Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/March 2012/Op-ed


 * By Hawkeye7

On 23 February 2012, Wikimedia Australia's vice president and HOPAU Wikipedian in Residence, LauraHale, and I went to the Australian War Memorial (pictured) to discuss the Wikipedian in Residence Program.

Some explanation is in order here. First of all, although the photograph the War Memorial may look like it is in the bush, since it backs on to the Mount Ainslie, actually all of Canberra looks like this. From the steps, if you look towards the direction the picture was taken, you would have an expansive view out over Lake Burley Griffen and, on the other side, Parliament House, Canberra. It too has a nature reserve for a backdrop, in its case Red Hill. As I said, the whole city looks like this.

The War Memorial fittingly stands facing other national institutions. The name may be a bit misleading, as it may sound like a stone monument, and it is a bit like that. The generation that fought the Great War demanded that their sacrifices be recorded in stone. The War Memorial takes the form of a pagan temple with a courtyard on which the names of the fallen are recorded, leading up to a shrine. There is a reflection pool, a tomb of the unknown soldier and an eternal flame. There is no Christian symbolism, which harkens back to an era of sectarianism in Australia.

However the War Memorial is much more than that. Charles Bean did not intend that it would be a mute monument. Its institutional objectives are assisting "Australians to remember, interpret and understand the Australian experience of war and its enduring impact on Australian society." Most visitors to Canberra are familiar with it as a museum. For many decades its galleries have entertained and informed visitors. Intended as a museum devoted to the Great War, by the time it was completed in 1942 it was decided to add the Second World War, seen at the time as a sequel to the First. Later and earlier wars were subsequently added.

But there is more. Bean wrote his Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 from Tuggeranong Homestead, and the documents he brought back from the Great War form the heart of the collection that is now in the Research Centre. Today, many of the nation's best-known historians reside in Canberra, including David Horner, Chris Coulthard-Clark. Jeffrey Grey, Peter Dennis and Ashley Ekins.

The War Memorial also has an online presence, and it was with the Web Group that we met. They have an office inside the admin building, which looks sort of like one of those grey bunkers where they used to set off rockets. There was a small meeting table, and tea and biscuits were served. The Web Group have done some fabulous work, including putting photographs and records online. I suggested extending this to the video and sound files. I emphasised that we wanted to assist their efforts.

LauraHale is the Wikipedian in Residence for the Paralympic movement and knows a lot about the activities undertaken by Wikipedians in Residence. However, her background is in sports. She is currently flat out working with various sports teams that are preparing for the Olympics and Paralympics.

It was strange to hear about the Military History Project as described by an outsider. LauraHale told them that it was a widely respected project devoted to quality, where the participants, or a least the coordinators, prefer small numbers of high-quality articles to large numbers of low-quality ones. She said that the English Wikipedia has credibility with Australian military historians, and forms a community of avid contributors. We described the Wikipedia's internal assessment mechanisms and they seemed both relieved and impressed. The War Memorial staff suggested a training program to acquaint staff with Wikipedia.

Discussion turned to how Wikimedia Australia and the greater Wikipedia community could help the War Memorial meet its objectives. The War Memorial has long used volunteers in various roles, and the idea of Wikipedians as "e-volunteers" had considerable appeal. The War Memorial is currently gearing up for the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign in 2015. As part of this, the Great War galleries - some unchanged for decades - will be undergoing a major refurbishment. A proposal was brought up to have Wikipedia photographers capture the galleries before they are changed.

The meeting ended on a good note, with an agreement to continue discussions. We now have to demonstrate that we can help them.

''Ed. note: if you'd like to help but are not in Australia, the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) WikiProject would be a good place to start on-wiki. Otherwise, look at your local community and try to find a GLAM that you think could benefit Wikipedia!''


 * Hawkeye7 is a professional military historian based in Canberra. On Wikipedia, he has authored sixteen featured articles, twenty-five A-class articles, and numerous others.