Dear all,
I'd like to draw to your attention this joint statement with the Foundation
which I have just, with the authority of the Board, posted on our blog
regarding the management of conflicts of interests and this year's
fundraiser.
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/09/joint-statement-from-wikimedia-foundat…
Regards,
Chris Keating
Chair, Wikimedia UK
FYI,
No website for 2013 as yet, but see...
http://2012.foss4g.org/http://foss4g.org/
Context:
1) Open Source, Open Knowledge, Open Data.
2) A major international conference comes to the UK.
Gordo
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [OSGeo-UK] FOSS4G is coming to Nottingham!
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:32:58 +0100
From: Jo Cook <jocook(a)astuntechnology.com>
To: uk(a)lists.osgeo.org uk(a)lists.osgeo.org <uk(a)lists.osgeo.org>
Dear All,
As you may have heard, FOSS4G will be coming to Nottingham in 2013! Our
heartfelt thanks to anyone who helped with the bidding process,
particularly those people that wrote a letter of support for the bid.
Keep listening for further announcements and news as organisation
progresses!
Thanks again
Jo
--
*Jo Cook*
Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West Street, Epsom, Surrey,
KT18 7RL, UK
t:+44 750 095 8167
iShare - Data integration and publishing platform
<http://www.isharemaps.com/>
*****************************************
Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and Wales.
Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8LN VAT no.
864201149.
Hello everyone,
Please find below Wikimedia UK's monthly report for October 2012. As well
as the usual updates on GLAM, outreach, communications, fundraising and
other activities, it also includes the results of our membership survey.
You can find the report online at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2012/October but plain text is below
for those who prefer to read the report in an email.
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
GLAM activities
-
*14* - Andy Mabbett addressed the *Central and Eastern Europe Wikimedia
conference* <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Meeting_2012>
about
recent developments in UK and international GLAM collaboration.
-
*19* - Andy Mabbett spoke to the *CityCamp
Coventry*<http://citycampcov.org.uk/> event,
about Wikimedia and GLAM.
-
*22* - Andy Mabbett delivered a training session on Wikipedia editing to
history students at the University of Birmingham, as part of the
*International
Dunhuang Project* <http://en.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/BL/IDP>.
Expert outreach
The London School of Economics' *Impact of Social Sciences blog* ran a
guest post by Martin Poulter, *"Writing for Wikipedia has forced me into
good scholarly habits and accessible
writing"*<http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/10/04/poulter-writing-wi…>.
This asks academics to view Wikipedia as an opportunity to write about
their own fields and as an opportunity for educational assignments.
Martin Poulter, Charles Matthews, Tom Morris and Edward Harding delivered a
*day workshop at for the JISC Digital Infrastructure
team*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/JISC_DI_team_training_workshop> at
the JISC headquarters in London. Many of the trainees had managerial or
leadership roles in elearning, research infrastructure or digital
humanities. As well as basic editing, the workshop looked at different
kinds of effort to improve Wikipedia, and how the different Wikimedia
Projects work together to provide a "digital infrastructure" for each other
and the wider web.
Other activities
-
*13* - Fæ addressed the *Central and Eastern Europe Wikimedia
conference*<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Meeting_2012>,
about the Chapters Association.
-
*WereSpielChequers* <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:WereSpielChequers>
and *Leutha* <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Leutha> ran a
categorisation workshop for donors who were also willing to donate some
time to Wikimedia.
-
The second "train the trainers" session took place in London
Microgrants
Two microgrants have been approved this month.
-
*Microgrants/Birthday
2012<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Birthday_2012>
*is for supplies for WMUK's birthday party celebrating the 4th
anniversary of the chapter and the 1st anniversary of us achieving charity
status - the party will take place at the *London wikimeet on 11 November
* <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/London/63>, to which all are
welcome. The application was submitted by WMUK's intern, Hasina Khatun.
-
*Microgrants/32GB usb stick for Commons
dump*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/32GB_usb_stick_for_Commons_dump>
is
for a 32GB memory stick to support the operations of
*Commons:User:Faebot<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Faebot>
*without wearing out the operator's computer. The bot is currently
working on categorising the Geograph images on Commons, as well as doing
other similar tasks. The application was submitted by Fæ.
