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UK report

Monmouth; Museums; More

By Pigsonthewing, Victuallers, Jonathan Cardy

Roger Bamkin has this unusual report laid out as a diary entry. Its in the UK list but it involves Switzerland, Wales and South Africa.

Monmouthpedia a year on is ... Joburgpedia

Oh May was a good month. It ended when I realised that I was in Cardiff having completed a meeting in the morning and had six hours to drive a three hour trip back to an important weekly meeting (with my wife in a pub) in Derby. I had just had an email from Luis Corvini who was doing his masters final piece on the subject of QRpedia. He said he was keen to meet people in Monmouth and he was based in Cardiff.

How would Luis react to a phone call asking him for his post code so that I could come and get him? immediately? I proposed that we could drive to Monmouth and introduce him to the main people. I'd met Luis only once before at GLAMwiki so I was impressed that he took less than 15 minutes to rearrange his day. So an hour later Luis, his girlfriend and I arrived on a sunny day to the town that is described by hundreds of geocoded Wikipedia articles and a thousand QRpedia codes.

Monmouthpedia a year on is ... Joburgpedia

OK the meeting wasn't entirely "on spec" as I had been helping the Joburgpedia project to get plaques manufactured in Monmouth. At odds with ecology, it had made sense for Dumisani Ndubane to source the new South African plaques in Monmouth (and new plaques were coming out of the kiln today.) The work was assisted by the enterprising Swiss Chapter and Ashley van Haeften who had put us in touch.

Monmouth had changed little and the dozens of street banners still declared "Monmouthpedia" and the plaques are there as understated as they always were. The main improvement is the free wifi which was installed by the council but Monmouthpedia had acted as the catalyst to the funding. Luis was taken around one of the pubs where every picture has a QR code and we went into the local newspaper and emerged with the editor who followed us up the street to find the new plaques. The newspaper knew it was a year since Monmouthpedia had been declared open and they were intrigued that they were being introduced to the second Brazilian post grad researcher who had come to Monmouth.

The "Monmouth plaques" are made at a sheltered craft business where John Cummings was once a volunteer. Cathy Yeates the manager had reused the Monmouth plaque design to meet the need to deliver plaques "by June" to Johannesburg. The locations chosen in Johannesburg are impressive. They include Bishop Tutu's house, Mahatma Gandhi's house and the main football stadium in Soweto. (I have linked all of these in the hope that you might assist and start to create some stubs). The new plaques have a wonderful Joburgpedia logo, the QRpedia QR code and an invitation to scan in two languages. This is the second Wikitown project funded by the Swiss chapter in Africa and only the third Wikitown to make an impression on that continent.

Oxford - Queen Victoria's Journals

On 24 May Liz McCarthy of the Bodleian libraries and Wikimedia UK ran an editathon in Oxford using resources that included Queen Victoria's journals, which the Bodleian and the Royal Archive have launched online in a site with different versions of the text, indexes, essays, and other facilities. The site is free to users in the UK, and until the end of June 2013 only to all global users. Nearly 20 people took part, in Oxford or just online, and articles worked on included:

Queen Street Mill Museum

A quiet afternoon in Burnley

Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing) continued his residency at Lancashire County Council's Queen Street Mill textile museum in Burnley with a backstage pass and editathon on 5 May. Participants travelled from as far away as Derby and Kent! In addition to contributing Wi-Fi, a fine lunch and delicious cakes, the museum relaxed their restrictions on photography (hopefully a permanent move) and had several staff in attendance to answer questions and guide the tour. A number of articles were written on the day or subsequently, including one which has already achieved "Good Article" status. Many photographs and several videos were made. See WP:GLAM/QSMM for details. New editors were signed up and welcomed. Thanks to participants, QSMM staff, Lancashire County Council, and to Museum Development North West for their support for this project.

"A Lane at Hamstead, Staffordshire" by William Ellis, uploaded by The New Art Gallery Walsall and soon to be seen in the book he Birmingham and Black Country Flora

Andy also continued his residency at the The New Art Gallery Walsall, where a series of public events, including backstage tours, and editor training were held. Several significant artworks, including Oscar Wilde's tomb and Van Gough's Sorrow were documented. The gallery generously uploaded a further number of high resolution images of artworks in their collection, including some of local topographical interest. Sorrow has been voted a 'Featured Image' on Wikimedia Commons. One of these, shown above, has already been included as a result, in a new book currently at the printers. See WP:GLAM/NAGW for a list of articles and links to images.

Amsterdam Hackathon and Rijksmuseum

Andy attended the Amsterdam Hackathon (covered elsewhere) where he had a number of GLAM-related conversations with Wikipedians from around the world, including helping with several planned QRpedia installations. He also accepted an invitation, extended at April's London GLAM conference, to address a staff meeting at the recently-reopened Rijksmuseum, about his work as a Wikipedian in Residence, and the roles of Wikipedians in Residence in general.

Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums

Wikimedia UK has had a Wikipedian in residence at Tyne and War Archives and Museums. Successes include outreach to relevant Wikiprojects (Tyne and Wear used to be a centre of the world's shipbuilding). Results include a number of pictures now used in featured articles, such as at w:EN:Minas Geraes-class battleship#Bidding and construction.

Future WikimediaUK GLAM events

People can now sign up for the following future events:


Check back for a new edition next month.
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