Hi all,
Just as my work at the British Library is coming to an end, I'm delighted to be able to tell people about a new Wikimedian in Residence post at the National Library of Scotland - I've helped work to set this up, and I think there's a real potential for doing amazing things here. The NLS is a great institution, with some really innovative and forward-thinking work, and as well as the obvious strengths in Scottish history and culture they have major map collections and one of the most interesting publishing archives in the UK. Lots of scope for interesting projects here.
It's full-time, for four months, though this may possibly be negotiable to a longer period at part time - it's worth asking. The job is paid and formally employed by the Library, funded jointly by the Library and by Wikimedia UK. http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/04/1533/ has further details and a link to the NLS recruitment site.
Please circulate this widely!
Thanks,
I'm sure folks will forward the news to other lists that they subscribe to.
Here's some background reading: http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/11/were-looking-for-wikipedians-in-residen... http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedian_in_Residence_draft_job_description http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2013_Activity_Plan#GLAM_Wikipedians_in_Residenc... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/uk/1/1e/DC_staff_report_to_the_board_F... and the documents that Daria links to.
I'm not aware of any feedback from the community on the part of the 2013 Activity Plan that deals with the WiR programme.
It would be wonderful if we had a Scots Gaelic speaker involved in our activities in Scotland. Sadly only around 60,000 people now speak *Gàidhlig*and most appear to be in the Islands. While I'd like to think that we could find a bilingual WiR to work in Edinburgh, I wonder what the chances realistically are of finding one? It's certainly worth asking the question, though.
Hi all,
Both the Scots and the Scots Gaelic Wikipedias are now notified - I had been meaning to get around to this earlier today but it had slipped due to some other work, along with notifiying the en.wp Edinburgh project.
NLS are definitely aware of the possibilities of working with the gd.wp community; I've brought it up at some of the meetings I've had with them in the past, and they were interested - they do have an active organisational plan to do more to support Gaelic, and it's easy to see how working with WP could fit in there. (The plan is interesting reading, incidentally: http://www.nls.uk/about-us/corporate-documents#gaelic ). I'm hoping to have a chat with our contact there sometime in the near future, and I'll remind them about it :-)
- Andrew.
On 22 April 2013 23:43, rexx rexx@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
I'm sure folks will forward the news to other lists that they subscribe to.
Here's some background reading: http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/11/were-looking-for-wikipedians-in-residen... http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedian_in_Residence_draft_job_description http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2013_Activity_Plan#GLAM_Wikipedians_in_Residenc... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/uk/1/1e/DC_staff_report_to_the_board_F...
- and the documents that Daria links to.
I'm not aware of any feedback from the community on the part of the 2013 Activity Plan that deals with the WiR programme.
It would be wonderful if we had a Scots Gaelic speaker involved in our activities in Scotland. Sadly only around 60,000 people now speak Gàidhlig and most appear to be in the Islands. While I'd like to think that we could find a bilingual WiR to work in Edinburgh, I wonder what the chances realistically are of finding one? It's certainly worth asking the question, though.
-- Rexx
On 22 April 2013 22:29, info@cymruwales.com info@cymruwales.com wrote:
Hi Andrew
- Can you send me a link to the wiki community discussions regarding this
post please.
- I note that you have only informed the en wiki community of this news;
don't you think that Uicipeid Gàidhlig (and Scotts) should have been told at the same time?
- I note that the job spec requirements include:
communicate in English clearly to a wide variety of audiences and have excellent presentation skills
Surely, the ability to speak Gàidhlig would be an advantage to this post and should have been mentioned?
Best regards
Robin
On 22 April 2013 at 12:02 Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk wrote:
Hi all,
Just as my work at the British Library is coming to an end, I'm delighted to be able to tell people about a new Wikimedian in Residence post at the National Library of Scotland - I've helped work to set this up, and I think there's a real potential for doing amazing things here. The NLS is a great institution, with some really innovative and forward-thinking work, and as well as the obvious strengths in Scottish history and culture they have major map collections and one of the most interesting publishing archives in the UK. Lots of scope for interesting projects here.
It's full-time, for four months, though this may possibly be negotiable to a longer period at part time - it's worth asking. The job is paid and formally employed by the Library, funded jointly by the Library and by Wikimedia UK. http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/04/1533/ has further details and a link to the NLS recruitment site.
Please circulate this widely!
Thanks,
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
In the meantime, if anyone have any suggestions on how Wikimedia UK can better communicate with speakers/readers/writers of non-English indigenous languages of the UK, or for that matter foreign languages community of the UK, then I and I'm sure Stevie and others will love to hear about it.
