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.
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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