of the Wikimedia movement, the actions of GLAM projects and why it is important for the diffusion of culture.

Nevenka Antić, representative of Creative Commons in Serbia, then explained the functioning of the Creative Commons licenses and their importance in the dissemination of knowledge.

The conference continued with the presentation of the Gutenberg project and the Ratsko Project by its director, Zoran Stefanovic. Both projects, pioneers of book digitization (Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971, the project Ratsko in 1997), show the importance of digitization for preservation and promotion of our historic and cultural heritage. Nikola Smolenski, long time Wikimedian, then presented the functioning of Wikisource and Mile Kiš demonstrated the QRPpedia project and how it was used, for example at Derby Museum (UK) to improve the visits.

The last part of the conference focused on feedback from abroad. Noopur form India explained how works the coordination between wikimedians of a country so vast as India, and that events and local projects were the key to the success of the first projects of the indian chapter. Cristina from Lettera27 presented the WikiAfrica project, wich aims to release cultural content by cultural institutions focusing on Africa, and to encourage the creation of encyclopedic content about Africa. Jan Loužek from Czech Republic explained the situation of the GLAM projects in his country, and Adrienne recalled the history of GLAM projects in France and made a focus on three partnerships: the French National Library, the Palace of Versailles and the city of Toulouse, and explain how we operate.

The conference was well organized with a very friendly atmosphere. The small number of Wikimedians was welcomed with great hospitality by the Serbs and relationships were forged that will be surely successful between us.

On Saturday, we spent time together for a debriefing conference about the day before, to make a point on things that had worked and worked less. Then we talked about the ways to initiate and monitor GLAM projects, sharing our experiences. (And after that go to the stop-ACTA protest in the main place of Belgrade!)

These two days, punctuated by parties and good understanding between all of us, will be obviously successful and Mile has quickly announced that he was contacted by institutions to discuss common projects!

A special thank to Mile for the perfect organization, for Milos (the best guide for a visit in Belgrade), and to all the wonderful Serbian Wikimedians!

News in brief

One part of the Hoxne Hoard
  • The Hoxne Hoard: A French version of the article initially developed as part of the British Museum collaboration has been labeled "featured article" and is now linked to from the French language page of the British Museum: [1]
  • Partnership with the Library and Archives of Toulouse: The projects to put the full Trutat and Ancely collections to Wikimedia Commons is on its rails and new uploads could be made soon. Jean-Frédéric made a lecture about it on February 14 during a symposium of the "Institut de recherche et d’innovation".
  • GLAM toolbox: The GLAM toolbox is on its way, and we have a better view of what tools exist and what needs to be created. We want to thank Daniel Mietchen for the deep tools analysis, in the tool-testing reports.[See This Month in GLAM coverage]
  • Museum of the Quai Branly: Thanks to Symac, we are in contact with the Quai Branly Museum to take part in their "Digital week" in April, 2012. Adrienne is currently discussing with them of a possible conference and workshops on "how to contribute to Wikimedia projects".
  • Submission to a call for papers: Caroline submitted an answer to a call for papers for a collective book about “Photographer visitors: a tool to think the Museum” but our contribution was not kept.
  • Joint letter to the French Ministry of Culture: Wikimedia France sent a letter to the French Ministry of Culture, co-written with the FFSAM (french federation of the friends of museum societies), "OrsayCommons" and "Louvre pour tous" (two groups of defense of museum visitors), in order to promote freedom of photography in museums
  • Open GLAM event with the OKF: Following a proposal of the OKF (after we co-organized the Public Domain Day in France), we will organize with them, at the end of April, an "OpenGLAM day", with an highlight on legal questions.

Cultural Partnerships coordinator for Germany

WMDE Job Offer: Coordinator for Cultural Partnerships

Quantity and quality of German GLAM cooperations could benefit from this new position.

On February 7th 2012, WMDE announced a job offer for a Coordinator for Cultural Partnerships. The idea behind this position is similar to the US cultural partnerships coordinator. While Germany features only few GLAM cooperations so far, a basic infrastructure between WMDE, the community and our GLAM partners needs to be established. Supporting the existing and nascent GLAM:Wiki partnerships will help to introduce the Wikimedian in Residence model in Germany as well.

The coordinator for cultural partnerships in Germany will be located at WMDE in Berlin and is expected to create a framework for a community-driven GLAM sector that allows volunteers to act freely and provide support if required. It should be noted that at the time of publication of the GLAM Newsletter, applications are closed.

Currently, there is no public information on the number of applications or an eventual acceptance.



Wiki Loves Monuments, Gruppo Archeologico Ambrosiano and Wikipedian in Residence Course in Milan

Wiki Loves Monuments

The Italian website for Wiki Loves Monuments is up and running: http://www.wikilovesmonuments.it. To properly face the legal issues, the Italian team (lead by Wikimedia Italia but with the participation of several associations and institutions, including lettera27 and Gruppi Archeologici regionali - regional archeological groups) has decided to inform about the contest as soon as possible, to establish partnerships with institutions. In addition, the team has set up a wiki for compiling lists of monuments and work on documents and discussions: http://wlm.wikimedia.it

Gruppo Archeologico Ambrosiano

Wikimedia Italia has organized a short training course for the volunteers of Gruppo Archeologico Ambrosiano to introduce them to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia sister projects, and to encourage them to contribute. The course was coordinated by CristianCantoro. Wikimedia Italia and Gruppo Archeologico Ambrosiano are currently defining a common program to involve Italian museums with archeological collections, organizing wikigite (wikitours) and working together on Wiki Loves Monuments.

Wikipedian in Residence Course in Milan

A course for Wikipedian in Residence which aims at making the collaboration between Wikipedia and cultural institutions easier and at supporting the institutions taking part into the projects GLAM, WikiAfrica and Share Your Knowledge. The training course addresses students and cultural institutions staff who want to contribute to Wikipedia, and it addresses wikipedians and wikimedia volunteers who would like to collaborate with cultural institutions. In general each participant is associated to a GLAM. The course lasts 3 months (12 weeks), from 7th March to 30th May, and it is structured in a one-hour meeting per week at the office of lettera27 Foundation. The first six meetings are focused on Wikipedia, its principles and how it works; the next six meetings support individual work and give hints on different and specific aspects of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia sister projects. The participants will be guided in producing 15 quality articles or 50 quantity uploads based on documentation provided in CC by-sa or PD by cultural institutions. The trainers are wikipedians, administrators of Wikipedia in Italian and lawyers with an expertise in Creative Commons licenses and in copyright; the coordinator of the training is Remulazz, lettera27 Wikipedian in residence. The course is free and open to a maximum of 10 participants. The Wikipedian in Residence course is based in Milan and it is promoted by lettera27 Foundation in collaboration with Wikimedia Italia.

