Hello everyone,
The Board of Directors of Wikimedia DC will meet at 2 PM on May 5, 2012 to
conduct routine business. The meeting will take place at the
Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library, located at 4450 Wisconsin Avenue
NW in Washington, DC, and will also be accessible via conference call
at 916-209-4534 (PIN # 7328117).
The order of business for the meeting is attached. As always, everyone is
welcome to attend, either in person or via conference call. If you're
planning to attend, please let me know.
Cheers,
Kirill
--
Kirill Lokshin
Secretary | Wikimedia District of Columbia
http://wikimediadc.org | @wikimediadc
Dear All,
On Saturday May 5, Ladies America will be hosting Women Leading the Future,
a day-long conference featuring some amazing women (and men), at the
Microsoft campus in Chevy Chase, MD. Given that increasing women's
participation in Wikipedia and Wikimedia Projects is one of our goals, I
would encourage everyone who is able to attend this event and talk with the
attendees and presenters about the various ways that women are involved
globally in Wikipedia and Wikimedia Projects.
For more information and to register, visit
http://womenleadingthefuture.org/
Sincerely,
Nicholas Michael Bashour
President
Wikimedia District of Columbia
Washington, DC, USA
(Please pardon the cross-posting!)
Hello everyone!
We have opened the application process for AdaCamp DC, which will take
place July 10 and 11 in Washington, D.C.. The event will be held just
down the street from where Wikimania will take place starting on July 12!
*What is AdaCamp*?
It is an event, planned by the Ada Initiative, that focuses on
increasing women's participation in open technology and culture. AdaCamp
brings together people to build community, discuss issues women have in
common across open technology and culture fields, and find ways to
address them. Open technology and culture includes open source software,
Wikipedia and other wiki projects, open data, open government, fan/remix
culture, open libraries, and more. Attendance is by invitation and
attendees are selected from qualified applicants through an open
invitation process. Attendance is open to people of all genders.
*APPLY TODAY!
http://dc.adacamp.org/apply/
*And please encourage anyone you know who might be interested.
Applicants of any gender, any background, any age, and experience level
encouraged to apply.
If you are interested in sponsoring AdaCamp, please do let me know!
Thank you,
-Sarah
--
*Sarah Stierch*
*/Wikimedia Foundation Community Fellow/*
>>Mind the gap! Support Wikipedia women's outreach: donate today
<https://donate.wikimedia.org/><<
Dear all,
We are glad to report that Danny Weitzner, the Deputy CTO for Internet
Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will be
providing opening remarks at our Estonian Embassy event tonight at 5:00 PM.
Our panel will be joined by Ian Schuler, Senior Manager for Internet
Freedom Programs at the State Department. The panel also includes Rebecca
MacKinnon, Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at the New America Foundation,
member of the Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board, and author of Consent of
the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom; and Marko
Mihkelson, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu, the
unicameral parliament of Estonia.
Rep. Darrell Issa had to regrettably cancel his appearance due to
scheduling conflicts.
There are still a few spots left, so if you would like to join us, please
RSVP,* as a guest of Wikimedia DC*, at internetfreedomevent.eventbrite.com.
Please plan to arrive promptly at 5:00PM. The dress code for the event is
business formal.
I look forward to seeing you there!
Sincerely,
Nicholas Michael Bashour
President
Wikimedia District of Columbia
Washington, DC, USA
Dear Wikipedia contributors,
In the past few weeks, I have reached out to this community on
numerous occasions,
requesting help with my undergraduate honors thesis, which examines
Wikipedians’ motivations to contribute. For anyone who would like more
information about this project, a detailed description can be found here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Motivations_to_Contribute_to_Wikipe…
.
In my last email, I mentioned that I hoped to attain a sample size of at
least 100 Wikipedians, but had only received 52 responses. I am ecstatic to
report that I now have 82 responses – just 18 responses short of the
targeted sample size. If you have not taken the
questionnaire<https://us1.us.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8ixU9RkozemzC4s>,
please consider donating approximately five minutes of your time to
complete it.
I am so grateful for the Wikipedia community’s support in this project and
will make a final draft of the paper available to the community.
If you have any questions or concerns about this study, please contact
Audrey Abeyta at audrey.abeyta(a)gmail.com.
Thank you in advance for your participation!
Audrey
UC Santa Barbara | Department of Communication
audrey.abeyta(a)gmail.com
Hello everyone,
Looking at the various discussions surrounding the Berlin Agreement -- and
particularly in anticipation of the first meetings of the Wikimedia
Chapters Association, where future plans for chapters in the US might
become a point of contention -- I think it may be beneficial for us to more
formally adopt and promulgate a shared vision for the future of US-based
chapters at our in-person meeting at Wikimania.
Having said that, I think that trying to come up with something as detailed
as the Berlin Agreement -- establishing a formal organization, adopting a
detailed charter, and so forth -- would be premature for us; most of our
regional groups haven't gone down the path of formally incorporating and
becoming official chapters, and there's little value to creating a formal
infrastructure until that happens.
Instead, I'd like to propose that we put together an agreement in principle
to outline a shared vision for the development of US chapters. The
agreement would essentially outline three key goals:
(1) Creating a network of regional Wikimedia chapters across the United
States;
(2) Building collaboration among the regional Wikimedia chapters in the US;
and
(3) At some point in the future, forming an association of Wikimedia
chapters in the US.
By signing the agreement, the signatories would simply indicate their
support of these goals. The agreement could therefore be signed on an
individual basis -- i.e. each of the attendees at our July meeting could
sign on their own behalf -- rather than only by chapters or other regional
groups (which would sharply limit the number of potential signatures, and
significantly increase the complexity of the entire exercise).
