The March newsletter has been published at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Newsletter/March2009 and is copied
below for your convenience:
Summary: With everything in place for the chapter, other than charity
status, we have organised the first Annual General Meeting - your
chance to influence the chapter's future and stand for the board. The
bid to hold Wikimania 2010 in Oxford is coming on nicely. We also
bring you the usual details of meet-ups and news coverage, and details
of how to propose a project, and possibly get funding.
In this month's newsletter:
1. Chapter formation process
2. Annual General Meeting and Board elections
3. Oxford Wikimania bid
4. Project funding
5. Meet-ups
6. News coverage
1. Chapter formation process
We've started accepting members! Since we opened our bank account last
week, we've been able to finish processing the membership applications
received so far. We currently have 15 members, with more in the final
stages of acceptance. If you've been waiting for us to be fully set up
before submitting your application, then now's the time!
2. Annual General Meeting and Board elections
We are pleased to annouce that the first AGM of Wikimedia UK v2 will
be on Sunday 26th April 2009, starting at 12 noon. The AGM will elect
a new Board for 2009–10 and debate the priorities of the chapter -
including Wikimania, if we win the bid! All members can take part in
the election or stand for the Board - this page has details of how to
join and this page how to stand for the board.
When the initial board was elected in September 2008, we agreed that
we would stand down if we hadn't incorporated the company within six
months, and we would hold an AGM within six months of incorporation.
Despite the delays experienced first in getting chapter approval and
then opening the bank account, we are very happy to have met both of
these deadlines.
3. Oxford Wikimania bid
The bid to hold Wikimania 2010, the 6th annual Wikimedia Conference,
in Oxford is nearing completion. All major information about the bid
must be in place before 29th March, after which the jury will begin
questioning the three teams aiming to host the event.
If you would like to support the bid, please add your name to the
local team, help finalise the bid, and consider joining the organising
meeting on the IRC channel on Tuesday 24th March at 20:30.
4. Project funding
There is currently an opportunity for chapters to get funding from the
Wikimedia Foundation for specific projects. Have you got a project
that you'd like to get started on? We're currently asking for
proposals! The deadline for the funding opportunity is the 7th of
April, so don't delay!
5. Meet-ups
Since the last newsletter, meet-ups have occurred in Cambridge, London
and Manchester.
Sunday 8th March saw the 19th London Wikipedia meetup. The meetups
have been running since June 2004 and currently take the form of an
afternoon at the Penderel's Oak in Holborn on the second Sunday of
every month, with people dropping in and out, as and when they can.
Ten wikipedians came along, most falling within the stereotypical
Wikipedia demographic of 20 to 40 year-old
winter-warmer-and-cranberry-juice-drinkers, slightly too knowledgeable
of wiki markup for their own good. Topics discussed included
Wikimania, adminship, copyright law, hoax articles and the featured
article process. The meetups are a good opportunity to meet other
Wikipedia contributors and several projects have come about as a
result of discussions at these meetups. The next one is due to be held
in April (see this poll for the next date, as the second Sunday of
April is Easter Sunday).
The 4th Manchester meetup took place on the 14th March at "The
Manchester & County", a Wetherspoons pub off Piccadilly Gardens. Six
Wikipedians appeared, also falling within the stereotypical Wikipedia
demograph. Topics included the RfA process (including lots of juicy
gossip), flagged revisions, the balance between admin duties and
regular editing and Wikimedia UK. The next meetup in Manchester will
be on Saturday 4th April.
6. News coverage
March has been a quieter time for us, with no big story dominating,
but we've seen the BBC discussing Wikipedia's articles on UK
politicians, while Jimmy Wales has been interviewed by the BBC World
Service, who wondered how Wikipedia manages to remain free, and Seth
Finkelstein wrote a critical piece in The Guardian on inclusionism and
deletionism in Wikipedia.
