April was a busy month for Wikimedia Nederland. Our report is available on
meta:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Nederla…
It is also included as text in this message. We have changed the structure
of our monthly report to match our Annual Plan 2013 and our FDC application.
COMMUNITY: supporting and mobilising volunteers and editors
- Wikimedia Nederland Conferentie
Preparations have begun for the annual Wikimedia Nederland Conference which
will take place on November 2. One of the themes will be 'editor diversity'
- we are cooperating with WMDE who will be holding an international event
on that topic a week later on November 9. We are still looking for
volunteers to take charge of programming and publicity.
- Wikipedia Training National Museum of Ethnology
A basic editing training was given to students and employees of the
National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden by volunteers Erik Zachte, Hay
Kranen and Boardmember Hans Muller.WORK: content, collaboration and
activity development
- WIki Loves Monuments
The Wiki Loves Monuments team is preparing for the 2013 competition. This
year, the focus will also be on municipal monuments and we are looking for
funds to organise a combined Wiki Loves Monuments - editor training -
publicity event in Den Haag. Wikimedia NL volunteer Els Arends published an
article in the magazine 'Monumenten' about Wiki Loves Monuments,
encouraging people to get involved.
- Wikipedian in Residence at National Library and Archives
The National Archives and National Library are going to hire a Wikipedian
in Residence, a first for the Netherlands! This promises to be the start of
a wider ranging cooperation between WMNL and these two national
institutions. Focus of the cooperation will be improving content and
recruiting editors.
- CoSyne: final presentation to European Commission
WMNL Board member Frans Grijzenhout attended the final presentation of the
CoSyne <http://cosyne.eu/index.php/Main_Page> project to the European
Commission in Luxembourg. WMNL's involvement was appreciated by the other
partners in this project.
- Wiki loves sound
Wiki Loves Sound is a new initiative to promote use of sound in Wikimedia
projects. In April, 1838 of the 2300+ sounds donated by The Netherlands
Institute For Sound and Vision were uploaded to Commons and 50+ sounds were
added to Wikipedia pages during an editathon. A Dutch spoken instructional
video about adding sounds was made.
- Wikivoyage
Field research for Wikivoyage was carried out by students of the Nijenrode
Business School. Reports and recommendations to be expected in May.WMNL:
participation and support
- The WMNL newsletter was distributed to members, donors and other
interested parties.
RESOURCES: Strong and sustainable financial position
- Finalising Q1 report
The first quarterly report following our FDC application was completed on
time.GLOBAL: International collaboration *NB: reports by WMNL volunteers,
board and staff who have attended international events can be found on the WMNL
Wiki <http://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Internationaal>*
- Milano Wikimedia Conference
WMNL Chair Ziko van Dijk, Treasurer Ad Huikeshoven and Executive Director
Sandra Rientjes attended the Milano Wikimedia Conference. WMNL volunteer
Lodewijk was also there on behalf of the Wiki Loves Monuments International
coordination group.
- EU policy working group meeting
On April 6 and 7, representatives of WM-chapters met in Brussels to discuss
EU-policy affecting copyright and internet freedom. Lodewijk and Romaine
represented WMNL. A full
report<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_Policy/Big_Fat_Brussels_Meeting/minutes>
of
the meeting is available on Meta.
- GLAM-Wiki
Volunteers Lodewijk, Romaine and Maarten attended the Glam WIki event in
London, as did GLAM coordinator Sebastiaan ter Burg.
- International Amsterdam Hackathon preparations
Preparations for the International Hackathon picked up pace in April with
the programme being finalised and arrangements made to support visa
applications and travel. It is expected that 140 participants will gather
in Amsterdam, May 24-26.ORGANISATION: board, management and support
- Board retreat weekend 6-7 April
Board and Executive Director attended a two-day meeting, following the
Board elections in March. Topics on the agenda were: division of tasks
within the Board, cooperation and communication, recruiting new volunteers.
- Hiring part-time staff member for finances
Tom Kisters will start work on May 1. He will work on finances and office
management.
Sandra Rientjes
Directeur/Executive Director Wikimedia Nederland
tel. (+31) (0)6 31786379
*Postadres*: * Bezoekadres:*
Postbus 167 Mariaplaats 3
3500 AD Utrecht Utrecht
*
Hey all,
For the last 18 months, the Engineering & Product Development department
has been experimenting with the role of “Community Liaison, Product
Development” - a staff member embedded in the Product team and tasked with
factoring community concerns into our software development process, keeping
editors informed about what we’re doing, and maintaining a dialogue between
those who write code and those who write articles.
