Wikipedia and the Cultural Sector

Liam Wyatt, 19 April 2010

IUPUI, Indianapolis

Some introduction...

Wiki. What?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLYWikis in Plain English

Charity

Website

Software

Chapter

• s

http://underdogpictures.com/wikidoc/site/trailer.htm Documentary trailer - “Truth in Numbers”

Lets talk about Mission Statements...

Common theme...

Engaging the community with their culture.

Preserving and sharing that culture.

So how does WP fit that theme?

http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2010/04/09/the-bird-flies-in-denver/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WPSPA

Some key principles...

Pillars

• Neutral Point of View (NPOV)

• Verifiability (V)

• No Original Research (NOR)

cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pillars

“Free”

• the freedom to use the work and enjoy the benefits of using it • the freedom to study the work and to apply knowledge acquired

from it • the freedom to make and redistribute copies, in whole or in part,

of the information or expression • the freedom to make changes and improvements, and to

distribute derivative works

http://freedomdefined.org/

http://creativecommons.org/

“Free x2”not for profit, volunteer created,

available to use, and re-use. Imagine if you never had to deal with a licensing org. again!

Gratis Libre

If you love something, set it free.

(even if love isn’t always free)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOVE_(Sculpture)

Not every Wiki is Wikipedia...

Local Historyhttp://mallala.nowandthen.net.au/

• Bridges the digital divide in a community

• Builds, strengthens and connects networks

• Is extensible, transferrable, storable

• Lets you have your “own space” and connect it to Wikipedia if you choose

Community Heritage Wiki

Problems and Solutions (?) in Wikimedia

1. Freedom of panorama v. Permission

2. Biting newbies v. Community

3. Wiki-markup v. Usability

4. Scarce resources v. Measuring ROI

1. Panoramafreiheithttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_panorama

On the other hand... The US is the home of P.D.

2. Communityhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEkF5o6KPNI

3. Usabilityhttp://usability.wikimedia.org/

Before...

Soon!

4. Measuring quantitatively & qualitatively

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/BM

Peace, Love & Metadataliamwyatt@gmail.com

[[user:witty lama]]@wittylama

www.wittylama.com/blog

Presentation available via my website