Hello everyone,
As many of you may recall that we put in a proposal with the Department of
Trade and Industry to include Freedom of Panorama in a new version of the
South African Copyright Act.
Since then the DTI has been working on a draft version of the act which
will go up for public comment some time this year. In the event that no
mention or allowance of Freedom of Panorama is made in the new draft act I
have proposed that we line up a public banner add to go public on Wikipedia
when it is open to public comments.
To vote/discuss this I have posted a comment about this on the South Africa
Project Page on Wikipedia. I have added a lot more information about this
issue there.
I would like to know if people could please go to that page to vote/join
the conversation at the link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_South_Africa#Vote
I would also like to know if someone from Afrikaans Wikipedia could start
the same conversation there? As if we want a similar banner to go up on
af.wikipedia then the Afrikaans community will also need to vote on it.
Cheers,
Douglas.
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hello everyone,
I was going through the most recent edition of the Signpost, Wikipedia's
blog/newspaper, I cam across this article written by one of our chapter
members, Bobby Shabangu. The article is all about Wiki Indaba that
happened recently in Ghana. Well worth the read. You can see the article
at the link below. It even has a nice short video of Wiki Indaba 2017 in
which Dumi has a cameo role.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2017-02-27/Blog
Cheers,
Douglas.
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hello everyone, just wanted to share this shout-out from Asaf at the
Wikimedia Foundation about the Hardware Donation program they have going
on. Whether you are interested in receiving or donating read below for
more information.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: 17 March 2017 at 07:07
Subject: [African Wikimedians] Fwd: Announcing the Hardware donation program
To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians <
african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
FYI.
A.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 10:06 PM
Subject: Announcing the Hardware donation program
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Dear Wikimedians,
The Wikimedia Foundation is pleased to announce a small new program called
the Hardware Donation Program. In a word, it is a program designed to
donate depreciated (but fully working) hardware from the WMF office to
community members who would put it to good use.
The program, including instructions on how to apply, is described on Meta,
here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_donation_program
Please read the information carefully. I especially encourage you to pay
attention to the program's design considerations, which determine most of
the decisions we'll be making.
We currently have approximately 20 laptops ready to be donated.
Applications are welcome.
The upcoming Wikimedia Conference in Berlin (in about two weeks) would be
an excellent opportunity to deliver some of those laptops in person to
approved applications, so if you think you might be interested, I'd
encourage you to apply as soon as possible.
Please also help spread the word about this program, by forwarding this
e-mail to other Wikimedia lists you're on, and posting the link to the
program page on village pumps and *community* (not public) social media
channels or other communication forms you use.
Special thanks to User:Anntinomy from Wikimedia Ukraine, who had the idea
of asking about possible donation of older machines from WMF, and inspired
this program.
Mini-FAQ:
Q: Why are you doing this?
A: WMF's Office IT determines a lifetime for work machines, and regularly
replaces older machines. This creates a stock of older, working machines,
that are available for donation. We can donate them locally to San
Francisco charities, but figure that if we can find low-cost ways to
deliver them to our own community members, that's so much better.
Q: Am I eligible?
A: Read the fine program documentation.
Q: If I'm eligible, am I guaranteed a donated laptop?
A: no.
Q: Once these 20 laptops are donated, will there be others?
A: yes, eventually.
Q: How can you ensure people would use the machines for Wikimedia purposes?
A: We can't. We'll be making a good-effort assessment of the likelihood of
Wikimedia use, and make a decision to donate (or not) the equipment. Once
donated, the equipment no longer belongs to WMF. We encourage, but can't
enforce, reporting on impact achieved using the equipment.
Q: I need a few laptops for my event in two weeks! Can I get them through
this program?
A: No. Read the fine program documentation.
Q: I'm really happy about this!
A: So are we! :)
Q: I'm really angry about this!
A: So it goes.
Q: I have more questions!
