Dear Wikimedians,
Cascadia Wikimedians User Group, which focuses on the U.S. states of Oregon
and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia, had our first
two board meetings this month. Our initial board members are:
Another Believer
Brianhe
Mako
Peaceray
Pine
Ragesoss
The following appointments have been made:
President: Peaceray
Vice President: Mako
Secretary: Another Believer
Treasurer: Brianhe
Executive Director: Pine
Thanks to everyone for their efforts at organizing the Cascadia Wikimedians
User Group, with a special shout out to Pine!
Yours,
Peaceray
President of Cascadia Wikimedians User Group
Another Believer
Secretary of Cascadia Wikimedians User Group
The Wikimedia Nederland report for November and December is available on
meta:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Nederla…
It is included as text in this message:
*COMMUNITY: supporting and mobilising volunteers and editors*
- Wikimedia Nederland Conference, Utrecht, November 1.
Finding & Connecting was the theme of the annual Wikimedia Conference
Netherlands on Saturday, November 1st, 2014 in Utrecht. The day was opened
by Hans de Zwart (Bits of Freedom) who spoke on freedom and
commercialization of the web. In total 27 speakers gave presentations
during the conference on the themes 'Find', 'Connect', 'Behind the Scenes'
and 'in practice'. A specially designed 'gender gap' lounge area gave more
background about the lack of female contributors within Wikimedia projects.
With over 100 visitors, we consider it a successful conference.
· Wiki-Saturdays
There were four Wiki-Saturdays in November and December. On November 8,
volunteers presented a prototype of Wikiportret 2.0, which will make it
much easier to contribute portraits to Commons. The final product will be
available in February 2015. The last WikiSaturday of the year on December
20 attracted 18 members of the community, two of whom visited the WMNL
offices for the first time.
· Seminar on online communication
WMNL supported a group of community members, many of them moderators, in
organizing a seminar on online communication and the challenges of
communicating with people with a disorder in the autism spectrum. On
December 13, two experts gave presentations for a group of 15 Wikipedians.
This event ended with constructive discussions on options to improve the
working climate on Nl Wikipedia and avoid unnecessary conflicts. In 2015,
WMNL will make available resources for further activities in this area.
*WORK: content, collaboration and activity development*
· GLAM Hackathon, Amsterdam, November 14 - 16.
Thirty developers and programmers came together in Amsterdam to work three
days on new and existing tools. The theme of the meeting was workingwith
data from libraries, archives and museums. Some examples of the impressive
amount of development work during those three days: - A tool that measures
how long a visitor has looked at a picture in Media Viewer. - An interface
for Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata and Wikipedia that can be extended with
your own commands. Also you can easily run queries by using this interface
to different wiki platforms. - A website where you can see the paintings
have already been added to Wikidata. In addition 250 files without content
were sanitized and 30,000 images of paintings added to Wikidata. In the
run-up to the Hackathon we organised a workshop Wikidata for GLAMs.
· Writing event on World War II at NIOD, Amsterdam, November 29.
On Saturday, November 29th the research institute [www.niod.nl NIOD] opened
its doors for Wikipedians. One of NIOD's researchers gave a presentation on
his work and how it related to Wikipedia. Attendees were then able to work
in the NIOD library. They wrote and improved articles, added information to
Wikidata and made a start on improving the information on the illegal
press. There was also a tour of the beautiful building where NIOD is housed.
· Project Nature: content donations and a Wikipedian in Residence
We received two content donations: as a pilot project for our cooperation
with NGOs gathering data on wildlife, we are going to upload the
data-collection on Dutch damsels and dragonflies. This is donated by
Libellennet. TheKoninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library) donated the
illustrations from 'De Nederlandsche Vogelen', a magnificent 18th century
book on Dutch Birds. In 2015, we are going to organize events to ensure
that these content donations are used in Wikipedia and other projects. The
museum for natural history Naturalis has decided to appoint a Wikipedian in
Residence for at least 6 months in 2015.
Wikipedia course for beginners and 'intermediates'. In cooperation with the
Zeeuwse Bibliotheek (library of Zeeland, which operates both as a public
and an academic library) we organised two training courses on editing
Wikipedia in November 11 and 25.
*WMNL*
· Staff
Jesse de Vos joined WMNL for three months to work on content donations. He
normally works for our partner Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid. Frank Meijer
joined as a contractor to work on the education programme.
