Evenementen/Wikipedia seminar NO

The Norwegian Arts Council, National Archive and Nationale service for cultural heritage organised a seminar on cooperation with Wikipedia for GLAMs. They've invited me to give a presentation on the type of projects we have done in the Netherlands.

A few observations:

  1. The seminar was organised by the executive organisations, Wikimedia Norway was only involved for the program. This is the first time I've been to a seminar on this topic where a Wikimedia chapter was not one of the (main) organisers. This might seem a minor detail, but I think it is important. By organising this event, these implementing organisations have made a (strong) statement that actively support the idea of opening up collections and datasets. If Wikimedia Norway had been one of the organisers this statement would not have been so strong.
  2. When I asked to raise hands if someone knew Creative Commons licenses and how to use them, more than 60% of the room raised their hand. This is an absolute record compared to all events that I've visited in the last three years (apart from Wikimedia events of course).
  3. The room was filled with people working at GLAMs and policy makers. There were very few Wikipedians compared to events we've had in The Netherlands.
  4. The Wikipedia terminology is being used internationally. It was easy to see/hear the topics that the speakers before me already covered in Norwegian so I could skip those in my presentation.


But...

  1. There was little interaction with the room. People where clearly there to get inspired. I'm very curious if this event will lead to
    1. More projects, like events, positions for Wikipedians in Residence, etc.
    2. A better understanding of the impact of cooperation with the Wikipedia Community and donating content
    3. More contributors to the platforms


The event inspired me to:

  1. see if an event like this could/should be organised in The Netherlands


I personally forgot to ask how many people in the room where

    1. An active user
    2. A non-editing believer
    3. Skeptical about sharing