Structured data for GLAM-Wiki/Project preparation
General considerations before you start
Does your organization hold digital records of a collection? Historical photographs of a specific community? A set of recordings? Documentation of an artist’s work? Archives about a certain region or cultural movement? Or does your organization have deep expertise in a given area? That means you can contribute data and media to Wikimedia projects, and achieve considerable impact. How to get started, and what to consider?
Contributing to a commons
When partnering with Wikimedia projects and communities, you are not creating a website, blog, or branded presence for your organization or collection. Instead, you are contributing content and data to a shared, non-profit 'commons'. Such an effort to preserve and represent cultural heritage is a meaningful and valuable pursuit that likely aligns with your organization's mission and values.
- Read more about the value of Wikimedia for GLAMs and other cultural institutions.
- Learn more about the value of Structured data on Wikimedia Commons.
- Structured Data on Commons and GLAM: open questions and fresh challenges (blog post, in English)
Working with dedicated and knowledgeable volunteers
This effort is carried out with the volunteer assistance of various Wikimedians who will be committed to one or more dimensions of your project. Some may participate because of your content, some because of a connection to your institution’s place in the world or its values. Some will participate based on a broad dedication to Wikimedia in general, and others for reasons that are strictly technical. What unites all of them is a commitment to sharing free knowledge.
Sharing free data and media for broad re-use
Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata, like all other Wikimedia projects, have the goal to share free knowledge and to allow anyone to freely re-use it, anywhere, for any purpose, also commercially. Therefore, if you want to share data and media files on Wikimedia platforms, you should be certain that you have the rights to share that content, and that there are no other ethical concerns around re-use of that material in terms of privacy, cultural ownership, sensitive data, or similar.
