Hi everyone,
This week I start a new position as US OpenGLAM Coordinator. No, I'm not
a replacement for Lori, who spent the past year serving as the Wikimedia
Foundation's US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator (we should probably
write a blog about what's different about our roles :) )! We do have
some cross over though, but keep in mind my role has a broader focus not
specifically geared on Wikimedia partnerships.
You can learn more about my new role here:
http://blog.us.glamwiki.org/2013/01/openglamlaunch/
I look forward to helping unlock your GLAMs with you :)
-Sarah
--
*Sarah Stierch*
*/Museumist and open culture advocate/*
>>Visit sarahstierch.com <http://sarahstierch.com><<
[Pardon the cross-posting]
Huzzah! Nice piece Michael :)
http://www.si.umich.edu/newsandevents/press/msi-student-first-wikipedian-re…
MSI student is first Wikipedian in Residence at Ford Presidential
Library
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2013
* Students <http://www.si.umich.edu/category/press-release/students>
U-M School of Information master's student Michael Barera became the
nation's first Wikipedian in Residence at a presidential library when he
began his internship Friday, January 11, at the Gerald R. Ford
Presidential Library on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor.
A Wikipedian in Residence is an individual who works in-house to assist
an organization with its Wikipedia presence. The British Museum was the
first cultural organization to host a Wikipedian in Residence. Many
other museums, libraries, and archives have followed suit. Barera is the
first to be embedded in a presidential library.
Barera, who describes himself as a "dedicated Wikipedian," has been
editing and contributing articles and photos to the online, user-edited
encyclopedia for the past five years. In 2012, during his senior year at
Michigan, he joined the U-M Wikipedians, the first Wikipedia student
club in the United States.
Club members attended a Wikimedia Foundation seminar last fall designed
to encourage Michigan faculty to utilize Wikipedia in their classrooms.
Bettina Cousineau, exhibit specialist at the Ford Library and Museum,
was at that meeting and immediately saw the potential to increase the
Ford's online presence with the help of the club.
"Our goal is to have our content accessible to everyone, everywhere,"
Cousineau said. "Wikipedia is a completely new outreach venue for us.
Not everyone can visit our museum and library in person, but everyone
can visit us online. With our content and Michael's technical skills, we
are looking forward to getting more of our collections out to the
broadest possible audience."
After the Wikimedia Foundation meeting, Barera started volunteering his
technical skills on behalf of the Ford Museum and Library. He created
templates and tags, located articles for staff content specialists to
fact-check, and served as a liaison between the student club, the
Wikipedia community, and the staff at the library and museum. "He was a
natural choice for us when this internship became available," Cousineau
says.
"This position is perfect for me," says Barera. "It combines my academic
passions for history, archives, open source advocacy, and technology. I
see my role as a facilitator, helping to bridge the gap between those
who have the content and those who have the technical skills to make
that information accessible to the whole world."
"The Ford Presidential Library is honored to have the opportunity to
partner with Wikipedia in making its rich collections more available to
individuals around the world," said Elaine K. Didier, Director of the
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. "We look forward to
working closely with our Wikipedian in Residence, Michael Barera of the
UM School of Information, as we jointly define the scope of this
exciting project."
The online project may be tracked
here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Gerald_Ford
<http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Gerald_Ford>
--
*Sarah Stierch*
*/Museumist and open culture advocate/*
>>Visit sarahstierch.com <http://sarahstierch.com><<
Hello all,
Dominic and I are excited to share an article that we had the opportunity
to write for the American Historical Association's newsmagazine, *Perspectives
on History*. We have a bit more context about why this is an exciting
opportunity here on the GLAM-Wiki US blog (which also includes the article
in full).
http://blog.us.glamwiki.org/2012/12/historians-in-wikipedia/
Typically this publication keeps its most recent online articles gated, but
they released ours to the public early due to the nature of our content.
Here's the AHA blog announcing this.
http://blog.historians.org/publications/1870/reading-list-two-new-articles-…
This article would not have happened without Sarah, who was first
approached about the opportunity and who helped in the shaping of the
article. So this was truly a group Wiki-in-Res effort : )
For mobile-friendliness and general ease, here is the article text in its
entirety...
