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;Response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Digital Skills report
;Found: more maps than we'd reckoned


[[File:PalaceOfWestminsterAtNight.jpg|right|200px]]
''This post was written by Kimberly Kowal of the British Library and was [http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/magnificentmaps/2015/02/found-more-maps-than-wed-reckoned.html originally published here]. Reused with kind permission.''


The House of Lords Select Committee on Digital Skills [http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/digital-skills-committee/news/report-published/ today published its report]. Wikimedia UK submitted evidence to the consultation, [[House_of_Lords_Digital_Skills_Committee_evidence|which you can see here]].  
Without looking, you can’t know what’s there. That was our experience locating maps amongst the [http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-first-steps.html one-million British Library images] released to the public domain. We had not guessed that 50,000 images of maps were lurking there. So how were they singled out?


In the report the Committee makes a series of important recommendations which will influence the future digital skills of the UK. Perhaps chief among these is the recommendation to “define the internet as a utility service, available for all to access and use.” This would place access to the internet on an equal footing with access to water and energy and is an acknowledgement of just how fundamental the internet is to our modern way of life.
Answer: with the help of our friends (the crowd!) using several methods.


The report makes a number of recommendations and statements that are of particular interest to Wikimedia UK. The countries that ranked above the UK in a recent digital study had all “invested heavily in digital 'foundations', including up-skilling the population in technical expertise and digital capability...” These skills are extremely important and we believe that the use of Wikipedia and other open knowledge projects as both teaching and learning tools can offer great benefits to digital literacy.
'''Semi-Manually'''
A dedicated team of volunteers looked at individual images and applied the tag “map” on flickr. The work was organised using a synoptic index in [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:British_Library/Mechanical_Curator_collection/map_tag_campaign Wikimedia Commons], providing a systematic method of looking at each volume and tracking shared progress. Over 29,000 map images were identified in this way.


The Wikimedia movement globally is making great strides towards the acceptance and appreciation of Wikipedia as a learning and teaching tool. Countries such as [http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/06/10/israels-ministry-of-education-wikimedia-israel-agree-on-new-unique-initiative/ Israel], Serbia and [https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/09/06/wikiskills-helps-teachers-use-wikipedia-part-one/ Sweden] are taking advantage of the capacity and scale of the free encyclopedia in creative ways within their education systems. The UK should likewise adopt the use of Wikipedia and other open knowledge projects.  
'''Day-long event'''
The British Library hosted a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2014-10-29/Maps_tagathon one-day event], in concert with Wikimedia UK, to which volunteers were invited to kick-start the effort. In between working, the 30 participants enjoyed tours and talks from speakers representing online mapping efforts, including [http://www.openstreetmap.org/ OpenStreet Map] and [http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6103258 Stroly]. The day’s activities were captured in Gregory Marler’s engaging description, [http://www.livingwithdragons.com/2014/11/lost-in-piles-of-maps Lost in Piles of Maps], and a series of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/128951216@N05/sets/72157649365511705/ photographs] from ATR Creative.


<span class="plainlinks">[https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2015/02/response-to-the-house-of-lords-select-committee-on-digital-skills-report/<nowiki>[</nowiki>Read the full post here...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>
'''Ongoing crowd activity'''
The bulk of the work took place [http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/magnificentmaps/2014/11/maps-tag-a-thon-its-online.html online] over the next two months. With the [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:British_Library/Mechanical_Curator_collection/map_tag_status wiki tools] built by J.heald to guide and coordinate contributions, 51 volunteers approached the work, book by book, often focussing on geographic areas of interest. Together, they made short work of what was a huge task; 28% of the books were completed after the first 72 hours; 60% were reviewed in the first 20 days; after five weeks over 20k new maps were found in 93% of the source volumes.
 
<span class="plainlinks">[https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2015/02/found-more-maps-than-wed-reckoned/<nowiki>[</nowiki>Read the full post here...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>


|events=<!--Aim to have between 8 and 10 events listed to avoid this section taking up too much or to little space-->
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Revision as of 13:32, 19 February 2015

Cymraeg | English

Wikimedia UK

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If you'd like to see what Wikimedia UK is working on, our website is the best place for our community of volunteers, donors and members to stay up to date.

About Wikimedia UK

The Wikimedia projects are special: they are written and curated by thousands of volunteers. They are also supported by voluntary donations, through Wikimedia UK, the Wikimedia Foundation and other international chapters.

Wikimedia UK is a charity registered in England and Wales that supports and promotes Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects such as Wikimedia Commons. Our mission is to help people and organisations create and preserve open knowledge, and to help provide easy access for all. We do this by supporting volunteer editors and contributors ('Wikimedians'), by working in partnership with cultural and educational institutions, by hosting training sessions and editing events, and by acting to advocate the benefits of open knowledge generally.

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