# Date Meeting GLAM and Wikipedia
1 07/03/2012 Introduction and expectations. Wikipedia: what it is, what it is not; consensus, community, registration. Registration on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource with small and simple edits to existing articles. Download of Zotero. The participants collect statistics from the institution webmaster and overview of the GLAM mission, projects and activities.
2 14/03/2012 A Wikipedia article, editorial oversight and control, control systems, namespace. Sources. Using Zotero participants work on the GLAM sources (bibliography, publications, catalogues, online articles, reviews, essays...) and on other sources associated to 50 key words relevant to the GLAM (objects, collectors, territories, concepts, buildings, protagonists...). They start looking for copyright information (©, cc, existing procedure and contracts within the GLAM).
3 21/03/2012 Creative Commons, Licenses, authors, chronology and credits, OTRS. Clearance and structure of an article. The participants verify the copyright on their sources, they collect information from the GLAM and they select the most relevant contents. By selecting one of the 50 keywords, they start producing their first article in their sandbox. They verify if they can use some of the sources previously selected (texts, images, videos...) and eventually they start the procedure to make the sources available.
4 28/03/2012 Footnotes, bibliography and Wikisource. Article. The participants finish their article, add footnotes and bibliography with the Wikipedia standards (around 10.000 characters text, rich, complete and articulated). Participants are invited to involve other people in editing and contributing to the article (GLAM staff, other volunteers, friends...).
5 04/04/2012 Editing, categories, templates and tables. Editing. The participants enrich the article with the correct editing, templates, charts and tables if necessary and they move the article from the sandbox to Wikipedia. The articles should be around 10 kb and it should have the characteristics of a quality article. If they finish working on the first article they start a new one. Mid-term evaluation.
6 11/04/2012 Wikimedia Commons and images. Editing. The participants enrich the articles with the hints provided during the meeting and they start new articles. At this point, based on the GLAM they are collaborating with or based on their personal attitude, they decide if they want to produce 15 quality articles or 50 shorter articles. The produce a list of articles they want to create or they want to contribute to.
7 18/04/2012 Quality and Individual work Individual work on the articles selected.
8 02/05/2012 Wikievents and hints to promote participation (Wiki Loves Monuments, Backstage pass, Wiki Takes Your City) Individual work on the articles selected.
9 09/05/2012 Case studies and documenting the collaboration between cultural institutions and Wikipedia Individual work on the articles selected.
10 16/05/2012 Monitoring and evaluating the impact and the visibility of articles and images Individual work on the articles selected.
11 23/05/2012 Organizational chart: Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia chapters and current projects of Wikimedia Italy Individual work on the articles selected.
12 30/05/2012 Conclusions and presentations of the work produced. Evaluation. Follow up and evaluation of the course and of the articles and images produced (website statistics and feedback from the institutions involved 03/10/2012).


News in brief

  • Share Your Knowledge press conference: Press conference to present new cultural institutions involved in Share Your Knowledge and WikiAfrica, within the Festival di cinema africano, dell 'Asia e dell' America Latina, Milan, 25/03/2012.


Second Czech GLAM meeting; Current state of Czech GLAM; Serbian Conference; Czech Republic to join Wiki Loves Monuments

Read this report in English or Czech.

Second Czech GLAM meeting

Participants of the 2nd Czech GLAM meeting
Transport of the Probošt's mechanical Christmas crib to an alternative place, because the museum is under renovation

The 2nd Czech GLAM meeting took place in Prague, February 12, 2012. Nine Wikimedians attended; Aktron, Gampe, Juandev, Mormegil and Utar were attending personally, other four were online and several other people came at least for a while via EtherPad (in Czech), which we used to write group notes.

Invitations for this meeting were sent to the Czech Village Pump, the mailing list of the Czech GLAM, the IRC channel and also to the Facebook GLAM page. Within 5 hours we discussed problems of copyright and licenses (presented by Mormegil), the current state of our project, and its future grow and ways of promotion.

Current state of the Czech GLAM

We are trying to begin cooperation with various Czech cultural institutions, but the negotiations have not been finished yet. Their result is uncertain, because there seems to be a lack of motivation in the institutions.

Two projects have already been started. One of them is cooperation with a small regional Museum of Christmas Cribs (in Czech) in Třebechovice pod Orebem. The English Wikipedia article Probošt's mechanical Christmas crib was featured on the English Wikipedia Main Page in the Did You Know? section on the 31 January 2012 and had almost 5000 views on that day. The work on the articles connected with the topic of the project continues. The results are going to be shown to the founder of the museum, and we hope that the museum will subsequently release some of their photographs under a free license. The project is led by Gampe.

Another running project, which had already started before the Czech GLAM was founded, is cooperation with the National Technical Library in Prague. Danny B. is negotiating the release and possibilities of utilisation of their Polythematic Structured Subject Heading System. He and Mormegil hope to make software, which would enable interconnecting this system with Wikipedia articles. The software would be universal and could be also used with other cultural institutions. No more information is available at the moment.

We also hope to start cooperation with several other institutions, such as with the Silesian Museum (in Czech) in Opava (negotiations led by Podzemnik, sometimes helped by Gampe), with the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (in Czech) (Chmee2 negotiates releasing their photographs of protected natural areas), with the National Museum of Agriculture (in Czech) in Prague (Juandev negotiates releasing the museum encyclopedia and digitization of their photographic archives), and with Junák – Association of Scouts and Guides of the Czech Republic (Frettie negotiates releasing their photographs and texts). Other negotiations are still in the state of preparation or have been dropped.

Conclusion

Participants agreed that it is important to write reports and to promote the project in various ways. All of them have taken some task to do. Czech Glam members are interested in keeping in touch with cultural institutions and will try doing so.

All participants evaluated the meeting positively. The next one will be held within 3 months. All interested people are invited to our Czech GLAM (in Czech) pages and to join our Facebook group.

In conclusion we would like to thank Jirka O., who provided the place for meeting, Mormegil for his time and patience, Utar for catering and to all the participants who contributed with some information or came to have a look. We are glad the Czech Wikipedians seem interested in the Czech GLAM projects.

Open Wiki GLAM of Serbia Conference

Participants of the discussion on the GLAM cooperation at the Serbian conference

Aktron took part in the Serbian GLAM conference, held in Belgrade between 24 and 25 February 2012. He presented here information about the Czech GLAM in the Serbian language (see the online presentation in English) and also took part in most of the conference events. He met not only Serbians Wikimedians and cultural institution employees, but also Wikimedians from France and India, thanks to which he could bring back a lot of valuable knowledge and important experience and present it to Czech GLAM members. We thank him for his report.

Czech GLAM is going to join Wiki Loves Monuments

Wikimedians Limojoe and Aktron have informed the Czech GLAM group about the possibility to cooperate with the international project Wiki Loves Monuments, which is related to the goals of GLAM.

