Wikimedia's Liam Wyatt sez,
This Friday and Saturday at the British Museum the community behind Wikipedia are hosting an event for the UK cultural sector to demonstrate the value of collaborating with free-culture. The GLAM [gallery, library, archive and museums] sector has been particularly hard hit with the recent budget cuts. Should they take this hit on the chin and reduce their activities – or should they seek to engage the online e-volunteer community that is already reaching over a third of the UK population every day? Wikipedia already is every GLAMs e-Volunteer program, the institutions just don't realise it yet.
Speakers include Cory Doctorow, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation Sue Gardner, representatives of museums from five countries as well as many local Wikimedians. To the surprise of some, the head of rights and reproductions of the National Portrait Gallery will also be presenting to discuss what has happened in the year since the NPG threatened to sue a Wikipedian.
On Friday night there will be a special guest lecture from the director of Columbia University's copyright advisory office on "The Free-conomy and the cultural sector" followed by a panel discussion on the issues raised. Panelists include representatives of copyright licensing agencies, cultural institutions and journalists.
