Hello everyone,
Please find below Wikimedia UK's report for September 2012. The text of the
whole report is posted in the email due to numerous requests for this. You
can also view the report on the WMUK wiki at
https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2012/September - and this wiki
version includes all hyperlinks and images (which aren't included below).
If you have any comments or questions please do let me know.
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for the period 1 to 31 September
2012. If you want to keep up with the chapter's activities as they happen,
please subscribe to our blog, join our mailing list, and/or follow us on
Twitter. If you have any questions or comments, please drop us a line on
this report's talk page.
*Community*
*Editor decline*
Wikipedia reaches a turning point: it's losing administrators faster than
it can appoint them, Telegraph Blogs, 5 September
*Jimmy Wales*
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales attacks government's 'snooper's charter',
Guardian, 5 September
Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia will use encryption to beat snooper's charter,
Telegraph, 6 September
Also see WMUK's Submission on Communications Data Bill on the UK wiki.
*Philip Roth*
Philip Roth 'not a credible source to edit his own novel's Wikipedia page',
Telegraph, 7 September
How Philip Roth Outfoxed Wikipedia’s Idiotic Rules, Gizmodo, 8 September
Author Roth rebukes Wikipedia over Human Stain edit, BBC News, 8 September
Boot up: Bezos on profit, Pirates' German problems, Windows Phone's lost
SDK and more (includes Roth on Wikipedia), Guardian blog, 10 September
Philip Roth's complaint to Wikipedia, Guardian, 11 September
Philip Roth knows his own book but let's not judge Wikipedia harshly,
Independent, 12 September
*Political edits*
Grant Shapps 'edited Wikipedia page to remove school records', Telegraph, 9
September
Top Tory 'airbrushed his Wikipedia page', new chairman 'deleted political
gaffes and altered exam details', Daily Mail, 9 September
Tory MPs fiddling with their Wikipedia entries: Grant Shapps is just the
tip of the iceberg, Telegraph blogs, 10 September
Grant Shapps's Wikipedia page was edited to remove byelection gaffe,
Guardian, 11 September
*Gender bias*
Wikipedia editors' gender visualised, Guardian, 11 September
*Wikitravel*
Wikitravel versus Wikimedia: something is going badly wrong with the free
content movement, Telegraph, 11 September
*GLAM activities*
See also the This Month in GLAM UK report for this month.
*Wikipedia Takes Coventry*
Wikipedia Takes Coventry was the first Wikipedia Takes... event in the UK
Interview with Erin Hollis and Harry Mitchell on Wikipedia Takes Coventry
BBC Coventry and Warwickshire (1 September 2012)
Clock is ticking for scavengers to capture Coventry Leamington Courier (1
September 2012)
Also: Kenilworth Weekly and Warwick Courier
*Other activities*
Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon at the library of the Royal Society, BoingBoung, 5
September
*Expert outreach*
Delete the Wiki worries and get close to the edit Times Higher Education,
20 September
*Microgrants approved this month include ...*
An extension to the Operation Barras and Operation Flavius microgrant for
source material for getting w:en:Operation Flavius and w:en:Operation
Barras to featured article status. Operation Barras is now going through
A-class review, and is expected to reach FA status without too many
problems. Our thanks go to HJ Mitchell for his valuable work putting time
into these articles!
*UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)*
There has been a substantial amount of media coverage during over the last
couple of months. The online coverage has been aggregated into a PDF file
that includes links to the articles. Topics include Ada Lovelace Day,
Monmouthpedia and Gibraltarpedia, Mentions of Wikipedia articles, Wikipedia
Zero, Jimmy Wales, GLAM Camp London, EduWiki, our relationship with the PR
industry and a collaboration with Know How Non-Profit. You can see the full
list on the UK wiki.
