New subject: Fwd: Exciting update about development of structured data on Commons

9 Jan 2017

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 &lt;wmoran(a)wikimedia.org&gt;
Date: Mon, Jan 9, 2017 at 2:48 PM
Subject: Exciting update about development of structured data on Commons
To: Wikimedia Mailing List &lt;wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org&gt;
Cc: Alex Stinson &lt;astinson(a)wikimedia.org&gt;

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

-- 
Alex Stinson
GLAM-Wiki Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
Twitter:@glamwiki/@sadads

Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
Wikimedia projects partner with cultural heritage organizations:
http://glamwiki.org