May I give you some news on the wiki encyclopedias for children:
I have let you know nearly one year ago about the launching of Vikidia
in English[1]:
Vikidia in English now has 1,445 articles and 32 active users. the
advantage in English is that we can pick up, choose, adapt and select
some existing material, especially from Simple English Wikipedia, and
from Wikijunior. Some of the first users on en.vikidia.org also come
from other Vikidia language and it even gather some Dutch teenager from
Wikikids.nl.
Vikidia was first launched in French and there is a similarly developed
counterpart in Dutch : http://wikikids.nl/ . these wikis are 8 and 9
years old now.
Vikidia in French has now more than one million unique visitors a month,
with a yearly growth of audience of nearly 40 %.
It's not a Wikimedia project, yet it is supported by Wikimédia France
that now funds our hosting costs.
Another wiki encyclopedia for children was recently launched in German,
and is supported by Wikimedia Germany. See some English explanation on
it here: [2].
There is some quite significant differences between the way each wiki's
aims, rules and functioning are designed, which we had the opportunity
to discuss between one and another teams/founders.
The guestbook on fr.vikidia show that this resource is really
appreciated by children (and even older peoples), and that there is a
need for such a wiki beside Wikipedia ([3] [4]).
Yet nothing can be done but with a significant community, that's why
your support (as individual people so as an organisation) really matter !
klexikon.de, which claim to be a content - rather than an educational -
wiki for children, directs a great part of its efforts (this is most of
the Wikimedia Germany support) on organizing meeting and workshop for
wannabe editors (teachers or other - mainly - adults). What about
Wikimedia UK supporting something similar? Yet it would demand some
peoples to undertake it... One can also begin with one (or some) blog
post about this project ?
[1]
http://blog.wikimedia.fr/vikidia-in-english-opens-today-lets-build-a-childr…
[2]
https://zikoblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/23/a-new-wiki-klexikon-the-free-ency…
[3] https://fr.vikidia.org/wiki/Vikidia:Livre_d%27or
[4] see also
http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=wikibooks%2C%20wikiversity%2C%20viki…
--
Mathias Damour
49 rue Carnot
F-74000 Annecy
00 (33) 4 57 09 10 56
00 (33) 6 27 13 65 51
https://fr.vikidia.org/wiki/Utilisateur:Astirmays
mathias.damour(a)laposte.net
Hi all,
tl;dr summary: I'm planning to run a survey about wikimeets in the near future. Do you have any comments/suggestions on the draft? See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mike_Peel/Wikimeet_survey
At a recent meetup, a Wikipedian who was new to wikimeets pointed out that the event had the air of a gentleman's club about it. Looking around at the high-back comfy chairs, the Victorian-era interior decorations, the pints of real ale, and the mostly-male (and regular) attendees, I couldn't really disagree with their assessment. This started me thinking: are there better venues and times to hold meetups, or better ways of advertising/inviting people to planned meetups? What would make them more open and inviting to new editors, or the many long-term editors that have never attended a meetup?
As an experiment to try to improve the attendance and advertising of wikimeets in the North of England, a few months ago I posted messages on the talk pages of previous wikimeet attendees about the last Leeds and Manchester wikimeets, and the Liverpool wikimeet coming up this weekend. There was, unexpectedly, a pretty good response, with a number of people signing up to attend the wikimeets. I'm not sure whether it was a direct consequence or not, but we had a long-term editor attend the last Manchester wikimeet who hadn't previously attended a wikimeet. I couldn't attend the last Leeds wikimeet: was anyone there and able to say whether it made a difference or not? I'm hoping that the irregular wikimeet attendees who have signed up for the Liverpool meetup will be there!
It also started a longer conversation with Iridescent [1], which led to the idea of having some sort of a UK-wide notifications list. During that conversation, I started drafting a survey of past and potential wikimeet attendees with the aim of getting some quantified and actionable answers about how to improve wikimeets, and also improve communication about wikimeets. The latest draft of the survey is at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mike_Peel/Wikimeet_survey
Amongst other things, the survey draft asks about how people get to wikimeets; when and where wikimeets should be held; what activities should take place at wikimeets; and how notifications about an upcoming meetup would ideally be circulated.
I'm hoping to run this survey soon, so if you are interested in improving the survey questions then please send me an email or post on the talk page before the end of the month! In particular, if you currently organise (or regularly attend) wikimeets, then I'd greatly appreciate your input/feedback about the survey questions before it goes live. Ideally the survey would be run in association with WMUK, but given the recent turmoil I'm not sure if this will be possible, so I'll run it myself unless WMUK expresses an interest in helping out with it!
