Wikimedia UK certainly doesn't have a veto power on editathon's in the UK, we do try to coordinate in order to minimise clashes, but all we can do there is to request that people not have multiple editathons in the same city on the same day. There are things that we have that make editathon's easier to do or more inclusive - trained trainers, spare laptops, mobile Wifi and a hearing loop for starters, though the price for that support is that we do need to collect data for metrics. When someone independently organises an event in the UK we are likely to get in touch and offer spare laptops and other support.
Spare laptops in particular are very frequently used at UK editathons, and I believe "bring a laptop or book one of ours" is a much more inclusive way to run an event. Than "bring a laptop", and when someone discovers that they don't have a power lead or they weren't given the password for the laptop they brought it is really nice to be able to just hand them a laptop. So I always try to have one more than was ordered.
Regards
Jonathan Cardy
GLAM Organiser Wikimedia UK
after that it started to become impossible to organize an editathon without first having an employee agreeing it
That seems... wrong.
For one, that experience may be WMUK's but it's certainly far from universal. WMCA organizes monthly editathons in Montréal, at the very least, at zero cost. (They are organized/moderated by volunteers and the venue is provided at no cost by the Bibilothèque et Archive Nationale du Québec). I've never attended, but I'm told that they are fairly popular and well-liked.
If WMUK /chose/ do have a more structured (and more expensive) framework to organize similar events themselves, it in no way prevents volunteers or other organisms to do so without a penny of Foundation (or chapter) funding.
It may be obvious but it bears pointing out:
There is no ONE right universal model for edit-a-thons.
Think of all the variables -- Wikipedia topic, location, local culture, language, target constituency, medium/form factor, et al.
It's all about us coherently sharing our best practices and supporting each other in any way we can.
On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 11:49 AM, WereSpielChequers < werespielchequers@gmail.com> wrote:
Wikimedia UK certainly doesn't have a veto power on editathon's in the UK, we do try to coordinate in order to minimise clashes, but all we can do there is to request that people not have multiple editathons in the same city on the same day. There are things that we have that make editathon's easier to do or more inclusive - trained trainers, spare laptops, mobile Wifi and a hearing loop for starters, though the price for that support is that we do need to collect data for metrics. When someone independently organises an event in the UK we are likely to get in touch and offer spare laptops and other support.
Spare laptops in particular are very frequently used at UK editathons, and I believe "bring a laptop or book one of ours" is a much more inclusive way to run an event. Than "bring a laptop", and when someone discovers that they don't have a power lead or they weren't given the password for the laptop they brought it is really nice to be able to just hand them a laptop. So I always try to have one more than was ordered.
Regards
Jonathan Cardy
GLAM Organiser Wikimedia UK
after that it started to become impossible to organize an editathon without first having an employee agreeing it
That seems... wrong.
For one, that experience may be WMUK's but it's certainly far from universal. WMCA organizes monthly editathons in Montréal, at the very least, at zero cost. (They are organized/moderated by volunteers and the venue is provided at no cost by the Bibilothèque et Archive Nationale du Québec). I've never attended, but I'm told that they are fairly popular and well-liked.
If WMUK /chose/ do have a more structured (and more expensive) framework to organize similar events themselves, it in no way prevents volunteers or other organisms to do so without a penny of Foundation (or chapter) funding.
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Just to back up what Jonathan said: WMUK don't have a veto power, and we don't give expenses to every volunteer who attends - although we do offer expenses to key volunteers (eg trainers) if they otherwise can't attend. An example of this would be sending a female volunteer to a WikiWomen event - having a only male volunteers attend would be inappropriate!
Employees *emphatically* don't need to agree to editathons happening - that would, as Marc says, be wrong*. *The claim that that is the case is untrue and if one of our volunteers feels that, then please get in touch with us (or with me privately on Facebook!) and we'll try and work out what's happened.
We do (I'll admit) need to know in advance if we need to book sandwiches (for example) or if people need to loan laptops, mobile wifi hubs, cameras - or support equipment like hearing loops.
Although I haven't always agreed with Oliver in the past, Oliver: your comments are spot on. "People who can't afford a lunch out whenever they want" is a big demographic, and it's important that the cost of supporting less visible demographics doesn't dissuade us from doing so. Outreach to some communities is hard - very hard - but is worth it even if incurs an additional cost.
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.*
On 19 March 2015 at 15:49, WereSpielChequers werespielchequers@gmail.com wrote:
Wikimedia UK certainly doesn't have a veto power on editathon's in the UK, we do try to coordinate in order to minimise clashes, but all we can do there is to request that people not have multiple editathons in the same city on the same day. There are things that we have that make editathon's easier to do or more inclusive - trained trainers, spare laptops, mobile Wifi and a hearing loop for starters, though the price for that support is that we do need to collect data for metrics. When someone independently organises an event in the UK we are likely to get in touch and offer spare laptops and other support.
Spare laptops in particular are very frequently used at UK editathons, and I believe "bring a laptop or book one of ours" is a much more inclusive way to run an event. Than "bring a laptop", and when someone discovers that they don't have a power lead or they weren't given the password for the laptop they brought it is really nice to be able to just hand them a laptop. So I always try to have one more than was ordered.
Regards
Jonathan Cardy
GLAM Organiser Wikimedia UK
after that it started to become impossible to organize an editathon without first having an employee agreeing it
That seems... wrong.
For one, that experience may be WMUK's but it's certainly far from universal. WMCA organizes monthly editathons in Montréal, at the very least, at zero cost. (They are organized/moderated by volunteers and the venue is provided at no cost by the Bibilothèque et Archive Nationale du Québec). I've never attended, but I'm told that they are fairly popular and well-liked.
If WMUK /chose/ do have a more structured (and more expensive) framework to organize similar events themselves, it in no way prevents volunteers or other organisms to do so without a penny of Foundation (or chapter) funding.
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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