| Institution | Resident | Residency period | Period covered | Date of report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Society of Antiquaries of Scotland | Doug Rocks-Macqueen | Feb 2019 - Jan 2021 | October 2020 - December 2020 | January 2020 |
Overview
editThe Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (SAS) was formed in 1780 and has been producing information ever since, including books, journals, excavation reports, lectures (which are now video recorded), and the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework. They have over 2,700 members worldwide. The history of the Society tells the story of many of Scotland’s Cultural Institutions. To ensure the Society is around for another 240 years they have created a Wikimedian-in-Residence post, for one day a week, to help the Society to contiune to grow and produce information.
New Report Layout
editWith COVID, the residency had to change and adapt i.e. I have yet to be back in the SAS offices since March, and still might not make it back until summer 2021. While this year started out with a set series of goals, we have found that, while still achiving some of the orgional goals, we actually ended up tackling many of the other proposals and aims from the Year One strategic document. Because of this I have changed the layout of this quarterly report to include those proposals and the progress being made on them. This is to highlight the work being done in the larger strategic plan.
Progress narrative
editThis quarter has been productive with several of the small projects progressing. For example, for the Rhind Lecture + project Alison has sent through an 8-page annotated bibliography for just her first lecture (of six) and we have now been experimenting with it in the sandbox. Once Alison and we are happy with it the first one should go up, likely at the beginning of the new year. We did a training/small edit-a-thon in November for the Women Fellows work, with one new user registered ForgottenStories and others refreshed on Wiki editing training. Several new projects have started with us working with Arcadia University students on placement to explore: WikiNews testing project, QRcode project, and the general editing of Scottish Museum wiki articles. There has also been several meetings with other SAS staff to brainstorm ideas, activities, etc. All quite productive. Finally, the director has reviewed the strategy document and so we should be able to make that public soon.
Progress
editIn the first year of the residency, 10 policies and 26 potential projects ideas were put forward for the Society to consider. What follows is the progress on these overall and for this quarter:
Policies
editThe ten recommended policies are:
1. One Grant, One Edit - Require grant recipients to contribute to Open Resources, in a non-burdensome manner.
2. One Grant, One Post - Require grant recipients to promote Open Resources, in a non-burdensome manner.
Progress on 1&2 This was presented to the board and they were happy enough with the ideas in the abstract. This Q: I am now putting together more detailed proposals for further discussion
3. Change Licencing - Change the publications licences from a highly limiting one to CC BY-SA which is more Open but still protects the Society.
4. Open Data for Publishing - Require Open Data from all authors, where appropriate, to safe guard against potential issues e.g. not posting find spot locations of certain artefacts to guard against illegal nighthawking.
Progress on 3&4 The board has agreed to move the Society to Open Access publishing. This Q: I am working with the managing editor and staff to get CC BY-SA as the licence for that.
5. Open Data for the Society - Make the Society’s data Open.
Progress on 5 This is being slowly rolled out in various projects. The society's Proceedings metadata is being created and being made accessible. This Q: With the women fellows work we are starting to put up more information on past and present members.
6. Open and Secure Video Catalogue - Change the licencing on its video content to CC BY-SA so it can be hosted in more repositories.
Progress on 6 This is being trialed in the Rhind Lecture(s) + project. If that goes well we should be able to roll out more video. This Q: the Rhind Lectures are done filming and are ready to be added to Wikiversity/Commons.
7. LOCKSS Approach to Continued Access - Start hosting its publications in multiple repositories, such as Wikisource, to guard against loss and allow 24 hour access.
Progress on 7 Not addressed yet.
8. Encouraging Openness in Projects and Programmes - Have the Societies projects encourage Openness e.g. Dig It! asks people to put the images they are sent under a CC licence.
Progress on 8 Currently under way. Dig It! is trying to incorporate more Openness into their projects. This Q: meeting with SAS staff to brain storm some ideas.
9. Encourage Openness by Fellows - Add Openness to the pledge Fellows make when joining the society.
Progress on 9 Not addressed yet. The idea has been floated but not as enthusiastically taken up. Will be floating this around to more members of the Society to gather feedback. This might be an proposal that is not taken forward.
10. Society Outcomes - Open goals should be added to the Societies operating plan.
Progress on 10 Openness has been added to the Society's values document. This Q: this was all done this Q.
Projects
editThe 26 project suggestions are:
1.Highlighting the Societies Collections and Connections with QRpedia - Work with museums and heritage centres to post links/QRcodes next to items relating to the Society leading people to more info about the item in Wikimedia projects.
Progress: We had put together plans to take photos of artefacts in some Museums in the next quarter to test out the idea of putting links to the photos so people can have clean photos of the artifacts i.e. not behind a glass case. However, given the recent COVID restrictions (Jan 4th) this might be delayed for a while. Will know more hopefully soon...
2. Data the Society - Upload the Society’s data to WikiData e.g. publication records.
Progress: This Q- Was discussed with the Arcadia placements but I don't think we will have enough time to get to it with all the other work, we'll have to wait and see.
3. Data Visualisation Events/Competitions - With project idea 2 – have visualisation competitions or events to convert the Society’s WikiData into interesting and informative visualisations.
Progress: Future work
4. Newsletter - Header Photo - Request members submit newsletter photos (as CC BY-SA), which are also added to WikiCommons.