Thanks,
Mike
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Iridescent/Archive_17#Next_meetups_…
The deadline for members' resolutions for this year's AGM is just a week
away on 26 June.
See https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/2015_Annual_General_Meeting/planning
It's generally a healthy sign when our AGM contains debate on issues of
interest and concern to members - and who better to raise those issues than
members themselves?
Proposing or seconding an ordinary resolution is not a difficult process
and I'd expect that the office will be helpful if anyone needs help with
the formalities.
AGMs can sometimes find themselves devoting sessions to merely fulfilling
formalities, and the session reserved for debating members' resolutions has
the potential to make the AGM more interesting for many.
Looking forward to seeing lots of you on 25 July.
--
Rexx
I am hosting some editathons:
Thurs 28 May, Birmingham:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/Royal_Society_of_Chemistry/BH-…
at Birmingham Museums Collection centre (only rarely open to the
public!). We'll enjoy a 'backstage tour and the opportunity to
photograph objects, as well,of course, writing articles.
Weds 29 July, London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/Royal_Society_of_Chemistry/BH-…
in the library of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The focus will be
on chemistry-related topics; including both scientific and
non-scientific content (the latter including biographies, for
example).
Sat 8 August, North Cheshire
Watch this space (and keep the date free)!
In each case, lunch and refreshments will be provided; there will be
support for new editors (maybe you can help?) and we'll work on sister
projects such as Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata and Wikisource, as well
as Wikipedia.
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
> Of course, it’s not mandatory to drink while in a pub. ;)
>
> Joe
>
> --
> *Joe Sutherland*
> http://jossu.co.uk
Yes, but I had a birthday party in a pub and a Muslim friend refused to
join us.
Gordo
Hello everyone,
The UK Wikimedian of the Year Awards celebrate volunteers and institutions
in the UK or abroad who have particularly contributed to Wikimedia in the
UK.
Nominations for this year are now open, and will close on Tuesday 12 July,
so please add your nominations here:
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/UK_Wikimedian_of_the_Year_2015/Nomination
Regards,
Richard Nevell
--
Richard Nevell
Assistant Office Manager
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0753
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,
Not Wikimedia related but something in the UK which I think you'll all find
great fun. I've been to a few of these in the past and they're well worth
going to. It's something that I'd love us to be involved with in future
years... but in the meantime, I encourage you to sit in the audience!
http://pintofscience.co.uk/
*"An Evening with Mike Foale will feature the former record-breaking
astronaut talk about his experiences. We’ll also be connecting live to the
International Space Station and videoconferencing with Commander Scott
Kelly who is currently three months into his one year living on the
International Space Station. From King’s College London Dr David Green will
talk about the development of a Gravity Loading Skinsuit to prevent muscle
and bone loss in Space, and Dr Julie Keeble will explain how to prepare
student experiments for launch to the International Space Station. The
event takes place in a theatre and so is open to people of all ages. Please
note there are two types of tickets, student (£9) which includes those
still at school and university students and full-price (£18), click below
for more details. The proceeds will go to the charity ISSET which aims to
utilise space exploration to inspire and motivate young people to believe
that they can become what they want to be."*
It's a shame I won't be able to go, but it's really worth going to these.
You learn a lot!
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.*
For those interested in this proposed EU copyright change, and with
access to the BBC IPlayer (it may only work in the UK), I suggest
reviewing today's Daily Politics show.[1] The position of the Labour
party MEP (Mary Honeyball) is to support new restrictions on Freedom
of Panorama (she gives a good 2 minute explanation of why the proposed
amendment is a great thing), while the UKIP Culture Spokesman (Peter
Whittle) is set against.
The arguments on both sides are reasoned but slightly confused, with
some errors creeping in. However these sound-bite cases for both sides
are worth thinking through if attempting to provide MEPs with lobbying
comments or better case studies and briefing material.[2] I'm
surprised to see a Labour politician arguing to damage the UK's
current Freedom of Panorama, it feels like a future vote loser to me,
especially in the light of the ever looming UK referendum on whether
to stay in the EU.[3]
Links
1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060kp1r - go to 52 minutes into
the programme, available on-line for a month from broadcast.
2. http://www.europarl.org.uk/en/your-meps.html - contact details for
UK MEPs, Honeyball can be found under London.
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32810887
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae