Hi all,
the new bulletin from Wikimedia Italia (#46) is available.
Members of the association talked a lot in these weeks, and our official
Members' Meeting is due in ten days! We also remember a Wikipedian friend
who passed away.
As usual a link has been added to meta, at
Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Italia ; raw text of the bulletin
follows below.
ciao, .mau.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
== Twice25 ==
We open this newsletter with a sad news. Some days ago Tullio Arecco, known
on Wikipedia with the nickname '''Twice25''', passed away. He joined the
encyclopedia back in 2003.
Twice has never been a member of Wikimedia Italia or sysop of it.wikipedia
(except for a temporary assignment a few years ago to help in the clean-up
of contributions in violation of copyright) because it was not the type who
loved this kind of commitment, but he has always been an expert contributor
and a pillar for the community.
Twice always had in mind that Wikipedia is made up of people before
articles: it was not a chance that the first meeting of Italian Wikipedians
was held in Genoa, where he lived; Twice helped organizing and was the
perfect guest. Our condolences go out to the family and Rina, his partner.
== Recent events ==
In the last few days, Wikimedia Italia took part to several events.
* The International Tourism Exchange (BIT, Borsa Internazionale del
Turismo), held at Fiera Milano from 14 to 17 February 2013, saw two
speeches in which Wikimedia Italia partecipated. Friday 15, at the stand of
Friuli-Venezia Giulia, there was the Show X Conference, with a format
similar to TED that addressed the issues related to new technologies,
especially digital communication and open access, and their application to
tourism. Maurizio Codogno ([[Utente:.mau.|.mau.]]), ''spokesperson for
Wikimedia Italia'', talked about sharing, Wiki world and Open Content, with
particular focus on the newborn project Wikivoyage and on Wiki Loves
Monuments. He also indicated that the work of Wikipedian volunteers would
be facilitated if the local authorities gave permission to take photographs
of the monuments they manage as per Italian law, so that they may be used
in a commercial environment.
* Also at the International Tourism Exchange, on Saturday 16
[[Utente:Frieda|Frieda]] (''chair of Wikimedia Italy'') took part in a
debate on "Reputation Online, Direct and Indirect Network Presence"],
describing the project "Adopt a word" dedicated to Wikipedia and developed
by Emilia Romagna Tourism Office, describing the new opportunities that
start with Wikivoyage and finally signaling Wiki Loves Monuments and their
photos freely reusable also for tourism ventures.
* On February 19, [[Utente:Cotton|Cotton]], board member of Wikimedia
Italy, attended the presentation of [
http://www.veneto.beniculturali.it/gli-studenti-scrivono-wikipedia"Progetto
Veneto in Wikipedia"], which was held in Padua, at the
Einaudi-Gramsci Institute. Also members [[Utente:Conrad|Conrad]] and
[[Utente:LCM|LCM]] took part in the meeting, together with Wikipedia sysop
Aplasia as well as representatives of the regional branch of the Ministry
for Heritage and Culture.
== Wikipedia and women ==
On February 21, initiative [
http://caffeculturale.ch/wikimedia/79-wikipedia-e-le-donne Wikipedia and
women] will be held in Lugano, organized by Wikimedia Switzerland and
Associazione Caffè Culturale Lugano. Frieda (''chair of Wikimedia Italy'')
and Emma Tracanella (''project manager for Wiki Loves Monuments'') are
among the guests for the initiative.
== Members' meeting ==
Saturday, March 2, 2013, in the press room of Telecom Italy (Piazza Affari
2, 20123 Milano) the Ordinary Members' Meeting of Wikimedia Italy will be
held. The meeting is open to everyone, but to participate you must register
for free [http://assembleawmi2013.eventbrite.it on Eventbrite], where you
will also find the program of the day. It takes just a minute!
