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< GLAM | Newsletter | September 2012


Results of the This Month in GLAM survey (part 2)

Continuing on from last month's report, I will be analysing further results from the July 2012 This Month in GLAM survey. Click the graph thumbnails to see them larger.

Reading

How do you read This Month in GLAM?

Displaying the headlines of articles on the front page of each issue was proposed at GLAMcamp Amsterdam as a good way to browse articles. Looking at the chart on the right, one can see that this was a great suggestion; around 60% of people read articles based on their headlines. Another 10% read about GLAM activities in specific countries.

Readers' suggestions for improving the look and feel of the newsletter are welcomed; get in touch either by leaving a comment below or by email.


What do you think of the general quality of articles in the newsletter?

This question was designed to show to the members of the GLAM community what readers think of their writing. As the graph shows, opinion is largely positive (1 was highest). It would perhaps have been productive to add another field for those filling in the survey to say why they gave the answer they did.


What do you think of the coverage of articles in the newsletter?

I wanted this question in the survey so we could see if our audience thought we were covering the GLAM news that matters. We seem to be doing relatively well, but there is of course room for improvement. If you know about anything GLAM programs that have been happening in your country, feel free to contribute at the Newsroom or by leaving a note on the suggestions page.


Going forward

I think this survey has provided an overview of where we're doing well and areas in which we can improve. On that note, this month we are trialling a new front page design. This is the first of, hopefully, many improvements to come. Let us know what you think in the comments section below or by email.

For now, I shall leave you with a wordcloud made from responses.


Cooper-Hewitt collections database

The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, which recently released its metadata under Creative Commons Zero, has now unveiled their new alpha-version collection database. It includes links out to Wikipedia and also pulls Wikipedia content into the collection entry.

For example, you can check out all of the people (artists, designers, etc.) that are in the Cooper-Hewitt’s collection who have a Wikipedia article about them here. When that Wikipedia content is improved, it’s updated on the Cooper-Hewitt’s collection page as soon as the team at Cooper-Hewitt Labs runs a bot (which they intend to run on a weekly basis.)

Read more at Sarah Stierch's blog post at us.glamwiki.org (from which this text was adapted).

NARA weighs in on COI

Inspired by the recent controversy surrounding Gibraltarpedia related to conflict of interest, Dominic McDevitt-Parks took to the US National Archives' own blog to weigh in on how NARA approaches the issue. He discusses how he worked with NARA to develop internal guidelines for editing which stress that staff edit Wikipedia to enhance public knowledge of and exposure to collections. Wikipedia should be viewed as part of the archival process, rather than a concern of public affairs departments. NARA's guidelines have been published on Wikipedia, and they are in the process of becoming official NARA policy. It is hoped that such transparency will help maintain the goodwill of the Wikimedia community towards GLAM projects.

News in brief

  • GLAM Bootcamp US planning is underway. The US National Archives has provisionally agreed to serve as a venue for the event, planned for early next year. The concept was presented at the Oct. 6 Wikimedia DC board meeting, and the chapter agreed to assist in funding and logistics for a GLAM Bootcamp. Discussion is taking place on the mailing list.


GLAMcamp London; brief news

GLAMcamp London brings international Wikimedians to the capital

A group photo from GLAMcamp London

Over the weekend of 15-16 September, 35 Wikimedians from around Europe and the United States gathered at the British Library in London. Over the course of the two days, attendees got the chance to discuss where the GLAM movement was, where they wanted it to go, and how to get there. During breakout groups on the second day, initial planning for wmuk:GLAM-WIKI 2013 began, and a group brainstormed and started work on a GLAM Bootcamp.

Further reading

News in brief

  • First UK Wikipedia Takes... event in Coventry: On 1 September, Coventrian Wikimedians ran Wikipedia Takes Coventry. More than 2100 photographs were uploaded by 51 participants, almost all of whom were non-Wikimedians. The images taken can be found on Wikimedia Commons. For more information see this blog post.
  • There was a tour of the major British Museum exhibition Shakespeare: staging the world on 13 September, followed for most of the group by a very interesting talk over coffee with Dora Thornton, the lead curator of the exhibition.
  • Upcoming exhibitions were discussed with the British Museum. The Ice Age Art exhibition will run from late February 2013, and we hope to be able to announce initiatives here, to follow on from the Event a year ago, which produced fantastic photos.



Edit-a-thons in Spain

Surreal edit-a-thon over the tomb of Salvador Dalí

Can you see the grey tomb in the floor? Isn't it Surrealistic?

