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.
How is it an effective use of the charity's resources to effectively duplicate perfectly good business cards, and then to spend money on postage to get said perfectly good cards back, then spend yet more money on postage to send the new ones out?
Where is the logic in this, and why is it being done at the insistence of a single trustee? I'm sick of board members making mountains out of molehills and then vetoing decisions.
Harry Mitchell
http://enwp.org/User:HJ
Phone: 024 7698 0977
Skype: harry_j_mitchell
________________________________
From: Richard Symonds <richard.symonds(a)wikimedia.org.uk>
To:
Cc: Jon Davies <jon.davies(a)wikimedia.org.uk>
Sent: Thursday, 9 August 2012, 14:12
Subject: Business cards
All,
I'm afraid there's a problem with the business cards: one of the board has objected to the titles on the cards. I'm afraid I need to recall the cards you've been sent, and issue you new ones... Could you pop them in the post to FREEPOST WIKIPEDIA please? I'll have new ones in the post to you inside a week.
A bit of a pain, but it's important to keep everyone happy. Like I said, I should have new ones to you in a week or so.
Richard Symonds
Wikimedia UK
0207 065 0992
Disclaimer viewable at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia:Email_disclaimer
Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk
Hi all,
The Conference Committee is taking the lead on WikiConference UK 2013 (aka the AGM). If you know of a suitable venue that has capacity for 100 people and (ideally) breakout rooms, we would ask that you approach them for a provisional quote, and then pass information about the quote and the venue to the Conference Committee at conference-committee-l(a)wikimedia.org.uk.
The date for the conference is 8 June 2013. Please have quotes submitted by 23 September (2012) so that they can be considered at the next ConfCom meeting.
Thanks,
Harry Mitchell
http://enwp.org/User:HJ
Phone: 024 7698 0977
Skype: harry_j_mitchell
Hello everyone,
As August draws to a close, taking with it the wettest summer for 100
years, it's time for our monthly report. If you have anything to add to the
report, please do so at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2012/August by
the end of next week.
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, 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: "Bob Kerr" <openstreetmapcraigmillar(a)yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Aug 27, 2012 1:31 PM
Subject: [Talk-GB] State of the map Scotland - Speakers and Sponsors
To: "talk-gb(a)openstreetmap.org" <talk-gb(a)openstreetmap.org>
Hi,
This years State of the map Scotland is a slightly different affair than
last years due to a larger venue.
We are splitting both days into two, morning and afternoon. In the
afternoon we are requesting speakers from other GIS or professional
organisations to come in and speak about their work with maps. These talks
do not have to be about Openstreetmap or free data but it would be good if
there was some connection. This will allow us to use the conference as a
meeting of minds between volunteer mappers and professional groups. We have
16 30 minute slots available in the two days and two conference rooms. This
will be the formal side of the conference, The mornings will be reserved
for Openstreetmappers in the non conference format.
Details of the Conference here
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_Of_The_Map_Scotland_2012
If anyone knows of any groups that would like to speak please let me know.
We are also looking for some small sponsorship to pay for Edinburgh
University Staff who are needed to let us in.
Cheers
Bob Kerr
_______________________________________________
Talk-GB mailing list
Talk-GB(a)openstreetmap.org
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
Dear All,
Wikimedia UK will have an intern in the office working with us for 6 weeks
over the Summer (as per http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Summer_intern). Some
of you had a chance to meet Isabelle at the London meetup on Sunday. She is
just getting her email and account set up, but in the meantime here is a
hello message from her:
*Hello! It's Isabelle here, the new intern at Wikimedia UK. I'm a 22
year-old originally from Shropshire, just graduated from King's College
London where I studied French. I'm thrilled to be spending the next six
weeks in the office, getting an insight into all the exciting projects that
are happening and assisting the team with all manner of things, and I look
forward to meeting as many volunteers as possible while I'm here. As a
newcomer to the Wikimedia movement I feel I've got a lot to learn as well
as to contribute, but surrounded by such knowledgeable people I'm sure it's
going to be a very fun process, and one that will speed by... So I'd better
get to work! *
We will have another intern starting early September, so I am sure you will
hear from both of them more soon.
Best,
Daria
--
Daria Cybulska - Events Organiser, Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 207 065 0994
+44 7803 505 170
--
Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, 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).
Dear All,
Wikimedia UK is located in a building that we are sharing with ca. 20 other
charities. In May we delivered a short presentation to them talking about
Wikimedia UK and Wikipedia, and there was a lot of interest in learning to
edit. This would be particularly interesting as the charities in the
building all tackle very different issues, so their interests will be quite
varied.
