GLAM Wiki Conference Philippines 2024/Report/Quicksilverabby25

The theme of the 2024 GLAM Wiki Conference Philippines is "Empowering Communities Toward an Accessible Knowledge of Cultural Heritage." It is a national conference that brings together professionals in the field of cultural heritage from Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums with the active Wikimedia communities in the Philippines. The purpose of the conference is to exchange and share knowledge about open digital resources, cultural preservation, including tangible and intangible heritage, as well as to discuss real-world problems and solutions adopted. The conference took place from September 20–22, 2024, in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur. Since joining Philwiki Community- Bicol, this was my first Wiki conference attended. I expressed my gratitude to the Wikipedia Foundation for providing me the role of a participants with a conference scholarship so that I could attend this event.

On the first day of the conference, we took our breakfast at the hotel and have a Wiki Takes Vigan photo walk at Baluarte and other outreach activities. Another thing in the afternoon, we have conducted series of lectures at National Museum of the Philippines (NMP)-Vigan. The first presenter was Mr. Paolo Mar A. Chan, Head of NMP. He gave his welcome remarks and presented his topic entitled “National Museum of the Philippines - Ilocos on its mandate, program and services followed by a keynote address of our Senior Partnership Manager, South East Asia and Pacific (ESEAP), Sakti Pramudya, PhD. After that, Prof. Danilo M. Gerona, Ph.D-Director, Center of Partido State University, Goa, Camarines Sur shared his topic about “The Founding of the Villa Fernandina in Vigan. The last presenter was Fr. Edmundo C. Castaneda, Jr., President of St., Ferdinand College - City of Ilagan Vicar General of the Diocese of Ilagan with an interesting topic about Linguistic Hospitality: The Risk of Translating P. Payo’s 1878 Ibanag-Spanish Dictionary into English.

On the second day of the conference, many presenters delivered their talks. All of the topics are informative and fascinating, and I was impressed and pleased of their various shared research, experiences, knowledge, and accomplishments. Then we held panel talks and workshops on macro photography, strategic planning, and Wikisource proofreading, which were facilitated by volunteered students from the College of Architecture and Engineering at the University of Nueva Caceres. Then, on the final day of the conference, the GLAM team traveled to Ilocos Norte for outreach activities.

This GLAM conference has transported me to a world full of hope and cultural preservation. Visiting the various beautiful locals and museums in Ilocos opened my eyes to a wider range of viewpoints, revealing that this is more than just a repository of data and artifacts, but also a source of information, education, and culture. It is important to remember that there is no Filipino identity without cultural identity and preservation. I am grateful to the founder, organizer, facilitators, and co-participants for providing such a wonderful experience and making this activity possible. I am looking forward to future activities in which the Wiki community can engage and offer their knowledge for the betterment and sustainability of the community. Agyamanak!