Regards,
Katie
On 23 April 2013 00:30, Katie Chan katie.chan@wikimedia.org.uk wrote:
In the meantime, if anyone have any suggestions on how Wikimedia UK can better communicate with speakers/readers/writers of non-English indigenous languages of the UK,
Per the Declaration of Arbroath Scots Gaelic isn't indigenous but would have instead been introduced by the scots when they genocided the picts (note this didn't actually happen, probably). I also find it somewhat unlikely that we are going to find someone who can read ogham.
In practice the number of Scots Gaelic speakers appears to be falling rather fast and it isn't our job to counter that. The number of Scots Gaelic speakers who don't speak english or the lowland scots dialect of english is also nill so english should suffice.
On 23 April 2013 08:17, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
In practice the number of Scots Gaelic speakers appears to be falling rather fast and it isn't our job to counter that. The number of Scots Gaelic speakers who don't speak english or the lowland scots dialect of english is also nill so english should suffice.
The number of Welsh speakers who don't speak perfectly good English also approaches zero, but I don't see that they're likely to go along with this approach either. Nor should they be expected to - "in their own language".
Of course, doing anything positive to help requires volunteers on the ground to do the legwork, possibly with arrangements such that they are able to wave the name "Wikimedia" around if it'll help.
- d.
On 23 April 2013 08:23, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
The number of Welsh speakers who don't speak perfectly good English also approaches zero, but I don't see that they're likely to go along with this approach either. Nor should they be expected to - "in their own language".
Different situation. Scots Gaelic is only really relevant to a fairly small percentage of Scots. For most their ah not English would be lowland Scots which on a practical level merged into English about a century or so ago.
On 23 April 2013 08:32, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 23 April 2013 08:23, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
The number of Welsh speakers who don't speak perfectly good English also approaches zero, but I don't see that they're likely to go along with this approach either. Nor should they be expected to - "in their own language".
Different situation. Scots Gaelic is only really relevant to a fairly small percentage of Scots. For most their ah not English would be lowland Scots which on a practical level merged into English about a century or so ago.
It's certainly a case where interested volunteers would need to be doing the heavy lifting.
- d.
Hello everyone,
A couple of things here:
1. I am completely with Katie on this - we would dearly love to be able to engage with people who speak languages other than English. We can point to the excellent work done by Robin in Cymraeg as a brilliant example of what can be done by someone with motivation. While I think we'll be hard-pressed to replicate Robin (although I wish we could, of course) there are plenty of opportunities. Not just in Gaidhlig or Gaeilge (or even Kernowac, for that matter) but other commonly spoken languages in the UK, such as Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. We definitely welcome any suggestions on how we may do this. I will add something to the Wikimedia UK wiki water cooler to that effect now.
2. I think a language policy is a good idea as long as it doesn't become overly bureaucratic. Robin, do you have any examples of a similar policy that is maintained by a non-public body? I remember working in the public sector and we had the Welsh language scheme. We were obliged to publish any information of specific relevance to Wales in Cymraeg but not other non-English languages so we would need some breadth to any policy / guidance we develop. (I think the reason for this in the public sector was because Cymraeg was the only non-English language recognised by the UK government as "official" although I could be wrong.) We would certainly need volunteer input into any policy and it would be important to involve speakers / Wikipedians working in non-English languages.
There are some interesting figures on languages spoken in the UK in this article from The Independent - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/polish-is-second-most-spoken-...
I hope this is useful,
Stevie
On 22 April 2013 16:31, info@cymruwales.com info@cymruwales.com wrote:
** Hi Rex
On two occasions at the British Library I mentioned the importance of working WITHIN the community not from the outside in. If we're not careful this will look like a foreign project thrust upon them rather than working organically: from the roots up.
The Library has a wealth of Gaelic manuscripts and books; take a glimpse:
http://www.nls.uk/collections/manuscripts/collections/gaelic-manuscripts http://www.nls.uk/collections/rare-books/collections/gaelic
as well many Scots classics, such as this one from the 15th-century poet Robert Henryson:
http://digital.nls.uk/morall-fabillis-of-esope-the-phyrgian/pageturner.cfm?i...
which is, by the way, on CC-BY-SA.
My second point here is that all language Wikis in Scotland should have been told at the same time. Surely, WMUK can understand the importance of this? My last point refers to the fact that many such jobs in Scotland, Ireland and Wales make the ability to speak Gaidhlig, Gaeilge or Cymraeg respectively either advantageous or essential.
I await Andrew's response, but from your answers I would suggest that WMUK draws up a language Policy asap.
Best regards
Robin
On 22 April 2013 at 23:43 rexx rexx@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
I'm sure folks will forward the news to other lists that they subscribe to.
