Empowering Italian GLAMs
| Empowering Italian GLAMs (EN) | Grant from WMF (EN) | Report (EN) | Relazione avanzamento (IT) | FAQ (IT) | Project on Wikimedia Italia wiki (IT) | Credits |
Empowering Italian GLAMs aims at addressing all Italian museums and heritage institutions in using open tools and the Wikimedia projects for sharing and reusing content related to their digital collections. The project is structured into 3 workpackages addressing 3000 institutions (invited to join a Wikipedia campaign by provided images of their institutions), triggering 500 institutions (involved in releasing a collection with open license and upload it on the Wikimedia projects) and focusing on 5 institutions (guided to embrace an open strategy on their entire institutions).
Please note that this proposal has been updated with the recommendations from the Committee.
- For the original proposal please check the Application for Empowering Italian GLAMs
Context edit
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The proposal is promoted by Wikimedia Italia and it involves a very significant network of partner organisations specialised in all the relevant aspects of the project: museums and heritage institutions (ICOM Italia), open licenses and cultural rights (Creative Commons Italia), research (University of Torino and Erasmus University in Rotterdam) and of course the Wikimedia projects and OpenStreetMap (Wikimedia Italia). The proposal relies on the experiences of all institutions involved and it is designed to contribute to their vision by targeting museums and heritage institutions and involving them in a digital strategy, which is based on open licences and the upload of content on the Wikimedia projects, and it is meant to enhance those institutions.
| Institution | Description - Vision and overview | Relevance of the proposal | Experiences in the field of GLAMs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikimedia Italia (lead) | Wikimedia Chapter, established in 2005. It promotes Wikipedia, the Wikimedia projects, OpenStreetMap and open knowledge in Italy | The proposal supports open knowledge in Italy and it contributes to triggering the use of open licences among cultural institutions, the production of open content for the Wikimedia projects and OpenStreetMap and a legislative change.
Wikimedia Italia is currently working for 2022 on a publication related to the status of Open Knowledge in the field of heritage and museums and it is planning to focus Wiki Loves Monuments 2024 on museums (both photos of the exterior and interior and collaborations with museums to upload collections). |
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| University of Torino | The university implements research in the field of cultural economy. A research team in the ICT department is also already involved in projects related to Wikimedia Commons supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. | The proposal contributes to research in the field of cultural economy with a focus on digital collections, the impact of open access among GLAMs and the cooperation with the Wikimedia projects. | The project benefits from the expertise and evaluation of competent researchers in the field of cultural economy with a focus on impact and metrics.
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| ICOM Italia | The Italian national council of museums. ICOM aims at supporting and coordinating Italian musums and it has a specific Digital Cultural Heritage research group focusing on open access among Italian museums | The proposal triggers the digital stategies of Italian museums and it support their outreach, ICT development and visibility. Furthermore the project triggers open access and participation through the Wikimedia platforms. |
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| Creative Commons Italia | The national chapter of Creative Commons. Active in Creative Commons working groups and involved in advocacy at a national and international level. | Creative Commons Italia provides legal support in the frame of the Italian specific legal context; it reviews the project' guidelines, templates and licenses. The Creative Commons open licenses and tools are used within the project. The project is connected to the Creative Commons international working group OpenGLAM. | Creative Commons Italia has been collaborating with Wikimedia Italia for over 10 years to address the specific complexity of the Italian heritage legislation. Furthermore the two associations collaborate to provide support to wikipedias for legal questions and they have been working together in the field of advocacy (for the European directive on copyright and for the role of Wikimedia Italia as observer at WIPO).
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Envisioned Change edit
Opportunities edit
- Italy has more than 4,500 museums and heritage institutions
- Italian museums and GLAMs are well-documented on Wikidata
- The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition toward disseminating and sharing digital content of their collections.
- While there are still legal, technical and cultural barriers in many cases, there is an increasing demand for adopting open-access policies.
- Institutions are used to communication campaign and contributing to disseminate knowledge about their institution by providing content, data and images (i.e. to journalists).
- Providing images, texts and data for a communication campaign doesn't imply an open access strategy, but - nevertheless - it allows institutions to actually use open access (by providing this content with an open license or under CC0).
- A Wikipedia communication campaign is a way to start a conversation with many institutions, to reach them and to inform them about open access.
- Not all institutions can contribute to the Wikimedia projects with their collections (many do not have digital collections and staff); it is important to consider the potential contribution of different kind of institutions.
- A selection of digital content can be available from a previous exhibition or publication (with captions and introductory information); this content can be relevant for the Wikimedia projects and quite easy to provide by institutions.
- After over 10 years of experience with GLAM-Wiki projects we have best practices and tools which can allow institutions to implement a institutional open access strategy on all their content.
