The Editathon focussed on Women artists, and was at LADA so the editors had access to their archives. Discussions have already started re a follow up event.Wikimedia UK and the Live Art Development Agency (LADA) ran a very successful editathon on Feminism and Live Art at the LADA offices.
Wikimedia UK is running a tripod friendly photography event at the Tank Museum in Dorset, the museum has given us some free tickets for Wikimedia photographers and various participants online are assembling a wish list. As we go to press there are still some tickets available for interested photographers.
Wikimedia UK gave logistical support to some Wikimedians in Ireland in order to support their first editathon.
The Battle of Clontarf. A thousand years on, was this defining moment in Irish history the occasion when Brian Boru himself drove the Vikings out of Ireland much as Saint Patrick had driven the snakes out a few hundred years earlier; Or was it a Game of Thrones style slaughter with two alliances of Irish and Vikings killing each other in sight of the walls of Dublin, leaving Dublin an independent Viking city state for a generation after?
The First Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in the Republic of Ireland, held in partnership with 1014 Retold, brought historians, Wikipedians and others together to improve the articles on Gormlaith, her various husbands and other interested parties.
The battle of Clontarf edit-a-thon took place in the Science Gallery in Trinity College, Dublin on Easter Saturday and was written up by 1014 retold. Coverage has been on Silicon Republic and Buzzfeed in their article the real Game of Thrones.
Daria Cybulska is leading a review of the Wikimedian in Residence program, anyone wishing to give feedback is welcome to contact her.
The program for Wikimania is firming up as the Program committee decides which of 64 GLAM submissions to include in the GLAM track. Potential attendees of Wikimania and others are welcome to join in the assessment process by signing up for the talks they would like to attend and querying on the talkpages those that need discussion.
The Fringe is also expanding with several GLAM events for those staying on after Wikimania.
Later events include an editathon at the Institute of Classics in September and WW1 and Dissent in November
On 3 April WMUK supported a volunteer-led Editathon at University of St Mark and St John in Plymouth, organised by Harry Mitchell, along with Doug Taylor and Chris McKenna who provided training for the attendees.
This was the most recent event in a string of education outreach activities during the first quarter of 2014. WMUK staff members Richard Nevell and Dr Toni Sant are in the process of collating basic information (mainly usernames and contact details, where appropriate) from all participants at these events to ensure appropriate follow-up and engagement through future Education-related activities.
Dr Martin Poulter engagement as Wikimedia Ambassador with Jisc has come to an end. Details about his work during the period July 2013 to April 2014 are available here.
Another planning meeting for the Future of Education workshop (to be held 21-22 June as a Wikimania 2014 Fringe event) took place on 11 April via Google Hangouts. Planning for the event is well underway with registration set to open by the start of May. Registration will remain open until the first week of June.
The first planning meeting for the EduWiki Conference 2014 was held 14 April via Skype; details of the outcomes including proposed dates, themes and tracks, associated activities, and venues to be approached for quotes, are available on theplanning page which will be updated continuously with new information as it develops. The conference will be held in Edinburgh on a tentative date of 31 October, with the final venue yet to be determined.
A tech committee meeting took place on 1 April. You can see the agenda along with some notes here.
The proposal for funding to support the production of a short documentary film about GLAM outreach efforts in the United Kingdom has been approved.
Information about project grants that are currently running, and how to submit an application of your own, are at Project grants/Applications.
Keep Wales Tidy have agreed to a partership with Wici Cymru and will request all their 185 groups located on the Wales Coast Path to be trained in Wiki-skills. KWT will invite their groups to clusters of workgroups on the 1st June with roll-out in the following weeks.
For events in April 2014 and onwards, please see Events.
Preparation began on the Q1 accounts, covering 1 February to 30 April, for approval by the Audit and Risk Committee in May.
The chapter was approached by both Sky News and ITN this month with a view to finding someone to speak about Wikimedia and Wikipedia in relation to the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Unfortunately to the story of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, the segment was bumped both times. The approaches show that we are making progress in terms of recognition and awareness.
Another significant area of work this month was responding to the story about vandalism to the Hillsborough Wikipedia article. This made national news across the spectrum and Wikimedia UK was called upoon for comment. At one point we had one volunteer speaking on Radio 4 and another on Radio 5 at the same time. The BBC in particular offered a favourable quote from Wikimedia UK and the story leaned towards praising the practices of Wikipedia and its volunteers as actually working well.
Please see the above links to relevant press coverage received in April and blog posts published during the same period.
If you're interested in getting more involved with our communications or have any questions or comments, please email Stevie Benton – stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk
This month, we received £153 in one-off donations, with 6 individual donations. The average donation amount was £22.50 - of the donations that were eligible for gift aid, 83% had Gift Aid Declarations made and matched with their records. If anyone would like a full (but anonymised) csv file with more information, please get in touch with katherine.bavageatwikimedia.org.uk and let her know your requirements.
There were 4386 successful direct debits this month, bringing in a total of £17403.92
You can view more detailed membership data here
We received 55 visitors to the office this month, including for a meeting of the Tech Committee and some international visitors passing through on their way to the Berlin Wikimedia Conference.
Stevie Benton Head of External Relations Wikimedia UK +44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173 @StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.