2. pracovní setkání českého GLAMu

Účastníci druhého setkání českého GLAMu
Převoz Třebechovického betléma do náhradních prostor

Druhé pracovní setkání českého GLAMu se konalo v Praze v neděli 12. února 2012 v dopoledních hodinách. Setkání se zúčastnilo aktivně celkem 9 Wikimedianů (5 prezenčně (v abecedním pořadí): Aktron, Gampe, Juandev, Mormegil, Utar, 4 online); řada dalších lidí se přišla podívat, protože se vedl živý zápis prostřednictvím EtherPadu. Na akci bylo upozorněno na Wikipedii, v mailinglistu českého GLAMu, na IRC a Facebooku. Za necelých 5 hodin jsme se seznámili s aktuálním stavem jednání jednotlivých účastníků, prodiskutovali problematiku autorských práv a licencí (přednášející Mormegil) a věnovali se i otázce propagace a rozvoje iniciativy.

Aktuální stav českého GLAMu

Co se týče stavu spolupráce s českými kulturním institucemi, tak většina projektů je v jednání, některé projekty jsou pak nejistého výsledku, protože v institucích není dostatek motivace se takových projektů účastnit. Z běžících projektů se jedná o spolupráci s malým regionálním muzeem: Třebechovické muzeum betlémů (TBM). Zde Wikipedisté ve spolupráci s pracovníky muzea vytvořili několik článků o betlému a regionu na české a cizích Wikipediích. Článek Probošt's mechanical Christmas crib (česky: Třebechovický betlém) se pak dostal na Hlavní stranu anglické Wikipedie a přesáhl 5000 návštěv. Editace hesel bude pokračovat. V následujících týdnech je v plánu ukázat zřizovateli TBM výsledky a pokusit se je obměkčit k uvolnění fotografií. Vede Gampe.

Druhým již jedoucím projektem, který vlastně vznikl před vznikem české GLAM skupiny je spolupráce s Národní technickou knihovnou (NTK). Zde jedná Danny B. o využití/uvolnění polytematického strukturovaného hesláře. Ve spolupráci s Mormegilem snad bude programovat software, který by měl umožnit propojení. Software by měl být univerzální, aby se dal použít i u jiných kulturních institucí. Bližší informace nemáme.

Dalšími slibnými projekty jsou jednání se Slezským zemským muzeem v Opavě (vede Podzemnik, příležitostně pomáhá Gampe), s Agenturou ochrany přírody a krajiny ČR (vede Chmee2, uvolnění fotek chráněných území), s Národním zemědělským muzeem (vede Juandev, uvolnění encyklopedie muzea, digitalizace fotoarchivu), jednání s Junákem (vede Frettie, fotografie, texty). Ostatní jednání se připravují, nebo usnula na vavřínech.

Závěr

Účastníci se shodli, že je důležité psát reporty a projekt všemožně propagovat. V této souvislosti si každý vzal nějaký úkol. Je zde zájem se více poznat s kulturními institucemi, proto budou činěny kroky, aby k tomu došlo.

Všichni druhé setkání hodnotili jako přínosné, další proběhne do 3 měsíců. Zveme všechny zájemce na stránky GLAMu a na Facebook.

Závěrem nutno ještě poděkovat Jirkovi O., který nám poskytl místo pro setkání, Mormegilovi za jeho čas a trpělivost, Utarovi za občerstvení a všem účastníkům, kteří přispěli informací i těm, kteří se přišli byť jen ze zvědavosti podívat. Jsme rádi, že je o český GLAM zájem.

Konference Open Wiki GLAM of Serbia

Diskuze na téma GLAM spolupráce na Srbské konferenci

Ve dnech 24.–25. února 2012 se Aktron zúčastnil srbské GLAM konference v Bělehradu. Jako oficiální zástupce české GLAM skupiny prezentoval český GLAM (anglicky) v srbštině a zúčastnil se většiny akcí konference, ze kterých přivezl pro český GLAM cenné informace a zkušenosti, nejenom srbských Wikimedianů a pracovníků kulturních institucí, ale i Wikimedianů z Francie či Indie. Za report a zápis děkujeme!

Český GLAM se zapojí do projektu Wiki Loves Monuments

Wikimediané Limojoe a Aktron informují českou GLAM skupinu, že se také zapojíme do mezinárodního projektu Wiki Loves Monuments (anglicky), který s GLAMem souvisí.

The Teylers Challenge

Writing Contest: The Teylers Challenge

Second hall of fossils
Teylers rotunda
Pieter Teyler's own pewter ink stand has been used traditionally by society members to keep accounts and write down the society meeting decisions.

In 1778, the Teylers Museum was founded as a society whose goal was to create a local centre for contemporary art and science in Haarlem. They collected knowledge in the form of books, minerals, fossils, instruments, paintings and other art, and much more to inform students and the general public on these matters, but also to interact with them during society meetings. In 2001, Wikipedia was founded and started to collect information in the form of articles and files to form an on-line encyclopaedia, also with the intent to inform the public and to present this information to everyone. Both organizations share the same values, and complement each others goals. In 2012 both organizations started a collaboration to work to inform the public more (and perhaps better) on various topics.

The Teylers Museum was nominated by the Dutch Cabinet on 12 December 2011 for UNESCO world heritage listing, based on its long history as a public knowledge institute and its continued efforts to preserve public access to its collections. With its 10th anniversary, Wikipedia Germany set up a petition to get the German Wikipedia recognized as the first digital World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Now, the Teylers writing challenge seeks to unify tangible heritage with intangible world heritage.

Start up

After the presentation and tour in the museum, the writing contest started. Whilst the Teylers Museum is situated on the Spaarne river in the Netherlands, anyone on any Wikipedia in any language can participate in this international contest. At this moment, 25 users have signed up to participate in this contest and have already written, or translated, articles in 9 languages. The curators have received several requests for more information and Teylers has uploaded many pictures regarding subjects in their museum. Articles have been written about the historical parts of the museum, which are themselves registered as heritage sites like the Teylers Oval Room and the Teylers astronomical observatory; about masterpieces like The Birds of America and the Encyclopédie; and about people with relationships to the Museum like the artist Cornelis Springer or the scientist Jacobus Barnaart. So far, most of the new articles are biographies, though as the Teylers has a lot of rare first edition books, 18th and 19th century fossils and other natural artefacts (that cost a fortune in their day), many original prints and drawings from the renaissance, as well as artist notebooks, there is much more to do. Almost everything in the collection was purchased for educational purposes, and the museum is a valuable source for teaching materials through the centuries.

Continuing

This challenge is not the first international "Teylers writing challenge." The Teylers first and second societies have continuously had writing contests running and still do today! These are the questions open today for which you can win a real prize medal and scholarship funding:

  • Since 2011, an open question by the First Society: An investigation is requested into the formation and/or the change in the Dutch perception of Islam during the years 1990 to 2010. Submissions before May 1, 2014.
  • Since 2010, an open question by the Second Society: - A critical study is requested of the importance of epigenetics in understanding genetic variation, ecology and evolution. Submit before 1 January 2013.

