GLAM/Newsletter/February 2023/Contents/Italy report
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New project and collaboration in February
Wikimedia Italy and Soroptimist together to give space to women
On Wednesday, February 15, Wikimedia Italia and Soroptimist International of Italy, signed in Milan a protocol that brings the two associations together to spread free knowledge in Italy and document the work and achievements of women in various fields. Soroptimist International brings together women engaged in responsible roles in the world of work and promotes the advancement of the status of women, creating opportunities to enhance the potential of women. Through this collaboration, collaborative projects can be enriched with more information, data and stories about women. The collaboration stems from a project related to the Soroptimist Club of Florence: Soroptimist volunteers, in collaboration with Wikipedians and Wikipedians, have long been dedicated to writing entries of historical figures of women who have played an important role in Italian history and culture.
The Wikipedia project page here: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:Soroptimist
Wikitrip in Bellagio
A group of volunteers organized in cooperation with the city of Bellagio and Villa Melzi Museum, a day with edithaton, photowalk and disclosure session about Wikimedia project. The event had an overall positive overall: several entries about the area were created and improved in Wikipedia using sources made available by the library, items were added to Wikidata, assets not yet on Openstreetmap were traced and monuments were photographed to be uploaded (in September) for the Wiki Loves Monuments contest. For sure the event led to improved networking in the area, laying the groundwork for future collaborations.
New project promoted by volunteers 2023
Three new proposals supported by the first call for volunteer projects 2023 have been approved by Wikimedia Italia. The following are the projects, two of them related to GLAM:
- Accessibility of Roman law texts in Wikisource: the project involves a series of actions to revive in the Wikimedian community the issue of visual accessibility, identified as a fundamental watershed for consolidating the right to knowledge. It ideally fits in the wake of actions previously initiated by other volunteers, which will be surveyed, to give continuity and systematicity to the results achieved. The accessibility issues of Wikisource will be analyzed to facilitate the reading experience of people with absolute blindness or low vision who use speech synthesizers or report on Braille displays the text shown on the screen. Outreach initiatives targeting the library and publishing world on the one hand and the Wikimedian community on the other will be promoted.
- BikingImprover: a gamification-based mapathon tool for urban cycling: the objective of the project is to consolidate the BikingImprover web application (webapp), currently developed at the proof-of-concept level, to provide an effective and alternative tool, based on a gamification approach, for organizing mapathon events focused on the theme of urban cycling, suitable for collecting data such as dedicated cycling lanes and cycling-related points of interest (drinking water sources, etc.).
- Wikipedia for the enhancement of archaeological heritage: it is intended to implement or improve the Wikipedia pages of several controlled-access archaeological areas of the ABAP Superintendency of Verona, Rovigo and Vicenza, and performing, after a few months, the verification of access data to see if an increase in visitors can be found. To this end, guided tours of the areas and 2 edithatons will be organized, one in Verona and one in Vicenza, involving about 15 participants each time. A number of site visits will also be organized, to carry out photographic campaigns.