GLAM-WIKI/Attendee mailouts/Email 1

Dear All,

As things stand we are now half full! This is an amazing take-up rate for something with such a short lead time. So thank you for being the first ones to sign on to come to this event. I thought I'd write to you to tell you of some updates and perhaps get a conversation started before the event itself.

Tentative Schedule:

We have put together the first draft of the schedule and, in the wiki-tradition, we are publishing early to solicit feedback. If you have any questions/comments, please email back and they will be addressed. [1]


Highly recommended (and quick to watch) introductory videos:

In order to be able to 'jump right in' on the day it would be good if we could all have a common background of understanding with regards to specific terms and ideas. To that end, here are three short videos that neatly describe some of the fundamental concepts - this whole 'Wikipedia thing'; Wikis; and Web 2.0.

Trailer to (as yet unreleased) /Wikipedia/ documentary "Truth in Numbers" [2]

"Wikis in plain English" [3]

"Web 2.0 in 5 minutes "the Machine is Us/ing Us" [4]

Online discussions:

As suggested in your registration email, if you'd like to discuss any of the issues surrounding Wikimedia and the GLAM sector we recommend here is a good place to start [5] and also on twitter using the hashtag #GLAM-WIKI [6] (note the hyphen).

Missing organisations:

Amongst the registrations received there is fantastic support from across a large variety of institutions in Canberra. There are also attendees coming in from Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and Brisbane (not to mention presenters coming in from Germany and the United States). However, there are a few important institutions that have thus-far not joined up. Given that the best way of communicating is word of mouth, perhaps you could help by:

  1. Distributing the press release [7] or (A5) flyer [8] to your professional list/group.
  2. Blogging about your interests/past experiences and linking back to the info page glam.wikimedia.org.au
  3. Specifically, if you personally know someone you think would like to come: in the State Library of NSW; any of the State archives; any QLD museum or gallery; the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra or any of the NZ national institutions in Wellington - please invite them along.

Expectations:

It has been drawn to my attention that in calling this event there might be an expectation that Wikimedia Australia is able to make promises on behalf of /Wikipedia/ as a whole. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) whilst Wikimedia Australia Inc. is indeed the officially recognised chapter of the global Wikimedia movement in this country it must be affirmed that Wikimedia Australia has no ownership of the project and all copyright in the content of the project lies with its many thousands of authors. Like a school of fish, the Wikimedia movement moves in patterns that appear controlled even though there is no individual setting the direction. Equally, Wikimedia Australia and the Wikimedians attending GLAM-WIKI do not expect that the kinds of changes that collaborative projects like ours suggest could happen overnight. Therefore, whilst both communities attending GLAM-WIKI will and should make requests of the other we must all recognise that, to paraphrase Churchill, this does not represent and end to discussions, not even the beginning of the end, but it does perhaps represent then end of the beginning.


Sincerely, Liam Wyatt - VP Wikimedia Australia & Convener GLAM-WIKI

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