Hi GLAM-Wiki programs leaders and community,
I am really excited to share with you that the foundation has received the below grant for Structured Data on Commons. I have been supporting this development, because as many of you know, GLAM-Wiki collaborations are deeply connected to how we handle metadata, esp. integrating content donations into Commons.
A major component of the grant, will be collaborating with our GLAM partners, especially with institutions that have robust technical expertise about structured data who can give feedback on the roadmap and features of the Structured Commons project. If there is someone who should be kept informed, please let me know: in the short term, I will be helping connect the development team with some initial outside expertise and with partners who have done mass-uploads before.
As we get deeper into the project we will want to also work with organizations willing to interact with the technology. If any of your partners or volunteer GLAM leaders would like to help us understand their use of Commons please let me know.
Also, I wanted to give a special thank you to community leaders, like User:Jarekt, User:Husky, User:Spinster, User:Multichill, User:Jane023, User:Magnus Manske, User:TheDJ, User:Wittyllama, User:Aubrey, User:Pigsonthewing, and the many others who for the last few years, have been experimenting with connecting GLAM collections with our structured data ecosystem on both Commons and through Wikidata. When both communicating the need for Structured data on Commons within the Foundation and supporting the development of the grant, the examples and case studies you have provided along with all that I have learned about structured data from you, helped greatly in putting this together. I hope you all have a great start of the new year.
Cheers, Alex ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Wes Moran wmoran@wikimedia.org Date: Mon, Jan 9, 2017 at 2:48 PM Subject: Exciting update about development of structured data on Commons To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Cc: Alex Stinson astinson@wikimedia.org
Hello Wikimedia community,
It’s our delight to inform you that we received a US$3,015,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_P._Sloan_Foundation [1] to expedite development of structured data on Commons. The grant will be given over the course of three years, and will allow us to develop a team, in collaboration with the Wikidata team at Wikimedia Deutschland, that can focus on integrating the structured data features of Wikidata into describing the media files on Commons.
This work will allow us to expedite features both on the Wikidata development roadmap, and in other products supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. The grant also provides funding to ensure that movement stakeholders, like Wiki Loves Monuments and GLAM-Wiki program leaders, and external partners who contribute heavily to Commons, such as GLAMs, can be involved in the development.
We have drafted a high level overview of the grant and its scope, available on Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Structured_data/Sloan_Grant [2]. A blog post about the grant is also available on the Wikimedia blog https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/01/09/sloan-foundation-structured-data [3].
We are currently in the process of identifying the technical lead for the project. If you have questions, Alex Stinson, the Foundation’s GLAM-Wiki strategist, will be leading the community engagement and communications for the project until we hire a community liaison as part of the grant. Stay tuned for more details about the project in the coming months.
We’re excited to be able to support this project, and look forward to your participation in its development.
Thank you,
Wes Moran and Maggie Dennis
*Wes Moran, Vice President of Product* *Maggie Dennis, Interim Chief of Community Engagement * *Wikimedia Foundation*
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_P._Sloan_Foundation [2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Structured_data/Sloan_Grant [3] https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/01/09/sloan-foundation-structured-data