*Money*
· FDC recommendation
The FDC commented positively on WMNL's plan for 2015 and recommended a
grant of €304.000. Although this is slightly less than we requested, we are
confident that we will be able to implement our plans. We are going to look
for external funding, both in cash and inkind, and be extremely
cost-conscious when planning our activities.
· Donations
The holiday season inspired people to give substantial donations to WMNL.
In total we received €15.000 over November and December. We thank all our
donors for their generosity over 2014.
*GLOBAL*
· European lobby group
WMNL donated €4000 to support the work of the European Free Knowledge
Advocacy group over 2015. Other chapters also contributed, making it
possible to continue the advocacy work in 2015. WMNL will contractually
'host' Dimitar Dimitrov, our man in Brussels, in 2015. Previously, both
funding and hosting were done by WMDE.
· Official launch Wikimedia Belgium
WMNL chairman Frans Grijzenhout, secretary André Engels and Executive
Director Sandra Rientjes attended the official launch of Wikimedia Belgium
in Brussels on November 19. WMNL and WMBE will be cooperating closely, both
in development of activities and in providing support to the communities.
*GOVERNANCE*
· Board meeting
The Board met on November 5.
*UPCOMING EVENTS*
· WMNL New Years Reception
The annual WMNL New Years event will take place on January 17. This year,
it is hosted by the Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid (Institute for Vision
and Sound)
· GLAM WIKI 2015
The international GLAM Wiki 2015 is on April 10-12.
*OTHER EVENTS*
Wikipedian in Residence Sandra Fauconnier organised a writing event on
intercultural meetings in the framework of The Great Wikipedia Expedition
on December 12.
Sandra Rientjes
Directeur/Executive Director Wikimedia Nederland
tel. (+31) (0)30 3200238
mob. (+31) (0)6 31786379
www.wikimedia.nl
*Postadres*: * Bezoekadres:*
Postbus 167 Mariaplaats 3
3500 AD Utrecht Utrecht
This press release is also available online here:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikipedia_receives_the_…
*Wikipedia receives the Erasmus Prize for collective achievement of its
community*
- *Becomes the first collaborative community to receive the honor*
The Praemium Erasmianum Foundation (Dutch <http://www.erasmusprijs.org/>,
English <http://www.erasmusprijs.org/?lang=en>) in the Netherlands has
announced that it will award the Erasmus Prize 2015 to Wikipedia and the
Wikimedia community. The Erasmus Prize is one of Europe’s most
distinguished recognitions, awarded annually to “a person or institution
that has made an exceptional contribution to culture, society or social
science.”
“The Erasmus Prize has a wonderful history of recognizing people who
contribute great things to our shared culture, and I am thrilled that
Wikipedia now joins these ranks,” said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.
“I am particularly pleased to note that this is the first time a really
large community of people - and the millions of you who have built
Wikipedia to date know who you are - has received this prestigious award.”
The official announcement came from the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation on
the same day that Wikipedia marks its 14th anniversary, today, January 15,
2015. This honor provides all the more reason to celebrate the remarkable
community whose contributions have made Wikipedia the most comprehensive
repository of free information in the history of humanity.
“I can’t think of a better present for all of the tireless Wikipedia
contributors around the world than to win the Erasmus Prize on our 14th
birthday,” said Jan-Bart de Vreede, Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation’s
Board of Trustees and a citizen of the Netherlands where the Praemium
Erasmianum Foundation was founded. “I sincerely thank the Praemium
Erasmianum Foundation for this great honor.”
In presenting Wikipedia with the Erasmus Prize, the Praemium
Erasmianum Foundation
pointed to the massive contribution that volunteers all across the globe
have made:
“Wikipedia receives the prize because it has promoted the dissemination of
knowledge through a comprehensive and universally accessible encyclopaedia.
To achieve that, the initiators of Wikipedia have designed a new and
effective democratic platform. The prize specifically recognises Wikipedia
as a community — a shared project that involves tens of thousands of
volunteers around the world.”
“I am proud that Wikipedia is being recognized for the incredible
collective impact it has had to date,” said Lila Tretikov, Executive
Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. “As we look to the future of free
knowledge, we will continue to be guided by the principles the Erasmus
Prize today honors.”
This honor is accompanied by an award of €150,000. In keeping with the
Praemium Erasmianum Foundation’s intent to recognize the contributions of
the Wikimedia community, the Wikimedia Foundation is redirecting these
funds towards the Wikipedia community in the form of individual grants and
other support for editors and contributors.
