WikimediaAnnounce-l July 2010

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Fwd: [Wikimedia Chapters Reports] Chapter Report WMDE June 2010
by Erik Moeller 26 Jul '10

26 Jul '10

And another monthly report from Wikimedia Germany. We also blogged about the Skillshare conference mentioned below here <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2010/skillshare-the-slightly-different-open-conte…>. Erik ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Pavel Richter <pavel.richter(a)wikimedia.de> Date: 2010/7/21 Subject: [Wikimedia Chapters Reports] Chapter Report WMDE June 2010 To: chapters-reports(a)lists.wikimedia.org Dear Chapters, please find below the chapter report of Wikimedia Germany for June 2010. Dear friends of free knowledge, === School project === At the end of June the deadline for application for consultants for the Wikipedia-school project closed. Among many interesting and dedicated applications we also received offers for support from teachers, scientists and mediaculturecentres. To prepare selected candidates for their tasks we have invited them from the 23th-25th of July to Essen (at the Linuxhotel). During this summer-camp [1] we are going to develop standardized schooling and the necessary material for the coming workshops. In order to be able to start the first workshops with the new consultants directly after the summer holidays, we started and intensified contact with the media centers and media consultants. Additionally we prepared a workshop at the Berlin Lessing-Grammar School. There we will communication about the correct and critical handling of text with 30 pupils on the 5th of July using Wikipedia as an example. The workshop will be accompanied by a camera team of the RBB. === Zedler-Medal 2010 === In July the first meetings and talks with partners and potential supporters occurred. In cooperation with publishing company Spektrum der Wissenschaft ("Spectrum of Science") and the Academy of Science and the Literature Mainz, Wikimedia Germany is going to increase the dedication to the Zedler-Medal [2] this year. Concept, targets and target-group were partly modified and the competition expanded by a few aspects: Due to the Year of Science 2010 Wikimedia will offer a special prize for the topic "Future of Energy" [3] additional to the awards for natural-science and humanities. In addition to articles another special prize will be offered for outstanding photos or graphics, which illustrate an insufficient article in the German Wikipedia. The competition is about to begin on the 15th of July and will end on the 30th of September. The Award-ceremony will occur in November in Frankfurt in context of the Wikipedia Academy. This year we want to increase including members and community in planning and organization and have asked for concrete help [4] in a few points. We are especially happy to present David Ludwig, a member of many years and winner of the Medal 2009, as a member of the jury. At the moment we are looking for cooperation with partners, which will help us with the event, for example sponsoring the award-money, donation of material prizes or helping us with covering the costs of the event. === Wikipedia Academy 2010 === Also the preparations for the Wikipedia academy, which will occur in November 2010, is taking more and more shape. The key context of this year's event is the Year of Science 2010 "Future of Energy". Central purpose of this conference will be an exchange of concepts about knowledge-use and communication as well as a discussion about the question of broad effect versus scientific accuracy in online-projects such as Wikipedia. Among others the main aim of the academy is the increase of public awareness for the societal relevant topic-complex "Future of Energy" as well as the retrieval of further qualified Wikipedia authors, lecturers and editors for the topic of energy. For the sake of further development the dialogue between Science and Wikipedia, we will include experiences from projects such as "Renewable resources in Wikipedia" and intensify contact to external experts. In context of the Academy the starting signal for the network "Trust lecturers for free knowledge" in German grammar schools. We chose Frankfurt as venue for this event, the search for adequate conference rooms and cooperation-partners will be continued in July. === Skillshare === During the first weekend in June the Community-event "Skillshare" [5] occurred in Lüneburg, which was also supported by Wikimedia Germany, during which multiple members offered workshops. The atmosphere was as good as the organizations, the workshops were excellently prepared and the feedback from the community was very good. === Board of directors-meeting === Mid-June the Board of directors-meeting occurred in Lage, about which were reported in detail here [6]. The agency prepared this meeting, i.e. we organized the accommodation and catering, ensured that the equipment works and much, much more. Yet again the CEO accepted the invitation by the board of directors and took part. === Lobbying === It is more and more noticeable: the new Enquete-commission "Internet and digital society" [7] led to an clear increase in interest of the political parties in regards to net politic topics. Also Wikimedia Germany is sought of as contact person, as a result I was invited in June to a talk with members of the Bundestag (Lars Klingbeil [8] (SPD), Sylvia Canel [9] (FDP) and me were invited to a "net politics dialogue" with the Green party. During such meetings I mention the school-project as well as questions about copyrights. In order to be better able to show our position in future, Mathias is currently working, in context of the Compass 2020, on a series of position-papers about for us important political questions, which then can be communicated to the responsible decision makers. === Third Basket === End of June the Federal Ministry of Justice started the hearing of the Third Basked about copyrights, among other things it is concerned with the ancillary copyright for publishers. The coming hearings will be concerned about Open Access and Orphan Works. Wikimedia Germany is invited to these hearings and will take part. This is the beginning of a very long process. === Open Government Data === On the 17th of June occurred in the Ministry of Economics of Niedersachsen a conference of task group about "Open Government Data", in which Mathias took part. The Ministry is at the beginning of a process if, how and which data of the Ministry can be published and which benefits it would bring for the land. === Free Catalogue-data === The library of the RWTH Aachen is now also a member of the growing circle of libraries which offer free access to their catalogue (License CCO) [10]. === Wikisource === As mentioned in last month's report, we are very happy, that the digitization of the book "Funny natural history or zoologia Comica, which is an accurate description of all in this book occurring animals of the world with 86 accurate illustrations" [11] by Franz Bonn from 1877 has now arrived: Natural science; with pretty but not too serious illustrations. With this, five books of this authors are now available by Wikisource in fully corrected versions: "The funny natural history" from 18772 of which the image/text site about "Vampyr" [12] should be mentioned and the sequel second book "Funny Botany and