Dear all,
I'd like to draw to your attention this joint statement with the Foundation
which I have just, with the authority of the Board, posted on our blog
regarding the management of conflicts of interests and this year's
fundraiser.
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/09/joint-statement-from-wikimedia-foundat…
Regards,
Chris Keating
Chair, Wikimedia UK
FYI,
No website for 2013 as yet, but see...
http://2012.foss4g.org/http://foss4g.org/
Context:
1) Open Source, Open Knowledge, Open Data.
2) A major international conference comes to the UK.
Gordo
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [OSGeo-UK] FOSS4G is coming to Nottingham!
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:32:58 +0100
From: Jo Cook <jocook(a)astuntechnology.com>
To: uk(a)lists.osgeo.org uk(a)lists.osgeo.org <uk(a)lists.osgeo.org>
Dear All,
As you may have heard, FOSS4G will be coming to Nottingham in 2013! Our
heartfelt thanks to anyone who helped with the bidding process,
particularly those people that wrote a letter of support for the bid.
Keep listening for further announcements and news as organisation
progresses!
Thanks again
Jo
--
*Jo Cook*
Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West Street, Epsom, Surrey,
KT18 7RL, UK
t:+44 750 095 8167
iShare - Data integration and publishing platform
<http://www.isharemaps.com/>
*****************************************
Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and Wales.
Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8LN VAT no.
864201149.
Hello everyone,
I'm writing to let you know of about some media training Wikimedia UK has
arranged for volunteers. The training is specifically designed for people
with little or no experience of dealing with the media and it's aimed at
volunteers who are likely to have some dealings with the media as a result
of their volunteering with Wikimedia UK.
You can find the details at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Media_training_for_volunteers_-_register_of_in…
Places are strictly limited so if you'd like to take part, please either
drop me a line or comment on the talk page. The date has not yet been set
(although it will be on a Saturday), but will be arranged to suit the needs
of those taking part. I'm happy to answer questions either on the page or
by email.
Many thanks,
Stevie
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, a Company
Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No.
6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor,
Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United
Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation
(who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.
Good afternoon everyone,
Just a reminder that the consultation on membership strategy has been open
for ten days - and so far elicited some useful feedback (so thank you to
those who have commented) Its looks at how members are different to
volunteers, whether we think they should have a more direct role in the
governance of the organisation (perhaps by developing chapter policy) and
what we think a membership strategy should aim at (a wide membership base
paying a nominal joining fee, or a smaller group of more invested people?)
Please have a look and if you've got the time, join in the discussion
<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2012_Membership_strategy_consultation>with
the benefit of your experiences. The consultation will remain open until
the 2nd of November.* *
More pressing - the draft members' survey questions
<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMUK_membership_survey_-_suggestions_and_comm…>are
now up! These asks some tricky and varied questions - from trying to see if
members think staff are responsive to queries to whether a change in voting
system would make them more or less likely to vote in elections.
I would like to send the survey out to members soon to give them time for
people to respond and then for me to incorporate response results in a
report to Trustees that must be finalised by the 7th November.
Therefore I'd be grateful if all comments could be made by *no later than
9am this Friday morning (26th October) *which will allow me time to make
any final tweaks prior to sending out the survey via email.
Thanks all - hope you're having a good week!
--
*Katherine Bavage *
*Fundraising Manager *
*Wikimedia UK*
+44 20 7065 0949
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
*
*
On 11 October 2012 11:20, Katherine Bavage <
katherine.bavage(a)wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
> Good morning everyone!
>
> If you have time do look at pages on the UK Wiki about the direction
> Wikimedia UK's membership can take in future.
>
> Here is the page<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMUK_membership_survey_-_suggestions_and_comm…>discussing the kinds of things you think a survey to members should cover -
> I'd like to get the survey developed soon so contributions made now would
> be very timely, and I can put up a draft of the survey questions when I've
> written for further comment.
>
> Here is the page <https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:RecentChanges>with some initial thoughts on building a membership strategy - all comments
> welcome, including links to previous meeting minutes or otherwise that you
> think should be considered.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> --
> *Katherine Bavage *
> *Fundraising Manager *
> *Wikimedia UK*
> +44 20 7065 0949
>
> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
> Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
> Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
> United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
> movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
> operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
>
> *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
> over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
>
>
[note cross-posting]
I am pleased to share with you the news that I shall be Wikipedian in
Residence with Staffordshire Archive & Heritage Service, here in the
English Midlands, from mid-November (part-time).
This is a pilot project. I will be working with number of
Staffordshire museums, to increase staff awareness of Wikipedia, train
them to edit, and make recommendations for future public engagement
(e.g. editathons), as well as planning a larger project to follow.
I shall create a Wikipedia project page once I am in post.
Naturally, I hope that the use of QRpedia, and the release of some
media under an open licence, will feature.
I hope you share my pleasure in looking forward to this promising project.
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
It's difficult to promote events like:
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/RBSA_Backstage_Pass
when mobile visits to that URL are redirected to:
http://uk.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/RBSA_Backstage_Pass
and errors are returned for all http://uk.m.wikimedia.org pages.
