Came back from our super quick trip in the States, to life back in Europe. I got home the previous Saturday and then took off to GLAM Wiki - a Wikimedia conference - in Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday. I felt a bit like a pinball bouncing all around.

October 27 – Day 353

Saw these stickers on the side of a public garbage can refuting the far-right political party in the Netherlands. Elections in the Netherlands were to take place in two days and while PVV party did lose their overall representation in the Dutch parliament - YAY! - other far-right parties got more votes than before so it’s not all smooth sailing as the Tweede Kamer (equivalent to the House of Representatives in the US) will now try to form a coalition government with no clear majority party so many compromises will have to be made and no one will be happy. They are at least in talks so that’s something. 

October 28 – Day 354

I spent the afternoon working in Amsterdam at IAE HQ and this was the beautiful sight on the way out the door. It gets so dark so early, but the lights and the moon made it a sight to behold.

October 29 – Day 355

I arrived in Lisbon for GLAM Wiki conference and found a wonderful tiny cafe near to the hotel. I ordered a cappuccino and it came served in the coffee cup and saucer from my childhood home, making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I ran into two people at the cafe. One I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of knowing, but sharing our table we got to know each other and each other’s incredible work. Anne is doing invaluable and incalculable work around Syrian archeology. The other person, I knew and was glad to catch up with. Bob Stein has been making a whole new interactive method of gathering and displaying online materials called “Tapestries”. He one of the brilliant minds behind the Criterion Collection and I am glad to get to know him through our work at the Internet Archive.

That afternoon, I joined a group of Wikipedians on a tour of the Aljube Museum which was very much along the same vein as ESMA in Buenos Aires or Auschwitz in Poland. A former prison where people were held during fascist dictatorships has now been turned into a monument to never forget the tragedies inflicted. The visit was powerful, educational and thought provoking, especially in these times as authoritarians rise around the world. Resistance is possible, but dangerous and not easy. The power of the printed word in underground newspapers and the spoken word in pirate radio broadcasts kept the flame alive. The theme of remembering the past in order to have a future resonated with the conference and the work that the Archive has been doing for the past 30 years.

That evening, I met a colleague at her place and I couldn’t show up empty handed, so stopped at a grocery store and picked up “Gourmet” chips and the equivalent of a bottle of “2-buck chuck” (I fondly remember those from Trader Joes) or “cheap and cheerful” as my Mum would say. It really hit my funny-bone that these chips were “gourmet” - marketing gone a bit overboard.

October 30 – Day 356

The first day of the conference was chock full of great presentations, workshops and hackathons. I was so glad to meet Jamie who gave a presentation on archiving and included a lot of tools from the Internet Archive. She was a former Federal Government worker who was pushed out when DOGE took its wrecking ball through the government in early 2025. She has mostly landed on her feet, but it wasn’t easy. Luckily she was there to share her knowledge and experience.

GLAM Wiki celebrated the gathering that evening with a social get together at the Lisbon Goethe Institute and presented the award to the incredible work of Anne, the woman I happened to meet over coffee the previous day. It was inspiring to see the work and the way it had all come together with WikiData to form a cohesive story from past records and current stories.

October 31 – Day 357

Halloween! While at the conference, I wanted to bring a bit of levity to the day and put on some funky earrings and a fun hat. Most people when they took the time to look, they smiled. I took it off while I was in my panel discussion about Digital Resistance. 

November 1 – Day 358

Unfortunately, I needed to rest in the hotel room on the last day. Not much interesting to look at there, but this lamp reminded me of iQlights I had hanging in Buenos Aires. They are made together with plastic pieces all shaped together, but the lamp changes depending on how you put it together - there are many different possible outcomes.

November 2 – Day 359

Sunday afternoon, I took a couple of trains home from Schiphol airport and then walked the rest of the way, and this autumnal scene greeted me at the entrance to our cul-de-sac. I was happy to see this and know that I was just a minute away from the front door.

A friend sent me this song and music video that he made and I wanted to share. Thank you Crew! Check out his youtube channel for some funky tunes to groove to.