This is hilarious. As someone who was around at the time, all I can do is
shake my head and laugh at the inevitability of this kind of conversation.
WMUK would be ill-advised to allow a partnership of this importance to be
frittered away in this manner.
Que sera, sera. I write with no hat on other than someone who cares deeply
about open knowledge and also the chapter (well, my sun hat, but that
denotes no role other than someone daft enough to wear it indoors, in the
rain).
I think that those who were around at the time are more than aware of the
circumstances Richard refers to, and many others besides.
On 28 Jul 2017 21:01, "Fæ" <faewik(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Could WMUK do a little research on this please?
If this feedback on my correspondence with the Imperial War Museum was
received from the IWM during meetings with employees of the charity in
January 2013, this happened when I was a trustee on the board. I do
not recall feedback like this getting shared with the board from the
CEO, nor was I personally approached or informed separate from the
board. It's the sort of thing I doubt I would forget, though I do
recall being critical during a board meeting about any potential WMUK
project or partnership with the IWM at that time, unless their use of
misleading claims of copyright on public domain media changed first.
As there were discussions about me, I would appreciate the notes held
by WMUK from these meetings about a potential WMUK project being
shared with me, even at this late stage. It seems fair that the WMUK
CEO check the facts being made public on this list, and whether this
feedback was shared with the board of trustees at the time.
This is not a reply to Richard Symonds, for reasons known to the WMUK
board and CEO.
Thanks,
Fae
On 28 July 2017 at 20:32, Richard Symonds <chasemewiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
First: I know me and you haven't got on very
well in the past Fae, so I
want
to underline that this email is meant in the
friendliest way possible. I
really appreciate the work you do on Commons, and am deeply struck by the
passion with which you approach our shared goal. We're both on the same
team
- working for free knowledge.
That said, there's a bit of criticism - constructive, I hope. I'm not
sure
if further emails like the ones at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:F%C3%A6/email/IWM would be very
helpful - they didn't work at the time, and clearly haven't worked in the
past four years, despite your tweeting. The issue the IWM had in that
case
was that they didn't agree with you that it
was copyfraud. The solution
would be a sit-down talk between professionals, that is as you say,
"invest
some resources into changing their minds".
I remember trying this with the IWM in 2013 - at the time, I was talking
to
the institution about the WW1 centenary, which
they were the driving
force
behind. They were happy to talk, and extremely
friendly, and we had
several
meetings with them. However, they had issues with
the emails that you
were
sending to them, which they saw as rude,
passive-aggressive, and
generally
unhelpful. The institution didn't see them as
polite correspondence, and
it
made them reticent to work with Wikipedia because
they didn't feel like
they
could be a part of a community that spoke to
people like that. I know
that
to you the emails were professional and to the
point, and objectively
correct. But to them it came across as unprofessional, and that it
happened
during the run-up to the WWI centenary made it
very difficult for
Wikipedia
to get involved in the commemorations in any more
than a passive
capacity.
You redoubled your efforts after you saw the IWM
refusing to change, but
sometimes, our passion for change - for righting the wrongs in the world
-
makes us seem like fanatics to middle-managers in
cultural institutions.
This pushed them away, and made it harder for them to understand our
point
of view.
The solution here is, as you say, friendly and professional discussions -
social media campaigns about it, as well as using words like "copyfraud"
(which invoke thoughts of criminality in the minds of the reader), are
counterproductive. We need to be professional and approachable,
engendering
change through example, and although social media
campaigns and shaming
work
sometimes (and are legitimate ways of forcing
change on an old
institution),
we have to be careful not to go to it as a first
option, especially when
our
strength in WMUK is our professional connections
throughout the third
sector
and "GLAM" world.
On 28 July 2017 at 18:16, Fæ <faewik(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 28 July 2017 at 17:18, John Byrne <john(a)bodkinprints.co.uk> wrote:
> > The BM still in effect operates a "don't ask, don't tell"
policy on
> > photography - see
> >
> > [
http://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/2011-11-14%20Visitor%
20Regulations%20FINAL.pdf
> > section 8.1] here: "8.1 Except
where indicated by notices, you are
> > permitted
> > to use hand-held cameras (including mobile phones) with flash bulbs or
> > flash
> > units, and audio and film recording equipment not requiring a stand.
You
> > may
> > use your photographs, film and audio recordings only for your own
> > private
> > and non-commercial purposes." The same goes for the images on their
> > website.
> >
> > But as I think Fae knows, they have in the past kindly facilitated
> > back-stage photography of objects by Wikipedians, knowing the images
> > will be
> > uploaded to Commons. Matthew Cock, our former main contact left some
> > years
> > ago. Most "policy" matters are hard to change at the BM because of
the
> > size
> > of the organization. Everything "would have to go to the Trustees" -
an
> > appalling vista for middle management.
> >
> > No doubt the THM is trying to enforce these standard terms, reflected
in
> > the
> > loan agreement, more strictly than the BM itself does. I'm not sure
> > there's
> > much point in going to or after them.
> >
> > One day their main policy will improve, but they are not easy to
> > pressure -
> > in practice things work ok as it is, normally.
> >
> > John
>
> Thanks John, I recall us having meetings with BM folks. It was
> illuminating hearing how things work from the inside. Within my
> personal network I have some insight into the BM specifically, and
> other large academic related institutions. In general we get a
> positive response from curators and researchers who may plan an
> exhibition, in fact their issues with our open projects are spot on
> and match our own concerns. But this is a very separate world from the
> operations and marketing middle management who make the final
> decisions on loan policies and public exhibition standards.
>
> From the perspective of open knowledge advocates, after meetings and
> presentations I have had curators shake my hand and thank me for
> saying things they cannot. One of the great benefits of having unpaid
> volunteers like us knocking around with no "professional" affiliation
> with the institutions that may manage the content we are passionate
> about, is that we can say obvious things, without worrying too much
> about diplomacy or PR.
>
> Despite being criticised for making waves every now and then, it's
> those personal thanks for doing what I do that will encourage me to
> call unambiguous copyfraud, copyfraud, whenever I see it.
>
> If anyone wants to see my previous efforts trying politely talking to
> IP lawyers representing an institution that simply does not get it,
> they can take a look at my correspondence with the Imperial War
> Museum.[1] It's four years since I very politely and clearly gave them
> the facts about their continued copyfraud, and they have not lifted a
> finger to correct it. I guess they are too big to care about my tweets
> that continue to point out this problem,[2] however it would be great
> if WMUK wanted to invest some resources into changing their minds; in
> line with our shared vision of open knowledge and free access to
> public content.
>
> Links
> 1.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae/email/IWM IWM emails.
> 2.
https://twitter.com/Faewik/status/890954001990201346 example tweet
> on copyfraud from earlier today.
>
> Cheers,
> Fae
> --
> faewik(a)gmail.com
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae --
faewik(a)gmail.com
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
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