Happy New Year to Everyone! After the holidays I'd like to make another approach to you and your chapters about "Wikipedians in the European Parliament". * have you already forwarded this invitation to your local community? * has you chapter already decided about supporting volunteers participating in this project? * have you - if you are interested - already signed up for participation? Please let me know! Despite the holidays we already received a number of registrations from four countries and chapter support from five chapters, not including those who have informally announced their participation or support in personal mails. I am especially proud to see a significant number of female applications in this project! Also the Commons project page has been translated in four different languages - you may help as well: just click on "translate this page" on top of the page. The project has a lot of potential to increase the quality of our projects which can now be evaluated using the lists that have been created in the last days: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliame nt/Lists_of_pictures> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliamen t/Lists_of_pictures <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliame nt/Lists_of_articles> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliamen t/Lists_of_articles If you have any questions, please contact me or better - post them on the talk page on Commons: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons_talk:Wikipedians_in _European_Parliament&action=edit> https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons_talk:Wikipedians_in_ European_Parliament&action=edit Regards, Olaf Von: Olaf Kosinsky [mailto:olaf.kosinsky@gmail.com] Gesendet: Montag, 23. Dezember 2013 00:03 An: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Betreff: Fwd: Invitation to Chapters and Photographers for the European Parliament Project 2014 Dear Chapters, this is a mail focused on chapters within the European Union but of course support and participation of any chapter is welcome! == Preamble == Some might have heard about the State Parliament Projects done in Germany and Austria since 2009: A bunch of Wikipedians and photographers meet politicians in the parliament, shoot professional photos, discuss their Wikipedia articles etc. This way hundreds of free licensed, high quality images have been made, Wikipedia articles have been improved. In the latest project at Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) we added videos, politicians give a short introduction about themselves, their position and political focus in German and in their mother tongue if different from German. About 20 photographers were able to participate and processes how to work with the parliament's administration, how to interact with the politicians, how to efficiently take a lot of photos in a short time and with good quality have been established. == Next Level: European Parliament == Now we would like to take this to next level: After contacting the European Parliament I was able to get their approval, the support by the parties and a date! Unfortunately the date is already in February, 3rd to 7th, as we have to use the short time gap between budget deliberations and elections. MEPs only travel to the EP when deliberations are ongoing but then they are also busy with meetings, as soon as the election preperation starts there won't be any time for our project within the next 6 months. Anyway I am sure we can do that - the elections are also a great opportunity to raise awareness on our material we have in Wikipedia and on Commons. It is also an excellent opportunity to bring together volunteers in doing our core work together, maybe we can transfer the idea of Parliament Projects to other countries. Volunteers get the opportunity to learn from each other - the EP is a very challenging project, having more than 700 MEPs to be handled within a few days. And Wikipedia may improve its articles, also by bringing together volunteers from different EU countries. Many MEPs have their articles only in a few of the European languages, some not even in their native language! == Your Chapter Involved == We are looking forward to get volunteers from as many countries as possible involved in this project. In order to be handle it we need approx. 35 people to help. Obviously the german and austrian photographers are already waiting for it, from past projects they already know what will go on. But there is much more to it: We want your volunteers! Imagine a project where we could bring together volunteers from all 24 language communities in the EU - that is what we are trying! Therefore we ask you for a favour: * please forward this invitation to your local community - you can point them to our project page on Wikimedia Commons: ** https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliamen t * does your chapter provide travel support for those volunteers in your country who want to participate? Please do so. Your chapter pays for the transportation to / from Strasbourg and the accommodation (around 300 EUR per person for all 6 nights), we take care of the rest (transportation hotel - EP, catering etc.) ** https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliamen t/Participation * does your chapter have photographic equipment we might need? We could use DSLRs, flash units, background systems, lenses... ** https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliamen t/Equipment * we would like to supply the volunteers with t-shirts or hoodies with Wikipedia logo or similar - for a unified appearance and to make them visible as volunteers and Wikimedians. Is your chapter (or the WMF?) interested in providing 90 shirts / hoodies? (We planned 2 pc. per person as they will be worn almost one week.) ** https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliamen t/Marketing * everyone who likes this project: state your support on the talk page of our grant request to the WMF which should cover the general costs of the project. By this grant request we make sure that each chapter only has to handle local support and can stay within it's budgeted limits and area of operation. ** https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Olaf_Kosinsky/Wikipedians_in_Euro pean_Parliament Thanks for your attention and your support! We are confident that even with the short time given we will be able to run an awesome project which will have an impact in so many areas - Wikipedia, Commons, our volunteers, chapter collaboration, outreach, reader experience... Regards, Olaf Kosinsky

Dear all, as you know the project "Wikipedians in European Parliament" will start by Monday. Most participants are already on their way to Strasbourg and will arrive Sunday evening. I am one of them and am looking forward to this project. As I did some preparation some "last words" from me: * we got 50 participants from 9 countries, speaking 19 languages * the European Commission is also happy to see us - a bonus! * Wikidata is important! I guess this is the first "Edit-a-thon-like" project based on Wikidata. Not even one MEP has all important properties filled in. As an overview and summary of the work that should be done and the achievements of this project, we have created a few pages on Commons: Figures before / after this project: * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliame… MEPs and existing photos: * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliame… MEPs and existing articles / sitelinks: * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliame… MEPs and existing Wikidata statements: * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliame… See you in Strasbourg or simply enjoy our work :-) Thanks to the Wikimedia Foundation to support this project with a PEG grant and the chapters to support their volunteers by paying for their travel and lending equipment! Regards, Manuel -- Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens Lausanne, +41 (21) 34066-22 - www.wikimedia.ch