Verksamhetsberättelse 2020/Story: A new digital post-pandemic world

Use

2020

In this Story we are focusing on how the changes in how institutions can operate, e.g. due to COVID-19, have increased the interest for digital solutions. The visibility achieved through the Wikimedia platforms are being highlighted and we believe that the interest to work strategically with us can increase due to this.

A lot has happened in digital mediation for the GLAM sector in the last year. Almost all institutions have changed and have a digital program business with both screenings and seminars. In a report from the Swedish Museums Association, they have for the first time started counting digital visits. Visits to related pages on Wikimedia's platforms have also been included. The result is that an overwhelming part of the visits take place on Wikimedia's platforms. We saw a similar development when the Nationalmuseum closed down for renovation. The number of views increased for the files available on Wikimedia Commons.

The number of visits and traffic to websites is still calculated in different ways. No practice has yet been established. Here we can provide support and help develop new tools that the GLAM sector needs. We have repeatedly seen that there is a clear need to be able to view statistics and use of files on Wikimedia's platforms. It is simply the clients who implicitly ask what impact different investments have.

In Sweden, a large part of the GLAM sector is publicly funded, so there are no secret business plans or pronounced strategies to compete for the digital visitors. But visitors obviously have a limited amount of time to spend on social media. Here is perhaps the opportunity to replace more light-hearted entertainment with a more knowledge-oriented, high-quality range.

For us, it is important to support that development and offer and develop our open platforms as part of the offer for digitally interested visitors. For example, much of the material produced that is new does not have free licenses. Here, early in the process, platforms could be offered where the material has a long service life. Culture and cultural heritage is well suited to put on platforms where those with special interests want an entrance and overview of a topic. That is, a well-designed and in-depth article on Wikipedia.