I know this has been raised on this mailing list previously, but
there's still no sign of a fix.
The impact of this problem can be understood by considering that
yesterday it was reported that 40% of Wikipedia's growth is mobile,
versus 4% desktop.
Can this serious bug be (re-)escalated as a matter of urgency, please?
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
Hello everyone,
Please find below Wikimedia UK's report for September 2012. The text of the
whole report is posted in the email due to numerous requests for this. You
can also view the report on the WMUK wiki at
https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2012/September - and this wiki
version includes all hyperlinks and images (which aren't included below).
If you have any comments or questions please do let me know.
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for the period 1 to 31 September
2012. If you want to keep up with the chapter's activities as they happen,
please subscribe to our blog, join our mailing list, and/or follow us on
Twitter. If you have any questions or comments, please drop us a line on
this report's talk page.
*Community*
*Editor decline*
Wikipedia reaches a turning point: it's losing administrators faster than
it can appoint them, Telegraph Blogs, 5 September
*Jimmy Wales*
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales attacks government's 'snooper's charter',
Guardian, 5 September
Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia will use encryption to beat snooper's charter,
Telegraph, 6 September
Also see WMUK's Submission on Communications Data Bill on the UK wiki.
*Philip Roth*
Philip Roth 'not a credible source to edit his own novel's Wikipedia page',
Telegraph, 7 September
How Philip Roth Outfoxed Wikipedia’s Idiotic Rules, Gizmodo, 8 September
Author Roth rebukes Wikipedia over Human Stain edit, BBC News, 8 September
Boot up: Bezos on profit, Pirates' German problems, Windows Phone's lost
SDK and more (includes Roth on Wikipedia), Guardian blog, 10 September
Philip Roth's complaint to Wikipedia, Guardian, 11 September
Philip Roth knows his own book but let's not judge Wikipedia harshly,
Independent, 12 September
*Political edits*
Grant Shapps 'edited Wikipedia page to remove school records', Telegraph, 9
September
Top Tory 'airbrushed his Wikipedia page', new chairman 'deleted political
gaffes and altered exam details', Daily Mail, 9 September
Tory MPs fiddling with their Wikipedia entries: Grant Shapps is just the
tip of the iceberg, Telegraph blogs, 10 September
Grant Shapps's Wikipedia page was edited to remove byelection gaffe,
Guardian, 11 September
*Gender bias*
Wikipedia editors' gender visualised, Guardian, 11 September
*Wikitravel*
Wikitravel versus Wikimedia: something is going badly wrong with the free
content movement, Telegraph, 11 September
*GLAM activities*
See also the This Month in GLAM UK report for this month.
*Wikipedia Takes Coventry*
Wikipedia Takes Coventry was the first Wikipedia Takes... event in the UK
Interview with Erin Hollis and Harry Mitchell on Wikipedia Takes Coventry
BBC Coventry and Warwickshire (1 September 2012)
Clock is ticking for scavengers to capture Coventry Leamington Courier (1
September 2012)
Also: Kenilworth Weekly and Warwick Courier
*Other activities*
Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon at the library of the Royal Society, BoingBoung, 5
September
*Expert outreach*
Delete the Wiki worries and get close to the edit Times Higher Education,
20 September
*Microgrants approved this month include ...*
An extension to the Operation Barras and Operation Flavius microgrant for
source material for getting w:en:Operation Flavius and w:en:Operation
Barras to featured article status. Operation Barras is now going through
A-class review, and is expected to reach FA status without too many
problems. Our thanks go to HJ Mitchell for his valuable work putting time
into these articles!
*UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)*
There has been a substantial amount of media coverage during over the last
couple of months. The online coverage has been aggregated into a PDF file
that includes links to the articles. Topics include Ada Lovelace Day,
Monmouthpedia and Gibraltarpedia, Mentions of Wikipedia articles, Wikipedia
Zero, Jimmy Wales, GLAM Camp London, EduWiki, our relationship with the PR
industry and a collaboration with Know How Non-Profit. You can see the full
list on the UK wiki.
We also published the following blog posts in September:
Three months as a Wikipedian in Residence, by Andrew Gray
EduWiki kicks off amid great anticipation by Stevie Benton
Board update (notification that Joscelyn Upendran had stood down from the
Board)
Wikipedia Takes Coventry - the winners! by User:Rock drum
EduWiki 2012 - a review by Martin Poulter
Wikimedia UK appoints Saad Choudri to its Board by Chris Keating
Board update (notification that Roger Bamkin had stood down from the Board)
Gibraltarpedia: WMUK press release (with clarifications about the project)
First ever Wikimedia UK intern waves goodbye by Isabelle Yates
Joint statement from Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK (announcing the
independent review into WMUK governance)
*Activities in October*
01 - Wikipedia and images workshop/October 2012
01 - Board meeting (TBC) - call
01 - Conference Committee meeting (postponed from 24 September)
02 - Imperial College Wikipedia Society Freshers' Fair
02 - 03 - Cambridge University Wikipedia Society launch at the Freshers'
Fair
04 - Robin Owain meeting Dr. Ted Jones, Digitisation on Demand from the
National Library of Wales about work with Wikimedia UK
08 - Wikipedia talk and training workshop at the University of Oxford
08 - JISC Digital Infrastructure Team workshop, London
11 - Parkinson's UK Wikipedia training
12 - AHRC Wikipedia training workshop at the British Library
13 - 14 - Fæ and Andy Mabbett separately addressing the Central and Eastern
Europe Wikimedia conference.