Geology" [13] in second edition of 1880. Additionally writings "To modern education" [14] of 1836, "Laypeople- scientific Lecture by Dr. Sulphurius about School and education" [16] from 1880 and "laypeople-scientific lecture about Chemistry by Dr. Sulphurius" of 1882 [16]. It took long until the delivery of the in two volumes coming book "Fantasypiece in Callot's manner" [17], which E.T.A. Hoffmann wrote between 1814-15: Ordered in January, the CD finally arrived in June. By now the PDFs of this 2nd edition of the work from 1819 to regeneration and editing has started. Who wants to help and has time to, is invited to help editing. The best for the end! Until a few days ago there was a gap in by Wikisource published editions of "Children and Home fairy tales" of the Brothers Grimm; in each case the first and second volume of the 1. (1812/15), 2. (1819) and the 4. to 6. edition (1840,-43, -50 and -57) and the first volume of the 3. edition of 1837 were available (List of all volumes: [18]) but the 2. volume of the 3. edition were still missing. Paulis found this volume by chance in the catalogue of the national library of Berlin and the Wikisource employees did not hesitate long with the Digitalsat-request: This PDF will no slowly suspended and is also waiting for keen helpers for the editing [19]. === Themes in the Media === The press release [20] about the new user interface evoked little interest by the press and almost solely caused news coverage by Online-media. Another source for interest from the media was the deletion of pornographic images from the Commons and the announcement of Wikimedia Foundation, or rather the Board of Trustees to employ an external consultant, to develop a suggestion about the handling of potential offensive materials. Questions of the German press were mainly concerned with background information. === Press contacts === Catrin established in June contact to the Polish Embassy in Berlin, in order to reach, in context of the Wikimania 2010 in Gdansk, the local German press as well as Polish journalists. The embassy is willing to send out invitations and press releases via their press-distributors and to provide contacts to the media. Unfortunately the organisation of the Wikimania is going slowly. Contacts to the media such as "Brandeins" [21] and the "Neon-Magazin" [22] led in June to intensive preparations and research for in-depth Wikipedia-Portraits. Catrin is currently creating a distributor for Wikipedia-authors, to have faster access to potential interview partners in the future. Precondition is especially, the willingness to speak with journalists, the publishing of photographs of the authors and naming of the full name. In context of the school-project Catrin started contact to the rbb [23] (a public TV-channel) and is currently preparing a coverage for the evening show. Denis Bartel will give a workshop in July at a Grammar-school in Berlin, which will be accompanied by a camera team of the rbb. More information and air-time will follow. === Wikimedium === In June preparations for the 3rd editions started, which will be published in August. Currently Catrin is collecting ideas for editorial topics. Due to a cooperation with the host of the Science Berlin 2010 [24] the contents will be expanded and for the next edition are, for the first, external articles planned. Additionally Catrin is in negotiations with the print office, to increase the length of the wikimedium by 2-4 sites and to double circulation from 5.000 to 10.000. Since the print office is offering the newspaper for free, we hope to extent this engagement. === Knowledge in Clip format === The realization and cooperation with the Berlin Fenster GmbH (a journey TV in trains) had to be delayed, because license- and tax related issues about the use of Wikipedia contents, the compliance of licensing and the integration of Donation-appeals took more time than anticipated. From the beginning of July the Knowledge-clips should be shown in Berlin's underground-trains. With careful preparation and development of written contracts with potential (media-) partners Catrin will (hopefully) be able to achieve future cooperation faster. Further talks with media partners are followed up annually and are searched among other things project related. For example is Catrin currently searching for another media partner in addition to the Spectrum Publisher of Science. For this there will be talks in July with the Hessisch Radio and The Frankfurter Rundschau. === Festschrift === Due to encouragement by Marcus Cyron [25] (Wikipedia-author and member) an anniversary writing was created. Ideas, concepts and writing was supplied by Marcus Cyron and Catrin printed in cooperation with PediaPress 25 copies. In July we will report who received them- we don't want to spoil the surprise :) In context of Compass 2010 are the following arrangements in the area PR still to be taken care of: The information leaflets for Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource and Wikiversity are in the final stages: Texts are almost finished and the layouts are integrated or rather adjusted, shortened and supplied with graphs and images. Individual Community-members helped Catrin with the development of texts and layouts. In the third quartile the production of the information leaflets is meant to be finished for all 10 Wikimedia-projects. Due to the 10. anniversary of Wikipedia next Year the Club plans to publish a Wikipedia book. In context of the book project first preparations, research and talks with wikipedians have started. The first contents were collected, contact to potential publishers was picked up and further working steps were defined. Further details can be found in the next report. === Members === In the course of June we recruited 20 new members, of which applied for active- and 17 for sponsoring membership. Unfortunately we also received a note of termination. On the 2. of June all member were contacted by mail who pay their fees via bill or transfer: if you did not receive a mail from us, look maybe in your spam file or give us your new email address (office(a)wikimedia.de). Also contacted (25th of June) were all members who pay via direct debit: we will collect all member fees on the 5th of July for the year 2010. Also this time the appeal: If your bank connection has change since last year please let us now via email (also office(a)wikimedia.de). === Community Budget === We enabled Martin Zeise to travel to Belgrade: There he took part in the 4th regional Wikimedia conference Western Balkan, which was held on the 5th and 6th of June by Wikimedia Serbia. He was one of 25 Wikipedians which took part, who mostly arrived from Serbia. About the contents and topics of the conference are a few citations from Martins report (obviously with his consent): There was a quickly developed German-Polish-Hungarian presentation about sighted versions, which are not yet integrated in the Serbian Wikipedia. The lecturers however, were not able to convince the locals about the usefulness of this activity, rather it was perceived as a "scheme aimed to create work". Further key points were lectures and discussions about the critical handling of sources using the "Prophecy of Kremna" [26] as an example, the meaning of the work of stewards for the smaller Wikipedias, censorship within Wikipedia (on the basis of image deletion from