The Wikipedia contest runs until May 2012 and there are prizes to be won, courtesy of the Teyler's Museum. Until the contest closes, people can still join and participate in any language they like. The curators are happy to answer questions, provide information and images. So ask Teylers! What would you like to know for your articles and what images are missing and you would like to add to the articles? Let us know!

The ideals of Pieter Teyler in the 18th century match the ideals of Wikipedia today. Let's take up the challenge and enrich Wikipedia on the fields of art and science, and share this information with the world.

For participation and more information, see: w:en:Wikipedia:GLAM/Teylers/Multilingual Challenge.

  • The Library
    The Library
  • Teylers astronomical observatory
    Teylers astronomical observatory
  • Paintings Gallery I (1838)
    Paintings Gallery I (1838)
  • Instrument hall
    Instrument hall

Partly based on Teylers Museum.

Australian GLAM efforts: Sports, Libraries and other cultural institutions

By Wikimedia Australia members, New Zealand Wikimedians and LauraHale

History of the Paralympic Movement in Australia

a headshot of a man
The featured picture of Jeremy Doyle
In February, a global Australian geonotice project was put up for Wikimedians to the Games to support this important outreach effort. Wikimedians to the Games was also discussed at the public chapter meeting for Wikimedia Australia. A Facebook fanpage was created by a member of Wikimedia Australia to help support Wikimedians to the Games.

In January, a photograph of Jeremy Doyle was nominated for and became a featured picture on English Wikipedia. The image was nominated by Chris Woodrich from Indonesia. The image had appeared in the Did You Know about Jeremy Doyle that appeared on the front page of Wikipedia 3 January. It was the first Australian Paralympic Committee donated picture to gain featured status on English Wikipedia.

On English Wikipedia, Graham87 continued to work on improving articles related to Australian Paralympians. His work is very much appreciated. Aussiesportlibrarian also continued to do work improving Australian Paralympic articles. Between Graham87 and Aussiesportlibrarian, substantial contributions were made to such articles as Greg Smith, Judith Young‎‎, Angie Ballard‎‎, Danae Sweetapple‎, Damien Burroughs‎‎, Brendan Burkett‎‎, Anton Flavel‎‎, Hamish MacDonald, Helena Brunner‎, Joanne Bradshaw‎, and Eric Boulter‎‎. In addition, Aussiesportslibrarian created an article about the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games, an event attended by many early Australian Paralympians. Graham followed up on the Australian Paralympian work that LauraHale had done on Simple Wikipedia. He improved several articles including Joanne Bradshaw, Fabian Blattman, Robert Biancucci, Kieran Ault-Connell and Adrian Lowe.

For the first time in around two months, some one has nominated an Australian Paralympian as a Did You Know... The article nominated was Alison Quinn and was nominated by new contributor, Irenah. The nomination included a picture.

GLAM and Australian sport

LauraHale had an opportunity to meet with several people at the Australian Institute of Sport on 11 February and discuss her work with the Australian Paralympic Committee and on Canberra Capitals related content. Topics which were discussed with several different people included spoken word articles, notability issues, the importance of image donations, and how being involved with Wikimedia Australia and GLAM and contributing to WMF projects can help with institutional goals regarding government openness and transparency. On 17 February, she had another opportunity to visit the Australian Institute of Sport and meet with people to discuss work done with the Paralympics, and GLAM related conversations she has had with and about the Canberra Capitals. She also had an opportunity to meet with one of the water polo people based at the Australian Institute of Sport and discuss the possibility of getting access to the Australia women's national water polo team during their training camp in order to get pictures for articles. People involved with the team at the Australian Institute of Sport had heard about the work LauraHale had done with HOPAU, which helped with the conversation. The team gave permission for LauraHale to bring a photographer to the team's test match, and made every player available for a profile picture for a page about them. These pictures were then uploaded to Commons and included on articles about the individual players. This was a first for English Wikipedia, with a Wikipedian being treated like a member of the media and being given permission to take photographs to be released under a creative commons license with the knowledge that the pictures would be used on Wikipedia articles. This work is being done with the goal of developing a more in depth GLAM partnership with the National Sport Information Centre that will cover all sports.

LauraHale met with Aussiesportlibrarian, who has actually worked as a librarian at the National Sport Information Centre at the Australian Institute of Sport. He is currently writing a book about the history of the Institute. They met at the University of Canberra for about 20 minutes and discussed issues involving how sport fits into the GLAM framework, HOPAU work, how historical research and interesting personal stories can be incorporated into other Wikimedia Foundation projects, Wikipedia's general notability guidelines and Wikipedia's category structure. The information shared will be passed on to others inside his organisation to help facilitate understanding of how to use projects appropriately.

outside of building
Belconnen Basketball Centre, training centre for the Canberra Capitals
In late January and early February, LauraHale met with people connected to the Canberra Capitals to discuss the improvement of Canberra Capitals articles, the possibility of getting spoken word articles done by current and former players, how articles about players from the 2011/2012 were all mentioned on the front page of Wikipedia in the Did You Know section, and the photographing done by two attendees at January's RecentChangesCamp. Image donations and source materials were requested and there are plans to follow up with these talks after the WNBL season ends.

Australian Cycling Tourism Conference

At the 5th annual Australian Cycling Tourism Conference, Laura Hale and Keith Lyons mentioned Australian GLAM efforts in the context of sports, some of the activities that have been done, and why sporting organisations should consider engaging with Wikimedia projects. This included GLAM activities related to the History of the Paralympic Movement in Australia project and discussions that have taken place with other sporting organisations in Canberra.

WikiWomenCamp

Australia's major female GLAM person, LauraHale, has been heavily involved with helping to plan WikiWomenCamp and Wikigénero. In preparation for the conference, there has been a major push between Australia's representative and two women on the board of Wikimedia Indonesia who have been involved with Indonesian GLAM efforts, all three of whom are helping to organise the conference, to document the history of women in their countries on WMF projects and involved in high level Wikimedia related activities like GLAM on the perspectives page. They have also been encouraging other women to document the history of women and WMF on their respective national pages. They have been asking GLAM participants to help contribute to these articles to inform others about how women are involved or not involved in national GLAM efforts. This has begun to be documented in the articles about Australia, France, India, the Netherlands and the United States. There may be a separate perspective page created specifically for GLAM to cover women's involvement around the globe.

The perspective pages will be edited, formatted and published in a book to be distributed at WikiWomenCamp. Free copies will be provided to participants who either substantially contributed to their country's perspective page or where another person from their country substantially contributed to the article. For countries where substantial contributions have been made to the article but no one is attending, a copy of the book will be sent via post. Closing for contributions to be included in the book will be 15 April.


