Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Nederland/20242

WikiconNL 2024

On Saturday 18 May, 101 people travelled to Beeld & Geluid in Hilversum for WikiconNL 2024. The conference kicked off with a keynote by Dr Mirko Schäfer, associate professor in the focus area Governing the Digital Society at Utrecht University. Schäfer spoke about the history of encyclopaedias as independent sources of knowledge and the undermining they have faced, past and present.

Sessions included ‘Wikipedia & AI: friend or foe?’ in which Marian Grubben, Hay Kranen and Sirous Kavehercy each highlighted a unique aspect of AI in relation to Wikipedia. Marco Streefkerk showed the benefits of using Wikipedia for a museum, and how to use the platform. Edwin Klijn from WO2net talked about the digitalisation of the Central Archive of Special Jurisdiction. The presentation showed how fast technological developments succeed each other within the heritage world and their effects on making documents accessible.

Interaction with the public during Mirko Schäfer's keynote

For the first time, de Verbindingsprijs was awarded during WikiconNL. The winner is meemoo, Flemish Institute for Archives. Meemoo supports organisations from culture, media and government in everything to do with their digital archive.

We look back on a great conference. Missed it? See the photo impression and presentations on Commons.

Communication and publicity

Newsletters

We sent out the newsletter of April, May and June.

Blogs

Several blogs have been published this quarter:

• Dimitar Dimitrov, Policy Director Wikimedia Europe, elaborated on the role of Wikimedia Europe with the elections coming up.
• Wikimedian Kattiel talks about her Wiki Working holiday in Curaçao.
• Our new project manager Ian Velthuis introduces himself.
• Duo Brandits decided to organise a Walk-Through Photo Gallery on St Eustatius as part of Wiki Loves Monuments and share their inspiring story of passion, perseverance and unity.

Media attention for birthday Dutch-language Wikipedia

On Wednesday 19 June, the Dutch-language Wikipedia celebrated its 23rd birthday. Reason for NPO Radio 1 to pay attention to Wikipedia on the morning show "Vroeg!" that day. And how Wikipedia relates to AI. Presenter Jan van Poppel talked about it with our director Sandra Rientjes and AI expert Renée van Holsteijn.

The lunch programme 'Aan Tafel!' at Radio M Utrecht also paid attention to Wikipedia on the anniversary and interviewed our new board member Renate Oude Nijeweme (from 38.12 onwards).

Gendergap & LGBT+

This quarter, we hosted no less than six meetings for beginners and experienced editors. Each meeting was well attended and had varying themes such as feminist bookstores and women in the WO2 resistance.

As part of a course by the Open University on unknown women artists we gave two workshops on writing for Wikipedia. The students will be writing articles on Wikipedia about their artists of choice. The course will finish in Q3.

Wiki Goes Caribbean

On the 14th of June we co-organized a Wiki Goes Caribbean meet-up in The Hague, in collaboration with the Nationaal Archief (National Archives) and the Dutch Caribbean Bookclub. The meeting focused on Papiamento and the challenge when writing that language; also on Wikipedia.