Hi Wiki-Americans,
Our next monthly Wikimedia US community meeting will be next week,
Wednesday October 16, at 9pm Eastern Time / 6pm Pacific Time.
One agenda item of note is WikiConference USA, which is tentatively
scheduled now for Friday to Sunday, May 30 – June 1, 2014 at New York Law
School.
The venue will be the #wikimedia-us channel on IRC, and if you're not
familiar with IRC, please just use this easy web client:
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=wikimedia-us
This is a venue for all Wiki-Americans to share our many diverse
experiences in local outreach and coordination, so please add your ideas to
the agenda:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WALRUS/October_2013http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_USA
Thanks,
Richard
(User:Pharos)
Hello everyone,
Wikimedia DC has now published its activity report for the third quarter of
the 2012-13 fiscal year. The report is available on our wiki at
http://wikimediadc.org/wiki/Activity_report_(Q3_2012–2013); a copy will be
uploaded to meta shortly.
As always, comments or suggestions are very welcome!
Cheers,
Kirill
--
Kirill Lokshin
Secretary | Wikimedia District of Columbia
http://wikimediadc.org | @wikimediadc
Hi Wiki-Americans,
You are invited to add your city's events for Wikipedia Takes America in
September and Wikipedia Loves Libraries in October/November (or for
libraries, really anytime in the Fall is good).
With the current publicity period, now is the time to get some attention
and gather communities together!
Please don't hesitate to add preliminary event planning, it's always better
to share a local sense of what is brewing :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Loves_Libraries
Thanks,
Richard
(User:Pharos)
Hi Wiki-Americans,
I have been working on a WLM-friendly 'Wiki Takes' creator wizard on
Commons, that allows a simple alphanumeric to designate both official WLM
goals and other goals to be selected for a real-life photo scavenger hunt
event.
This kind of tool is potentially useful, in that many cities have only a
small number of official monuments (which may already have good photos),
and because it simplifies marking even of official monuments for the
newbies on a one-day photo hunt.
Here is a rough prototype version, currently parked at the rather messy
photo hunt project page:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Photo_scavenger_hunts#Event_wizard
Perhaps it would make more sense in future to associate the tool with the
more specific and developed WLM 'Wiki Takes' project page:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments/Organizing_a…
It works through this template, which converts an alphanumeric goal code
from a particular 'Wiki Takes' into the official monument id and template
(if applicable):
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Hunt
And this is the default table arrangement of the goal codes, with the goal
name before the comma and the monument id (if applicable) after it:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons:Photo_scavenger_hunt…
I hope to promote the use of this tool for several local United States WLM
photo hunts in the 'Wikipedia Takes America' campaign this September:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_America
Any thoughts on how to improve this system would be most appreciated!
Certainly my tech skills leave much to be desired ;)
Thanks,
Richard
(User:Pharos)
Hi Wiki-Americans,
Our next monthly Wikimedia US / WALRUS meeting will be this Wednesday
August 14, at 9pm Eastern Time / 6pm Pacific Time.
One agenda item of note is the Wiki Loves Monuments / Wikipedia Takes
America photography contest(s), set to take place in September.
The venue will be the #wikimedia-us channel on IRC, and if you're not
familiar with IRC, please just use this easy web client:
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=wikimedia-us
This is a venue for all Wiki-Americans to share our many diverse
experiences in local outreach and coordination, so please add your ideas to
the agenda:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WALRUS/August_2013http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_America
Thanks,
Richard
(User:Pharos)
[Changing the subject line since the subject of the thread has shifted.]
I think all of these naming discussions over the years have been more
annoying than useful. WALRUS has its charm, but is a bit silly and no one
denies that. I don't think the "Federation" was any less absurd, however,
and I'm not sure the "Coalition" is far behind. The newer names are
professional, but seem to tend towards projecting a false sense of formal
organizational structure/maturity to achieve that. I don't think we should
be too quick to change all the names on things yet again before we've
hashed these things out. To be honest, I even missed the change from
Federation to Coalition earlier this year, and I'm usually attentive to
these things.
My opinion is that we should just be clear and descriptive, if we are
moving away from adorableness. I would favor "Wikimedia United States" (do
we actually know AffCom would dislike that, even if we became a user group,
which is trivially easy?), and, if not that, "Wikimedians in the United
States" or "United States Wikimedians".
Dominic
On 14 August 2013 00:52, Kevin Rutherford <ktr101(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> I second Jason, as WALRUS has never really sounded professional in my
> opinion, and I know there was talk at Wikimania in 2012 about finding a
> name to replace it. Right now, competing names don't help us, and I doubt
> most active Wikimedians could describe the function of each group mentioned
> below.
>
>
> Kevin Rutherford
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Aug 13, 2013, at 11:13 PM, "Jason Moore" <anotherbelieverwp(a)gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> I lean towards dropping the WALRUS name, and sticking with the more
> legitimate-sounding Coalition.
>
> Jason / Another Believer
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 8:09 PM, Kirill Lokshin <kirill.lokshin(a)gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I'm not sure we can really separate the branding that way, since our
>> en.wiki activity mostly consists of advertising for off-wiki events. If
>> someone from en.wiki shows up at a "WALRUS" event and starts talking to
>> someone from meta who believes it to be a "Wikimedia US" event, there's
>> still going to be some degree of confusion (and resulting brand dilution).
