Hey everyone,
This was just posted to Wikimedia-l and for I thought it would be worth sharing here as well:
The GLAMwikiToolset (project homepage https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:GLAMToolset_project , mediawiki extension https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GWToolset , user manual https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:GWToolset ) has been in development for several years now at Europeana. It is a joint funding initiative with several European chapters to develop a standard method for GLAMs (or anyone else for that matter) to mass-upload to Wikimedia Commons on their own terms, without the need to operate bots or be dependent on the subset of volunteers who can to do it for them. While we acknowledge that the system still has bugs and still requires some technical ability (e.g. creating a flat XML file), this is a significant step forward.
The tool has been quietly operational now for a while and has been used for an interesting variety of uploads https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:GWToolset_users , with more coming each week. We hope that with increased usage the system will start to become a standard part of the GLAMwiki repertoire of activities and over time will become easier to use and help draw attention to other related engineering work that needs attention - like multimedia statistics and metadata export. For those coming to Wikimania who who would like to know more, there will be two presentations on the Sunday https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programme#Sunday.2C_August_10 dedicated to the tool and also a hackathon session - please sign up here: https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hackathon#GWToolset
The toolkit also has its own mailing list here: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/glamtools
If you're at a library with an archive or any other collection of public domain materials, your contributions would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Derric Atzrott
Computer Specialist
Alizee Pathology