We also published the following blog posts in September:
Three months as a Wikipedian in Residence, by Andrew Gray
EduWiki kicks off amid great anticipation by Stevie Benton
Board update (notification that Joscelyn Upendran had stood down from the
Board)
Wikipedia Takes Coventry - the winners! by User:Rock drum
EduWiki 2012 - a review by Martin Poulter
Wikimedia UK appoints Saad Choudri to its Board by Chris Keating
Board update (notification that Roger Bamkin had stood down from the Board)
Gibraltarpedia: WMUK press release (with clarifications about the project)
First ever Wikimedia UK intern waves goodbye by Isabelle Yates
Joint statement from Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK (announcing the
independent review into WMUK governance)
*Activities in October*
01 - Wikipedia and images workshop/October 2012
01 - Board meeting (TBC) - call
01 - Conference Committee meeting (postponed from 24 September)
02 - Imperial College Wikipedia Society Freshers' Fair
02 - 03 - Cambridge University Wikipedia Society launch at the Freshers'
Fair
04 - Robin Owain meeting Dr. Ted Jones, Digitisation on Demand from the
National Library of Wales about work with Wikimedia UK
08 - Wikipedia talk and training workshop at the University of Oxford
08 - JISC Digital Infrastructure Team workshop, London
11 - Parkinson's UK Wikipedia training
12 - AHRC Wikipedia training workshop at the British Library
13 - 14 - Fæ and Andy Mabbett separately addressing the Central and Eastern
Europe Wikimedia conference.
14 - London meetup
15 - Roger Bamkin speaking at the Oxford Internet Institute
16 - Roger Bamkin speaking at De Montfort University
19 - Ada Lovelace Day event
21 - Coventry meetup
23-26 - Dunhuang Project editathon, British Library
26 - Black History Month event
26 - Women in Science editathon, Oxford
27 - 28 - Train the trainer workshop, October 2012
28 - Cambridge meetup
For events in November and onwards, please see Events.
*Finances*
The current state of each of our budgets is outlined in a Google
Spreadsheet at
https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org.uk/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkP38YPQ7Tg….
This details spend to date, and a rough estimate of future spending. This
spreadsheet is too complex to be placed directly on a wiki. Our yearly
spend is heavily 'end-loaded', partially due to the rapid growth of
Wikimedia UK.
Although we may underspend in one or two budgets, the next few weeks will
see a refocussed effort, led by a committee of editors, to work out how
they would best like to spend this underspend.
We also expect to be moving money between some budgets in the not too
distant future.
*News from the Chief Exec*
For information on Jon's activities this month, see News from the Office.
The updates about the Wikimedia UK Interns can be found there too, together
with here.
*Communications*
There were some notable communications successes this month. Both the
EduWiki conference and our work around Ada Lovelace Day attracted a good
deal of positive media attention. You can see the full breakdown of press
coverage in the report linked to in the UK press coverage section above. In
other ways this has been a challenging month in terms of communications and
it was unfortunate timing that our Communications Organiser was on annual
leave for the second half of the month. There have been appointments and
departures on our Board of Trustees and the announcement of an independent
review into Wikimedia UK's governance. There has been much conflation and
presumption at the heart of much of the media coverage, both in terms of
Roger's resignation and the announcement of the review, that it has been
difficult to be clear and factual about what has actually taken place. In
many ways September was something of a gift to our critics because of the
perception of events - regardless of what those events actually were.
Moving forward, we need to be more secure in making our own voice heard in
amongst the media hubbub.
*Fundraising and Membership*
*Fundraising*
This month, we received £1,258.35 in one-off donations, with 68 individual
donations. The average donation amount was £18.50 - 63% of these donors
have 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.bavagewikimedia.org.uk and let her know
your requirements.
As for direct debit donations, there were 6026 successful direct debits
this month, bringing in a total of £24,765.
*Membership*
Up to 30th September 2012:
214 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current members
41 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership
should be renewed)
This adds up to 255 members who are eligible to vote
152 Expired members
Katherine is developing HTML templates for welcome emails for new and
renewing members to sign-post them to resources and information and will be
scheduling a regular job to email members who have renewed (monthly) and
newly approved (post-board meetings).
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
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.*