Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Nederland/20163

Community and Participation

Workshop simpleshow foundation

On March 19, 9 participants attended the simpleshow foundation workshop on producing explanatory videos. During this workshop, attendees learned the basic skills to write storyboards for animations in the style of simple show videos. Focus of the workshop was how to explain complex topics in a short and understandable way, how cut-out animation works and how to write a storyboard. We asked participants to write a storyboard about a Wikimedia related subject. After the workshop, attendees will refine their storyboard, supported by the simpleshow Foundation team. The videos will be published under CC-BY-SA license on Wikimedia Commons. All participants were very enthusiastic after the workshop, expectations were met and everybody felt that they can use the lessons learned in their (Wikimedia) work.

Content

Gender gap

Wikipedians worked together during the weekend of March 5 and 6 to make Wikipedia and sister projects more 'feminine' ahead of International Women's Day. The weekend was organised by the gendergap taskforce and the main goal was narrowing the gendergap on Wikipedia. We provided participants with inspiration; participants were able to choose a subject from a long list of desired articles. Wikipedians were available both online and offline for questions. We created a friendly space in a Facebook group, where participants felt free to ask questions about editing Wikipedia.

The event was successful. Over eighty new female articles were written during the weekend and 12 articles were improved. Volunteers created a gallery of "portraits of women" on Wikimedia Commons using Wikidata. The National Archives donated 18 new pictures of International Women’s Day. Because of the banner we published on Dutch Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata a lot of Wikimedians were inspired to participate. They did not stop writing after the weekend and at this moment, we have 203 new articles that were added to our gendergap result list since the beginning of the event.

Book bindings from Koninklijke Bibliotheek

760 high-resolution photos of the historic book bindings from the bookbindings collection of the KB were added to Wikimedia Commons. This category contains images of some stunning book bindings (front views only) from the period 1100 - 1875.

Education

The education programme of Maastricht University went into its third year. On 16 March, an introductory Wikipedia-workshop was given, during which students were asked to sign up for Wikipedia and some information was given on how Wikipedia works and how editing works. As in previous years, the class focuses on expeditions by historical travellers and scholars. Nine students participated in this course; as editing Wikipedia was one choice among several for writing assignments, it was at this stage not clear how many will actually start editing Wikipedia.

On 15 March a meeting was held with staff from the Utrecht university museum and Utrecht University about the continuation of their education programme. Due to staff changes, continuation was uncertain but it is very likely now that a new class will be given as part of a minor on public history. This class will likely be given during 2016-2017. Further talks and preparation is planned in April-May 2016, when the new lecturers will be involved as well.

We has a first meeting with Tilburg University about the possibility to develop a Wikipedia-focussed 'law clinic'. During a law clinic, students from the Faculty of Law apply their knowledge and skills in a 'real life' context. We would like the students to assess qualtiy of articles related to law.

Erfgoed Gelderland (Heritage Gelderland)

Wikimedia Nederland is working with Erfgoed Gelderland, a federation of GLAMs from the province of Gelderland, to raise funds for a Wikipedian in Residence, The grant application stage of the project started with a success - a small amount was already donated. On 29 March, a meeting was held with Wikimedia Nederland and a number of prospective participants. This meeting resulted in one more instution that agreed to participate. A grant application for the bulk of the funds is being developed with input from WMNL and will be submitted in April.

Meetings long-term GLAM Partners and Wikimedia Netherlands

In February and March Wikimedia Netherlands met with several their long-term GLAM partners. During these meetings prior projects and future plans were discussed. Various projects and donations from these partners are planned for the coming year and will be announced through the newsletter and other relevant channels. The GLAM partners are Tropenmuseum (now part of Nationaal Museum voor Wereldculturen), Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Nationaal Archief, NIOD, Museum Catharijneconvent, Rijksmuseum, and Beeld & Geluid.

Communication and publicity

We sent out our newsletter of March.

Other events

Double Writing week

After successful writing events about Sweden, Brazil and the Denmark the NL-Wikipedia community organised a double writing week about Brussels with some (financial) support from Wikimedia Nederland.