GLAM/Newsletter/August 2024/Contents/Content Partnerships Hub report

This Month in GLAM – Volume XIV, Issue VIII, August 2024

Content Partnerships Hub report

Content Partnerships Hub at Wikimania; The Helpdesk; Metabase; UN collaboration day

Content Partnerships Hub at Wikimania

Wikimedia Sverige participated in Wikimania 2024, which gave us a lot of opportunities to talk about the Content Partnerships Hub, present what we have done and gather ideas and inspiration.

The Helpdesk

One highlight of the conference was the opportunity to talk about the Helpdesk, a support infrastructure for the Wikimedia movement that strenghtens our capacity of designing and implementing successfull content partnerships. We particularly highlighted the role of the Expert Committee that guides the work of the Helpdesk, we would not be able to work without their engagement. We introduced the audience to the concept of Working Groups that we are hoping to implement soon. Helpdesk Working Groups will make it easier to engage Movement experts in our work, with a focus on diversity and making underrepresented knowledge accessible on the Wikimedia platforms.

Metabase

We have been developing Metabase, a linked open data platform for the Movement's activities and materials, for over a year. We felt Wikimania was a great opportunity to speak about it to a broader audience and invite people to join.

In the workshop Learn from each other with linked data – We're developing a Wikibase instance for the Wikimedia movement's activities we introduced Wikibase as a tool to facilitate capacity building in the Wikimedia movement. We presented our work and the technical capabilities of the platform, using SPARQL queries to showcase what is already possible to do, even with the limited data that has been inputed so far. Wikimedia Sverige has been working on the project on their own, and now we're looking forward for others to criticize this work and, hopefully, contribute as well.

The response in the room was very positive, with people speaking out about the problems they encounter when organizing data about their affiliates' activities and materials. Several user accounts and edits were made right there during the session, and we got a lot of thoughtful questions as well.

The next step for Wikimedia Sverige is to use this positive experience to engage people in the long term. We would like to build a community around Metabase, where people not only contribute with data abut also develop the ontology, encourage others to join and discuss the direction the project should take.

Does this sound interesting?

See the recording of the session and read the notes.

Jump right into Metabase and explore the items and queries.

We published a white paper on Metabase where we describe the background of the project, why we made the decisions we did and our thoughts on what the project could become.

We are currently thinking about how to best create a community around Metabase. What form would be most appropriate? Would you like to get engaged? You can always join the discussion in Metabase or contact the WMSE staff (andre.costawikimedia.se or alicia.fagervingwikimedia.se directly.

UN collaboration day

Another area in which the Content Partnerships Hub is active is collaboration between the Wikimedia movement and IGOs (intergovernmental organizations). We were able to devote a whole day to this exciting topic. In a series of interactive workshops, we discussed topics such as:

How is data and resources from UN (United Nations) used in the Wikimedia platforms today, and how can we make it easier for both parties to collaborate and learn from each other?
What useful resources do UN and other IGOs have and what could we do so they are noticed and used by Wikimedians?
How can we can make better use of the linguistic diversity of the Wikimedia movement?

The day was concluded with an edit-a-thon where we together explored and utilized UN resources to improve Wikimedia content.

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