2024 - a year full of events[edit]

AvoinGLAM's activities in 2024 are characterized by a series of events. This page is a living document, and it will change to reflect the activities that took place. Follow the links to the pages of individual projects.

Steering group 2024[edit]

The steering group was elected on 13 December in the annual meeting of AvoinGLAM.

Tove Ørsted
Tuomas Nolvi
Kimberli Mäkäräinen
Julia Brungs (in private capacity)
Ranjit Menon
Sophea Lerner
Susanna Ånäs (AvoinGLAM coordinator, non-voting)
Janne Peltola (OKFI ED, non-voting)

Staff & contractors[edit]

Susanna Ånäs (Susannaanas) 🦜, coordinator
Andrew Paterson, coordinator for the Media Art History project
Tuukka Hastrup, coordinator for Wikidocumentaries

Events[edit]

AI Sauna

The event in May after the Wikimedia hackathon in Tallinn brings together two topics:

The strategic discussion about the role of GLAM contributions in Wikimedia projects and the technology that enables them. Let's have sauna and sort it out!
What does AI mean for GLAMs? We are inviting Finnish GLAMs, AI research projects and companies to learn & experiment together with the international Wikimedia community.

Coordinator: Susanna Ånäs

Media Art History on Wikimedia Projects

AvoinGLAM commemorates the work of Minna Tarkka (1960–2023) by celebrating the Media Art History in Finland (MEHI) project. MEHI is a major effort by Finnish arts organizations to record and publish the history of Finnish media art and to build information infrastructures for its documentation. The project uses Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons for open sharing of results. We collaborate with the Finnish and international networks in creating a local and an international tribute. Furthermore, we will ensure that the knowledge of media art in Wikidata continues to grow by inviting artists and organizations to contribute their knowledge directly to Wikidata. Coordinator: Andrew Paterson

Projects[edit]

Visualizing Wikidata with Design at Aalto

The data visualization collaboration with the Aalto University Department of Art and Media explores combining Wikidata and other data sources to create compelling data visualizations. The activities include introductory lessons on Wikidata, and co-facilitating a study project. Coordinators: Rupesh Vyas and Nicola Cerioli

Wikidocumentaries

We have created Wikidocumentaries for exploring the global cultural commons and and contributing to it. As we see it, the cultural commons is the knowledge that the institutions, individuals and the open projects together make available. We wish to propose Wikidocumentaries as a platform for contribution tools for the open ecosystem. Coordinator: Tuukka Hastrup and Susanna Ånäs

Living Heritage

The work with Living heritage continues in 2024. This year's activities focus on bringing more inventory data to Wikidata, continue supporting introductions between focal points and Wikimedia affiliates, and developing the Wiki Loves Living Heritage pages further. Living Heritage is part of our broader vision of working with underrepresented knowledge. Coordinator: Susanna Ånäs

2024 Event log

Topics[edit]

Advocacy for Open Culture[edit]

Internally[edit]

We facilitate discussions in the global Open Culture community that aim at highlighting the important role of GLAM activities and partner contributions in Wikimedia and the open ecosystem more broadly.

We propose projects, collaborations and practices to strengthen the Cultural Commons, advocating for Open Access while paying attention to protecting sensitive data.

Externally[edit]

We make an effort to engage more with academic networks, especially in design and digital humanities. We can increase the understanding of the values of openness in the younger generations by engaging with students and researchers.

We will strengthen advocacy of open culture within the Finnish GLAM sector by identifying ways in which the memory institutions can increase their impact and prepare for a resilient digital transformation, and offering our insights about what role open access to cultural heritage can play in that. Increase collaboration and pooled resources in tackling capacity issues.

We join the discussions in the GLAM sector by participating in the workings of professional GLAM networks, Finna consortium, Finto, Round Table for Digital Cultural Heritage, Time Machine Finland or the Legal Group of the Finnish GLAMs. The AI hack event is part of both the internal and the external advocacy efforts.

Public policy[edit]

Locally in Finland, we will strengthen the Finnish community of Open Access advocates by joining forces with Creative Commons Finland, Open Knowledge Finland, Wikimedia Finland and other organizations. We will exchange ideas in joint discussions and participate in public policy efforts together.

Cultural rights[edit]

We continue exploring ways in which underrepresented content communities can contribute to the open ecosystem. Our goal is to identify ways to create safe spaces for sharing: to protect personal information as well as cultural rights of the communities, and to support data sovereignty of indigenous and other communities. We strive to build partnerships with advocacy organizations in cultural rights and explore options for safeguarding heritage collections from underrepresented communities. We continue to develop and find resources to work with these projects.

Data spaces for communities – the use of Wikibase for content communities
Ethical sharing – eg. content labeling such as Traditional Knowledge labels on Wikimedia projects and by aggregators
Language diversity – Support the use of Saami and other minority languages in Wikimedia projects. Promote the use of the multilingual Wikimedia projects for third parties when they would benefit from multilinguality if the projects.