Programs/Meetings/2019-09-30

Meeting information

Date and location

• Date: 30 September 2019
• Location: Online

Participants

• Jean-Michel Lapointe (Chair)
• Benoit Rochon
• Caroline Savard
• Michael David Miller

Absent

• Amber Berson
• Lëa-Kim Chateauneuf
• Ha-Loan Phan
• Laura French
• Marie D. Martel
• Stacy Allison-Cassin

Observer

• Anne-Marie Boisvert (BAnQ)
• Jean-Philippe Béland (consultant)

Minutes

Budgets

• APG 2019. No change since last meeting.
• Rapid Grant for multimedia material for Manawan. No change since last meeting. All funds were expended.

Recent and on-going activities

• Review of some recent activities. The Fondation Lionel-Groulx published its midpoint report for its grant from the WMF. There is a specific report on the activity in Quebec City. In August, some volunteers went to Haiti for a Digital Summer School. A picture of Greta was taken in Montreal.
• Wiki Loves Monuments. The competition is on-going. We currently have 950 pictures. A reminder was sent on Facebook and Twitter to tell people that there is only three days left. The Committee is wondering about the relevance of organizing Wiki Loves Monuments. There is a lack of volunteers getting involved.
• 50th Anniversary of UQAM. Jean-Michel Lapointe is taking care of this project with a research group from UQAM. Three activities are planned. The first is a photographic hunt on 18 October in the afternoon with the presence of Lëa-Kim Chateauneuf that will talk about encyclopedic photography and free licence. It is an activity open to the public which received funds from the WMF for snacks. The other two activities will be on 1 November and at the end of January or beginning of February.
• Wiki Evenings at Montreal Fine Arts Museum. Last Wednesday, Michael David Miller facilitated the first Wiki Evening at Montreal Fine Arts Museum. There were around 10 participants. It is a series of three activities. During the last activity, Michael gave a basic training on Wikipedia that lasted for one hour including the questions even though it was planned to last 30 minutes. There were no contributions since it was an activity to share information. The next planned activity is about Wikimedia Commons because the museum would like to upload pictures that are in the public domain.

Upcoming activities

• WikiClub Hamilton Health and Science Editing Initiative. It is a series of 10 events around health sciences at McMaster University. WikiClub Hamilton had asked a grant from WMCA, but we didn't have the necessary budget. Jean-Philippe Béland met with them and offered them to ask to the WMF directly.
• 100th Anniversary of Quebec National Archives in 2020. Anne-Marie Boisvert from BAnQ mentioned that she doesn't have information about this event. Benoit Rochon is not available to talk about it. The intent is to organize activities in all Quebec archives centres, but not at the same time. More to follow.
• GLAM-Wiki Summit 2020. In 2019, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) hosted a GLAM Summit in Montreal and Stacy Allisson-Cassin hosted a GLAM-Wiki Summit in Toronto. The intent is to merge those two events. We don't have any information from LAC about this. Jean-Philippe Béland will try to contact LAC again about this.
• Trois-Rivières. Caroline Savard heard that activities are on-going at the library, but we don't have the details.

Partnerships

• BAnQ. Caroline Savard is reporting that, in Quebec City, the activities are on-going. Wiki Thursdays are hosted approximatly every two months. The frequency was reduced because of the activity level. Anne-Marie Boisvert is reporting that, in Montreal, the partnership is stable. Wiki Tuesdays are on-going with a stable level of participation between 7 and 15 participants. The GLAM page for BAnQ is up to date. Anne-Marie is acting as the main contact for Wiki-related topics at BAnQ. She prepared an internal policy about contribution to Wikimedia projects and how to promote them to the public.
• LAC. Nothing new to report.
• Concordia WiR. Amber Berson is absent.

WikiClubs

• NIL.

Follow up of questions from last meeting

• Project to import data from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) on Wikimedia Commons. The agreement was signed by Environment Canada and Wikimedia Canada. It is presently being processed by ECCC to send us the first funds. Benoit Rochon will meet with Pierre Choffet tomorrow to start the project.

New business

• Contact from the History Society of Asbestos. The History Society of Asbestos owns several archives fonds and is exploring the idea to use "Wikipedia". They are looking for someone to discuss about this. Jean-Michel Lapointe will make the first contact.
• Contact from the initiative Linked Digital Future. They would have liked to meet Wikimedia Canada on 17 September to discuss the role of Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons in exhibiting data and content about scenic arts. Jean-Philippe Béland tranferred the invitation to the Montreal mailing list, but nobody replied. The Committee would like to reply to them in the future.
• Using a mailing list instead of an alias. The alias doesn't allow to add email addresses outside of wikimedia.ca domain. Benoit Rochon proposes to create a mailing list for the Programs Committee, one anglophone and one francophone.

Discussions and announcements

• Status of the Programs Committee. The Committee discussed the idea to create an anglophone wing and a francophone wing for Wikimedia Canada. This will be discussed by the Board after the Annual General Meeting. The goal is that programs can be organized by language in order to gather forces more easily across the country. The Board will need to discuss how the budget will be distributed.
• Annual General Meeting. The Annual General Meeting will be held on 19 October at BanQ Vieux-Montréal and also online.
• National Film Board (NFB). Lëa-Kim Chateauneuf met with a producer from the animation studio at the NFB who is interested in emulating the wiki partnership that is happening at the Cinémathèque québécoise. A meeting will be organized.