National Archives summary text

What is Wikimedia?

Wikimedia is a movement built around 9 projects that provide free educational resources across the globe through the internet. These projects form one of the five most visited pieces of internet real estate with an approximate reach of nearly 250,000,000 people (25% of all internet users). The largest of these projects, Wikipedia, is the largest encyclopaedia ever written, with over 13 million articles across 163 languages and over 3 million articles in English alone. Other projects include a dictionary, a news site and a collection of free media.

Who is Wikimedia UK?

Wikimedia UK is the local Wikimedia chapter covering the United Kingdom. Wikimedia chapters are independent organizations founded to support and promote the Wikimedia projects within a specified geographical region.

Along with the other chapters and the charity that hosts the projects and works internationally to further them, the Wikimedia Foundation, we aim to “empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally”. Over 20 chapters currently exist in nearly every continent of the world.

Wikimedia's global reach

Currently the reach of the Wikimedia movement globally comes to 327.1 million users, or 29.9% of the worlds internet users, 96% of which can be associated with Wikipedia. In the UK, the reach of internet users is greater than 30% and has the third/fourth highest reach of any country by percentage.

Potential Partnerships

In terms of a working relationship between Wikimedia UK and the National Archives we see several potential partnerships each of which could be very successful if undertaken.

• Content release - Wikimedia has, over recent years, partnered with several archives and picture libraries. The largest of these include the Bundesarchiv and Deutsche Fotothek. Between these two archives, some 350,000 images have been released under a Creative Commons license following a partnership with the German chapter, Wikimedia Deutschland.

• Digital Image Restorations - Volunteers at Wikipedia have started to help restore damaged photos used digital imaging software. Some of these have recently been displayed at a joint exhibit between the Tropenmuseum and the Dutch chapter, Wikimedia Nederland.

• GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) WIKI conference - Wikimedia Australia recently held GLAM WIKI conference, a round table discussion conference between Wikimedia and 170 delegates representing GLAM institutions, government and other educational establishments to discuss future best practices between Wikimedia and the heritage sector. Such an event in the UK would be very worthwhile.