Hello Wikipedians!
I'm a reader and fan of Wikipedia. I met Steven Walling at the Mozilla
Drumbeat Festival last autumn. He was talking about the anniversary, and I
thought: Hey, we can do that! While I'm not an editor, I thought it might be
a good chance to learn more about Wikipedia and also get folks involved in
the process. Sligo VEC are a hub here for community learning and they were
very excited to take on this event.
Perhaps you or someone you know might like to attend the event up here in
Sligo? I hope we get fine weather. Forecast is "The days will be dry and
bright, with sunny intervals in most areas, but frost and fog will linger on
in sheltered areas". So dress warmly :) There's a "fun run" on in the area,
and some other things which happen every Saturday in Sligo (like a farmer's
market) So there will be plenty of good subjects.
If you've never come to Sligo, now might be a good chance to grab a camera
and participate.
Please do send this on to anyone you think might be interested!
Saturday, 22nd Jan – Join a photo scavenger hunt, win prizes and contribute
to a free, open photo archive of Ireland.
<http://opencoffeesligo.org/2011/01/19/saturday-22nd-jan-join-a-photo-scaven…>
[image: Sligo yeats]<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sligo_yeats.jpg>
At Sligo VEC, we’ll be kicking off a photo scavenger hunt, and you can enter
to win a prize and make a significant contribution to the open web.
More info at: http://sligovec.ie/news/sligo-celebrates-wikipedia-10
- Perfect for families and groups of friends to join together
- Learn about Wikipedia
- Win Prizes [image: :)]
There are 463 events <http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics> happening
world wide to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia. Please join us
for the only event happening in Ireland!
http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your phone call earlier, and my apologies again for us not responding to your enquiry sooner. I've cc'd Gemma Griffiths, Wikimedia UK's Head of PR, and Moka Pantages and Jay Walsh from the Wikimedia Foundation. I've also cc'd the Wikimedia Ireland mailing list, which has a number of Wikimedians based in Ireland subscribed, in case any of them are able and willing to provide information and quotes to you as needed.
In terms of statistics, you can find a summary of the overall statistics for the Wikimedia projects at:
http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/
and statistics for the Irish Wikipedia at:
http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaGA.htm
There are also statistics from ComScore available, although they're a little dated and not linked to individual countries, at:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Stu/comScore_data_on_Wikimedia
With the 10th anniversary, Wikimedians are running a number of events around the world to celebrate, which are summarized at:
http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
I notice that there's one planned for Ireland:
http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sligo
although I don't know any more information on this.
Hope this helps. Please feel free to let me/us know if there are any specific questions you want answering, or information providing.
Thanks,
Mike Peel
Company Secretary, Wikimedia UK - http://uk.wikimedia.org/
Tel: +44 (0)7988 013 646
Email: michael.peel(a)wikimedia.org.uk
Wikimedia UK is the local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). It is an independent non-profit organization with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited.
Wiki UK Ltd is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827.
The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL, United Kingdom.
---
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Jonathan deBurca Butler. I am a journalist working for an Irish
national newspaper called the Irish Examiner. I was just wondering if you
received my email the other day about the e-mail that I had sent previously?
I have also tried to contact your offices in the UK but so far I have been
unsuccessful.
We are aware that your 10 year anniversary is only around the corner and we
can only imagine that soon you will be inundated for interview requests.
With that in mind I was hoping to perhaps get a quick interview with Jimmy
Wales or Sue Gardner if they were available. If not it would be great to
talk to somebody from the media department.
It would just be a quick telephone chat about the site and whether it has
done what the founders hoped it would do etc.
Also, would it be possible to find out if there were specific details, facts
and stats about how Wikipedia is used in Ireland. As you are probably aware,
like most small countries with a bit of a complex, we think the world
revolves around us so any stats or "oh that's interesting" information
relating to our fair isle would be fabulous.
Any help would be greatly appreciated and sincere thanks for taking the time
to read this e-mail.
Sincerely,
Jonathan deBurca Butler
In case anybody wants to submit Ireland as a possible location for Wikimania
2012, be sure to just say "we're bidding!" by February 6th.
Happy New Year, all!
-Jodi
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joseph Seddon <josephseddon(a)gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 9:02 PM
Subject: [Wikimania-l] Opening of Wikimania 2012 bidding
To: "Wikimania general list (open subscription)" <
wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
The bidding process for Wikimania 2012 is now open for business!
==DEADLINES==
Timeline: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Bids
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Bids>
Important dates:
* February 6, 2011 (0:01 UTC): Bidding creation ends. List of running
cities announced.
WHAT THIS MEANS: if you want to bid, create a page on Meta (see below)
and add your city to the list. Your bid does not have to say anything
beyond "we're bidding!" at this point. New bids will not be accepted
after this date, however.
* March 18, 2011 (0:00 UTC): Bidding ends. All major information on
bidding pages must be finalized.
WHAT THIS MEANS: your bid must be complete! all information about your
proposed venue, accommodation, key team, etc. should be posted. Minor
changes (updated information, background information) will be accepted
after this date, but the critical parts of the bid should be finished.
* March 18 - April 3: Refining of bids and answering questions.
WHAT THIS MEANS: you can clarify unclear parts and add updated
information. Suddenly divulging a new venue is not ok, though.
* April 3: Question & Answer from jury ends
* March 18 - April 10: Jury deliberation.
* April 11, 2011: Announcement of host city to public.
The early timeline means that (if followed) hopefully representatives
of the winning bid will be able to attend this year's Wikimania in
Gdansk, which is very helpful for organizers.
==HELPFUL INFORMATION==
To file a bid, follow these directions:
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Official_requirements_for_bid…
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Official_requirements_for_bid…>
The criteria for bids, with a few minor changes from last year, are here:
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Judging_criteria
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Judging_criteria>
==UNOFFICIAL ADVICE==
Previous winning bids can be found linked on
Meta:http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania
All winning bids have shared certain characteristics: a strong
community-based team with defined roles and leadership, a thoughtful
budget, careful consideration of the spaces Wikimania will be in, an
attention to detail and to all of the criteria, and a willingness to
improve on the last conference.
That page also has links to the suggestions for improvement that
people have made after each conference. These follow patterns too and
can be helpful to review.
As a bid team, it can be helpful to articulate -- both for yourselves
and the jury -- what you want Wikimania to be and what you envision it
being for the community.
All members of the community should feel free to discuss and analyze
bids as they are developed; this is not a sealed process. Members of
the jury have to carefully review each bid, and having any unclear
areas pointed out and discussed (and fixed) ahead of time can be very
helpful.
Finally, if you have any questions or suggestions or comments on the
bidding process, as always, post them to the talk
page:http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimania_2012
If you have any questions for the Wikimania jury specifically, please
email them to myself or to James Forrester and we will pass them along to
the private jury mailing list. All private communications with the
jury are confidential.
best regards, and good luck --
Joseph Seddon
Wikimania 2012 jury moderator (non-voting)
on behalf of the 2012
jury:http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2012/Jury
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2011/Jury>
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