- Approaching institutions through a Data Management Plan (DMP) can allow to consider all aspects of an institution into an open access strategy (example: Museo Egizio DMP Data Management Plan, 2021 in the frame of the Creative Commons GLAM Certificate).
- A pilot experience implemented in the challenging context of Italy can produce guidelines and be replicated.
Challenges edit
- Italy presents a particularly challenging context to open heritage
- Many institutions are still not aware of the potential of using Wikimedia projects and tools for sharing and reusing the knowledge related to their digital collections.
- GLAMs are very different institutions with large digitalized collections, some collections digitalised, no digitalized collections.
- Existing data from national statistics and research implemented by ICOM Italia are not integrated.
- We do not have an overview of the institutions, with their level of implementation of open access (open access policy, collaboration with the Wikimedia projects...) or their potential involvement in open access (presence of digitalized collections, presence of a communication person in the team, presence of an ICT person in the team...).
- The current approach of wikipedians in residence is not scalable and it addresses one institution at the time.
Change we want to see (outcome) edit
We want to reach all Italian museums and heritage institutions and to build a national strategy, implemented with the relevant partners and envisioning different ways institutions can implement open access and contribute to online knowledge on the Wikimedia projects. This new approach can allow us to involve a wide number of institutions and it provides an alternative to wikipedians in residence which are our current approach to GLAM-Wiki cooperation but which is not scalable and it can not applied to large number of institutions all-over the world.
Strategy and Approach edit
The project relays on a strategy based on "levels of involvement" addressing different groups of institutions with different approaches.
| Strategy | Why this strategy will be effective | Learning questions |
|---|---|---|
| Addressing 3000 institutions | A national strategy requires to address all institutions, starting from updating a database, contacting them and monitoring changes. Institutions are invited to implement open access in a simple way (by providing few images, data and texts with an open license). The use of open access is not implemented on the collections (reducing legal issues), but on a very limited selection of documents (images of the museum exterior and interior, some examples of the collections, texts about the history of the institution and the collections, general data); for many museums that do not have digital collections this is a relevant way to contribute to open knowledge related to their institution.
This is a quantitative approach: it is framed as a Wikipedia campaign inviting institutions to contribute to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, to enrich our resources with images, data and texts, and to use open licenses; the project uploads this content, it links it to Wikidata and monitors its use. |
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| Triggering 500 institutions | Not all institutions can easily contribute to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects; only a selection of institutions have digital collections and they can provide them or they can provide a selection of them. Institutions are invited to contribute to open knowledge by focusing on a specific theme; their contribution is not about the institution but about a theme the cultural institution preserves and promotes.
This is a quantity approach based on a selection of institutions which already have digital collections: it invites them to share on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects a selection of their content (i.e. images, a specific collection, a previous exhibition or publication with images, captions, data and introductory texts); the project uploads this content, it links it to Wikidata and monitors its use. |
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| Focusing on 5 institutions | Open access among institutions doesn't only mean that institutions release their digital collections in public domain in CC0 ore with a public domain mark. Open access is an open approach that can be implemented by default on all content produced and collected by institutions. It requires an open access policy, websites with open licenses, clearing of rights, procedures to manage GDPR and rights management to allow the release of content with open licences, the use of an open approach on data (Open Data), educational resources (OER), research (Open Science), publications (Open Access). software (open software is required as a preference in Italy for public administrations in the frame of Open Government), open formats... This strategy focuses on implementing open access on the entire institution.
This is a quality approach that focuses on specific case studies: it involves a series of institutions already implementing Open Access and it supports them in a wide strategy including Openness on the entire institution. The project supports the institutions, uploads their content, it links them to Wikidata and monitors the use of their content. It also implements the current good practices in the field of GLAM-Wiki projects and OpenGLAM. This strategy has been already drafted in the Museo Egizio DMP Data Management Plan. |
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Activities edit
The project is structured into three workpackages, designed to implement the strategy with a series of activities: Workpackage 1 - Reaching 3000 museums; Workpackage 2 - Triggering 500 museums; Workpackage 3 - Focusing on 5 museums. Among the main activities implemented by the project there are improving Wikidata, producing a survey and form, producing an awareness campaign designed to reach 3000 institutions, engaging 500 institutions, focusing on 5 case studies, uploading and monitoring content, documenting and evaluating the activities and disseminating the results.
| Workpackage | Outcome | Strategy | Activities |
| Workpackage 1 - Reaching 3000 museums | Having a system to monitor the implementation of open access by the Italian museums | Using the Wikidata to monitor Italian museums and their open access status | Improve Wikidata with all data about Italian museums, adding relevant information related to open access.
