Dear all
As some of you may be aware, Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation have
been working together over the past months to advocate for changes to the
UK Online Safety Bill which is currently going through Parliament. Today,
we launched an open letter (with a consortium of signatories from the
civil society sector) and would appreciate the wider Wikimedia community's
support in amplifying this through your social media channels, if that
feels appropriate.
Here are some possible tweets that you may want to send - with the first
linking directly to the open letter and the bottom two linking to a blog
post, published yesterday (which now links to the open letter):
Click to tweet: <https://ctt.ac/KubhY> I signed the @Wikimedia Foundation
and @WikimediaUK's open letter to UK government leaders asking to exempt
@Wikipedia and other public interest projects from the Online Safety Bill.
If you care about free knowledge, join me. #ForFreeKnowledge
https://wikimedia.org.uk/2023/06/online-safety-bill-open-letter/
Click to tweet: <https://ctt.ac/3e1T0> The UK's Online Safety Bill is a
threat to @Wikipedia and other public interest projects. I join the
@Wikimedia Foundation and @WikimediaUK's call for changes to the Bill
before it becomes law. #ForFreeKnowledge
https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/protect-the-futu…
<https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/protect-the-futu…>
Click to tweet: <https://ctt.ac/B6g3l> I share the @Wikimedia Foundation
and @WikimediaUK's concerns about what the UK's Online Safety Bill means
for the future of @Wikipedia. Here's why. #ForFreeKnowledge
https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/protect-the-futu…
With many thanks
Lucy
--
Lucy Crompton-Reid (she/her)
Chief Executive
Somewhat off-topic, hope you do not mind, but it seems that MediaWiki farm
Miraheze.org has been failing to get its legal entity Miraheze ltd.
recognized as non-profit. Anyone informed of what went wrong?
Is it as hard toget and keep as US 503c status?
Best Z. Blace
Dear all
Just a reminder that it is *Wikimedia UK's AGM this Saturday 1st July*,
from 10am to 12noon. This is your chance to hear about the activities of
the charity directly from the board and executive, and ask questions about
our past work and future plans and priorities. There is a board election,
and the announcement of new Honorary Memberships.
Please register on eventbrite here
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wikimedia-uks-2023-agm-tickets-639329851797> to
receive the meeting zoom link.
Those of you who are members should have received a Voting Pack last week,
to whatever email you used when you applied for membership. Please can you
contact Katie.Crampton(a)wikimedia.org.uk (or just reply to this email) if
you haven't received a pack and think that you should have.
If you are unable to attend the AGM we would be grateful if you could *please
take a minute to complete your voting proxy form*, included in the email
sent with the voting pack. The deadline for submitting proxy votes is this
Thursday at 10am. Whilst it isn't a competitive election this year, with
one candidate standing for one place on the Board of Trustees, we do need
to be quorate in order to elect that candidate (software engineer and long
time Wikimedia contributor, Sammy Tarling) to the board.
If you have any questions about the AGM or voting, please don't hesitate to
ask.
Thanks and best wishes
Lucy
--
Lucy Crompton-Reid (she/her)
Chief Executive
Dear all
I just wanted to remind you all that the deadline to stand in our upcoming
trustee election is tomorrow (Friday 16th June) at midnight. The process is
straightforward and detailed here Becoming a Trustee
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Board/Becoming_a_trustee#Expectations_of_trus…>.
This year there is one vacancy, and we are particularly keen for members of
the Wikimedia community to put themselves forward.
The elections will be held at our forthcoming AGM on *Saturday 1st July* from
10am to 12noon. Please book a place on Eventbrite here: 2023 AGM
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wikimedia-uks-2023-agm-tickets-639329851797>
Remember that in order to vote you need to be a current member of Wikimedia
UK
<https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=4>.
Please join or rejoin by Monday 19th June to ensure you receive your voting
pack.
All best
Lucy
--
Lucy Crompton-Reid (she/her)
Chief Executive
Hi all
As you may have seen on our social media, next week we are hosting an
online session on the report *Wikimedia and Democracy – The impact of
Wikimedia UK's information literacy work on citizen engagement
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_and_Democracy_-_Wikimedia…>*
.
You can sign up to attend Wednesday's session on eventbrite
<https://bit.ly/42eq0L1>, which will include an overview of the report's
findings and a curated Q&A. You can also read the blog
<https://bit.ly/42vOCQn>, which includes commentary from individuals across
the Wikimedia movement.
I'd like to commend the report's authors, Agnes Bruszik and Daria Cybulska,
on a fantastic piece of research, and thank WMUK Trustee Sangeet Bhullar
for joining Daria to host next week's session.
Hope to see you there, and let us know if you have any questions.
Best wishes
Katie
--
Katie Crampton (she/her)
Communications Coordinator
<https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk/>
*Wikimedia UK* <https://wikimedia.org.uk/> is the national chapter for the
global Wikimedia open knowledge movement.
Follow us on Twitter <https://twitter.com/wikimediauk>, Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaUK>, LinkedIn
<https://www.linkedin.com/company/496119>, and Instagram
<https://www.instagram.com/wikimediauk/>.
