Dear Cr Black,
On behalf of Wikimedia Australia, I write to express our concern about
the imminent closure of the Dictionary of Sydney due to the City of
Sydney's delays in releasing sponsorship funds.
Wikimedia Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation,
officially recognised as a national Chapter of the Wikimedia movement
- the volunteer community behind Wikipedia and other online
educational resources. We would like to express our support for the
Dictionary of Sydney project not only for the quality content that it
has produced but also for the globally pioneering role it has played
in its use of free-licensing. The Dictionary of Sydney provides the
vast majority of its content with a "Creative Commons" copyright
license that ensures the material can be used by third parties under
very open terms. This is considered world's best practice and is
consistent with the principles espoused by the "Open Educational
Resources" and "Open Source Software" communities globally. It should
be noted that the official State history project of Minnesota in the
USA, entitled "MNOpedia" http://www.mnopedia.org/ has used the
Dictionary of Sydney as the inspiration for their comparable copyright
policy.
The strong stance of the Dictionary of Sydney on open access and
collaboration with historians both locally and further afield has
ensured that the content it has created is both legally and
practically compatible with Wikipedia, the world's fifth most visited
website. As a result, many of the Dictionary's articles about
important people, places and events have been integrated into
Wikipedia, including but not limited to:
"Florence Violet McKenzie"
(Australia's first female electrical engineer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Violet_McKenzie )
"Glebe Island"
(a crucial part of Sydney's economy for centuries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glebe_Island_%28New_South_Wales%29 )
"Sydney Artists' Camps"
(one of the most significant art movements in Australia's history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_artists%27_camps )
We draw your attention to the comprehensive acknowledgement of the
Dictionary of Sydney at the bottom of each Wikipedia article that uses
Dictionary material as the source of its content. Without the
Dictionary of Sydney, and without its pioneering efforts in open
access, this content simply would not have been available to the
online encyclopaedia and its wider audience. It would be a great shame
to see this outstanding collaborative digital history project fold.
Wikimedia Australia urges the City of Sydney to ensure the continued
funding and support for this project, without which the global
appreciation of Sydney's history would be very much poorer.
If you would like to contact Wikimedia Australia or one of our Sydney
based members for further information on this or related matters we
would welcome your enquiry.
Sincerely,
John Vandenberg
President,
Wikimedia Australia
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Siko Bouterse" <sbouterse(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Jul 31, 2012 7:36 AM
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] IRC office hours with the Wikimedia Fellows
To: <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Hi all,
The Wikimedia Fellows program will be holding IRC office hours in
#wikimedia-office this Thursday, August 2, 2012 at 21:00 UTC. Fellows
Tanvir Rahman, Peter Coombe, Jon Harald Søby, Steven Zhang, Sarah Stierch
and Jonathan Morgan will be there to discuss their current fellowship
projects (exact topics TBD based on who shows up with
questions/comments/feedback), and I'll take any questions on the
fellowships program that you may have.[1][2] As always, links to time
conversion and other office hour info is on Meta.[3] Hope to see you there!
Best wishes,
Siko
1. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fellowship_News/Current, and this should
be even more current by Thursday :-)
2. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships
3. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours
--
Siko Bouterse
Head of Community Fellowships
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
sbouterse(a)wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list
Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Sorry - didn't realised this bounced earlier due to me sending from the
wrong address!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
To: wikimediaau-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:28:10 +1000
Subject: Request for media contact - Sydney Wikipedian
Hi everyone,
I noticed this pop up on twitter this morning:
https://twitter.com/matthewbevan/status/229763424983343104
Is anyone interested?
Regards,
Charles
Hi,
We've arranged a Commons/Wikipedia event at the Australian War Memorial for
25 August. The goal is to take pictures of the exhibits before they
close. If you are interested in attending, details are available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_the_Australian_War_M….
Sincerely,
Laura Hale
--
twitter: purplepopple
blog: ozziesport.com
This meeting is
AEST: Thu 2:00 AM and 9:00 AM
Perth/WST: Midnight Wed-Thu and Thu 7:00 AM
--
John Vandenberg
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Garfield Byrd <gbyrd(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 1:58 PM
Subject: Subject: IRC office hours to discuss FDC eligibility criteria
and next steps
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Dear Wikimedia Community,
As you may have seen, last week the Wikimedia Foundation Board of
Trustees passed a resolution to establish the Funds Dissemination
Committee (FDC) [1]. Full details about the planned structure and
processes of the FDC can be found in the framework proposed to the
Board [2]. This framework was developed over the past few months with
input from a variety of people across the movement.