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| A better understanding of attitudes and needs of GLAMs in sharing and reusing their digital collections through Wikimedia projects and tools | Reaching the Italian museums | Communicating to Italian museums through a form and survey, which invites to provide content with an open licence and collects a series of data related to attitudes and needs
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| An awareness raising campaign among Italian GLAMs | Supporting Italian museums in understanding open access, its relevance and benefits | The campaign focuses on the opportunities of open access and the cooperation with Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects
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| Images, data and texts from cultural institutions released with open licenses and uploaded on the Wikimedia projects. | Inviting Italian museums to provide content with an open license |
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| Selection of 500 museums with digital collections | Preparation of the next phase |
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| Workpackage 2 - Triggering 500 museums | Images, data and texts from a specific theme documented by the institutions are released with open licenses and uploaded on the Wikimedia projects. | Reaching the Italian museums with digital collections and inviting them to provide a selection of their content (i.e. images, a specific collection, a previous exhibition or publication with images, captions, data and introductory texts). The focus in on a specific theme relevant for the museum. |
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| Addressing Open Access among GLAMs with a interdisciplinary team and implementation partners | Working with a centralised support team for GLAMs rather than Wikipedian in residence to allow supporting more institutions at the same time and |
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| Identification of 5 case studies among Italian GLAM oriented toward open access policies | Preparation of the next phase |
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| Workpackage 3 - Focusing on 5 museums | New or refined open GLAM tools to enable museum professionals and the Wikimedia community to monitor the uses and sharing of images from their collections and integrate such tools into museum sites. | Working with tools that can monitor the use of content shared and that can be integrated by the institution |
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| Monitor and evaluation of results from a series of case studies | Action research supported by scholars and academic partners and by a network of relevant stakeholders (Wikimedia Italia, Creative Commons Italia and ICOM Italia) |
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| Building capacities among museums professionals and the Wikimedia community to harness the potential to share and reuse content from digital collections through Wikimedia projects and tools. | Project dissemination |
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Timeline edit
| Workpackage | Period | |
|---|---|---|
| Workpackage 1 - Reaching 3000 museums | May-December 2022 | Wikimedia Italia will support the workpackage 1 and it will start implementing it in May 2022 |
| Workpackage 2 - Triggering 500 museums | February 2023-January 2024 | Request for funding to Wikimedia Foundation - Wikimedia Community Fund - General support fund |
| Workpackage 3 - Focusing on 5 museums | February 2023-January 2024 | Request for funding to Wikimedia Foundation - Wikimedia Community Fund - General support fund |
- 30 September 2022 - 2 October 2022 - During itwikicon Proposal submitted
Calendar edit
Team edit
The project can already reply on an established working team involving all the partners (most of them paid within the project with a limited fee as consultant), Wikimedia Italia staff (as in-kind contribution) and a small team activated specifically for the project and including a person focussed on the Wikimedia projects and in particular Wikidata, a junior staff focussed on the contacts with museums and a junior researcher assuring the work on the project and the production of all the documentation and guidelines. Overall the organisational team is made up of 11 people. The project has two vacant positions which will be managed by two members of the team. The project relies on Wikimedia Italia structure (which has 9 employees) and 4 partner institutions; this allows the project to respond to possible organizational changes with a large team and other human resources connected with the different organisations. We expect to involve also 15 volunteers.
| Team | Role | Payment | Institution | Short biography | Experiences in the related field |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iolanda Pensa | Project coordinator (lead) | Volunteer | Wikimedia Italia | Iolanda Pensa (user:iopensa) is a wikipedian, art critic and researcher. She has been contributing to Wikipedia since 2006, she organized in 2016 “Wikimania Esino Lario”, she is chair of the Wikimania Steering Committee, president of Wikimedia Italia and member of Wikimedia CH, active in the implementation of the contest Wiki Loves Monuments and in increasing the documentation of cultural heritage on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects. Since 2006 she has been involved in triggering the use of open licenses by institutions, in publishing research materials on Wikipedia and in rebalancing online geographic information.
