Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/Oulu Löyly - Open culture think & do fest
This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the web service of Wikimedia Foundation Funds, where the user has submitted their application. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.
Applicant details
[edit]- A. Are you applying as a(n)
Group of individuals not registered with an organization
- B. Full name of organization presenting the proposal.
AvoinGLAM
- F. Do you have an account on a Wikimedia project?
Yes
- F1. Please provide your main Wikimedia Username.
Susannaanas
- F2. Please provide the Usernames of people related to this proposal.
N/A
- G. Are you legally registered?
If you are applying as an individual or your group is not a legally registered nonprofit in your country, we require that you have a fiscal sponsor.
- I. Fiscal organization name.
Open Knowledge Finland ry
Objectives and Strategy
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal.
Oulu Löyly - Open culture think & do fest
- 2.1. When will the event begin? Please enter the event start date.
2026-06-08
- 2.2. When is the last day of your event?
2026-06-10
- 3.1. When will you begin preparing for your event?
2026-03-27T00:00:00Z
- 3.2. When will you expect to complete your last event payment?
2026-12-31T00:00:00Z
- 4. In which country will the conference take place?
Finland
- 4.1. In which city will the conference take place?
Oulu
- 5. Is it a remote or in-person event?
Hybrid event (in person + streaming)
- 5.1. What will be the total number of participants at the event? (including scholarship recipients + organizing team + other guests + self funded guests) (required)
70
- 6. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope.
International
- 6.1. If you have answered regional, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.
The project has several overlapping geographic scopes that follow the thematic spread of Sámi and Arctic/circumpolar heritage, European cultural commons, indigenous heritage issues globally. Nordic and Baltic countries, European countries, Australia, Canada, individual spots from outside Europe
- 7. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/AvoinGLAM https://www.okf.fi/
- 8. Do you work with any thematic or regional platforms such as WISCom, CEE, Iberocoop, etc.
No
- 8.1. Please describe what platforms and your work with them.
- 9. Please describe the target participants for this event.
Oulu Löyly will convene an interdisciplinary group of up to 70 participants. The expected participants will bring their expertise of:
- Indigenous cultural heritage
- Cultural policy
- Digital infrastructure for open culture
- Archives, expressions and communities
- Open culture
- Language revitalization
- Heritage at risk
- Digital rights for open culture
They represent open advocates, students and researchers, policy makers, cultural heritage professionals, creative practitioners, technologists and educators.
AvoinGLAM and Wikimedia Finland are negotiating a partnership for the Oulu Löyly event with the Memory of the World program in Finland. The collaboration will be linked to a Wikipedia writing campaign aimed at raising awareness of the Memory of the World register in spring 2026. The campaign brings together the Wikimedia community and memory institutions to collaboratively create high-quality articles on the inscriptions and related topics. The partnership is pending confirmation of the program’s funding for 2026.
We are inviting Wikimedia participation from the Nordic/Baltic area through the Nordic Wikimedia chapters' gathering and we are negotiating support from chapters in Europe and overseas for the participation of a number of expert Wikimedians in specific areas (indigenous knowledge, federated technologies, policy). Summed up, wikimedians will represent around 30% of all participants.
We are also inviting Joy Agyepong as an expert volunteer and share learnings of previous experiences from both Wiki Loves Folklore and Wiki Loves Living Heritage.
We invite Language diversity hub representatives to join and contribute to the program, and hope to establish an exchange between Oulu Löyly and the Language conference. We also work toward ensuring that both the Content Partnerships Hub and the GLAM Wiki community will be represented.
We strive to secure the presence of
- Global efforts in enshrining culture as public good, including the Open Heritage Statement and #CultureGoal2030
- The Memory of the World program in Finland as well as further UNESCO programs and initiatives
- Open culture actors from Wikimedia and other organizations in the region and in Europe
- Heritage communities, artistic and archival projects from the region
- Nordic and Baltic memory institutions
- Cultural policy makers in the regional and European contexts
- Europeana
- Nordic/Baltic students and researchers
- 10. Please provide the link to the event's page if you already have one.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Oulu_Löyly
The following questions (11-14) will refer to the Community Engagement Survey which is required in order to submit a proposal. Here is the survey form that you can copy and use (if the link does not work): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ieEI8EFf2vxjD9wN_h8-srYeRCp4fhSp7_1_wiR2jh8/edit. This survey is required to access a Conference grant.
