[Sorry all for the long email.]
James, apologies for the schizoid use of names. I'm Oliver.
Colm, I'm very much behind the kind of ideas you've put forward. Like James
though, I would be skeptical that a Wikimedia Ireland would be a sudden source
of funding. A corporate body certainly is more capable of winning funding (and
we should keep our eyes open for opportunities to get cash should we form an
Irish chapter); but passion and hard graft, I imagine, is the way forward. Like
James, I also think the benefit of a Wikimedia Ireland is the credibility and
group co-ordination and support that it would provide.
Conor: "A good publicity tool would be a competition involving music,
photography and/or art. All entries could be released under CC license and the
winners promoted on the Irish Wikimedia website."
With respect to promoting free licenses, I think ideas like this is are good.
Releasing a CD or coffee-table book of free media would further build on it and
could help promote creative work in Ireland (as well as being a possible source
of funding for the work of an Irish chapter). [See the second part of this email
for something else in relation to this.]
With respect to Wikipedia, a "competition" is maybe not the best approach. We
don't for example have any right to say that the "winner" would appear on any
article above an entry from a "runner-up". Pulling the local angle might be
good. We could organise a drive through local newspapers to capture an
appropriate "static_image" element for every town and village in Ireland for use
in the Infobox_Place_Ireland template on the en/ga.wiki. Geograph.ie (which I
suspect has failed in Ireland for lack of grass-roots support) is maybe an
effort we could tie in with, or try to emulate.
I would see a Wikimedia Ireland as being capable of credibly approaching
organisations like orchestras to record samples of instruments, such as uilleann
pipes, harps and bouzouki, or language departments to collect phrases said in
different dialects of Irish for use in articles.
---
Conor, James, Jodi and others -
Conor: "Wikimedia doesn't seem to have much in the way of music storage -
discuss?"
No, it doesn't. This is likely because the goal of the Wikimedia Foundation is
"to collect and develop educational content". For that reason, I think this kind
of thing would probably be 'ultra vires' for a Wikimedia Ireland. But work in
promoting Wikimedia projects and tools in schools would be "in".
Don't get me wrong though, I am fully behind ideas like this. I'm delighted
yourself and James brought up the topic of OSS, CC and related matters.
Coincidentally, over the last few weeks I have been putting thought into how to
organise people interested in these topics in Ireland.
The ideas that I have been playing with related to how to get people in Ireland
interested in OSS development and evangelism, Creative Commons, wiki-ery, hacker
culture, etc. to get in contact with each other. In particular, I have been
thinking about how to create a shared/collaborative space with the eventual idea
of enabling folk in Ireland to find and collaborate on projects, to co-ordinate
efforts, share ideas and to establish a "community" out of individuals. And also
to promote these kinds of ideas/philosophies (both in community and in
business).
(As with a possible Wikimedia Ireland, a corporate personality for such a group
might not be a bad idea either. Though, I would be more on for something closer
to the philosophical roots of this kind of culture, such as a co-op, rather than
an Ltd. company for example.)
The ideas I've been mulling over would be to draw interested people (and their
capabilities) together rather than form a hierarchical body of any sort or
dictate the direction of this movement in any way.
Maybe, I'm wrong but I can't find any group particularly dedicated to these
kinds of topics. James, I see you're lead on Audacity. Do you know of any Irish
OSS evangelism/collaboration group, for example? Jodi, I get the impression from
references you've made into these topics too?
Like I said, I think this kind of thing is outside of the remit of Wikimedia. If
you are interested in developing a network such as this in Ireland, get in touch
with me. I've a spare server with a suitable (I think) domain name left over
from a idea I didn't follow through with. I'd be happy to give the three of you
(Conor, James and Jodi) FTP and DB access; and to set-up a mailing list, if you
think there are more that would be interested in communicating over these kinds
of broad "hacker", OSS, CC culture, collaboration, evangelism and development
etc. in Ireland.
Regards,
Oliver
2010/9/4 Conor Wao <conorwao(a)gmail.com>
Hi all,
>
>sorry I won't be able to make it due to prior commitments but I am
>still very keen on being part of the project. Since I won't be at the
>meeting, I would like to mention a few things in the hope of starting
>some discussions.
>
>My main interests are to encourage more educators to use Wikimedia
>tools and to help people to release more music/media into the commons.
>I would like to achieve this by getting funding to put on
>demonstrations which would include information on how to find, use and
>remix CC licensed music and showcasing the open-source software one
>could use to do this. I have many years' experience with the Fedora
>operating system coupled with Planet CCRMA's multimedia software
>patch.
>
>I am interested in using Wikimedia to help introduce open, shared
>resources to educators. I would also like funding to do demonstrations
>for, and have meetings with, teachers. I am interested in raising
>awareness of evolution by natural selection in Irish classrooms and
>would also like to encourage content generation in relation to this.
>
>Irish language projects would be important for an Irish Wikimedia so
>that should be discussed.
>
>A good publicity tool would be a competition involving music,
>photography and/or art. All entries could be released under CC license
>and the winners promoted on the Irish Wikimedia website. Wikimedia
>doesn't seem to have much in the way of music storage - discuss?
>
>I hope this can help start some discussions and begin to focus on
>finding some goals that this project will have.
>
>Looking forward to hearing from you,
>
>Conor.
>