Jimbo Wales) as well as the future of Wikipedia in general. Here the German Wikipedia was used as an example for a "saturated Wikipedia" with a constant number of active, alternatively very active users, or rather new articles, but with reducing number of new users. The presentation and discussion about guidelines about allocation of money from the Community-Budget was topic of a workshop, which Henriette held on the 4th of June at the "Skillshare" conference: 18, mainly Wikipedians, were not only interested in the topic, but also had lively discussions, good suggestions & ideas and criticized when they thought it to be necessary. We want to thank every participants for their valuable input, which will be integrated in the new versions of the guidelines. === Literature scholarship === Last month we were able to celebrate a nice anniversary with the thousands article, meanwhile the "daily trade" continued processing new applications but in parallel also works on the announce relaunch are done. To not get ahead of ourselves, there won't be further details on this now, but more information will be given during the next month. === From the engine room === Since the beginning of June an external IT-provider is handling the IT-infrastructure in our office. To begin with this is handling simple things such as a standardized Backup-solution or a better telephone-system, etc. The area development we had some advances: the extension to display TIFF-images is now in the review stage by members of foundation, it seems that the extension might soon be available to Wikimedia Wikis. Further Daniel Kinzler implemented a first prototype of the extension to integrate bibliographic data ("DataTransclusion"). Different solutions to service the data are still discussed. The integration of external data can be tested in our new prototype-Wiki: here [27] a short text, this site [28] offers an insight about how this is meant to be used when it is finished. The TIFF-extension is also active in this Wiki, as demonstration this example [29] is used. At the end of the months we were hosts of the third Wiki4Enterprise-meeting. These MediaWiki-user meetings are concerned with the exchange of experience and Know-How between companies and institutions, which use Wikis. === Fundraising === June was shaped by numerous small but important activities and meetings. On the 11th of June there has been a meeting between representatives of Wikimedia Germany and the German central institution of the Blind in Leipzig. During this meeting the possible cooperation to improve the access of blind and visually impaired to Wikipedia was discussed. Among others the topic was the creation of the article of the day as podcast as well as the related technical issues. Further there have been talks about the campaign "Wikipedia to listen", which is meant to be the beginning of a long-term collaboration as a fundraising campaign. However, this campaign is not to start until next year. Further multiple meeting with fundraising agencies and providers of donated software was held. The decision about cooperation as well as selection of donated software will take place in July. Finally three fund-raising activities are to be mentioned. Firstly, soon an information campaign for German donors of the Wikimedia Foundation will start. Aim of this is inform about activities of Wikimedia Germany and in a second step the gaining and binding of these donors. For this Till Mletzko is in contact with Rand Montoya, the responsible fundraiser for Wikimedia Foundation. Secondly the selected donors for Wikimedium were contacted. With this activity "Faces behind Wikipedia" we want to enable donors to tell their story. This possibility will be expanded in the future. Last but not least the we have to mention the successfully running funding membership-campaign. Through this 16 new funding members could be gained until the end of June. The next report will be published on the 2nd of August 2010. Links: [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia-Schulprojekt/Sommercamp [2] http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/06/14/erste-informationen-zur-verleihung-der-z edler-medaille-2010/ [3] http://www.zukunft-der-energie.de/ [4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Zedler-Medaille_2010#Einbindung_von_Community _und_Vereinsmitgliedern [5] http://www.skillshare.eu/ [6] http://blog.wikimedia.de/2010/06/21/die-posaunen-von-lage-oder-die-klausur-i m-teutoburger-wald/ [7] http://www.bundestag.de/internetenquete/ [8] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Klingbeil [9] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Canel [10] http://www.bth.rwth-aachen.de/offbibdat.html [11] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Lustige_Naturgeschichte_oder_Zoologia_comica [12] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Seite:Lustige_Naturgeschichte_oder_Zoologia_co mica.djvu/20 [13] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Lustige_Botanik_und_Mineralogie [14] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Zur_modernen_P%C3%A4dagogik [15] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Popul%C3%A4r-wissenschaftlicher_Vortrag_des_Dr ._Sulphurius_%C3%BCber_Schule_und_Erziehung [16] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Popul%C3%A4r-wissenschaftlicher_Vortrag_%C3%BC ber_Chemie_von_Dr._Sulphurius [17] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Fantasiest%C3%BCcke_in_Callot%E2%80%99s_Manier [18] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Kinder-_und_Hausm%C3%A4rchen [19] http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Kinder-_und_Hausm%C3%A4rchen_Band_2_(1837) [20] http://wikimedia.de/fileadmin/wiki/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/PM-Vector.pdf [21] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_eins [22] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_%28Zeitschrift%29 [23] http://www.rbb-online.de/abendschau/index.html [24] http://www.wissenschaftberlin2010.de/ [25] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Marcus_Cyron [26] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_from_Kremna [27] http://prototype.wikimedia.org/wmde-sandbox-1/Wikipedia:DataTransclusion [28] http://prototype.wikimedia.org/wmde-sandbox-1/Ameisenigel#Literatur [29] http://prototype.wikimedia.org/wmde-sandbox-1/Datei:Multipage.tiff Kind regards, / Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Pavel Richter Executive Director ------------------------------------- Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. Eisenacher Straße 2 10777 Berlin Telefon 030 - 219 158 26-0 www.wikimedia.de Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch an der Menge allen Wissens frei teilhaben kann. Helfen Sie uns dabei! http://spenden.wikimedia.de/ **** Unterstützen Sie Freies Wissen mit einer SMS. Senden Sie einfach WIKI an 81190. Mit 5 Euro sichern Sie so die Verfügbarkeit und Weiterentwicklung der Wikipedia. **** Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985. _______________________________________________ Chapters-reports mailing list Chapters-reports(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/chapters-reports -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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Fwd: [Wikimedia Chapters Reports] WM-IT chapter report January-June 2010
by Erik Moeller 26 Jul '10

