[Wikimedia-l] Prize for Free Knowledge

[Catrin Schoneville]

(some people ask me to inform this mailing list as well).......


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Catrin Schoneville <catrin.schoneville at wikimedia.de>
Date: 2012/7/4
Subject: Zedler Prize for Free Knowledge
To: Communications Committee <wmfcc-l at lists.wikimedia.org>


Hello everybody,

this past Sunday, 1 July, Wikimedia Deutschland awarded the first German
prize for free knowledge achievements. The award is called Zedler-Preis für
Freies Wissen (Zedler Prize for Free Knowledge). It's named after Johann
Heinrich Zedler and his 18th century encyclopedia[1], which was composed by
various anonymous authors. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

The Zedler Prize was awarded in three categories: Wikipedia article of the
year, community project of the year, external project of the year. There
was an accompanying award show, hosted by our CEO Pavel Richter at a venue
in Berlin. The ceremony finished off the scientifc conference Wikipedia
Academy[2].

The award is about honoring extraordinary achievements in Wikipedia and
beyond. Including a category for external free knowledge projects
underlines Wikimedia Deutschland's vision of the awards: The Zedler Prize
is all about creating awareness for the volunteer efforts behind Wikipedia,
demonstrating two things: First, anybody can contribute to sharing free
knowledge, be it in Wikipedia or elsewhere. Secondly, amazing things may
result from making a first step.

We hope to build on this initial experience and establish the award.

Here are the winners, picked by three separate volunteer jurys (community,
journalists, researchers):

Wikipedia Article of the Year
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuklearkatastrophe_von_Fukushima
(English article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster)

Community Project of the Year
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:%C3%96sterreich/Denkmallisten
(Portal devoted to listing and documenting every monument in Austria. Yes,
every monument! The group of volunteers was reached out to the Austrian
Federal Monuments Office[3] with their project. The collaboration
eventually led to an official representer of the office attending the award
show and thanking the Wikipedians for their fantastic work.)

External Project of the Year
http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Home
(Vroniplag is a Wikia-based open platform for detecting plagiarism in
scientific work. The project rose to prominence in 2011 when volunteers
proved the then-German Minister of Defence to have plagiarized most of his
PHD thesis.)

The Juries were free to award special recognition among the runners-up. All
in all there were 17 final nominees[4]. The winners of the special
recognitions are:
The Wikipedia article "Pizzakarton" (Pizza box)[5] and a user initiative
that expresses gratitude to other users for their hard Wikipedia work by
leaving a thank you note and image of a flower on talk pages. The latter is
called "The Flower of the Week"[6].

We counted an audience of approx. 150 people. WMDE released a press
statement in time with live twitter news about the winners. Press coverage
includes a German public radio broadcaster (national), regional and
national newspapers. There also was substantial Austrian coverage, due to
the Austrian Wikipedia portal winning. Short list in German:
http://wikimedia.de/wiki/Presse


[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grosses_vollst%C3%A4ndiges_Universal-Lexicon
[2]
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/06/26/wikimedia-research-newsletter-june-2012/#.22Wikipedia_Academy.22_preview
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesdenkmalamt
[4] http://wikimedia.de/wiki/Pressemitteilungen/PM_6_12_Zedler
[5] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzakarton
[6] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Ephraim33/Blume_der_Woche


p.s. sorry for the long version - it is so rare for me to post something
that I thought its ok for this time ;)
-- 


Mit besten Grüßen
Catrin Schoneville
Pressesprecherin
-------------------------------------
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Obentrautstraße 72
10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 260

http://wikimedia.de <http://www.wikimedia.de/>

Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch freien Zugang zu der
Gesamtheit des Wissens der Menschheit hat. Helfen Sie uns dabei!

*Helfen Sie mit, dass WIKIPEDIA von der UNESCO als erstes digitales
Weltkulturerbe anerkannt wird. Unterzeichnen Sie die Online-Petition:*
http://wikipedia.de/wke/Main_Page?setlang=de

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.