A: Hit 'Reply'. :)
Cheers,
Asaf
_______________________________________________
African-Wikimedians mailing list
African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
The Wikimedia Foundation is donating a number of used (but fully
functional) laptops to individuals that will use them in support of
Wikimedia's goals. See the link below for a detailed description, but
essentially the recipient needs to have made 1000+ contributions, have
been involved for more than a year, and state how they plan to put them
to good use in furthering WM's goals.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [African Wikimedians] Fwd: Announcing the Hardware donation
program
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2017 05:07:41 +0000
From: Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org>
Reply-To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians
<african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians
<african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
FYI.
A.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:abartov@wikimedia.org>>
Date: Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 10:06 PM
Subject: Announcing the Hardware donation program
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
<mailto:wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>>
Dear Wikimedians,
The Wikimedia Foundation is pleased to announce a small new program
called the Hardware Donation Program. In a word, it is a program
designed to donate depreciated (but fully working) hardware from the WMF
office to community members who would put it to good use.
The program, including instructions on how to apply, is described on
Meta, here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hardware_donation_program
Please read the information carefully. I especially encourage you to pay
attention to the program's design considerations, which determine most
of the decisions we'll be making.
We currently have approximately 20 laptops ready to be donated.
Applications are welcome.
The upcoming Wikimedia Conference in Berlin (in about two weeks) would
be an excellent opportunity to deliver some of those laptops in person
to approved applications, so if you think you might be interested, I'd
encourage you to apply as soon as possible.
Please also help spread the word about this program, by forwarding this
e-mail to other Wikimedia lists you're on, and posting the link to the
program page on village pumps and *community* (not public) social media
channels or other communication forms you use.
Special thanks to User:Anntinomy from Wikimedia Ukraine, who had the
idea of asking about possible donation of older machines from WMF, and
inspired this program.
Mini-FAQ:
Q: Why are you doing this?
A: WMF's Office IT determines a lifetime for work machines, and
regularly replaces older machines. This creates a stock of older,
working machines, that are available for donation. We can donate them
locally to San Francisco charities, but figure that if we can find
low-cost ways to deliver them to our own community members, that's so
much better.
Q: Am I eligible?
A: Read the fine program documentation.
Q: If I'm eligible, am I guaranteed a donated laptop?
A: no.
Q: Once these 20 laptops are donated, will there be others?
A: yes, eventually.
Q: How can you ensure people would use the machines for Wikimedia purposes?
A: We can't. We'll be making a good-effort assessment of the likelihood
of Wikimedia use, and make a decision to donate (or not) the equipment.
Once donated, the equipment no longer belongs to WMF. We encourage, but
can't enforce, reporting on impact achieved using the equipment.
Q: I need a few laptops for my event in two weeks! Can I get them
through this program?
A: No. Read the fine program documentation.
Q: I'm really happy about this!
A: So are we! :)
Q: I'm really angry about this!
A: So it goes.
Q: I have more questions!
A: Hit 'Reply'. :)
Cheers,
Asaf
Hello everyone,
This is just to let you all know and invite you all to our next edit-a-thon
in Cape Town at the central library this coming weekend.
Like our last event this one will be open to the public to encourage them
to edit Wikipedia. Volunteers from the editing community are needed to
help out so if you are in Cape Town and interested in assisting then please
stop on by any time between 10:00 and 16:00.
Last time we had a great turnout of around 17 people.
See below for details of the event:
*When*: Saturday, 18th March 2017
*Time*: from 10:00 - 16:00 (welcome to come and go as you like)
*Where*: The American Corner, Central Library, Cnr. Parade & Darling st,
Cape Town, 8001
Even if you are not interested in editing it will also be a great
opportunity to join us for friendly Wiki related discussions and to hang
out. It will be a great place to discuss Wikimania in 2018.
Over the rest of the year we will also have edit-a-thons at the same venue
on the following days:
- 20 May 2017
- 15 July 2017
- 16 September 2017
- 18 November 2017
Cheers,
Douglas.
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727