26 Jul '10

Here's 6 months worth of reporting from Wikimedia Italy about their recent activities. One particular piece of news below that I found very interesting is the announcement of a library space-sharing agreement -- hopefully we'll see more dedicated physical spaces for free culture soon :-) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Federico Leva (Nemo) <nemowiki(a)gmail.com> Date: 2010/7/19 Subject: [Wikimedia Chapters Reports] WM-IT chapter report January-June 2010 To: chapters-reports(a)lists.wikimedia.org Excuse me if I use HTML, I hope it won't bother you too much but there are lots of links. You can find the issue online, as always: http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Wikimedia_news/numero_29/en _________________________________________ <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Wikimedia_news1.png> *W i K i M e D i A N e W s* no. 29 - July 19, 2010 Official bulletin from Wikimedia Italia Association. TOC * 1 Editorial <#Editorial> * 2 What happened during last months <#What_happened_during_last_months> * 3 Special on Digital Freedoms Festival <#Special_on_Digital_Freedoms_Festival> o 3.1 Events <#Events> * 4 What will happen next months <#What_will_happen_next_months> * 5 News from our groups <#News_from_our_groups> o 5.1 Wikimedia Roma <#Wikimedia_Roma> + 5.1.1 New premises for Wikimedia Italia! <#New_premises_for_Wikimedia_Italia.21> o 5.2 GLAM <#GLAM> * 6 News from our projects <#News_from_our_projects> o 6.1 News from Biblioteca <#News_from_Biblioteca> o 6.2 News from Wiki@Home <#News_from_Wiki.40Home> + 6.2.1 We need volunteers <#We_need_volunteers> * 7 News from WMF projects <#News_from_WMF_projects> * 8 News from the Board <#News_from_the_Board> * 9 Monthly strip <#Monthly_strip> * 10 Featured Wikimedian/Picture of the month <#Featured_Wikimedian.2FPicture_of_the_month> Editorial After a heated internal debate about the reasons and motives that we have and led to the creation of Wikimedia Italia, we decided - better: on Frieda's suggestion I decided - to ask directly to our members, and generally to those who would care to respond, what role WMI should have in their opinion. <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Conosci_wmi.png> <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Conosci_wmi.png> Do you know WMI? <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Wikimediaitalia_e.png> <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Wikimediaitalia_e.png> What is Wikimedia Italia? From the questionnaire it seems evident that Wikimedia Italy has a problem of identity. Most respondents, while claiming to know us, have in fact a wrong idea of the role of WMI: many of them confuse us with WMF or the alleged "maintainers of Wikipedia". Few really know who we are and cite our aim correctly, /to spread free culture/- even if they often think we simply promote wiki projects, and even among these people our role is not always clear and understood. <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Sei_iscritto_ad_un_progetto.png> <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Sei_iscritto_ad_un_progetto.png> Do you participate to a wiki project? <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Wmf_e.png> <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Wmf_e.png> WMF is? On the one hand we act as WMF, collecting donations through the sitenotice - by the way someone thinks it is an abuse of power, on the other hand we are not doing the things that the foundation should do but did not always, first of all protection from all legal issues related to Wikipedia, and their clarification. Proposed changes to our action could be divided into two categories: * changes not acceptable, because we don't want or cannot put them into practice. We should make an effort to explain why we cannot nor want to have direct responsibility in Wikipedia, and why we want to emphasize that we are something different and distinct from Wikipedia. * changes potentially acceptable, or proposals we already take care of and that maybe nobody knows. I will present a more detailed version of the result of the survey in September: for the time being, here there is a brief annotated list of some of the proposals that I believe fall under the second category. 1. Keep media relations. We are already moving in this area, but we could obviously do more to improve our image. 2. Lobbying. Having more visibility, see above, would allow us to exert some political pressure. 3. Relations with the "civil society". Establish relationships with cultural institutions, authors, publishers and so on. We are already doing it, or at least we try, but it does not seem this is well known. 4. Distributed presence. Our new base in Rome seems a step in this direction. 5. Use resources to free content (digitizing). We are talking about this at this very time: as soon as we'll have something concrete we will publicize it. 6. Create a DVD of Wikipedia. Apart from the traditional problem of finding a publisher, now we have a further problem: the use of the logo, and the associated economic agreements, must be agreed directly with Wikimedia Foundation. DracoRoboter <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Utente:DracoRoboter> What happened during last months Note: all links are in Italian * January o Aubrey and Laurentius teached Tuscany librarians about Wikipedia and Progetto Comuni. See #GLAM. o Massimiliano Navacchia took part in Accessibility e CMS Camp 2010 in Bologna. * February o VirtualSkiz made a report during the event Sentieri Digitali <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Sentieri_Digitali>. o Laurentius took part in Caffè-Scienza /From Free Software to Wikipedia: collaborating in a network <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Dal_software_libero_a_Wikipedia:_collabor…>/. o Roman members organized a WikiTrip <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/it:Wikipedia:Raduni/Roma_WikiGita_febbraio_20…> to Anzio and Landing Museum. * March o LaPizia, supported by Marcok, Cotton and Jaakko, teached two lessons to present Wikipedia at the Faculty of Economics, University Ca 'Foscari, at the kind invitation of Professor Micelli: report of the day <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Associazione:Venezia_2010>. MarcoK <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Utente:Marcok> reports: + On Tuesday, March 2, 2010, we were invited - through "LaPizia <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/it:Utente:LaPizia>" a.k.a. Annalety - to