[Wikimediaau-l] Chapter activity ideas

[Nick Jenkins]

These are all good ideas, Brianna. E.g.:

> * "Editors Challenges": hold regular competitions/contests for
> creating and improving Wikimedia content.

Yes - people like to know that something they have done was appreciated, and 
a society we are way too stingy about telling people that they have done good
stuff.

> *? "Certificate of Appreciation" scheme...

Good idea. Currently Wikimedia involvement is not especially CV-compatible, so this
would help a bit with that. If possible, make it free for the PDF version.

> *? Maybe offer more generic MediaWiki services to companies, groups
> etc? I think there is a certain amount of scope, not heaps, for us to
> promote MediaWiki and wikis as a generally useful tool rather than
> only for Wikimedia.

I think there is some scope here. There are at least a few MW developers in Australia,
and certainly there are companies that make a living supplying wiki-related services
& software in Australia, so there is some market here, such as developing custom
extensions, adding/improving functionality, etc. It won't be a huge amount of money,
but if we can encourage younger Australian developers and help direct MediaWiki
related work towards them, then that's probably going to be beneficial in the long run
for all concerned.

> * start to explore funding/grants options more seriously
> feedback and other ideas welcome...

Well, if the sky is the limit, and we're thinking big, then this is something that
I'd like to see that I think is complementary to the items listed:

* WMAU should really go after government funding for improving Wikipedia & MediaWiki
  & Commons in an Australian context. For example, last week, I heard about the
  Dictionary of Sydney, who got ARC (Australian Research Council) grants to 
  do things related to Sydney, some of which we did years ago (e.g. compile a 
  list of Sydney suburbs, including information about each one, in an electronic
  resource). [For the record I have no problem with the Dictionary of Sydney, and
  in fact I'm in favour of it, as a lot of what they're doing will probably be quite
  complementary to the Wikipedia]. But my point is that there _is_ government money
  in doing projects for the public good, and currently we're not even applying for 
  any of it (and Wikimedia stuff is very much a public good, in the same economic
  category as parks, national defence & public education - which explains why it's
  so useful and yet companies won't put much money into it, because it's hard to
  monetize a public good, and therefore the natural group for funding public goods
  is the government and/or the public at large through donations). Wikimedia
  Australia is in uniquely good position to able to apply for government funds to
  improve Wikimedia projects in a way that helps Australia.
  Some examples might be:
  - Improving usability of commons. Helps everybody.
  - Do proper usability testing of MediaWiki, and implement as many of the 
    suggestions as practical. Helps everybody.
  - Building a filtered/semi-censored version of the live Wikipedia suitable for
    use in Australian schools for younger kids.
  - Create a school curricula textbook, taking current Wikipedia content, and 
    improving / extending / recombining it into a format suitable for a textbook.
  - Building a "place X in time" archive, where we scan old images and then take
    current photos, and have the two side by side. There's an experimental version
    of this happening on Flickr (old images by the Powerhouse museum, new images
    by Flickr users) - but it's a drop in the bucket that only covers a few places,
    most of which are in Sydney in the city. What about everywhere else?
  - A wiki page for every native Australian plant, bird, animal, reptile, fish,
    etc. Sure, we've started, but how about a complete and comprehensive repository
    of all that Australian-specific knowledge?
  - How about a project to encourage tourism? Surely there's some way to do this
    without violating NPOV? How about world-class free-content photos for everywhere
    that is, or wants to be, a tourist destination?
  I firmly believe that there a whole ocean of projects that would be beneficial
  to the general public, that can done in a way that's consistent with the wiki-way,
  and at least some of which the government would probably fund if we can articulate
  the benefits and why it's in the Australian interest. Of course, the main downside
  of going for funding of this type is the paperwork. I have applied for various
  semi-government sources of money in the past, and the volume of paperwork is often
  enough to make you want to gouge your eyes out with a toothpick - it's frustrating,
  repetitive, verbose, voluminous, often irrelevant, and I would not wish it
  on my worst enemy, but it's oh-so necessary if you want to get government funding.

-- All the best,
Nick.