State Library of Queensland

woman
An image related to women's suffrage donated by the State Library of Queensland. Margaret Ogg, pioneering campaigner for women's rights : [suffragette movement in Queensland] Margaret Ogg in later life, photographed in her garden . In 2005, we are celebrating the centenary of women's suffrage in Queensland. On 5 January 1905, two years after the formation of the Queensland Women's Electoral League, the Electoral Franchise Bill was introduced into the Legislative Assembly to give the women of Queensland the right to vote. The Elections Acts Amendment Bill, provide the necessary machinery, was introduced at the same time. Despite some misgivings about abolishing the plural vote, and difficulty with postal voting, these issues were overcome and the legislation giving the women of Queensland the right to vote was finally passed. It was assented to by the Lieutenant-Governor on 26 January 1905.
man and woman walking
An image donated by the State Library of Queensland. Queensland's Governor says good-bye to Queen Elizabeth II after her visit in March 1954 Sir John Lavarack, Governor of Queensland, says good-bye to The Queen on Thursday 18 March 1954, and escorts her to the Royal Aeroplane at Eagle Farm Airport at the end of her Queensland journey.

Images continued to be upload from the State Library of Queensland collection during February. All images related to royal tours in Australia were shared and categorised in Royal visits to Australia. Other images donated in February included ones relevant to the suffrage movement.

Australian War Memorial

On 23 February 2012, Wikimedia Australia's vice president and HOPAU Wikipedian in Residence LauraHale and English Wikipedia MilHist coordinator Hawkeye7 met with Liz Holcombe, Marylou Pooley and other members of the Australian War Memorial's online group to discuss how Wikimedia Australia and the greater Wikipedia community could help the Australian War Memorial meets its institutional objectives of assisting "Australians to remember, interpret and understand the Australian experience of war and its enduring impact on Australian society."[2] LauraHale and Hawkeye7 mentioned the quality of work being done on the MilHist project and the credibility English Wikipedia has with Australian military historians, the assessment project in MilHist, the number of Australian MilHist coordinators, the community of avid contributors that exists in Canberra which can be tapped by the War Memorial, the number of Australian photographers that would be interested in doing projects related to the War Memorial's mission, and efforts to improve content in commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign and World War I. In turn, the Australian War Memorial discussed with LauraHale and Hawkeye7 possible programming ideas. This included the possibility of Australian War Memorial staff training and a possible event for Commons photographers. There are plans to follow this up with additional conversations later in March.

National Museum of Australia

Australian Wikimedian, and former Wikimedia Foundation "cultural partnerships fellow" Liam Wyatt (Wittylama) will be undertaking the six-month role of "2012 Directors Fellowship" at the National Museum of Australia. He will develop a comprehensive "Wikimedia strategy" for the organisation which includes staff training, executive briefing, situation report (e.g. what other museums are doing, and how their content is already being used) and a three year plan. Projects are likely to be coordinated around two forthcoming major exhibitions at the museum on the themes of Aboriginal bark painting and the science and practice of Conservation-restoration. A two-day staff training took place in mid-February with the assistance of Whiteghost.ink and on-staff Wikipedian Shamto. The "Situation Report" of the current relationship between Wikimedia and the NMA is now available on Commons and via Liam's blog.

Liam also now has a role with the Australian Research Council funded "Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation" which is also the office of Creative Commons Australia (and sponsored the first ever GLAM-WIKI conference in 2009). Liam will be assisting Australian cultural organisations to place more of their content online using Creative Commons (especially under cc-0 and cc-by). Hopefully, this will generate many new sources of content that can be used within within Wikimedia projects and increase the amount of freely-licensed Australian cultural heritage available to the world. The first priority project of this role is with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and will be launched in mid March.



GLAM:NLI Project Report, New GLAM-IL Collaborations, GLAM-IL Mailing List

GLAM:NLI Project

The past two months have been hectic and the National Library of Israel GLAM project has progressed quite a bit.
First, we finally have a project page in English, so the international community is invited to explore it and take part.
In this project, the National Library is sharing its resources and donating media, focusing on its portrait collection, manuscripts collection and map collection.

So far, about fifty rare photos from the portrait collection have been donated to commons and are being used to enrich existing articles as well as inspire the writing of new articles related to them.

Below is a brief report of the two events held at the National Library this February.

An Editing Workshop for the NLI Staff

Wikimedians with NLI staff at the editing workshop.

On January 7th, about 25 staff members at the NLI participated in an editing workshop. The day began with a lecture by our Wikipedian in Residence, Daniel-Tzvi Framowitz, who introduced the basic rules of editing in wikipedia, using a visual demonstration.

The audience, though a bit sceptical at the beginning, soon became captivated and engaged. By the end of the lecture there was a lively dialogue between staff members our WIR - many questions [and concerns] were raised and answered. The lecture finally ended on a positive note, leaving the NLI staff with a new perspective on Wikipedia.

We reconvened for the second part of the workshop, a practical editing session, after a short break.
Each Staff member opened a wiki account and took his first steps in editing articles, guided by an experienced wikipedian.
We were very lucky to have about 8 editors from the community, so it was almost one-on-one tutoring.

It was amazing to witness NLI staff realizing how much they can contribute to wikipedia and making decisions on future articles they would like to write or edit. This is exactly what we wanted - bringing the curators and experts in their field to edit themselves.

And a personal anecdote to wrap this part with:

“ Serendipitously enough, while walking through the NLI staff asking who needs help, I came across a lady sitting next to us. Hearing my question, she raised her head, gazed at me with her big green eyes and asked, "What are you teaching here?" She turned out to be *not* NLI staff, of course, but a well-published university professor, who specializes in Israeli History. She joined the workshop and got a private lesson in editing, which she highly appreciated; it so happens that not only there is a wiki article about her that she has been wanting to updated for a long time and didn't know how to, but she uses wikipedia for research all the time and will now finally be able to correct all sorts of mistakes she finds along the way. After exchaning emails, she asked that I update her on coming events and even promised to send us a photo to add to her article! ”

That was the icing on the cake for me and the perfect closure to a successful workshop.


A "Behind the Scenes" Tour at the National Library

On February 8th, a day after the editing workshop, participants from all over Israel arrived at the National Library for a "Behind the Scene" tour.

This time we did something new - we have extended the invitation not only to Wikipedians. We included -

  • people from related fields, mainly librarians and volunteers of open-content projects [mostly the Ben-Yehuda project]
  • people from the public, who might be interested in wikipedia, the Library or both [via a short "site notice" message that appeared on the pages of Hebrew wikipedia a few days prior to the event].

Around 70 people signed in - 25 wikipedians, 30 from related fields and 20 from the general public.
60 actually came to the Library, which is great [although we believe more would have come, if it wasn't for a general strike in Israel that affected transportation that day].

A group photo at the National Library hall.

The evening began at the Library music hall, were participants were personally greeted by Oren Weinberg, Director General of the National Library, Ido Ivri, Digital Programs Manager and the GLAM:NLI contact person, Galia Richler from the cartographic collection [who helped arrange the tour], our WIR and yours truly.

