*Hi everyone,
It's been a bit since I last emailed this list (or any list, for that
matter!)... you may remember me, I worked at the Foundation last year in
the Community Department, working with Philippe on any number of issues,
as well as with the OTRS team. I've come back to work on a short term
project with the Foundation, and I have to say it's great to be back!
(and a great break from my Master's thesis!)
We're getting ready to run the next version of the Editor Survey, for
August 2012. This will be the third incarnation we've run since 2011.
As with the prior incarnations of the survey, we'll be looking at a
variety of topics, this time with the goal of not only understanding
your needs and pressing issues while interacting with fellow editors,
but also focusing on editors' satisfaction with the work of the Foundation.
The last time we ran an editor survey, it was completed by over 6,000
respondents. When you break that down, it means that each minute of
time demanded by the survey corresponds to 100 hours of Wikipedians'
time. We want to make sure that this time is spent wisely, ensuring
that the questions we have are worded clearly, don't cause confusion,
and will generate meaningful answers. So we'd like to ask you to take a
look at the survey, and give us feedback on the questions. You can find
them here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_Editor_Survey_August_201…
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Research:Wikipedia_Editor_Surv…>
... and please leave your feedback on the talk page there so we can keep
the discussion in one place :)
You can find out more information about the survey here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_Editor_Survey_August_2012
Also, we are planning an IRC Office Hour on the survey, this **Tuesday,
July 31 at 1700 UTC.** (See
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hoursfor general information
about IRC Office hours)
I know there has been some discussion about offering Office Hours in a
broader range of times, and I know this time may not be the greatest for
some... but this was the best time we could find currently.
Thanks everyone!!
-Christine
Wikimedia Foundation*
Hello everyone,
Please find below Wikimedia UK's report for September 2012. The text of the
whole report is posted in the email due to numerous requests for this. You
can also view the report on the WMUK wiki at
https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2012/September - and this wiki
version includes all hyperlinks and images (which aren't included below).
If you have any comments or questions please do let me know.
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for the period 1 to 31 September
2012. If you want to keep up with the chapter's activities as they happen,
please subscribe to our blog, join our mailing list, and/or follow us on
Twitter. If you have any questions or comments, please drop us a line on
this report's talk page.
*Community*
*Editor decline*
Wikipedia reaches a turning point: it's losing administrators faster than
it can appoint them, Telegraph Blogs, 5 September
*Jimmy Wales*
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales attacks government's 'snooper's charter',
Guardian, 5 September
Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia will use encryption to beat snooper's charter,
Telegraph, 6 September
Also see WMUK's Submission on Communications Data Bill on the UK wiki.
*Philip Roth*
Philip Roth 'not a credible source to edit his own novel's Wikipedia page',
Telegraph, 7 September
How Philip Roth Outfoxed Wikipedia’s Idiotic Rules, Gizmodo, 8 September
Author Roth rebukes Wikipedia over Human Stain edit, BBC News, 8 September
Boot up: Bezos on profit, Pirates' German problems, Windows Phone's lost
SDK and more (includes Roth on Wikipedia), Guardian blog, 10 September
Philip Roth's complaint to Wikipedia, Guardian, 11 September
Philip Roth knows his own book but let's not judge Wikipedia harshly,
Independent, 12 September
*Political edits*
Grant Shapps 'edited Wikipedia page to remove school records', Telegraph, 9
September
Top Tory 'airbrushed his Wikipedia page', new chairman 'deleted political
gaffes and altered exam details', Daily Mail, 9 September
Tory MPs fiddling with their Wikipedia entries: Grant Shapps is just the
tip of the iceberg, Telegraph blogs, 10 September
Grant Shapps's Wikipedia page was edited to remove byelection gaffe,
Guardian, 11 September
*Gender bias*
Wikipedia editors' gender visualised, Guardian, 11 September
*Wikitravel*
Wikitravel versus Wikimedia: something is going badly wrong with the free
content movement, Telegraph, 11 September
*GLAM activities*
See also the This Month in GLAM UK report for this month.
*Wikipedia Takes Coventry*
Wikipedia Takes Coventry was the first Wikipedia Takes... event in the UK
Interview with Erin Hollis and Harry Mitchell on Wikipedia Takes Coventry
BBC Coventry and Warwickshire (1 September 2012)
Clock is ticking for scavengers to capture Coventry Leamington Courier (1
September 2012)
Also: Kenilworth Weekly and Warwick Courier
*Other activities*
Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon at the library of the Royal Society, BoingBoung, 5
September
*Expert outreach*
Delete the Wiki worries and get close to the edit Times Higher Education,
20 September
*Microgrants approved this month include ...*
An extension to the Operation Barras and Operation Flavius microgrant for
source material for getting w:en:Operation Flavius and w:en:Operation
Barras to featured article status. Operation Barras is now going through
A-class review, and is expected to reach FA status without too many
problems. Our thanks go to HJ Mitchell for his valuable work putting time
into these articles!
*UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)*
There has been a substantial amount of media coverage during over the last
couple of months. The online coverage has been aggregated into a PDF file
that includes links to the articles. Topics include Ada Lovelace Day,
Monmouthpedia and Gibraltarpedia, Mentions of Wikipedia articles, Wikipedia
Zero, Jimmy Wales, GLAM Camp London, EduWiki, our relationship with the PR
industry and a collaboration with Know How Non-Profit. You can see the full
list on the UK wiki.