- 11. How many people did you send the community engagement survey to?
300
- 11.1. When did you conduct the survey, and for how long?
Survey was sent 4 Aug directly to a bit over 300 recipients, Global GLAM Wiki call 5 Aug, This Month in GLAM 11 Aug, 15 Aug GLAM Wiki Global Telegram channel and OKFI newsletter, dl 24 Aug 2025
- 12. How many people responded to the survey?
151
- 13. What are the main objectives of the event?
Investigate the functioning of the cultural commons from the perspective of heritage communities.
Co-create actionable outcomes for further work through an intense think & do workshop, responding to questions like:
- How can we better serve heritage communities in the Wikimedia projects?
- How can we create better tools for managing digital rights that take the special requirements of indigenous and other heritage communities into consideration?
- Can we bring community heritage together with the open ecosystem without straining the Wikimedia projects directly – through federation and interoperable technologies?
Cross-pollinate between Wikimedia contributors and external partners
- Raise awareness of the Memory of the World program and other UNESCO heritage programs among Wikimedians as well as memory organizations.
- Raise awareness of initiatives highlighting culture as public good, and advocate about the importance of public domain culture among participating organizations.
- Raise awareness of the use of Wikimedia projects to safeguard and share the cultural heritage of communities
- 14. Based on survey responses, what are the most important things your community should do at the conference to achieve these objectives?
Survey responses showed strong interest contributing to Wikimedia projects alongside broader open culture practices. We are encouraging participants to exchange skills with one another in a way that is light on preparation and time commitment. In the survey, we asked participants both what they would like to learn and what skills they could offer, and this information is now available at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Oulu_L%C3%B6yly/Survey/Results_4 and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Oulu_L%C3%B6yly/Survey/Results_5.
- 15. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.
Language, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context), Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
- 15.1. In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge. (optional recommended).
The topic of the event is Digital community heritage and its challenges in the open ecosystem. The participants bring different perspectives and their specific expertise to produce practical outcomes as proposals to solve the topic.
- Rights of communities to their heritage and data sovereignty issues. Saami heritage is a notable case of indigenous knowledge, and we wish to learn from examples from other chapters in the world. The discussions can contribute to further collaborative work in the Wikimedia community to serve these communities.
- Technological barriers: the lack of available solutions to maintain and control the sharing of digital heritage of community archival projects. We expect to explore Wikibase initiatives for community heritage through European digital humanities projects.
- The event addresses heritage at risk through various vulnerabilities present in the context: digital exclusion and lack of access, forgetting, physical threats to cultural heritage and so on.
- Finally, the event will include a strong policy focus in support of initiatives such as the Open Heritage Statement and #CultureGoal2030, that advocate for culture as a public good and equitable access to public domain heritage in the digital environment.
- 16. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.
Public Policy, Culture, heritage or GLAM , Open Technology
- 17. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities?
Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language
- 18. Do you intend to invite or engage with non-Wikimedian individuals or organizations? If so – can you explain your intention for this outreach?
A key goal of Oulu Löyly is to bring together Wikimedia and the wider cultural ecosystem. We will invite researchers, technologists, policymakers, community representatives, indigenous voices, creative professionals, and civil society actors from across the Nordic and Baltic regions, complemented by international guests working on similar challenges.
This outreach is essential for ensuring that Wikimedia’s approaches to cultural heritage are connected with broader debates about community rights, Indigenous knowledge, data sovereignty, and the governance of digital heritage in the age of AI. By drawing on AvoinGLAM’s experience with open cultural heritage hackathons, we will use a “think & do” approach that combines dialogue with hands-on collaboration, enabling participants to co-create practical tools, workflows, and policy ideas.
Through this cross-pollination, Wikimedia participants gain new perspectives and allies, while external partners see how Wikimedia platforms and practices can support their goals. The result is a mutually reinforcing exchange that strengthens Wikimedia’s impact and advances knowledge equity in the Nordic/Baltic region and beyond.
- 19. What will you do to make sure participants continue to engage in your activities after the event?
Oulu Löyly intends to nurture ongoing work in several different contexts and networks. Some will be in our control and some are not.
