Meet the members of the Friends of OpenGLAM Network!

Beat Estermann Beat Estermann

Beat Estermann is self-employed, providing research and consulting services related to the digital transformation and has temporary, project-based affiliations with several Swiss universities. From 2007 to 2022 he worked for the Institute for Public Sector Transformation (formerly E-Government Institute) of the Bern University of Applied Sciences, since 2019 as a professor and between 2019 and 2021 as the deputy head of the institute. Since 2012, his research has been focusing on open data and more specifically on issues related to open data and crowdsourcing among heritage institutions. He has carried out various consulting mandates for public sector organizations and heritage institutions related to these topics. Beat has been an advocate for OpenGLAM since the early days of the opendata.ch association. He initiated the creation of the Swiss OpenGLAM Working Group back in 2013, and has since acted as its coordinator until 2022. Since 2018, he also serves on the board of the opendata.ch association. Website: Personal Webpage Twitter: @BeatEstermann Wikimedia User Page: Beat Estermann Email: beat.estermann(at)openglam.ch

Diego Hättenschwiler

Diego Hättenschwiler is an active Wikipedian who gives introductory courses for active participation in Wikipedia. He is also specialized in advising memory institutions (GLAMs) who want to contribute to Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons. Diego is trained as a historian and works as a scientific librarian. Affiliation: Member of the Advisory Council of Wikimedia CH Wikimedia User Page: Hadi E-mail: diego.haettenschwiler(at)wikipedian.ch

Jürg Hagmann Jürg Hagmann

Juerg Hagmann is an expert in Information Management & Governance, Records Management, and Archiving. Since 2013, he has been running his own company (Hagmann RIM Consulting) and is a partner of the Competence Center Records Management (KRM). Over the past years, his activities related to open data has been focusing on Swiss heritage data and more specifically on archives of ecclesiastical institutions. He is currently working on two related projects: Transforming the Swiss database of ecclesiastical archives (AGGA) into LOD format and Publishing historical sources of the Old-Catholic church of Switzerland under a CC-BY license. Juerg has been an advocate for OpenGLAM since 2013 when the global OKF conference took place in Geneva. He is lecturing at the University of Applied Sciences of North Western Switzerland (FHNW) in Olten and is a council member of the Foundation of the Swiss Economic Archives (SWA), Basel. Affiliation: Kompetenzzentrum Records Management (KRM) Website: personal webpage E-mail: jhagmann(at)gmail.com

Valérie Hashimoto

Valérie Hashimoto is an art historian and has been working in museums for several years. Her involvement with the Friends of OpenGLAM network started in 2018 when she coordinated the Swiss Open Cultural Data Hackathon at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich. Her interest in OpenGLAM has been growing ever since. E-mail: valerie.hashimoto(at)openglam.ch

Rae Knowler

Rae Knowler is a web developer in Zürich, where they develop product data APIs and work on Open Data projects. They are interested in the fascinating, comical and sometimes tragic results of attempting to cram the complexity of life and society into computer systems. They first became aware of OpenGLAM at the February 2015 Open Cultural Data Hackathon, where they investigated the stateless people photographed by Carl Durheim in the 1850s. At the 2016 hackathon, they were part of a team tracing the movements of 20th-century Jewish refugees in Switzerland. In their spare time they read a lot of science fiction and hug cats.

Dominik Sievi

Dominik Sievi is a specialist for information and documentation at the Swiss National Museum and works for the project Mobility I+D to send young librarians all across Europe. He has two big interests: preserving knowledge and provide it to as many people as possible. Both of these things are easier when information is open. His first contact with the OpenGLAM network was at the Swiss Open Cultural Hackathon 2017. Affiliations: Mobility I+D E-mail: dominik.sievi(at)gmail.com

Lionel Walter

Lionel Walter is a software engineer for arbim IT, a company providing IT services to libraries, archives and museum. In his work, he thrives to make data from cultural institutions more open, linked and usable. He joined the OpenGLAM Network in 2016, when the 2nd Swiss Open Cultural Hackathon was hosted by the Basel University Library, where he used to work. Affiliations: arbim IT E-mail: lionel.walter(at)openglam.ch

Birk Weiberg Birk Weiberg

Birk Weiberg has a background in art history and media studies and has been involved in humanities database projects for many years. Currently, he is Project Head for Interdisciplinarity and Transformation at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, where he is also teaching in the BA program Data Design & Art. He became involved in OpenGLAM as Project Manager at SAPA Foundation, Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts. His investment in OpenGLAM is driven by his interest in alternative trajectories of digital humanities. Affiliations: Zurich University of the Arts; Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts E-mail: birk(at)keyframe.org

Thomas Weibel Thomas Weibel

Thomas Weibel is a Professor of Media Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons (FHGR). After his studies in German and English Literature and Linguistics at the University of Berne and years of professional journalism at the Thuner Tagblatt and Der Bund, Berne, he was Head of Program Development at Radio SRF 2 Kultur where he developed cross-media formats. Being a freelance journalist and an independent multimedia producer today, Thomas Weibel teaches Multimedia Storytelling and Convergent Media Production at the FHGR, the Berne University of the Arts and the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. Affiliation: University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons, Institute of Multimedia Production Website: Thomas Weibel Multi & Media Twitter: @thomasweibel Email: thomas.weibel(at)bluewin.ch

Nobutake Kamiya Nobutake Kamiya

Nobutake Kamiya is a librarian at the Asian and Oriental Institute at the University of Zurich. He is very interested in the possibilities of the digitization of cultural heritage and Open Science. He believes the openness of the GLAM pushes creativity, diversity and transparency in society. Affiliation: University of Zurich, library of Asian and Oriental Institute Website: https://j-images.ch/ (private) Twitter: @kamiyano
Kathi Woitas Kathi Woitas Kathi Woitas is a digital scholarship specialist at the University Library of Bern. Here, she develops new services to support data-driven research and teaching by making resources available in appropriate ways, providing tools and promoting digital and data literacy. Kathi has a background in library science and cultural anthropology and advanced training in data science. She has been involved in open content and open scholarship in various contexts for 15 years and joined the OpenGLAM Network in 2020. Affiliation: University Library Bern Twitter: @library_pirate LinkedIn: Kathi Woitas Email: kathi.woitas(at)gmail.com Github: woitas
Iolanda Pensa

Iolanda Pensa

Iolanda Pensa is senior researcher and head of the research area “Culture and Territory” at the Institute of Design of SUPSI University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, where she is also consultant for Open Science and board member. As a volunteer she is an active member of the Wikimedia and Creative Commons movements, president of Wikimedia Italia and chair of the international Wikimania Steering Committee. Art historian, she holds a Ph.D. in Social anthropology and ethnography at the EHESS in Paris and in Territorial government and planning at the Politecnico di Milano. Her research work focuses on contemporary African art, public art and biennials, systems of knowledge production and distribution, Wikipedia and open licenses.