(Note: the following comments are me as a GLAM WIKI volunteer, a GLAM professional - not as a WMF fellow working on the gender gap :) )

Great work Lori. You've done a lot of great things, and I know there is a potential for more to take place. It's so frustrating to have to try to coordinate these things when "on wiki "is so foreign still to most GLAM professionals (even those who want to participate), and many people are often more mailing list (traditional) based when it comes to communication.

I also know it's frustrating about money. As someone, like you, who comes from the GLAM world, I know that funding isn't being thrown at these types of projects on a whim, especially large scale consortium type projects, by GLAMs. If only we had a contingent of grant writers (haha!) and available funds from the movement (Chapters, WMF, whatever) that could contribute to this. I also agree that an in person meeting is KEY to making that happen - we all know the power of GLAMcamp.  Without GLAMcamp I would not be as involved in this as I am, nor care as deeply as I do.

I really doubt that, anytime soon, significant resources are going to be shared by GLAMs for these projects that don't' directly relate to their own direct mission (i.e. funding a Wikipedian in Residence is more ideal than funding a consortium). GLAMs and Wikimedians want to see this consortium happen, but, I do think it'll take "Movement money" to make it come together. Just having initial funds to have a meeting and get the ball rolling in person is ideal, IMHO.

It's also so aggravating about the tools - I also have a feeling that if the consortium can get off the ground with a meeting, that tools can be developed via GLAMs. I'm hoping our event at MCN can help inspire that too - having tech folks from WMF and MediaWiki volunteers engaged with GLAMs in the US is important - and I know that if GLAM tech folks were made more aware of the opportunities with MediaWiki they'd probably have more interest in developing tools that benefit both sides.  I also think it'd be cool to have more GLAM hackathons (at THATcamp, etc.), but, we'd need additional MediaWiki folk support for that (hackers, people who can help lead).

I'm really nervous about what is going to happen after your position ends.

+1 about online community organizing. As a fellow, I am right there with you on this!!

And yes, I'm amazed at how you have grown as a program manager and especially as a public speaker. :)  (now where is the photo of you speaking for the report?! :) )

-Sarah



On 8/30/12 12:46 PM, Lori Phillips wrote: