The press release has now gone out:
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2010/01/mary-rose-trust-releases- photographs-onto-wikipedia/
It's been sent to the nationals, the local paper (http:// www.portsmouth.co.uk) and a few museum contacts. Let's see who picks it up...
Mike
On 3 Jan 2010, at 15:45, Michael Peel wrote:
Hi Steve,
Thanks for this; I've integrated some of these changes into the release. I quite like Charles's rearrangement of the release from this morning, so I haven't changed the arrangement much - except for splitting up the first paragraph into two so that they become a bit more punchy.
One point to note: content donations are different from "loves" events - the former just involves the public online, whilst the latter involves them offline in museums. The Bundesarchiv etc. were content donations, not "loves" events.
I think we're just about ready to send this out - if everyone's happy with it?
Mike
On 3 Jan 2010, at 12:14, Steve Virgin wrote:
Assuming the formatting stays in place through email (big 'if') here is my attempt to contribute to improving the press release
My version:
The Portsmouth-based Mary Rose Trust, has donated fifty-seven high resolution images, previously unpublished, relating to the salvaged sixteenth century warship onto Wikipedia. This kind donation complements a substantial reworking of the Wikipedia article about the sixteenth-century warship the Mary Rose, carried out by Wikimedia volunteer Peter Isotalo from Sweden. Two photographs are of the final stages of the salvage operation on 11 October 1982; the first time the Mary Rose had been above water since it sank on 19 July 1545. The remainder show sixteenth-century artefacts, including weapons, tools and personal items, recovered from the Mary Rose during its salvage:
"Making content available on Wikimedia increases the visibility of our cultural heritage," Mike Peel, Chair of Wikimedia UK, says. "These images are now available to be seen in perpetuity, by the millions of people around the world that regularly read and edit Wikipedia and its sister projects."
The revised article on the Mary Rose will be prominently linked on the 'Did you know..' section, which is found on the home page of Wikipedia, on 4 January; this page routinely receives over four million visits each day. In addition, it is on course to become a "Featured Article", a best on Wikipedia example, and, thus, it will also be eligible to be the main featured article on Wikipedia's front page.
Forthcoming event:
Wikimedia UK is finishing off plans for Britain Loves Wikipedia that will run during the whole of February. It is a free photography contest to be held in participating museums across the UK, attracting volunteer involvement, bringing more people to the museums and getting them involved in describing and representing the cultural heritage content. As ever, images from the series of events will be used to illustrate Wikipedia articles.
Previous events of this nature have been run all over the world in partnership with Wikimedia: the Bundesarchiv and Deutsche Fotothek in Germany; the Tropenmuseum in The Netherlands; Regionarkivet in Sweden and the Queensland Museum, Australia.
Wikimedia UK proactively seeks to encourage more cultural organisations to make their images, audio recordings or videos freely available to the public through its Wikimedia Commons project.
EDITORS' NOTES
About the Mary Rose: The Mary Rose, once the pride of King Henry VIII's navy, was raised by the the Mary Rose Trust from the bottom of the Solent just off Portsmouth in 1982, 437 years after it accidentally foundered while engaging a French fleet. The project of salvaging the ship was a major undertaking and proved to be a milestone within the field of maritime archaeology. When the Mary Rose sunk, the ship and its contents were sealed off by layers of clay and sediment thereby becoming a time capsule of sixteenth-century Tudor England. The thousands of artefacts found when the ship was excavated and raised have provided important clues to the life of the men of all classes that served on her during the 1540s, about shipbuilding, naval warfare and countless other fields.
About Wikimedia Commons: Wikimedia Commons is a free image and media file repository, and is a sister project to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It was started on 7 September 2004, and is operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. It currently contains over 5.5 million freely licensed images and media files.
About Wikimedia UK: Wikimedia UK is an independent organisation that supports free and open knowledge throughout the United Kingdom, including promoting and supporting the projects of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.
About the Wikimedia Foundation: The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. is the US-based non-profit organisation that operates some of the largest collaboratively- edited reference projects in the world. These include Wikipedia, one of the world's ten most-visited websites, and Wikimedia Commons.
From: "Michael Peel" email@mikepeel.net Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 11:24 PM To: charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com; <wikimediauk- l@lists.wikimedia.org> Cc: "Steve Virgin" steve@mediafocusuk.com Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Telegraph runs story ...
On 2 Jan 2010, at 20:27, Charles Matthews wrote:
In the end, a story appeared today:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/6916596/WB-Yeats- and-Sigmund-Freud-works-posted-on-Wikipedia-as-copyright- expires.html
Well done indeed to Mike and Andrew in particular for pushing on past all the obstacles.
Well done Charles and Brian for writing the article, and also pushing past your share of obstacles. :-)
I think I've found another addiction thanks to this - I spent most of today and yesterday making a book of Yeats available on Wikisource... If you haven't already tried proofreading a book on Wikisource, then I would thoroughly recommend it.
The next press release, due to go out tomorrow evening, will be about a donation of images from the Mary Rose Trust:
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Press_releases/Mary_Rose_Trust_donation
Please help! If this goes down well in the media, then it will be a great precedent for getting more organizations to make their content available by Wikimedia websites.
Thanks, Mike
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