Hi all,
I'm happy to say that Wikimedia Australia is going to embark on its
first projects-based 'event' - an "editors' challenge" (light-hearted
editing competition) with the theme of "Australian GLAM". The aim is
to improve the coverage and quality of Australian GLAM-related topics
across the projects.
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Australia/GLAM_challenge>
The plan is to hold it over the week of July 13-19th which is still
about 4 weeks away. Any registered user will be able to take part.
At this point I'm looking to appoint someone to be the coordinator for
the event. The coordinator's responsibilities would be to raise
awareness of the event in the lead-up, answer onwiki queries, and then
check submissions for validity. Maybe also help gather prizes. The
coordinator will get help from the committee, especially me and Liam,
if they need it, but we won't be running the show. If we can't appoint
a coordinator I don't think it will run.
The judges will likely consist of the coordinator, a WMAU ctte member
and someone from a GLAM instutition. The judges would choose the
winning entrants (according to how many prizes there are) and choose a
title for each award (like "Most impressive expansion of an existing
article"... or maybe something more interesting-sounding!).
If you are interested in coordinating the GLAM Challenge, please reply
to me OFF-LIST within the next week or so. You don't have to have done
any kind of organising before, but a strong familiarity with the norms
of the Wikimedia projects would be a good idea. :)
If you have any thoughts about the event itself feel free to edit the
wiki page or shoot a line back here.
cheers,
Brianna
--
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/
G'day all,
I thought I'd just remind one and all that next week it's meetup time
again for Sydneysiders :-)
See http://www.customware.net/repository/display/WikiWednesday for
more details, and if you're anywhere near the Sydney area, do try and
come along - I've heard the presentations are particularly strong this
time ;-)
Being a 'wiki' wednesday - it's not just the encyclopedia types who
attend, although we put up a reasonable showing - it's a pretty
diverse crowd, friendly, and interesting to chat with. Plus there's
often free pizza and beer!
Hope to see you there,
best,
Peter,
PM.
As you may recall, a bunch of Wikimedians visited the Powerhouse Museum in
Sydney a few months back for a "Backstage Pass" tour of their collection.
With that tour as a significant impetus, the museums instituted (mixed)
Creative Commons licensing on their entire collection
database<http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/>!
So, now that we have Creative-Commons licensing on Wikipedia - we can go
ahead and copy/paste the applicable sections of text into Wikipedia as long
as we link back to their collection noting that the text is not just
referenced from there but actually copied from there (this is the difference
between citation and attribution).
Specifically, can I point you to the Powerhouse's blog for today which is
all about their keynote object - the Boulton & Watt steam engine. Note, that
the first two links in their blogpost are to Wikipedia and the second of
these is to the Wikipedia article that we
wrote<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulton_and_Watt_steam_engine_%28Powerhouse_Mu…>on
the day of the Backstage Pass (and has since been a DYK on the
frontpage). Everyone likes a bit of link-love!
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/blog/?p=613
Can I also point you to the list of "Things to do" that came out of that
day's tour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Sydney/Powerhouse_Museum_2009…
Have a trawl through there and see if you can find some good content that
can be brought across to Wikipedia into relevant articles (or create new
articles) with attribution. Note, the PHM is currently reviewing their
copyright/access policy for their collections' images so these currently
remain out-of-bounds. As do the sections of their collection record text
labeled with the creative commons non-commercial license (the "statement of
significance", "production notes" and "history notes" sections). These are
the real jewel in the crown of the PHM's collection records and for that
reason they're listed as NC licensed - fair enough. So, it's up to us to
demonstrate what a good job we have made of using the sections of text they
have allowed out under CC-By-SA, to provide the argument to justify any
further release.
Finally, if you're the kind of person who is interested in this kind of
thing then you're the kind of person who'd be interested in attending
GLAM-WIKI. http://glam.wikimedia.org.au/ We'd love to see you there! The
Powerhouse will be there talking about their experiences with us and with
Flickr Commons and you should too :-)
Best,
-Liam [[witty lama]]
wittylama.com/blog
Peace, love & metadata
For those who don't have an RSS feed from the CC site:
This afternoon the Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee<http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/edic/> of the Victorian Government handed down the final report<http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/edic/inquiries/access_to_PSI/final_report.…> of its Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data<http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/edic/inquiries/access_to_PSI/>. And it's great news for CC - not only does the Committee recommend that Victorian public agencies adopt a uniform licensing system, they recommend that CC be used as the default licences for that system.