I am setting up a drop-in style editing event in our office on Thursday 27
September, 11am - 4pm, and it would be great if you could attend to give
1-1 introduction sessions to anyone that will be interested in learning.
For more information and to sign up please visit *
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ethical_Properties_Wikipedia_Workshop/Septembe…
*
We have promoted the event on the building's mailing list and a couple of
charities have signed up already, so it would be great to have one or two
more trainers signed up.
We would be able to reimburse reasonable travel and lunch costs.
Best wishes,
Daria
--
Daria Cybulska - Events Organiser, Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 207 065 0994
+44 7803 505 170
--
Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, 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).
Ah, the downside of doing your work open and in public is that people see a
half finished doodle of a budget and get overexcited and you come back to
45 emails in your inbox...
Yes, it's likely that the Wikimania 2014 London Bid Committee is going to
be applying for a grant to help it put together a good bid, but we're still
figuring out which roles are required and waiting for other inputs, so the
numbers were really just placeholders for now.
The deeper question I see here is - what sort of event does the community
want Wikimania to be? It's a conference that is really beginning to come of
age, and with this comes growing pains. From a 200 person glorified pubmeet
it's become a five day long 1000+ person multi-track affair with all the
attendant expectations on AV, travel logistics, social events, catering,
multi-tiered accommodation... and unless it's not handled well, potentially
a very frustrating experience for a lot of wikimedians who have invested
their time and money travelling to take part.
With the correct facilitating software, a lot of people have been able to
collaborate together to build a killer encyclopaedia. Similarly, a well
designed conference can allow for positive interactions between a very
large number of people. As the size increases, the complexity increases,
the risk increases, and the cost increases - but so do the possible
benefits.
Let us be clear: running an event this size is not cheap. A Wikimania costs
hundreds of thousands of pounds, and probably significantly more in a place
like London. Tickets to your average <http://www.websummit.net/get-tickets/>
tech <http://www.leweb.co/register/paris>
event<http://www.ted.com/pages/tedglobal>of a similar size and scope
would easily cost £1000+ per delegate, and in
comparison a Wikimania is basically free. This means that we need to do a
lot more work fundraising, which takes a lot of time and planning, and a
chief concern of potential sponsors is whether the event will be delivered
to a professional standard. We are finding that a lot of the groundwork for
the event has to be laid well before the bid process even starts. Not to
sound patronising, but event organisation is different to wiki editing;
there are deadlines which must be met, and mistakes that cannot be reverted.
So let us ask ourselves, why should the community spend so much donor money
on Wikimania (bids)? What is Wikimania there to achieve?
WMF's policy on grants:
> Grant requests should support the achievement of Wikimedia's mission and
> strategic priorities. We favor high impact requests over low impact
> requests; try to break new ground, and to increase your group's capacity
> for new programs and partnerships.
>
Holding such a conference is high impact, breaks new ground, and fosters
links to local institutions<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museums_in_London>and
builds relationships with sponsors
and partners<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013_bids/London#Partner_Organisa…>.
It's fantastic for encouraging
innovation<http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summar…>and
with Jimmy
on hand<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014_bids/London#Supporters>courting
the press it should be great for increasing awareness
and participation<http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summar…>too.
It seems as good a thing to invest in as any - after all, if it didn't
have community support, a thousand people probably wouldn't show up to it
every year!
Ed
On Sat, Aug 25, 2012 at 9:14 PM, <wikimania-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org>wrote:
> Send Wikimania-l mailing list submissions to
> wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
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>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Wikimania-l digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Joseph Fox)
> 2. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Theo10011)
> 3. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Thomas Morton)
> 4. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Joseph Fox)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:19:17 +0100
> From: Joseph Fox <josephfoxwiki(a)gmail.com>
> To: "Wikimania general list (open subscription)"
> <wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid
> Message-ID:
> <
> CADbK8XcMSQDbSsrUwDKT16TTcoPXt4vZch7M+RCcBvW8eLRyTg(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I understand this. But people here seem to have seen that they'll be making
> up a financial plan for the event, then announcing that there is no raw
> passion underneath the money. I'm just telling you that there are a *lot*
> of
> very active and very passionate Wikimedians in the UK looking to make the
> best possible event.
>
> Also remembering that Brits are all tightfisted, of course, so they'll not
> be silly with their money ;)
>
> (Also, James, my apologies for the assumption. I wonder if WMUK will be
> able to negotiate such a discount...)
>
> Joe
>
> On 25 August 2012 21:15, Manuel Schneider <manuel.schneider(a)wikimedia.ch
> >wrote:
>
> > Am 25.08.2012 22:10, schrieb Joseph Fox:
> > > To be honest I'm rather offended that the UK bid is being written off
> > while
> > > it's still 2014. I agree with you, but London is far from the cheapest
> > city
> > > in the world, as I'm sure you're aware - money will be required.