  • Greetings at the Music hall
    Greetings at the Music hall
  • Greetings at the Music hall
    Greetings at the Music hall

We then began the tour at the Library, which included 4 stops - for the first 3 stops we were divided into 2 groups that did the same route in the opposite direction and were re-united agian at the 4th stop.

1st stop - the Restoration & Preservation department, with Mrs. Timna Elper

We witnessed various restoration and preservation techniques the library is using and have come in contact with rare books that have been damaged and restored.

  • Mrs. Elper lectures, near the restoration lab
    Mrs. Elper lectures, near the restoration lab
  • the Frankfurt Jewish community Pinkas haKehila that has been recently acquired and awaits preservation
    the Frankfurt Jewish community Pinkas haKehila that has been recently acquired and awaits preservation
  • a rare manuscript from the w:Cairo Geniza awaiting preservation
    a rare manuscript from the w:Cairo Geniza awaiting preservation
2nd stop - the Storage & Logistics department, with Mr. Moshe Kener & Oren Weinberg

After learning about restoration and preservation, we moved to the storage rooms, which are never* opened to anyone (not even VIPs).
One group received an explanation about the storage rooms.

  • Oren Weinberg explains about the storage rooms
    Oren Weinberg explains about the storage rooms
  • Moshe Kener explains about working at the storage rooms
    Moshe Kener explains about working at the storage rooms
  • Moshe Kener explains about working at the storage rooms
    Moshe Kener explains about working at the storage rooms
3rd stop - the Israel Collection, with its curator, Dr. Hezi Amiur

Back at the Music hall, we have met with Dr. Hezi Amiur, who explain about the library's special collections, specifically the manuscripts collection and the ephemera collection.

  • Dr. Amiur lectures about the library's collections
    Dr. Amiur lectures about the library's collections
  • Examples from the Ephemera collection
    Examples from the Ephemera collection
  • an example from the personal archive of w:Uri Zvi Grinberg.
    an example from the personal archive of w:Uri Zvi Grinberg.
  • ], along side the final book
    ], along side the final book
4th stop - the Cartographic Collection, with Mrs. Galia Richler

Learning about the library's collections, we ended the tour that the Laor's Cartographic collection, which included books with maps along side old, rare maps.

  • Galia reveals old maps and scriptures
    Galia reveals old maps and scriptures
  • Galia reveals old maps and scriptures
    Galia reveals old maps and scriptures
  • Galia shows off the w:Tabula Peutingeriana
    Galia shows off the w:Tabula Peutingeriana
  • Galia reveals old maps and scriptures
    Galia reveals old maps and scriptures

The tour, which began at 17:30, finally ended at 20:30 with a group photo. All participants felt educated and inspired by the library's sources and almost all participants expressed their wish to continue their involvement with the project.

Newcomers from the general public were invited to the Edit-a-thon that will be help at the library on March 21st, in order to learn how to edit in Wikipedia.

New GLAM-IL Collaborations

In the past month we got a "green light" for three new collaborations with major GLAMs in Israel -

We are ecstatic and grateful, but mostly very excited about the overwhelming potential each and every project holds. Of course, now the hard work begins. We will be carefully defining the scope of each project during March, in order to make sure we can have a successful collaboration, so keep your fingers crossed for us & stay tuned!


GLAM-IL Mailing List

To help us better manage the growing GLAM activity in Israel, we have created a new GLAM-IL mailing list! The list will serve as a tool to

  • get updates on the progress of the various GLAM projects
  • get updates on GLAM-related events
  • keep in touch, especially with newcomers
  • share experiences, thoughts and ideas on improving GLAM in Israel
  • facilitate a strong and supportive community for Wiki/Art lovers in Israel.

The list will be opened to wikipedians, GLAMers, GLAMs and newcomers from the public, and will officially be announced to the Hebrew Wiki community at the beginning of March.


Wikimedia Kenya and New Institutions Contributing to African Knowledge on Wikipedia

Wikimedia Kenya

Wikimedia Kenya has officially started its activities.

Potential GLAMs - Still in Talks
  • Nairobi Railway Museum willing to collaborate with Wikimedia Kenya to have their content on Wikipedia.
  • Kenya National Archives

African GLAMs: Cultural Institutions Contributing to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Projects with African Contents

  • NEW The Archival Platform http://www.archivalplatform.org
  • M-Net African Film Library http://www.africanfilmlibrary.com
  • Out in Africa Film Festival http://www.oia.co.za
  • Encounters Documentary Film Festival http://www.encounters.co.za
  • Africa Centre is a cultural platform based in Cape Town supporting and producing cultural projects and initiatives. In 2011 the Africa Centre adopted the CC BY-SA on its online documentation and in November launched a call for a Wikipedian in Residence in charge of contributing to WikiAfrica and coordinating more GLAM outreach in Africa.
  • doual'art: a cultural non profit organization focussed on contemporary art and urban research in Doula. Since 1991 doual'art produces public art and collects documentation about its city. doual'art provides all of its online documentation in CC BY-SA: project descriptions, artworks descriptions, biographies of artists and experts.
  • Chimurenga is based in Cape Town. The Chimurenga Library is a repertoire of magazines which influenced writing and thinking in Africa; the website is in CC BY-SA.
  • Kër Thiossane, an art centre, residency space and training facility based in Dakar. The centre provided training to intellectuals, artists and authors in Dakar on how to contribute to Wikipedia and wiki websites.
GLAMs related to Africa based outside Africa

Wikimedia chapters supporting the collaborations with institutions with African contents

  • NEW Wikimedia Kenya
  • Викимедија Србије (Wikimedia Serbia)
  • Wikimedia CH
  • Wikimedia España
  • Wikimedia Italia

News in brief

  • Share Your Knowledge press conference: Press conference to present new cultural institutions involved in Share Your Knowledge and WikiAfrica, within the Festival di cinema africano, dell'Asia e dell'America Latina, Milan, 25/03/2012.


GLAM in Russia: RIA Novosti / GLAM в России: РИА Новости

Read this report in English or Russian.
Recruits leaving for the front during mobilization, Moscow. The inscription reads: "Our cause is just, the enemy will be defeated, the victory will be ours". The photo was uploaded by President of Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev
more photos from the partnership >>
«Мобилизация. Колонны бойцов движутся на фронт», Москва. Фотография была загружена Президентом Российской Федерации Дмитрием Анатольевичем Медведевым.
другие фотографии, загруженные в рамках партнёрства >>

Celebrating their 70th anniversary, news agency RIA Novosti, along with the Russian chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, have started the 'Eternal Values' project in June 2011. This project includes the release of images from RIA's archive to the public under free licenses.

During the first phase, one hundred World War II-time photos were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons share alike license. The project is supported by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who uploaded one of the images to Wikimedia Commons himself. Medvedev participated in the anniversary ceremony and personally congratulated the agency; earlier Medvedev supported Wikimedia Russia's position on the need for changes in Russian legislation in order to make free licenses perfectly legal and to allow freedom of panorama in the country.