The report is particularly timely for the Victorian government. The bushfires disaster earlier this year revealed how closed and outdated government information management policies<http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Vic-Govt-limited-Google-s-b…> can be a real barrier to coordination and response in a national emergency.
The recommendation doesn't mean, of course, that everything from the Victorian government would necessarily be released under CC. There are always going to be materials that are more appropriate for more closed copyright models for privacy, public safety and commercial reasons. But the Committee does endorse evidence (provided by the GILF<http://www.gilf.gov.au/> project) that 85% of government documents would be appropriate for CC licensing.
We haven't finished reading the report yet, so we can give you a full rundown. But here are the relevant recommendations:
* Recommendation 11: That the Victorian Government develop a consistent copyright licensing system for use across all government
departments
* Recommendation 14: That the Victorian Government adopt the Creative Commons licensing model as the default licensing system for the Information Management Framework.
* Recommendation 15: That the Victorian Government adopt a hybrid public sector information licensing model comprising Creative Commons and a tailored suite of licences for restricted materials.
If Victoria implements these recommendations, they'll be in good company: President Obama<http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11081>, the Australian Bureau of Statistics<http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/Home/%C2%A9+Copyright?opendoc…> and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation<http://www.pool.org.au/genepool> all already use CC licences for their material. Hopefully the Federal Government's new Web 2.0 Taskforce<http://gov2.net.au/> will sit up and take notice of the Victorian report.
Jessica Coates
Project Manager
Creative Commons Clinic
Queensland University of Technology
ph: 07 3138 8301
fax: 07 3138 9395
email: j2.coates(a)qut.edu.au
- a post-glam movement ;-)
Brianna Laugher brianna.laugher at
<mailto:wikimediaau-l%40lists.wikimedia.org?Subject=%5BWikimediaau-l%5D%20sc
hools%20-%20a%20post-glam%20movement%20%3B-%29&In-Reply-To=1e170f70090619152
8k66d63855vc1d43dc141e9e0d3%40mail.gmail.com> gmail.com
Tue Jun 23 01:34:32 UTC 2009
Hi,
I think there is a lot of scope for work we can do with the education
sector. There is also some funding coming up/available that I would
like to see us apply for.
>>> That true. Could we consider the .gov.au sector as well. You may have
read this;
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,,25673234-15306,00.html
The hub for this is here.
http://www.katelundy.com.au/2009/05/29/public-sphere-2-open-government-polic
y-and-practice/
You've only got to compare between edna and govdex to see what happens when
old (sectorized) thinking dominates = duplicates.
Seems like we're coming to the end of the 'tool wars' and beginning to see
the start of the systemization the IP networks which have to pass the data.
=================================================
What about "going where the teachers are"? Teachers and educators
actually have an awful lot of tech infrastructure set up already.
My guess is that we can have more impact by going to them rather than
dragging them to us.
e.g. the me.edu.au networks:
http://me.edu.au/c/Wikishttp://me.edu.au/c/Wikipedia
>>>That was like a breath of fresh air. If you wanted to get your hands on
some 'grown up' tools, (and you have an .edu.au in your email address)
Try registering here.
http://www.arcs.org.au/join_form?came_from=http%3A//www.arcs.org.au/forums/a
nds
You know I've been talking (on the community pages of me.edu.au) about using
me.edu.au as an Single Sign On to various tools, whose 'front ends' are
scattered around various web sites like this. We could use these ones for
GLAMwiki (and pre and post) to support some distributed conferences in
different localities (a la ABC's qanda).
That also applies to conferences. What if we piggybacked on an existing
event?
<http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/events/conferences/cache/offonce;jsessionid=
A27055CE9591E27E200CB229DA53AD8F>
Either by formally asking the organisers to be part of their event, or
just collocating in time and place.
