Research:Supporting Commons contribution by GLAM institutions/Interview protocol

This is a semi-structured interview protocol. Not all questions will be asked in every interview, and the investigator may ask additional probe questions if interesting things come up. Each interview should be scheduled for approximately 1.5 hours. For more information, consult the research project page.

Background

First, I’d like to learn a little about your involvement in GLAM in general.

• Could you describe what GLAM is in your own words?
• How did you find out about GLAM?
• What GLAM institution are you working with/did you work with on a GLAM-wiki collaboration?
• What media donations projects to Wikimedia Commons have you worked on with GLAM INSTITUTION? Ask participant to list them and provide dates only - explain we’ll ask for more details later.

[If participant is someone from the Wikimedia Movement...]

• What is your background in the Wikimedia Movement?
• How did you become involved with GLAM INSTITUTION?

[If participant is not someone from the Wikimedia Movement?...]

• What is your professional background?
• What is your current role at GLAM institution?

I’d also like to learn about GLAM INSTITUTION.

• What is the focus or mission of GLAM INSTITUTION?
• What different types of collections does it curate?
• Why does GLAM INSTITUTION engage with Wikimedia projects? What do you think GLAM INSTITUTION gains, or hopes to gain, from its GLAMwiki partnership?

Case studies of GLAM donation projects

Now, let’s talk about a contribution project you were involved with. If you’ve been involved in multiple projects, I’ll let you pick which one you want to talk about. It could be the project that you were most heavily involved with, the one that was most important to GLAM INSTITUTION, the one that was most interesting to you, the most challenging or difficult project, or simply the most recent project you participated in. [Participant specifies which GLAM donation project they want to discuss.]

• What kind of media were donated?
• Why did GLAM INSTITUTION decide to donate these specific media items to Wikimedia Commons?
• What was your role in this project?
• Are there any webpages or other documentation you can share with me that describe this project or its outcomes?

I’m interested in learning more details about the media items that were donated in this project.

• How many media items were donated during this project?
• Where were these media items hosted by GLAM INSTITUTION?
• What was the format of the individual media items in GLAM INSTITUTION’s repository or database?
• About how large, in megabytes, was each media item?
• What metadata was available about each media item?
• What format was this metadata in GLAM INSTITUTION’s repository or database? How was metadata associated with each media item?
• Does the metadata for these media items conform to any specific international standards?
• Can you show me examples of these media items on GLAM INSTITUTION’s website?
• Can you show me examples of these media items on Wikimedia Commons?

I’m interested in learning more details about the process of donating these media items to Wikimedia Commons. First I would like you to tell me about the steps in the process, and then we can talk about what was involved at each step.

• Can you think about the steps in the process?
  • [participant lists steps, and I read them back to them]
• Can you think of any other steps that are missing in this list?
  • [Add new steps, and repeat the list back to confirm.]
• Can you point me to any public documentation you created for this process?

Technical Aspects

Now I would like to go through this list and learn more details about each step in the process

• What was the goal of step X?
• What work did you do in step X?
• What work did others do in step X?
• What tools did you use in step X?
  • What did you use them for?
  • Do you have a link to the tool, or documentation of the tool?
• What tools did others use?
  • What did they use them for?
  • Do you have a link to the tool, or documentation of the tool?

Follow up questions:

• Batch Size?
• Upload time for batch with different tools?
• Number of batches they intend to upload?
• Prep time?
• Error Check needed? Manual? Time intensive?
• Post-process for each batch?

General experience with tools

Now I’d like for you to talk in a little more detail about some of the tools that you or other members of GLAM INSTITUTION, or volunteers assisting you, used to complete different steps of this project.

• Which tools were most useful overall?
• Were there any tools that were absolutely critical for the project--you could not have done this project without them? Why?
• Which tools do you wish worked differently or better? How would that have helped you?
• What kinds of tools do you wish you had available for this project, but were not available? How would having those tools have helped the project?
• Are there other batch media upload tools that you have used for other websites (not Commons), that you found useful? If so, what did you like about those tools?

Assessing the GLAM donation projects

Now I would like to hear what you think about how the project went.

• Do/Did you hope to do other activities as part of the project?
• Tell me about a fun or satisfying experience you had while working on this project.
• Tell me about a situation when you were frustrated while working on this project.
• Tell me about something interesting or important that you learned from participating in this project.
• How successful is the project? How do you know it is successful?

Project Details

Tell me about how the project was organized.

• Who at GLAM INSTITUTION was involved in this project? What were their roles?
• Who in the Wikimedia Movement was involved in this project? What were their roles?
• What was your role?
• Could you tell me about something you did for the project that you did mostly on your own?
• Could you tell me about something you did for the project that involved close collaboration with others?

Future of GLAM and Commons

Finally, I would like to get your take on what would make the content donation experience more successful and satisfying for GLAM INSTITUTION and other potential GLAM institutions.

• What needs to change? What shouldn’t change?
• Do you have any other suggestions about how the Wikimedia Foundation could support/improve the GLAM donation experience?
• Are there improvements that would be especially useful for institutions like GLAM INSTITUTION? Why?
• Are there other improvements you can think of that your institution does not need, but that might be helpful for other institutions? Why?
• Based on your experience with this project, what would you say are some “best practices” for a GLAM donation projects to follow?
• Are there any people involved in GLAM (at GLAM INSTITUTION or elsewhere) who you know who you think I should talk to?
• Do you have any other questions for me?