To follow up on the development of the initiative, we will:
- Conduct a post-event survey to follow up on the initiatives started at the event
- Collaborations between AvoinGLAM and the participants as well as between the participants will be monitored in the follow-up survey
To ensure that the topics are further developed in the Wikimedia ecosystem, we aim to do the following:
- The materials produced at the event, as well as the preliminary materials to introduce the event, remain accessible on Metawiki.
- The global GLAM Wiki collaboration will be informed about the outcomes through presentations in the global GLAM calls and an article in This Month in GLAM
- We will contribute to activities in the Wikimedia community that address how traditional knowledge and other vulnerable knowledge is represented on Wikimedia projects, and invite the event participants to contribute to this activity. This may include working group activities with Wikimedia communities and external partners that may lead to best practice proposals in Wikimedia projects.
In our activities and beyond the Wikimedia community
- The activities of the Finnish open knowledge advocacy network will be informed by the work at Oulu Löyly
- We promote running such hands-on policy events, and will keep on arranging them. We re-invite the participants of our previous events that have allowed us to stay in contact.
- 20. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of THREE options that most apply.
Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Coordinate Across Stakeholders, Innovate in Free Knowledge
Logistical Aspects
[edit]- 21. Do you have any proposed venue for the event?
The event takes place in the newly opened Saari Central Library of Oulu in the event space "Laituri". It is located in the very centre of Oulu, on an island connected by a short bridge. https://www.openstreetmap.org/?#map=17/65.015079/25.462682. The renewed building was opened to the public again in November 2025.
The first day Monday 8 June is open to the public. We invite participants of the Oulu Löyly workshop to join and share their expertise in the form of mini workshops, information booths or photo walks etc. in a marketplace setting in the "Laituri" space.
The keynotes and a panel discussion comprising of the participant contributions run parallel to the marketplace in the adjacent auditorium space. This part of the program is also open to the public and streamed.
Tuesday 9 June – Wednesday 10 June are dedicated to a closed workshop. Participants representing different kinds of expertise areas form groups based on their interests
The capacity of the Laituri space is 130 people. The spaces are equipped with up-to-date technology, and catering is available on the premises. The spaces are accessible.
https://www.ouka.fi/en/guide-event-organizers/central-library-saari-pakkala-hall-and-event-space-laituri https://jkmm.fi/work/oulu-library/
- 22. Is the event venue and hotel accessible for people with physical disabilities?
Yes
- 23. How many scholarships would you like to offer?
We do not request funding for scholarships, but invite a great number of wikimedians, for whom we are negotiating support for their travel with their respective chapters.
We wish to support the travel and accommodation of the volunteer team members and provide additional per diem compensation for 1–2 expert volunteers.
- 24. What expenses will the scholarship cover?
As we are not providing scholarships, this part is relates to volunteers.
We will cover travel and accommodation for volunteers, and additionally per diem for the expert volunteer and paid roles.
- 25. How will scholarship recipients be selected?
As we are not providing scholarships, this part is relates to volunteers.
We expect to gather volunteers mainly from the AvoinGLAM community. For local students who are willing to volunteer, we will cover catering and local transportation. This is not included in the budget, as the sum is small and subject to changing conditions.
- 26. In which ways can Wikimedia Foundation staff support your event onsite?
Trust & Safety – We welcome guidance on planning for trust and safety onsite.
We previously mentioned facilitation but that was related to a WMF proposal for Nordic chapters on collaboration regarding the Saami communities. We will withdraw this idea, as AvoinGLAM's should not get involved in chapter programming.
If the event leads to any high level communication needs within the Wikimedia movement or with external partners, we would like to rely on WMF support on these discussions.
- 26.2. Do you intend to invite any WMF staff members to your event? (please note that all WMF staff travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the foundation). Please indicate what is the limit number of WMF staff members you would like to welcome at your event.
We would appreciate the presence of representatives from the Wikimedia Foundation that have the capacity to incorporate the learnings from the event in their work. That can relate to advocacy, technology, community campaigns and their governance as well as partnerships with cultural and other institutions. It would be beneficial for the field if strategically positioned staff members from former cultural heritage and GLAM areas could join. We will welcome everyone that can join.
- 27. Please outline the roles and responsibilities of the organizing team for the conference.