>>> I think this is a matter of what 'message(s)' this community wants to
send. The tools (like wikis), after all, are just a means to ends.
My suggestion would be to focus on principles.
http://www.socialinclusion.gov.au/Principles/Pages/default.aspx
How can we build up our internal strength in the area of public
speaking for these kinds of events? I am afraid we are at risk of
leaning on the same people constantly. Are people just not interested
in speaking about Wikipedia et al? Or are they interested but not sure
what to say, how to say it?
>>> I think workshops are the way to go. You've only got to read Greg
Black's (CEO of education.au) blog, as one dinosaur, thinks about being
involved with the 'messy learning' approach. We're seeing the new dynamic
grow legs now, down on Kate Lundy's blog, and nearby.
http://groups.google.com.au/group/gov20canberra
But we will need to start aggregating the tools and systemizing the
community spaces.
I also agree with Andrew's comment that we have a number of
edu-focused people among us already and we should make sure we are
getting their input before looking further afield.
>>> Amen. So what tools do they need? And I do mean what tools do they need
to be good citizens, not good teachers.
cheers
Brianna
Hi all,
Wikimedia Germany has a neat little newspaper (yes really, a
newspaper!) called "Wikimedium" and they just published the second
edition. PDF is here:
<http://wikimedia.de/fileadmin/wiki/images/Downloads/Wikimedium_2009-02.pdf>
They have a nice page with news from other chapters around the world,
including a snippet on WMAU about our participation in the Unlocking
IP conference in April.
It's a really impressive publication. :)
cheers
Brianna
--
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/
Hi all,
I just created this page;
http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Schools
with the intention of encouraging all those interested in liaising with
educators / schools directly to jump in and whip up a few project pages
formalising what we might do / info. we can share etc. etc. (it's a wiki
process, of course, so please get involved!)
Liam's a constant source of inspiration to me, and I've recently been
involved in correspondance with a few other wiki folk all over the globe
about furthering the 'glam' approach to include schools - ie. talking with
them about what schools' needs for wiki projects are, how we're currently
doing at meeting them, how we as a project (wikimedia, not just wikipedia)
fit in to their programmes etc.
I've spoken at medium length to one head teacher and one head of department
on a personal level which has further convinced me that it would be both fun
and useful for a cadre of volunteers to consider preparing a few talks /
workshops etc. etc. to take to schools in the vicinity of wherever
volunteers happen to be! - This project is intended to get that ball rolling
:-)
Whilst the mailing list is a fantastic platform for sharing news - it's
probably not quite as good as a wiki for actual development work, so please
consider just diving in at http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Schools or
http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Talk:Schools - my vague, and quite likely to
shift, intention is for this to be in shape to follow 'GLAM' - so we'd be
looking offer some workshops to schools by September... help!
best,
Peter,
PM.
ps. an online donation service would still be a 'good thing' :-)
pps. I'd like to offer teachers the opportunity to edit the wmau pages
related to schools work - would that be cool?
ppps. I also just put the fantastic wikisource book
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_specimen_of_the_botany_of_New_Holland as our
'featured content' - check it out!
Hi,
Just letting everyone know that we are aware wikimedia.org.au is a tad
broken at the moment. I think it suffered a bit of a code upgrade
fail. Hopefully it will be resolved this evening.
Brianna
--
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/
It's official - Remix My Lit<http://www.remixmylit.com/> has released it's first publication: Through the Clock's Workings<http://www.remixmylit.com/anthology/>.
Those who have been following our blog will remember the beautifully simplistic premise of the Australia Council<http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/> funded Remix My Lit project - take stories from 9 prominent Australian authors, release them for remixing under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike licence<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/au/>, and see what happens.
Through the Clock's Workings gives us a taste of the result. Published by the Sydney University Press<http://www.sup.usyd.edu.au/>, this anthology brings together the original 9 stories - from authors such as James Phelan<http://www.jamesphelan.com.au/>, Cate Kennedy<http://www.scribepublications.com.au/author/catekennedy> and Kim Wilkins<http://fantasticthoughts.wordpress.com/> - with 13 of the best remixes. The remixes have a wide range of pedigrees - from masterclasses at writers festivals, writing jams at pubs, random site uploads. And the diversity is great - there are poems, abridgements, gender switches, complete re-imaginings. Even the cover of the the book you can see above is a remix of the stories by the excellent artist Ali J<http://www.alijart.com/>.
