Dear Erik,
(Also copying in the Cultural Partners and GLAMwiki Toolset mailing lists as Erik's email below is directly is related to them).
Thank you for this email with the explicit invitation for groups in the Wikimedia movement to directly take responsibility for supporting the technology needs of GLAM partnerships. Different groups in the movement have different capacities and different areas of priority - and that is how it should be :-) We each need to try and 'bite off what we can chew' in a way that is coordinated, mutually beneficial, and not a duplication of each others' efforts.
To that end...
Over the last couple of years Europeana[1] has been increasingly involved in supporting tech development for mediawiki that is specifically targeted at addressing the needs of the GLAMwiki community. I note that the report you linked to on the stats that GLAMs want[1] and also the GLAMwiki Toolset for mass multimedia upload which you also mentioned[2] are both Europeana projects - in collaboration with several European Wikimedia Chapters.
On behalf of Europeana I would like to confirm that we wish to become even more involved in this area and has the full intention of supporting further development in partnership with interested Chapters when possible. In the fullness of time, we intend to apply for a WMF grant in order to enable precisely that.
On the
mediawiki.org discussion page for the 2014/15 Engineering goals there has been a fair bit of discussion about GLAM-related projects that are not in the
WMF's own plans[4].
Fabrice, as "process owner" for the Multimedia section of those goals, has proposed on that
talkpage a couple of meetings of interested parties to discuss how we can all work together effectively on this, notably in person at
Wikimania, an offer which we definitely accept :-) I also agree with
Illario's point that formalising
WMF support for externally-developed software is an important criteria in any grant decisions and for organisational reputation. Fortunately
Fabrice has specifically addressed this issue relating specifically to the
GLAMwiki Toolset which is very helpful.[5]
Sincerely,
Liam / Wittylama
GLAMWIKI coordinator, Europeana.