New subject: [cultural-partners] Recap of first-ever GLAM Boot Camp

3 May 2013

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/2013-04-2…)p>);
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#Attendee…
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