[Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Israel report, September 2011

[Harel Cain]

Dear all,

Here is our activity report for September 2011.

== IDF Spokesperson releases images under CC-BY-SA license ==
The spokesperson unit of the Israel Defense Forces began publishing its
photographs online (on its Flickr account) under a free Creative Commons
license. This move follows a long and protracted process of legislation
promoted by WMIL in discussions in the Science and Technology Committee of
the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. While legislation meant to free any
work created by the Israeli government of copyright has not yet been
accepted, the move by the IDF is certainly motivated by it. Hundreds of IDF
Spokesperson images are now in use on Wikimedia projects. WMIL released a
widely circulated press release condoning the move by the IDF spokesperson.
* Images uploaded to Commons:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_taken_by_Israel_Defense_Force
* A blogpost in Hebrew in WMIL's blog: http://blog.wikimedia.org.il/?p=255

== Wikimedian-in-Residence in Israel Museum, Jerusalem ==
On September 18th, Yair Talmor became the first ever Wikimedian-in-Residence
in the Israel Museum and in Israel in general. Talmor, an art teacher with
academic background in art, will be employed for a two months period at the
museum, concentrating on tutoring museum staff on wiki editing, organizing
events of public outreach such as editathons and backstage tours, uploading
material from the museum's library and enhancing Wikipedia articles about
prominent Israeli artists. His employment is funded in part by WMIL.
While the focus of the project is in Hebrew, there's also some work on
material in English.
* Project page on English Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/IMJ
* Blogposts in Hebrew in WMIL's blog:
** http://blog.wikimedia.org.il/?p=267
** http://blog.wikimedia.org.il/?p=237

== Haifa University Faculty of the Humanities ==
On September 22nd, a large meeting was held at Haifa University between
members of staff from the Faculty of the Humanities and volunteers from
Wikimedia Israel. This was a preparatory session for a large-scale project
in which students in various courses will write Wikipedia articles as part
of their academic assignments.

== Training of Haifa Linux club ==
On September 12th, Tomer Ashur gave a hands-on training session on Wikipedia
editing to members of Haifa Linux club (Haifux). Eight people took part and
five articles were written during the training session.

== Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs ==
WMIL representatives met with a Deputy Director of the Israeli Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. They are very interested in releasing some of their
material under free licenses and in receiving further training from WMIL
about Wikipedia editing. A training session is planned for October 5th.

== Israeli Ministry of Education ==
Tomer Ashur, Deror Lin and Amir Aharoni met with the people responsible for
Internet ethics and safety education in the Ministry of Education to start
planning one-time experimental classes for elementary school pupils that
will teach them to understand Wikipedia's background, to read it correctly
and to understand the right conduct on talk pages. The lessons are scheduled
for November and chapter members are preparing the detailed lesson plans.

== Photoshooting excursion in Haifa ==
As part of the "Elef Milim" project about 20 Wikimedians took part in an
educational excursion in Haifa.
*
http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%95%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%93%D7%99%D7%94:%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%96%D7%9E%D7%99_%D7%95%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%93%D7%99%D7%94/%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%A3_%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%97%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%94_%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%AA%27%D7%9E%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%AA

== Thank-you event for Wikimania volunteers ==
A thank-you picnic was held for the many volunteers that helped us make
Wikimania 2011 succssful. The event was attended by about 50 volunteers.

== Board Meeting ==
The WMIL board met on September 13th in Ramat Gan. The Board approved and
signed the Chapter's Agreement with the Foundation and decided to raise a
few more questions about the Grants Agreement. The Board also approved the
2012 workplan with a couple of minor items on the plan reserved for future
discussion. The workplan will be posted shortly on Meta.


Sincerely,

Harel Cain
Secretary, Wikimedia Israel
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