Program coordinator Susanna Ånäs is responsible for the program design and general management.
Joy Agyepong functions as a Wikimedia expert assistant, supporting arrangements before the event and participating in the practicalities onsite: participant coordination, communication, facilitation, documentation.
We are looking to engage a Finnish or local university trainee (TBD) who will assist with liaising with the participants as well as local entities. During the event, the can help out with documentation and learning. We are considering university trainees or alternatively Erasmus students or trainees.
AvoinGLAM community members will volunteer to set up the event and help document the outcome of the collaborative work.
Our contact person Tea Stolt de Glanville in Oulu forms an integral part of the team.
Mari Guttorm (in private capacity at this stage) from the Support for Sámi languages in digital services project facilitates discussions with the Saami communities.
Wikimedia Finland contributes to the overall development of the event.
A dedicated technician will oversee the hybrid event arrangements.
- 28. Do you have plans to co-organize the event with other Wikimedia communities, groups or affiliates?
Yes
- 28.1. If yes, can you please explain how you are going to co-organize the event and what responsibilities each partner will have.
Wikimedia Finland co-organizes the event especially through the shared partnership with the Memory of the World program. Furthermore, Wikimedia Finland organizes a Nordic meetup in conjunction with Oulu Löyly. The setup is designed to facilitate the participation of the Nordic delegates in the Oulu Löyly activities.
Partners Wikitongues, Anarâškielâ servi, and other Nordic chapters will contribute to creating the Nordic event and are invited to participate in Oulu Löyly.
- 29. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these?
Our key risk is being able to gather the minimum funding required to realize the event. We have prepared a simplified budget, and we have started looking for smaller sponsorships or grants to cover the necessary costs.
The second biggest challenge is the availability of accommodation in Oulu. We will look for alternative accommodation options and book accommodation as soon as we can move forward with the event. Assisting participants in travel arrangements will be important in keeping the event attractive despite the costs.
We do not anticipate leadership changes, but as our core organizing team is small, the “bus factor” exists. However, this team has organized a number of events together, and would be able to take charge and coordinate it if anything unexpected would happen.
- 30. Friendly space policy - Please add the link to the friendly space policy that your community will be using for this event.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/AvoinGLAM/Policies/AvoinGLAM_Friendly_Space_Policy
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation
[edit]- 31. What do you hope to learn from your work organising this conference?
The event builds on reciprocity and cross-pollination within the main topic of community heritage in the open ecosystem.
What can the Wikimedia community learn?
A key outcome for Wikimedia volunteers and organizations is the consideration of ethical principles in sharing online materials that include indigenous or private perspectives, and how those materials can be managed. This discussion should not be confined to this event but nurture further and broader initiatives and discussions.
These considerations have the potential to inform practices in content campaigns and Wikimedia Commons practices in general. Connor Benedict has expressed interest in forming a working group around the issue of how traditional knowledge is represented in Wikimedia.
Wikimedia outcomes also include understanding how Wikimedia platforms can be used for community initiatives (eg. Preserving community history with Wikibase).
Participatory methods used in language revitalization can inform content projects in vulnerable communities.
We are part of the Content Partnerships Hub initiative and Susanna works in the Expert Committee of the Helpdesk, leveraging the insights to shared use directly.
While the GLAM-Wiki conference was able to surface these issues, Oulu Löyly can provide a focused space to bring the ideas forward.
What can others learn from Wikimedia
The Finnish GLAM sector has always been very welcoming to opening content, but have struggled with contributing to the Wikimedia platforms. Oulu Löyly is an event to introduce the platforms to GLAM partners and address their concerns about data sovereignty, security, or ethical issues.
The public-facing part of the program on Monday 8 June is an opportunity to run outreach activities, such as a Wikipedia writing booth or photo walks.
Furthermore, we will monitor 3 axes through learning question: Collaboration, Policy, and Innovation
Collaboration_ Did the event foster new policy and project activities between open knowledge actors / CHIs / policymakers / heritage communities in the Finnish / Nordic+ Baltic / vulnerable communities (eg. Saami and other under-resourced communities, artistic & archival projects) / European context?
Policy_
- Did the event lead to concrete actions or policy efforts that empower heritage communities to manage and share their digital heritage on their own terms?
