Hi Oliver (and everyone else),

Press release are just supposed to say what is happening. Any additional info can be included in the about section. We also need to remember that we are explaining something technical to non-techies. 'Featured Article' and other wiki-words are a big no-no.

The inclusion of the Irish language Wikipedia is a great idea. I seem to forgotten about that. If we are to add to press release, it would probably have to be a topic in the upcoming meeting. Can someone verify it?

I am going to create http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Ireland/Release_1 now anyway.

Colm


Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2010 11:37:46 +0000
From: wiki_ra@yahoo.ie
To: wikimediaie@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia IE] 25th September - Kingston Hotel, Dún Laoghaire

Good man, Colm. A press release is best.

Thomas Ralph volunteered to be a media contact last year (see: <http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaie/2009-August/000023.html>). IMHO (still) he's a good choice since Thomas is an OTSR rep for Wikipedia already. Thomas, would you be still willing to do talk to do possible radio slots and have your name/contact put on a release?

Maybe it would be a good idea to put what you have of the press release up onto the Meta wiki page (e.g. at <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Ireland/Release_1>), where we can work on it together?

I was thinking about a press release yesterday and thought it might be a good idea to fill it in with some "tit bits" so that they can fill in around the raw facts, which are otherwise quite sparse.

Maybe a summary of "tit bits" around WikiProject Ireland would be a good summary of the work and impact of Irish Wikipedians (e.g. includes editors from both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, 25 featured articles, popular pages range from Halloween to Westlife to Oscar Wilde, top ten articles get >75,000 readers per day, etc.). The work of the Irish-language Wikipedia is surely a very "worthy" work - is it the first encyclopedia written in the Irish language? It might be a nice idea to include a "fun" fact about the occasional quirky aspect of our work too (for example, the effort to write an encyclopedia article on every regional road in Ireland complete with photographs). I looked through the Wikipedia Signpost for this week but nothing immediately jumped out at me as being usable, except that the en.wiki passed 3,000 featured articles.

Filling in with things like this would give a "story" around what would otherwise be simply a public notice about a meeting.

For a quote from a talking head, we could simply email the Wikimedia Foundation, say that we are issuing a press release, say what the purpose of it is and ask for a pull quote (one from the Foundation and one from Jimbo himself would be good for variation).

Finally, regional variants on national press releases can get a lot of exposure if someone is willing to talk to local radio and press in their locality. These are pretty easy to make: you simply start with the finalised national press release then add/replace stuff with a local angle (e.g. Cillian Murphy being the second-most popular Irish article if you are in Cork).

Regards,
Oliver


From: Colm King <cargoking@live.com>
To: wikimediaie@lists.wikimedia.org
Sent: Sun, 5 September, 2010 10:51:53
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia IE] 25th September - Kingston Hotel, Dún Laoghaire

I am writing a sample press release at the moment. As I will not be attending the meet-up, and have recently reduced my time spent on Wikipedia, I would not like to be a media contact. So a few things:
  • Could somebody be representative to the media, i.e supplying there phone number in the press release and replying to any media queries, including possible interviews.
  • Is is possible to have a 'wikimedia.org' mailto?
  • Can someone provide me with some more content (such as quotes) for press release?

Here is what I have come up with so far:

Meeting of Irish Wikipedia Editors Announced

Issued: 5 September 2010

Gathering to discuss possible Wikipedia representation in Ireland.


"On 3 September 2010 it was announced that the first official gathering of Irish editors of the free encyclopedia Wikipedia will take place. The meeting will take place on 25 September in the Kingston Hotel, Dún Laoghaire.


One of the items on the meeting's agenda, is to form an Irish Chapter of Wikipedia's parent, the Wikimedia Foundation. The suggested Chapter would be an independent organisation to support and promote Irish related activities across the Wikimedia projects and to liaise with Irish media and institutions.


<requires more here>"


ENDS


Contact:

Mr Wikipedia 

084 1234567

mrwikipedia@wikimedia.org

http://wikimedia.org


About

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia founded in 2001. It the currently the largest and most popular encyclopedia on the internet. It is owned by the non-profit organisation Wikimedia Foundation and is edited solely by volunteers from around world. Any person with access to the internet can edit the project.