Her job is senior researcher at SUPSI University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, where she is head of the research sector “Culture and Territory”, she is member of SUPSI board and she is actively involved in the implementation of Open Science. Previously she was scientific director of the Moleskine Foundation. Among her projects “WikiAfrica: Increasing the quality and quantity of African content on Wikipedia” (which produced over 30’000 contributions to the Wikimedia projects with the involvement of volunteers and over 100 institutions), “Share Your Knowledge: Creative Commons and Wikipedia for cultural institutions”, “Wikipedia Primary School: Providing on Wikipedia the information necessary to complete the cycle of primary education in the languages used by the different education systems”, “Swiss Foundations and Open Licenses”, “The Alps on Wikipedia”, “Culture and Safety in Africa” and “Open Science for Arts, Design and Music. |
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| Enrico Bertacchini | Senior researcher - coordinator of the junior researcher | In-kind contribution University of Torino | University of Torino | Enrico Bertacchini is Associate Professor in Public Economics at the University of Torino, Director of the Master in World Heritage and Cultural Projects for Development and fellow of the Nexa Center for Internet and Society. His main research interests are in the economics of arts and culture, with a particular focus on the museum and heritage sector. In the last years, his research has addressed the provision of museum services, the impact of digital transformation in the heritage sector, and the analysis of models of access and reuse of digital collections. In the past, he has collaborated with UNESCO, the Italian Ministry of Culture, Wikimedia Italia and ICOM Italia. | Evaluation of Wiki Loves Monuments in Italy 2011-2020 |
| Deborah De Angelis | Program-specific staff - Legal consultant | Consultant | Creative Commons Italia | Deborah De Angelis (http://www.ddastudiolegale.it/) is an attorney-at-law based in Rome, Italy. She is currently the representative and legal lead of the Italian Chapter in the Creative Commons Global Network since its constitution in 2018. Deborah is a legal expert in international copyright law, entertainment law and new technologies. She also worked as a legal advisor on copyright law to the previous Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage. Deborah carries out teaching and training activities, has organised numerous conferences and events in copyright and entertainment law, and authored several publications. Since 2004 she is a fellow of the NEXA Center for the Internet & Society. She is a component of the working group Digital Cultural Heritage ICOM ITALIA - 2020. Since 2008, she is president of the non-profit association A-DJ, which protects and promotes the professional category of DJs. Since July 2021, she is the regional delegate for Italy for the project on the right to research in the field of the International copyright law of the PIJIP group of the American University, Washington College of Law. | Contribution to OpenGLAMs
Specific expertise in digital heritage in Italy Directly involved in the Museo Egizio DMP Data Management Plan, 2021 in the frame of the Creative Commons GLAM Certificate |
| Sarah Dominique Orlandi | Program-specific staff - museum expert and coordinator of the junior team member working with museums | Consultant | ICOM Italia | Sarah Orlandi founded and coordinates the Digital Cultural Heritage working group of ICOM Italy which produced the "FAQ Copyright, Copyright and Open Licenses for Culture on the Web. 100 questions and answers for museums, archives and libraries" (IT-EN 2021) and the handbook Web Strategy for museums. In collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, she coordinated the "National Survey on Museum Web Strategy 2017".
Consultant of cultural strategies for museums, she designs tools and actions of communication and education and she is specialized in the use of digital tools for the transmission of knowledge. She prefers participatory and continuous project strategies. She has implemented interdisciplinary projects connecting culture and sustainable development. Projects for museums: Rome Maxxi Museum, Venice Biennale, Milan Museum of the Twentieth Century, Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, Rome ETRU National Etruscan Museum, Civic Museum of Modena, Milan Martinitt Museum. Projects for Institutions: Wikimedia CH, Catholic University of Milan, Oikos Onlus, ICOM Italy. |
Founder and Lead of ICOM Italia Digital Cultural Heritage, which produced the "FAQ Copyright, Copyright and Open Licenses for Culture on the Web. 100 questions and answers for museums, archives and libraries" (IT-EN 2021) and the handbook Web Strategy for museums. |
| Trilce Navarrete Hernandez | Program-specific staff | Consultant | Erasmus University Rotterdam | Trilce Navarrete is a specialist in the economic and historic aspects of digital heritage. Her research merges theories of economics, heritage, and information science to support understanding of the changes in digital heritage production, distribution and consumption brought by the adoption of digital technology. Her research considers costs, values, benefits and innovation of services, with particular attention to the role of open data and Artificial Intelligence. Navarrete was responsible for the first national account of the economic and historic development of digital museums in The Netherlands. Navarrete is currently Lecturer in Cultural Economics at the Erasmus University. Navarrete is advisor at the European Group of Museum Statistics (EGMUS), board member of the International Committee of Documentation of the International Council of Museums (CIDOC), chair of the Iberoamerican working group (DOMINO), board member of the Association of Cultural Economics International (ACEI), and regular guest lecturer at various Museology programs worldwide. She has contributed to the creation of the European statistics for digital heritage (ENUMERATE), has served as advisor for the creation and evaluation of (national) digital infrastructures, and has collaborated in several European funded research projects, including RICHES, the Virtual Multimodal Museum (ViMM), and Citizen Heritage. She currently coordinates a European project to develop innovative business models in museums (RECHARGE project). Navarrete is cofounder of the Economists Talk Art blog and the Cultural Economics Online Seminar series. | Navarrete has investigated the use of museum collections in Wikipedia, looking at the presence of paintings within the English Wikipedia, at the use of images from selected institutions in various languages, and the visibility of images from museums compared to visibility in museums' own websites. |
| Federico Benvenuti | Program-specific staff - Wikimedia and Wikidata expert | Consultant | Consultant for Wikimedia Italia | Federico Benvenuti (user:Adert) is a wikipedian since 2008 with an extensive experience on Wikipedia in Italian, Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource-it and Wikidata. He has been particularly active on issues of evaluating quality of articles and he has been collaborating with Wikimedia Italia since 2010 for trainings and GLAM projects (Fondazione Luigi Micheletti (Brescia), Romanicamente with libraries of the Basso Sebino, writing on Wikibooks with schools of Cassano d’Adda, writing wikipedia articles with schools of Formigine and didactic activities in high schools). | Wikipedian in residence,
Development of tools, monitoring data from Wikidata and Wikipedia. |
| Alice Fontana | Program-specific staff - junior researcher | Contract with University of Torino | University of Torino | TBD
The junior researcher will be selected throguh an open call by the University of Torino and her/his work will be coordinated by Enrico Bertacchini. He will be focusing her/his action-research work on the project and she/he will be testing and analysing tools and methods and documenting actions and results. |
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| Cristina Dal Min | Program-specific staff - junior team member working with museums | Consultant | Consultant for Wikimedia Italia | TBD
The junior team member working with museums will be selected in May 2022 and coordinated by Sarah Orlandi. She/he will be focusing on contacts with museums and reporting about attitudes, needs and motivations. |
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| Marco Chemello | Staff Wikimedia Italia - Wikipedian in residence and trainer | In-kind contribution Wikimedia Italia | Wikimedia Italia | Marco Chemello (user:marcok) has an architecture degree and a strong interest for digital culture. He is a Wikipedia contributor since 2004, and an admin of the Wikipedia in Italian since 2005, when he also became a member of Wikimedia Italia. From 2015 to 2019 he was coordinator of Wikimedia Italia for the Veneto region, then he joined the staff as a trainer and a GLAM specialist. As a Wikipedian in Residence, he worked with many cultural institutions: BEIC Foundation and the National Science Museum "Leonardo da Vinci" in Milan, the Central Institute for the Archives (ICAR) of the Italian Ministry, the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, the Archivio Storico Ricordi of Milan, the Polo del ‘900 of Turin; in 2021 he became one of the two first Wikimedians in residence in a university in Italy, at the University of Padua. He also worked with other Italian universities as a Wikipedia trainer. He lives in Vicenza, Italy. | Directly involved in the Museo Egizio DMP Data Management Plan, 2021 in the frame of the Creative Commons GLAM Certificate |
| Paolo Casagrande | Staff Wikimedia Italia - communication | In-kind contribution Wikimedia Italia | Wikimedia Italia | Wikimedia Italia staff member, working for the communication of the association and in activities related to advocacy. | Currently working on Wikimedia Italia report on open knowledge in Italy which in 2022 will be focusing on heritage and museums. |
| Alice Montrasio | Staff Wikimedia Italia - administration | In-kind contribution Wikimedia Italia | Wikimedia Italia | Wikimedia Italia staff member working for the association in the administration and secretary. |
Wikimedia edit
Content knowledge gaps edit
The proposal addresses the knowledge gaps related to heritage. This topic has been at the centre of an extensive work implemented by the international Wikimedia community in particular within the activities of Wiki Loves Monuments. Heritage allows to include in our Wikimedia projects relevant content from all over the world; furthermore heritage and culture are acknowledged as an important element of community identities and they have showed the importance of their preservation and documentation also in case of wars, conflicts and natural and human disasters.
In the case of Italy heritage is a challenging topic since the Italian legislation has specific restrictions for the commercial use of images of heritage sites and museums. Focusing on this topic contributes to fill an important knowledge gap and it allows the direct participation of institutions and contributors in Italy.
The fact of addressing all national museums is also an important strategy to enlarge the contribution of museums to the Wikimedia projects, by allowing a wider participation from different geographical areas and different kind of institutions and size. At the moment Wikimedia Italia - as all Wikimedia chapters - has implemented GLAM-Wiki cooperation mainly with large-size museums in few regions of the country; this new approach can enrich the participation and the variety of institutions with an estimate of 500 institutions engaged.
Participation edit
The project addresses all national museums and heritage institutions. We are aiming at addressing 3000 institutions distributed in all geographical areas of our country. This approach assured a large communication to a wide number of cultural experts and volunteers most of whom are not currently involved in the Wikimedia projects. The project triggers an indirect contribution to the Wikimedia projects through the use of open licenses and tools: those institutions are invited to provide content through a survey and form which guide them through the process of authorisation and release. This approach allows us to reach a wide number of people, to inform them about open access and to gradually involve them in our project. Training and coaching is provided throughout the process and Wikimedia Italia is also currently developing MOOC specifically designed for cultural institutions to allow further involvement.