cooperate with the Faculty of Economics Ca' Foscari in Venice for two lectures held by professor Stefano Micelli (Dept. of Economics and Management) and Alessandro De Rossi (researcher). Alessandro follows us since long ago, and he made one of the first studies on the most active Wikipedians (some of us have even met him in person at our events). In addition to the LaPizia there were Marcok, Cotton and Jaakko. After a general introduction about the tools of Web 2.0 by Alessandro, Anna overviewed Wikipedia, then gave way to many students' questions to which everyone of us responded in turn. 60 students participated overall (40 in the first class and 20 in the second), I think all from the M.Sc. courses in Economics. Apart from the interest in the subject (by teacher and students) we however noticed that while everyone knew and used Wikipedia, only one in 60 college students had changed (once and as an anonymous) a Wikipedia article, while at least 30% of them did not even know that the contents could be altered, also without being registered. This unexpected result can be attributed at least in part - according to Professor Micelli - to our "assuming" Wikipedia rules for granted by everyone. Only a small proportion of students reported that they found errors on Wikipedia, mostly spelling-related (and we know that large or small errors there are in all entries of Wikipedia and all other encyclopedias). A student made the interesting observation, interesting that the main page does not give much importance to the fact that the contents of the Encyclopedia are changeable, so that he did not realize it. Overall the day was interesting and useful. o Frieda teached in Bocconi University in the course Strategy and governance of cultural organizzations, about Wikipedia business model. Here <http://www.slideshare.net/ubifrieda/the-wikipedia-model-3376984> the slides (in English). o Laurentius and IgnLig took part to a meeting organized by Firenze Linux User Group Here <http://www.slideshare.net/ignazio71/wikipmediaefirenze-090714053012-phpapp0…> the slides. o General assembly of Wikimedia Italia in Pistoia (public page <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/it:Wikipedia:Raduni/Pistoia_2010_Assemblea_WMI>): 2009 financial report <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Bilancio_consuntivo_2009> and 2010 budget <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Bilancio_preventivo_2010> were approved. o March 26th, Torino: international meeting Extracting Value From Public Sector Information: Legal Framework and Regional Policies at Aula Magna and Aula Allara of the Rectorate of the University, in the framework of EVPSI project <http://www.epsiplatform.eu/news/news/evpsi_public_launch>. .mau. took part to the afternoon session (Focus on Italy) with a speech "Obstacles to Accessing and Re-using (Italian) Cultural PSI on Wikipedia", listing the problems Wikipedia faces in trying to reuse public data, in coping with Italian copyright laws and in pushing for free licenses. English abstract <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:EVSPI-abstract-eng.odt> and slide <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:EVPSI-slide-eng.odp> here. o Marcok took part in meeting Didattica aperta - Libero accesso a software e saperi nella Scuola e nell'Università (Open education - free access to software and knowledge at school and university) with a poster. * May o May 7th: CristianCantoro took part in Internet Ergo Sum, here in depth <http://blog.popolis.it/7maggio2010/>, talking about Wikipedia in a high school in Leno (Brescia): themes are Wikipedia and freedom in the Net, which most students found interesting. With him Guido Nardo, former Facebook's developer and social network specialist, presenting social networks e talking about the problem with the use of Facebook and privacy on the Internet. In the afternoon the workshop on Wikipedia had a good success among students, even if it was optional; it was structured as a tutorial for the prospective editors. o Wikimedia Italia organized Festival delle Libertà Digitali (see next section) o Schio (VI): Cotton presented Wikipedia, WMI and the Wikimedia projects in a meeting organized by /I Mercoledì della Piazza Telematica/, a department of Informagiovani at the communality of Schio. The meeting, attended by an audience of elderly, confirmed that in that demographics there is a lot of room to increase knowledge and participation to Wikimedia projects. * June o musicamp (Laurentius) (report <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/MusiCamp>) o CristianCantoro took part to the first IULM BarCamp; unfortunately its speech could not be delivered. He was however conctacted for an interview broadcasted on Radio24 and made by the students of the Master in Radio Communication at IULM. o Cotton and La Pizia took part with a small Wikimedia booth to /No Skei Day/ at San Vito di Leguzzano (VI), a yearly meeting based on free exchanges of goods and knowledge. Even if the town is very small, we had some success in giving out information and distributing brochures and Wikimedia cards. Special on Digital Freedoms Festival From 10 to 16 May 2010, the association organized the second Digital Freedoms Festival <http://libertadigitali.org> (FDLD, for "Festival delle libertà digitali") in Milan entitled "Milan frees all". Events were numerous and ranged from comics to photo via OpenAccess and free games. The festival was born as a container for different events with a common goal: bringing people and an entire city to the issues of digital freedom, free licenses and sharing of knowledge. Certainly the festival was an opportunity for growth for the association, which was able to test his strength on a difficult location like Milan: results, despite a relatively low public participation in general, have been useful to increase our contacts with other associations with whom we share goals and philosophy. The most successful events will be replicated in the future. Events May 10 * Sharing, science, common good <http://libertadigitali.org/eventi/condivisione-scienza-bene-comune>: a meeting where experts from Open Access, academy and teachers debated. * SGRUNT! Paper and bits for open culture <http://libertadigitali.org/eventi/sgrunt-carta-e-bit-al-servizio-dellopen-c…>: a panel discussion on comics, authors and the comparison between "paper" and "network" media. May 11 Open&Crowd, supplementary gears <http://libertadigitali.org/eventi/open-crowd-le-marce-in-piu> May 12 fotoMIgira <http://libertadigitali.org/eventi/fotomigira>: look at Milan from behind a lens, communicating with other passionate photographers, to discover that encyclopedias have a photographic soul. May 13 Open Web - Una serata al collegio di Milano <http://libertadigitali.org/eventi/open-web-una-sera-al-collegio-di-milano>: Wikipedia, la libertà e la rete: quanto è libera la rete? Siamo diventati più responsabili nel nostro approccio alla rete dalla nascita del web 2.0 ad oggi? Wikimedia Italia e Google incontrano i ragazzi del Collegio di Milano. May 14 GGDMilano#12 - Ignite: How to <http://libertadigitali.org/eventi/girl-geek-dinner-milano-12-howto>: GGDs (Geek Girls Dinners) are dinners or meetings aimed at women who are passionate about technology, Internet and new media. Twelfth Milan dinner was an "Ignite", where speakers presented their "How to", that is how to do something particularly "geek". May 15 GNUfun - Milano frees music <http://libertadigitali.org/eventi/gnufun-milano-libera-la-musica>: Saturday with free music, in collaboration with GNUFunk: openday @ "Kubi studio" (Via Carlo Botta, 13) from 15:00 and concert +dj-set with fre music @ "Le trottoir alla Darsena" (Piazza XXIV Maggio, 1) May 16 OpenGamingCamp - Milano frees games <http://libertadigitali.org/eventi/opengamingcamp-milano-libera-i-giochi>: the fun side of freedom: a BarCamp, that is a non-conference where anyone can "get in the chair", propose a topic and talk to others, accompanied by free games tournaments. Throughout the event, WikiWall - a Wikipedia page at Triennale <http://libertadigitali.org/eventi/wikiwall-una-pagina-di-wikipedia-in-trien…>: an installation at the Triennale similar to a Wikipedia page: people can write, edit or attack photos to tell what the digital freedom is. What will happen next months * in September (tentative location: Bologna) we'll have our annual meeting. News from our groups Wikimedia Roma New premises for Wikimedia Italia! Wikimedia Italy will soon have a physical location. Offices, large enough to host some workshops and a dozen workstations, are in Rome, via Grotta di Gregna 27 (Google map <http://maps.google.it/maps?q=41.913514,12.564609&num=1&sll=41.819915,12.440…>). The premises are the result of an agreement between the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Rome, the Libraries of the City of Rome and the association Liber Liber <http://www.liberliber.it/>. The planned activities consist in setting up three laboratories: video editing, e-book digitizing/layout and audio editing for the creation of audiobooks. We also expect to participate in European calls, for example to promote the Open Alexandria <http://www.openalexandria.org/>, and others that may be proposed by the most active volunteers of Wikimedia Italy and Liber Liber. Premises will also be used to host civil service volunteers and interns, to organize courses and cultural events, in collaboration with the adjacent library "Vaccheria Nardi", who has large rooms with multimedia stations, area conferences, and of course reading rooms (the structure as a whole has three buildings). Opening date is still uncertain. Some details remain to be defined (collection of certificates of conformity of equipment, testing elevators, etc.), and we are looking for sponsors for the setting up of laboratories. We hope to start before the end of August, even with few workstations and without the laboratories. Anyone interested in collaborating is invited to contact Marco Calvo <http://www.marcocalvo.it/>. GLAM The WMI GLAM committee, through Aubrey and Laurentius, organized two workshops in collaboration with Regione Toscana. The workshops (each one during a day) were aimed to teach two different groups of librarians from Tuscany regions how to edit and create article in Wikipedia. The objective of the event s were to illustrate breifly how Wikipedia works and how articles can be created: especially, librarians were interested in municipality and cultural heritage articles, as well as articles dedicated to libraries. The workshops partially touched also Commons and Wikisource, as well as copyright issues. The feedback from participants has been positive, though several issues were raised by the low level of computer skills of many participants, as well as inexperience from speakers in explaining clearly and linearly Wikipedia basics. At the end of the day, the projects worked as a useful pilot: it is hoped to have the possibility to organize other similar events to build a stable and fruitful relationships with librarians and other GLAM professionals. News from our projects News from Biblioteca We started System Reference Document 3.5 Project <http://biblioteca.wikimedia.it/wiki/Progetto:SRD>, together with 5° clone <http://www.5clone.com/>, group whose purpose is to promote intelligent games (in particular, role games). The project intends to translate into Italia the correspondent document <http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35> of Wizards of the Coast <http://www.wizards.com/>, which will be released under a Open Gaming License <http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/v35/Legal.rtf>. News from Wiki@Home <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Wiki@Home> Many news from Wiki@Home: many interviews were completed, among them the one with Umberto Eco (English version <http://it.wikinews.org/wiki/Intervista_a_Umberto_Eco/Traduzione>) made by Aubrey <http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Utente:Aubrey> and taken up by some bloggers and the famous online magazine Punto Informatico <http://punto-informatico.it/2892321/PI/Commenti/contrappunti-gogol-non-prob…>. We also repory the completion of the interview with Patrizio Roversi <http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrizio_Roversi> by Capsicum <http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utente:Capsicum>. Finally, Monday, June 28, 2010 the referent of the project, CristianCantoro <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Utente:CristianCantoro>, attended a meeting at the School of Journalism "Walter Tobagi" <http://www.giornalismo.unimi.it> at University of Milan to present Wikimedia Italy, the world of Creative Commons licenses and of course Wiki@Home project. We need volunteers Wiki@Home staff needs willing young people of all ages to unwind interviews, make transcripts, fix typos, create new interviews and material for the presentation of the project. For more information please write at the contact for the project, CristianCantoro <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Utente:CristianCantoro>, at the address: kikkocristian(presso) <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Presso.svg>gmail.com. News from WMF projects * *Wikibooks*: DynamicPageList extension <http://mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DynamicPageList_%28Wikimedia%29> is now active: now automation of shelves <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Biblioteca> may start. * *Wikinotizie*: Published an intervew to Umberto Eco <http://it.wikinews.org/wiki/Intervista_a_Umberto_Eco>, see above <#News_from_Wiki.40Home>. * *Wikiquote*: Fazio degli Uberti <http://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fazio_degli_Uberti> is our 10,000th article, but it.wikiquote is no more the second local version with respect to number of articles for the first time since November 2007. pl.wikiquote had an acceleration that lead them to overtake us. * *Wikisource*: o Finished the joining of headers <http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Bar/Archivio/2010.03#E.27_finita.2…> in {{Heading Template <http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Template:Intestazione>}}. o Reached 45,000 pages <http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Bar/Archivio/2010.04#45.000>, after automatic addition (between February and April) through {{Count pages Template <http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Template:Conteggio_pagine>}}) of invisible links in 30K pages containing just templates and therefore were not counted <http://mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Using_custom_namespaces#Content_namespaces> even if they contained "good" stuff, falsifying statistics <http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Bar/Archivio/2010.02#Mistero_svela…> (after wikt:en:Template:count page <http://it.wiktionary.org/wiki/en:Template:count_page>). o Alex Brollo <http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Utente:Alex_brollo> was elected sysop. * *Wikiversity*: WHacko <http://it.wikiversity.org/wiki/Utente:WHacko> was elected sysop: now we have 3 sysops. * *Wiktionary*: Limonadis <http://it.wiktionary.org/wiki/Utente:Limonadis> was elected sysop: now we have 9 sysops. For the first time in years, Wiktionary has more registered users than Wikiquote (14,300 vs 14,200 on July 14), becoming thus the first Italian Wikimedia project besides Wikipedia. Looking at active users in the last month (roughly 60 and 160 respectively) Wikiquote remains the first among the sister projects. * *Wikipedia*: o January: Welcome Project <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/it:Progetto:Coordinamento/Accoglienza> for new users started. o April: big controversy <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/it:Wikipedia:Bar/Discussioni/Enciclopedia_su_…> about the "social pages" Facebook added, containg the text of the relative voice of Wikipedia if it exists and a link to the modification page. Some users were troubled that the sentence «Conquer new fan of your cause or ideal by creating a social page» could be seen regarding the contribution to Wikipedia (against neutral point of view <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/it:Wikipedia:punto_di_vista_neutrale>), and in general that only users not fit to Wikipedia could come from Facebook. Two sysops resigned. o May: another controversy <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/it:Wikipedia:Bar/Discussioni/Facebook,_lo_sap…...> (or better, a ForestFire <http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/ForestFire>) starts about Facebook groups which defame Wikipedia and urge users to modify it towards a certain direction, and in general about the perceived increase in organized groups of users that alter consensus to impose their own point of view. A new procedure has been adopted to value and if neceassary block such group of users (called "programmatic users <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/it:Wikipedia:Bar/Discussioni/Blocchiamo_le_ut…>", that is irrecoverably altering consensus). The first application of the new procedure blocked some users by mistakes; the users were immediately unblocked by another sysop, but a sysop was not confirmed and left the project, while four other ones quit. The community put up an essay about how to cope with so-called single-purpose users <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/it:Wikipedia:Utenza_monoscopo>, re-orienting the issue. o May-June: five new sysops were elected. o June: The group rollbacker <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/it:Wikipedia:Rollbacker> was created in it.wiki too. Bureaucrats assign people to this group at their sole discretion, after a public but non-advertised request and without voting. In the first month 12 users were assigned to the group. News from the Board In June, Cristian Consonni succeeded to Nicola Izzo as Board member. Monthly strip <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Singloids-492eng.jpg> Featured Wikimedian/Picture of the month <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Wikimania_2010_portrait_22.jpg> <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Wikimania_2010_portrait_22.jpg> Aubrey <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Utente:Aubrey> at Wikimania ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Editorial staff: * Frieda Brioschi; * Marco Chemello; * Nemo (section "News from WMF projects") * Aubrey (section "News from Biblioteca" and GLAM) * Christian Cantoro (section "News from W@H" ) * .mau. (English version) To contact the staff, write at: redazione(a)wikimedia.it or directly to the editors: * Frieda Brioschi - ubifrieda(presso) <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Presso.svg>gmail.com * CristianCantoro - kikkocristian(presso) <http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/File:Presso.svg>gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Notice. This newsletter is exclusively intended for information about Wikimedia Italia, both to its members and to the general public; as per Art. 1, Comma 2, Legge 7 marzo 2001 no. 62, it is not an editorial product* _______________________________________________ Chapters-reports mailing list Chapters-reports(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/chapters-reports -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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Biography of Lech Wałęsa in 104 languages of the world on Wikimedia Commons
by Daniel ~ Leinad 25 Jul '10

