In case it wasn't clear from the session -- I
found the WikiSource
lesson/session really useful and fascinating.
I would not have understood how to do the tasks without face-to-face
instruction, and it's interesting and unexpected to see that type of
workflow support in a MediaWiki environment.
Thanks again for showing us,
On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 10:20 AM, Doug <wikipediadoug(a)googlemail.com
<mailto:wikipediadoug@googlemail.com>> wrote:
For anyone who hasn't noticed, please see the WS discussion of the
Signpost article at
.
Asaf Bartov has inquired as to our choice of work.
Doug
On 5/2/13 8:11 PM, Dominic McDevitt-Parks wrote:
Thanks Lodewijk for being so enthusiastic
that you beat us to
posting our recap first. ;-) Lori and I have been a bit worn out
the last couple of days. Ed's Signpost article is a good start,
especially since he was in attendance (link
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-04-29/News_and_notes#GLAM_Boot_Camp>);
please do read it. I wanted to talk a little more about this
event, which took place this past Friday and weekend, from April
26–28, in Washington, D.C.
The idea for GLAM Boot Camp was first proposed and developed at
GLAMcamp London last September, as some of you may remember. You
can see our original notes from GLAMcamp here:
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM_Boot_Camp. The event we
just held was
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/Boot_Camp. The
stated, ambitious goal of the first GLAM Boot Camp was to broaden
the participation of the general Wikimedia community in GLAM-Wiki
movement by inviting and training key Wikimedians I think that we
were successful in taking a big step towards that goal. Another
goal was to establish a model for future similar events, and I
hope that as we work on our documentation, others will be able to
use our experiences to guide them in making another GLAM Boot
Camp elsewhere.
All of us who have been to events like GLAMcamps or Wikimanias
know that oftentimes the most important thing is not the
structured sessions, but just being with a group people for a
couple of days and sharing perspectives—even over coffee or back
at the hostel—so both of the main takeaways for me were about the
attendees. The fact that *we fully funding all attendees* from
across the US and Canada was integral to ensuring we were able to
bring in fresh people. Second, we *specifically invited the
people we thought would be key*, rather than hoping people would
sign up. This ended up making even more sense in retrospect,
because we were so happy with who came, but if the idea was to
reach people who were not normally part of GLAM-Wiki projects, we
were trying to reach people who wouldn't already be following our
normal channels and who might not sign up even if they heard
about it because for some reason they haven't already gotten
involved whenever they have heard about GLAM-Wiki already. This
also allowed us to try to get a diversity in terms of geography
(especially folks in areas without chapters or meetups) and in
people's types of on-wiki activities.
As co-organizer, I want to tease out a few more important points:
*Attendees:*
*
*
We posted a list of attendees
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/Boot_Camp#Attendees> to
the page; the names in green were those who we invited as full
participants for the entire event. Of these, only about 3 had
actually signed up or registered interest before we started
inviting. For the others, I spent hours looking asking for
opinions of others and looking through user contributions of
people who had participated online in any GLAM WikiProjects,
participated in meetups, or participated in any of various other
Wikimedia activities or subcommunities, like administrators,
featured content writers, Wikisource/Commons editors, Did You
Know writers, WikiProject organizers, education program
participants, and so on. Participants came from all over the US
(New York, Maryland, LA, SF, Portland, Philadelphia, Kansas,
Michigan, and Chicago) and Canada (Halifax, Vancouver, and
Winnipeg), not one from the same metropolitan area, and most from
areas without regular Wikipedia events. For more than one
attendee, this was their first time at a Wikipedia event of any
kind. The size of the group, 12 regular attendees with about 5
more at any given time with guests and organizers, was the
perfect amount to allow for productive discussions.
*
*
*Program:*
*
*
We designed a program very unlike GLAMcamp, and a lot more both
structured than a lot of Wikimedia unconference-type events are,
but more practical than a traditional conference—it was something
between a Wikipedia Academy and a campus ambassador training. You
can see our program here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/Boot_Camp#Program. We
generally moved from presentation-heavy to discussion-heavy
sessions. Generally, the first day was our high-level overview of
and introduction to cultural institutions and the history and
present circumstances of GLAM-Wiki. Michael's inspiring talk to
lead off was really to give them an insider perspective of
cultural institutions, and we talked a lot about institutional
missions and how to connect the work of Wikimedia with that of
cultural institutions. The second day we moved into more
practical matters, going through the whole "lifecycle" of a
Wikimedia project, and talking about specific events and
projects. By the third day, we spent more time in discussion, and
getting the boot campers to articulate their own visions of
GLAM-Wiki, and how they personally could improve upon or
contribute to it. We ended up having unplanned breakout sessions
a couple of times because attendees were so exited ideas they had
as we showed them things like our one-pager or the portal pages
they wanted to actually have time to edit them. If you would like
to dig into the etherpad notes from each day, they are listed at
the top of the program.
*
Logistics:*
The event was possible for us in the US because logistics and
funding were largely handled by James Hare and Wikimedia DC. They
funded us with approximately $8000 USD from their 2013 Outreach
grant
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:WM_US-DC/Outreach_2013> to
the WMF, as well as covering group dinners and some incidental
costs over budget from general funds. The large majority of the
money (about $5500 out of $8500) went towards funding the travel
and accommodations of attendees. All attendees were fully funded,
and this was an essential characteristic of the event. Most of
the travelers had their flights booked by WMDC and stayed in a
hostel (same as used for Wikimania 2012 and GLAMcamp DC). WMDC
also hosted two dinners and provided coffee/refreshments
throughout the day.
*Speakers:*
*
*
The ambitiousness of the workshop, with three full days of
programming, meant a lot of talking from Lori and I. We broke
things up a little by inviting special speakers in certain topic
areas, often where they had as much or more expertise as either
of us did. Some of these speakers were locals from the DC area
that agreed to come in, and some were attendees we invited to
present to the group on something they are skilled at. Examples
include the Wikisource and Commons workshops, a session on event
planning, a session on grants and chapters. We also led off with
special GLAM professional guests: David Ferriero gave a welcome
and Michael Edson, who just got back from keynoting GLAM-Wiki
London gave an epic talk for most of the first morning. At least
half of the sessions were led by Lori or I, though, and future
GLAM Boot Camps probably would want to find ways not to give so
much work to two individuals, for their own sanity. ;-)
*Venue:*
The venue was provided by the U.S. National Archives, though
there were pros and cons for this. The main pro was that there
was no cost associated with securing a venue! We might have been
able to find a room elsewhere without a cost, but 3 days, all day
for no cost is a big ask. The other main benefit was that we were
in a good location and were able to take advantage of having
David Ferriero make appearances. We did face typical problems
with working with a bureaucratic venue, like catering and
security all taking more time than we wanted.
*Outcomes:*
For me, the most important outcome was seeing the attendees who
were all *not* the same old faces as at every other GLAM-Wiki
event come in excited and gradually take more ownership and
responsibility for GLAM-Wiki, as they began to feel more
empowered and a part of the effort. There were practical
outcomes, like specific documentation or project pages to
improve. More than that, though, most attendees came away intent
on contacting local institutions or organizing their local
Wikipedia community. I am as excited by the overall
community-building I think we did around GLAM-Wiki, which will
help it be more successful as it is more accepted and integrated
with the Wikipedia community, as I am by any specific skills
attendees may have learned or GLAM projects they may go off and
start.
The need to reach out more to the Wikimedia community, as much as
to cultural institutions, is something I feel very strongly
about, so I am so glad we were able to hold this event, and
grateful to everyone who made it possible and attended.
We'd love to hear your thoughts and questions.
Dominic
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