In 2023-2024, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR) has supported three Wikimedia residencies^[1]A Wikimedia residency is a partnership between Wikimedia and a cultural, educational or scientific institution, during which a Wikimedia contributor works on site to improve the content of Wikipedia or other Wikimedia projects, through training staff and enriching digital resources. in the URFISTs (Regional Training Unit for Scientific and Technical Information) based in Bordeaux, Rennes and Toulouse, as part of the “Wikifier la science” (“wikify science”) project. The aim of the project, which is part of France’s national open science policy, is to promote French research among the general public via the worldwide collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia. These Wikimedia residencies also aim to raise awareness and train the research community on Wikimedia, as a tool for open science. A total of 1,546 people have been trained in one year. 

As part of these residencies, some videos have been produced to highlight the results and the joint work of the Wikimedians in residence with the higher education and research community based in the URFISTs’s regions of concerns. In these videos, residents, URFIST staff and members of the higher education and research community talk about their experience and what it has brought to the local community.

In total, 17 video interviews were produced to document this experience: 3 video portraits of the Wikimedians in residence who carried out training and awareness-raising activities (for example through Wikipedia workshops, webinars, training of researchers and URFIST staff), and 14 interviews with beneficiaries of these activities.

The Wikimedians in residence project will continue throughout 2025, with 3 additional residences at the URFISTs based in Lyon, Nice and Strasbourg. 

For further information:

• The article published to mark the release of the videos on the blog of the Wikimedia France association :  https://www.wikimedia.fr/residences-wikimediennes-retours-videos-sur-leur-impact/
• The videos : https://www.youtube.com/@WikimediaFrance/videos ; 4 examples of these videos (in French) are listed below: