Wikipedia:GLAM/Oxford/Month 4 report

Strategic Goal 1
Increase the quality and quantity of coverage of subjects that are currently underrepresented on Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects, with a particular focus on cultural content

Outcomes
We have now employed Cory Salveson to help with data clean-up. He has been working on the Electronic Enlightenment data dump while I work on the Oxford Research Archive data on doctoral theses whose full text is online. There are 3238 such theses (and data import began on 3 March). Cory has created some Python code to help match EE identifiers with Wikidata, and this will be shared openly.

The Voltaire Foundation published a case study I wrote, explaining how we worked together to create and visualise data about Voltaire's works.

Partnerships
I am working with three academics who have written Wikipedia articles, with the aim of writing general case studies that can be used by other academics.
 * 1) A group of anthropologists created a draft about Identity fusion, a theoretical concept, which was deleted in 2014. I have got the draft undeleted and explained how to improve the article to make sure it is accepted into mainspace.
 * 2) Another anthropologist has written a draft about an African filmmaker which has twice been rejected by Articles For Creation. I am working with him to improve it to make it suitable for mainspace. We also discussed ways to make African cultures more visible on Wikipedia, including creating new versions of Wikipedia for African languages.
 * 3) Another academic has written an article on Ancient Greek personal names and I am working with him to move it up the quality scale.

I met with a librarian about the Curzon Collection of Political Prints, which have already been digitized and uploaded to Commons. We found a metadata error affecting hundreds of records (the error was in the original records, which were faithfully copied to Commons). We were able to remove erroneous metadata quickly on Commons using Visual File Change, but a consequence is that date fields on these records are incorrect. The Bodleian is looking into employing someone to input correct data over the Summer.

The Atlas of Hillforts data transfer is on hold while they work out the URL structure of the new site (which will determine the identifiers that are used on Wikidata). The data should be available in early April.

Forthcoming
Wikipedia training workshop, 3 March

Activities delivered in the past month with stats:

 * A workshop on Wikidata visualisation and a workshop on Wikimedia for public engagement were both cancelled due to lack of attendees, so I wrote them up in the form of worksheets so that the events can be run by other staff in future. They will likely be published, but it is not decided on which platform yet.
 * 3238 new entries created on Wikidata from the ORA dump.

Strategic Goal 2
Support the development of open knowledge in the UK, by increasing the understanding and recognition of the value of open knowledge and advocating for change at an organisational, sectoral and public policy level

Partnerships
I met with the university's new GLAM Programme Manager and explained how Wikimedia platforms could help embed GLAM resources in education and learning. He is enthusiastic and the next step is for us to set out a pilot project sharing museum data.

Forthcoming:
The university has a knowledge transfer partnership with the National Trust, and I am using this connection to suggest a business case for the Trust to formally share data with Wikidata.

Activities delivered in the past month with stats:
n/a

Strategic Goal 3
To support the use of the Wikimedia projects as important tools for education and learning in the UK

Outcomes
No activity on education themes within Oxford this month: work in forthcoming in the Summer and upcoming presentations to academics will emphasise the potential of educational activities. Liz McCarthy and I attended the Wikimedia UK Education meetup, presented about the universtiy WIR post, and have since shared our funding application paperwork with Mira Vogel of UCL.

Activities in the last month
n/a

Wikidata queries

 * Visualisations of people in the Early Modern Letters Online database

Press about the residency

 * "If Voltaire had used Wikipedia…" Guest post for Voltaire Foundation blog