A number of microgrants were marked as completed this month, including:
-
*Microgrants/Cambridge University Wikipedia
Society*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Cambridge_University_Wikipedia_Soc…>
provided
funding to get the Cambridge University Wikipedia Society started via a
stall at their fresher's fair, with freebies to give away. The report for
the microgrant, which was submitted by*User:Deryck
Chan*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Deryck_Chan>,
said "We now have a mailing list, with 237 members on it, a huge jump from
only 10 wiki-page members and volunteers prior to the fair. Volunteers at
the stall included Charles Matthews, Daniel Thomas, and myself. We've also
received great support from SRCF. Almost all freebies were given out; the
T-shirts and pens for volunteers of our stall created a particularly
professional image by making everything in the stall Wikimedia-branded.
Additionally, the nearby stalls, all science and technology related, were
also predominantly using Wikipedia pens for their sign-up sheets!"
-
*Microgrants/Imperial College Wikipedia
Society*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Imperial_College_Wikipedia_Society>
Information about microgrants that are currently running, and how to submit
a microgrant application of your own, are at
*Microgrants/Applications*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Microgrants/Applications>
.
UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)
*A list of recent press coverage can be seen
here*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Media_coverage_summary_August_-_October_2…>
.
Upcoming activities in November
For events in December and onwards, please see
*Events*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Events>
.
- *01* - *Ethical Properties Wikipedia Workshop/November
event<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ethical_Properties_Wikipedia_Workshop/November…>
*
- *03* - *Robin Owain addresses The Welsh Academy Writers' Fair,
Cardiff<http://www.llenyddiaethcymru.org/newyddion/i/141841/>
*
- *04* - *RBSA Backstage
Pass*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/RBSA_Backstage_Pass> in
Birmingham
- *04* - *Oxford meetup*
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Oxford/1> 1st
ever Oxford meetup
- *04* - *Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
editathon<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/RBSA_Backstage_Pass>
*
- *06* - Training at De Montfort University
- *06* - Workshop at the National Library of Scotland
- *07* - Workshop at the National Library of Scotland
- *08* - Workshop at Edinburgh University
- *09* - Workshop at EDINA, Edinburgh
- *11* - *London meetup <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/London/63>
*
- *17–18* - Board meeting (TBC) - in person
- *18* - *Reading
meetup*<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Reading/2> 2nd
Reading meetup
- *20* - Training at De Montfort University
- *24* - *Liverpool meetup<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Liverpool/6>
*
- *25* - *Manchester Girl Geeks editing
day<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Girl_Geek_Dinner/Manchester_November…>
*
- *25* - *Cambridge University Wikipedia Society gathering and editing
workshop*<http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Wikipedia:Cambridge_University_Wikipedia_So…>
Administrative activities
Finances
-
The current state of each of our budgets is *outlined in a Google
Spreadsheet*<https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org.uk/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkP38YPQ7Tg…>.
This details spend to date, and a rough estimate of future spending. This
spreadsheet is too complex to be placed directly on a wiki. Our yearly
spend is heavily 'end-loaded', partially due to the rapid growth of
Wikimedia UK.
-
Q3's Management Accounts (covering August, September, October) are
at *File:Wikimedia
UK Management Accounts Q3
2012.pdf*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_UK_Management_Accounts_Q3_2012.…>.
These are also available in spreadsheet format for those interested -
contact richard.symondswikimedia.org.uk
Board activities
The Board's main activity during October was the appointment (jointly with
the Wikimedia Foundation) of Mike Hudson and Compass Partnership to conduct
an independent review of our governance arrangements. This was the
principal topic of discussion at our Board phone call on 9 October (*minutes
* <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes_9Oct12>), and by the end of October
the review was under way.
On 10 October we received the conclusions from a financial review from
Garfield Byrd, the Wikimedia Foundation's Chief of Finance and
Administration. These have now been
*published*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Governance/2012_Financial_review_by_Garfield_B…>
along
with a *plan* <http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Finance_Action_Plan_2012/13>
setting
out our plans to address the issues raised in both Garfield's report and
that of our auditors.
