Khalili Foundation’s contribution to cultural diversity online spotlighted at Wikimania Conference
Photo by Niccolò Caranti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Khalili Foundation was represented at two recent global events discussing public access to culture. The one-day GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) Global Meetup and four-day Wikimania conference both took place in Katowice, Poland. Dr Martin Poulter, the Foundation’s Wikimedian In Residence, attended to share lessons learned from the hugely successful Khalili/Wikimedia partnership.
Martin spoke at a panel on the value of Wikimedians In Residence and presented a poster about how the Khalili Foundation’s philanthropy has led to improvements in 15 language versions of Wikipedia. He took part in workshops about how more cultural institutions can reach the public through the Wikimedia platforms.
Photo by Niccolò Caranti, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Dr Sara Thomas
A total of 143 countries were represented at Wikimania, including staff from cultural institutions, researchers, and wiki volunteers. This was a receptive audience to hear about the Foundation’s work promoting inter-cultural understanding, inter-faith harmony, and peace. Martin got to personally thank Dr Thneed (a Wikipedian from New Zealand who acted as independent reviewer for the “Falnama” Wikipedia article) as well as users from many countries who are working on cultural diversity.
The Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts Wikipedia and its sister sites, announced a new service that more reliably measures views for images shared by cultural collections. They mention the Khalili/Wikimedia partnership, whose images are used in 92 Wikimedia sites, as one of the motivators for this work. These technical developments, as well as the good practices shared in person last week, should help the global spread of free access to culture.
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