GLAM Wiki Conference Philippines 2024/Report/Bernadette Roco
The various Wikimedia communities in the Philippines together with cultural heritage professionals from Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums have just concluded the national GLAM Wiki Conference Philippines 2024 with the theme Empowering Communities Toward an Accessible Knowledge of Cultural Heritage. The 3-day gathering (September 20-22, 2024) has allowed the sharing of experiences, new ideas and collaboration results about open digital resources and cultural heritage. They also tackled practical challenges they encountered and the solutions adopted.
My participation in the Wiki GLAM Conference Philippines 2024 was a very much engaging organizational function starting as early as the 2nd week of June 2024, upon becoming a volunteer PhilWiki Board Secretary. I was happy to join the organizing committee/secretariat which duties were in line with my interests and previous experiences. It was also very useful and it gave me a lot of confidence to be able to join an online meeting with Dr. Sakti Pramudya, regarding the upcoming GLAM conference, among other topics. Aside from the much earlier fund sourcing, the actual detailed planning and preparatory activities took us fourteen weeks for this 3-day conference. An initial PhilWiki Board and officers planning meeting was conducted during which the general direction and expectations were set by the Project Director for the activity. Our first step after the meeting was to construct a simple Gantt Chart to show the expected weekly flow of preparatory activities. It chronologically detailed both the technical/programme and the administrative aspects, going forward to the final conference dates (September 20- 22, 2024). It contained targets and deadlines for conference announcements, updates on conference schedule, selection and confirmation of participants, communications with resource speakers, flight bookings and bus transport arrangements―including travel insurance―for participants, hotel accommodations and conference venues, meal plans, procurement of conference supplies and materials, and sustained linkage with collaborating institutions such as the National Museum of the Philippines (Ilocos and Main Manila offices), the Tourism offices of Vigan and Ilocos Norte, and other government agencies such as the Department of Education (DEPED) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) as well as Universities and other institutions from where our participants were originating. The Gantt chart and other more creative monitoring charts constructed by the Project Director proved useful as they gave us an idea on the progress of our preparations and, more or less, prevented small tasks from being overlooked.
I worked in close coordination with and guidance from the Conference Director, Mr. Irvin and the PhilWiki President Ms. Maffeth who both very efficiently managed the activity. The Wiki system allowed me to aim for maximum work potential, with guidance from colleagues who have been in the organization for much longer periods than myself. I felt I was able to use my organizational and networking skills, linkaging with both government and private institutions before and during the activity. It helped a lot being assigned a laptop for official PhilWiki functions for my assigned tasks as a member of the conference organizing committee ―my senior-citizen slow-learning curve on IT notwithstanding. The participants along with the PhilWiki group left Naga City at 8:30pm for the 11-hour drive to Manila on a rented tourist bus, stopping by the Manila airport terminals to pick up the participants from Visayas and Mindanao. Those who came from Batangas and the Metro Manila area also boarded our bus before we proceeded on another 9-hour travel to Vigan. It was a good decision to house all the participants in one hotel where the conference was also to be held. Check-in at 8:00 pm was fairly smooth as room assignments have already been pre-arranged with the hotel.
DAY 1
The morning was allotted for outreach and photo walk activities. Earlier on, we arranged with the Vigan City Tourism Office to issue the Vigan Tourist Passports ordered by majority of the participants. The passports were to be presented and stamped at accredited establishments to collect points for the visits. This is our way of appreciating and participating in the LGU Vigan’s Culture and Tourism Promotion Project. Before lunch, I went ahead of the group, together with NCHMI President Architect Xenia Merencillo, for an ocular
inspection of the venue for the Opening Program at the Old Carcel of the National Museum-Ilocos (NMI). The Program immediately started after the participants arrived from their photo walk. I led the singing of the National Anthem and was tasked to give a brief introduction for historian Dr. Danilo Gerona, one of the four speakers who delivered their very informative talks. A guided tour of the Old Carcel museum followed after the program. We previously arranged for Ciudad Fernandina Hotel to cater the snacks during the programme at NMI and the dinner served during the evening socials held at the hotel function room.
