Bringing Wikipedia In-House: The British Museum Wikipedian in Residence Project

In brief:

How does one of the world's oldest, largest and most visible museums interact with the one of the world's youngest, largest and most visible websites? This presentation will report on the results of the world's first “volunteer Wikipedian-in-residence” project launched by The British Museum as a one month pilot in June 2010. It will assess the extent to which a successful relationship was built between the two communities in a way that was mutually beneficial, low risk, measurable and did not require altering the policies of either.

Abstract

How does one of the world's oldest, largest and most visible museums interact with the one of the world's youngest, largest and most visible websites? This presentation will report on the results of the world's first “volunteer Wikipedian-in-residence” project launched by The British Museum as a one month pilot in June 2010. It will assess the extent to which a successful relationship was built between the two communities in a way that was mutually beneficial, low risk, measurable and did not require altering the policies of either.

This presentation will include outcomes using quantitative metrics as well as qualitative results against measures such as the responses of the Museum's curatorial, legal and marketing departments to working with this different platform and community. It will compare the reactions of the Wikimedia community, and consider problems and unexpected successes. Finally, the presentation will also discuss how such an initiative can be tailored to the needs of individual museums and Wikimedians by taking account of a potential project's scope, whether or not its focus is internal and/or external focus, and how to find an appropriate fit with the organisation's mission and capacity.

The residency aimed to improve the volume and quality of information in Wikipedia relating to the museum as well as to improve public engagement with that information. It raised issues internally regarding copyright, curatoral standards, visitor engagement and volunteerism in the digital environment. A parallel aim was to build trust and share best practices between two large communities who in spite of sharing many of the same goals, are often ambivalent.

This presentation and the project at its centre aligns with the themes of the MCN 2010 Conference by:
1) Taking the audience behind the scenes in a great public museum;
2) Relating one of Wikimedia's principal proponents - Commons - to copyright and remix culture;
3) Explaining an attempt to harness the community already engaged around the museum but who do not yet consider themselves affiliated with it;
4) Being among the many Wikimedia projects at the forefront of promoting Open in all aspects - everything from copyright to organisational transparency and software;
5) Bringing into relief the contestation between concepts of control and concepts of heritage stewardship - a volunteer Wikipedian in-house at a major museum is a significant (and not uncontroversial) force for democratising access and the control of knowledge;
6) Attempting to bridge the gap by harnessing the power of the many with the expertise of the few, thereby significantly enhancing both the reputation and the relevance of the museum - the history of Wikipedia is one steeped in debates over whether user-generated content can achieve quality and reliability;
7) Integrating communication strategies by bringing Wikipedia into the physical space;
8) Helping to bridge the digital divide by bringing cultural heritage back to peoples who either were the traditional owners of museum items or subjects of museum exhibitions in their own language and by being involved in all language communities.

See also: http://www.wittylama.com/2010/03/the-british-museum-and-me/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/BM

Session Info

• Type: Individual Paper
• Keywords: wikipedia, open, copyright, community, commons, quality, crowdsourcing, volunteer
• Relevance: This session is relevant to strategic, web, and community managers within museums (large or small) who wish to engage with the online community beyond the walls of their own institution's website. It is also relevant to those from these MCN SIGs: Intellectual Property, Small Museums, Metrics & Evaluation, and Information Technology as it relates to communities. Also, because the pilot was run at the British Museum, the UK-Ireland SIG.

Speaker Bio

Liam Wyatt is an Sydney-based Wikipedian and historian who works to bring the museum and Wikimedia communities closer together. Subsequent to completing his thesis The Academic Lineage of Wikipedia he was elected Vice President of Wikimedia Australia, convened the GLAM-WIKI:Finding the Common Ground conference in Canberra, Australia and has worked with the Dictionary of Sydney, the Australasian Legal Information Institute and the Powerhouse Museum. He recently completed a project at the British Museum  as volunteer Wikipedian in Residence - the subject of his presentation at MCN2010.