Here's some background reading:
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/11/were-looking-for-wikipedians-in-residen... http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedian_in_Residence_draft_job_description
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2013_Activity_Plan#GLAM_Wikipedians_in_Residenc...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/uk/1/1e/DC_staff_report_to_the_board_F... and the documents that Daria links to. I'm not aware of any feedback from the community on the part of the 2013 Activity Plan that deals with the WiR programme.
It would be wonderful if we had a Scots Gaelic speaker involved in our activities in Scotland. Sadly only around 60,000 people now speak * Gàidhlig* and most appear to be in the Islands. While I'd like to think that we could find a bilingual WiR to work in Edinburgh, I wonder what the chances realistically are of finding one? It's certainly worth asking the question, though.
-- Rexx
On 22 April 2013 22:29, info@cymruwales.com info@cymruwales.com wrote:
*Hi Andrew*
*1. Can you send me a link to the wiki community discussions regarding this post please.*
*2. I note that you have only informed the en wiki community of this news; don't you think that Uicipeid Gàidhlig (and Scotts) should have been told at the same time?*
*3. I note that the job spec requirements include: *
- *communicate in English clearly to a wide variety of audiences and
have excellent presentation skills*
*Surely, the ability to speak Gàidhlig would be an advantage to this post and should have been mentioned?*
*Best regards*
*Robin*
On 22 April 2013 at 12:02 Andrew Gray < andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk>
wrote:
Hi all,
Just as my work at the British Library is coming to an end, I'm delighted to be able to tell people about a new Wikimedian in Residence post at the National Library of Scotland - I've helped work to set this up, and I think there's a real potential for doing amazing things here. The NLS is a great institution, with some really innovative and forward-thinking work, and as well as the obvious strengths in Scottish history and culture they have major map collections and one of the most interesting publishing archives in the UK. Lots of scope for interesting projects here.
It's full-time, for four months, though this may possibly be negotiable to a longer period at part time - it's worth asking. The job is paid and formally employed by the Library, funded jointly by the Library and by Wikimedia UK. http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/04/1533/ has further details and a link to the NLS recruitment site.
Please circulate this widely!
Thanks,
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Hello again,
I've created a section on the Wikimedia UK wiki water cooler for this topic. Please do get involved! I know we have a lt of people passionate about language, and languages, so I'm looking for lots of informed input :-)
Have your say at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Water_cooler#Working_with_non-English_language_...
Thank you,
Stevie
On 22 April 2013 16:44, Stevie Benton stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.ukwrote:
Hello everyone,
A couple of things here:
- I am completely with Katie on this - we would dearly love to be able to
engage with people who speak languages other than English. We can point to the excellent work done by Robin in Cymraeg as a brilliant example of what can be done by someone with motivation. While I think we'll be hard-pressed to replicate Robin (although I wish we could, of course) there are plenty of opportunities. Not just in Gaidhlig or Gaeilge (or even Kernowac, for that matter) but other commonly spoken languages in the UK, such as Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. We definitely welcome any suggestions on how we may do this. I will add something to the Wikimedia UK wiki water cooler to that effect now.
- I think a language policy is a good idea as long as it doesn't become
overly bureaucratic. Robin, do you have any examples of a similar policy that is maintained by a non-public body? I remember working in the public sector and we had the Welsh language scheme. We were obliged to publish any information of specific relevance to Wales in Cymraeg but not other non-English languages so we would need some breadth to any policy / guidance we develop. (I think the reason for this in the public sector was because Cymraeg was the only non-English language recognised by the UK government as "official" although I could be wrong.) We would certainly need volunteer input into any policy and it would be important to involve speakers / Wikipedians working in non-English languages.
There are some interesting figures on languages spoken in the UK in this article from The Independent - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/polish-is-second-most-spoken-...
I hope this is useful,
Stevie
On 22 April 2013 16:31, info@cymruwales.com info@cymruwales.com wrote:
** Hi Rex
On two occasions at the British Library I mentioned the importance of working WITHIN the community not from the outside in. If we're not careful this will look like a foreign project thrust upon them rather than working organically: from the roots up.
The Library has a wealth of Gaelic manuscripts and books; take a glimpse:
http://www.nls.uk/collections/manuscripts/collections/gaelic-manuscripts http://www.nls.uk/collections/rare-books/collections/gaelic
as well many Scots classics, such as this one from the 15th-century poet Robert Henryson:
http://digital.nls.uk/morall-fabillis-of-esope-the-phyrgian/pageturner.cfm?i...
which is, by the way, on CC-BY-SA.
