Wikimediauk-l January 2011

wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org

19 participants
18 discussions

Could you lead Wikimedia UK to success?
by Andrew Turvey 07 Feb '11

07 Feb '11

>From our blog, http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/: Could you lead Wikimedia UK to success? Next year is set to be another big year of growth for Wikimedia UK: we have just raised over £500,000 in the Wikimedia Annual Fundraiser. Most of this money will support the technical side of Wikimedia through donations to the Foundation and the Toolserver. However, we also plan to use the funds to recruit four more members of staff. These staff will mean we can scale up our activities, enable more activity by volunteers and professionalise the chapter. Our own developer, events organiser, a full time office manager and a chapter manager pulling everything together will no doubt transform Wikimedia UK. However, a key factor in our success will still be the board, which will continue to lead the chapter and be made up of unpaid volunteers. It will continue to be elected by our members, ordinary Wikimedians who support our mission and want to make Wikipedia and free knowledge even more successful. Can you help lead the chapter to success in 2011 by standing for election as a board member? If so, you’re warmly invited to join us on Saturday 5th February from 5pm where you can find out more about what is involved in being a board member and have an opportunity to ask any questions and meet other interested people. This “board interest day” will take place in central London (venue to be confirmed). If you are interested please drop me a line to chair @ wikimedia.org.uk to reserve your place. You can also give me a ring on 07403 216 991 if you would like to discuss further. Look forward to hearing from you! Andrew Turvey Chair, Wikimedia UK

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Helping with museum signs
by geni 05 Feb '11

05 Feb '11

I was recently in the Portsmouth natural history museum (or as the natives call it Cumberland House). When I was there I saw this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/58992329@N03/5406060116/ If you look at the text in the right column (may need to view image at full size) you will find that it is not only dated (it's treating 1982 as recent) but is treating the [[Almas (cryptozoology)]] thing seriously. The museum doesn't really have any money so this isn't something that is likely to be fixed by them any time soon. I think offering to replace it with wikipedia based text along the lines of say [[User:Geni/museum_sign]] would fall within 7-8 of: http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Business_Plan#Mission_and_Objectives I don't know how much doing such a replacement would cost but I would be surprised if it passed the limit of our micro grant program. Wikimedia-UK would need to be involved to cover use of the logo and the like. ==Advantages== *Museum gets a better sign *New way to spread wikipedia content *Gives us the chance to produce a real world example of the type of signs we would like to see (QR code and the like) *Helps draw attention to gaps in Wikipedia (in this case it failed to mention how much Neanderthals weigh) *It may get us some good will with the Portsmouth museum service which since they hold one of the larger collections of ship paintings could be kinda handy *May get us some new editors who are interested in working on such signs. *It's a concrete real world activity that we can point to as an example of what we are doing. ==Disadvantages== *Might be more expensive than expected *Images are an issue in this case (need to check copyright status of http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Homo_neanderthalensis_models ) *Scale we can do this on is limited both financially and finding people to write such signs ==Neutral== *They might say no -- geni

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Fwd: [Internal-l] Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 - Europe?
by Michael Peel 04 Feb '11