We also published the following blog posts in September:
Three months as a Wikipedian in Residence, by Andrew Gray
EduWiki kicks off amid great anticipation by Stevie Benton
Board update (notification that Joscelyn Upendran had stood down from the
Board)
Wikipedia Takes Coventry - the winners! by User:Rock drum
EduWiki 2012 - a review by Martin Poulter
Wikimedia UK appoints Saad Choudri to its Board by Chris Keating
Board update (notification that Roger Bamkin had stood down from the Board)
Gibraltarpedia: WMUK press release (with clarifications about the project)
First ever Wikimedia UK intern waves goodbye by Isabelle Yates
Joint statement from Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK (announcing the
independent review into WMUK governance)
*Activities in October*
01 - Wikipedia and images workshop/October 2012
01 - Board meeting (TBC) - call
01 - Conference Committee meeting (postponed from 24 September)
02 - Imperial College Wikipedia Society Freshers' Fair
02 - 03 - Cambridge University Wikipedia Society launch at the Freshers'
Fair
04 - Robin Owain meeting Dr. Ted Jones, Digitisation on Demand from the
National Library of Wales about work with Wikimedia UK
08 - Wikipedia talk and training workshop at the University of Oxford
08 - JISC Digital Infrastructure Team workshop, London
11 - Parkinson's UK Wikipedia training
12 - AHRC Wikipedia training workshop at the British Library
13 - 14 - Fæ and Andy Mabbett separately addressing the Central and Eastern
Europe Wikimedia conference.
14 - London meetup
15 - Roger Bamkin speaking at the Oxford Internet Institute
16 - Roger Bamkin speaking at De Montfort University
19 - Ada Lovelace Day event
21 - Coventry meetup
23-26 - Dunhuang Project editathon, British Library
26 - Black History Month event
26 - Women in Science editathon, Oxford
27 - 28 - Train the trainer workshop, October 2012
28 - Cambridge meetup
For events in November and onwards, please see Events.
*Finances*
The current state of each of our budgets is outlined in a Google
Spreadsheet at
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.
Although we may underspend in one or two budgets, the next few weeks will
see a refocussed effort, led by a committee of editors, to work out how
they would best like to spend this underspend.
We also expect to be moving money between some budgets in the not too
distant future.
*News from the Chief Exec*
For information on Jon's activities this month, see News from the Office.
The updates about the Wikimedia UK Interns can be found there too, together
with here.
*Communications*
There were some notable communications successes this month. Both the
EduWiki conference and our work around Ada Lovelace Day attracted a good
deal of positive media attention. You can see the full breakdown of press
coverage in the report linked to in the UK press coverage section above. In
other ways this has been a challenging month in terms of communications and
it was unfortunate timing that our Communications Organiser was on annual
leave for the second half of the month. There have been appointments and
departures on our Board of Trustees and the announcement of an independent
review into Wikimedia UK's governance. There has been much conflation and
presumption at the heart of much of the media coverage, both in terms of
Roger's resignation and the announcement of the review, that it has been
difficult to be clear and factual about what has actually taken place. In
many ways September was something of a gift to our critics because of the
perception of events - regardless of what those events actually were.
Moving forward, we need to be more secure in making our own voice heard in
amongst the media hubbub.
*Fundraising and Membership*
*Fundraising*
This month, we received £1,258.35 in one-off donations, with 68 individual
donations. The average donation amount was £18.50 - 63% 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 6026 successful direct debits
this month, bringing in a total of £24,765.
*Membership*
Up to 30th September 2012:
214 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current members
41 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership
should be renewed)
This adds up to 255 members who are eligible to vote
152 Expired members
Katherine is developing HTML templates for welcome emails for new and
renewing members to sign-post them to resources and information and will be
scheduling a regular job to email members who have renewed (monthly) and
newly approved (post-board meetings).
--
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.*
_______________________________________________
Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
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Apparently I am moderated on wikimedia-sf.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: James Salsman <jsalsman(a)gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 9:56 PM
Subject: Fwd: [altmetrics:21] SF hackathon
To: San Francisco Wikimedians <wikimedia-sf(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jason Priem <jp(a)jasonpriem.org>
Date: Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 6:58 PM
Subject: [altmetrics:21] SF hackathon
To: altmetrics(a)googlegroups.com
If you're in the Bay Area November 3rd, check out the altmetrics
hackathon at PLOS. lots of good folks already scheduled to be there.
Would love to have some more!
http://altmetricshackathon2012.eventbrite.com/
--
Jason Priem
UNC Royster Scholar
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
All,
We've had an email from a gentleman at an educational institution in
Jamaica, who'd like to run an editathon. He's contacted Wikimedia UK as a
starting point, presumably because of the shared history: but we can't do a
great deal more than send him some booklets, etc, by post. He's simply too
far away! Are there any individuals or chapters (or the WMF) based nearby
who could help?
All the best,
Richard Symonds
Wikimedia UK
0207 065 0992
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.*
If the question is indiscreet/offtopic forgive me and ignore it/more it
another list, but: what are Romney's views on copyright?
I read on today's Financial Times Europe (p. 4) that he has a couple
millions dollars invested on Hollywood funds, so is it pessimistic to
say that he must hold horrible positions on copyright?
Nemo
At this point, as his term will finish in December and this is his
last meeting as a member of the board, I would like to thank Matt
Halprin for all of his work with the Wikimedia Board of Trustees. Over
the past three years, Matt has contributed greatly to our
organization, bringing with him a level of professionalism and
experience which helped us tremendously while he chaired the Board
Governance Committee.
Though this is goodbye from his formal position within the Foundation,
his commitment to our mission and values has made him a great
colleague, and I hope we will continue to see him within the Wikimedia
movement. Thank you, Matt.
-Kat
--
Your donations keep Wikipedia free: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Web: http://www.mindspillage.org Email: kat(a)wikimedia.org, kat(a)mindspillage.org
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