- Was the understanding and appreciation of public domain heritage increased during the event?
Innovation_
- Did the event help identify platforms, workflows, and processes for ethical, community-centered storage and sharing of heritage?
- Were opportunities explored to identify potential bridges between Wikimedia and EU initiatives (EOSC, ECCCH, Data Spaces for Culture)?
- Were other technical or non-technical innovations brought forward for facilitating the safe and respectful sharing of community heritage online?
- 32. Main open metrics
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Collaboration | Registration data will be used to evaluate
A live collaboration map (a photo wall) is created in the space. The participants add information about
Post-event survey prompts for the estimated number of new connections made and a possibility to describe in writing. Target: At least 50% of participants indicate new collaborations formed. |
50 |
| Policy and innovation initiatives | Workshop outputs and conclusions are listed and tagged according to their themes as part of submitting the output at the end of the event. In the follow-up survey their development is monitored.
At the end of the event, ideas for further development are recorded. In the follow-up survey all participants are asked to reflect on the list of initiatives from their perspective.
Technical and non-technical innovations for facilitating the safe and respectful sharing of community heritage online are monitored and advocated for until the end of the year.
|
50 |
| Participant experience and learning outcomes | Post-event survey will assess participant learning, inspiration, and perceived impact on their work. Target: 70% of participants report meaningful learning or inspiration relevant to their work. | 70 |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
Financial Proposal
[edit]- 33. What is the amount you are requesting from Wikimedia Foundation? Please provide this amount in your local currency.
28776
- 34. Select your local currency.
EUR
- Requested amount in USD
- 33627.63 USD [note 1]
- ↑ a b The following amount in US dollars was calculated by Wikimedia Foundation staff using the fixed currency rates. This amount is approximate and may not reflect the actual currency exchange rates on the day of submission or distribution. If the application is funded, the funding will be sent in the recipient’s local currency.
- 35. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.
- 36. Do you expect to receive funding for this conference from other organizations to support your work?
Yes
- 36.1. If yes, what kind of resources are you expecting to get?
We are negotiating collaboration with the Finnish Memory of the World program, that is connected to a broader campaign with them. The partnership will cover a part of the costs, but it is pending the approval of the program's own funding. It is also an opportunity to reach the contributing archives and collection holders to inspire them to join the event and explore Wikimedia projects. https://maailmanmuisti.fi/en/
Open Knowledge Finland and its communities (OKFI community, Finnish Committee for Research Data, and Creative Commons Finland) will contribute to the program. FCRD has applied for a small amount of funding from the Council of Finnish Academies to support this activity. They plan to coordinate activities around FAIR and CARE data. https://www.okf.fi/what-we-do/
The "Open Latitudes: Science, heritage, and future arts in relation to the Nordic Solstice" project partners with the cultural capital of Europe 2027, Liepaja and has made Oulu Löyly a key component of the network project.
Wikimedia Finland together with the Nordic chapters organize a Nordic Wikimedia gathering with language components. The events take place at the same time to allow maximum collaboration and crossovers. It provides an opportunity for facilitated discussions about collaborative projects in the scope of community / indigenous heritage.
Anarâškielâ servi / Inari Saami Wikimedians as well as Wikitongues partner in Oulu Löyly and bring their respective perspectives to creating the program.
We have two pending funding decisions (Ministry of Education and Culture and Svenska kulturfonden.) We are not including them as income at this point before the decisions, because of the uncertainty.
Furthermore, we hope we can make use of the Europeana ambassador program pilot that Susanna is part of to strengthen collaboration between Wikimedia and Europeana, and to facilitate discussion about rights management of indigenous heritage on digital platforms and in memory institutions through Europeana's reach of institutions. https://pro.europeana.eu/post/europeana-announces-new-high-profile-ambassador-network-programme-and-finnish-pilot
Collaboration is also planned with the HELDIG program of Helsinki University who participate in the European ECHOLOT research initiative, led by TIB, Germany. The goal of this collaboration will be to demonstrate the value of federating linked cultural heritage archives, especially Wikibases. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101233096
In the worst case scenario, Open Knowledge Finland and AvoinGLAM will cover the remaining 15% budget from own funds.
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
- Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.
- Other public document(s):
Endorsements and Feedback
[edit]Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).