Viewable online at
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Austral…>
Wikimedia Australia chapter report
Edition 4, January-May 2009
By Brianna Laugher, President (blaugher at wikimedia dot org dot au)
==Annual General Meeting==
Wikimedia Australia had its first AGM on January 11th. Three groups
participated via conference call: Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
Other members from different locations participated via IRC. Elections
for committee positions were held, with results as following:
* President: Brianna Laugher (uncontested)
* Vice President: Liam Wyatt
* Secretary: Sarah Ewart (uncontested)
* Treasurer: Brian Salter-Duke (uncontested)
* Ordinary members: John Vandenberg, Nathan Carter.
<http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/2008-2009_AGM>
==Free as in Freedom miniconf==
A miniconf called "Free as in Freedom" was held in Hobart, on 20th
January, as part of the national Linux conference, linux.conf.au
(LCA). This miniconf was organised by Brianna Laugher (although not as
a Wikimedia Australia event); one of the speakers was Liam Wyatt and
one of the Keynote speakers of the whole conference was Wikimedia
Foundation advisory board chair Angela Beesley. It included talks on
open access, copyright law, geodata and citizen journalism. The first
Tasmanian Wikimedia meetup was also held, and a Wikimedia Australia
table was present at the LCA Open Day.
<http://freeasinfreedom.modernthings.org/d/doku.php?id=schedule>
==Submission on Australian Digital Future Directions==
In February we made a submission to the federal government Department
of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) on the
"Digital Economy Future Directions Consultation Paper". This is our
second submission to government, following our submission in September
2008 to the Victorian parliament's "Inquiry into Improving Access to
Victorian Public Sector Information and Data".
<http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Submission_on_Australian_Digital_Future_Direct…>
==Backstage Pass==
This was an event held on March 13th, with the Powerhouse Museum (PHM)
in Sydney. It involved giving Wikimedia Australia members a private
tour of the PHM's collections, followed by group editing of articles
relating to PHM topics. It was a very successful pilot event, leading
the PHM to license their collection documentation under a variety of
Creative Commons licenses.
<http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Backstage_pass>
PHM blog: <http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2009/04/02/working-with-w…>
==Berlin chapters meeting==
During April 3-5, Brianna Laugher and Liam Wyatt took part in the
first all chapters meeting in Berlin. It was an excellent opportunity
to present Wikimedia Australia and learn about what the other chapters
are doing.
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_meeting_2009>
Our introductory presentation:
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_meeting_2009/Preparation/Wikimedia_…>
==Unlocking IP==
On April 16-17 Brianna Laugher and Liam Wyatt attended the 'Unlocking
IP' conference at the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre at the
University of NSW. Our talk was called "Wikimedia in copyright /
Copyright in Wikimedia" and touched on a variety of topics: how the
Wikimedia Commons community reconciles many national copyright laws;
the license switch; derivative works/the right to fork and the
non-commercial paradox.
As a consequence, we were invited to sit on a steering committee to
set up a national peak body to represent the public interest in
copyright law.
Abstract: <http://www.cyberlawcentre.org/unlocking-ip/2009/papers.htm#5ABL>
Video: <http://blip.tv/file/2008295/>
==EDNA ICT workshop==
On 22nd May Brianna Laugher gave a talk at an EDNA workshop at the
State Library of Victoria, about using Wikipedia in the classroom.
EDNA is a government-funded "network of the education and training
community".
<http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/events/workshops/VIC>
==Coming up==
GLAM-WIKI is a major event planned for August 6-7 at the Australian
War Memorial in Canberra. This will bring together members of the
Gallery, Library, Archive & Museum sector (GLAM) with people from our
community to discuss how we can collaborate and learn from each other.
In the first week of being open for attendees one third of all places
have been already been registered.
<http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/GLAM>
==Press==
* The Age, 'Many minds make Wiki work'. Mandy Salomon, January 15, 2009.
** <http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/tv--radio/many-minds-make-wiki-…>
* Sydney Morning Herald, 'Watch out Wikipedia, here comes Britannica
2.0'. Stephen Hutcheon, January 22, 2009.
** <http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/here-comes-britannica-20/2009…>
* ABC PM (radio), 'Biography hacking prompts Wikipedia review'.
Rachael Brown, 27 January, 2009. [&]
** <http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2475604.htm>
* Sydney Morning Herald, 'Obama Wiki fiddler caught red-handed'. Asher
Moses, March 11, 2009.
** <http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/03/11/1236447270592.html>
* Sydney Morning Herald, 'Parents warned of Wikiporn risk'. Caroline
Marcus, May 24, 2009. [&]
** <http://www.smh.com.au/news/home/technology/parents-warned-of-wikiporn-risk/…>
[&] = quotes from Wikimedia Australia member
==Committee==
Meetings:
* 15 January
* 8 February
* 15 February
* 28 February - 1 March - strategic planning meeting
* 26 March
* 4 May
Minutes can be found at <http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Meetings>.
Some training has also been undertaken. Brianna Laugher attended a
seminar on "Secrets of Successful Boards" in February, and Brianna
Laugher and Brian Salter-Duke attended a PILCH seminar on tax
concessions for non-profits in May.
The committee submitted several grants to the WMF grants scheme. The
submissions can be seen here:
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:PrefixIndex/Wikimedia_chapters/WMF_g…>
Hi all,
The most recent report of Wikimédia Magyarország has been published on Meta
at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma…
.