News from the Chief Exec *For information on Jon's activities this month,
see **News from the
Office*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/News_from_the_Office/Posts>
*.* The updates about the Wikimedia UK Interns can be found there too,
together with *here* <http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/09/intern/>.
Communications
October was a month for repositioning our communications. The discussions
around governance continued, culminating in the appointment of Compass
Partnership to conduct the WMUK / WMF commissioned independent governance
review. The biggest communications success this month was *Ada
Lovelace Day*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace_Day_2012>.
This was the result of much excellent work by Daria and the team at the
Royal Society. The event gained widespread media coverage and received an
excellent reception on social media. You can see a comprehensive list of
coverage on the event's page. October's press coverage is *recorded in the
attached document*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Media_coverage_summary_August_-_October_2…>,
along with coverage from September. In other news, discussions have begun
on how we can improve the monthly reports. Suggestions include developing a
Signpost-style newsletter, featuring content created by WMUK members,
volunteers and UK-based editors. *Get involved in the discussion
here*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/What_would_a_WMUK_Signpost-style_newsletter_lo…>.
Blog posts in October:
- 9 October - *One year on: 12 months working with the Herbert Art
Gallery and Museum<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/one-year-on-12-months-working-with-the…>
*
- 13 October - *A message form the Wikimedia UK
Board<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/a-message-from-the-wikimedia-uk-board/>
*
- 19 October - *Bringing evidence based medicine to the
world<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/bringing-evidence-based-medicine-to-th…>
*
- 24 October - *Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia Foundation appoint
independent reviewer<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/wikimedia-uk-and-wikimedia-foundation-…>
*
- 25 October - *Hasina says goodbye to Wikimedia
UK<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/goodbye-wikimedia-uk/>
*
- 26 October - *The story of Ada Lovelace, the Royal Society and
Wikimedia UK*<http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/10/the-story-of-ada-lovelace-the-royal-so…>
Fundraising and Membership *Fundraising*
This month, we received £443.26 in one-off donations, with 13 individual
donations. The average donation amount was £34.09 - 62% of these donors
have had Gift Aid Declarations made and matched with their records. If
anyone would like a full (but anonymised) csv file with more information,
please get in touch with katherine.bavagewikimedia.org.uk and let her know
your requirements.
As for direct debit donations, there were 5349 successful direct debits
this month, bringing in a total of £20,917.12.
*Membership*
Up to 31st October 2012:
-
198 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current
members
-
51 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership
should be renewed)
This adds up to 249 members who are eligible to vote
-
155 Expired members
A membership survey was distributed on 30th October 2012 , the results were
made public as part of the reports to the Board meeting of 17th November
2012. You can view them
*here*<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMUKMemSurveySummaryNov12.pdf>
(pdf)
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England
and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513.
Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street,
London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a
global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the
Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
Hi All,
At the board meeting on Saturday a valid point was made that currently the
verification process for membership applications doesn't really prove a
barrier to fraudulent or duplicate applications.
I'd like to look at ways of improving this, so as we aim to expand our
membership numbers we're also making sure fairness is enshrined in a
checking process that means people can only have one vote.
If people pay their membership fee with Paypal, this isn't so much of a
problem, as having a verified paypal account has already required this
person to link their identity to their postal address - but we want to be
as open as possible and so there will be people who give us 'a form and a
fiver'.
What checking processes do we think would be acceptable without being
invasive/onerous? At a basic level, we should be confirming that the
applicant is the named person at the address given.
Please flag up concerns, suggestions for services or resources we can use,
and so on. It may be that we can't completely eliminate the risk of
fraudulent applications, but we can make it more difficult and provide a
measure or reassurance that no individual has more power than any other by
being able to vote twice etc .
Thanks!
--
*Katherine Bavage *
*Fundraising Manager *
*Wikimedia UK*
+44 20 7065 0949
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
I am wrestling with the task of creating a partnership comtract to be used
with institutions who have WIkipedians in Residence.
The Foundation have never had such a thing and according to ourlegal advice
our current Memoranda of Understanding are not up to the job!