> >
> > from my experience on the Wikimania Jury I can assure you that it is
> > pretty much taken into account how much Wikimania experience the bidding
> > team has and how much the understand to make a Wikimania as Wikimania is.
> >
> > /Manuel
> > --
> > Regards
> > Manuel Schneider
> >
> > Wikimedia CH - Verein zur F?rderung Freien Wissens
> > Wikimedia CH - Association for the advancement of free knowledge
> > www.wikimedia.ch
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimania-l mailing list
> > Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
> >
>
And here is my reply... (not sure why my email doesn't have a reply-to
header but it seems to be happening a lot at the moment... I think it is a
mailman issue because the same is happening to everyone (for me anyay).
I'm not a involved in technology professionally, but I did handle most
> of the tech work for WMUK's first fundraiser in 2009.
>
Great! I've been trying to find someone able to give me a good overview of
what exactly is needed (tech-wise) for the fundraiser to little effect. Any
chance you could fill me in on what was/is needed?
That was an
>
>> extremely simplistic and ineffective fundraiser, and it still took me
>
>> significantly more than a day a week in tech work (plus a significant
>
>> amount of Mike's time as well). Admittedly, someone that didn't keep
>
>> having to stop to google CSS they had forgotten could have done it a
>
>> little quicker, but it's still a lot of work to implement and maintain
>
>> the kind of fundraising system we need. I can pretty much guarantee
>
>> that WMUK lost money last year by not having a streamlined system for
>
>> setting up direct debits, and that was because they didn't have the
> paid tech resource they needed.
>
I appreciate the fundraiser is something of a special case - although again
I can't bring my experience to bear on it because I don't have a full spec.
On the other hand we risk ending up with the same situation as this year;
no one working tech... so I'd prefer to see not-quite-enough tech support
instead.
>
> Then consider office tech support, which is on your list. That's
>
>> something you can't really do remotely and part-time. If something
>
>> goes wrong, you need to be there to fix it. With a rapidly growing
>
>> office, that's going to take up a significant amount of time as well.
>
>> (It's probably half a day's work just to set up each new staff
> member.)
>
True, some aspects are hard to handle remotely. But, again, this gives us a
tech resource to draw on and helps justify FTE in 2014.
Realistically speaking; if you're paying £35K for a developer/manager
(which is what the last job description was looking for) it's not a great
use of his or her time to be fixing laptops :) If this is a major issue
there are contract tech support services we could look into to fill this
specific gap that would be more cost effective.
> Then there is supporting programmes. We've pretty much just made do
>
>> without good tech for our programmes, but if you had a tech person in
>
>> the office you can be sure that people would come up with a lot of
> programme related work for them.
>
So this just needs prioritising; not everything will get support - but
that, again, is another data point.
> In addition, a lot of people think we should be paying someone to do
>
>> some mediawiki development. Writing extensions that we think are
>
>> important and that the WMF isn't supporting, for instance. You could
> easily fill a day a week with that.
>
This is a silly idea, as I said before, and we should forget about this for
a moment. Focus on our own tech needs.
Even if we hire a FTE getting them to do this in their schedule would be a
waste of money.
> And finally there is all the work that you don't realise exists
>
>> because you've never had anyone to do it but inevitably discover as
>
>> soon as there is someone available to do it ("Work expands so as to
>
>> fill the time available for its completion." [1]). That can include
> very productive and valuable things.
>
I have considered everything I've been told so far about our own needs; and
added on top of it my own experience in working this way. So I am confident
one day per week is sufficient in the short term.
In fact, companies almost always overestimate the tech time they need. This
is because they see projects that might fill 4 days of work - and
extrapolate that the developer is going to be BUSY. The truth is you get
busy periods and lulls - and a good engineer will be able to manage time
effectively to spread this out (for example; fundraiser might need lots of
work, but if you start in May...).
> I think you we hire a 0.2 FTE contractor, we'll quickly find we are
>
>> going ridiculously over budget on overtime and end up increasing the
>
>> standard hours. Once you do that, the arguments in favour of a PT
> contractor rather than a FT employee reduce.
>
What's the alternative? We can't find someone to do all the stuff we need
at the budget we have set. And a FTE is certainly too much for our next
years needs.
The best approach is to bring in a minimum utility and work up from there;
justifying a FTE for the 2014 budget will be MUCH easier if we can say
"look at X specific things we didn't have time to do".
Tom
(ps you replied Offlist - not sure if that was intentional but I kept it
off-list just in case :))