*Historians in Wikipedia: Building an Open, Collaborative History*
What will the historian's craft look like in the age of social media,
>> crowdsourcing, and Wikipedia? It is a question often addressed in the pages
>> of this magazine, and here we want to expand on one answer offered last
>> year by AHA President William Cronon, who encouraged historians to
>> "contribute to the greatest encyclopedia the world has ever known." As
>> Wikipedians in residence, we facilitate the contribution of subject matter
>> expertise from cultural institutions—such as the Children's Museum of
>> Indianapolis, the National Archives, and the Smithsonian—to Wikipedia. The
>> future will see more of this type of engagement, which brings the insights
>> of authorities to the world's most widely accessed online encyclopedia.
>
>
> Many see Wikipedia's open, collaborative editing model to be contradictory
>> to established processes within the academic world. In fact, the work of
>> academics is not in competition with Wikipedia, but is the key to its
>> quality and development. Ultimately, if the field of history is to become a
>> part of an online collaborative culture, historians will need to be full,
>> participating members of the Wikipedia community. We see this happening
>> through partnerships with cultural institutions and through an embrace, by
>> Wikipedians and historians alike, of an emerging model of collaboration
>> called "open authority."
>
>
> In urging historians to join in the improvement of Wikipedia, Roy
>> Rosenzweig, founder of the Center for History and New Media, called
>> Wikipedia an example of "the massive democratization of access to
>> knowledge."1 As the world's fifth most-visited website, Wikipedia and its
>> sister projects receive around 490 million unique visitors a month, and its
>> openly licensed content frequently appears on other websites.2 The
>> popularity of Wikipedia, and especially of its history articles, makes it,
>> for better or worse, the most prominent public history project in the
>> world. Compare, for example, the 20 million page views in 2011 of
>> Wikipedia's "United States" article to the 17 million views of all the
>> National Archives webpages on archives.gov in the same year. Trends like
>> these prompted the National Archives to make a concerted effort to
>> collaborate with Wikipedians. In the words of Archivist of the United
>> States David Ferriero, "You need to be where the people are."3 Historians
>> will continue to publish their scholarship in academic journals, but that
>> scholarship is best communicated to the general public through Wikipedia.
>
>
> Wikipedia needs the contributions of expert historians. Although Wikipedia
>> generally succeeds at providing an amazing breadth of knowledge, it needs
>> historians and other experts on specific topics who can provide depth.
>> However, because any person is entitled to contribute to Wikipedia
>> regardless of credentials, experts often struggle with their role as
>> authorities within Wikipedia. They often fear worthy contributions are not
>> given proper recognition in a community of amateurs. But, in fact,
>> collaboration with Wikipedia does not undermine scholarly authority.
>> Rather, it enhances it by putting it to work and adding value to a
>> high-profile public representation of the topics experts are passionate
>> about.
>
>
> The combination of expertise and transparent collaboration is an emerging
>> model known as open authority.4 Public historians, academics, and many
>> others have expressed concern over the shifting role of expert authority in
>> an increasingly connected digital world where everyone is a curator. Open
>> authority is the coming together of expert authority with user-generated
>> content on free and open platforms. This typically takes the form of
>> dialogue between experts and the public on a virtual forum, leading to a
>> more inclusive representation of a topic. Wikipedia, as an open forum for
>> discussion and collaboration, is one of the best examples of open
>> authority. The open-source software movement from which Wikipedia evolved
>> has demonstrated that open, collaborative communities can create large,
>> complex projects that meet even the highest standards of the profession.
>> Experts in diverse fields are learning to embrace the potential of
>> collaborative online communities, and are entering dialogue within
>> transparent, open forums that reflect the connected environment in which we
>> live.