UCOC and Friendly Space Policy edit
Wikimedia Italia has a Code of Conduct, it has immediately and officially supported the Wikimedia Universal Code of Conduct, it has been enforcing the Friendly Space Policy in all its events and activities and it has been adding the respect of the code of conduct as a priority for the association. As Wikimedia Italia we strongly believe in the necessity and importance of having projects, initiatives and in general an atmosphere characterized by respect, safety, support and an equitable environment for all participants and visitors. We lived in 2020 a particularly difficult year for the association and this experience was important to acknowledge how a common understanding of our community rules is essential for the well-being of all people involved and of the association. We commit to the respect of the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy also in this project by communicating them in all events and by respecting their principals in all our activities.
Wikimedia Movement Strategy 2030 edit
The proposal contributes to Innovate in Free Knowledge.
Wikimedia Italia Strategic Plan edit
Wikimedia Italia aims at contributing to:
Partners edit
Involvement of Wikimedia communities, groups and affiliates edit
This funding request to the Wikimedia Foundation is aimed at guarantee that our project involves the wider international community and it can benefit from the work of others and contribute to their work. Wikimedia Italia could have developed this project directly with only it resources, but we would have documented entirely the project only in Italian, we would have limited the dissemination activities, we would have invested much less in this project and we would have planned a project only with our Italian partners (and not envisioning the involvement of all the international networks of our partners: the Wikimedia movement, Creative Commons and ICOM). Having the support of Wikimedia Foundation is essential to make this initiative international in its implementation, communication and dissemination and we trust this experience can benefit more countries and parts of the world (please note that Wikimedia Italia was the initiator of the WikiAfrica project with Moleskine Foundation and that we implemented the project Share Your Knowledge with a focus on 100 international institutions in Africa and with content related to Africa).
Furthermore the project will involve our Wikimedia Italia territorial coordinator based in different regions, we envisioned the participation of 15 volunteers interested in GLAM initiatives and we plan to communicate the project during our Wikimedia events (itwikicon - conference of the Wikimedia projects in Italian and Wikimania).
External non-Wikimedia partners edit
The strength of this proposal is essentially the involvement of external non Wikimedia partners which are actually major stakeholders in the field of GLAM-Wiki projects. Specifically Creative Commons, ICOM International Council of Museums and research institutions with Wikimedia are a very relevant team to truly "empower GLAMs" and evaluate, document and disseminate this work.
Risks edit
Sustain and expand the work after the grant edit
As the timeline reports, this project is deeply inscribed into Wikimedia Italia working plan for 2022-2024. We have already included the activities planned for 2024 (not financed by this proposal) and in particular our contest Wiki Loves Monuments focussed in Italy in 2024 on museums and heritage institutions. We have also already planned financial support for GLAMs in 2023 and 2024 to support the positive fall-outs of this proposal and/or to provide funding for further development.
It is relevant to mention that we are also currently developing a project related to visualization of data related to museums and heritage and we are preparing a publication to monitor open knowledge in Italy with a focus in 2022 on Heritage and museums.
Collaborating with Italian museums is part of our long-term strategy related to heritage and open content. This assures the continuity of this initiative in the medium and long term.
Risks Mitigation Plan edit
| Risks | Mitigation Plan | |
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| Institutions | We do not have access to the emails of the institutions |
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| Institutions | Institutions do not reply |
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| Institutions | Institutions are unable to upload content directly on the Wikimedia projects |
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| Institutions | Institutions with digital collections are invited to provide more content on the project but they are unsure about the legal aspects related |
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| Institutions | Less institutions than expected join the project and contribute |
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| Institutions | More institutions than expected join the project and contribute |
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| Institutions | Institutions contribute to the Wikipedia communication campaign and after providing few images they do not contribute further |
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| Wikidata | The community doesn't want to add information on Wikidata related to digital collections | We study the current data on Wikidata and the information provided related to museums. We contact the Wikidata community, we discuss with them and we propose the upload the information |
| Management | Only the workpackage 2 is financed by the Wikimedia Foundation | (Auch!) We re-plan the timeline and we postpone workpackage 3; we do not create a position for a junior researcher (junior research grant for 1 year) but we activate a collaboration with a researcher (research grant for several months) |
| Management | Possible organizational changes |
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| External | The energy and economic crisis in Europe influence the interest and resources of institutions in new projects | The virtual nature of this initiative and its limited costs allows institutions to contribute with their current humarn resources (communication staff) or with theirt volunteers. |
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation edit
| Learning questions | Hypothesis | How we measure it |
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| Could we reach the vast majority of Italian museums?
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We can not reach all museums.
