In this workshop we try out how to leave more sustainable traces archiving our projects and websites – with little ressources. After a short input from Lukas Fuchsgruber, Wikimedia Germany.
Online Workshop
- what: online workshop with input
- when: 22nd of September, Tuesday – 5 to 7pm (Berlin time)
- where: online, on BigBlueButton platform
- with whom: Lukas Fuchsgruber, Wikimedia Germany
- registration: https://cloud.educat-kollektiv.org/apps/forms/s/CGH6FaZwRgqtRkgE2Ax3XJET
- language: English spoken language
- knowledge: A general interest in archiving is helpful. No prior knowledge is needed.
What is it about (short)
Projects documenting marginalized histories, such as Dekoloniale.de and Digitalbenin.org, are particularly vulnerable to digital disappearance. Initiatives with limited resources risk losing their digital content when funding ends, technology and politics changes, or platforms disappear.
Web archiving, open data repositories and platforms such as Wikidata can help preserve this content and keep it discoverable for the future. After a little input we try out how to leave traces with Wikidata.
What is it about (long)
How can cultural and research projects – particularly those with limited funding or with only limited technical resources – ensure that their content remains discoverable and accessible in the future? (For full abstract click on the text).
This event outlines current challenges and developments in this field and provides practical guidance on how preservation, discoverability and accessibility can be achieved even in the face of limited resources. The event is aimed at cultural practitioners and activists, no previous knowledge of web archiving or data management is necessary.
For example, if one looks at the interactive and dynamic presentation of biographies and stories on Dekoloniale.de, the website of a project on decolonial memory culture in the city, which ran from 2020 to 2024, one may wonder how future readers can access this resource. It turns out that that might be hard or even impossible. The project has not further funding and has ended, the website is maintained for now by the Stadtmuseum Berlin. But once this maintenance ends, no copy is available so far. The presentation is too complex and dynamic to be automatically recorded and preserved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (web.archive.org). The same problem also affects other critical heritage projects, for example Digitalbenin.org, a resource and database on the looted heritage of Benin City, which is also not fully available elsewhere. It is precisely these and similar initiatives – which take a critical stance towards the way in which culture and history are written and remembered in former colonial powers, and which shift the focus to matters that have been repressed and made forgotten there – that are themselves particularly at risk of digital disappearance.
Websites, databases and social media channels can easily disappear, for example when contracts expire, technology evolves, or user accounts are closed. Disappearance is actually the norm, and the question is really: what comes next? Is the content simply gone, or is there a copy? And are there any traces leading to this copy? Open platforms, web archiving technologies and the principles of networked knowledge are available to support this. Data can be stored in open data repositories, these digital archives then can be made findable via Wikidata as a networked knowledge repository – effectively a finding aid for the internet.
Barrieres
The language will be spoken English. There might be some technical terms. You can ask questions in the chat or after a short input.
For the online event you will need a technical device with proper internet connection. Please try to find a calm place, so you can concentrate. Headphones might be helpful. We will try to work on “Wikidate”. Try to use a device bigger than a smartphone.
A general interest in archiving is helpful. No prior knowledge is needed.
Registration
If you follow the link, you can register. When you send the registration form (with 3 questions), we send the link for the online platform (BigBlueButton) via E-Mail. Please click on: https://cloud.educat-kollektiv.org/apps/forms/s/CGH6FaZwRgqtRkgE2Ax3XJET
Costs
The event is free of charge. If you feel like you want to support the project, feel free to donate, though E.g. on Betterplace with a click on the following link: https://www.betterplace.org/de/projects/85789-educat-e-v-politische-bildung-in-ostdeutschland
Facilitator
Lukas Fuchsgruber is an art historian and museum researcher based in Berlin. In June 2025 he joined the team Digital Education, Democracy and Culture of Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. as Manager Digital Cultural Heritage. Before that, he worked for several years as a researcher in a project called Museums and Society – Mapping the Social, conducting a case study on the relevance of digital museum collections for critical museology. His book on this research came out in October 2025 as Museen und die Utopie der Vernetzung (print and open access).
Moderator
Lilu from Educat Educational Collective.
Initiators
Educat – Educational Collective
Educat e.V. is a collective of education workers from Dresden, Rostock and Berlin, who do diversity- conscious and critical education, work on remembrance and emancipatory and experimental educational formats. Together with a lot of partners and comrades Educat is facilitating Cultures of Remembrance since 2021.
Project partners
The project has been carried and inspired by a huge network of comrades, activists, artists and educators. For the recent episode of “Cultures of Remembrance” together with Educat Collective, there is Art Platforma, Human Constanta, Prismatica, Queer Cafe, Moldox Association and Solidarity Collectives involved as main partners.