Thanks,
Colm


From: cargoking@live.com
To: wikimediaie@lists.wikimedia.org
Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2010 09:52:57 +0100
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia IE] 25th September - Kingston Hotel, Dún Laoghaire

I have been thinking about it. I don't think so. What about issuing a general press release? I'll look into it anyway.

Colm


Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 14:27:17 +0100
From: jschneider@pobox.com
To: wikimediaie@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia IE] 25th September - Kingston Hotel, Dún Laoghaire

Sure, Colm. Maybe Morning Ireland would do an interview with you or somebody about what Wikimedia is and why we're starting a chapter? Would be a good way to promote the event so that more people hear about it. Even tweeting to their followers would be good, you could send them a sample tweet.

-Jodi

2010/9/4 Colm King <cargoking@live.com>
In relation to radio contacts, I've had quite amicable contact with Morning Ireland via Twitter, if that helps.

Colm King


Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 03:43:53 +0100
From: jschneider@pobox.com
To: email@mikepeel.net; cary@wikimedia.org
CC: wikimediaie@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia IE] 25th September - Kingston Hotel, Dún Laoghaire


Fantastic--I see that somebody has added it to the Meetup page, linking to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Ireland#September_25.2C_2010

I don't know the geographic range we'd like to cover. I'm thinking Ireland and the UK? 

Does anybody have newspaper/radio/etc contacts? 

Hey Cary--Are you the person to ask about a Facebook notice? Any other ideas for publicity?

Thanks!
-Jodi

PS-I'll be away from email until Wednesday. Happy publicizing!

2010/9/3 Michael Peel <email@mikepeel.net>
Hi Jodi,

The first step is to set up a page at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup

I can set up a geonotice on en.wp (and possibly others) if you let me know what you want saying and the geographical coordinates (long/lat range) to cover. Or you can request it at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Geonotice

I'm sure that Cary Bass can add it to the Wikipedia Facebook group, which will also bring in additional people, if you ask him nicely. ;-)

Hope this helps. :-)

Mike Peel

On 3 Sep 2010, at 22:29, Jodi Schneider wrote:

> Great work, Oliver!
>
> How do we get it listed (by geolocated-adjacent visitors) on English and Irish wikis (wikipedia and all the rest)?
>
> How else can we promote it? Are there other related listservs?
>
> Who can promote it to Tog Hackerspace? http://www.tog.ie/
>
> -Jodi
>
> 2010/9/3 Oliver Moran <wiki_ra@yahoo.ie>
> Hey all -
>
> In the spirit of Wikipedia, I'm going to be bold and say let's meet up on the 25th of September. So...
>       • 1:45pm - Meet in lobby of the Kingston Hotel, Dún Laoghaire.
>       • 2:00pm - Lunch in the Kingston Hotel.
>       • 3:30pm - Private tour of National Maritime Museum of Ireland, courtesy of Clem McGann.
> Clem has been in touch by email and agreed to make the necessary reservations, etc.
>
> I'll be in the lobby of the Kingston Hotel to meet people. If you're unsure of who I am, ask at reception for the Wikipedia meet-up. I'll have identified myself to them.
>
> If you can't find the Kingston Hotel, Clem will wait at the steeple of the Mariners' Church (the National Maritime Museum), which is close by but visible from around the town. If you meet him there, Clem will bring you along to the hotel. Watch out though, Dún Laoghaire also has the steeple of St. Michael's church. However, St. Michael's can be distinguished from the Mariners' Church because the main body of the St. Michael's burnt down in the 1960s.
>
> Dún Laoghaire has easy connections to Dublin city centre by bus and DART as well as mainline rail so it should be reasonably accessible to all. Clem, when you get back, could you forward suggestions for car parking?
>
> Hope as many as possible can make it,
> Oliver Moran
>
> User:Rannpháirtí anaithnid
>
>
>
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