Dear fellows,

The following message is just to keep you informed about the activities developed during the last three months by Amical.

Kind regards,

J. Gustavo Góngora (As a member of Amical)

Courses and conferences

*2nd December. Conference about Wikipedia at Òmnium cultural. User:Gomà & User:Pallares

*21st December. Workshop on how to edit Wikipedia at the Carlos III University of Madrid. [[User:Gomà]]

*11th February. Talk on Wikipedia at the Civic Centre of Porqueres. [[User:Gomà]]

*18th February Workshop on how to edit Wikipedia at the Golferichs House of Barcelona. [[User:Gomà]]

* Wikiproject:Viquifabricació. The test corresponding to the first semester of the course has successfully come to an end. The following people have taken part in Catalan: 3 teachers, 23 students that have worked on 41 articles. In Spanish: 3 teachers, 21 students and have edited 23 articles. This test has been useful to find the list of more common mistakes, in order to prepare the content of the first courses and to develop the wikiprojects and bots of support for the appropriate management of the project. Many articles still need significative improvements.

* Wikiproject Viquibalear. The registration period and that concerning the creation of articles have been completed. The best ones are being moved to Wikipedia. 9 teachers and 44 students have completed the test. Up to now, 138 articles have been moved to Wikipedia. [[User:Paucabot]]

* Wikiproject Viquiescoles. It is based on the Viquibalear Project but its aim is to work with the richness of the many educational systems and the diversity of languages in which many students attend their lessons across the Catalan-speaking territories. The aim of this year is to test and create the infrastructure which will enable its expansion. Mediawiki has been installed and some teachers have already joined the initiative. In total, 16 teachers from all the Catalan-speaking territories are currently involved. [[User:Barcelona]]

* Mediawiki course at the School ow webcraft [[User:Esenabre|Esenabre]]

* Course of introduction to the wiki edition corresponding to the subject Bioinformatics of the UPF [[User:Toniher]]

Release of contents

* It has already been processed by OTRS a permission to publish the book Les Plantes Cultivades. Cereals de Pujol Palol, Miquel and we have started dumping it on Wikisource: Les Plantes Cultivades. This book contains many high-quality images on cereals that can be used to illustrate Wikipedia articles. We are currently uploading them to Commons with the collaboration of Joancreus. (Example).

Media

There has been much activity in the media during the last three months, mainly around four themes:

* 300,000 articles from Wikipedia in Catalan. On 21 December the press reported that the Catalan Wikipedia had reached 300,000 articles. They were echoed by several means: racó català, Bits catalans, Directe.cat, La tafanera. On 24 December Ssola is interviewed by Com radio.

. * 10th anniversary of Wikipedia. Following this, there have been several videos and interviews on the radio: Video done at the Citylab of Cornellà KRLS & Gomà, TV3 KRLS & Gomà, L'internauta Gomà, L'entrevista a Vilaweb Gomà, Ona Mallorca Paucabot.

* Grant of € 20,000 from puntCAT Foundation to develop the strategic plan of Wikipedia: Rado 4, Endirecte.cat, Technology911, Diari de Girona, Somdigitals.cat, Tecnonews, Comunicació21.

* In Alghero, it has had a strong media impact the organization of a digital photography competition to illustrate the Wikipedia articles: at Alguer.cat in Catalan and in Italian and on Alghero’s television.

Relation with entities.

* The IEC (Institute of Catalan Studies) has spread among the subsidiaries a request of collaboration with Wikipedia. Up to now, the Literary Section and the Society for Hebrew Studies have responded positively. Barcelona

* We have kept in touch with entities of the Federation of Senior Citizens of Catalonia. We are also finding ways to make some members participate on Wikipedia. Username: Pallares.

* The relations with the Picasso Museum have concluded with the organization of the 1st Conference between Catalan Museums and Wikipedia. Kippelboy. We thank User: Witty lama for his collaboration.

* On January 24 we had a meeting with Escola Massana. We proposed that students draw portraits of people whose images are not copyleft and make them run under free license to illustrate Wikipedia articles. The first impression was good but then it was concluded that this may not take place in the present academic course. Pallares.

* On February 14 we met the Torrens-Ibern Foundation Board of Trustees. We showed them 30 free-licensed college textbooks in English. The Foundation will contact university lecturers to assess the quality and, if adequate, finance will be promoted in collaboration with the university to translate them and publish them on Wikisource. Goma.

Miscellaneous

* kippelboy attended Glamwiki 2010 at the British Museum.

* On 16 December the puntCat Foundation provided us with a grant of 20.000€ to develop the strategic plan of Wikipedia.

* There are two entities that have agreed to provide public information on Wikipedia and make us a point of contact: Centre d'estudis comarcals del Baix Llobregat in Sant Feliu de Llobregat and the Societat Coral el Micalet of Valencia. These entities will have brochures and books on Wikipedia and a person who knows how to edit it. They will provide information to the public and will contact Wikipedia or the association just in case any interested person appears. Hopefully, these are the first steps of a network that will cover the entire territory.

* Improvements have been made to the Amical-bot. We have implemented a module which offers categories and added more templates and pages of ERS.

* We have developed a bot that works with the statistics of some French towns and villages. From here you can complement the content of the articles asking for it with a template or they can otherwise be created automatically. This process is currently under discussion. See examples of articles (in Catalan): Improved article or created article.

* In December, the third survey of Wikipedia users took place. The results were published in January. We thank Marc Miquel for his hard work.

* The association supports the Wiki Loves Monuments project. We bought the domain http://wikilovesmonuments.cat and are making efforts to get sponsors and prizes to the contest. (Vriullop and others, see project pages).

* The association is deeply involved in organizing events for the 10th anniversary of the Catalan Wikipedia. More information will be available next month.

*Free Culture Forum and access to knowledge (http://www.fcforum.net). Participation with the launch of a handbook on sustainability in the digital era. Gomà & User:Lilaroja.