In general we can expect a maximum of 30% of success rate for each step. |
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| Did anything change after we contacted them? | We can expect a selection of museums to send images and this content will have an open license (we envision the CC BY-SA) or it will use an open tool (we will also propose the CC0). This will have an impact on Wikidata, on Wikimedia Commons and possibly on Wikipedia (if we engage volunteers to use the content provided) |
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| How many institutions are already contributing to the Wikimedia projects? | Around 50 museums and ecomuseums have currently collaborations with the Wikimedia projects in the frame of GLAM-Wiki initiatives (wikipedian in residence and grants provided by Wikimedia Italia and projects promoted by volunteers) and in the frame of Wiki Loves Monuments. We don't have precise data and it is possible that this number is underestimate. |
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| How many institutions have digital collections? | In the project we imagine that 500 institutions have digital collections. We estimate that the overall number could be 1000 (larger size institutions) |
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| How many institutions have an online catalogue? | We estimate that 30 institutions (only a very limited number of institutions) have their digital catalogues online. |
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| Can we collect open content from museums and heritage institutions through a communication campaign? Is this campaign efficient? | We assume that institutions are used to provide content for communication purposes. They are also accustomed to provide journalists and online platforms with content for free and open (as CC0 or CC BY, but without acknowledging the license).
We expect to address 3000 institutions (the full number is 4976[1] but we expect not to be able to contact them all). We expect that 30% of those institutions reply - 900 institutions. We expect that 60% of the replies are positive - 540 institutions. We expect that people who take the time to reply tend to provide the content requested. We will probably have a rate of replies partially completed. This is the first Wikipedia communication campaign devoted to museums that we implement. We made requests of authorisations to municipalities (necessary for Wiki Loves Monuments) and we have a success rate of 26% in 10 years with a procedure that has been simplified throughout time. |
We do not have comparative data.
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| Is the fact of collecting content from many institutions useful for the Wikimedia projects? | We expect that collecting content from many institutions allows us to provide the Wikimedia projects with a more heterogeneous content coming from different sources (from institutions located in different geographical areas and different typology of institutions)
We expect that volunteers will be interested in involving institutions in their regions and we expect to have more institutions engaged in regions where at least a volunteer contribute actively in triggering them. We expect that notifying the institutions involved and their locations will interest online editors and it will trigger their participation in using content from those sources. |
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| Which are the common motivations for institutions to contribute? Which are common needs? which are the common obstacles for institutions for not contributing? | We expect institutions to contribute for the visibility provided by Wikipedia, for the desire to have a good article about the institutions on Wikipedia,
We expect institutions to have difficulties in contributing |
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| How can we address attitudes, needs, motivations and obstacles in our procedures? | We expect to better define our communication using the feedback from the institutions. This communication will be used to target the 500 museums. |
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| Can we address the specific institutions which already have digital collections? | We expect that a selection of 500 institutions have digital content and we can address them specifically to invite them to provide a selection of it on the Wikimedia projects. We expect that only 30% of those will accept (45 institutions). We also expect that we will face legal difficulties and doubts from the institutons |
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| Can we differentiate our proposals to institutons? | We expect that we need to differentiate our proposals considering the large variety of institutions with different kind of organisations, resources and digital collections.
We expect that the Wikipedia communication campaign will be the easiest way to join and it will provide an entrance point to discuss with institutions. We expect that the 5 institutions who will decide to commit to an open access institutional strategy are the institutions with which Wikimedia Italia and ICOM Italia have been in contact for the longest time. We expect that the involvement of institutions follows a series of steps and we want to make each step significant and relevant for the Wikimedia projects. |
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Can we focus on a specific theme and having institution contribute to it with their collection? |
We expect that the focus on a specific theme can be both relevant for the institutions and for the Wikimedia projects. It can enrich the knowledge about a specific theme on the Wikimedia projects (by felling a specific knowledge gap), it can address editors interested on those themes and it produce an impact on content (a qualitative impact rather than simply a quantitative impact). |
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| Can we monitor this theme, the knowledge gap and the contribution of the institution related to filling this gap ? | We expect that the contribution to specific themes can be specifically relevant but we expect not to be able to monitor all themes. We expect to monitor a selection of 3-5 themes. |
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| Can institutions implement open access on their entire institutions? | Implementing open access on an entire institutions is complex and challenging, but it completely transform the strategy of an institution and it allows the institution to benefit of all the current GLAM-Wiki best practices. Even universities which embrace open science they do not have strategy on all their content and activities.
