The document discusses edit-a-thon events organized by Europeana Fashion to improve fashion-related Wikipedia articles. It provides details about a successful edit-a-thon hosted by the ModeMuseum (MoMu) in Belgium, including contributions of over 25 participants who edited 15 articles. MoMu also donated 33 images to Wikimedia Commons to catalyze contributions. Lessons learned highlight the importance of collaboration between cultural heritage institutions and Wikimedia chapters to engage volunteers and expose collections. Future areas of collaboration could include pattern-making articles on Wikidata and donating more contemporary, openly licensed content.

1. Fashion for the commons
Sharing is Caring
Sandra Fauconnier & Dieter Suls
SharecareX Brussels, 20th of June 2017

2. Two worlds that work well together...

3. Edit-a-thons
What is it?
Edit-a-thons are events where people with little experience in editing Wikipedia articles come
together to improve a particular topic on the online encyclopaedia. In doing so, they collectively
learn how to work on the MediaWiki platform according to the standards and morals of the Wikipedia
community.
● Collaboration with local Wikimedia chapters
● Project page on Wikipedia with proposal of ‘edit-able subjects
● Wikimedia Commons donations

4. ● Task in Europeana Fashion project about
setting up collaboration with Wikipedia
Community (Beeld & Geluid)
● Improve impact of our aggregated content
● 13 GLAM-WIKI events organized 9 European
countries
● Document - guidelines for organizing
Edit-a-thons
● (Attract more female editors for wikipedia)

5. Europeana Fashion Edit-a-thon
● Success factors - Muse awards
The American Alliance of Museums Media and Technology Professional Network granted the Europeana Fashion series of Fashion
edit-a-thons a 2015 Bronze MUSE Award!
The award was announced Sunday at the MUSE Awards champagne reception, which took place at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. Earlier winners
of the award include the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, who received a silver MUSE award for their use of digital media. The
Gold and Silver Awards in the category 'Open' went to the Europeana Foundation for the GLAMwiki toolset and to the British Library and
Wikimedia UK for the project Mapping the Maps.
Europeana Fashion organized twelve edit-a-thons in nine countries in collaboration with local Wikimedia chapters and volunteers from the
community. Some of the edit-a-thons were supported by third-party organizations.
The work in all of them focused on asking museum partners to open their doors to invite in would-be editors of Wikipedia, attract Wikipedia
volunteers to help organize the event, add media from Europeana Fashion content partners to the Wikimedia Commons platform and
subsequently use these images for relevant articles on Wikipedia. When after the first few edit-a-thons we felt comfortable with the formula, we
also attempted a parallel set of edit-a-thons that shared the same theme with an additional online challenge, and explored the possibilities of
hosting a GLAM-Wiki collaborative event in the framework of a larger cultural or fashion-related festival.

6. MoMu Edit-a-thon - 23rd of September 2013
● Organized by Europeana Fashion
partner MoMu and Wikimedia
Netherlands (as an official Belgian
Chapter was not yet recognized)
● Aim was to improve Wikipedia content
on Belgian Fashion
● List of topics for revision / attention was
prepared
● Over 25 bloggers, curators, researchers
participated to the event and over 15
articles were edited.
By Ter-burg - Own work, CC BY 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28495776

7. MoMu Edit-a-thon - Wikimedia Commons
● As part of the preparation of any edit-a-thon event, content partners were
asked to provide a selection of materials that they selected to be published on
Europeana Fashion to Wikimedia Commons.
● All materials on Wikimedia Commons must be published under an open
license (e.g. CC-BY, allowing commercial re-use).
● A small Wikimedia Commons donation of 33 images proved to be a catalyst
(internally).

8. Wikimedia Commons Donations

9. Wikimedia donations for Edit-a-thon - MoMu
Result

10. Wikimedia donations for Edit-a-thon - MoMu
Baglama2 tool

11. Europeana Fashion vocabularies
and Wikidata

12. http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/collections/fashion

13. https://tools.wmflabs.org/mix-n-match/?#/list/409

14. Good use for the illustrations by David Ring:

15. Lijsten voor Wikipedia: voorbeeld:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikiproject/Gendergap/Mode/Modetermen_(Europeana_Fashion)

17. Europeana Fashion vocabularies:
Fashion designers
Fashion houses
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Fashion/To_Do/Fashion_designer

18. Future steps MoMu
● Study Collection and Wikimedia
○ What is it?
○ New wikimedia donations (images /
videos)
○ Setup new ‘edit-a-thons’ for pattern
making and share via
wikipedia/wikimedia?
● Explore Wikidata (as a way to publish/harvest
LOD)
● Donate more contemporary content

19. Lessons learned (MoMu)
● In general, collaboration local Wikimedia chapters + enthusiastic crowd of
editors are success factors
● Stimulating experience for museum staff, as it involves different departments /
responsibilities / overcoming internal resistance
● Contemporary content is risky!
● Co-creation paradigm: new way to interact with audience
● Incredible exposure of your content!
● Think big, act small, move fast

20. Lessons learned (Wikimedia)
● Collaboration can be very fruitful with organizations who manage heavily
copyrighted collections!
● A long-term collaboration with very diverse activities is fun, challenging and
motivating for us as well, and engages many different types of volunteers
● It helps us so much if GLAMs’ resources are openly accessible (both online +
openly licensed)
● And if we can talk to GLAM staff very easily (low thresholds, warm
relationship)