Greetings, Wikimedia community,
It is my pleasure to share with you that the Funds Dissemination
Committee has received four proposals in Round 2 of funding from
entities seeking funds for their annual plans. An additional proposal
was withdrawn. These four proposals from Wikimedia Czech Republic,
France, Hong Kong, and Norway request a total of over $1.2 million
USD:
WM Czech Republic: $14,084.50
WM France: $747,259
WM Hong Kong: $211,916.67
WM Norway: $235,715
We need your help in reviewing the proposals in order to consider the
potential impact of movement funds. To this end, we have launched the
community review period to help the FDC strategically allocate
Wikimedia movements funds. We invite you, members of the Wikimedia
community, to review the proposals and provide thoughts and ask
questions. [1] The community review period is open until March 31.
A bit more about the community review period: the FDC proposal
submission deadline (March 1) is followed by a 30-day open comment
period when community members are invited to provide input on and ask
questions about each proposal. During this period, fund-seeking
entities (that is, those that submitted proposals) are requested to
respond to questions about their proposals on the proposal discussion
pages. All community input and entity responses are submitted as part
of each proposal package to the FDC. While the community may comment
on proposals after the open comment period closes on March 31, the FDC
may not be able to take comments made after this period into
consideration. After this, on April 8, the FDC staff will share their
assessments of the proposals, which will take into account the
community input. On May 1, the FDC announces its recommendations to
the WMF Board, and on June 1, the Board will make decisions about
funding allocations.
To join the community review for Round 2 proposals, please visit the
FDC proposal page [1], which links to all current proposals and their
discussion pages. You can review the proposal by opening the proposal
form for each entity, and submit questions or comments on the proposal
discussion pages. While the proposals are unfortunately only available
in English, we hope that the longer period for review this round will
help address this challenge. We hope that this community review period
will bring an in-depth and robust review to each of the four
proposals.
The FDC seriously values the input and feedback of the Wikimedia
community. Therefore, they ask for your comments and questions on
these proposals. The community review process helps to ensure that
this is a transparent and collaborative process. We look forward to
hearing from you on the discussion pages of the four proposals!
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. The FDC
support staff can be reached at FDCsupport(a)wikimedia.org
Warm regards,
Katy Love and the FDC support team
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals
--
Katy Love
Senior Program Officer, Funds Dissemination Committee
Wikimedia Foundation
Source:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/02/27/spain-catalan-modernism-from-the-c…
#Wikimodernism: Catalan Modernism, from the Classroom to the Web
Art history students in Barcelona are trading in traditional homework to
share their learning about Catalan
Modernism<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernisme>
, or *modernisme* in Catalan, with the world.
If you have ever visited Barcelona, you will remember the colorful and
curvilinear architecture of Antoni
Gaudí<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD>’s
fantastical buildings. Gaudí is essentially the crown jewel of the region's
art, and the foundation of this organic and dreamy aesthetic is the
political and cultural revolutionary movement that sought to transform
Catalan society at the turn of the twentieth century. Artistically, *
modernisme* was an eclectic movement inspired by similar currents from
other European countries, such as French Art Nouveau, but was nevertheless
charged with a nationalist sensibility that has given it a unique
personality.
After assessing a relatively low level of quality of Wikipedia's content on
the subject, a group of Catalan
wikimedians<http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amical_Viquip%C3%A8dia> [ca]
launched a thrilling new
wikiproject<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject>
: Viquimodernisme<http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquiprojecte:Viquimodernisme>
[ca],
which has three aims: “improving the presence of Catalan Modernism on
Wikipedia”, “making the knowledge generated at the University level
accessible on the Internet” and “putting into practice new paradigms of
open education”.
During the first semester of the academic year 2012-2013, more than one
hundred art history
students<http://www.viquimedia.cat/viqui/Apunt:Viquimodernisme:_una_cru%C3%AFlla_afo…>
[ca] from
the University of Barcelona produced quality Wikipedia articles instead of
completing traditional course work, under the supervision of six teachers
and researchers belonging to the GRACMON <http://www.ub.edu/gracmon/> [ca],
the group of research for contemporary art and design at the University of
Barcelona. They have created and edited more than a hundred articles
pertaining to Catalan Modernism so far.
