2025:Program/Supporting Wikimedians with big GLAM projects – A space to help you with your big projects
Session title: Supporting Wikimedians with big GLAM projects – A space to help you with your big projects
- Session type: Lecture
- Track: Partnerships
- Language: en
🎥 Session recording: https://w.wiki/F8mh 🎥
The Helpdesk supports Wikimedians in implementing large scale GLAM collaborations. Since its inception, it has supported volunteers in large batch uploads of medical illustrations, affiliates in running Wiki Loves Earth and Wiki Loves Monuments based on Wikidata and GLAM partners on how to make batch uploads in the best ways. Anyone can receive support from the Helpdesk – in this session we will explain how the Helpdesk works and how it will develop ahead. We will also explain how working groups will be created to support the work of the Helpdesk, and how Wikimedians worldwide can join the work of these Working Groups.
Description
The Helpdesk helps Wikimedians to carry out collaborations where the goal is to work with partners to make their content available on the Wikimedia platforms – so called Content Partnerships. Any Wikimedian can request support from the Helpdesk, and so far, it has supported projects on medicine, protected nature, monument data, lexemes and maps, just to name a few examples. The Helpdesk is one of the five pillars of the Content Partnerships Hub, an initiative to create a Thematic Hub.
The support requests are reviewed by an international expert committee, who provides guidance on which requests to prioritize. A focus is to provide support to local communities in the underserved and underrepresented parts of the Movement.
At the session, we will present a brief flowchart on how to request support from the Helpdesk, and also showcase examples of the Helpdesk work, such as uploads of cultural heritage data from Ukraine to Wikidata. We will cover how you can request support and what support can be given, what happens with your request when submitted and what you can expect. This will provide a natural starting point to a discussion about how affiliates and volunteers can engage with the Helpdesk, what the needs are, how it can support capacity building efforts and what we will develop next together.
At the session, we will also introduce the concept of Helpdesk working groups. The intention is that the support through the Helpdesk will come from experts from around the Wikimedia movement. Staff and volunteers around the world will be able to join different working groups that will provide the requested hands-on help or knowledge transfer. The requests to the Helpdesk can help guide capacity building efforts and increase the long-term capacity of Wikimedians to work with content partnerships.
- How does your session relate to the event theme, Wikimania@20 – Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?
By connecting Wikimedians with specialized support and emphasizing collaboration with underrepresented communities, the Helpdesk increases both the inclusivity and impact of Wikimedia projects. Its sustainable model—powered by a rotating network of volunteers and staff—ensures that knowledge transfer and capacity building can continue to expand without over-reliance on a single source. In this way, the Helpdesk concretely embodies the values of Wikimania@20, fostering a worldwide community equipped and empowered to share free knowledge on a global scale.
- What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?
Everyone can participate in this session
Resources
Speakers
- eric luth
- I am Project Manager for Involvement and Advocacy at Wikimedia Sverige. In that capacity, I have recently worked primarily with international partnerships, such as with the UN agencies, and advocacy for the open movement at the national, European and international level. I have an M.A. in Comparative Literature, and live in Stockholm.
- Luis Carrasco (LuisCG11)
- Luis Carrasco is a Wikimedian with over 16 years of experience contributing to Spanish Wikipedia and related Wikimedia projects. He currently serves on the board of Wikimedia Chile and is committed to promoting environmental knowledge, community participation, and equitable access to open information.
- In 2023, he received a Wikimania scholarship to develop Open Climate, a project aimed at integrating climate justice and environmental content into Wikimedia platforms, with a focus on highlighting local knowledge from Chilean municipalities.
- With an academic background in marine biology and public policy, Luis works at the intersection of sustainability, free knowledge, and social equity.