The question from Joe Miller, technology reporter for the BBC News caught my eye. He asked 'Wiki wars: Do Wikipedia's internal tiffs deter newcomers?' http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28426674.

The question resonated with me. WC-ICTLIG piloted the Wikimedia ZA's GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) project in July 2014. It was exhilarating to be part of a crowd-sourcing activity contributing to the global body of knowledge. Who knew, we could change someone's world so, careful attention was paid to the instructions. However, soon we attracted the attention of Wikipedia editors and our contributions changed before our eyes. Our instructor, a Wikipedian editor too, appeared devoid of the seeming harshness of the online editors and calmly and politely took charge of the situation and urged us to respond with good grace to the accusatory banners that appeared on our page. It warned that the article would implode in 7 days (a la Tom Cruise's briefs in the MI series) if the list of transgressions were not attended to. The solution was written in a dialect of Klingon also known as Wikipedia's Ts&Cs for editing. Despite all the tantrums (read mine) the Wikipedian, Douglas Scott, resuscitated all our work and declared the pilot a success. Further achievement of the GLAM project depends on continuing editing by the participants.

So, we urge all the readers to join the next series of GLAM workshops to be held in Cape Town in October. Details will be distributed on the LIASA listserv. OK, now I'm off to do more Wikipedia editing...

Nikki Crowster