From my understanding of the situation, the most basic thing we can do is to act as a link between the Museum(s) and Wikipedia/et al., to make sure that the fledgling alliance between the two does well and continues in the future, and that there are no misunderstandings. We could also get more museums or other collections involved (e.g. perhaps historical houses?), and do our best to raise the profile of the event, to maximise the number of people who get involved, and also those that hear about it (e.g. put it in the newsletter, mention it around the wikis where UK-based people hang out, possibly even get it mentioned in the press, magazines, etc.) There is a lot that can be done just with the expenditure of time, without requiring finances.
That said, I like your ideas, but with some modifications. It would be better if we could find someone to provide a prize, rather than purchase and provide one ourselves - for example, is there an art print shop that would consider providing some prints? It might be good to focus things on a single day (whilst stressing that the event is continuing over a month); for example, have a launch day for the event.
First and foremost, though, we should get in contact with the Victoria and Albert museum, and ask if there's anything we can do to help, ask if they have any questions about how the project will run, find out what resources they will be committing to the project, find out whether they'll allow tripods, etc. The most important thing is to start talking with them.
Mike
On 28 Nov 2008, at 23:26, Andrew Turvey wrote:
I was having a think about this project and I wondered what the nascent UK chapter could easily do to help out for this. Two ideas sprang to mind:
- Looking at Wikipedia Loves Art on flikr, it mentions "Teams with
the most points at the end of the month will get cool prizes" (http://www.flickr.com/groups/wikipedia_loves_art/). Could/ should Wiki UK maybe put up a prize for the best team at the Victoria & Albert? Say budget £50 and get a gift (somthing like this maybe: http://www.vandashop.com/product.php?xProd=142&s=1 with a message from the chapter?)
- Alternatively, if we arranged a particular day where a group of
wikipedians went down to capture images from the V&A, could we maybe do something where we had a reception and served coffee and sandwiches to people who had come down for it?
Has anyone done anythign like this before? Do you know what kind of thing would work?
Andrew
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l