Salvador Dalí was a prominent Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, is somehow wiki-related. The Teatre-Museu Dalí (Dalí Theatre and Museum) in Figueres used to be a theater and is the place where the Catalan master did his first solo exhibit. It was his largest single project and the main focus of his energy up until 1974. He is actually buried in the middle of the scenario of the old theather, in the exact place we held an all-night edit-a-thon. It was a surrealistic experience in which twelve Wikipedians, from all around Catalonia, improved Dalí-related articles. It was the best way to start a GLAMwiki relationship with such an important foundation.

  • Wikipedians rounded by Dalí artworks
    Wikipedians rounded by Dalí artworks
  • Huge dome
    Huge dome
  • Local Wikimedians
    Local Wikimedians

Museu de Mataró edit-a-thon

Women editing Wikipedia

Mataró is a city 40km from Barcelona. It dates back to Roman times, when it was a village known as Iluro. It contains the ruins of a first century BC Roman bath house (known locally as the Torre Llauder) that can be visited. The first railway in peninsular Spain was the Mataró – Barcelona line, which was opened on 28 October 1848 by the Catalan businessman, and Mataró native, w:Miquel Biada.

It is a hub for cultural activity and social engagement, but Mataró suffers from a lack of Wikipedia coverage. We decided to organize a Wikipedia Workshop at the Mataró Museum - where we undertook Wikipedia activities last year - to show local cultural organizations how they could improve the city's coverage on Wikipedia. Local librarians helped us by bringing a couple of boxes full of potential sources, and local experts improved related entries. It has planted the seed of what we think could be a great relationship.--Kippelboy (talk) 13:37, 9 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]


Smithsonian Institution, Brooklyn Museum and WikiAfrica

By Elitre

This summer, the Smithsonian Institution Archives (Washington, DC) and the Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY), both previously involved in GLAM programs (see here and here), agreed to join the WikiAfrica/Share Your Knowledge project. This means that thousands of quality Africa-related images will soon be uploaded on Wikimedia Commons under a free license. A test upload has already resulted in a picture being promoted to "Featured" status on Wikimedia Commons; it will be featured on the main page on December 1st.

In the meantime, the project is almost on the final stretch. Now that the end of the year is approaching, users are focusing on improving pages related to the project. While guidelines and procedures were all published long ago, other pages are being written, in both Italian and English, to summarize the history of the initiative (it/en) or to share details about the related Wikipedian-in-residence course (it/en). A page on Outreach wiki has also been created. Making sure that all the documentation is clear and online in multiple languages is a priority for any GLAM programs, since this allows successful projects to be replicated.


WikiCon; GLAMcamp London; Science 2.0

WikiCon 2012

A video introducing the Science 2.0 network (in German).

The month started out with German-speaking Wikimedians meeting at WikiCon 2012 in Dornbirn, Austria, from September 1-2 (see blog entries).

GLAMcamp London 2012

Several representatives of Wikimedia Germany participated in GLAMcamp London (see report and also UK report for this month).

Science 2.0

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community has set up a research network on Science 2.0, with special emphasis on how the web impacts the way research is being performed and communicated. The network is coordinated by the German National Library of Economics, and its 23 partners include the German National Library of Science and Technology, the Natural History Museum Berlin as well as Wikimedia Germany.

Council of Central Museums project; National Heritage Board WiR; brief news

Collaboration with Council of the Central Museums

During September, work has begun teaching staff at the National museums to edit Wikipedia and to upload images to Wikimedia Commons. So far three workshops have taken place, with around 25 curators and experts having improved and created new articles. Three more workshops are planned during October and November, as well a day dedicated to copyright, licensing and an in-depth session on uploading to and using Wikimedia Commons.

WiR at National Heritage Board

Lennart has had the first inspirational days at Riksantikvarieämbetet (National Heritage Board).

GLAMcamp

Two representatives from Wikimedia Sweden participated at GLAMcamp in London on the 15-16 September. Two major outcomes were reached during the weekend:

  1. During the GLAMcamp John Andersson joined the task force working with the organization of the GLAM-WIKI 2013 conference.
  2. Axel Pettersson participated in the discussions about a pair of GLAM Bootcamps for volunteers that will be organized in 2013.

News in brief

  • Wikimedia Sweden and the Nordic Museum had an initial meeting about an edit-a-thon that will have fashion as its theme. The edit-a-thon will take place in March 2013 in cooperation with other organisations such as Europeana Fashion and Stockholm University.
  • Beppo Stuhl from Austria became the first volunteer to take on the role as a National Coordinator for the Wiki Loves Public Art (WLPA) photo contest.