My second point here is that all language Wikis in Scotland should have been told at the same time. Surely, WMUK can understand the importance of this? My last point refers to the fact that many such jobs in Scotland, Ireland and Wales make the ability to speak Gaidhlig, Gaeilge or Cymraeg respectively either advantageous or essential.
I await Andrew's response, but from your answers I would suggest that WMUK draws up a language Policy asap.
Best regards
Robin
On 22 April 2013 at 23:43 rexx rexx@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
I'm sure folks will forward the news to other lists that they subscribe to.
Here's some background reading:
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/11/were-looking-for-wikipedians-in-residen... http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedian_in_Residence_draft_job_description
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2013_Activity_Plan#GLAM_Wikipedians_in_Residenc...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/uk/1/1e/DC_staff_report_to_the_board_F... and the documents that Daria links to. I'm not aware of any feedback from the community on the part of the 2013 Activity Plan that deals with the WiR programme.
It would be wonderful if we had a Scots Gaelic speaker involved in our activities in Scotland. Sadly only around 60,000 people now speak * Gàidhlig* and most appear to be in the Islands. While I'd like to think that we could find a bilingual WiR to work in Edinburgh, I wonder what the chances realistically are of finding one? It's certainly worth asking the question, though.
-- Rexx
On 22 April 2013 22:29, info@cymruwales.com info@cymruwales.comwrote:
*Hi Andrew*
*1. Can you send me a link to the wiki community discussions regarding this post please.*
*2. I note that you have only informed the en wiki community of this news; don't you think that Uicipeid Gàidhlig (and Scotts) should have been told at the same time?*
*3. I note that the job spec requirements include: *
- *communicate in English clearly to a wide variety of audiences and
have excellent presentation skills*
*Surely, the ability to speak Gàidhlig would be an advantage to this post and should have been mentioned?*
*Best regards*
*Robin*
On 22 April 2013 at 12:02 Andrew Gray < andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk>
wrote:
Hi all,
Just as my work at the British Library is coming to an end, I'm delighted to be able to tell people about a new Wikimedian in Residence post at the National Library of Scotland - I've helped work to set this up, and I think there's a real potential for doing amazing things here. The NLS is a great institution, with some really innovative and forward-thinking work, and as well as the obvious strengths in Scottish history and culture they have major map collections and one of the most interesting publishing archives in the UK. Lots of scope for interesting projects here.
It's full-time, for four months, though this may possibly be negotiable to a longer period at part time - it's worth asking. The job is paid and formally employed by the Library, funded jointly by the Library and by Wikimedia UK. http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/04/1533/ has further details and a link to the NLS recruitment site.
Please circulate this widely!
Thanks,
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
--
Stevie Benton Communications Organiser Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173 @StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
On 23 April 2013 00:31, info@cymruwales.com info@cymruwales.com wrote:
My second point here is that all language Wikis in Scotland should have been told at the same time. Surely, WMUK can understand the importance of this?
This isn't a WMUK initiative, is it? Nothing in the original message said "WMUK".
I await Andrew's response, but from your answers I would suggest that WMUK draws up a language Policy asap.
The "policy" is "where are the speakers of languages other than English?" Volunteers are needed.
I suspect if you say "we need XXX for Welsh!" the answer will be "great idea! What can we do to help you do that?"
- d.
On 23 April 2013 00:31, info@cymruwales.com info@cymruwales.com wrote:
** Hi Rex
On two occasions at the British Library I mentioned the importance of working WITHIN the community not from the outside in. If we're not careful this will look like a foreign project thrust upon them rather than working organically: from the roots up.
The Library has a wealth of Gaelic manuscripts and books; take a glimpse:
http://www.nls.uk/collections/manuscripts/collections/gaelic-manuscripts http://www.nls.uk/collections/rare-books/collections/gaelic
as well many Scots classics, such as this one from the 15th-century poet Robert Henryson:
http://digital.nls.uk/morall-fabillis-of-esope-the-phyrgian/pageturner.cfm?i...
The problem with that is that lowland scots has undergone a significant shift over the last 500 years. It is not as if we require that our english speakers be able to read Chaucer.
which is, by the way, on CC-BY-SA.
My second point here is that all language Wikis in Scotland should have been told at the same time. Surely, WMUK can understand the importance of this?
Not really practical. Have you any idea how many languages are spoken in Scotland? Port Glasgow was a major center of trade back in the day.
My last point refers to the fact that many such jobs in Scotland, Ireland and Wales make the ability to speak Gaidhlig, Gaeilge or Cymraeg respectively either advantageous or essential.
Less than 100K scots gaelic speakers in a population of 6 million. You would be seriously reducing your talent pool.
wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org