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User:Alexmar983/sandbox/Wikidata Days Bologna 2024

< User:Alexmar983 | sandbox

Report of my participation in Wikimania 2024 as a grantee of Wikimedia CH.

The WikiData_Days in Bologna, held from November 8 to 9, 2024, gathered around 70 attendees, including professionals in librarianship, researchers, and Wikimedians, under the theme 'Wikidata for Libraries and Research.

Similar to Wikimania in Katowice (see the Report), I represented WMCH with the following main goals:

  • presenting the status of the project Researchers in Switzerland.
  • establishing minor sub-projects essential for its development.
  • expanding networking opportunities for the WMCH Innovation programme as a whole.
  • gathering feedback for the next WikiData Days event (Wikicite-themed) in Switzerland in 2025.

This first point frutiful per se, but the biggest advancement for the project "researchers in Switzerland" was also in the networking activity during the conference since User:Ilario and other Swiss users were attending.

Presentation of the project

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I have presented the project "Research in Switzerland" on a time slot in the morning of Saturday, here the summary on social media:

Side projects

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On Friday, we agreed on a few minor contracts within the 2024 budget, outlining the following mini-projects:

Networking

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We also debated on the following aspects at the community level:

  • Involving User:IconotecaUSI (Tessin) in the activities of the chapter.
  • Meeting with librarians from the Geneva area in February, in response to an email from the Geneva Graduate Institute.
  • Connecting the two users involved in the IdRef platform: User:Jahl de Vautban and Elena Avellino from the École française de Rome. WMCH could potentially help catalyze human resources on Wikidata for data round-tripping with the IdRef database.

Feedback for future Swiss WDD

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Besides this outreach effort, my main goal was to gather feedback for future Wikidata Days event planned in 2025.

In October and November, I worked on organizing and standardizing content related to Wikidata Days (WDD) events on Wikimedia Commons and Meta. In the process, I focused on defining a consistent style for this type of event. The event in Bologna was a useful test for the preparation of the Swiss event

Some takeaways for future events include:

  • The opening session could have been more focused, as there were perhaps a few too many speakers. I might suggest splitting the speakers between the opening and closing sessions to allow for proper time allocation
  • I have uploaded the pictures on Commons with proper categorization, I was almost the only one despite many expert users attending sometimes reimboursed by the chapters. Having experienced Wikimedians funded by chapters to handle media uploads and social media strategies would streamline event documentation and promotion, if invited they have to be reminded properly to do so.

Badges should be as informative as possible, potentially including stickers to indicate attendees' main areas of interest. Providing gadget bags for invited speakers could be a thoughtful gesture.

  • The noise from people approaching the coffee table was somewhat problematic. It was almost impossible to maintain constant attention after two presentation, people were not attending the third one in a row. When defining the programme, more frequent pauses might be necessary.
  • Users invited from sister Wikimedia projects often gathered outside the main conference area, engaging in discussions unrelated to Wikidata. This approach doesn’t seem to effectively support networking with potential stakeholders. While community involvement is important, a more focused profiling of attendees might better align with the event’s goals.Wikidata Days are born with a clear networking objective, and there are other events better suited to serve as community meet-ups.
  • The presence of only one facility for recording sessions should be avoided. Let's aim to prevent such partial coverage.
  • The closing remarks should include in my opinion a clear thank-you message, collectively delivered by the entire organizing team. They should be as thoughtful and comprehensive as possible.
  • The dedicated Telegram group worked well together with other existsing Telegram groups. For future events, we should consider creating a generic Wikimedia CH Telegram group. This would allow the number of followers to grow quickly during the event, as it did with the GWMAB Telegram group. It's better to invest in a complete and efficient infrastructure that can be used long-term and repurposed for future events.
  • The reimbursement process can be imporved. For instance, I was not provided with clear guidelines. This should be planned from the beginning, with a deadline set before the start of the event. The complexity of the reimbursement process has also been an issue for other events in the past, with too many steps involved. To improve this, we should plan in advance and establish a centralized archive to monitor the process before the start of the event.
  • A less fragmented arrangement of hotel accommodations could foster better brainstorming, which otherwise seemed to occur outside the conference venue mainly during dinner. For example, we ended up in a bar on Saturday afternoon after the closure, because we needed a table to work with our laptops. Providing a limited number of accommodation options with dedicated common spaces might be worth the investment. While cost minimization is important, and individual attendees can choose more economical venues, in-person events benefit significantly from more structured and functional interactions. If the average price difference is not too significant, I would therefore recommend a single venue.

Other presentations

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I attended other presentations, but it became challenging to engage with other speakers as I had to upload media online (since no one else was handling this task continously).

As a useful note, here are some additional comments that might be of interest to WMCH:

  • Laboratorio: Wikidata per le biblioteche universitarie (Wikidata for University Libraries) by User:Epìdosis.
It is important to highlight that a dedicated approach to university libraries is both possible and valuable. This subsection of GLAM overlaps with the area of innovation and requires specific attention but can integrate effectively within the broader theme of research repositories.
  • Authority Control reso facile da Wikidata : esperienze in biblioteca (Authority Control Made Easy by Wikidata: Experiences in the Library) by User:Bargioni.
Stefano Bargioni is a key user to invite to Switzerland because of his experience, as proven by his sucessful implementation of Wikidata integration in various library projects.
  • Mappare il patrimonio culturale con OpenStreetMap e Wikidata (Mapping cultural heritage with OpenStreetMap and Wikidata) by User:Kewerner
  • Luoghi fantastici con Wikidata e dove trovarli su OpenStreetMap (Fantastic Places with Wikidata and Where to Find Them on OpenStreetMap) by User:AlessioMela
A joint reminder that WMCH is in my opinion still not fully up to date with the potential of OpenStreetMap (OSM) and Wikidata, as I have observed areas that I have tried to introduce for community activities over the past few years. These presentations, however, highlighted the great potential of combining OSM and Wikidata for mapping various concepts and adding values to metadata. The use of these platforms for cultural heritage mapping is a powerful way to enhance the accessibility, visibility, and engagement and WMCH could further leverage these aspects in future initiatives within the community.
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