Botanical Garden Lausanne; CERN; Conferences

In the Jardin Botanique Cantonal Lausanne.

WikiCon 2012

The month started out with Wikimedia CH participating in WikiCon 2012 in Dornbirn, Austria, from September 1-2.

Reaching out to GLAMs

Building on the existing collaboration between Wikimedia CH and the University of Neuchâtel in the framework of the Neuchâtel Herbarium Project, September was devoted to reaching out to other GLAMS, including the Botanical Garden and the Zoological Museum in Lausanne as well as the Natural History Museum of Geneva.

Furthermore, a talk on Wikimedia as a platform for science communication was given at CERN, and Wikipedia workshops took place as part of the Solanaceae 2012 conference in Neuchâtel (already in August), at Infocamp 2012 in Chur and at the European Conference on Computational Biology in Basel.


Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 in India

Here are some statistics and updates from India:

  • 16,796 photos have been uploaded from India thanks to Wiki Loves Monuments 2012.
  • There were 2,230 participants from the country, meaning India had by far the most participants.
  • Anupamg, Thamizhpparithi Maari, Sthitaprajna, Darwinacitizen and Vu2sga were the top five contributors from India. Please do share some WikiLove with them for participating in WLM!


Edit-a-thon at the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana

The Salón de la Plástica Mexicana held an edit-a-thon to kickstart a project aiming to document its past and present membership. The Salón is an honor society of artists in Mexico, not necessarily Mexican artists, which is part of the federal government's Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Institute of Fine Arts). The event had two purposes: the first was to attract new and experienced editors to Wikipedia, especially those with an interest in Mexican art; the second was to encourage membership of the organization both to access sources for articles as well as to gain photos of themselves and their work.

The event attracted only seven editors, including two students from ITESM-Campus Ciudad de México, but it brought in documentation and photos from more than twelve notable artists. The documentation will be used to continue the project with ITESM students. Artists' photographs are being directly donated to the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, which can authenticate the copyright status on photographs of artistic pieces. The photographs will then be donated by the Salón to Wikimedia Commons at a later date, when there are a significant number of photographs to upload.


A month in Africa's GLAMs

The following article is an update of GLAM activity from the last month (and a bit) across the African continent and beyond. The activities listed below have come from the work of two Wikimedia chapters, South Africa and Kenya, and from the WikiAfrica Project.

GLAM content partners sharing knowledge

The GLAM side of WikiAfrica's Share Your Knowledge project has received content and images for upload from its 55 content partners across Africa. The museums under the Western Province Government – Department of Museums are currently competing amongst themselves to expand articles about their institutions. Many of these related articles are being worked on in the WikiAfrica Incubator and shall be moved over to the main site once they are finished.

South African Heritage Institutions Supports Wiki Loves Monuments

Wikimedia South Africa and WikiAfrica have been working to get South Africa's heritage institutions involved in and participating as upload sites for the upcoming Wiki Loves Monuments 2012. The National Heritage Council (NHC), South African Heritage Resource Agency (SAHRA), Western Cape Heritage and City of Cape Town Heritage are all eager to be involved, especially in an upload marathon at local museums. This will involve uploading images to the South African Wiki Loves Monuments page, and thus to Commons, in an event that took place on Heritage Day (24 September), a public holiday. The official launch of the Wikilove monuments was held on 1 September 2012 at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. A total of 1,863 photos of monuments in South Africa were uploaded at the close of the competition on 30 September.

Potential GLAMs - Still in Talks

The following have expressed interest in working as GLAMs with Wikimedia Kenya:

  • Nairobi Railway Museum have partially accepted to collaborate with Wikimedia Kenya to have their content on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The senior management requested copies of proposals to review them in detail. Wikimedia Kenya is in discussions on the best way to undertake this project, which would be the first of its kind. A preliminary study revealed that they have none of their collections digitized.
  • Kenya National Archives are still reviewing a proposal that was sent to them regarding GLAM. Hopefully the results shall be out by the time the next newsletter shall be published.