For your convenience it is copied below.
*Wikimedia Hungary Report*
*Vol 2 Issue 2*
*March–May 2009*
*Prepared by: Bence Damokos with additional reporting by Péter Gervai*
This is a short update on Wikimédia Magyarország's activities covering March
through May.
Starting first major programs
At the beginning of March Wikimedia Hungary commenced three of its major
programs for the current year, notably a micro-grants program, a picture
competition and an article writing competition.
The picture competition and the micro grants program are running until 15
June and we accept submissions (especially for the picture competition) from
everyone. For more information please see the page on Commons:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikimedia_Hungary_picture_competi….
You can view the already submitted works at
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikimedia_Hungary_picture_competi…;
the assessment will be concluded until July 15 in a fashion similar to the
Picture of the year selection, all editors are welcome to participate.
The first round of the article writing competition was concluded in March
with over 30 submitted or vastly improved articles, some of them are on the
way of becoming featured. The editors of the three articles found best were
awarded with Wikimedia goodies and valuable antique books (contributed by
one of our members).
Chapters meeting
Wikimedia Hungary, as all chapters was invited and present at the April
Wikimedia Conference in Berlin. Having representation – with the help of
fellow chapters – was one of the major international activities of our
chapter this year.
General Meeting
Wikimedia Hungary held its AGM on 23 May. As can be expected, there were
“state of the association” speeches and lots of necessary legal
housekeeping. The bylaws were not changed at this point but the Board was
authorised and asked to pursue the possibility of changing the legal address
of the chapter to the campus of the Budapest University of Technology and
Economics (BUTE). This change would bring us closer to all the life around
the university, to make this happen the Board will have to secure
sponsorship to rent a nominal area (1 m2) inside BUTE and then a second
General Meeting will officially make the change of address.
Wikipresentations
The writer of the 10 millionth Wikipedia article and our VP held a
presentation in Szeged in March about Wikipedia. Following the success of
these presentations, we were invited to give two follow-up presentations at
a club of the county chamber of commerce on 5 May. This second time our VP
and one of our members gave a general overview of Wikipedia as the
repository of human knowledge and the technical aspects of setting up a
wiki.
Hungarian National Bank
Our president approached the Hungarian National Bank to request advice on
the legal use of reproductions of Hungarian banknotes and coins to determine
whether and under what conditions they can be uploaded either to Wikimedia
Commons or the Hungarian Wikipedia. The meeting held in April provided some
useful insight about the current policies and possibilities regarding these
uses as well as some general guidelines about the possible ways for us to
get proper permission to publish.
Following this, the Hungarian National Bank has approached our chapter to
provide feedback for the next revision on the central bank's legal order
governing the reuse of reproductions of the banknotes and coins. In our
response, sent on June 5, we emphasized the outdated elements of the
previous order and advised the bank on reasonable conditions they should set
(keeping in mind ease of reuse, anti-counterfeiting measures and the
standards issued by the European Central Bank on euro banknotes).
Furthermore, we asked the bank to give more consideration to regulating the
copyrights it holds as well as the rights to use reproductions to facilitate
the actual use of the digital reproductions on Wikimedia projects.
Creative Commons Hungary Association
The Creative Commons Hungary Association was officially registered on May
15. This is really good news to us as the local CC community has been a
great source of legal help and we look forward to extending this mutually
beneficial relationship even further.
Wiki Loves Art / NL
Together with Creative Commons NL Wikimedia Nederland organizes Wiki Loves
Art / NL. 41 museums are participating, including the famous Van Gogh
Museum. Participants can make photographs during the month of June in these
museums of (parts of) their collection. Photos will be uploaded to Flickr
(CC-BY-SA or CC-BY), and the allowed photos will be uploaded en masse to
Wikimedia Commons after the tagging and judging has been finalized.
On June 1, a kickoff event was organized in the Jewish Historical Museum in
Amsterdam (>50 participants), and on June 21 a party will be organized in
the Rotterdam museum Boijmans van Beuningen. Wiki Loves Art was mentioned on
the national news with a 2 minute report and in several other main stream
news sources.
More information: http://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_loves_art/en
Lobby European Legislation
Wikimedia Nederland took the initiative to organize a meeting for European
chapters about EU legislation and policy lobbying. Interested chapter
representatives will come together mid July in Brussels to talk about a
strategy to set up a coordinated lobby to influence the EU legislation and
policies in a positive way for the Free Content movement.
More information: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_lobby
Workshops
In the month September a series of Workshops and Open evenings will be
organized to familiarize people with Wikipedia and Wikimedia and to help
them become a volunteer more easily. People will be introduced to
Wikipedians and the basic principles of editing. Participants of Wiki Loves
Art are made aware of these workshops and meetings and are invited to
participate. Wikimedia Nederland attempts to bring in more volunteers to the
Wikimedia projects this way.
Presentations
Several presentations about Wikipedia/Wikipedia have been given. Hay gave a
presentation about OpenStreetMap and Wiki(p)(m)edia at the Geo Freedom Day
in Baarn.
Wikiwijs
The Dutch government has decided to support the creation of learning
material by teachers, which should become available under a CC-BY license.
This is being organized in the Wikiwijs project (not using a Wiki though),
currently in the development phase by the Kennisnet foundation. Wikimedia
Nederland keeps touch with the developments and to give advice and input
where appropriate and possible.