Wikimedia GLAMCamp
Last weekend Wikimedia hosted its second GLAMCamp for Wikimedians, key GLAM institutions and other representatives that already work closely with Wikimedia. Wikimedia has become one of the most prominent organisations working in the area of Open GLAM and has run a series of very successful projects in this area most notably Wiki Love Monuments and the Wikipedian in Residence scheme.
The event took place in central Amsterdam over three days and focused on a number of parallel sessions in which key legal, technical and organisational issues relating to GLAM outreach were discussed.
On the Friday there was a public session with three excellent presentations:
- Dr. Margriet Schavemaker, Head of Collections and Research at the Stedelijk Museum gave a talk entitled”Tricks and traps of sharing modern collections online”;
- David Haskiya from Europeana talked about the tremendous possibilities that existed for collaboration between Wikimedia and Europeana;
- Frank Meijer from the Tropenmuseum finished off the public session on Friday with his reflections on what working with Wikipedia had been like.
Videos of the presentations are available here, and for a full report on the weekend’s events and the minutes from the sessions see the Wikimedia GLAM Netherlands Report.
It was great to see Wikimedians collaborating ever more closely with other initiatives such as Communia and Europeana, both of whom had representatives in attendance. On top of this there appeared to be a consensus amongst representatives of the GLAM institutions present that opening up the data they hold on their collections and the digital copies they create is a positive step towards achieving the common goal of greater accessibility to our shared cultural heritage.
Those who are interested in GLAM outreach and helping to join the effort to encourage cultural heritage institutions to open up the data they hold on their collections and digital copies of works, please join the discussion on the Open GLAM/Open Heritage mailing list.