The following have expressed interest in working as GLAMs with WikiAfrica:

  • National Museum Malawi
  • Shimoni Slavery Museum, Kenya
  • Bamako-London Exhibition, UK/Mali
  • South African Heritage Resource Agency, South Africa
  • Name your hood, South Africa
  • IZIKO Museums of Cape Town (14 museums in the Cape Town area) www.iziko.org.za, South Africa
  • City of Cape Town Heritage Department
  • National Herbarium of Tanzania http://vimeo.com/11736032
  • TARA – Trust for African Rock Art, Kenya, http://www.africanrockart.org
  • Kuona Trust, Kenya http://www.kuonatrust.org
  • National Commission of Museums and monuments, Nigeria, http://www.nigerianmuseums.org
  • Digital Archive,Rock Art Research Institute, Origins Centre, Wits University, South Africa, www.SARADA.co.za

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

The following GLAMs are at different stages of the Share Your Knowledge path. For in-depth Case Studies of long term partners, please see below, or look at this month's Italy report.

Wikimedia chapters supporting the collaborations with institutions in Africa and with African contents

  • Wikimedia South Africa
  • Wikimedia Kenya
  • Викимедија Србије (Wikimedia Serbia)
  • Wikimedia CH
  • Wikimedia España
  • Wikimedia Italia


Open Access per default; Open Access Media Importer tests finished;
Preparations for Open Access Week

BOAI-10 recommendations

In February, the 10th anniversary of the Budapest Open Access Initiative, a meeting was held to look back upon that decade of open access and to discuss scenarios on how to move things forward over the next decade. The recommendations from the meeting have been released on September 12. Important from a Wikimedia perspective is that they cover licensing and designate the Creative Commons Attribution License (which is compatible with reuse on Wikimedia projects) as the default model for Open Access publishing. This will hopefully discourage publishers and authors from using licensing terms like the non-commercial condition that prevent reuse in most educational contexts, including on Wikimedia projects.

How open is it?

While the term "Open Access" has been clearly defined in the Budapest Open Access Initiative, it is often used in the context of open access publishing or open access archiving models incompatible with that definition. In order to provide a basis for more granular assessment of the extent to which a particular resource is open, PLOS, SPARC, and OASPA have collaborated on a draft for How Open Is it?, for which public feedback is invited until Monday, October 8, 5pm EST, so that a final version can be released in time for Open Access Week (see also next section).

Open Access Week

Open Access Week is a global event aimed at highlighting the ways in which Open Access can and does impact society, and research and education in particular. Around the world, researchers, students, librarians and many others get together to share their own experiences and to raise awareness amongst others. One way to contribute to the event is to have a look at the Wikipedia articles related to Open Access in your preferred languages and to see whether they can improved by adding or modifying a few lines, by inserting a reference or illustration, or by simply improving the narrative flow or checking the spelling. Another way is to check Wikimedia Commons for files from Open Access sources and providing them with a new home in a Wikipedia article, Wiktionary entry or Wikibooks chapter. For further information, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Open Access/Open Access Week.

Open Access Media Importer presentation given to Wikimedia Germany on September 28, 2012.

Open Access Media Importer

Test phase finished

Over the course of the month, tests and bug fixes for the Open Access Media Importer continued, with the result that almost all known bugs concerning materials uploaded by the Open Access Media Importer Bot have been fixed. Their remnants in earlier uploads are currently being corrected manually, while a number of problems leading to suitable materials not being uploaded remain to be addressed. These are mostly due to non-standard markup of the XML provided by the publishers, or to non-standard file formats used by the original authors.

An interesting problem that occurred on the way was that the MIME type of image and media files was stated incorrectly in about 5-10% of cases. This could be fixed by implementing a routine that tests, based on the first 4kB of a file, whether the MIME type is indeed the one that is indicated in the XML. Once the Open Access Media Importer is operational, it is intended to be handed over to Wikimedia Germany, but it remains uncertain as to whether that would be via the Toolserver, Wikimedia Labs or some other way. A more detailed report is available from a blog post.

The following files represent a selection of what has been uploaded by the Open Access Media Importer this month. If you can think of wiki pages where these files could be useful, please put them in there or let us know.

Videos

Before you watch a video, consider guessing at the research question addressed in the corresponding scholarly article.

Sound files

Can you guess what these sounds represent?

A hook-like foot of a female Trogloraptor
A hook-like foot of a female Trogloraptor
A male Lesula
A male Lesula

WikiProject Open Access

The following notes from WikiProject Open Access have been posted this month:

Open Access File of the Day

The following files have been featured as Open Access File of the Day this month:


October's GLAM events

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Global Resources Center Editathon, Washington, D.C., USA
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Dunhuang Project editathon, British Library, London, UK
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Dunhuang Project editathon, British Library, London, UK
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Dunhuang Project editathon, British Library, London, UK
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Dunhuang Project editathon, British Library, London, UK
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