Wiki World Heritage User Group/Strategic plan 2021 2023

2021-2023 Strategic Plan

Who we are

Wiki World Heritage UG (WWH) was initiated by wikimedians interested in the documentation of UNESCO World Heritage (tangible and intangible) around the world through Wikimedia projects, especially in countries with no affiliates. It was recognized by Affcom in October 2020.

This user group is a thematic group aiming to cover the world heritage around the world. Currently, there are 1121 World Heritage Sites located in 167 States and 584 Cultural Heritage located in 131 countries, and while some of these states have already existing affiliates with which we aim to collaborate; many other states are without affiliates and we aim to reach their local communities and ensure that no one is left behind.

The user group through its activities is looking to contribute to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations and mainly to the following pointsː

• Invest in Skills and Leadership Development,
• Manage Internal Knowledge,
• Identify Topics for Impact,
• Innovate in Free Knowledge.

Vision

Wikimedians of Wiki World Heritage User Group shares the vision statement of the Wikimedia Foundation: „Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment.“

Mission

Our mission is the collaborative creation of free online content about UNESCO World Heritage (tangible and intangible), through designing and implementing creative projects that are based on participatory activities, and on the use of open platforms, tools and licenses, in collaboration with local partners in different countries. We believe that World Heritage is a potent tool for development and empowerment, that’s why we aim to make knowledge about it widely available and to engage local communities in documenting their own heritage. Our work is for Heritage, but most importantly for Humans, and by Humans.

Values

• Accessibility
• Collaboration
• Community
• Diversity
• Education
• Gender equality
• Independence
• Transparency
• Sharing
• Volunteerism

Strategic Plan

This Strategic Plan defines the programs of Wiki World Heritage User Group and it’s divided into three main goals: 1)ensuring the full coverage of World Heritage sites on Wikimedia projects, 2)Catalyzing dynamic synergies around World Heritage and 3) Ensure the optimal use of the created content on Wikimedia projects.

Goal1: Ensuring the full coverage of World Heritage sites on Wikimedia projects

Target Wikimedia projects

• Wikipedia
• Wikimedia Commons
• Wikidata
• Wikisource
• Wikivoyage

Details

• Ensuring the full coverage of World Heritage sites on Wikipedia, at least in the 6 UNESCO official languages.
• Prioritizing the World Heritage sites in danger, especially on Wikimedia Commons, to ensure their urgent documentation before a major part of them is lost, and also to contribute in raising awareness.
• Ensuring complete documentation of all the components of composite World Heritage sites. (e.g : in May 2020, out of 1000 monuments and significant buildings, part of the 25 World Heritage African cities, 70% do not have a Wikipedia article in English, and 59% do not have any article in any language.)
• Documenting the future World Heritage sites listed on the UNESCO tentative list, especially on Wikidata :The World Heritage list is constantly growing. In June 2020 for instance, there are 1735 sites from 178 countries on the tentative list. Identifying the sites at this stage will ensure an early documentation, and allow an efficient tracking of their evolution.
• Enhancing content about World Heritage on Wikisource.

Goal2: Catalyzing dynamic synergies around World Heritage

With global institutions

Building strong partnerships with relevant international and regional institutions, such as UNESCO World Heritage Center and ICOMOS, to ensure reliable sources and updates, and collaborate to disseminate knowledge of relevant Wikimedia tools (Petscan, wikidata query service, etc.) among World Heritage professionals and activists.

With the existing Affiliates

Identifying the missing elements and coordinating with local affiliates to fill the gaps.

With new local partners

The coverage of World Heritage sites belonging to countries with no affiliates is poor and many sites do not even any Wikipedia article in any language. Through collaborating with local entities, we will ensure that the communities that are not yet part of Wikimedia movement are involved in the process of documenting their own heritage.

Goal3: Ensure the optimal use of the created content on Wikimedia projects

Documenting World Heritage sites on Wiki-projects is very good but what is better is to show what can we do with this content e.g. build maps, timelines and generate statistics from Wikidata.

What is the importance of having content if it ‘s not used correctly.

We would like to show that using tools like Wikidata Query Service, we can build maps, timelines, generated statistics about World Heritage sites. Displaying data in a user friendly way will:

• show the importance of having the data and the content on the wiki projects.
• motivate people to add/improve and curate the content related to WH sites.