GLAM/Newsletter/June 2011/Contents/UK report
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On the road again - A very GLAMorous week in the UK
By Rock drum, Brian McNeil, Tagishsimon and Johnbod
- June 2010 – Backstage Pass, British Museum
- June 2010 – Hoxne Challenge, British Museum
- November 2010 – GLAM-WIKI: UK 2010, British Museum
- January 2011 – Editathon, British Library
- April 2011 – Backstage Pass, Derby Museums
- May 2011 – Wright Challenge, Derby Museums
- June 2011 – Editathon, British Library
- June 2011 – Backstage Pass, National Railway Museum
- June 2011 – GLAMcamp London, British Library
- Upcoming
- July 2011 – Wikilounge, Victoria and Albert Museum
Liam Wyatt, the Wikimedia Foundation Cultural Partnerships Fellow, visited the UK this month for a week of meetups, talks and conferences. With GLAM task force member, John Byrne (Johnbod), he travelled down the country - from Scotland to London. He then went on to Minsk, Belarus for the "EIFL General Assembly", Berlin, Germany where he attended OKcon and met with the local chapter, and Dusseldorf for the "Communicating the Museum" conference.
Monday – Edinburgh meetup
[edit]Monday saw a meetup in Edinburgh. Attendees included Wikinews journalist Brian McNeil, and WikiConference UK 2011 keynote speaker, Ollie Bray. The main topic of discussion was how to tempt Scottish Wikimedians away from their keyboards, and out into the real world. Attendee McNeil noted that "Turnout was disappointing, however, those who didn't turn up will be sad to discover the meetup was slap-bang in the middle of the pub's real ale festival."
Tuesday – York meetup
[edit]On Tuesday afternoon, Wyatt, Byrne, and McNeil, took part in a meeting with Museums Galleries Scotland, during which they discussed a potential relationship between the group and Wikimedia.
During the evening Wyatt and Byrne took part in a meetup on York, the first ever in the city. The organizer of the next day’s Backstage Pass - User:Tagishsimon - was also in attendance. The four participants mainly discussed whether sufficient publicity had been given to the meetup (which they agreed probably had not), and whether people had turned up but not found the meeting before adjourning to a Chinese restaurant.
Wednesday – National Railway Museum Backstage Pass
[edit]Wednesday was the day of the National Railway Museum workshop. Representatives from around 6 museums attended, in addition to several staff from the Railway Museum itself. Wyatt gave the keynote speech, followed by a Q&A. In the afternoon the Wikimedians organized a "Wikilounge", where they discussed Wikipedia with GLAM representatives and held an "Editing clinic", for those who wanted to have a go. The results of the day included three follow-up meetings/presentations being arranged with additional museums, whilst the NRM is also looking hopeful for co-operation with Wikipedia. This will probably mainly focus on their very strong collection of railway art, of which little was displayed previously, as well as railway history and technology.
Friday – GLAMcamp London
[edit]On Friday - the final day of the UK "GLAM tour" - over 20 Wikimedians and GLAM representatives gathered in the British Library for GLAMcamp London.
Throughout the day, there were a number of sessions and presentations on various topics including QR codes, Wikipedia's sister projects and metadata and categories on Wikimedia Commons. Attendees included QRpedia co-creator, Terence Eden and Wikimedia UK Directors Roger Bamkin (Victuallers) and Ashley Van Haeften (Fæ) as well as several members of the UK GLAM task force and various GLAM representatives.
The day began with Eden and Bamkin presenting on QRpedia and how QR codes could make multi-lingual and interactive exhibitions possible at almost no cost. Workshops also covered metadata and Commons, issues and challenges for growing the GLAM e-volunteer network across the UK and new developments in cultural archives.
Further reading
[edit]- Etherpad
- Blog posts:
- Slides:
