Content Partnerships Hub/Software/Future support candidates
Content Partnerships Hub
Improving the Wikimedia movement’s work with content partners
Future needs: new software and features
Sometimes new developments in the Wikimedia movement create a need for new features, or even entirely new tools. The hub also wants to investigate how these can be put into place and supported. Examples include:
- A more powerful uploader tool for Wikibase. While there has been increased interest among actors such as GLAMs to set up their own data repositories using the same software that powers Wikidata, the current lack of efficient and easy to use tools to import large amounts of data into a Wikibase instance makes it hard to get started. We have been talking with Wikimedia Deutschland's developer team about how such a tool might look like, and would like to continue this thread and discuss our possible engagement in the project.
- Further improvements of Cassandra and the GLAM Wiki dashboard. These tools make it easy for GLAMs to keep track of the materials they have shared on Wikimedia Commons and to collect pageview statistics and other metrics, which are often crucial when the institutions make strategic decisions about their involvement in the Wikimedia platforms. We have used our partnership network in Sweden to provide feedback about these tools, and would like to continue being involved in their development. It is crucial that content partners are able to get a good overview and metrics about their contributions without having to ask us for help navigating the tools and understanding the results.
- The new app Makumbusho: Apps4Museums. This is an inspiring example of how we can harness the rich content on the Wikimedia platforms to provide added value to GLAMs that do not have the resources to develop the digital presence that is needed to attract and inform their patrons. The apps developed within this framework will not only benefit the museums, but also bring their users' attention to the content on the Wikimedia platforms, leading to them engaging with and improving it. We love this project because it sets out to solve one of the most crucial problems of content partnerships: putting the data and files on the Wikimedia platforms is one thing, but making sure it's actually seen and used by non-Wikimedians is another.