While there is always room for improvement, I think this role has shown a
lot of promise. We have a number of large projects coming down the
pipeline (e.g., visual editor, discussion systems) and we need more help
reaching out to our contributor communities, especially our non-English
speaking projects, as our outreach there has traditionally been challenged.
We’d like to recruit a small number of English-speaking or multilingual
editors to do the Community Liaison job with different development teams
and focuses.
In particular we’re looking for people with a strong history of
contributions to our projects who can provide sound and reasoned judgment
and are trusted to do so by their community. Speaking other languages in
addition to English is a major plus, as one of the objectives here is to
ensure we can properly interact with and support non-English projects.
I’ve included the full job description below.
Our immediate need is for help with the Visual Editor. We’d like to hire a
few community liaisons to help inform different Wikipedia language
communities of the upcoming launch, create spaces for feedback and
discussion, synthesize feedback for the Visual Editor team, and other
activities required to support the Visual Editor launch later this year.
If this is a role that would interest you, please e-mail Philippe Beaudette
at pbeaudette(a)wikimedia.org<https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=pbeaudette@wikimedia.org>.
And if you know someone else who might fit the role, let them know about
it :-). We’re provisionally interested in hiring 2-3 liaisons, at an hourly
rate commensurate with experience. This can be a part-time role, but we’ll
need at least 15 hours/week for the length of the engagement (minimum 3
months). Please do apply if you think it’s a role that suits you, and if
you find places we haven’t notified, spread the word!
Thanks.
Howie
*
_________________________
Howie Fung
Director of Product Development
Wikimedia Foundation
*
Community Liaison Job Description
Background Information and Statement of Purpose
The Wikimedia Foundation’s Engineering & Product Development Department is
looking at ways to more effectively incorporate broad community
perspectives in decisions and hold dialogues with our editors about the
scope, pace and features of upcoming changes to Wikimedia projects. As part
of this, it is hiring additional Community Liaisons from our volunteer
community.
Scope of Work
Support and improve our ongoing software development projects, in
particular:
-
Building up a network of volunteers from both English language and
non-English language wikis, increasing the number of projects we can
interact with;
-
Engaging the community in the software development process, by acting as
a conduit for community questions, bugs and and feature requests, talking
to editors about our work and how they can participate in it effectively,
and recruiting them for workgroups and studies;
-
Being available from time to time to provide expertise and knowledge
about our projects, including but not limited to training
externally-sourced staff in the way our projects work, answering their
questions, and providing expert advice on an ad-hoc basis;
-
Ensuring that our community is represented in the decision-making
process and that our planned software adequately reflects user needs;
-
Monitoring Wikimedia projects, with the assistance of a network of
volunteers, for emerging issues that have an impact on Engineering
programmes; and
-
Other duties as needed.
Requirements
Effective Community Liaisons will be:
-
Experienced users of Wikimedia projects, capable of representing our
community within the Foundation and vice-versa.
-
Strong communicators (both verbally and with the written word), able to
explain our products to different groups of users with different levels of
technical understanding.
-
Able to focus on the larger picture, understanding which concerns and
views are widespread and which are marginal or individual.
-
Approachable, as both users and product developers must be able to trust
these people for the relationship to function.
-
Self-motivated - they will be given important projects and expected to
execute with little to no supervision.
-
Strongly empathetic - they excel at understanding the perspectives of
others and bridging the gap between different approaches to the world.
-
Willing and able to remain resilient in the face of frustration from our
users, in order to get the job done.
Pluses
Other positive attributes or areas of knowledge include:
-
Diverse language skills. While the Wikimedia Foundation communicates
internally in English, we aim to be able to talk to our different
communities natively.
-
Experience with the software development process. You will be thrown
into teams that are actively working on new features; having a background
that reduces the slope of your learning curve is a plus.
- Familiarity with multiple Wikimedia projects is a major plus; we are
about more than just Wikipedia.
*
Hello all,
Are you interested in policy and legislative issues that could affect the
Wikimedia movement? If so, please join the the Advocacy Advisory Group at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy_advisors
The Advocacy Advisory Group is an open, public email list that focuses on
legislative advocacy, affiliations, and other related issues. The group
discusses these topics, advises the Wikimedia Foundation on advocacy and
affiliation actions, and shares updates on similar activities by chapters
and other organizations. Additional background is available in the
Foundation's Policy and Political Association Guideline:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Foundation_Poli…
Many thanks,
Stephen
--
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
*For legal reasons, I may only serve as an attorney for the Wikimedia
Foundation. This means I may not give legal advice to or serve as a lawyer
for community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal
capacity.*
Hi all,
the new bulletin from Wikimedia Italia (#51) is available. This time
we write about our scolarships for Wikimania 2013, the money we got
from Italian taxpayers who chose to support us, echoes of Wiki Loves
Monuments 2012, WikiWomen and our next appointments.
