Dear Wikimedia UK mailing list,
We have been given some free off peak weekday tickets to the tank museum in
Dorset.
I have already Emailed those of our Wiki Loves Monuments participants who
opted in to further events, so apologies if this is a repeat, but if anyone
here fancies taking photographs of tanks, send me your snail mail address
and I will send you a ticket
Regards
Jonathan Cardy
GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums) Organiser/Trefnydd
GLAM (Galeriau,
Llyfrgelloedd, Archifdai a llawer Mwy!)
Wikimedia UK
0207 065 0990
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.
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Wikimedia UK has currently not endorsed any candidate for the two
Chapter affiliate seats on the WMF Board of Trustees. Neither has any
UK candidate stepped forward.
Does anyone have views to share on this list for which candidate they
feel would best represent the interests of our volunteers? There is
around a week left and Michael Maggs (the UK Chairman) has stated that
the chapter might endorse a candidate if there were a "groundswell of
opinion".
The candidates are:
* Frieda Brioschi
* Mallory Knodel
* Patricio Lorente
* Anders Wennersten
* Alice Wiegand
You can find links to their nomination statements at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2014/Nominat…
To put questions to the candidates goto:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2014/Questio…
A related chapter discussion thread is at
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Affiliate-selected_seats_on_the_b…>
if you prefer to write there.
I am a bit disappointed there have not been more candidates (dropping
from 8 in 2012 to 5 this year). The "chapters movement" (and the GLAM
programme) would be best served by strong competition for these
positions.
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
All,
Looking for something to do tomorrow evening?
Harry Mitchell has asked me to promote an event happening in London, near
Euston. It's a genetics editathon - but knowledge of the subject isn't
required, as experts will be on hand!
Food and drink are being provided. The evening will look like this:
17:30 Teas, Coffees and drinks reception
17:45 Introduction to problems; resources; markup; references; materials
18:00 Break out into into sub groups or individuals
18:10 Editathon begins. First session
19:00 Teas and Coffee Break
19:20 Editathon begins. Second session (Opportunity to switch areas of
interest)
20:20 Teas and Coffee Break
20:30 Editathon begins. Third session (Opportunity to switch areas of
interest)
21:45 Close + Wrap up
21:50 Pizzas, networking + Socialising.
Should be a good evening. It's being held at 2 Capper Street, London, at
the offices of Wayra, a startup accelerator (read: trendy office) near
Euston station.
More details at http://dnadigest.org/event/wiki-editathon/.
All the best,
Richard Symonds
Wikimedia UK
0207 065 0992
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.*
Hello everyone,
tl:dr -* Wikimedia UK <https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Main_Page> and Demos
<http://www.demos.co.uk/> are encouraging Wikimedians to participate in an
attempt to crowdsource a submission to a call for evidence on digital
democracy from the Speaker of the House of Commons. You can find the
consultation page here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Connecting_knowledge_to_power:_the_future_o…>
and
we look forward to hearing from you.*
The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has established a Commission
on Digital Democracy
<http://www.parliament.uk/business/commons/the-speaker/speakers-commission-o…>.
It will report to Parliament in early 2015 with recommendations on how
Parliament can use technology to better represent and engage with the
electorate, make laws and hold the powerful to account. As part of their
work, the Commission have issued a series of calls for evidence. These are
open invitations for members of the public, either as individuals or
groups, to submit responses to a series of questions. They have attracted
responses from unions, academics, non-governmental institutions and private
individuals. The first theme was ‘making laws in a digital age’, and the
second on ‘digital scrutiny’. The Commission plans to shortly publish the
final three themes.
There is a growing sense that the growth of the Internet has not paid the
democratic dividends that it could. Turnout in formal political elections
is steadily decreasing, and trust and support in the institutions and
offices of mainstream political life are low and falling. Despite many
innovative attempts from both within and outside of Government, the daily
reality of democratic engagement for most people in the UK would be
familiar to generations of British citizens who predate Facebook or email.
The rise of the Internet has, broadly, done little to challenge
concentrations of power or structures of unequal representation
Demos <http://www.demos.co.uk/> is one of Britain’s leading cross-party
think tank and it has an overarching mission to bring politics closer to
people. They contacted Wikimedia UK to propose an experiment: can an online
community be used to source a response to this call? Can the ethos,
community and technology like that of Wikipedia be used to engage
Wikipedians to come together and collaborate to create a reply? In
particular, Carl Miller, Research Director of the Demos Centre for the
Analysis of Social Media, wrote this piece for Wired
<http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-05/22/digital-democracy> in which
he describes Wikipedia as a masterclass in digital democracy.
This conversation has led to what is an experimental attempt to do just
that. In theory there are many lessons that any attempt to increase
engagement with digital democracy can learn from Wikimedia projects,
especially Wikipedia. These include the participatory nature of content
development and the nature of content (and policy) being arrived at by
consensus. Wikipedians are from a wide array of backgrounds and represent a
broad spectrum of views. This could lend itself to effective drafting of
the kind of evidence that the Speaker is looking for. Wikimedia UK and
Demos would like to establish whether this is indeed the case. In
particular, we are seeking answers to the following questions:
-
How can technology help Parliament and other agencies to scrutinise the
work of government?
-
How can technology help citizens scrutinise the Government and the work
of Parliament?
-
What kinds of data should Parliament and Government release to the
public to make itself more open to outside scrutiny?
Everyone is encouraged to try to answer these questions collaboratively, in
much the same way Wikipedia articles are approached - using the space below
for content and talk page for discussion. Stevie Benton from Wikimedia UK
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Stevie_Benton_(WMUK)> and Carl Miller
from Demos will happily answer any questions on the talk page but are
equally happy to let the process take its course.
At this point there is no fixed deadline for evidence on the theme of
digital scrutiny. However, the Speaker’s Commission will be publishing
publishing a single call for evidence covering our last three themes (yet
to be announced). The conversation and crowdsourced evidence will be
reviewed at the end of June with a view to either continuing the process or
submitting as is. If there is appetite among the community, and if the
first attempt is successful, there may be further attempts to develop
submissions to the later three themes.
At the end of the process Demos and Wikimedia UK will prepare a report on
the process and the effectiveness of this kind of approach to crowdsourcing
policy and evidence. This paper will be released under an open licence. It
is a real opportunity for Wikimedians to influence the debate about digital
democracy and both Wikimedia UK and Demos thank you for engaging with this
idea.
You can find the consultation page here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Connecting_knowledge_to_power:_the_future_o…>
and
we look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
--
Stevie Benton
Head of External Relations
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@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.*
Calling all Wikimedians in and around Edinburgh on 8 June: the 6th ScotWiki meetup will be held at 13.30 in Brew Lab, and we hope to see many faces both new and old! It's an exciting summer for Wikimedia in the UK and we're looking forward to seeing how Scotland can be an active part of that. Please do spread the word and check out the details and (very informal) agenda here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Edinburgh_6
Hope to see you there!
Ally
Ally Crockford
Wikimedian-In-Residence
National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh EH1 1EW
Scotland, UK
e: a.crockford(a)nls.uk<mailto:a.crockford@nls.uk>
t: (0) 131 623 3797
w: http://www.nls.uk<http://www.nls.uk/>
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook
National Library of Scotland, Scottish Charity, No: SCO11086
This communication is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you are not the addressee please inform the sender and delete the email from your system. The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of National Library of Scotland. This message is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998 and Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. No liability is accepted for any harm that may be caused to your systems or data by this message.
www.nls.uk
Wikimedia UK regrets to have to announce to the community that the
Wikimedia Foundation’s outgoing Executive Director, Sue Gardner, has given
us formal notice of her decision under her mandate from the WMF board not
to renew our fundraising agreement, thereby excluding us from this year’s
fundraiser.
We have written an open letter to Sue about this decision. A copy of our
letter to Sue can be found
here<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/File:Open_letter_to_Sue_Gardner_regarding_non…>
on
the Wikimedia UK wiki.
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
--
Stevie Benton
Head of External Relations
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@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.*
Quizipedia (which is a working title, and perhaps needs a better name) is a
new project to develop a site for user-generated quizzes, based on a new
tool authored by Magnus Manske. There are a few details announced now at
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Wikisoba_project/Quizipedia
and much more context in related pages from
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Category:Virtual_Learning_Environment
under the codename "Wikisoba". There are a couple of demos up at
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Wikisoba_project#Discussion
(The rest of the page is context, and partly explains what this has to do
with a Wikimedia UK initiative.)
This announcement is to generate interest in the project, as one of the
topics to be discussed at the Future of Education Workshop of 21/2 June in
the Barbican:
https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fringe/Future_of_Education_Workshop
Basically, some appropriate technology is now there, for anyone to generate
their own quizzes, using any sections of any MediaWiki sites. The coding is
based on GIFT format (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIFT_(file_format)),
which has been around for a little while. Having a repository makes sense,
and a community working together to generate content, but a number of
directions are still up for grabs:
* The different requirements of quizzes for recreation, self-testing, and
more heavyweight goal.
* Quite how to adapt GIFT syntax, or indeed whether there should be a fresh
start with something purpose-built.
* How to reach out to people interested in quizzes?
The last bullet is clearly important, if the aim is to apply a wiki-style
model. I'm convinced there are many out there who are interested in setting
quizzes.
I'm happy to have feedback before the third week of June, offlist or on the
talk pages of the UK wiki pages I have mentioned. I won't be able to deal
with it immediately, though. I hope to see some of you at the Barbican, and
I'm sure that it would be easier to explain the intention with a laptop and
flipchart than by email.
Charles
You are invited to the Wadewitz-Wollstonecraft Wikipedia editathon for
learning, sharing, editing, tea and (in the evening) dissenting beer. It is
happening all day *this Saturday 31 May* in atmospheric Newington Green,
London N16 9PR, and forms one of a worldwide series of
tributes<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wadewitz_Tribute_Edit-a-thons>
to
prolific and influential editor Dr Adrianne
Wadewitz<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrianne_Wadewitz>
(User:Wadewitz <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Wadewitz>), who died
suddenly last month.
Her work is recognized internationally as helping to encourage more women
to contribute to Wikipedia to tackle the gender gap and systemic bias.
Wadewitz was one of the first academics to bring Wikipedia into the
classroom as part of the Wikipedia Education Program, working with her
students to improve Wikipedia instead of writing traditional essays. She
had over 50,000 edits and wrote numerous featured and good articles,
including Mary Wollstonecraft<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft>,
author of *A Vindication of the Rights of Woman*. Wadewitz was a scholar of
eighteenth-century British literature, and yet this is the first tribute to
her in Britain (hence the somewhat rushed timescale).
Wollstonecraft is the nominal theme of the day, in that the editathon will
take place in the Mary Wollstonecraft Room, in Newington Green: a village
when she lived here in the 1780s, but now part of inner London. It is on
the Islington/Hackney border, with plentiful buses and an overground
station. However, any subject you want to work on is fine. Beginners are
very welcome, so please spread the word beyond this mailing list.
Full information
here<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/London/Wadewitz_memorial_Wiki_Editat…>
. Feel free to drop in at any point between 10am and 6pm, or meet us in the
Dissenting Academy afterwards for a drink. (Yes, a pub named after an
educational establishment - like Wikipedia, with beer.)
Hope to see some of you there.
Carbon Caryatid <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Carbon_Caryatid>