The AIC Wiki meeting provided active wiki Creators with the chance to connect faces with the names they’ve seen contributing over the past year, and everyone introduced themselves to the group. AIC’s e-Editor Rachael Perkins Arenstein noted that roughly half of those present were new to the wiki, and at the meeting to learn how to get involved. She began by providing a brief background on the history of the wiki.
SG’s and the “Wiki Edit-a-thon”
There was an update on each specialty group’s use of the wiki. The specialty groups shared their strategies for building participation in January’s “Wiki Edit-a-thon.” The event was a great success, as Rachael described in the March 2012 issue of AIC News. There were 137,000 hits to the wiki during the month, 59 new articles were added, and over 100 supplemental pages. PMG had surveyed members and then set up two categories to populate during the event. One day per week was scheduled as a “write-in” day, when members knew they could email each other to confer as they posted their content. The Book Group in BPG set up a sample page for Creators to refer to, and it jump-started the creation of other pages. EMG set up an outline and template, and then scheduled a single “write-in” day for everyone to join in. Some groups, such as WAG, ASG, and the Paper Group in BPG, used the event as an impetus to identify people to spearhead their SG’s nascent wiki efforts. OSG expanded their template, nearly doubled their number of Creators, and expanded content on a variety of topics, as well as adding new ones. CIPP and TSG both realized that their Listservs had threads that would make great pages, so that will be a next step.
New Developments
The wiki software is outdated, and plans to update it are in development so that video can be embedded and the citation tool can be improved. The wiki home page was reorganized, and there is significant interest in translating some of the wiki pages. The first request came for a Russian translation of some of the content. The translation will also be available on the AIC Wiki. There’s interest in a Spanish translation of the Paper catalog. A section on “The History of Conservation and Conservators” is in development and will include interviews from the FAIC Oral History Project. Quality control and peer review were discussed, and what processes might be set in place across SG’s. A working group is in formation to propose a series of headers (such as the “Draft” header currently in use) that would designate the stage of peer review for each page. Contact Rachael (Rachael [at] amartconservation __ com) to join the group.
Getting Involved
An online tutorial is available for those interested in learning how to post content, and Rachael encouraged potential wiki Creators to get in touch with her to get added to the wiki email list. The goal is to make the wiki a go-to resource for professional content for conservators, by conservators. One important note is that no one forfeits their rights to content they post on the wiki (the copyright agreement is what is used for post prints). Members should feel that publishing on the wiki is a respected and valuable contribution to the field.
A key message of this session was this: your ongoing efforts to expand the wiki, whatever your time permits, are valued and appreciated!
To stay informed of updates on the wiki, visit the AIC wiki at www.conservation-wiki.com and scroll down to the Getting Started section.