Objects of Ethnographic Museums in Wikipedia

From Devwiki

Raoul Weiler

Last year, at Wikimania in Taipei, the proposal to include the objects of Ethnographic Museum in Wikipedia was presented and received ample support to proceed. This has been done, and a brief overview of the results will be presented now, as well as how the project will be practically handled and when it is planned to start.

Several meetings have taken place with the different partners concerned with the implementation of the future project: experts from ethnographic museums; representatives from ICOM -International Council of Museums and ICME International Council of Museums of Ethnography; Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia France; and UNESCO.

At the latest meeting in Paris on June 5, 2008, a clear commitment was expressed to go ahead with the project : four museums form different continents were identified to be a pilot in the project. Also, it was agreed on methodological aspects for carrying out the project: meta-data structure, languages to be used for the description of the objects inclusive the local language of the place of origin; photos of the objects, etc. Providing links with existing data-files and websites of larger museums was principally agreed upon and technically feasible.

A time frame was agreed upon for final start as well as for preparatory work for a successful start of the pilot museums. Financing the first phase will be looked after, the proposal documents will be prepared.

As already presented in Taipei, the main arguments of the project are:

The safeguarding cultural diversity on our planet is one of the major issues of the sustainability concept. The threat of substantial loss of cultural and linguistic diversity - up to 90% by mid-century- is considered to be realistic. A systematic inclusion of the cultural patrimony in Wikipedia is a significant contribution in keeping cultural diversity alive.

The largest part of the museum treasures are not accessible to the public, these hidden treasures will find their way, via Wikipedia, to the public.

The compilation of museum objects open the ways to 'virtual ethnographic museums' throughout the world, allowing geographical and in historical unification of ethnic groups and cultures.

In principle, the encyclopedic character of the project favors the choice of Wikipedia and reaffirms the cultural heritage is a common good of humankind.