Does anyone have a contract they have used where an organisation grant
funds another to provided a post or service that I could look at for ideas.
Jon
--
*Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK*. Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169
tweet @jonatreesdavies
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990.
Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk
An interesting speech - see half way down.
Trusteeship in a Time of Change A Tale of Two Gardens
In this session I want to discuss three key concepts:
-
charities and stewardship
-
charities and radical ideas
-
charities and risk
I want to begin by taking you for a walk around two gardens. The first
is at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. This is of course a complete
misnomer; a classic example of British understatement. Chatsworth is a huge
palace palming itself off as a mere house. In France, it would be a
chateau; it is worthy of a Bourbon or a Majesty. But what is really
remarkable is its gardens. The whole landscape around Chatsworth has been
carved out to create a unifying vision of the Duke of Devonshire’s idea of
what a perfect countryside environment should look like. It’s landscape as
backdrop. And it is worth remembering that this vastly expensive edifice
and grounds were built on the profits of that brutal, dangerous and
exploitative business – early coal mining.
There is an amazing water cascade and in the1840s James Paxton, who
later built Crystal Palace, designed an enormous greenhouse which at that
point was the largest green house in the world. It housed exotic plants
from all around the globe. It also was an expression of power and wealth.
It had huge underground heating systems, prodigious boilers, 30 miles of
pipes. Of course it was ruinously expensive to operate and fell into disuse
during the First World War. When taxes rose and cheap labour was in short
supply, it was then demolished.
Visiting Chatsworth is to be impressed by the scale of vision of the
rich aristocracy but one gets no sense of something created for public
benefit, at all. Chatsworth shouts “wealth”, and “look at me”. It
encapsulates aristocratic pride, power and status.
On the other hand take a walk around the University Botanical Gardens in
Cambridge. These are far smaller than Chatsworth. They only extend over 40
acres and have been going since 1846 - almost at exactly the same time as
James Paxton was creating the Chatsworth greenhouse. What strikes you when
you walk round these gardens is that they are dedicated to a scientific
approach to the world. A fantastic range of trees and plants support
research which goes on there all the time. Currently they are doing a lot
of work on sustainable horticultural; water and fertiliser use, weed
control etc. There is a greenhouse - on a modest scale- so it has not been
demolished. The University Botanical Gardens are a tribute to what
charities create – public benefit for the long term. Chatsworth is the
plaything of the rich, The University Botanical Gardens represent a
serious, combined effort of generations of brilliant people studying botany
for the long term good of humanity. The Botanical Gardens are not a display
of wealth or power; rather demonstrate the serious use of a wealth of
talents for common purpose. The men and women who have worked there over
eight generations, have lain down strata of intellectual property – for the
common good.
If you walk around many of the best cities in the world, I would argue
that what makes them great is the fact that many of their assets are held
for the long term in public ownership. This is particularly true of cities
like Oxford and Cambridge but it is equally true of London with
1
its parks and museums. What all these represent is a concept of
stewardship; assets held for the public good in the long term. No one can
benefit from them personally. You can go down to the betting shop and put
your shirt on the 3.30 p.m. at Tadcaster with your own money but you cannot
do that with trust moneys – that is the key difference. Trusteeship brings
with it notions of stewardship and long term care that are at variance with
short term profit maximisation or the adulation of individual wealth that
has become such a feature of our economic system over the last 30 years.
What is also powerful is that because these buildings, gardens etc are held
in trust, it means that lots of people can use them. And this space allows
more academics and students to develop, engage in blue sky thinking, and
undertake experiments. We too often forget that civil society in its
broadest definition – including the universities – is the research arm of
society. So many of the great ideas and inventions that the private sector
cash in on were created in the public domain. Anthony Hilton in a recent
Evening Standard article mentioned Professor William Janeway’s book ‘Doing
Capitalism in the Innovation Economy”.