As usual a link has been added to meta, ay
Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Italia ; more-or-less raw text of
the bulletin follows below.
ciao, .mau.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
== Wikimania 2013 scholarships ==
As previously announced, Wikimedia Italia is assigning
[http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Programma_borse_di_partecipazione_per_Wikiman…
8 scholarships] for Wikimania, of the value of €1,250 each, to
encourage participation of Italian Wikipedians and Wikimedian to the
event. The evaluation committee has reviewed many requests, almost all
worthy of attention, and eventually declared the winners who will go
to Hong Kong to [http://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_page
Wikimania 2013]. Here is the list, in alphabetical order of Wikipedian
nickname:
*[[:it:Utente:Adert|Adert]]
*[[:it:Utente:Archeologo|Archeologo]]
*[[:it:Utente:Atropine|Atropine]]
*[[:it:Utente:Fabexplosive|Fabexplosive]]
*[[:it:Utente:Ignlig|Ignlig]]
*[[:it:Utente:Jaqen|Jaqen]]
*[[:it:Utente:Laurentius|Laurentius]]
*[[:it:Utente:Mitchan14|Mitchan14]]
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all for your interest.
A special thank you to those who dealt with the (difficult) operations
for selecting the applications: [[:it:User:Franciaio|Franciaio]],
[[:it:User:Ilario|Ilario]], [[:it:User:Nemo_bis|Nemo]],
[[:it:User:Triquetra|Triquetra]] and [[:it:User:Cotton|Cotton]].
== 5 per mille: yesterday, today and tomorrow ==
The Revenue Office has issued
[http://www.agenziaentrate.gov.it/wps/content/Nsilib/Nsi/Documentazione/Arch…
the data] related to the preferences expressed by taxpayers in 2011
for the target of 5 per thousand of their taxes. The number of those
who choose Wikimedia Italia as a recipient increased by 83% (!) over
the previous year. We are grateful for the confidence you gave us and,
on this occasion, we remind you that also this year you can choose to
allocate [http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Cinque_per_mille your 5 per
thousand to Wikimedia Italia]. You have just to enter on the form of
the tax return (or communicate to your accountant) the tax code of the
association: 94039910156.
== Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 ==
Wiki Loves Monuments Italia 2012 continues to be a success,
encouraging us to work with even more enthusiasm to the new edition.
>From May 5 to 12, in San Salvo Marina in the province of Chieti,
[http://www.altovastese.it/news/domenica-5-maggio-a-san-salvo-presentazione-…
a show] has been compiled with the winners photos of Italy Wiki Loves
Monuments 2012. In addition,
[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saline_di_Trapani_-_ora_rossa.jpg
a click of Saline of Trapani] was published last week on the site of
[http://www.repubblica.it/ambiente/2013/05/06/foto/sos_natura_quante_oasi_ww…
Repubblica.it].
In short, we are full of energy for the new year, also galvanized by
the patronage that [http://www.wikilovesmonuments.it/istituzioni/ ten
Italian regions] already granted us. And you?! Are you ready to help
us? You can [http://www.wikilovesmonuments.it/monumenti/segnala/
notify us of] the monuments and collect permissions
([https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U1XaBiKFYCWirKFlWgvyi0Yx4G3xVUHNF_hIpbu…
here a facsimile of the form]).
== Wikiwomen ==
On Saturday, May 4, [http://www.bibliotecasalaborsa.it/home.php
Salaborsa library] in Bologna was the scene of an ''edit-a-thon'' of
biographies of female figures in history.
[[:it:User:Atropine|Ginevra]] coordinated the work of 13 participants
(10 women and 3 men), supported by
[[:it:User:Virginia_Gentilini|Virginia Gentilini]] and
[[:it:User:Elitre|Elitre]]. After an exposition of the principles of
Wikipedia and women that should have written, Wikipedians-to-be were
divided into groups and put to work. Five new entries have been
created and two extended. To know all the details and stay informed on
events organized by Wikimedia Italy to reduce the gender gap, please
refer to the [http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/WikiDonne related page].
Sincere thanks to our volunteers who have teamed up in recent months,
helping to grow the
[http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:GLAM/Biblioteche Libraries'
Project]. We noticed that the activities promoted in series increase
the participation of the public and arouse greater interest among
librarians in Italy.
