Wikipedia:GLAM/Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Wikimedian in Residence

Welcome
Wikimedia and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums have jointly appointed their first Wikimedian-in-Residence with the support of Wikimedia. The project run from April-June 2013.

The aim was to further the goals of Wikimedia and the GLAM sector and this service through:

Creating new article case studies and training museum staff as editors:

 * the project will specifically highlight the internationally significant shipping and industrial collections.
 * "key names" intended to be covered include Turbinia, RMS_Mauretania_(1906) (particularly its major models), RMS_Franconia_(1910), John Bowes (Steamship), Glückauf_(1886), Pallion Shipyard, MV Murree, Paddle Tug Northumberland, Foyboat, Jimmy Forsyth (photographer), the Armstrong No.1 Gun.

Wikimedian in Residence
Robert Forsythe was based at the service for 3 months April-June 2013 and was working to engage with members of staff and the public on topics relating to Wikimedia and open knowledge. Robert’s role included running some workshops and outreach events (details below) to create a sustainable engagement with museum staff, volunteers and visitors. The aim was to help to build a long term relationship between the service and the Wikimedia community.

Attended public events

 * Attended on 13th April at the British Library the conference GLAM-Wiki 2013. Check Twitter feed at #GLAMWiki. A photo selection off Twitter is here.

Staff Development
Thursday 25 April 2013, 9:00 – 13:00 Archives education room, Discovery Museum Friday 26 April 2013, 13:00 – 16:00 Archives education room, Discovery Museum. These spaces are booked at these locations. These offer a mix of one to one tuition and practical sessions. Please come with a laptop or an I-pad ready to set up Wiki accounts if you do not have one and willing to do some actual Wiki editing. If you can have some image files suitable for Wiki Commons uploading that would be great (to energise existing or new articles). There is no need to stay all the time. These can function as drop in sessions but if you would like three/four hours on Wiki go for it!
 * Wiki Invite Hours.

An agreement over accounts for staff to use on Wikipedia when engaged on TWAM work has been established. I encourage you to create individual accounts as TWAMyourfirstandlastnames as in TWAMJohncoburn. The system will allow 6 accounts per IP per day so we need to spread their creation. When you create a new account, please also say something about yourself on the User Page tab.TWAMWIR (talk) 11:39, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

REPORT on uptake: Four staff members and one volunteer attended and all created accounts. There had been one previous signup as a private account.TWAMWIR (talk) 13:00, 27 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Learning at Work does connect to Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums service. As part of the residency's outreach we will hold a Wiki Users / Editathon session on Monday 20th May in the Discovery Museum Archives Search room. This would be for members of staff, volunteers, Wikimedia editors active in the North East and others with a burning interest in the linkage between Wikiproject:GLAMWiki and this service. Initial expressions of interest gratefully received by myself. There will be morning and afternoon sessions at 10am and 2pm. Attendees may stay for as long or as little as they wish. TWAMWIR (talk) 12:28, 2 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Using the same pattern for a Wiki Users / Editathon session in the Discovery Museum Archives Search room (above) a similar event targeting people outside the Archives & Museums Service but interested in it and Wikimedia was held at the same venue and same hours on Monday June 3rd. Sessions were held at 10am and 2pm. Via this link http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tyne_%26_Wear_Archives_%26_Museums_3_June_Wikipedia_training. Seven people attended and five private accounts were created.


 * Knowledge Transfer event. The residency has only a few days left to run. All TWAM staff and volunteers will be welcome to a final wrap up event in the Archives Education Room at 2pm on 26th June 2013. Lindy Gilliland with Robert Forsythe will be organising it. The internal museum circular issued 12th June 2013 says "Wednesday 26 June, 2-3pm, Discovery Archives Education Room: Robert Forsythe - Looking forward: TWAM and Wikimedia This session brings to a close Robert's Wikimedian Residency. Robert will share with us his key findings, talk about the collections research which he has enabled and suggest next steps for TWAM and Wikimedia."

