Hi friends,
I just wanted to give everyone an update on what's been accomplished
here at the Wikimedia Foundation so far and what we've got in store
for the near future. We've got roughly two months until the 15th is
here. With that deadline rapidly approaching, I want to really step
up our efforts here at the WMF to help local events happen.
Just to restate it: our goal is to help make the tenth anniversary a
memorable one for Wikimedia editors/readers/donors wherever you are.
To that effect, we've launched
ten.wikipedia.org in the last couple
days. Many of you probably saw the pages on Outreach wiki that have
since been migrated. Thanks to the editors who stepped up to help
wiki-garden so far.
We've tried to structure the wiki to make it clear what it's for.
Here's some more detail on what I want to include:
1. A list of all the events that will happen. Lots of organizing
work is happening on other wikis and off-wiki, such as through
Facebook events. That's great, and of course we want that to
continue. But having a single list of what's happening is immensely
useful for organizers, attendees, and the press.
2. On-wiki activities for reflecting on our anniversary and
conveying the magnitude of our first decade of work. There is a list
of preliminary ideas on the [[Share]] and [[Ideas]] pages.
3. Providing a space to gather resources for organizers, including a
basic press kit and a set of anniversary designs put together by Jay
Walsh and David Peters, whose work you will recognize from the 2009
Annual Report. The designs will all be uploaded to Commons shortly
and will be in a gallery on the anniversary wiki. I'm really excited
about this part of what's been prepared, since it's ideal for the
customization and localization that needs to happen.
These designs are yours to run wild with, and some of them will be
incorporated into products (t-shirts, buttons, stickers etc.) that
will be provided to event organizers that want them. All we need to
give you these materials is a basic set of event details and contact
information, all of which can go on your event page. If it's unclear
on the wiki what we're asking for, then that's my fault, so please
let me know.
4. A place to document everything that goes on. Encouraging taking
photos, video, and making written records of what everyone is up to
in their celebrations is essential (and it's fun, at least to me).
Media should probably go on Commons, as is standard procedure, but
I'd love to see everything aggregated into the event pages on the
wiki. Sharing the cool things that you're doing will be both a gift
to other Wikimedians who can't be there, and will create a permanent
record of our first double-digit anniversary.
If you have any questions, either about the wiki or however else the
Foundation can support you in planning, I'm your best point of
contact. I'll also be posting more regular updates to this list.
Thanks for reading,