We will be holding two sets of IRC office hours on Wednesday 25 July,
to answer any questions community members may have about the FDC
process; in particular the first step of establishing the eligibility
to apply to the FDC. Office hours will be held:
· 16:00-17:00 UTC/09:00 PDT Wednesday, July 25th
· 23:00-23:59 UTC/16:00 PDT Wednesday, July 25th
On Monday 23 July 2012, the Foundation will publish a list of eligible
entities based on the eligibility criteria established in the
framework [3]. Please let me know if you believe there are any
corrections to be made to this list. Entities who are interested in
applying for funds through the FDC but are ineligible due to
compliance issues should work with the Foundation to develop a plan to
correct compliance issues.
Entities who are ineligible for other reasons - or who would prefer
not to go through the FDC process in this round -may seek funding
through the Wikimedia Foundation Grants Program.
I will be sending out a more detailed email on Monday to inform you of
this list and next steps in the process. I look forward to speaking
with you on Wednesday.
Sincerely,
Garfield Byrd
(WMF Chief of Finance and Administration)
[1]http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Funds_Dissemination_Commit…
[2]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Draft_FDC_Pr…
[3]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Sample_lette…
--
Garfield Byrd
Chief of Finance and Administration
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext 6787
415.882.0495 (fax)
www.wikimediafoundation.org
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org
Hi everyone,
This coming Sunday 22nd July we have another WMAU meetup for 11am at Computerbank, 483 Victoria Street, West Melbourne. We encourage participation from WMAU members; the general wikimedian community, and people who have an interest perhaps through editing on Wikipedia.
The organising committee are happy to announce that a regular participant to our 2012 meetups, Cuddy Wifter, will be presenting his plans for a Wikipedia training course to be held as a University of Third Age (U3A) course, and we are particularly interested in who might be able to assist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Melbourne_23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Melbourne
Anne Frazer
Secretary - Wikimedia Australia
>From past announcements it seems that there's a Wikimedia meetup at 11am on
the fourth Sunday of each month - which would mean this coming Sunday. Is
that right?
I'm staying in the boondocks (Seaford - lovely but a bit far from
interesting stuff) and I'd like to plan ahead. Thanks!
--
Chris Watkins
Appropedia.org - Sharing knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives.
Forwarded in the hope you can help by personally participating in the
survey (if you are a woman!) and/or share it with your networks. Thanks,
Kerry
Greetings,
My name is Leigh Gruwell, and I am a doctoral student at Miami University
in Oxford, OH. I am also a Wikipedia contributor and I value Wikipedia as
an incredible collective resource. I study writing, and am interested in
how gender impacts contributions to online spaces such as Wikipedia. I am
writing you today to ask for your help. For my doctoral dissertation, I’d
like to survey and interview women who contribute to Wikipedia in order to
better understand their experiences. By sharing my research with the
Wikimedia Foundation, it is my hope that Wikipedia may become an even more
inclusive space.
If you are interested in participating, you may access the survey here [
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6HFC3SD]. The survey should take about 15
minutes to complete, and participation involves minimum risk. You may also
choose to participate in an interview with me. These interviews would last
about 30-45 minutes and would be conducted via Skype, telephone, IM, or
email. Participation involves minimal risk. I value your privacy and will
take every precaution ensure confidentiality. I will not track IP
addresses, and all data will be stored securely. My university does require
that participants sign a consent form, but real names (or Wikipedia user
names) will never be used in my research unless you would like to be
identified. If you are interested in participating in an interview, please
email me (gruwellc(a)muohio.edu) or send me a message on Wikipedia (my
username is Lcg04c).
For more information about my study including the informed consent
document, please visit this page: [
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Women_and_Wikipedia:_Contributions_…].
You may also feel free to contact me with any additional questions.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Leigh Gruwell
Doctoral Student
English Department
Miami University, Oxford Ohio
gruwellc(a)muohio.edu