Progress: Done. We used the submission from the Society to Wiki Loves Monuments as the images for the newsletter in November. This is now an ongoing project. We uploaded enough images to last several years.
5. Newsletter - Meet A Fellow, Meet A Resource - Have a featured article in every newsletter where a Fellow discusses a favourite Open resource.
Progress: Future work. This Q- Was discussed with the Arcadia placements but I don't think we will have enough time to get to it with all the other work.
6. Scots Musical Museum - Recreate old Scottish songs and upload them to Wikicommons from an old music book, Scot Musical Museum, that was dedicated to the Society by one of its Fellows.
Progress: This has been delayed by COVID i.e. museums closed, staff on furlough, etc.
7. 2022 Year of Storytelling project
- Work with the Storytelling Centre in 2022 to record and upload audio of folklore stories to Wikicommons.
Progress: Future work.
8. Local Archaeology in Local Languages - Upload publications to Wikisource and then translate them into the local languages of the areas they cover e.g. Scots and Gaelic.
Progress: Dig It! has secured some funding to produce some Gaelic materials. The funding will come in the new year so we are looking to see what we can do with that.
9. Wikimedia and Dig It! TV - Create some Dig It! TV videos to highlight Wikimedia projects and how to contribute.
Progress: Future work.
10. Tool Tips on the Society’s Websites - Add ‘learn more’ tool tips with links to Wiki articles/definition for certain terms/locations/people.
Progress: Future work.
11. Rhind Lectures + - Convert some of the Rhind Lectures into learning resources on Wikiveristy.
Progress: Alison has sent through an 8-page annotated bibliography for just her first lecture, she did six lectures. We were not expecting so much materials and so we will have quite a lot to work with. At the moment we have been experimenting with it in the sandbox. For example, adding liks to Wiki articles, links to WorldCat.org so people can find the nearest location of a book, etc. Personally, I am actually quite excited about what we can do with this.
12. The Fellows Book - Work with Fellows to create a book on Wikibooks.
Progress: Future work.
13. Society Editathons - Run more Editathons with Fellows.
Progress: We have already run several Editathons. This QL This ties into 26 too. We ran a small online training in November to train up a volunteer and staff for the women fellows project.
14. How Do You Say It?/Howfur dae ye say it?/Ciamar a chanas tu e? - Create audio files of how to pronounce place names in Scotland and upload them to Wikicommons.
Progress: Future work.
15. Run a MOOC - Use the MOOC facilities of Wikiveristy to run a MOOC.
Progress: Future work.
16. Testing Open Peer Review - Test Open Peer Review on Wikijournals to see if it is something the Society might want to use in the future.
Progress: Future work. This Q: some discussion about this, early talks about the practiclity of this.
17. A Society Wikirace - Create a Wikirace as an ice break for events.
Progress: Future work.
18. Photo/Media Competition - Run a photo competition like Wiki Loves Monuments but focus on the Socieity’s remit e.g. Scottish History and Archaeology, etc.
Progress: We did have a intern to take this on but COVID hit and they had to go back to their home country so we pivoted and had them work on a different project for Wikimedia.
19. Wikinews Article(s) Experiment - Have Dig It! experiment with creating news articles for Wikinews to see if it is a viable method for promoting archaeology.
Progress: New developments in this Q: We have had discusions with Arcadia University about having placements. One of them is interested in taking this project forward. We have started to sketch it out i.e. best Scottish Archaeology in 2020, etc. They will start in the middle of Janauary and we hope to have an article up in Feb. We are looking for 3 articles to be able to test it out fully.
20. The Society in Your Pocket – Kiwix - Upload publications and resources to Wikicommons, Wikisource, etc and then provide non-internet access versions with Kiwix for members with poor internet connections.
Progress: Future work.
21. WikiVoyage and Dig It! TV - For Dig It! TV videos work to also update WikiVoyage articles to drive more people to visit the Hidden Gems.
Progress: Open Past has received a grant from HES to make some promotional videos of sites around Scotland. We only found out on December 18th so have not had a chance to plan this out but should be able to tackle this in the next quarter.
22. Wikipedia Club/Wikimedia Club - Have regular meet ups of members to edit Wikipedia, upload images to Wikicommons etc.
Progress: Future work.
23. Wikimedia Interns - Look to bring in some students, using matched funding from sources such as the Santander internship funding, to work on some of these ideas.
Progress: We were contacted by Arcadai Unversity about hosting some students as placements in December. We meant with the students and pitched them several of these projects. Based on their interestes we will now be taking this forward with them in the new year. They will start on the 18th and so will be running several training sessions and then have them start to work on various projects. One area we had not proposed before but came out of the discussions would be to update articles on Scottish Museums. So that is a new project we will be taking forward.
24. Photo safaris/field trips - Run tours and ask participants to upload their photos to WikiCommons.
Progress: Future work.
25. Programs & Events Dashboard - Use the dashboard to track participation numbers in these other events/activities.
Progress: We have been using it for our edithons and it has been great!
26. What’s New in Wikimedia - Short training sessions for staff and Fellows to keep them up to date on all the possibilities of Wikimedia projects and resources.
Progress: We held one in November in conjustion with our mini-edithon/training. We plan to do another in the new year.