Presentations, conferences and more

By Missvain, Rock drum and HaeB

Wikimania 2012[edit]

The 8th annual Wikimedia Conference, Wikimania, will take place in Washington, D.C. in July, 2012. As one of the world's major cultural and technological hubs, Washington will be a great place to celebrate the GLAM relationship with Wikimedia. Notable GLAMs showed their support for Wikimania such as the National Archives, the Library of Congress and related organizations such as Creative Commons and Wikimedia NYC. Congratulations to the Washington team for putting together a successful effort. Learn more about Wikimania 2012 at the official page.

Don't forget, Wikimania 2011 is this August in Haifa, Israel.

GLAMcamp hits New York[edit]

The first GLAMcamp is slated for May 20-22 in New York City. Sponsored by Wikimedia New York City and the New York Public Library, the weekend will bring together Wikimedians, key figures from GLAMs and related institutions, such as Creative Commons, to focus on policies, procedures, outreach and stronger ways to collaborate in an organized manner. GLAMcamp will take place at the New York Public Library, who will be celebrating their 100th birthday that weekend!

New Residency in the Smithsonian[edit]

Wikimedian Sarah Stierch (User:Missvain) has announced (see also her blogpost) that she will be the Wikipedian-in-Residence at the Archives of American Art, which are based in Washington DC and form part of the Smithsonian Institution. Her residency will last from June to August, in the form of an unpaid internship (but gaining credit towards her Masters degree in Museum Studies). While the details are still being worked out, the aims will include:

“

Broader coverage of topics related to American Art and the archives of the collection on Wikipedia and related websites.
Content donation(s) to Commons
E-volunteer programs (similar to what is being studied right now at the Indianapolis Museum of Art residency)
Brownbags and workshops with staff and volunteers on how to use Wikipedia
Possible traffic growth to the AAA's website.
Digitizing more of the collections.
Backstage pass tour and an expansion of the GLAM/SI program

”

Wikipedian in Residence at NARA[edit]

Wikimedian Dominic McDevitt-Parks (formerly known as Dmcvedit) is to become the first Wikipedian in Residence at NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) in Washington DC. Beginning in May, Dominic will be working with the archives to chart out a course of projects and cooperative ventures that will help make the records more publicly accessible.

Briefly[edit]

Presentation at IGNITESmithsonian: Wikimedians Aude (Katie Filbert) and Missvain (Sarah Stierch) gave a presentation at IGNITESmithsonian about Wikipedia's collaboration with the museum. A video of the talk can be seen here with Stierch's wrap-up available to be read here.
Blogposts: On the blog of the US-based "Center for the Future of Museums", Lori Byrd Phillips (HstryQT, the current Wikipedian-in-Residence at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis) wrote about "Museums and Wikipedia: the future of collaboration and accessibility". UK Wikimedian Fæ devoted the first two postings on his new personal blog to GLAM topics, a critique of the term "GLAM Ambassador" (proposing to use " e-volunteer" instead), and an appeal to institutions to "Set your digital archive free" by uploading it to Wikimedia Commons. Cultural partnerships fellow, Liam Wyatt (Witty lama) made a post on the Wikimedia Foundation's blog about Wikimedians “In Residence” around the world.
Edit-a-thon: On May 6, there will be an edit-a-thon at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art. Catalan Wikimedians will meet the curators at the museum's library and will improve the Wikipedia entry on Xavier Miserachs. Like last year's Hoxne Challenge, the day will focus on improving only the one article with experts and high-quality resources close-at-hand.