*The perfect alliance*
The proposal came from Àlex Hinojo (@Kippelboy<https://twitter.com/Kippelboy>),
active #glamwiki <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23glamwiki> [ca] member, an
international group of wikimedians who work in order to increase ties
between cultural institutions and the free knowledge network. Besides being
one of the most active wikipedians, Hinojo is the person behind the project
@CatalanMuseums <https://twitter.com/CatalanMuseums>, offering information
in English about the museums of Barcelona and Catalonia.
Esther Solé (@EstherSole <https://twitter.com/esthersole>), Art historian,
wikipedian and coordinator of the Viquimodernisme project, wrote in an
article<http://www.viquimedia.cat/viqui/Apunt:Viquimodernisme:_una_cru%C3%AFlla_afo…>
[ca]
published by Viquimedia, how this unprecedented proposal quickly defeated
all the suspicions that academics usually have of Wikipedia:
Suspicions soon gave way to curiosity and this was also replaced by the
enthusiasm inspired by an unprecedented proposal. […] Considering that
Wikipedia usually occupies the top positions on Internet search engines and
that it is often the first, and usually the only resource consulted by most
of the population to satisfy their doubts or curiosity, it makes sense to
propose that the information and data available in this online encyclopedia
be correct and adequate.
We asked Hinojo what he thinks about the suspicions shown by the academic
field:
Suspicion is often the result of ignoring a specific subject. That’s why we
develop these types of projects, so we can approach different spheres. One
thing that teachers repeat the most is: “I wasn’t aware either of the level
of control enforced by volunteers or the level of quality filter processes
that Wikipedia has. Wikipedians are even more “pernickety” than teachers”.
*Towards an open education*
GLAM wikiprojects try to involve professionals from cultural institutions
so they can coalesce to share their knowledge freely. In the case of
Viquimodernisme, Solé and Hinojo were responsible for bringing that
collaborative working culture which characterizes Wikipedia community
to the GRACMON professors, world authorities on Catalan Modernism.
Solé says in her
article<http://www.viquimedia.cat/viqui/Apunt:Viquimodernisme:_una_cru%C3%AFlla_afo…>
[ca]:
Instead of performing traditional course work in the form of stapled sheets
of paper that probably ended up in the trash bin, students had to edit
Wikipedia articles. […] Thus participants were immersed in a world of
encyclopedic language, where the syntax –code-wiki– seemed weird, where the
community of Wikipedia editors was actively involved and intervened in a
work that didn’t belong to the student anymore for it had become free and
available to anyone thanks to creative commons licenses.
Articles have been improved, especially in Catalan, but they have also
edited articles in Spanish, French and English. Project managers made an
inquiry to evaluate its development by the end of the first semester, on
January 2013. You can check the results
here<http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquiprojecte:Viquimodernisme/Revisi%C3%B3>
[ca].
After these first months of the project, Hinojo points out the positive
fact that “students find it really useful that their work has been
‘published’ in Wikipedia and is available to everybody”.
*GLAM Wikiprojects, getting art online*
Viquimodernisme belongs to a type of wikiprojects known as
GLAM<http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:GLAM> [ca]
(Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums), an international initiative
that was born after the people in charge of the British
Museum<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/US/About> realized
many articles talked about their institution on Wikipedia and decided to
hire a wikipedian to correct and widen the existing content. Since then,
this initiative has been exported to other countries and institutions.
Viquimodernisme has raised interest among some academic institutions, and
the coordinators
hope<http://theglamwikiexperience.blogspot.com/2013/02/viquimodernisme-lucky-cro…>
the
project will become a model for others in the future. They will present
their final results<http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=viquimodernisme&title=Speci…>at
the CoupdeFouet
International Art Noveau Congress
<http://www.artnouveau.eu/ca/congress.php> [ca]
to be held in Barcelona on June 2013, which coincides with the project's
end.