(apologies for cross-posting, but it's a UK topic, a MILHIST topic, GLAM
topic and an education topic all rolled into one)
You might be interested to know that Wikimedia UK has lent its support to a
bid led by a researcher at University of Birmingham, supported by Oxford
University and also the Imperial War Museum, for a project funded by JISC to
categorise and prioritise the UK's cultural heritage related to World War
I.(1)
This isn't a partnership per se though it may well lead to one. The only
commitment we have made is to write a letter and go to a meeting, and the
outcomes will be very long-term. However I think it's significant because
1) It is good recognition that the Wikimedia movement is a stakeholder in
the development of heritage and educational resources. (The phone call when
someone from Oxford was saying "we really think your support would add
weight to what we're doing" was, erm, interesting)
2) It gives us as an organisation formal access to a strong network of
world-leading institutions focusing on this particular task
3) It's also relatively unusual for a Wikimedia organisation to provide
support to someone else to apply for third-party funding in a competitive
tendering process, but in this case the Wikimedia UK board thought it was
quite justified in pursuit of our objectives.
This should help us build up our network of institutional partners,
particularly (but not exclusively) aimed at the World War I centenary, and
help lay the groundwork for some exciting collaboration work in the future.
Any questions, or if you'd like to express your interest in being involved
in future work on the World War I centenary, please give me a shout.
Chris
(1)JISC's Invitation to Tender:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2011/09/JISC%20ITT…
Wikimedia UK's letter of support (and a bit of a manifesto):
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Birmingham_JISC_support.pdf
The people whose bid we are supporting (though nothing specific about it
here):
http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/warstudies/index.aspx