Q5: Is there any way that you think the election should be run differently to the election of the interim Board?
I wanted to answer one of the questions I put with a suggestion regarding minority languages.
Most of the people active in Wikimedia UK seem to be active in the english Wikimedia projects. However, there are some other smaller Wikimedia languages where UK editors form a vital part of the editing and readorship base. I'm thinking particularly of the native languages of the UK such as Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and maybe Irish, Scots/Ullans, Cornish, Manx etc.
As well as recognised the diversity of the Wikimedia community, there are also significant public funds available for promoting these languages which could be used by us to support these projects.
The Board has already reached out to these projects by asking if the newsletter could be translated into these languages. My suggestion is we set aside two reserved seats on the Board for people who actively contribute to at lease one wikimedia project in a minority language of the UK.
What do you think?
The Board has already reached out to these projects by asking if the newsletter could be translated into these languages. My suggestion is we set aside two reserved seats on the Board for people who actively contribute to at lease one wikimedia project in a minority language of the UK.
Two seats is too many, especially if the board is only 5 members (if it is increased to 7, it's a little more reasonable) - the proportion of members from minority languages is likely to be much less than 40%, and the board should not be so grossly disproportionate. One seat is worth considering. There are ways of giving minority languages an involvement in running the chapter without them being given a dedicated board seat, though - a system of committees (possibly with budgets and delegated powers - we need legal advice there) could work, there is also the possibility of a more complicated system involving subsidiary companies, but that's too complicated to worry about now (I'm not sure if there would be any real benefits - perhaps it's an idea best discussed over a pint after the AGM).
What languages are spoken in the United Kingdom?
Afrikaans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans and Dutchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language Approximately 400,000 South African-British http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African-Britishand Dutch British http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_people_in_the_United_Kingdom Arabic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic Up to 700,000 British Arab http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Arab - British Iranianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Iranian, British Iraqi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Iraqi, British Moroccans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Moroccans, British Yemenihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Yemeni Bengali http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_language (standard Bangla) Over 300,000 British Asian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Bangladeshis (1st language 5%) and Indians Cantonesehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese_language
British Chinese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Chinese Various Caribbean languages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Languages_of_the_Caribbean
British Caribbeanshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_African-Caribbean_community French http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language Approximately over 1 million French Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_people_in_the_United_Kingdom German http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language 545,000 0.9% British Germans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Germans Greekhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language Up to 200,000 fluent or conversational 0.34% Greek Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Briton Hebrew & Yiddish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_languages Up to 100,000 fluent or conversational British Jews http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Jews and Israeli Britishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_British Gujarati http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarati_Language
British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indians Hindihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi_language
British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indians Hindihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi_language
British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indians, British Pakistanis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Pakistanis Hungarianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_language Up to 70,000 0.12% Hungarian Britishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_British Kannada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada_language
British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indians Lithuanian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_language
Lithuanians, Baltic Britishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_people_in_the_United_Kingdom Malayalam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam_language
British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indians Mandarin Chinese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese Around 200,000 fluent or conversational 0.33% British Chinesehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Chinese Mirpuri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potwari_language (Potwarihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potwari ) Up to 700,000 1.15% British Mirpuri Pakistanis. Pashtohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashto Around 200,000 fluent or conversational 0.33% British Pakistanishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Pakistanis Polish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_language 600,000 1.0% Polish immigrants to the UK and Polish Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_British Portuguese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_language Around 250,000 fluent or conversational 0.4% Portuguese Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Briton, British Brazilians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Brazilian and Cape Verdean British Punjabi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_language 1,263,000 2.1% British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India and Pakistanihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan Russian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language 350,000 0.60% Russian British http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_British, Ukrainian Britishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Britishand other former Soviet Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union countries Somalihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_language 200,000 0.33% British Somalis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Somalis Spanish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language 490,000 0.8% Spanish Britons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Briton, Colombian Britishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_Britishand other Latin American Britons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_Briton Sylheti Bengali http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylheti_language 280,000[17]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_Kingdom#cite_note-16 0.47% British Bangladeshishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Bangladeshi(95% of population) Tagalog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagalog_language Up to 150,000 fluent or conversational 0.23% British Filipinoshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Filipino_%28United_Kingdom%29 Tamil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language Up to 150,000 fluent or conversational 0.23% British Asianshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian- Indians, Sri Lankans, Singaporeans Telugu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu_language
Indian Britons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Britons Turkishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_language Up to 300,000 fluent or conversational 0.5% Turkish Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_British Ukrainian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_language Up to 100,000 fluent or conversational 0.15% Ukrainian Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_British Urdu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu_language 400,000[18]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_Kingdom#cite_note-17 0.67% Pakistani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistani_British and Indian Britons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Britons Native languages = indigenous languages. I think that is racist. Include all 100+ spoken languages in the UK. It reminds me of the incredible voting system in Pakistan where non muslims are allowed to select a number of seats for the national assembly (1985-1999 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_religious_freedom_in_Pakistan#Elector...)
m
2008/11/29 michael west michawest@gmail.com
What languages are spoken in the United Kingdom?
Afrikaans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans and Dutchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language Approximately 400,000 South African-British http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African-Britishand Dutch British http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_people_in_the_United_Kingdom Arabic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic Up to 700,000 British Arab http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Arab - British Iranianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Iranian, British Iraqi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Iraqi, British Moroccans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Moroccans, British Yemenihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Yemeni Bengali http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_language (standard Bangla) Over 300,000 British Asian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Bangladeshis (1st language 5%) and Indians Cantonesehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese_language
British Chinese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Chinese Various Caribbean languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Languages_of_the_Caribbean
British Caribbeanshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_African-Caribbean_community French http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language Approximately over 1 million French Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_people_in_the_United_Kingdom German http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language 545,000 0.9% British Germans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Germans Greekhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language Up to 200,000 fluent or conversational 0.34% Greek Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Briton Hebrew & Yiddish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_languages Up to 100,000 fluent or conversational British Jews http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Jews and Israeli British http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_British Gujaratihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarati_Language
British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indians Hindi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi_language
British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indians Hindi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi_language
British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indians, British Pakistanis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Pakistanis Hungarianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_language Up to 70,000 0.12% Hungarian Britishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_British Kannada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada_language
British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indians Lithuanian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_language
Lithuanians, Baltic Britishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_people_in_the_United_Kingdom Malayalam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam_language
British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian - Indians Mandarin Chinese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese Around 200,000 fluent or conversational 0.33% British Chinesehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Chinese Mirpuri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potwari_language (Potwarihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potwari ) Up to 700,000 1.15% British Mirpuri Pakistanis. Pashtohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashto Around 200,000 fluent or conversational 0.33% British Pakistanishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Pakistanis Polish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_language 600,000 1.0% Polish immigrants to the UK and Polish Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_British Portuguese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_language Around 250,000 fluent or conversational 0.4% Portuguese Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Briton, British Brazilians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Brazilian and Cape Verdean British Punjabihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_language 1,263,000 2.1% British Asians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian- Indian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India and Pakistanihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan Russian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language 350,000 0.60% Russian British http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_British, Ukrainian Britishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Britishand other former Soviet Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union countries Somalihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_language 200,000 0.33% British Somalishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Somalis Spanish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language 490,000 0.8% Spanish Britons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Briton, Colombian Britishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_Britishand other Latin American Britons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_Briton Sylheti Bengali http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylheti_language 280,000[17]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_Kingdom#cite_note-16 0.47% British Bangladeshishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Bangladeshi(95% of population) Tagalog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagalog_language Up to 150,000 fluent or conversational 0.23% British Filipinoshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Filipino_%28United_Kingdom%29 Tamil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language Up to 150,000 fluent or conversational 0.23% British Asianshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Asian- Indians, Sri Lankans, Singaporeans Telugu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu_language
Indian Britons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Britons Turkishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_language Up to 300,000 fluent or conversational 0.5% Turkish Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_British Ukrainian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_language Up to 100,000 fluent or conversational 0.15% Ukrainian Britonshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_British Urdu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu_language 400,000[18]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_Kingdom#cite_note-17 0.67% Pakistani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistani_British and Indian Britons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Britons Native languages = indigenous languages. I think that is racist. Include all 100+ spoken languages in the UK. It reminds me of the incredible voting system in Pakistan where non muslims are allowed to select a number of seats for the national assembly (1985-1999 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_religious_freedom_in_Pakistan#Elector...)
m
You missed English! :-0
2008/11/29 Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com
It reminds me of the incredible voting system in Pakistan where non muslims are allowed to select a number of
seats
for the national assembly
Does that make any less sense than determining constituencies purely by geography?
Actually it does, the National Assembly of Pakistan ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_National_Assembly ) is essentially based on the UK Parliamentary system of constituencies. Muslims voted in constituencies, non muslims voted for a number of seats Hindu, Singh, Ahmedi, Christian etc outside of constituency boundary.
A board seat for a representative of indigenous non English speakers would I presume only represent a member of the Celtic language speakers. The facts are that non-indigenous people who contribute to the WMF who speak languages at home or in prayer outweigh those whose languages are officail languages of the UK. It just seems bizarre.
m
2008/11/29 Andrew Turvey raturvey@yahoo.co.uk:
Most of the people active in Wikimedia UK seem to be active in the english Wikimedia projects. However, there are some other smaller Wikimedia languages where UK editors form a vital part of the editing and readorship base. I'm thinking particularly of the native languages of the UK such as Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and maybe Irish, Scots/Ullans, Cornish, Manx etc.
So far the response has been minimal.
The Board has already reached out to these projects by asking if the newsletter could be translated into these languages. My suggestion is we set aside two reserved seats on the Board for people who actively contribute to at lease one wikimedia project in a minority language of the UK.
What do you think?
No. There are far more editors to the English wikipedia than other projects and that should be accepted rather than discriminated against.
In any case last I checked not even cy.wikipedia had an EDP (although to be fair they had at least talked about it) which gives you some idea of the size of the community on those projects.
2008/11/29 Andrew Turvey raturvey@yahoo.co.uk:
I wanted to answer one of the questions I put with a suggestion regarding minority languages.
Most of the people active in Wikimedia UK seem to be active in the english Wikimedia projects. However, there are some other smaller Wikimedia languages where UK editors form a vital part of the editing and readorship base. I'm thinking particularly of the native languages of the UK such as Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and maybe Irish, Scots/Ullans, Cornish, Manx etc.
As well as recognised the diversity of the Wikimedia community, there are also significant public funds available for promoting these languages which could be used by us to support these projects.
The Board has already reached out to these projects by asking if the newsletter could be translated into these languages. My suggestion is we set aside two reserved seats on the Board for people who actively contribute to at lease one wikimedia project in a minority language of the UK.
I don't like it - the number of reserved seats (even if it's only one) would be way out of proportion to the number of contributors that are out there.
I'd be much happier with the idea that if only the English language happens to be represented after a round of elections, then the Board could co-opt a minority language speaker (and if such a person is elected in the normal scheme of things, than it doesn't need to).
[Trying to contribute here more - but my life is too chaotic!]
wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org