14 - London meetup
15 - Roger Bamkin speaking at the Oxford Internet Institute
16 - Roger Bamkin speaking at De Montfort University
19 - Ada Lovelace Day event
21 - Coventry meetup
23-26 - Dunhuang Project editathon, British Library
26 - Black History Month event
26 - Women in Science editathon, Oxford
27 - 28 - Train the trainer workshop, October 2012
28 - Cambridge meetup
For events in November and onwards, please see Events.
*Finances*
The current state of each of our budgets is outlined in a Google
Spreadsheet at
https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org.uk/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkP38YPQ7Tg….
This details spend to date, and a rough estimate of future spending. This
spreadsheet is too complex to be placed directly on a wiki. Our yearly
spend is heavily 'end-loaded', partially due to the rapid growth of
Wikimedia UK.
Although we may underspend in one or two budgets, the next few weeks will
see a refocussed effort, led by a committee of editors, to work out how
they would best like to spend this underspend.
We also expect to be moving money between some budgets in the not too
distant future.
*News from the Chief Exec*
For information on Jon's activities this month, see News from the Office.
The updates about the Wikimedia UK Interns can be found there too, together
with here.
*Communications*
There were some notable communications successes this month. Both the
EduWiki conference and our work around Ada Lovelace Day attracted a good
deal of positive media attention. You can see the full breakdown of press
coverage in the report linked to in the UK press coverage section above. In
other ways this has been a challenging month in terms of communications and
it was unfortunate timing that our Communications Organiser was on annual
leave for the second half of the month. There have been appointments and
departures on our Board of Trustees and the announcement of an independent
review into Wikimedia UK's governance. There has been much conflation and
presumption at the heart of much of the media coverage, both in terms of
Roger's resignation and the announcement of the review, that it has been
difficult to be clear and factual about what has actually taken place. In
many ways September was something of a gift to our critics because of the
perception of events - regardless of what those events actually were.
Moving forward, we need to be more secure in making our own voice heard in
amongst the media hubbub.
*Fundraising and Membership*
*Fundraising*
This month, we received £1,258.35 in one-off donations, with 68 individual
donations. The average donation amount was £18.50 - 63% of these donors
have had Gift Aid Declarations made and matched with their records. If
anyone would like a full (but anonymised) csv file with more information,
please get in touch with katherine.bavagewikimedia.org.uk and let her know
your requirements.
As for direct debit donations, there were 6026 successful direct debits
this month, bringing in a total of £24,765.
*Membership*
Up to 30th September 2012:
214 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current members
41 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership
should be renewed)
This adds up to 255 members who are eligible to vote
152 Expired members
Katherine is developing HTML templates for welcome emails for new and
renewing members to sign-post them to resources and information and will be
scheduling a regular job to email members who have renewed (monthly) and
newly approved (post-board meetings).
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK +44 (0) 20 7065 0993 <%2B44%20%280%29%2020%207065%200993>
/ +44 (0) 7803 505 173 <%2B44%20%280%29%207803%20505%20173>
@StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England
and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513.
Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street,
London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a
global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the
Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
*
*
Morning all,
Harry popped by the office yesterday and had the pleasure of seeing me
battle with our database's WISIWYG editor to try and design a HTML email
template. It was not pretty.
I'm thinking of purchasing/downloading something better that will allow me
to design newsletter and mailing templates, preferably with a split view
option so I can tinker with the code and have a WISIWYG option too. This
will mean over time I can build a repository of templates to support my
post's needs (Membership and Development comms) and hopefully over time
other staff members can develop their own to support their roles (For
events, or volunteer specific communications etc).
Recommendations would be welcome - I'm looking to get something in place
soon so suggestions by the end of the week if you can!
Also, anyone with experience or interested in helping develop high quality
mailing templates we can release as CC BY SA to benefit other chapters too,
do put your name forward :)
Thanks!
--
*Katherine Bavage *
*Fundraising Manager *
*Wikimedia UK*
+44 20 7065 0949
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
Hi all,
There has been some discussion in advance of the Nov 17 Board meeting
proposing that we should establish a charter for the Education Committee.
We have several pages relating to Education projects at
https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_projects so it might be worth
reviewing what's already in place.
I've made a page at https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_Committee and
written some ideas off the top of my head. Please bring your thoughts to
that page over the next week or so. Edit it directly or discuss it on the
talk page. Please encourage others who may be interested to do the same.
Thanks
--
Doug