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-direction/ 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_source=social&utm_medium=twitterfacebook&utm_campaign=2017fund&utm_content=bassel-fellowship 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_for_videos_session.webm . - 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_on_Fake_News.webm . - 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-36864455579 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