>
>
> It is important to understand that Wikipedia contributors are not amateur
>> historians but encyclopedists. Wikipedia, as a tertiary source, does not
>> seek to crowdsource the interpretation of the past, but to document the
>> state of the field on a given topic. Scholars sensitive to this mission
>> will understand Wikipedia's policy of "no original research," which ensures
>> that all interpretive claims are referenced to a published and accepted
>> source. This insistence on verifiability is necessary to maintain the
>> reliability of contributions, and avoids the slippery slope of (sometimes
>> eccentric) self-proclaimed experts promoting unpublished interpretations.
>> That said, Wikipedia does not reject the use of primary sources altogether.
>> Wikipedia editors will, however, question contributions based on primary
>> sources alone when they offer an interpretation that cannot be found in the
>> secondary literature.
>
>
> Just as historians are moving towards a better understanding of the
>> Wikipedia community, the Wikipedia community itself is becoming more
>> welcoming and accessible to new contributors, professional historians
>> included. To this end, the Wikipedia community is developing an improved
>> editing interface and supporting new editors through various projects. In
>> recent years, a community-driven project known as GLAM-Wiki ("GLAM" stands
>> for Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) has united hundreds of
>> Wikipedians around the world with the goal of supporting cultural
>> institutions as they share subject matter expertise with Wikipedia.5
>> Initiatives like these will lower the barriers to entry for new expert
>> contributors—but there is still much more work to do. And, as with any open
>> community, the best way to make it reflective of one's values and
>> experience is simply to join in.
>
>
> In the meantime, Wikipedians in residence are bridging the gap between the
>> Wikipedia community and cultural professionals by providing insight,
>> outreach, and in-person assistance for institutions committed to
>> establishing partnerships with Wikipedia. Wikipedians in residence work for
>> an institution—often a museum, library, or archive—to serve as a liaison
>> between experts and the Wikipedia community. Wikipedians in residence have
>> been supported in esteemed institutions around the world, from the British
>> Museum and the Smithsonian Institution to the United States' National
>> Archives and the Israel Museum—and interest continues to grow. This
>> enthusiasm illustrates the cultural sector's growing acceptance of
>> Wikipedia, not only as a platform for sharing content, but as a valuable
>> community worthy of long-term partnership. This coupling of expert
>> authority with the collaborative community of Wikipedia is open authority
>> in action.
>
>
> Issuing a challenge to scholars, Rosenzweig wrote, "historians probably
>> have a professional obligation to make [Wikipedia] as good as possible."6
>> While Wikipedia continues to provide free knowledge to millions each day,
>> the discipline of history risks becoming isolated if scholars do not become
>> more engaged with the online communities of this new information
>> commons. Contributing to Wikipedia makes a scholar's work more accessible
>> than ever before. As a wiki that is open to everyone, Wikipedia only works
>> if everyone feels empowered to be involved. To this end, we urge historians
>> to make the first step in contributing. Follow Wikipedia's unofficial
>> mantra and "Be Bold!" Do not be afraid to click that edit button.
>
>
> —Lori Byrd Phillips is the 2012 US cultural partnerships coordinator for
>> the Wikimedia Foundation and a digital marketing content coordinator at The
>> Children's Museum of Indianapolis. She has served as the Children's
>> Museum's Wikipedian in residence since 2010, and holds a Masters in museum
>> studies from Indiana University and a BA in history from George Mason
>> University.
>
> —Dominic McDevitt-Parks has been the Wikipedian in residence for the
>> National Archives and Records Administration since May 2011. He holds a BA
>> in history from Reed College and is currently completing his MS in library
>> science from Simmons College.
>
> Notes
>
>
> 1. Roy Rosenzweig, "Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future
>> of the Past," Journal of American History 93:1 (June 2006), 117–146.
>
> 2. All figures include information from all Wikimedia projects, including
>> all Wikipedia languages and projects such as Wikiquote, Wikinews, etc.
>> Monthly stats can be found in the Wikimedia Foundation's Monthly Report.
>
> 3. David Ferriero, "Remarks of Archivist of the United States David S.
>> Ferriero" (Speech presented at the Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit,
>> Simmons College, Boston, MA, July 9, 2011).
>> www.archives.gov/about/speeches/2011/7-9-2011.html.
>
> 4. Lori Byrd Phillips, "Defining Open Authority in Museums," MIDEA Blog
>> (New Media Consortium, January 13, 2012).
