Grants:TPS/Umbrellas000/US OpenGLAM Launch Weekend, Open Knowledge Foundation/Report

Event name:
US OpenGLAM Launch Weekend, Open Knowledge Foundation

Description of your participation:
As planned, I gave a lightning talk on international collaboration and the WWI Linked Open Data Project (WW1LOD), which encourages the findability, interoperability and sharing of data related to the First World War. DBpedia, which makes Wikipedia content available as linked data, is among the major data sources to which the project is linking. WW1LOD provided a real-world example of a linked-data OpenGLAM project and how it could be taken forward by a dedicated group of interested individuals. One of the outcomes was a potential collaboration with the Musuem of Science, which holds complementary content, suggested by Ed Rodley (Peabody Essex Museum). Another was a conversation with Jon Voss (historypin) about reuse of general data structures in the Linked Open Data community. I was also a part of a group that worked on a "First steps to OpenGLAM graph": http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OpenGLAM-To-Do-PDF.pdf. Other groups worked on a "Sell open in your institution one-pager" and an "OpenGLAM toolkit". Together these helped form an action agenda and resource base from which participants and interested others can draw.

What lessons were learned that could help others in similar events?
This event was very well organized by Sarah Stierch, who made sure we all had each other's contact information in advance so we could start networking, had twitter and etherpad all set up so we could share what we were learning with each other and the outside world, created a launch guide, homepage and schedule, arranged social events (dinners, happy hours, etc.) and kept us happily focused on OpenGLAM all weekend with lots of excitement and energy. The small size of the group (20) was optimal and facilitated collaboration. We all went home with ideas about how we could further OpenGLAM at our institutions. If I had to do something differently, I would have stayed an additional night so I could attend the post-conference dinner and not have arrived home so late.

What impact did your participation have on the Wikimedia Mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation?
Raising awareness of the WW1LOD project and making connections with 20 other GLAMbassadors interested in furthering open knowledge were two impacts of my participation in the US OpenGLAM launch. WW1LOD contributes to Wikimedia goals by magnifying the impact of Wikipedia's contribution to the open knowledge ecosystem: (1) WW1LOD links to structured Wikipedia data in DBpedia, thus routing users to this data source; (2) if other institutions who learned about the project at this event link to and reuse this rich data source in their own efforts, they will doing the same thing. All of our data will become more open and usable to the general public. Further I was on hand to hear Sarah Stierch, Merilee Profitt (OCLC) and others share their experiences working with the Wikipedia community. The outcome is that a colleague and I are currently in conversations with our local Wikipedia chapter about organizing a Wikipedia and Wikisource editathon, which we expect to result in: a number of new and improved articles related to our campus, the library and its holdings and local/regional history; and hopefully new editors from among the university and local community.

Detail of expenditures:
3-22-2013
Toll home > DEN: $5.20
Flight DEN > SFO: $414.80
Transport (shuttle) SFO > guest house: $34.00
Lodging (shared room): $149.00
Dinner: $20.00
3-23-2013
Dinner: $13.97
3-24-2013
Misc. food: $.99 (airport) + $6.55 (guest house) = $7.54
Transport (cab) from guest house to conference: $10
Transport (BART-public) from conference > SFO: $8.40
Parking DEN: $3.00
Toll DEN > home: $5.20

Amount underspent/left-over (please specify currency):
$0