Hi all, I thought I would send a little update on some stuff that's been
going on.
Wikimania finished yesterday in Montreal, and it was a great opportunity to
meet community members, learn from other chapters and look forward to the
future. Some highlights:
- The Foundation presented their draft strategic direction
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/08/10/wikimedia-2030-draft-strategic-direct…>
for the movement, See the video here
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdr2F8aB9y0>.
- Creative Commons announced a Free Culture Fellowship
<https://creativecommons.org/2017/08/11/bassel-free-culture-fellowship/?utm_…>
in honour of Bassell Khartabil,
- Ghanaian Wikimedian Felix Nartey who organised Wikimedia Indaba
was announced
as Wikimedian of the Year
<https://twitter.com/subhapa/status/896850365756223488>, the first
African person to receive the award.
- There was A LOT of discussion about how Structured Data on Commons
will eventually solve some of the most common complaints about current user
workflows (though we don't yet know how long this will take),
- The Wikidata team are also working on a structured version of
Wiktionary <https://twitter.com/mlpoulter/status/897095955622899713>;
- We learned that Commons will soon accept .mp3 files. See the
Phabricator discussion here <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T120288>.
- There was also some discussion of the problems with video files on
Commons. See that talk here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2017_-_Is_Wikimedia_ready…>
.
- Melissa Highton and Ewan McAndrew from the University of Edinburgh
presented a discussion on 'The Value of a Wikimedian',
- You can see a lot of videos of different sessions on the Wikimedia
Foundation YouTube channel
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK_cUZLMpibyRiIdp0uF-lQ>,
- WikiWomeninRed presented a panel
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPF_xNJH1ik> about reducing the Gender
Gap in biographies on Wikipedia.
- Learn about some of the Coolest Projects of the Wikimedia Movement
from this presentation <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rafIhMx2cw0>.
- The Wiki Research team presented on some of the interesting academic
research on Wikimedia related things. Here's a discussion of research on
Fake News
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_2017_Wiki_Research_talk_o…>
.
- See all the photos and videos I have uploaded so far on Commons here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimania_2017_by_John_Lubbock>
.
This weekend we are also hosting a Wikidata event. The Wikifying
Westminster Workshop
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wikifying-westminster-workshop-tickets-3686445…>
will be at Newspeak House, 133 Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, from 10-6pm.
We are also planning our third Newsletter of the year to go out before the
end of this month, so if any of our community members have an idea for a
short post about something Wikimedia related, please get in touch with me
and tell me your ideas.
Wiki Loves Monuments is starting at the beginning of September, so we are
hoping to do some significant coverage of the competition this year and
produce some great photos which can compete for the global awards. Why not
get in touch and tell us if you are taking part and what you're doing?
John Lubbock
Communications Coordinator
Dear all
I've been in touch with the Director at Tullie House Museum, who thinks the
copyright notice may be a mistake on their part - however he needs to check
with the curator responsible who is currently on holiday. Will keep you
updated!
I'm flying to Montreal today so will hopefully see those of you attending
Wikimania 2017.
Best wishes
Lucy
--
Lucy Crompton-Reid
Chief Executive
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 207 065 0991
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.
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.*
Waldemar Januszczak, writing in the Times (ironically, paywalled!) says:
"Some of Britain’s leading art galleries have been accused of killing
scholarship by introducing fees for the reproduction of images of
works in their collections.
"Tate has led the way in imposing “crippling fees” on journals,
according to The British Art Journal.
"The charges could amount to thousands of pounds for small-circulation
publications to illustrate scholarly articles, the journal said,
describing it as “a licence to print money, a licence to kill
scholarship”."
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/british-museum-and-tate-cash-in-on-…
and he has tweeted:
" I call upon the Tate and others to end this scholarship-bashing.
You're supposed to be on the side of civilisation!"
https://twitter.com/JANUSZCZAK/status/893390807331373056
While this may also apply to in-copyright works, this clearly relevant
to our recent discussions about what is known as "copyfraud".
I've replied, suggesting he contact WMUK with a view to collaborating.
Maybe someone at WMUK can follow that up?
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
Just a heads-up that I'm organising a daytme editathon in London on
Friiday, 13 October 2017.
I hope those of you who aren't superstitious will be able to make it.
Details including the host organisation, will follow as soon as I'm
cleared to announce them, but I thought you might want to keep the
date free.
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk