2014 Activity Plan/GLAM Outreach

Lead member of staff

Daria Cybulska with Jonathan Cardy

Indicative budget amount

£10,000, allowing for a GLAMcamp or similar style event

Description and overall rationale

The aim of this programme area is extending the GLAM work through local and national events, lead by the GLAM Organiser and also resulting from initiatives from our volunteers and GLAM environment. We are also working with our community to find opportunities to improve content, secure material for open use, crosstrain editors. This is done through outreach activities, GLAMcamp-style events and partnerships with particular cultural institutions. We work to balance the GLAMs that are keenest to work with us against the geographic and subject preferences of our community.

Ultimately, we are working to improve the content of Wikimedia projects through partnerships with GLAMs, and increasing their awareness of open knowledge movement.

For 2013 plan, please see here.

We have also run GLAM-Wiki conference in 2013, page for which you can see here.

Timelines - i.e. what happens quarter by quarter

please add details

• In quarter 4 we could survey the institutions we have come in contact and worked with in 2014-15 to see how many have developed an understanding of openGLAM, changed their internal rules to make free content available, made declarations that they will make releases.

Success criteria and Metrics - overall and quarter by quarter breakdown if relevant

Goals

Content improvement of Wikimedia projects:

• Influence GLAMs to use free licences and assist GLAMs to digitise, release content, run image uploads, e.g. to Wikimedia Commons - 4 initiatives a year with 100+ uploads each (gdoc database and wiki category)
• Run events engaging with GLAM experts, e.g. curators and archivists - 4 a year, e.g. editathons to focus on articles of high importance, gaps in coverage (event on wiki)
• Work with WMF to enable monitoring of article quality improvement

Increase awareness of GLAMs of Wikimedia projects, open knowledge movement, and influence organisations to start using open licences. Eventually this will support the aim of content improvement as GLAMs will release content to Wikimedia projects:

• Awareness events for GLAMs - hold 2 events for GLAMs, bringing together 5-10 institutions each, 50% of which go on to run a project with WMUK (event on wiki, database of contacts)
• Running activities with 5 institutions/year (database of contacts)
• Presence at external sector conferences and events - 4 a year, distributing materials and building new contacts (event on wiki, database of contacts)
• 50% institutions that were involved in a project the previous year continue to be involved (survey /database of contacts)

Engage with Wikimedia community to gain new and retain existing volunteers - they will in turn support the two above aims of the GLAM outreach:

• Volunteers encouraged to contribute to GLAM projects - 4 editathons bringing on average 10 volunteers in, some previously inactive (event list on wiki)
• Recruitment - GLAM workshops for newcomers - support 10 GLAM related training sessions/editathons with a good geographic/topic spread in the UK, training 100 new contributors (event on wiki)
• Develop approaches to keep contributors engaged with the project - e.g. from the first British Museum editathon in 2010, all 10 are still active. We aim to run further tests to find the right approaches.
• Reactivation - Contact 100 inactive Wikimedians to invite them to GLAM events in their locale or in accordance with their interests, 20 to get involved (CiviCRM)

In progress - notes from the recent discussion:

• As an operational measure, we would aim to have the 'Program of GLAM events is diverse in both subject and location events' - captured by 'At least 6 different topic areas covered by GLAM events' and 'At least 6 different locations outside London to have events'
• The UK has for historic reasons rather more than its fair share of the world's cultural patrimony. Wikimedia UK has an important role in helping the global community access that - Promptly respond to requests for help from Wikimedians abroad for digital access to information in the UK. // this can be captured as a successful story of increasing access to Wikimedia projects if the enquiries develop into an onward relationship.
• Three digital releases include non-UK information - The British Library partnership led to the release of early Canadian photographs, the York Museums trust involves access to a collection of early photographs on vulcanology and glaciers worlwide.

Risks

• Insufficient focus leads to poor impact.
• Not enough volunteers to support community events.