This event is part of Wikimedia Russia's goal to "share knowledge, eliminate the digital divide and increase the availability of historical and cultural value for society". Due to similar projects in other countries, German Bundesarchiv released 100,000 historic images under a free license and Queensland State Library released 50,000 images.

Currently, the project has uploaded 1280 archival photos, including 100 photos from 1980 Summer Olympics, 106 about Komsomol, 100 images of Nuclear industry, 54 images about Battle for Moscow, 29 images of collapse of the USSR's times, 53 images of EMERCOM, 60 images about Energy industry, 89 images about State Security, 15 images of relative modern Christmas, 15 images of Gorbachev's family, 12 Korolyov's photos, 7 images of Luna 1, 67 images about print (the process and the result), 27 photos of Russian prosecutors, 36 images about the End of Cold War, 41 photos about Day of military honour, 9 images from Lenin library, 7 images about Holocaust, 35 images about End of Siege of Leningrad and it's celebrating, 19 images about celebratiog of students' day, 8 images about Engineering force, 54 photos of President of the Republic of Tatarstan Shaimiev, 30 images of celebrating of Epiphany, 42 images of civil aviation, 44 photos of international warriors, 23 photos about 1960 U-2 incident, 11 photos of whales, 15 diplomat's photos, 16 images related to great Russian poet Pushkin and 21 images about Russian science.

В июне 2011 года в рамках празднования 70-летия со дня основания одного из крупнейших информационных агентств России, Российского агентства международной информации «РИА Новости», был запущен совместный с Некоммерческим партнёрством «Викимедиа РУ» проект «Вечные ценности». Проект заключается в передаче наиболее интересных разделов архивов РИА «Новости» в общественное пользование с целью распространения знаний, устранения информационного неравенства и повышения доступности исторических и культурных ценностей для общества.

В рамках первого транша на «Викисклад», хранилище свободных медиафайлов проектов Фонда Викимедиа, было загружено под свободной лицензией Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 сто фотографий времён Великой Отечественной войны. В загрузке файлов принял личное участие приехавший поздравить агентство Президент Российской Федерации Дмитрий Медведев, ранее поддержавший позицию НП «Викимедиа РУ» о необходимости внесения в Гражданский кодекс Российской Федерации изменений, которые явно позволили бы использование свободных лицензий Creative Commons и GNU на территории страны, а также снятие ограничений, связанных с отсутствием в России «свободы панорамы». Президент Российской Федерации лично загрузил одно из изображений на Викисклад.

Организация подобного сотрудничества входит в цели некоммерческого партнёрства содействия распространению энциклопедических знаний «Викимедиа РУ». В рамках аналогичного сотрудничества в других странах в общественное культурное достояние перешли 100 000 изображений из Государственного архива Германии и 50 000 изображений из архивов Государственной библиотеки Квинсленда.

На данный момент в рамках проекта загружено 1280 фотографий, включая 100 фотографий с Олимпийских игр 1980 года, 106 фотографий из жизни Комсомола, 100 снимков об ядерной промышленности, 54 фотографии о Битве под Москвой, 29 снимков времён развала СССР, 53 снимка МЧС, 60 фотографий об энергетике, 89 снимков на тему госбезопасности, 15 относительно современных фотографий празднования Рождества, 15 изображений семьи Горбачёвых, 12 фотографий Королёва, 7 снимков Луны 1, 67 снимков о процессе и результате печатания, 27 фотографий на следственную тематику, 36 фотографий времён конца Холодной войны, 41 фотографию о Дне воинской славы, 9 фотографий Ленинской библиотеки (РПБ), 7 фотографий, связанных с Холокостом, 35 фотографий о Прорыве блокады Ленинграда и его праздновании, 19 фотографий о Татьянином дне, 8 фотографий инженерных войск, 54 фотографии Президента республики Татарстан Шаймиева, 30 снимков о Крещении, 42 фотографии гражданской авиации, 44 снимка воинов-интернационалистов, 23 фотографии инцидента Пауэрса-Фишера, 11 фотографий китов, 15 изображений дипломатов, 16 фотографий, связанных с великим русским поэтом Александром Сергеевичем Пушкиным и 21 фотографию на тему русской науки.

Links / Ссылки


GLAM in Sweden; white paper started

White paper about GLAM:s and copyright

Work on the Swedish white paper on GLAM:s and copyright which started previously this year, have gone on steadily. The work have produced a long list of important questions about copyright and GLAM:s, including how orphan works should be dealt with, as well as some proposed shared views that can be used as a starting point for further collaborations.

The national digitization coordinators, DigiSam, have spoken favorably on this project, and will help spread it and make it the de facto standard on how the GLAM sector handle copyright in the digital age.


GLAM-wiki launches the white paper work

On February 24th, Lennart Guldbrandsson along with representatives on many of the national GLAM:s had a three-hour session. The Royal Library, the National Heritage Board, the National Archive, and other major organisations were all there and participated in the very positive talks. Lennart presented the white paper, and encouraged all of them to add their thoughts and experiences to the wiki page. The discussions also produced a number of strategies for further projects, including a more prominent Public Domain Day in Sweden. Another meeting is scheduled for sometime in the next two months.

Again, DigiSam have been very supportive and blogged about the meeting.


Wikipedian-in-Residence at Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen

The Danish National Museum has officially announced its intention to hire a Wikipedian-in-Residence, probably starting late March or early April, and lasting for a couple of months half-time.



Collaboration with Crafts Museum

Crafts Museum, New Delhi: India's first GLAM collaboration!

After six months of writing painful emails, trying all phone numbers available and bugging officials of high and low rank, we at the India chapter found a supportive voice at the National Handicrafts and handlooms museum in New Delhi, the capital of India. Dr. Ruchira Ghose, the director general of the museum who is enthusiastic about technology herself and more importantly open to innovation in cultural spaces invited us over for rounds of meetings. It was a new experience for all of us, explaining Wikipedia and how it works only on volunteer support. In the coming months we plan to organize it as a 6 month pilot project and locate articles of interest, both to Wikimedians and the museum to make it fruitful. Currently, we are in the process of capacity building and signing an MoU regarding usage of museum objects. We hope to keep you updated on this every month and would love your suggestions on the same!


Wiki Loves Monuments: worldwide in 2012

The beginning: 2010

Canal house in Amsterdam

Wiki Loves Monuments was organized for the first time in the Netherlands in September 2010. It is the successor to Wiki Loves Art in the Netherlands organized in 2009. With Wiki Loves Monuments in 2010, participants were encouraged to photograph some of the more than 50,000 national monuments (so-called "Rijksmonumenten") throughout the Netherlands as part of a photo competition. These are buildings or objects of general importance because of their beauty, importance to science, or cultural history – like archaeological sites in Drenthe, the canal houses in Amsterdam, and the Royal Palace in The Hague. To do this we contacted the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE), a Dutch heritage organisation working for the protection and conservation of National Heritage Sites, and signed an agreement in which the conditions were written down. Basically, we agreed that Wikipedia got information like location data of all these Rijksmonumenten, and the volunteers of Wikipedia would report errors as feedback to the RCE. With this geographical information it is easier to find the monuments and to photograph them.

