All,
Andrew Gray and I met with the Imperial War Museum in London earlier this
week. They're the lead organisation for marking the 2014 WWI anniversary in
the UK, and they're very interested in cooperating with Wikimedia UK as
part of the program.
The main part of the discussion was their plans for a Wikipedian in
Residence - we're still working out the details (funding, reporting,
management etc), but they're planning to employ a Wikipedian in Residence
during 2013 or 2014, probably full-time for six months. They are keen to
treat it as an interpretative role - rather than focusing on working with
the collections, they really want to have someone content-oriented who'll
spend the time looking at WWI content on Wikipedia, seeing where it lacks,
and trying to organise ways to improve it, fill in gaps and draw together
duplicated topics. The post will hopefully also involve outreach to the
various (academic and non-academic) communities researching the war,
helping them collaborate with Wikipedia, and working to support the
existing community by providing sources, supporting material, etc. for
articles.
On the whole, it's a promising project - in many ways, almost a "historian
in residence on Wikipedia". As I say, the details are a bit fluid (notably
dates) but me and Andrew will try and keep you all informed of what's
happening as it goes forward. If you've any comments or suggestions, do let
me know!
Richard Symonds
Wikimedia UK
0207 065 0992
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*