>>
>> Personally, I think we're at the point where we need to select a single
>> brand and stick with it everywhere, rather than trying to maintain multiple
>> competing brands.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Kirill
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 6:39 PM, Pharos <pharosofalexandria(a)gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> I was thinking that we could differentiate the two by developing the
>>> 'WALRUS' branding more as a wikiproject-type campaign on enwiki, while
>>> reserving the "official unofficial" name of 'Wikimedia United States
>>> Coalition' for the more bureaucratic niceties of meta (widespread use of
>>> the latter name outside of meta without explicit WMF go-ahead might also be
>>> problematic).
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Richard
>>> (User:Pharos)
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 10:13 PM, Kirill Lokshin <
>>> kirill.lokshin(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> The template looks good, but shouldn't we be using the same "Wikimedia
>>>> United States Coalition" terminology that we use in the meta version of the
>>>> template, so as to be consistent?
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Kirill
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 10:10 AM, Pharos <pharosofalexandria(a)gmail.com>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Following up on Bob's idea of regional "sister cities" cooperation,
>>>>> I've grouped together some of the more active cities on the new enwiki
>>>>> template, by the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:WALRUS
>>>>>
>>>>> Maybe it could be a good idea in future to have an on-wiki noticeboard
>>>>> for each of these four very rough chunks of the country, just to help with
>>>>> regional communication and scheduling of events (and especially as a way to
>>>>> reach out to some of the smaller / less active cities, and e.g. help the
>>>>> Texans settle on a meetup location).
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Richard
>>>>> (User:Pharos)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Jul 13, 2013 at 9:00 PM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com>wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> (yet!)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sat, Jul 13, 2013 at 3:42 PM, Bob the Wikipedian
>>>>>> <bobthewikipedian(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> > But none of those cities have a WALRUS chapter. :P
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > Bob
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > On 7/13/2013 11:35 AM, Samuel Klein wrote:
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >> Boston is engaged in sibling rivalry and virtual event coordination
>>>>>> >> would be natural with the cities of
>>>>>> >> Boston and New Boston in NH, NY (an enclave of Red Sox Nation),
>>>>>> IN,
>>>>>> >> IL, OH, MI, KY, MO, AL, GA, and TX.
>>>>>> >> Cambridge in PA, ID, IA, KS, ME, MD, MN, NB, VT, and WI... and NY
>>>>>> >> again (enclaves 2 and 3)
>>>>>> >> Brighton in CO, OR, and TN (and enclaves 4-6 in NY)
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >> That covers about half of the country.
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >> SJ
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >> On Sat, Jul 13, 2013 at 11:13 AM, Bob the Wikipedian
>>>>>> >> <bobthewikipedian(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> Actually, we're already doing this in Indiana. Evansville,
>>>>>> Bloomington,
>>>>>> >>> and
>>>>>> >>> Indianapolis are sister cities since we're within several hours
>>>>>> of one
>>>>>> >>> another. We've been taking turns hosting the annual Wiknic.
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> Bob (Evansville)
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> On 7/12/2013 9:40 AM, Pharos wrote:
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> Perhaps it might be a good idea to connect different local
>>>>>> Wikimedian
>>>>>> >>> efforts through an informal sister cities / regions program...
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> Think of it:
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> Cascadia and New England!
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> Minnesota and Colorado!
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> LA and Atlanta!
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> Thanks,
>>>>>> >>> Richard
>>>>>> >>> (User:Pharos)
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> >>> Wikimediaus-l mailing list
>>>>>> >>> Wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>>> >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaus-l
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> >>> Wikimediaus-l mailing list
>>>>>> >>> Wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>>> >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaus-l
>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>>>> > Wikimediaus-l mailing list
>>>>>> > Wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>>> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaus-l
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617
>>>>>> 529 4266
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Wikimediaus-l mailing list
>>>>>> Wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaus-l
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Wikimediaus-l mailing list
>>>>> Wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaus-l
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Wikimediaus-l mailing list
>>>> Wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaus-l
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Wikimediaus-l mailing list
>>> Wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaus-l
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimediaus-l mailing list
>> Wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaus-l
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimediaus-l mailing list
> Wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaus-l
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimediaus-l mailing list
> Wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaus-l
>
>
Perhaps it might be a good idea to connect different local Wikimedian
efforts through an informal sister cities / regions program...
Think of it:
Cascadia and New England!
Minnesota and Colorado!
LA and Atlanta!
Thanks,
Richard
(User:Pharos)
Hi all!****
** **
We will be hosting our next edition of the GLAMout tomorrow (or today,
depending on your time zone!), July 12, starting at 3 p.m. EDT (12 p.m. PDT
/ 07:00 UTC). GLAMout is an opportunity to share news and information with
one another, and hear what is going on in GLAM-Wiki. This month, we will be
hearing about the Chemical Heritage Foundation's new Wikipedian in
Residence and latest editathon, the Smithsonian Institution Archives'
editathon, and the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium's new Wikimedia affiliate status.
We are still looking for more participants! If you have your own GLAM-Wiki
news to share, or would simply like to be part of the on-air conversation,
please sign up at:**
** **
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/GLAMout
And you can also watch the broadcast live on YouTube, and send in
questions/comments to the participants using the #glamwiki hashtag. We will
be tweeting the link to the live video on that hashtag from @glamwiki
shortly before the broadcast, so please follow along!
Dominic