The February newsletter has been published at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Newsletter/February2009 and is copied
below for your convenience:
Summary: The chapter is now up and running, and we have now opened our
bank account. We have a new website, and are putting plans in place
for the first Annual General Meeting. Meanwhile, February has seen the
successful Wikipedia Loves Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
bidding to host Wikimania 2010 has opened, and the Government's
Intellectual Property consultation has closed. We also bring the
regular news of meet-ups, and a new feature highlighting press
coverage of Wikimedia in the UK.
In this month's newsletter:
1. Chapter formation process
2. Website
3. Annual General Meeting
4. Wikipedia Loves Art
5. Oxford Wikimania bid
6. IP consultation
7. Meet-ups
8. News coverage
1. Chapter formation process
We now have a bank account with the Co-Operative Bank! We'll shortly
be processing the membership applications and donations received so
far, so if you want to be one of the first members of the chapters you
need to get your applications in as soon as possible!
2. Website
If you're reading this, then you'll notice that we have a new website,
http://uk.wikimedia.org/! The site's naturally a wiki, so every page
is editable, although we will be protecting the pages that formally
represent the chapter (e.g. the Main Page, the Memorandum of
Association, etc.). Please, go forth and edit!
We're after administrators for the site to help maintain it - remove
vandalism, block troublesome users, edit protected pages, etc. If
you'd be interested in helping your chapter this way, then please let
us know.
3. Annual General Meeting
Now we have our bank account, we can finally pin down a date for the
AGM. This will be discussed at the next board meeting, on the 2nd of
March, and on the mailing list over the following week.
4. Wikipedia Loves Art
The Wikipedia Loves Art photography contest has been running all this
month at fifteen museums globally, including at the Victoria & Albert
Museum in London. The launch event on Sunday 1st February saw at least
30 people come along to the museum, who laid out refreshments, cameras
to lend, computers for uploading photos and staff on hand to help. The
following Sunday saw the regular "second Sunday" London meet-up
relocate to the museum, and half a dozen more people showed up then.
So far over 3,000 images have been uploaded to the flickr group,
including over 200 from the V&A. You only have a few days left until
the end of February to take pictures and upload them - so keep
snapping to be in with a chance of winning one of the prizes on offer!
5. Oxford Wikimania bid
User:Seddon has been continuing his work on the Wikimania bid.
However, for it to have a chance of success he needs to be able to
demonstrate to the judges that he has a committed team. Thus if you
want Wikimania in the UK, now is the time to really get involved.
6. IP consultation
Earlier this month we submitted a document to the government
(available at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Copyright_consultation) in
response to their request for comment on an IPO "Issues Paper". In our
response we focused on the issue of the copyright status of
photographs of public domain works. Currently in the UK anyone who
takes a photograph of a public domain painting (for example) holds
copyright over that photograph, which means, for example, that when
scanned post-cards of paintings are uploaded to Wikipedia, Wikimedia
is taking a legal risk. We argued that such photographs do not meet
the standards of originality necessary for a work to be copyrightable.
The deadline for submissions has been extended, so we have not heard
back from the IPO as yet, however we are optimistic that we will be
invited to discuss these issues further with them in the summer.
7. Meet-ups
The London February meet-up relocated to the Victoria & Albert museum
to take part in the Wikipedia Loves Art photography contest (see
above). We will return to the Penderel's Oak on 8th March. Meetups are
also planned over on 28th February in Cambridge and in the next couple
of months in Manchester and Birmingham.
8. News coverage
The possible implementation of flagged revisions on the English
language Wikipedia has been in the news in the UK, and we've been
providing accurate information. Mike Peel was interviewed by BBC Radio
Wales' "mousemat", who put together an informative feature. Meanwhile,
David Gerard spoke to the Daily Mail about some vandalism to the
article on Alan Titchmarsh.
Other stories this month have included a piece in the Sunday Times
based on an interview with Jimmy Wales, in which Giles Hattersley
claimed that his Wikipedia article had contained several errors - but
the Daily Telegraph noted that Hattersley has no Wikipedia article.
Reuters reported on a Conservative Party official altering a Wikipedia
article in an attempt to support a claim made by David Cameron. The
Independent published a article critical of Wikipedia, but David
Mitchell, writing in The Observer, thinks that Wikipedia is
"brilliant".