*About the Wikimedia Foundation*
- https://wikimediafoundation.org
- https://blog.wikimedia.org/
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia consists of more than 33.5
million articles in 287 languages. Every month, hundreds of thousands of
active volunteers contribute to Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects.
According to comScore Media Metrix, the projects operated by the Wikimedia
Foundation receive 460 million unique visitors per month on desktop alone,
making them one of the ten most popular web properties worldwide (October
2014). Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an
audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and
grants.
*Wikimedia Foundation Press Contact*
Katherine Maher
- +1 415-839-6885 ext 6633
- katherine(a)wikimedia.org
Hi folks,
I am happy to announce that I will be joining the Wikimedia Foundation's Communications team as Movement Communications Manager for a period of six months.
I have really enjoyed my work as product manager at WMF in the past 3 years, leading the development of new tools like Notifications, Thanks, Beta Features, Media Viewer and other multimedia products [1].
One of the lessons I learned during that time is that 'better communications' are really important to make our movement more effective. I also think that growing a 'culture of kindness' is key if we want to engage a broader community [2]. I hope to support both of these goals in my new role.
Starting this week, I will be working with the communications team on the Wikimedia blog and general WMF/movement communications. My focus for the blog will include improving contributor workflow for community members and WMF staff, and providing editorial guidance for contributors. I will also act as the main contact point for authors submitting new blog posts, and shepherd the publication process. Within movement communications, I will work to improve the availability, distribution, and timeliness of communications from the WMF to the broader community. I will also manage a range of movement communications tasks previously handled by Tilman Bayer, who is transitioning to the WMF Product team as Senior Analyst.
One of my new duties is managing this WikimediaAnnounce-l list. Because this list gets so much spam, we manually review all submissions several times per day, until a reliable machine filter can be implemented. Please contact me if you have an urgent announcement that needs to go out immediately, or if you have any issues about this list.
I’d like to thank all my colleagues on the multimedia and product teams -- as well as our many community champions -- for being such wonderful collaborators over the past few years. I am proud of what we accomplished together, and I hope that the features we created can help many more people share knowledge productively in years to come. Special thanks to Erik Moeller for his thoughtful guidance throughout the past three years -- and for making this transition possible. Kudos as well to Tilman for being such a wonderful coach and getting me up to speed on tasks he used to handle so efficiently. :)
I'm delighted to take on this new assignment, and look forward to more collaborations with you all in the coming year.
Onward!
Fabrice Florin
Movement Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
[1] Fabrice's user page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF)>
[2] 'A Culture of Kindness' blog post:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/12/23/a-culture-of-kindness/ <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/12/23/a-culture-of-kindness/>
FYI :)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 1:50 PM
Subject: Tilman Bayer joins Product & Strategy Department
To: Staff All <wmfall(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Hi all,
It’s my pleasure to announce that Tilman Bayer is joining the Foundation’s
Product & Strategy department as Senior Analyst. I would like to thank
Katherine Maher for supporting and helping to prepare this move from the
Communications department.
Tilman has been working with us since July 2011, and has been a Wikipedian
since 2003. He is leading the development of the organization’s new
quarterly report, and its integration with the quarterly review process. In
his role in Communications, he has already coordinated our reports in their
previous monthly format, and has kept detailed public minutes for the
majority of quarterly reviews at WMF. He will continue to do so.
He will ensure we not only continually refine and improve the quarterly
goalsetting, review and reporting processes, but can also look for
opportunities to highlight lessons learned - successes and failures -
across the organization and the Wikimedia communities, so these can
meaningfully inform our strategy.
In addition, Tilman will bring his many years of experience as a volunteer
and his insight into the many complexities and intricacies of the Wikimedia
universe to bear with product-related research and analysis questions,
supporting Product Managers and other team members as we dig into hard
problems that benefit from his expertise, e.g. simplification of templates,
translation tools, cross-wiki messaging tools, mathematics editing, etc.
Tilman was previously responsible for many day-to-day communications
responsibilities and supported or led key communications initiatives. These
responsibilities will be transitioned to other Communications team members,
including Fabrice Florin who is joining the team for 6 months (separate
announcement to follow).
Please join me in congratulating Tilman to this new role. Tilman - thank
you for taking this on; I look forward to continuing our work together!
Sincerely,
Erik
--
Erik Möller
VP of Product & Strategy, Wikimedia Foundation
--
Erik Möller
VP of Product & Strategy, Wikimedia Foundation