25 Jul '10

Hi all, I'm pleased to announce that the book about Lech Wałęsa, which was prepared for Wikimania 2010 in Gdańsk, has been published at Wikimedia Commons. The book contains biographies of Lech Wałęsa[1] in 104 languages of the world. Every biography comes from a different language version of Wikipedia. All the text was retrieved at the same moment - On the 1st of March, 2010. The book was prepared by volunteers from the Polish Wikipedia community and the whole book, including the cover, is available under CC-BY-SA 3.0. All the authors are listed on the book's last pages. During the closing ceremony of Wikimania 2010 the book was shown for the first time in public. And a few days after Wikimania, the President of Gdańsk, Wikimania organizers and Polish Wikipedians gave Lech Wałęsa the first copy of the book[2]. Now the book is available in PDF on Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walesa_-_Biographies_in_the_language…. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Wa%C5%82%C4%99sa [2] - http://www.gdansk.pl/galeria?c=663 Regards, Leinad

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Note from the Board Chair
by Ting Chen 08 Jul '10

08 Jul '10

Dear friends, Today, here in Gdansk, at the meeting of the Board of Trustees during the sixth annual Wikimania Conference, the Board made some important changes. I'm pleased to share this news with you. The Foundation will be issuing a public announcement shortly as well. Every year at Wikimania, the Wikimedia Board appoints its officers for the coming year. This year we have changes to each of the Officer roles. As of today's meeting, I was fortunate to be appointed Chair of the Board - and I'm grateful to have the support of the Board in this new role.. Stuart West was appointed Vice-chair (and continues as Board Treasurer), and Samuel Klein becomes Board Secretary. Also, the Wikimedia chapters have made their selections for the two chapters-selected Board seats. Arne Klempert has been reappointed to his seat, and Phoebe Ayers has also been appointed to join the Board. This means that Michael Snow will be leaving the Board: he has been invited to join the Advisory Board, and the Board warmly thanks him for his service. Michael Snow has been a tireless and dedicated leader of this Board, and the whole Wikimedia movement, over the past two years. I want to express my sincere thanks to him on behalf of the Board and all of the Wikimedia community. I am also excited to congratulate and welcome Phoebe Ayers to the Board, and also to congratulate Arne Klempert for his re-appoitment to the Board in a Chapter-appointed seat. There are 10 seats on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and according to the Foundation's bylaws, three members are elected by the Wikimedia community, two members are selected by the Wikimedia chapters, a Community Founder seat held by Jimmy Wales, and four members appointed by the Board itself to provide additional, specific expertise. Currently all seats on the Board of Trustees are filled. This is the first time that the official Chapters selection process has been carried out. Members of Wikimedia's global chapters, made a call for nominations for new members and voted to elect their two members. In this year's election nine candidates from the Wikimedia community originally stepped forward. Two of those candidates stepped out of the process, leaving seven candidates for selection by the Chapters. All of the officer appointments are effective immediately, and we are pleased to welcome Phoebe to the Board right away. I'd like to thank the Chapters for their thoughtful work in convening a process and carrying out their voting process. I would also like to thank all of the candidates who stepped forward for with their nominations. I'm looking forward to an incredible year ahead. We have an ambitious plan for the Foundation and the projects over the next year, and we have a tremendous group to tackle a busy year ahead. Sincerely, Ting -- Ting Chen Chair of the Board of Trustees Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. E-Mail: tchen(a)wikimedia.org

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Rand Montoya leaving Wikimedia Foundation
by Erik Moeller 02 Jul '10

02 Jul '10

Hello all, I regret to inform you that Rand Montoya will be leaving the Wikimedia Foundation. His last day with us will be September 30, 2010. Rand has generously agreed to support and advise us for the next three months as we're gearing up for the 2010 fundraiser while he looks for opportunities outside Wikimedia. Rand will especially help us close the loop on our discussions in Bristol: finalizing the next version of the chapters fundraising agreement, and coordinating a self-assessment process of the chapters fundraising work to-date. Since Rand joined us two years ago, he has been tremendously successful in his work for the Wikimedia Foundation. The 2008 and 2009 fundraisers set new record revenue numbers for the organization, and have enabled us to expand our mission activities and grow our impact world-wide. Rand also helped us to establish good fundraising practices, including improved donor communication and cultivation, and led efforts to help the international Wikimedia chapters fundraise. Please join me in thanking Rand for all he has done for Wikimedia, and wishing him the best for his future. All best, Erik -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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[wikimediaannounce-l] Rob Lanphier joins Wikimedia Foundation as Engineering Programs Manager for General Engineering
by Danese Cooper 01 Jul '10

01 Jul '10

Hello all, I'm very happy to announce Rob Lanphier (user:RobLa) in his new role working as a full-time Engineering Programs Manager reporting to me, effective yesterday (June 30th). Rob first came to the attention of Wikimedia Foundation during the CTO search, and he has been working under contract to Wikimedia Foundation for a some time now, acting as backup EPM for the trial rollout of Pending Changes and also performing an audit of EPM tools currently in use at the Foundation and in the larger FOSS world to determine the best tooling strategy to increase both reliability and transparency of our engineering planning. In his new role, which is also new in the organization, Rob will be working with me to build out core services that all of our engineering efforts rely on (such as Software Quality Assurance, Documentation, Release Management& Analytics). Using EPMs to assist the engineering teams in gaining the best outcome in their efforts to serve the Wikimedia Community was pioneered by Naoko Komura on the recently concluded User Experience project and its a practice we plan to broaden over the coming year. We would usually expect WMF positions to be posted and boarded, but in this case Rob had responded to a previous job posting and he was identified then as someone who would be of exceptional value to the team. I felt it would be inauthentic to hold his hire for the formality of posting. Rob's longtime interest in Wikipedia (he is editor number 96), his long history of managing high-profile open source engineering projects (he was at RealNetworks and Linden Labs before joining us), and his general focus on patiently working through every imaginable detail using methods that are both effective and community-inclusive make him ideal for this new role. Rob has also proven to be very effective at working semi-remotely; he comes into the office in San Francisco every other week and lives the rest of the time in Seattle, Washington. As we grow the Tech team I believe it will be advantageous for us to consciously create distributed teams both to mirror the composition of the larger Wikimedia Community and to encourage even more collaborative working patterns. Rob has been a great addition to our team in the time he's been with us, and I look forward to his continued contributions. Please join me in welcoming and congratulating him. Danese Cooper CTO, Wikimedia Foundation danese(a)wikimedia.org

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