This highlights the little understood fact that most of the big American
technological breakthroughs have been a result of state and foundation
funded research, not private enterprise. It was blue sky funding which paid
for the research which developed the algorithms which underpin Google and
which funded research that first discovered the technologies which Steve
Jobs brilliantly assembled into the iPhone. Professor Janeway’s take on
this is that, “venture capital success only happens in sectors of research
where the state invested at sufficient scale in the translation from
scientific discovery to technological innovation.” In other words, the
state does all the risky hard work and only when it has got to the point to
be a pretty safe bet, does the venture capital industry get involved. To
this I would add that charities have also played a key role in funding this
type of deep research.
As a result Professor Janeway says four out of the five venture capital
investments are either in the information communication technology or
biomedical sectors because this is where the government’s money goes. There
has been very little venturing outside these areas.
The point here is that most government money goes to universities which are
charities whose structure encourage long term research not geared to a
particular product. It is that deep research which produces the
intellectual property that can create system changing breakthroughs.
Professor Janeway also argues that it is not necessarily so much the money
that creates innovation but pools of clever people and role models and
where do you find those? but in universities, research institutions, or
hubs.
The ideas and the thinking behind the books, and blogs, tweets,
publications that come from universities are but one example of the torrent
of ideas that civil society organisations create.
Another point:
People often criticise charities for not “going to scale”. However, I would
like to put a contrary view. One of the problems that has developed over
the last 30 years is the development of huge institutions that are “too big
too fail”, particularly the banks. A resilient system is a network system
with a large numbers of players rather than an oligopoly of a few dominant
players “too big to fail”. The stewardship mind set rarely breads the
desire to go to massive scale. I believe that is a strength, not a
weakness. In the modern world we will increasingly talk about networks of
organisations and individuals and seek to find ways of
2
creating alliances between individuals and organisations to allow them to
flourish rather than create great new organisations. The unbundling of the
state that the Coalition Government is encouraging could at its best be
part of this – if genuine public service mutual are established that do not
get hoovered up by Capita, Serco or Assura. I believe the internet will
encourage the development of an ecology of smaller organisations – like
civil society. And on that note it is probably worth contrasting Wikimedia
– and Google. The Wikimedia Foundation is a charity. It turns over US $51m.
Yet is has an amazing presence throughout the world. Wiki has become a
prefix eg, Wikileaks; or Wikipedia. Wikimedia’s phenomenal growth has been
driven entirely by voluntary donations and voluntary effort. Google has the
preposterous slogan “you can make money without doing harm” and then
engages in sophisticated tax planning so that its marginal corporation tax
rate on UK profits is 3.5% rather than the 24% it should be. Wikimedia
Foundation demonstrates as well another aspect of stewardship – the ability
to make a lot with small resources.
The other vital aspect of civil society is at their best civil society
organisations are constantly challenging the status quo. And so often ideas
that have been radical in one generation become accepted and even
conservative in future generations. Take as one example the National Trust.
When Octavia Hill started campaigning to preserve parts of the British
countryside and buildings in the 1880s, this was a radical step. No one
today, I suspect, thinks the National Trust is a radical organisation but
130 years ago it was.
An even more striking example is of course the anti-slavery movement. When
Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce and a bunch of Evangelicals and
Quakers decided to challenge the slave trade in the 1770s, it is estimated
that one third of the world’s population was either in slavery or bonded
labour. A voluntary organisation had decided to take on the then equivalent
of Big Oil; Big Pharma and the Arms industry all rolled into one. Can you
imagine doing that today? But they did it. They did it through mass
mobilisation coupled with huge patience and determination.
That was a huge gamble. The point here more than anything else is that
charities are in the risk business. There is a paradox at the very heart of
charity. At the one hand the notions of trusteeship and stewardship for the
present and the future can imply a conservative, conservation mind set. On
the other hand the fact of the matter is that charities operate at the
cutting edge, the coalface of the society. Many charities go where most
organisations care or dare not to go - because there is no money there. You
do not make money out of dealing with disabled children; people with
autism, drug addicts, the needy, the dispossessed, the elderly, the poor –
all the potential beneficiaries of charity. Charities take risks. It is in
their DNA. Without risk, in a sense, charities are nothing. So the Trustee
mind set is a curious one. It has to combine a concept of preservation and
a concept of welcoming challenge. To put it another way charities need to
have a conservative approach to property but a radical approach to ideas.