Wikimedia UK is a registered charity in England, Wales No.1144513. and Scotland
No. SC048644. Company Limited by Guarantee, Registration No. 6741827.
Registered Office Ground Floor, Europoint, 5 - 11 Lavington Street, London
SE1 0NZ
<https://maps.google.com/?q=5+-+11+Lavington+Street,+London+SE1+0NZ&entry=gm…>
.
Dear all
I hope you had a lovely bank holiday weekend and are enjoying the lovely
weather (at least, it's lovely here in Scotland!)
I wanted to make sure that you have the date of Wikimedia UK’s next AGM in
your diaries, taking place online on Saturday 1st July from 10am to 12
noon. Please book your place via Eventbrite
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/639329851797>.
The AGM will include reports from me, the Chair and the Treasurer, and is
an important opportunity to ask questions about the charity’s work. The AGM
is also when our annual trustee elections take place. This year we have one
vacancy for an elected trustee, and are keen to hear from members of the
Wikimedia community in the UK who would be interested in joining the Board.
The process for standing for election is detailed here
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Board/Becoming_a_trustee> and the deadline
is Friday 16th June. Please feel free to reach out to me if you’re thinking
of standing, particularly if you have questions about the process or the
role of the Wikimedia UK board.
Remember that to stand for the election, or indeed to vote at the AGM, you
need to be a current member. All members should have received an email
about the AGM on Friday so if you didn’t receive one and think you should
have done, please email katie.crampton(a)wikimedia.org.uk. You can apply for
or renew your membership here <https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Membership>.
It only takes a few minutes and costs £5 a year.
Members can also propose resolutions for consideration at the AGM. A
resolution could be about a change to Wikimedia UK’s governing document
(our Articles of Association
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Articles_of_Association>) or a change to our
policies. If you want to propose a resolution please email us at
info(a)wikimedia.org.uk by this Friday 2nd June. You can either propose the
suggested text of the resolution yourself, or we can work with you to draft
something.
If you have any general questions about the AGM, please contact Chuks
Ogbonna, copied in.
All best
Lucy
--
Lucy Crompton-Reid (she/her)
Chief Executive
Hello, hive mind - with all this talk of whether our projects (even
Wiktionary!) should be caught by the UK OSB, I was hoping to crowdsource an
answer to the question: who else might be unfortunate bycatch for this
ill-scoped "online safety" law?
I'll set out the key definition below, and hopefully you'll have some
ideas. I'll start the ball rolling with *OpenStreetMap* and *FixMyStreet*
...
For context: we're hoping to build support for an additional exemption for
services *"provided for the purpose of indexing, manipulation, discussion
and/or making available of content in the public interest, including but
not limited to historical, academic, artistic, educational, encyclopaedic,
journalistic, and/or statistical content"*. It'd be helpful to have other
examples of good projects that would benefit from being spared the OSB's
requirements, not least all the red tape that it requires!
*Scope of the OSB **(ignoring parts dedicated to porn sites - and glossing
over a couple of smaller details, such as how combination services are
treated):*
a. Applies to any “User-to-user service” and “search service” that "has
links with the UK" (e.g. UK users) and isn't exempt.
b. A U2U service "means an internet service by means of which content that
is generated directly on the service by a user of the service, or uploaded
to or shared on the service by a user of the service, may be encountered by
another user, or other users, of the service (...) it does not matter if
content is actually shared with another user or users as long as a service
has a functionality that allows such sharing". It also "does not matter
what proportion of content on a service is" UGC.
c. A search service is "an internet service that is, or includes, a search
engine", that is run by the provider of that site (rather than just
embedding Google Search into your own), but "does not include a service
which enables a person to search just one website or database."
*Exemptions are set out in Schedule 1. These include:*
1. Services where the UGC is limited to
- emails, or SMS/MMS;
- one-to-one live aural communications;
- comments or reviews relating to the provider's own content;
- sharing of such comments or reviews (about a provider's own content)
on a different internet service;
- services limiting user expression to like/dislikes buttons, emojis,
yes/no voting, or rating/scoring;
(but the exemptions above do NOT apply if regulated provider pornographic
content is published or displayed on the service)
"Provider content" is "content published on a service by the provider of
the service or by a person acting on behalf of the provider (including
where the publication of the content is effected or controlled by means of
software or an automated tool or algorithm applied by the provider or by a
person acting on behalf of the provider)."
So that would include, say, guest posters on your own blog, or columnists
on the Daily Mail website, but is unlikely to include WMF projects (since
contributors aren't acting "on behalf of" WMF).
2. Intranets and search engines that are run internally by *businesses.*
3. Services provided by UK public bodies or foreign sovereign powers
(except for childcare services, which have their own narrower exemption).
4. Certain UK-regulated (e.g. Ofsted-regulated) education/childcare
providers.
Thanks in advance!
*Phil Bradley-Schmieg* (he/him)
Lead Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
NOTICE: *This message might have confidential or legally privileged
information in it. If you have received this message by accident, please
delete it and let us know about the mistake. As an attorney for the
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our **legal disclaimer*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>*.*