04 Feb '11

Forwarding with permission of the sender. I'm very eager to see the UK and Ireland participate in this if possible, but from my experience of running Britain Loves Wikipedia I'm very aware that this needs a team of people running it rather than just one person. So: is anyone interested in leading/helping with this project? Thanks, Mike Begin forwarded message: > From: Lodewijk <lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org> > Date: 14 December 2010 20:20:15 GMT > To: "Local Chapters, board and officers coordination (closed subscription)" <internal-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Subject: [Internal-l] Wiki Loves Monuments 2011 - Europe? > Reply-To: "Local Chapters, board and officers coordination \(closed subscription\)" <internal-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > > Summary of this email (sorry for long text): We did Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) 2010 in the Netherlands, we would like to do Wiki Loves Monuments again in 2011, but now in Europe. This is only possible when many chapters participate, therefore this e-mail. To be clear: this event will only happen on a European level if there is sufficient chapter participation to combine efforts. Please feel free to forward to whomever you find appropriate. > > You might have heard before about Wiki Loves Monuments 2010 in the Netherlands. It was a highly successful photo scavenger hunt with 12.500 submissions and over 250 participants[0]. We recently completed a post mortem of this event with a more extensive description and analysis [1]. However, there are still many monuments in the Netherlands which can be photographed, so we are considering another run for next year - but then in a European context. Below we will explain a bit how we got where we are, what we have in mind, and what you could expect. > > So how did this all start? At the Dutch Wikipedia we have the windmill project. One of the main goals was to get an article with an image for every windmill in the Netherlands. Lists were created of windmills per province and statistics were made on a regular basis to track progress. This approach worked very well and made it possible to tackle a big problem; All the windmills have an article now. > > Some volunteers, in cooperation with the chapter, managed to get a dataset of all "Rijksmonumenten" (Dutch national monuments - 60.000 buildings/objects with some historical or cultural relevance) from the "Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed" (Dutch national heritage organisation, RCE). This marked the birth of the "Rijksmonumenten" project. The project uses the lessons learned in the windmill project. The data from the RCE was converted into lists by location and put on the Dutch Wikipedia. The community started improving the lists by adding missing information or adding photo's. > > In June 2009 Wikimedia Nederland ran Wiki Loves Art /NL [2] : A photo scavenger hunt in more than 40 museums. Also quite successful (5.400 photos), but much more work intensive because you need to keep contacts with all the museums and usually museums are further away from people's homes than the nearest monuments. > > For 2010 we were looking for a nice topic for a photo competition. The "Rijksmonumenten" project was running very well so we decided to organize Wiki Loves Monuments to give this Wikipedia project a boost. > > So, what would a European WLM most likely look like? Let me give you an idea of what we are thinking of, changes are open for debate of course. Trying to incorporate the main lessons from last year in the Netherlands into a European model, we think it might work best if Wiki Loves Monuments is organized on a national level primarily, but with cooperations, shared resources and international prizes on a European level. The national contests do not have to be identical, but some consistency would be practical. We are not sure yet what countries would be most successful, but our initial hope would be EU chapter countries and Switzerland. > > Basically, Wiki Loves Monuments would run 1-30 September 2011, and participants would be allowed to submit photos of monuments which are part of the object list. This object list includes the address and ideally geo-coordinates of all monuments which are allowed to participate. In each participating country there would be some prizes available, to be awarded by a jury for that country. The top-X of each could be competing for European prizes. > > You can find more information on how WLM 2010 was organized on the post-mortem [1]. That also lines out in more detail how much work it would be, and what the positive impact could be. > > Most of the local work would be to get a database with the objects, create object lists from that (possibly Dutch volunteers could support you with that, they have the experience [3]) and get the community involved on that. You would need to get communications going, both external to the press (press releases etc) as to participants (have a clear website in your language(s) with explanation, rules etc), find a jury and prizes for them to award. We can help each other with example press releases, best practices, template and list examples and community motivation. > > So, what to do when you like this idea? Well, it would be good to first of all check with your collegues (at the board, other members, community) what they think of it. You probably need several people to run such a competition over time to some extent. Next step would be to do some analysis on your local situation: who would be good partners (who keeps the lists of monuments?) for you, how many monuments are there in your country, are they well spread? What information/photos are already available of it roughly? Are there community members involved in that kind of topic? Definitely read the post-mortem and some relevant links from there [1]. > > For the time being, we registered www.wikilovesmonuments.eu and are in touch with CARARE and Europeana (European cultural heritage organizations) - who seem to be interested in laying contacts with local cultural heritage organizations. Hopefully that helps them to realize the European context and impact this could have. The most important partner in each country would be the one that governs the database with all monuments, and could release that to you. This database/list is crucial for the success of such an event. > > Please inform us (ideally through internal-l) when you would be interested in joining in such European event, if there is enough enthusiasm, we will create a special (easy to join) mailing list to coordinate efforts to allow more volunteers to join in the discussions. We already took the liberty of discussing this with some other chapters, and are hopeful that it will actually get to a first grand chapter cooperation program. Of course this does not mean you are bound, but that you think you would like to participate. You can also join #wikilovesmonuments on freenode irc of course if you like. > > With kind regards, > > Maarten Dammers > Lodewijk Gelauff > > [0]: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments > [1]: > http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments/post_mortem > [2]:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Art_Netherlands > [3]: > http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments/template_sys… > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Internal-l mailing list > Internal-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/internal-l

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BBC "5 Live Investigates" on Books LLC, Sunday night 9pm UTC
by David Gerard 29 Jan '11

29 Jan '11

[To WMUK-l for local interest, and foundation-l as the issue's been discussed there at length.] Just spoke to a researcher, Charlotte something, for BBC 5 Live Investigates, Sunday 9pm, this item likely to go out 9:45pm or so. This was just for her research, it wasn't a recorded piece. The piece is on Books LLC and similar operations, which sell reprints of Wikipedia articles as books on Amazon. She was after the Wikipedian viewpoint. I said that it's entirely legal - that you can use our stuff without permission, even commercially, and we like that - "Please, use our stuff!" - you just have to give credit and let other people reuse your version: "share and share alike." So the only issue is that it isn't clear enough these books are just Wikipedia reprints. For us, the annoyance - I said that "annoyance" is probably the word - is when a Wikipedian finds one of these books, goes "aha, a source!", buys it and ... discovers it's just reprints of stuff they have. "While trademark is an issue, we'd like them or Amazon to make it a *bit* clearer that these texts are Wikipedia reprints." She wasn't clear on the business model. I said these are print-on-demand books, where *no* copies exist until someone orders one, at which point a single copy is printed and sent. POD is *very good* these days - you can send a PDF to a machine, and the machine will produce an *absolutely beautiful* perfect-bound book for you, which previously would have been quite pricey. This is enough for them to have a tiny, tiny niche. I also pointed out that anyone can make their own PDFs of Wikipedia articles and some of the projects have partnerships with outside companies to do nice printed books of Wikipedia reprints. But in such cases, everyone is very clear on what they're getting: a nice printed physical copy of content they already have for free on the web. I tried to answer very descriptively, as I can't speak *for* 160,000 people, but there's been enough foundation-l and related discussion to get an idea of what people think. My apologies if I missed bits, this was off the top of my head without referring to nuances of discussion :-) - d.