I believe these two qualities are the essence of charity. I believe too
many people get hung up on the idea that the voluntary principle of
trusteeship is what marks charities out. The volunteer principle is noble
and useful but it is not so much at the heart of charity as the twin
concepts of stewardship and risk. Indeed in those universities which have
colleges, they are charities with paid trustees because the Dons sit on the
governing bodies and are paid.
Now, to shift perspective, I am sure historians will see 2008 as one of
those seminal years in history along with 1929, 1939, 1968 and 1989. We are
still living with the fall out of the end
3
of the long boom and the collapse in faith in liberal free markets. The
world economy still has a massive hangover and no government has yet
started to develop a pick me up. As governments seek to tame deficits;
worry about long term trends in demography; reach the limits to growth
caused by environmental degradation, I feel that Harold McMillian’s phrase,
“you’ve never had it so good” will come back to haunt us – we may never
have it so good again. That we cannot continue as before is clear. We have
to find a way to run our economies that delivers genuine prosperity for all
but without endangering the planet. It may sound grandiose but I think the
twin pillars of charity which I have been describing – that is
stewardship and an acceptance of risk, are the essential mental and
emotional ingredients that society needs in order to be able to adapt and
change. I believe there is a lot that the system could learn from civil
society.
In particular I would like to offer you trustees a new opportunity. As you
may know one of the sponsors of this conference is Bates Wells &
Braithwaite and BWB is proud to be in partnership with NCVO, not just in
running this conference but in running a business called Trustees UnLimited
which finds Trustees and non-executives for social enterprises. One of the
constant refrains over the last 10/15 years has been that charities need to
learn from business and need to become more business like. However, I think
the time has come for businesses to become more like charities. In
particular, I am very keen on seeing boards of private and public companies
having at least one director who can represent civil society – a senior
non-executive director to represent a wider view than just the bottom line
and the short term. And where will we find the people to take on this role?
I would suggest in this room and in charities generally. So going back to
my horticultural thoughts, I would like to plant a seed in your minds. You
could become a director on a private company board to represent the concept
of stewardship and a willingness to change and adopt new ideas. The
voluntary sector has been a leader compared with business in terms of the
number of women who hold senior positions – something for which the sector
should be justly proud. I am sad to see that attempts by Lynne Berry and
others to get some leading lights onto the board of public companies have
thus far not succeeded. [It is essential, in my view, that Lynne Berry,
Barbara Stocking and others do not give up with this endeavour.] Their
potential involvement on the boards of leading companies could I am sure be
hugely valuable. There is a lot of evidence to show that boards make much
better decisions when they have a diversity of membership including of
genders rather than when they are a homogenous bunch all locked into group
think. Indeed the Economists’ prescription for de-risking financial markets
is very simple. Take the testosterone out of the room, in particular out of
the dealing floors. You do this by employing women and older men.
In conclusion I would like to take you to America. I was recently in San
Francisco at the Social Capital Markets Conference. It was inspiring. In
particular, the chutzpah showed by some of the new American foundations
such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Omidyar Foundation and
others in embracing the idea that trusteeship of capital brought with it
the right as well to take risks. This may sound paradoxical given what I
have been saying earlier about conservation. But what Bill and Melinda
Gates and others are doing is recognising that a small part of their
capital can be deployed on social investment – seeking to ensure that their
money creates not just a financial but also a social gain. And I was
particularly struck by comments from the Rockefeller Foundation. The
Rockefeller Foundation has been going since the 1880s built on the back of
the profits from Standard Oil. In the 1950s the Rockefeller Foundation was
one of the key funders of the research that resulted in the green
revolution in India which meant that crops yields doubled and more.
Rockefeller funded that research just like governments and other
foundations have always
4
funded research. They gave the money away and funded the creation of
intellectual property for the public good. But of course there was also a
colossal private gain; the seed companies, and the fertiliser companies
cashed in on the intellectual property that had been funded by the likes of
Rockefeller. That’s normal, that’s what we expect. The state, foundations
and charities create intellectual property, put it into the public domain
and then companies cash in, be it Apple, Google or Monsanto to name but
three.