== Next appointments ==
* May 17, Milano: [http://www.joomlalombardia.org Joomla! Lombardia],
together with [http://www.europarl.it/view/it/benvenuti_ufficio/milano.html
Office of the European Parliament in Milan], organizes the conference
[http://www.joomlalombardia.org/index.php?option=com_acymailing&ctrl=archive…
"Software ethics. Free software, a resource supportive, ethical and
economic for the company, the community and the family."] To tell the
story of Wikimedia and Wikipedia, realities that do not accept
advertising but rely on the support of volunteers, members
[:it:User:Ilario Ilario] and [[:it:User:Mizardellorsa|Mizardellorsa]].
The event runs from 9:30 to 13:00, at the conference room of the
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT - Palazzo delle Stelline (C.so Magenta, 59 -
20123), and you can sign up for free
[http://www.joomlalombardia.org/calendario-attivita.html?task=view_event&eve…
here].
* May 21 and 28, Borgo San Lorenzo (Firenze):
[[:it:User:Giaccai|Susanna Giaccai]] will hold an introductory course
to Wikipedia for librarians, in the computer room of Unione Montana of
Municipalities of the Mugello, with Internet connection on all
workstations, from 9 am to 13.
* May 30, Crema: [[:it:Utente:Virginia_Gentilini|Virginia Gentilini]]
will speak at the conference
[http://opac.provincia.cremona.it/library/home-RBC/viaggio-nel-mondo-del-lib…''
Librarians tell themselves: challenges, opportunities and alliances'']
organized by the Cremona Libraries' Network, talking of the
relationship between Wikipedia and the world of libraries. The meeting
([http://opac.provincia.cremona.it/sites/brescia/assets/UFF.-BIBLIOTECHE-CREM…
here] the full program) will begin at 9:30 am and will take place at
the S. Pietro da Cemmo Hall of the S. Agostino Augustine (Museo Civico
- piazza Winifred Terni de Gregory). You can
[http://opac.provincia.cremona.it/library/home-RBC/form-iscrizione-convegno/
register online].
Hi folks,
It’s my great pleasure to announce that today, Jared Zimmerman will
start as Wikimedia Foundation’s Director of User Experience. As UX
Director, Jared will lead the design team and have a hands-on role on
the team, contributing his own design work. It’s still a small team
(Brandon, Vibha, May, and Pau), but we expect to hire an additional
3-4 designers in the coming 12-18 months.
Prior to Wikimedia, Jared was Principal Interaction Designer at
Autodesk, where he worked with engineers, visual artists, and user
experience researchers to create new software solutions for
architecture and design professionals with an emphasis on AutoCAD for
Mac and soon to be released online design collaboration tools. Jared
has led cross-disciplinary design teams in his roles at Autodesk,
Ammunition Group, and iconmobile, including creative direction.
At Autodesk, he was part of the transition to agile development and
helped his design teams apply those principles to their work. During
his time there he worked with design management to establish designers
as product owners in the scrum process, to further integrate them into
the development process from start to finish, as well as teaching his
team best practices for use of agile design tools.
Jared has degrees in Graphic Design (BGD) and Fine Art Photography
(BFA) from the Rhode Island School of Design. His photography has been
in featured in publications such as Travel + Leisure Magazine,
ZonaRetiro, and Huffington Post.
In addition to starting in his new job, Jared is also planning his
wedding in July to his fiancée Shannon. [1] In his spare time Jared is
wrapping up a remodel to their home, working on his first iPhone app,
experimental cooking, photographing the bay area & abroad [2], and
answering questions on Quora. [3]
I look forward to Jared’s leadership in helping elevate a delightful,
consistent and efficient User Experience to becoming a key measure of
success for our work.
Please join me in welcoming Jared! :-)
Erik
[1] http://shannonbadiee.com/
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/spoinknet/
[3] https://www.quora.com/Jared-Zimmerman/answers
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Hi all,
the new bulletin from Wikimedia Italia (#51) is available. You may
find a report on the Wikimedia Conference held in Milano, read about
some initiatives in libraries and nursing university, know about an
interview to our "capa" and a couple of talks of our members.
As usual a link has been added to meta, ay
Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Italia ; more-or-less raw text of
the bulletin follows below.
ciao, .mau.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
== Wikimedia Conference 2013 in Milano ==
>From April 18 to 21 Milan hosted the
[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2013 Wikimedia
Conference 2013], the annual international meeting for discussing the
state of the Wikimedia movement.
Some numbers: about 150 delegates from all over the world attended the
meeting from forty chapters and groups, a dozen of volunteers of
Wikimedia Italia for support, two facilitators moderated the sessions,
200 notebooks were used, as many pens were consumed too, 12 eggs (!)
were needed...