In total 12,501 photographs were made of the national monuments in the Netherlands. It resulted in many monuments having pictures on Wikipedia shown in lists of monuments and in articles. There were three categories in which awards have been presented: a category for photos from Vlissingen (Flushing); a category for the contestants with the highest number of objects photographed and a category for the best photo over all, awarded by a jury. All prizes were announced at a prize ceremony in Utrecht on November 20, 2010. See the top-10 at Wiki Loves Monuments 2010 and the uploaded pictures at Images from Wiki Loves Monuments 2010.

Big success: Upscaling in 2011

Participating countries 2011

The photo competition of 2010 was very successful and we wanted to continue the contest in 2011. This time we up-scaled the project to a European level wherein 18 countries participated. This was mostly organized by the chapters in co-operation with users of Wikipedia, or by users of Wikipedia alone. In total 169.150 pictures of European monuments were uploaded. In each country winners were selected. The best 10 pictures of each country also participated in the European Contest.

See for the uploaded pictures: Images from Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 and for the winning pictures of each country: Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 winners.

2012: Wiki Loves Monuments worldwide

The preparations have already started in several countries. Forming a team of users to organize the contest in their country. Contacting the national agency concerning national monuments to receive information to create lists of monuments on Wikipedia. To build a website in each country. Getting sponsors and organizing prizes. Getting publicity in the media about the contest. Creating awareness on the local Wikipedia('s) in the particular country. And more...

For more information: see our project page at Commons:Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2012.

Do you want to help with organizing the contest in your country? Find other users and let us know.

BaGLAMa now with timelines; Linkypedia is back; AmalGLAMate; Xmas bug; Toolserver problems

Follow-up

In the January report, I tested a number of tools. I am glad to report now that some of the feature requests made on the way have already been responded to: BaGLAMa now includes a basic timeline feature, and a comparative visualization of its stats for any given two months is available (Open Access example), replacing the need to compile such materials manually. Furthermore, the code has been optimized on several ends, so that these computations now take less time, which provides the possibility to track more categories to watch out for. Thanks, Magnus!

  • BaGLAMa overview
    BaGLAMa overview
  • BaGLAMa category view
    BaGLAMa category view
  • BaGLAMa diff view
    BaGLAMa diff view

Linkypedia

Linkypedia overview

Linkypedia by Ed Summers tracks links from the English Wikipedia to a set of pre-defined external domains and provides summary stats. For instance, as of March 2, 2012, 486 pages in 1037 categories contained a total of 554 links to 273 resources under the domain http://www.mnh.si.edu/ , which was also linked from userspace pages of two users.

Having enjoyed considerable popularity in the past, the tool had to be retired in between due to lack of resources. It is currently being redesigned with scalability in mind. I would certainly like to see the possibility of including arbitrary domains, especially DOI prefixes or links to Open Access publishers or repositories. Further useful features would be the extension to other languages or projects and provisions for caching, so as to allow for timelines (but see AmalGLAMate section below). I noticed that WebCite was not able to generate any archival copies of Linkypedia, possibly due to the long response times that are in themselves probably due to the currently strained resources.

AmalGLAMate

AmalGLAMate overview

One of the issues that come up after uploading materials to Commons is whether and how they are actually being reused. AmalGLAMate (WebCite) provides some answers to such questions by exposing time series of usage data. The usage increases for basically all datasets in there, e.g. from 18% in January 2010 to 23% in February 2012 for images from the Federal Archive of Germany.

Feature requests:

  • It would be nice to be able to sync the tracked categories between AmalGLAMate and BaGLAMa.
  • Navigation is really cumbersome - perhaps add additional navigation bars or split into different pages, as at BaGLAMa.

The Xmas bug

The X-mas bug

I have had a look at the traffic stats for numerous articles relating to Open Access or scientific topics more generally but could not find any that did not show zero hits for Dec 24 and 25, and even pages like Christmas show the same pattern. Has this already been discussed somewhere? The bug also affected BaGLAMa (scroll down to bottom for pageviews on December 24 and 25).

In the meantime, the grok stats visualization of the traffic data was recently improved by Diederik van Liere through migration from jqplot to dygraphs, with some new features added: users can now toggle between displaying the daily numbers, and besides the stats for a given month, a floating window of 30, 60 or 90 days is available.

Toolserver problems

GLAMorous behaved strangely in February, typically displaying 0 visits for basically anything - e.g. arXiv, Paedophryne amauensis, Paedophryne swiftorum, Brookesia micra, Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Open Access File of the Day - even for resources that had received a total of tens of thousands of pagehits in December. Sometimes, the stats did not show a zero but multiples of 500 (example 1, example 2).

This ties in with a number of other problems with using toolserver tools in February - see Status, SUL, GLAMorous examples. For these reasons, detailed tests of further tools from the GLAM/Tools & Requests page were not performed but will hopefully resume in March.


Ten years "Open Access"; chameleons, bees, copyright

In February, the Wikimedian in Residence on Open Science project focused on improving the infrastructure for WikiProject Open Access. Tool testing continued, though on a lower scale.

  • A News section provides project updates. The February entries were:
Mexican waves performed by Asian Giant Honeybees drive hornets away from their nest.
A juvenile Brookesia micra on the head of a match.
A juvenile Brookesia micra on the head of a match.
'Paedophryne amauensis, the smallest known vertebrate.
'Paedophryne amauensis, the smallest known vertebrate.
  • The project now has 8 members (up from 5)
  • The project now has 144 assessed articles (up from 109):
A logo celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Budapest Open Access Initiative in 2012, featuring the Széchenyi Chain Bridge in Budapest.
Open access articles by quality and importance
Quality Importance
Top High Mid Low NA Total
B 5 7 2 2 16
C 12 6 7 4 29
Start 2 10 17 21 50
Stub 4 2 4 12 22
List 1 1
NA 2 24 26
Assessed 24 27 30 39 24 144
Total 24 27 30 39 24 144

Open Access File of the Day

The blogging series on the Open Access File of the Day ended on February 14 - the tenth anniversary of the Budapest Open Access Initiative. WikiProject Open Access now features the Open Access File of the Day of the current day and of the three preceding days on its main page, and the Open Access File of the Day can be embedded on user pages. The following files have been featured in February:


March's GLAM events

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In Sofia, Bulgaria, at least 5 Wikipedians will sign an agreement for collaboration with Bulgarian Archives State Agency.
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The meetup in Moscow, Russia, with the first planned talk about GLAM for Wikimedians
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"Edit-a-thon" at the National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel.
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Coventry History Edit-a-thon, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, UK
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