Grants:TPS/SarahStierch/DISH2011/Report

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Event name: DISH 2011

Description of your participation:

I attended, for two days, the DISH 2011 conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands. This conference brought together hundreds of museum and tech professionals from around the world to explore innovations in digital heritage. I attended alongside Liam Wyatt (User:Wittylama), Maarten Dammers (User:Multichill) and was hosted by the Wikimedia Netherlands board in Utrecht for the duration of my stay. While the conference was very large, the way the schedule was laid out allowed for you to attend only one session a day (out of the 20 sessions offered) and the opportunity to attend all of the keynotes. I attended all but one keynote, and two sessions. One session featured a number of different representatives from GLAMs discussing their institutions experiences with opening up their collections for free use of the public, including the Amsterdam Museum, where I had visited with GLAMcamp the week before. Their project, and the project of the Rijksmuseum, were both exciting to hear - the release of thousands of images CCBYA or public domain into the world for our use. The next talk I attended featured innovative crowdsourcing projects including the announcement of the winning image of Wiki Love Monuments. The keynotes were okay - some left much to be desired and remember, the two I did enjoy, one was about technology and how we are all becoming cyborgs (ha!) and the second was by Michael Edson, director of tech at the Smithsonian. Both touched on Wikipedia, and the importance of our mission and the dependability that people have on us. I also had the opportunity to mix and mingle with people from different GLAMs internationally, and I do intend on following up with those contacts.

What lessons were learned that could help others in similar events?

I wish the conference allowed it's guests to attend more sessions, but, that's not planning problem. Overall, it was a standard museum conference that allowed for the most important aspects to take place - people sharing their projects, and mixing and mingling with others.

What impact did your participation have on the Wikimedia Mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation?

I had the opportunity to meet over 20 individuals from cultural institutions and spread the word of GLAM WIKI to them all. I have a collection of business cards to follow up with, and also had the pleasure of meeting with staff from Europeana. Liam and I both had the chance to network, and share with people the updates on the end of his fellowship, the news about Lori Philips, and my own personal involvement, as well as opportunities. I will be following up with these organizations, after the holidays.

Update: All contacts that I connected with have been transferred over to the GLAM contact list that Lori Phillips is maintaining. My own time is limited right now regarding following through with these folks, but, just an FYI :) SarahStierch (talk) 23:54, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Detail of expenditures:

Already sent in. I also reimbursed Wikimedia Germany approximately $20.73.

Amount underspent/left-over (please specify currency):

$20.73 was unused, and reimbursed to Wikimedia Germany.