Would something along these lines be of interest to the participants here?
Cheers,
Kirill
--
Kirill Lokshin
Secretary | Wikimedia District of Columbia
http://wikimediadc.org | @wikimediadc
Hello everyone,
The draft minutes of the Wikimedia DC Board of Directors meeting held on
April 14 are attached. As always, comments and suggestions are very
welcome!
Cheers,
Kirill
--
Kirill Lokshin
Secretary | Wikimedia District of Columbia
http://wikimediadc.org | @wikimediadc
Dear Wikipedia contributors,
Your valuable opinions are needed regarding users' motivations to
contribute to Wikipedia. This topic is currently investigated by Audrey
Abeyta, an undergraduate student at the University of California, Santa
Barbara. You can read a more detailed description of the project here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Motivations_to_Contribute_to_Wikipe…
Those willing to participate in this study will complete a brief online
questionnaire, which is completely anonymous and will take approximately
ten minutes. The questionnaire can be accessed here:
https://us1.us.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8ixU9RkozemzC4s.
The researcher hopes to attain a sample size of at least 100 Wikipedians;
as of now, only 52 have responded. Your contributions to this project's
validity are invaluable!
A final draft of the paper will be made available to the Wikipedia
community.
If you have any questions or concerns about this study, please contact
Audrey Abeyta at audrey.abeyta(a)gmail.com.
Thank you in advance for your participation!
*Wikimedia District of Columbia*
*in partnership with*
*The Washington European Society*
*&*
*The Estonian Embassy in Washington*
invite you to
*Internet Freedom & Open Government*
*An International Conversation*
*
*
*Featuring*
*Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)*
*Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform*
*Chairman Marko Mihkelson*
*Chairman, Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament*
*Rebecca MacKinnon*
*Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at the New America Foundation*
*
*
*Panel Moderated By*
*Adam Kushner*
*Deputy Editor, National Journal
*
* *
*April 25, 2012*
*5:00 PM Discussion*
*6:00 PM Reception*
* Space is limited. RSVP required.
*
<http://internetfreedomevent.eventbrite.com/?ref=ebtn>
*Estonian Embassy*
*2131 Massachusetts Ave NW *
*Washington, DC 20008*
SOPA. PIPA. ACTA. These four-letter acronyms dominated the headlines as
thousands of people around the world protested for the right to a free and
open internet. Meanwhile, a report by Freedom House, an American NGO,
ranked Estonia as the country with the highest level of Internet freedom,
and Estonia also ranks on the top of global lists of open and transparent
governments. How did Estonia end up on top? What is the status of internet
freedom around the world? What are the practices of e-governance that can
foster a transparent, inclusive relationship between citizens and
governments? Where does the US stand on these issues, and how do
congressional measures, such as the OPEN Act, affect internet freedom in
the US? Join Wikimedia District of Columbia, the Washington European
Society, and the Estonian Embassy in this discussion on Internet Freedom &
Open Government.
About the Guests:
*Rep. Darrell Issa *(R-CA) is the U.S. Representative for California's 49th
congressional district, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee, and member of the House Committee on Judiciary,
Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet. He
has served in the House of Representatives since 2001. As a prominent
opponent of SOPA and PIPA, Congressman Issa, along with 25 co-sponsors,
introduced the OPEN Act (Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade
Act) in the House as an alternative to SOPA. Suggestions for improvements
to the OPEN Act were crowdsourced on *keepthewebopen.com*.
*Marko Mihkelson *is Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
Riigikogu, the unicameral parliament of Estonia, where he also serves as a
Member of the European Union Affairs Committee and Head of the Delegation
to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Chairman Mihkelson is a recipient of
Estonia’s Order of the White Star, 4th class, Knight of the National Order
of Merit of France, and Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic
of Italy, among other honors. His articles have been published in several
international publications since 1993.
* **Rebecca MacKinnon *is a Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at the New
America Foundation and author of *Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide
Struggle for Internet Freedom. *MacKinnon is a former CNN journalist,
having headded the CNN bureaus in Beijing and later in Tokyo. She later
became co-founder of Global Voices Online, an international network of
bloggers and citizen journalists. She is on the Board of Directors of the
Global Network Initiative and the Committee to Protect Journalists, and is
a member of the Advisory Board of the Wikimedia Foundation.
About the Moderator:
*Adam Kushner *is deputy editor of *National Journal* magazine. Prior to
National Journal, he served as a senior editor at *Newsweek*, editing
foreign coverage, including major projects such as a Berlin Wall
retrospective and coverage of the 2010 World Cup. Earlier, Kushner covered
ideas and trends for the foreign desk as a senior writer. From 2003 to
2007, Kushner held a variety of positions at *The New Republic*, including
a post as Assistant Managing Editor and, ultimately, Managing
Editor/Online. In that role, he managed all aspects of the site and oversaw
a relaunch of TNR.com. Kushner is a graduate of Columbia University, and
co-founded both the Columbia Political Review and the Columbia Journal of
Literary Criticism during his time there. He is a native of New Orleans.
Hello everyone,
In case you haven't already heard, Wikimedia DC is looking to hire an
Outreach and Program Coordination Intern for the summer months. The
position would primarily entail assisting us with our outreach towards
local cultural and educational institutions, as well as helping out with
some of the related work for Wikimania 2012.
More details about the position can be found at
http://wikimediadc.org/wiki/Job_openings#Outreach_and_Program_Coordination_….
If you or anyone you know is interested, please contact us by April 30.
Cheers,
Kirill
--
Kirill Lokshin
Secretary | Wikimedia District of Columbia
http://wikimediadc.org | @wikimediadc