>
> 5. "GLAM-Wiki US," Wikipedia. (2012).
>
> 6. Rosenzweig, see note 1.
>
> --
Lori Phillips
Digital Marketing Content Coordinator
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation
703.489.6036 | http://loribyrdphillips.com/
Thanks for sharing this, Chris. The Cooper-Hewitt is definitely leading by example. I also like that they have published their list of people/institutions in their collections database who don't have Wikipedia articles: https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/not-from/wikipedia/. While not every entity on this list is automatically notable, it is an interesting starting place for design-oriented Wikimedians who may be looking to create some new articles.
Providing a ready-made citation template on collections pages is a great way for GLAMs to be Wikipedia-friendly, and is not that technically daunting to develop. I have definitely put it on my to-do list!
Sara (User:Sarasays)
P.S. - You can tweet them your appreciation/encouragement at @cooperhewittlab<https://twitter.com/cooperhewittlab>
Sara Snyder
Webmaster, Archives of American Art
Smithsonian Institution
(202) 633-7987 | www.aaa.si.edu<http://www.aaa.si.edu/>
More evidence of museums getting on board with Wikipedia!
The Cooper Hewitt Design Museum has released a new online collections
database that includes auto-generated Wikipedia links for every object!
The site itself is very cool:
http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/
Here's an example of the generated link:
If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the
following template:
<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=
http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18328843/ |title=Printing Block,
1931-71-23, 18th century |author=Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design
Museum |accessdate=19 December 2012 |publisher=Smithsonian
Institution}}</ref>
http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18328843/
Also, their code is available on Github and the developers have a blog:
http://labs.cooperhewitt.org/
Nice to see the Smithsonian leading the way!
Chris Leeder
School of Information
University of Michigan
Hello,
I wanted make the Wikimedia community aware of an event that Melanie Kill
of the University of Maryland Department of English and MITH are running
next month as part of our Digital Humanities Winter Institute (DHWI):
Public Digital Humanities: Wikipedia DH Edit-a-thon
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
5:50-7:00 PM
http://mith.umd.edu/dhwi/events/edit-a-thon/
All are welcome.
DHWI is delighted to partner with Melanie Kill of the Department of English
at the University of Maryland to offer a Public DH Event: the Wikipedia DH
Edit-A-Thon.
We invite DHWI attendees—as well as Wikipedians and digital humanists in
the DC region—to join us for an evening of Wikipedia editing. We’ll talk a
bit about the core content policies of Wikipedia and guidelines relevant to
contributing in one’s area of expertise, offer some tips and tricks for
navigating the resources, and then get online and begin sharing our
knowledge and skills.
All experience levels are welcome. Tables will be organized so that those
interested in particular tasks (copyediting, wikifying, linking out to GLAM
and DH resources, etc.) or articles (see ideas below) can team up.
Adventurous souls can even start a new article.
Please see http://mith.umd.edu/dhwi/events/edit-a-thon/ for more
information.
Best,
Trevor
on behalf of DHWI
---
Trevor Muñoz
Assistant Dean for Digital Humanities Research, University of Maryland
Libraries
Associate Director, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities
(MITH)
301.405.9528 | @trevormunoz on Twitter | http://trevormunoz.com
Hi all,
Thought this wiki meetup and GLAM event would be interesting to all on the
list. In case you have friends/colleagues in the San Francisco Bay Area, we
are staging an event coordinated with the Computer History Museum to get a
backstage tour and to brainstorm about their upcoming exhibit about
Wikipedia (to debut late 2013).
Please spread the word to friends and non-Wikipedians alike. The Museum is
right near the Googleplex and is an amazing facility.
Myself: I'm driving five hours from Los Angeles for the event, so those
from afar are definitely welcome!
-Andrew (User:Fuzheado)
MEETUP ANNOUNCEMENT
San Francisco Bay Area Wiki Meetup at the Computer History Museum
Time: Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 4pm to 8pm.
Location: Computer History Museum, Mountain View, Calif.
Meet Wikipedians and help edit a museum exhibit about Wikipedia!