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Proposal to Strike off
by geni 27 Jan '11

27 Jan '11

I saw this post at the village pump suggesting wikimediauk's accounts are seriously late and this presents issues: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VP/M#Wiki_UK_Ltd_to_be_struck_off.3F The company in question is wikimedia UK (the Company No. 06741827 is consistent with that given in past emails) According to companies house the accounts were due 05/08/2010 and the company's status was listed as Active - Proposal to Strike off. Whats going on? -- geni

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Question about the addition of BBC content to Wikipedia entries
by Steve Bowbrick 26 Jan '11

26 Jan '11

Hi all, I know we've been here before but this one's a bit more specific and I'd like the group's advice. The producer of Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time are wondering if there'd be any value in adding episodes from the In Our Time archive, which is now complete, to relevant Wikipedia entries? There are obviously many direct correspondences so it looks like it might make sense, for example, to add The Aristotle episode to the Aristotle entry, Anarchism to the Anarchism entry and so on. Archive: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/in-our-time/archive/ Should we just allow entry editors to link to In Our Time episodes from citations? or is there a systematic way that this could be done? Could episodes be automatically added to entries where there is a direct metadata correspondence, for instance? Would streaming audio be a useful addition to entries? Or would MP3s be better? Would it be useful if we added the whole In Our Time archive to the commons (I think that one's a bit of a longshot!). Are there any other clever things that In Our Time could be doing to improve entries? Steve -- Blogs at BBC A&Mi http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/5live 07768 257 570 http://www.bbc.co.uk/ This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated. If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system. Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in reliance on it and notify the sender immediately. Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received. Further communication will signify your consent to this.

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Oxford Internet Institute: Hiring Part-Time Research Assistant (Wikipedia)
by Liam Wyatt 21 Jan '11

21 Jan '11

Hi all, I just came across this and thought that someone on this list would probably know someone who knows someone who would like this job... Based at this research institute: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/?id=66 (Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University) as part of the project entitled: Wikipedia's Networks and Geographies: Representation and Power in Peer-Produced Content Grade 6: Salary £25,751 - £30,747 p.a. (pro rata) We are a leading international research and policy Institute looking for a part-time (50% FTE) Research Assistant to work on a range of programming and database administrative tasks on a Wikipedia-related research projects with Drs Mark Graham and Bernie Hogan. The current offer is for a half time position with a likelihood of expansion to full time, funding permitted. The research will involve a substantial array of computer science skills applied to questions of social science interest. The application does not necessarily need to have social science training, but should be interested in how contemporary technologies can address new and novel research questions. This part-time post (50%FTE) is available immediately for 12 months in the first instance, with the possibility of renewal thereafter funding permitting. Some flexibility over the number of hours worked per week may be possible The blogpost announcing the job is here: http://zerogeography.blogspot.com/2011/01/hiring-part-time-research-assista… Applications close on January 27. wittylama.com/blog Peace, love & metadata

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Blog and snapshot of Jimmy Wales
by Elisabeth Winkler 18 Jan '11

18 Jan '11

Hi Thursday was great and yes, well done to Steve Virgin for making it happen. I have written a blog about Jimmy Wales's Bristol talk with a snapshot too. Elisabeth (Winkler) - and new member of Wikimedia UK Real Food Lover blogShortlisted for Guild of Food Writers New Media awardsWhat is social media? Writing on the Web blog

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London Wiki Wednesday.
by Gordon Joly 17 Jan '11

17 Jan '11

London Wiki Wednesday is back! Next meeting will be Wednesday 2nd February (to be confirmed). Details will appear at https://www.socialtext.net/wikiwed/index.cgi?london and other nodes. Gordo -- Gordon Joly gordon.joly(a)pobox.com http://www.joly.org.uk/ Don't Leave Space To The Professionals!

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Thursday pics/video?
by David Gerard 15 Jan '11

15 Jan '11

Anyone got official or unofficial photos or video from Thursday night? I *assume* that Prof Dawkins and Jimbo videos will be on Commons forthwith ... Carcharoth has a pile of pics and was wondering what to do with them/who wouldn't mind being on Commons/etc. Anyone else get snapshots? - d.

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Wikimediauk-l January 2011