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;"The institutions that are loved survive": Pat Hadley and the York Museums Trust
;Does Wikimania save lives?


[[File:York Museums Trust - The GLAM-Wiki Revolution.webm|thumbtime=0:58|frameless|right|380px]]
''This post was written by Fabian Tompsett, Wikimedian and co-ordinator of the Wikimania support team, and originally published <span class="plainlinks">[http://leutha.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/wikimania-saves-lives/ here]</span>.''
[[File:London 13 - H3.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Yes it was quite a surprise to find myself with other Wikimedians back in September 2008]]


Pat Hadley was part way through a PhD in archaeology at the University of York in the summer of last year when he decided to leave to explore new areas in which to apply his skillset. A natural scientist with a digital background, he is interested in the "ways in which the public engages with the past". For him, Wikipedia is an ideal platform to investigate this.
I am just coming to the end of a four-month stint working for Wikimedia UK helping to deliver <span class="plainlinks">[https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania Wikimania 2014]</span> at London’s Barbican Centre. It was all quite exciting and as [[:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2014-08-13/Wikimania|''The Signpost'']] put it was “not too bad, actually”. In the whirl of events seeing dozens of [[:en:Grub_Street#Hacks|hackers bringing hacking home to Hackney]], hunched over their laptops, while other devotees were busy tweeting, it became all too easy to miss some key aspects of the event, and so to fail to recognise that Wikimania contributed to saving lives.


Since late 2013, he has worked as Wikimedian in Residence at York Museums Trust, helping them to share their collections through Wikipedia and its sister projects. An archaeologist of ten years, and a contributor to Wikipedia since 2011, Pat had been keen to find a museum in York interested in opening up access to their content.
Wikipedia is not just a website, it is also a somewhat heterogeneous international community which thrives on face-to-face encounters in meatspace. For myself my involvement gained an extra dimension when I started attending the regular London Meetups six years ago. It was meeting other human beings rather than tapping away while staring at a computer screen which made it interesting.


In September 2013, Wikimedia UK supported the York Museums Trust, and two other institutions, in their search for a Wikimedian in Residence. The YMT is a charitable body which manages three museums, a contemporary art space, and a public gardens in the city.
So, this August the [[:m:Meetup/London/84|London Meetup page]] modestly subsumes Wikimania within its calendar of monthly events, within an expansion to a three day event with between 2,000 and 4,000 attendees (so much for [[:en:Understatement#British_humour|“British understatement“]]). But in essence it is the face-to-face interactions outside the formal sessions which make Wikimania such a powerful event. I don’t want to be dismissive about the formal sessions and all the hard work which went into them, it is just that I want to focus on the other aspects and use this to show why I believe Wikimania saves lives.


"[The YMT] is a brilliant test case for the GLAM-Wiki project, because it's almost the most typical set of museums you could possibly imagine, all in one space," Pat explains.
<span class="plainlinks">[https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/08/does-wikimania-save-lives/<nowiki>[</nowiki>Continues...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>
 
Despite his background in academia, he was surprised to land the role. "I heard that the new scheme was going along, but I had no idea it would be me," he says. Through a series of “happy accidents” he found himself looking for a project at the same time that applications were open and ended up with the job. <span class="plainlinks">[https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/08/pat-hadley-york-museums-trust/<nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>


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Revision as of 12:12, 27 August 2014

Cymraeg | English

Wikimedia UK

Open knowledge for all

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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.

There are several ways to get involved in the charity's work. You can become a member for just £5 per year. You can volunteer to work with us in a variety of ways, both online and offline. You can also make a donation (and if you're a UK taxpayer, we can claim Gift Aid). Subscribe to our Friends' Newsletter to stay in touch. Click the buttons below to learn more.

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We organise dozens of events each year, including meetups, editing events, "Backstage Pass" events at museums, workshops and conferences.

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Для української мови Вікіпедії ласка, відвідайте http://uk.wikipedia.org; для Вікімедіа Україна відвідайте http://ua.wikimedia.org
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