Submissions/Wikipedian in Residence

This is an open submission for Wikimania 2010.

Title of the submission: Wikipedian in Residence

Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, panel, presentation): Presentation

Author of the submission: Liam Wyatt

E-mail address or username (if username, please confirm email address in Special:Preferences): Witty Lama

Country of origin: Australia

Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.): British Museum

Personal homepage or blog: http://wittylama.com

Abstract (please use no less than 300 words to describe your proposal)

How does one of the world's oldest, largest and most visible museums interact with the one of the world's youngest, largest and most visible websites? I will be undertaking the world's first “volunteer Wikipedian-in-residence” project at the British Museum in London to find out. The project begins in June and will end one week before Wikimania.

The residency will aim improve the volume and quality of information relating to the museum in Wikipedia and improve public engagement with that information. Equally, it will raise issues internally regarding copyright, curatoral standards, visitor engagement and volunteerism in the digital environment. The project aims to build trust and share best-practices between two large communities who are often ambivalent towards each other yet share many of the same goals.

This presentation will report on the results of the project in terms of qualitative measures (including the response of curatorial, legal and marketing departments to working in this different knowledge platform) as well as quantitative metrics. It will also look at the reaction of the Wikimedia community, problems and unexpected successes. Finally, the presentation will also discuss how this project can be tailored the needs of individual museums and Wikimedians, including: scope; internal and/or external focus; and finding an appropriate fit to the mission and capacity of the museum and individual.

Track (People and Community/Knowledge and Collaboration/Infrastructure): Knowledge and Collaboration.

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted: Yes.

Slides or further information (optional)

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with four tildes. (~~~~).