We expect to implement different open access strategies in each institutions and to test the feasibility of an overall strategy (which overall includes around 70% of collections and content) |
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In a similar way as research project produce a Data Management Plan (DMP) in which they include all content/data produced and how it will be made accessible, institutions can review all their content/data and define how they can make it accessible. We have already produced during the Creative Commons GLAM Certificate a model of Data Management Plan for a large Italian museum (Museo Egizio) and we expect that this model can be relevant for large-size institutions. |
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| Can we work specifically with a group of institutions to implement their Data Management Plan (DMP) on the entire institution? | We expect to contact 10 institutions and to collaborate with 5. We expect that 3 institutions can implement an open access strategy on their entire institution (meaning 70% of collections and content) |
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| Main Metrics | Metric Description | Target |
| Institutions contacted | Number of institutions monitored on Wikidata and contacted to involve them in a Wikipedia communication campaign to collect open content for Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects | 3000 |
| Institutions reached | Number of institutions which reply to us with a positive or negative answer. We collect also attitudes, motivations and needs | 900 |
| Institutions involved | Number of institutions which provides us with content | 500 |
| People contacted collaborating with institutions | Number of people contacted working with institutions | 1000 |
| People involved | Number of people involved indirectly in the Wikimedia projects, by producing content with open licenses and tools | 600 |
| Images uploaded | Number of images uploaded by the institutions involved | 12000 |
| AdditionalMetrics | Metric Description | Target |
| # of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | ||
| # of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | Number of institutions that publish an open license on their website or an open access policy | 100 |
| # of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | ||
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | ||
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | ||
| Number of people reached through social media publications | ||
| # of activities developed | ||
| # of volunteer hours |
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900 |
| Additional Core Metrics | Metrics Description | Target |
| # participants | Number of people involved indirectly in the Wikimedia projects, by producing content with open licenses and tools. We measure their involvement through our form and survey. | 600 |
| # of editors | Please note that the project triggers indirect contribution to the Wikimedia projects (see above). We envision the participation of 15 volunteers. | 15 |
| # of organizers | Please refer to the project team. We also plan to involve other 15 volunteers (not counted in this target). | 11 |
| # of new content contributions for Wikidata | Curated item on Wikidata for all Italian museums and heritage institution with upload of statistical and research data related to the collections, the propriety , the digitalisation process, open access policy... We can monitor the list of curated item with a code but Wikidata doesn't allows us to report details on changes (this is real obstacle for producing relevant metrics). | 3000 |
| # of new content contributions for Wikimedia Commons | Images provided by the institutions involved and uploaded on Wikimedia Commons. | 12000 |
| # of new content contributions for Wikipedia in Italian | We expect articles on Wikipedia in Italian to be improved with data, content and images produced by the projects. We monitor this data. We expect that 20% of the articles related to institutions involved in the project will be improved. | 100 articles |
- Participants (individuals who attend or benefit from the proposal’s activities, either in person or virtually. Does not include social media followers, donors, or others not participating directly.
- Editors (people who edit Wikimedia projects, creating or improving content as a result of grantee activities).
- Organizers (people that make sure that activities can be implemented by providing the necessary time, support, and knowledge - such as coordinators, trainers, facilitators, etc.).
- New content contributions per Wikimedia project (contents created or improved). Please disaggregate between Wikimedia projects and/or languages when that makes sense in the context of your organization.
What tools would you use to measure each metric selected? edit
We monitor content on the Wikimedia projects with our specialised team and by using existing GLAM tools (this project coordinator was involved in implementing the visualization of Cassandra at the beginning of the project Research:GLAM_visual_tool and we are currently discussing with Wikimedia CH possible collaborations to make this tool more widely available). Qualitative and quantitive analysis is also implemented by the three researchers involved in the project. Furthermore we use our form and survey as a tool to collect specific information.
Wikimedia Italia has also been working on several observatory with visualization of data (please refer for data related to heritage to Osservatorio_Wikimedia_su_comuni_e_patrimonio_italiano and for data related to Wikipedia articles and their quality to https://itwiki-scuola-italiana.toolforge.org/
Please note that it is not possible to properly monitor Wikidata and it would be really important to implement tools which allow to monitor changes also on this project.
Budget edit
Budget updated and confirmed by Wikimedia Foundation
Comments on the budget edit
Addressing all Italian museums and heritage institutions is a challenge, but it is also a powerful strategy to involve a wide variety of institutions, people and geographical areas. Each institution represent a source of knowledge and a network: envisioning to involve the largest number of institutions is an inclusive and game-changer strategy.
The project and its budget are designed to involve a large team of junior and senior experts, to bring all the multidisciplinary skills necessary to implement this strategy and to work over 2 years to have sufficient time to develop all the necessary activities. The project relies on previous experiences and benefits from the economic commitment of Wikimedia Italia.
Having the support of the Wikimedia Foundation strengthen the project, it allows this initiative to involve an international network and to work at an international level. It transforms the project from a local initiative to a pilot practice which targets the movement and which is developed to facilitate its potentialities and scalability.
Notes edit
- ↑ 4158 museums, 282 archaeological areas and 536 monuments, for a total of 4976 museums and heritage institutions. Source: National statistics ISTAT 2015.
Related articles edit
Endorsements edit
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