Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Versailles, a glorious #GLAM project

Louis XIV with a map of Versailles
When Louis XIV commissioned the palace of Versailles, he created a palace that was widely admired and copied by his peers but never equalled in sheer scale and splendour. The palace and its grounds define the art of its day and age.

The French chapter is really happy to announce that Benoit Evellin will be "wikipédien en résidence" for a full six months. The mission of Benoit: 
  • Teaching the teams of the Castle and the Centre for Research, including scientists, about how Wikimedia projects work and how valuable they are 
  • Increasing the awareness of the Castle audience about Wikimedia projects, their functioning and value
  • Identifying existing articles on the Palace of Versailles, its art and its heritage, people and events
  • Improve and facilitate a community of editors to improve these articles
  • Working with the education department on similar topics
There is already an article about the palace of Versailles in 51 languages. One challenge will be to engage our communities and improve the information about what is surely one of the biggest treasures of French culture.
Thanks,
       GerardM

1 comment:

Paul A. Houle said...

What's funny about that is that my geospatial analysis indicates that France is poorly documented in the English Wikipedia compared to its neighbors, including the U.K. and Germany.

It would be nice to see the country catch up.