If you want to know more, please consult the web page where you may
also find the [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2013/Schedule
complete program] of the conference, with reports and slides of
meetings, and to
[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_Conference_2013
Wikimedia Commons] where you can see over 500 photos of the event. <br
/>
A report of the event dedicated to Wikipedia and education is
available on the
[http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/04/26/education-program-leaders-gather-to-sh…
Wikimedia Foundation blog].
== Libraries and Wikipedia ==
Wikipedia approaches libraries and vice versa. The series of Wikimedia
initiatives for connecting the two worlds continues.
; Sala Borsa library, Bologna
: Saturday, April 20, [[:it:User:P tasso|Piero Grandesso]] held a
workshop for those who want to know something more about Wikipedia,
steal some secret on how getting the best from it and maybe become an
active contributor. The public, very heterogeneous, was particularly
interested in the presentation; among the attendees there also were
some librarian0.
: Saturday, May 4 [[:it:User:Atropine|Ginevra Sanvitale]], expert
Wikipedian, will conduct the first collective
[http://www.bibliotecasalaborsa.it/eventi/23821 ''edit-a-thon''] in
the library: a marathon of writing entries, dedicated in particular to
the female figures in the fields of history, science and literature.
The meeting, designed for users who already know how to move within
Wikipedia, will be held from 15 to 18 in the Internet area; it is
free, but booking is required.
, Public Library of Cles (Trento)
: Thursday, May 9, [:it:Utente:Giaccai|Susanna Giaccai] will hold a
course on [http://www.aib.it/attivita/2013/34229-seminario-20130509/
being introduced to Wikipedia] aimed at librarians, teachers and
educators, to provide basic knowledge on the functioning of Wikipedia.
The meeting will take place from 14 to 17, at the Hall
Borghesi-Bertolla of the library. Registration is required:
reservations will be accepted up to the 100 available seats.
== Wikipedia goes.... to the university ==
Wednesday, April 24, was the last date in the session
[http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Raduni/Fondazione_IRCCS_Istituto_Naz…
meetings on Wikipedia] addressed to the students of the last year of
the Nursing Bachelorate of the
[http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fondazione_IRCCS_Istituto_Nazionale_dei_Tumori
Fondazione IRCCS - National Cancer Institute of Milan].
The creator of the initiative was [[:it:User:Franciaio|Franciaio]],
supported by [[:it:User:Ilario|Ilario]] and
[[:it:User:Mizardellorsa|Mizardellorsa]] in the role of teachers.
The experience just ended will be continued next year too: the
"Wikipedian day" will become a real elective course for nursing
students at the University of Milan, with the assignment of university
credits. In addition, some students have already been proposed to put
Wikipedia in the center of the dissertations for obtaining their
degrees. Moreover, other hospitals helding degree courses are
interested to promote a similar initiative for their students. We will
keep you updated!
== Wikimedia Italia on Corriere.it ==
[[:it:user:Frieda|Frieda Brioschi]] says, [http://ur1.ca/dm12z in an
interview with Corriere della Sera], the association's activities,
starting from some considerations on the participative web and the
possibilities for young people to make Wikipedia an opportunity for
personal growth, learning to create the web without it dragging them.
== Open Science ==
[[:it:User:Aubrey|Andrea Zanni]] (''member of Wikimedia Italy
board''), participated on Monday, April 22 to
[http://www.worldwiderome.it/ World Wide Rome - Open Science - I am
the mind], an event dedicated to Nobel Prize winner Rita Levi
Montalcini on the anniversary day of her birth. ''In scienza e
coscienza. In memoria di Aaron Swartz'' (In science and conscience. In
memory of Aaron Swartz) is the title of his talk, dedicated to the
young "martyr" of open access.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=byf1b6VuApc#!
Clicking here], you can see the full video;
[http://www.chefuturo.it/2013/04/andrea-zanni-rita-e-aaron-noi-siamo-la-ment…
here] instead you can read a reflection of Zanni, published on "WChe
Futuro!" web magazine.<br />
The event was also attended by Maurizio Napolitano, another member of
Wikimedia Italia, with a speech titled ''La conoscenza nella società''
(Knowledge in the society).
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb1rWE2nhRI clicking here], you can
see the full video.
== News from WikiWorld ==
* Can't wait to get home to upload to Commons your latest photos? Now
you can do it instantly with a comfortable
[http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/04/29/announcing-the-official-commons-app-fo…
app for Android and iOs].
* From April 25 the Alpha version of
[http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor Visual Editor] is
active on the Wikipedia in Italian. Visual Editor allows you to edit
Wikipedia without having to learn Wikisyntax, like in a word
processor.