Teaching Texts

 * MV Murree ( a German translation of this page has been made), John Bowes (Steamship), Foyboat, Jimmy Forsyth (photographer), The Late Shows from scratch/did not previously exist as free standing articles. These were undertaken to provide case studies to assist new/putative editors at the service.

Modelling links between museum interpretation and Wikimedia
A demonstration of this is undertaken in this article The Siege of Newcastle see in the link's Further Reading section.
 * Testing/establishing the linkage between digitised museum interpretation and Wikimedia.
 * Linking specific projects to Wiki Commons. During 2013 the service with partners was closely involved in the " A History of the North East in 100 objects"This was achieved by linking this  and this. The result was featured in the overall service page on Wikipedia. Other links in this project made with Turbinia and here.
 * Linking blog content to Wiki entry. Look at P-class sloop and P Boats of the First World War a blog entry by Ian Whitehead.
 * Wikimedia had material on Commons which was self evidently problematic about Turbinia. The responsible curator here Ian Whitehead has written a specially commissioned for this residency museum blog entry to explain as well as possible what the issues are. The result is here and this has been incorporated into Turbinia, Charles Algernon Parsons and Commons material. It has been brought to the attention of the community.

Enabling collaboration between museum visitors and Wikimedia

 * Encourage visitors to the museums to get involved in Wikimedia projects, for instance whether Japanese students of Armstrong warships could translate pages. With the help of Wiki editors an existing article on the German Wiki has been translated into English concerning the Sunderland built SD18 class of ship. The related article MV Murree has gone into German.

New editor accounts

 * TWAMJohnCoburn and five private accounts added by 26th April 2013. Subsequently added TWAMEmilyMerrit, TWAMLizRees, TWAMiainwatson. The artist Julia Vogl has also been added as a new private account juliavogl. On 20th May 2013 the editathon added one private account and TWAMHelenWhite and TWAMMarkCordell. On 22nd May two new editor accounts faciliated TWAMkylealittle, TWAMsarahcotton. On 3rd June five new private accounts were added. As a result of that event Jenny Lemke created Medingen Abbey. On 12th June added TWAMToniFord. On June 17th at the Natural History Society of Northumbria three new private accounts were added. The 26th June 2013 Wiki invite event at NEIMME (below) added two private accounts. TWAMKellyMartin was added on the same date. The final total of new editors inducted is 27.



Commons Content

 * Uploaded material by TWAMWIR to Wiki Commons is here. A compilation of all material uploaded to Wiki Commons by Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums is here. Commons material has been linked to articles and very notably the study of TWAM archives item 450/1 has impacted on the creation of a new page about Sunderland born marine artist Charles de Lacy. A context setting blog about both 450/1 and De Lacy is here. As a result a featured article shows some of these uploads. 13 more items of work have been added to the publicly recognised body of De Lacy work. This task has brought TWAMWIR into collaboration with several respected Wiki editors for instance in Brazilian_battleship_Minas_Geraes and sister articles. Previously a selection of launch era postcards had also been shared in the residency.

Partner bodies to TWAM

 * Working with outside cultural agencies having a relationship to Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums. This has helped in the creation of La Bonche which is a page detailing a youth circus created in the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
 * The Great North Museum Hancock is a partnership of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, the Newcastle University and the Natural History Society of Northumbria. A Wiki training session for staff of the last organisation was held 17th June 2013 and three signups made.
 * One of Newcastle upon Tyne's venerable cultural institutions is the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. On 26th June 2013 TWAMWIR helped facilitate a Wikimedian training session for staff and volunteers between 10-12 midday.



July 2013
All those connected to the residency should note that Wikipedia has just launched a new what you see is what you get editing service. Look at this.

A Wikipedian meet up in Newcastle is being arranged for 15th September. Look here. It happened and five of us met. Next heading is the follow up.

Mining Institute Editathon 6th November 2013
Heads up, a chance to meet some Wikimedians in a great setting

https://wiki.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Editathon,_North_of_England_Institute_of_Mining_and_Mechanical_Engineers

The result of that event is blogged about here. Do leave a message if you wish to know about follow up events.

Ally Crockford
As our Wiki neighbour it is good to be aware of this.