Information on fashion should be accurate, rich and accessible to everyone. Especially on one of the most used websites in the world: Wikipedia. That is why the Europeana Fashion project is working on improving fashion information on Wikipedia and project partner MoMu is making important steps to open up its collection to the world.

In order to improve fashion information on Wikipedia, Europeana Fashion gathers knowledge about fashion during a so-called “edit-a-thon”: an event during which people come together to edit and contribute new information to Wikipedia. Researchers, curators, journalists, fashion students, experts from the entire fashion community are invited to spend a day together at one of Europeana Fashion’s partner institutions to write new and update existing articles on fashion.

The first edit-a-thon was held on 22 March 2013 at Nordiska museet. For this edit-a-thon, MoMu for the first time published eight images from the MoMu collection on Wikimedia under a Free Culture license. The use of the Free Culture means that the images can now be used to illustrate new or existing articles on Wikipedia, but also that anyone can now freely use and study the images,. For example, to put on a blog or for use in school projects.

For the next edit-a-thon on 13 May 2013, MoMu is planning to release more images on Wikimedia under a Free Culture license. Through its participation in the Europeana Fashion project and by making images of its collection available on Wikimedia, MoMu is working towards its goal to engage audiences worldwide and let them freely enjoy, contribute, participate and share the MoMu collection.