Please find time over the weekend to find "reasons to be cheerful"
(see Ian Dury) about the Google Global Impact Challenge and the
opportunity it presents. Two candidates are up at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Google_Global_Impact_Challenge .
For example, either project there would bring WMUK into serious
software development, and so the charity would move to having a
project manager whose expertise would be useful also on other fronts.
One more of my own: the discussion on this list and last year of
online education and WMUK showed that the community found the subject
engaging and fruitful. We are now implementing a VLE, which is a
nitty-gritty business but one that moves WMUK up the learning curve on
all the points raised before. Entering the Challenge in this area
would contribute to that process.
Being shortlisted (10 projects) is perfectly reasonable as an
ambition, and would be excellent publicity for the chapter.
There isn't a box on the entry form at
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/impactchallenge/ saying exactly
"tell us about yourself". It is more like an interview that starts
with easy questions, and moves gradually to the tricky stuff. There is
a box "why is your organisation poised for success?" We shouldn';t
be shy. "We wrote the world's largest reference work on a shoestring,
ignoring naysaying and preconceptions, and all we really needed was
good word-of-mouth. Just try and stop us."
Please support vocally the idea that the form should be filled in, on
your behalf.
Charles