DAY 2
Several members assisted with the secretariat functions before the start of the session. I was able to listen to most of the interesting topics from various speakers, but
missing a few later in the day to coordinate on administrative matters with the hotel staff. The talks spoke of actual experiences and application of Wiki learnings as well as updates on Wiki PH and global activities and Wikisource status and results. More museum visits happened after the sessions. The evening was spent taking photographs of Vigan and interacting with the locals, trying tasty Ilocano food and shopping for souvenirs. The experience gave me a feeling of being transported back to Vigan's historic past.
In the meantime, I was also constantly connecting with the Tourism Office of Ilocos Norte Province discussing arrangements for the outreach activities on Day 3. Finalizing our plans for the next day was a challenge because of the prevailing weather condition.
Day 3
We proceeded with our scheduled outreach at Ilocos Norte after an early hotel checkout. I coordinated with the hotel for the packed breakfast and for the bus to be ready for
timely departure. We were quite lucky to be able to establish network with Mr. Jessie Silutan, a staff member of Ilocos Norte Provincial Tourism Office. We have coordinated
with him since two weeks earlier to arrange our Day 3 itinerary, including an all Ilocano-menu lunch at La Preciosa where we conducted our closing program. We learned a lot from Sir Jessie about the places we visited, including a guided tour of Laoag City for more Wiki materials. Our last stop was quite exceptional as we were able to appreciate and take photographs of the baroque architecture of Paoay Church, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Ilocos. It was a sight to behold!
We travelled back to Manila and Naga afterwards, leaving at 3pm on September 22, dropping off some participants in Manila and arriving Naga the next day at noontime.
I shall continue to function as Board Secretary and Member of the Board, but also would like to be able to actively participate in the various activities aligned with PhilWiki's targeted 2024-2025 programs, including the Bikol Wikisource editing/validation sessions.
I also look forward to being of help on administrative functions and matters of collaboration with other offices as PhiliWiki pursues its direction moving on from the conference. Some suggested actions that need to be prioritized:
- - continued linkage with LGUs and other institutions for future activities
- - resume accreditation efforts with LGU Naga and NCPC
- - meet with the Mayor for the renewal of the existing MOA with LGU Naga
- - follow up UNC Museum MOU or the University itself for our WikiSource-UNC to have a more solid footing for their efforts and participation in future conferences
- - study the possibility of the National Museum-Ilocos Head's suggestion for more collaboration with PhilWiki as mentioned in his speech during the opening of the conference. Or, we continue to aim that with the National Museum Philippines head office {?}.
Comments
Organization-wise, we need to pay attention to the season and weather patterns for the next national conferences as they are a challenge to participant movement/plane flights and conference activities. Glad to note the Wiki GLAM conference was still able to use part of the outputs of the Wiki-NCHMI (Nueva Caceres Heritage Movement, Inc.) collaboration covered by an existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which includes the Wikisource Training of Trainers on digital resource management. I am amazed at the stamina our members -- especially the students-- have with their interest for more knowledge openly accessible through their Wiki engagement which they are able to apply in their studies and daily activities as well.
Gratitude goes to Mr. Sakti Pramudya, who once again demonstrated his support, the conference participants, the speakers and presentors, the PhilWiki members, and institutions and volunteers who assisted in our preparations and implementation, including: Sir Jesse Alegre, National Museum’s (NMI) Sir Pao and Mam Pollen, Mam Jo-Anne of the Tourism Office in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, and Sir Jessie Silutan of Ilocos Norte’s Tourism Office. Thanks also go to the helpful staff of the Tierra de Ibalon Tours, Ciudad Fernandina Hotel, La Preciosa Restaurant and the different museums we visited.
I am totally glad to have participated in the activity. Overall, the conference was a resounding success. Congratulations to PhilWiki Community, Wikisource Bikol and everyone!