And of course, thanks to the CC licence, the whole book is available for remixing too - the original stories, the remixes, even the fonts are free for reuse. It's all part of the ongoing conversation between author and reader, creator and, well, creator.
You can buy a hardcopy<http://purl.library.usyd.edu.au/sup/9781920899325> of the anthology now from the Sydney University Press eStore<http://www.sup.usyd.edu.au/> - it makes a great present and has a fabulous cover. Or if you're comfy with reading from screens download the electronic version<http://www.remixmylit.com/wp-content/pdf/Through-the-Clocks-Workings-EBook.…>.
And remember, the anthology is just part of the story. Dozens more remixes are available on the Remix My Lit website<http://www.remixmylit.com/>, and (with any luck) more will continue to be added over the years). So why not continue the conversation and try some remixing yourself?
Jessica Coates
Project Manager
Creative Commons Clinic
Queensland University of Technology
ph: 07 3138 8301
fax: 07 3138 9395
email: j2.coates(a)qut.edu.au
Thanks Guys,
Replies one by one below,
>>>>>Simon,
All of those people have now been personally invited and some have actually
already registered.
Hmm... hadn't thought about the Aarnet thing. Will look into it. They do
have some facilities for video-streaming the event already set up, but it's
a matter of the facilities costs/time/staff/benefit. I'll check. We will be
filming the presentations and placing them on the website soon after the
event (at the very least).
wittylama.com/blog
Peace, love & metadata
>>>>>Sent from Sydney, Nsw, Australia
Liam, I'm hoping you'll be looking at this in the broader (global)
perspective with GLAM being the icebreaker.
Aarnet is the NREN in OZ with one in other countries.
Try guido or jason(on their staff register on their site). I've already
suggested a link up from BA to Oz for wikimania.
Closer to you is http://www.arcs.org.au/about
which if you drill into will take you to intersect and a few local unis.
They'll trust you.
If you're filming then all they need to provide is an input/output to the
network (and maybe you'll provide an email, twitter or forum to handle
feedback). If you wanted to open this up, then you could talk to arno van
der kraan at
http://sydney.sae.edu/en-gb/news/421/SAE_Institute_Supports_Local_Community
about sending a few students to look after the AV into aarnet (and provide
the equipment). I've introduced arno and guido, re: BA.
BTW. sae's version of arcs-type tools look like this.
http://www.hobnox.com/index.1018.en.html?blg[project_handle]=livetool-projec
t
<http://www.hobnox.com/index.1018.en.html?blg%5bproject_handle%5d=livetool-p
roject&blg%5bid%5d=2418&blg%5bproc%5d=show> &blg[id]=2418&blg[proc]=show
The "sell" is that we are all moving from one (media/education) model to
another and the only way we'll progress is by "doing it".
http://www.wikieducator.org/Funding_proposals/Towards_open_participatory_lea
rning_environments:_Open_textbooks,_educator_training#Improving_collaboratio
n_and_content_interoperability_between_mainstream_OER_projects
This is the same story for both WE(ducator) and WMF's
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communication_Projects_Group
============================================================================
==============
Sarah, Great news about Roxanne (and nice to see the girls are arm
wrestling).
If you want to plant a seed in the librarian community you might ask the
question.
Why shouldn't the library catalog be an encyclopaedia?
http://www.oclc.org/programsandresearch/parcasts/default.htm
Angela,
Hopefully Wayne will come (and talk about his doc above).
Anne Hurley from www.commsalliance.com.au may be interested.(although not a
speaker).
And John Butterworth from the AIMIA (interactive media industry
association)could use the education.
Lastly marktf from education.au should be interested.
http://me.edu.au/b/marktf/
I'll beat the bushes in the mass media space (my bro is at the financial
review). But I have to leave these kinds of contacts to you, cause I'm far
to ancient to be considered "cool"(or is that "bad").
All the best, simon