ArchiefWiki: share & conquer. Collaborative success of independent knowledge sharing

ArchiefWiki: share & conquer

collaborative success of independent knowledge sharing

Tom Cobbaert | APEx Conference | 28 June 2013

Context > “It is I”Archivist / Head of Collections @ ADVN archives and research centre for Flemish

nationalism and national movements in Europe

Archivist @ NISE research platform on national movements in

Europe

Business owner @ ArchivA consultancy and services in bringing small

collections and heritage projects online

Board member @ VVBAD Flemish association for librarians, archivists and

documentalists

Founding member @ Archief 2.0 Dutch-Flemish community of archivists

ArchiefWiki: share & conquer | APEx Conference | 28 June 2013

Context > Archief 2.0 2007 - “foundation”

online community to share experiences, ideas and knowledge

archivist’s 2.0 manifesto, because web 2.0 is “an attitude rather than technology” (T. O’Reilly) -“turning archival thinking upside down” (T. Thomassen)

2008 - “1st anniversary” reaching 100 members organizing a first succesful conference on web 2.0 in

archives

2009 - “growing up” core members form the Archief 2.0 thinktank


Context > Archief 2.0


Archief 2.0 thinktank in 3 keywords

Context > Archief 2.0 > 3 keywords


Independent

Context > Archief 2.0 > 3 keywords Independent

Thinktank members have diverse backgrounds public archives, private archives, consultants etc.

but participation is voluntary and individual

Grassroots: you don’t need to be an organization to be organized activities and projects grow out of a loose idea being picked up finances are based on crowd funding or the occasional sponsor


Context > Archief 2.0 > 3 keywords


Open

Context > Archief 2.0 > 3 keywords Open

Enabling the choice for (r)evolution in archives attitude

2007-2013: different tools social media vs open data, linked data, semantic websame attitude open towards users in sharing information open towards colleagues in sharing knowledge open towards archives/archivists in collaboration

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” (B. Shaw)


Context > Archief 2.0 > 3 keywords Acting


Context > Archief 2.0 > 3 keywords Acting

Online community: 1500+ members

(Un)conferences: Web 2.0 (2008), Pre-Conference KVAN Days (2010), ArchiveCamp (2012)

Share-and-Play sessions: Webarchiving (2009), Semantic web (2010), Open data (2011), Standards and semantics (2012), EU cookie legislation (2013)

Lectures, courses and articles

Projects: 23 Archive Things training course, ArchivesWiki


ArchiefWiki > What?


ArchiefWiki > What?


Aims: Digitization of archival reference works and distributing it

as open content for archivists and archives users

Through the development of a digital point of reference, giving new life to and update these ‘classics’

Promote the use of wiki’s as a collaborative tool for archives and exchange best practices and experiences with MediaWiki-software and extensions

5 years of ArchiefWiki in 5 milestones

ArchiefWiki > What? > 5 milestones September 2007: the conception of the idea at

Informatie conference in Ghent (BE)


ArchiefWiki > What? > 5 milestones Spring 2008: digitization of lexicon

Archiefterminologie Nederland en Vlaanderen


ArchiefWiki > What? > 5 milestones June 2009: official presentation of ArchiefWiki at

KVAN Dagen (NL) conference


ArchiefWiki > What? > 5 milestones November 2010: 1st ArchiefWiki Input Day


ArchiefWiki > What? > 5 milestones Spring 2012: ArchiefWiki goes semantic


ArchiefWiki > What? > Projects Two major projects:

Archival terminology Map and guide to Dutch archives

Hosting collaborative projects: best practices (such as building expertise, open data),

standards, translation of ICA texts etc.

Input: product of a community of many helping hands fostered by annual Input Days professionals as well as archives enthousiasts;

everyone contributes in the way they prefer


ArchiefWiki > Terminology


Setup: Making Dutch archival terminology free and online

available for everyone (with an interest in archives) 2008: 183 terms of Archiefterminologie van Nederland

en Vlaanderen (2003) Expanding with other reference works 2013: 724 terms of a dozen sources

Lexicons: Archiefterminologie. Archieftermen voor gebruik in het Rijksarchief (1990), Terminologie voor grafische archivalia (1989), Lexicon van Nederlandse archieftermen (1983) etc.

Manuals: Handleiding voor het ordenen en beschrijven van archieven (1898) etc.

Standards: ISAD(G), NEN-ISO 15489 23081, ReMaNo, ED3 etc. Legislation: Flemish archival decree etc.

ArchiefWiki > Terminology Model:

Description for each lexicon Redirecting synonymous terms Contextual page for each source where all terms

originating from that source are grouped Linking to other existing terms within definitions Basic thesaurus functions (USE/UF, BT, NT, RT) External reference(s) Example image(s) Discussion page per term


ArchiefWiki > Archives Map Map of archives and organizations in the

Netherlands: Initially based on Almanak van het Nederlands

Archiefwezen (the “yellow pages” of Dutch archives) Digitized, updated and expanded by archives and users 2013: 271 archives and organizations Enhanced:

Mash-up of Google Maps and archives information pages Visualization of geographic work areas Historical context of geographic work areas Social media integration

Increasing requests for re-use of data > going semantic


ArchiefWiki > Going semantic What?

Semanticizing: give meaning to words by (machine-readable) annotation

Why? Standard wiki:

is no more than plain text connected by hyperlinks is perfect to share and edit information but terrible to manage and control structured data has limited search options (full text)

Semantic wiki: allows complex search queries allows automatic creation of reports allows standardized data structure facilitates re-use: exporting and linking (open) data


ArchiefWiki > Going semantic How?

Semantic MediaWiki: wiki extension that offers semantic functionalities ≠ auto-semanticizing wiki data

Work plan (2012): Selection of dataset: Archives Map project Standardizing data structure: ISDIAH Definition of datatypes and properties (semantic annotation) Manual conversion of data Re-use testcase: www.OnsDNA.nl


ArchiefWiki > Future? Plans & Dreams

Expand query options: e.g. on-the-fly map rendering

Expand export facilities: e.g. implementation EAG

Linking existing open data / vocabularies

Semanticizing the terminology project

Internationalization of the terminology project: linking/adding foreign archival terminologies

Etc.


More information?

mail: [email protected] | twitter: @tomcobbaert

web: www.archiefwiki.org | twitter: @archiefwiki

community: www.archief20.org/group/archiefwiki
