OpenGLAM structure and Working Group

The OpenGLAM initiative has been around now for more than two years. In this period we have advocated for more open data in the cultural heritage sector in a variety of ways. In this blog post I want to give you an overview of the structure of OpenGLAM and of our different activities we organise with the network.

OpenGLAM was set up as an initiative of the Open Knowledge Foundation. The aim of the initiative was to bring together people from a variety of different organisations, institutions and networks that share a similar set of principles and aims. We therefore work together with representatives from the Wikimedia Foundation, Creative Commons, the Internet Archive, people working at museums and libraries, open data advocates and much more.

The public side of OpenGLAM mainly lives on our blog and Twitter account. More in depth discussions are taking place on the public Mailing List. On the website we try to provide as much information as possible around the topic of open data in the cultural sector by showing best practices of open institutions in the Open Collections sections, explain what it means to be an ‘Open GLAM’ with the OpenGLAM Principles and provide Documentation for further reading.

Besides this more public side, we also have an Advisory Board with high profile thinkers in the open cultural heritage domain. They help us decide on our course and address important issues such as the recent discussion about adding open Creative Commons licenses to Public Domain material.

Finally we have a Working Group which consists out of active volunteers from a variety of domains. The Working Group has become the core of the OpenGLAM initiative and meets virtually on a monthly basis to discuss relevant topics, share news and updates and take actions that benefit the adoption of open data in the cultural sector. This has for example resulted in two successful cultural heritage topic streams at the annual conferences organised by the Open Knowledge Foundation, active discussions with a variety of cultural institutions on why and how to open up their data, and recently the OpenGLAM benchmark survey was started that aims to get more data about the adoption of open data principles in the heritage sector around the world.

The Working Group has established itself in several local Open Knowledge Foundation local groups, as well as OpenGLAM ambassadors to serve as the local point of contact in their area. The full list of local groups and ambassadors can be found here. All our meeting notes are made available to the public so if you want to get an idea abut what is being discussed have a look here.

We always invite new people to join the Working Group and help spread the word. Don’t worry if you are new to the field, we gladly bring you up to speed. More information about joining the OpenGLAM working group can be found in this document. If you want more information about the OpenGLAM initiative, the Working Group, or join us, please get in touch!