But it does not need to be like that. What was interesting listening to
Rockefeller was to realise that they have realised it does not need to be
like that. So this time round as they fund African agriculture they are
doing it differently. This time Rockefeller is giving grants to help
develop agriculture in certain areas but they are also investing, and
taking equity stakes in projects which they have grant funded to get to a
stage of investment readiness. Rockefeller is using new financial tools in
the box. They are not just giving out grants and allowing the private
sector to cash in, they are ensuring this time that they are using some of
the tools of capitalism to make sure that they can get some stake in any
potential upside or capital growth that their subsidy has helped create.
I think that is the way of the future, a more hybrid; nuanced approach. We
need to move away from a binary world where governments and charities are
on one side of the ring and business is on the other. Increasingly we are
going to see organisations that operate across a spectrum, comingling
charity and private sector money and values at the same time. This is going
to be confusing; it is not going to be easy but I believe that the civil
society sector with its historic and abiding concept of stewardship and its
proud record of nurturing and developing new ideas has got to be the seed
bed for the change we all recognise is needed. Civil society needs to
develop these new ideas – as it always has. Civil society needs to help
develop a more responsible capitalism. Civil society has always seen money
as a means to an end – not an end in itself. Civil society needs to spread
the word that money needs to be put back where it belongs as a means of
achieving economic exchange, as society’s servant and not its master. I’d
like to close with a passage from Franklin Roosevelt’s inaugural Address in
1933:
“The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our
civilisation. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truth. The
measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social
values more noble than mere monetary profit.”
Stephen Lloyd
Bates Wells & Braithwaite London LLP 2-6 Cannon Street
London EC4M 6YH
9th November 2012
5
--
Jon Davies
arnottdavies(a)gmail.com
--
*Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK*. Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169
tweet @jonatreesdavies
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990.
Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk
AdBlock Plus has a facility to protect users from typosquatting (as in, typing "poopal.com" rather than "paypal.com")
http://cl.ly/image/0M1l1D0K1x0g
Does someone want to work out how to complain to the relevant parties? If it's happening for Wikimedia UK, it's probably also happening for other *.wikimedia.org sites.
--
Tom Morris
<http://tommorris.org/>
Hello everyone,
I'm pleased to be able to let you know that Lincoln has been chosen to host
our 2013AGM and WikiConference. You can get all the details, including
registration info and a draft event programme, on our blog
here<http://bit.ly/WR3jd3>
.
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England
and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513.
Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street,
London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a
global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the
Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
FYI:
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Matt Terrington" <matt.terrington(a)ng-london.org.uk>
Date: Nov 26, 2012 10:59 AM
Subject: The National Gallery Archive is now online
To: <MCG(a)jiscmail.ac.uk>
Hello MCGers,
I’m delighted to be able to tell you that we have placed our archive
catalogue online. It would be great if you could take a look at it and let
me have any feedback.
You can search the Archive at:
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/archive/search
We also have a short survey about the National Gallery Archive, and our new
online search tool. So that we can improve or service, it would be great to
have your views: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/archive-search-tool-survey
I hope that you like what we have done.
All the best,
Matt Terrington (Archive search project manager)
Digital Media Assistant
The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square,
London WC2N 5DN
T +44 (0)20 7747 2895
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
I'd like to announce two new finance documents, now on the WMUK wiki:
* Finance Action Plan 2012/13 http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Finance
Action Plan 2012/13. This is our planned timetable for introducing
improvements to our financial controls and procedures in the light of
the reports produced this Autumn by UHY, our auditors, and
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Governance/2012 Financial review by
Garfield Byrd, WMF CFO the one by Garfield Byrd, WMF CFO. Please
comment on the talk page.
* Finance Policy revision 2012 http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Finance
Policy revision 2012. This is the outcome of a scheduled review (the
first we've done) of our Finance Policy at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Finance Policy . The Board has discussed
and refined the proposed changes, which are now open for community
comment at the talk page http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Finance
Policy revision 2012 . And there are a couple of bits not yet worded up
- help welcome!
Thanks to Jon, Richard & the board for their help,
As Treasurer, John Byrne