The purpose of the meet up is twofold:
1. Meet fellow Wikipedians in the San Francisco Bay/Silicon Valley area
while getting a behind the scenes tour of the Computer History Museum.
2. Help edit this exhibit! The Museum is crafting an exhibit about
Wikipedia that will debut in 2013. What should an exhibit about Wikipedia
have? How should it display Wikipedia's activities, live, for visitors? Who
better than ask than Wikipedians. Meet the museum staff to brainstorm
around ideas and how to display and visualize Wikipedia to the public.
Who should attend: Wikipedians and non-Wikipedians alike, but especially
museum or technology enthusiasts
Address: Computer History Museum,
1401 North Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, California.
Contact: Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado), Wikipedian
Email: andrew [at] andrewlih [dot] com
RSVP and info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Computer_History_Museum
Museum participants:
Kirsten Tashev, VP of Collections and Exhibitions
Marc Weber, Internet History Program Founding Curator
Emily Routman, Contract Exhibit Planner
Jon Plutte, Director of Media
Dear all,
The
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3zef_Pi%C5%82sudski_Institute_of_America
is looking for a WiR person. I thought this group is the best place to
annouce this, but please feel free to fwd this more widely. The
announcement can be read here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yAqKS0iAfmLmDVGov-vy_C0mBZibov_Qh8OX5LS…
I am copying it below for your convenience:
Wikipedian in Residence
The Piłsudski Institute of America seeks volunteers to serve as
Wikipedian in Residence (WiR). The volunteer is expected to have
experience in writing the Wikipedia content and first hand knowledge of
Wikipedia best practices. A person speaking English and Polish (at least
to some degree) is preferred.
The tasks of the WiR will largely depend on his/her experience with
Wikipedia projects and interests. Developing Wikipedia content to expand
the Wikipedia coverage of Polish-Americans and Polish-American
institutions is a major and important task; the Institute is a source of
valuable information that can be used in creating such material.
Educational projects and events such as Wikipedia Initiative, with the
Institute support, could bring cutting-edge teaching initiatives to all
courses worldwide which focus on Poland and Polish-American culture and
heritage. The Institute is also involved in a range of digitization
projects, and a WiR with interest in data and metadata can work on
bridging the archival metadata standards with Wikipedia. Those are just
examples of wide range of exciting possibilities.
Please contact office(a)pilsudski.org for more information and to apply.
PS. The Institute is also looking to network with Wikipedians in the NY
area, so anyone who would like to help with the outreach there is more
then welcome to contact them at the above address, too!
--
Piotr Konieczny
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Piotrus
Last night the Graduate Center of the City University of New York held a
panel discussion with four museum professionals:
Christina DePaolo, Balboa Park Online Collaborative
Michael Edson, Smithsonian Institution
William Noel, University of Pennsylvania
Neal Stimmler, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The web announcement for the event is here:
http://cunydhi.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2012/11/07/wednesday-november-28-the-com…
Although the evening was billed as a session on museums and digital
humanities, it was devoted to thoughts, ideas and strategies about museums
engaging with the digital world. Although Wikipedia was mentioned only
once, all of these individuals appeared extremely determined to open their
collections to the public through digitization, and creating/adding value
to them by harnessing the knowledge of the communities that are attracted
to them.
One of the questions at the end wondered why all the institutions used
Flickr instead of their own websites. The responses made an argument for
being "out there," that people will find the materials more easily when
they're on Flickr than if kept within the museums' sites.
You can still catch most of the tweets if you search the hashtag: #cunydhi
I mention it here because they video-recorded the panel. I strongly
suspect the video could become a forceful argument for convincing
organizations to partner with GLAM-Wiki people. I'll watch out for when
the video become available and maybe someone can post the link on the
Wikimedia GLAM pages.
--
Bob Kosovsky, Ph.D. -- Curator, Rare Books and Manuscripts,
Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
blog: http://www.nypl.org/blog/author/44 Twitter: @kos2
Listowner: OPERA-L ; SMT-TALK ; SMT-ANNOUNCE ; SoundForge-users
- My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions -