see also online:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Nederla…
Content Online Platform
Esther Hoorn attended on behalf of Wikimedia Nederland the Content Online
Platform in Brussels on the invitation of the EU Commissioner Reding. The
main subjects were the "protection of minors" and "cultural diversity
online". A report has been submitted to the chapters and the Wikimedia
Foundation. The importance of media literacy was stressed and the IWF-case
was discussed (an IWF representative was present by chance). During the
second part, the importance for free licenses for content was stressed for a
diversity of material and some experience of Wikimedia with linguistic
diversity was shared.
New Year reception, photo hunt
Together with Creative Commons Nederland and Open Streetmap Nederland
Wikimedia Nederland organized a new year reception in Amsterdam. This was
preceded by a photo hunt, where the challenge was to make photos for
articles in Wikipedia which did not have a good photo yet. The photographer
of the winning picture obtained a prize. The meeting was attended mostly by
Wikipedians, but also OSM'ers and CC'ers were present.
General Assemblee, New Board
On January 31, Wikimedia Nederland had it's annual General Assemblee with
the approval of the financial figures, budget and the election of a new
board, the presentation of ongoing and new projects and the introduction of
the "small subsidies". A new board of six was elected, including four new
board members. The new board consists of Jose Spierts (president), Mark
Wesbeek (treasurer), Hay Kranen (secretary), Lodewijk Gelauff (international
affairs), Piter Siebenga and Marco Swart.
Small Subsidies project
Wikimedia Nederland launched a "small subsidies" project. €1000 has been
budgeted to be used for innovative requests which help the Wikimedia
projects forth. The idea has been partially based on similar initiatives in
other chapters. With the project, Wikimedia Nederland hopes to stimulate the
inventivity of Wikimedians and to make small projects with a relative large
impact possible.
Wikipedia Loves Art
Inspired by the 'Wikipedia loves art' initiative in New York earlier,
Wikimedia Nederland will organize an event together with Creative Commons
Nederland. The event is still in planning stages, but the idea is to let
around 10-15 museums participate in a contest where Wikipedians are
challenged to make photos of artistic works in those musea under a free
license for Wikipedia. On the 21st of June, the longest day of the year, an
event will be held where the best picture will get elected.
Wikimania 2010
During the General Assemblee it was confirmed that Wikimedia Nederland will
continue with a bid get Wikimania 2010 to the Netherlands. A banner was
voted for and a report was given to the General Assemblee about the current
status of the bid. The assemblee was enthousiastic about the bid, and voted
in favor of continuing with it.
Available at http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Wikimedia_news/numero_23/en.
Editorial
Dear members, another year is gone and our association enters in 2009
with a lot of important events. The WMI Members' Meeting is nearer and
nearer, and we urge all members to attend it. In February we will also
host "wikimangia", an event which, like in the past years, wants to
gather at the same banquet table people from the various wiki projects
to stay together, laugh, eat and generally enjoy ourselves.
Future events
* *January 9*, Reggio Emilia: at Gabella, a meeting about Wikipedia
and Wikimedia; Paginazero will attend it.
* *February 14/15*, Monte Amiata: we'll have the fourth edition of
"wikimangia". All members and non-members are invited; keep in
mind that the event is focused on eno-gastronomy, so /no more
wikitalks and go eat and drink/. If you want to confirm your
attending, go to the page on wikipedia
<http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Amiata_2009_-_Wikimangia_4>.
* *March 22*, Milano: Ordinary and Extraordinary WMI Members'
Meeting, at Domus Academy, via Giacomo Watt 37.
News from our projects
News from Italian WMF projects
* *Wikiquote*: added a new parameter
<http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/q:it:Template:Interprogetto/man#Wikipedia_int…>
to the template Interproject to connect to Wikipedia articles in
other languages (here
<http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/q:it:Pierre_V%C3%A9ron> an
example); BimBot
<http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/q:it:Utente:BimBot> created 4129
redirects ftom the same number of works' titles to the
corresponding paragraphs of 1767 articles; all sysops were given
bureaucrat flag, as per consensus
<http://it.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Wikiquote:Bar&oldid=227881#Burocr…>.
* *Wikisource*: reached 20.000 texts.
* *Wikizionario*: two new policies are adopted. One to recategorize
all flexed forms
<http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikt:it:Wikizionario:Bar/Archivio/2008-13#una…>,
so that categories may be more effective; another to recategorize
specialized terminology
<http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikt:it:Wikizionario:discussione_policy#Termi…>.
These policies will lead to the deletion and creation of hundreds
of categories.
News from Musica
Musica completely renewed its home page, adding an area showing new
uploads. During the last month, two operas of Giuseppe Verdi and some
new punk albums were added.
News from the Association
As per our charter, the Board called an *Ordinary and Extraordinary
Wikimedia Italia Members' Meeting*, which will be held in *Milano* on
*March 22, 2009*.
This meeting is really important for our Association; besides usual
management issues (budget and resolutions' approval) and the usual talks
among members and wikipedias, we are aiming to *change the charter* of
the Association. Among the changes proposed there is the lowering of the
quorum needed to make further changes to the charter itself (now it is
set at three quarters of the members, and we risk to have the
Association locked up), and the modifications needed to become an
*Associazione di promozione sociale* (APS: see it.wiki
<http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associazione_di_promozione_sociale>).
Becoming an APS allows us to have several facilitations: the most
important one is the deducibility (or partial deductivity) of the
donations to the Association.
Board Deliberations
* Virtual Skiz asked for and was appointed coordinator of the
Association for Campania. Nomination lasts three months since
deliberation.
* Board approved unanimously transfer of €3.500,00 to Wikimedia
Foundation. This is the whole amount of donations to Wikimedia
Italia in 2008 (€1.700,00), and 30% of proceeds of gadgets' sell.
This montly activity report covers october, november, and december 2008
==Program activities==
* WM-Fr rewarded the winners of the Wikiconcours "Cross project"
category with 100€ gift checks for books.
*Funded the numerization of pictures of Gandhi.
== Public activities and interventions ==
*Workshops given
**Le Cube, Greater Paris Area, Oct 11th.
**Bibliothèque Marguerite Yourcenar, Paris, Dec 14th and Nov 9th.
**La Cantine (dedicated to senior citizens), Paris, Nov 21st.
**Nanterre, Nov 29th.
*Conferences attended
**Creative Commons France, Paris, Oct 15th.
**JDLL (free software meeting), Lyon, October 17 & 18th.
**Salon de l'éducation/Educatice, Paris, Nov, 27 to 29th.
**Open World Forum, Paris, Dec 1st and 2nd.
*Talks given
** 21 October: talk about "Free knowledge and Wikimedia" to students
from "IEP Toulouse" (policital sciences school,
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_d%27%C3%A9tudes_politiques_de_Toulouse
)
** 17 October: presentation to Auvergne librarian association (Brioude)
==Fundraising==
*Partner of Wikimedia Foundation for the annual fundraiser.
*Developed a new donation website with online payment system
*Improvement of previous, as well as creation of new promotional
material (leaflets, fundraising buttons...)
*Raised approximately 50 000 euros (last donations not included)
==Press==
*Supported the set up of the Wikiposter project with a
[http://wikimedia.fr/index.php/Communiqués_de_presse/Et_si_vous_pouviez_accr…
press release] (creation and purchase of poster from our images)
== International events/happenings/news ==
*Anything on an international level that touches the chapter/interests
the chapter
** 16 October: presentation to "From illiteracy to computer illiteracy
: an equal form of exclusion ?", European Meeting of Social Press
** 2-3 October: presentation at "3rd Conference on Cultural Economics"
[http://www.jec-culture.org/?id_page=accueil&lang=en&PHPSESSID=b0af206efedd7…]
(UE)
** December: two presentations at the Israel Business Conference in
Tel Aviv. Was the opportunity for chapter (French and Israel) contact
and for a wikimeet in Tel Aviv
**Funding of the Zeus Web Server for the Toolserver.
== Lobbying/Political ==
* Assisted to the announcement of the French "Plan du Numérique 2012"
(action plan of the government)
* First contacts with reporters without borders in november (they
publish a yearly book with pictures to support the press, we presented
them commons).
* The council of Île-de-France, a French region (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Ele-de-France_(region) ) voted to
become a member of Wikimédia France.
* Anthere received her award from the hands of the minister in charge
of digital economy. Was the opportunity to gather French actors of the
open source.
==Tools==
* Monthly IRC meeting for the members and the Board to discuss current issues
* Phone conferences will be tested in January
* WM-Fr new website development ongoing, based on TYPO3.
* Hosting of our tools was migrated in september on a dedicated server.
* Wikimédia France now on Viadeo (French social network) and LinkedIn
(previously on Facebook).
==Planned==
*General Assembly planned mid march in Paris: will feature approval of
financial data and election of new board.
--
Christophe Henner
Membre du Conseil d'Administration de Wikimedia France
http://wikimedia.fr
christophe.henner(a)wikimedia.fr
mob: +33 (0) 629 356 594
tel: +33 (0) 562 891 201
BB PIN: 2565DD8E
Hi all,
please find below the summaries of the activities of WMNL in december. The
activities are somewhat lower, since the end of the year involved a lot of
things that are not worth while reporting (financial statements, annual
report blabla). This will most likely be the last report from this board,
because on January 31 there is a general assemblee with board elections.
The annual chapter report for 2008 can probably be expected around
march/april this year (hopefully before the chapters meetup in Berlin).
Evaluation of the annual national conference will also be concluded this
month, and if interest is there, I can translate the core results in
English.
If you have any question, please let me know.
Yours,
Lodewijk
Content Online Platform
On the suggestion of Angela (and Wikimedia Nederland), Esther Hoorn has been
invited as an expert to the Content Online Platform. Topics include
protection of minors and cultural diversity online.
Legal
Wikimedia Nederland has won the legal case against Sijthoff. This because
the judge agreed with Wikimedia Nederland that Wikimedia Nederland has no
legal or technical influence on the content of the projects.
New year cards
Wikimedia Nederland has sent new year cards to its members and allies.
People who has meant something special to the association received a hand
written note. Besides this, invitations have been sent for the new year
drink on January 17, which is organized in Amsterdam together with Creactive
Commons Nederland and Open Streetmap NL. We have already had quite some
positive feedback on them.
Press
Quite some attention (side news) for the outcome of the legal case. Mostly
positive'ish towards Wikimedia. Also interest for the 10k articles for the
Frysian Wikipedia (including interview on Omrop Fryslan) and some minor
subjects for more foreign issues.
Available on meta at <
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Ma…
>
Available on our website at <
http://wiki.media.hu/wiki/Report_November%E2%80%93December_2008>
Wikimedia Hungary Report
Volume I, issue #2
November–December 2008
Prepared by: Tamás Mészöly and Bence Damokos
This is the second report of the Hungarian Wikimedia chapter, Wikimédia
Magyarország about the events covering November and December of 2008.
== Activities ==
=== November 2008 ===
* On 3 November Wikimédia Magyarország has been recognised as an official
chapter of Wikimedia Foundation.
* On the same day the Metropolitan Court of Budapest in a not yet legally
binding warrant registered the association and assigned it the
classification "organisation of public utility". The warrant came into force
on 24 November. (A Hungarian press statement [1] was prepared for the
occasion, and the news was covered [2] in the Hungarian Wikinews).
* An e-mail account was set up in the OTRS system of Wikimedia: ''wm-hu {at}
wikimedia.org.''
* A server and a new homepage was set up, and made public (21 November). The
design of the official website available at http://wiki.media.hu has been
inspired by the homepages of the Dutch [3] and Italian [4] chapters.
* Wikimedia Hungary, in cooperation with Wikimedia Nederlands prepared and
sent a response [5] to the European Commission green paper entitled
"Copyright in the Knowledge Economy" [6].
=== December 2008 ===
* A board meeting was held on 2 December to decide on financial matters of
the association.
* During the following week we have registered at the Hungarian Tax
Authority (APEH, 4 December) and opened a bank account (8 December).
* We posted an only membership form so that new members could join. For
purposes of membership fee administration we expect new joinees in the new
year.
* The planning of the programs and activities for 2009 continued throughout
the month.
== Contacts ==
* We have participated at a meeting of the Hungarian Association of the
History of Science, Technology and Education at the boardroom of the
library of ELTE [7] University.
* We were also represented at the third annual regional conference of
Wikimedia Srbije in Belgrade (19-21 December). The conference has seen the
presentations of Wikipedians and experts of different educational field, and
it was a good opportunity to meet the invited Wikipedians and chapter
representatives from Srbia, Croatia, Poland, Germany and Bosnia and
Herzegovina. We were invited by and our participation was supported by
Wikimedia Serbia, for which we are most thankful.
== Fundraiser ==
* On 15 December we have accepted the fundraising agreement of the Wikimedia
Foundation (WMF), and after it was signed by them too we have been a
participating chapter in the annual fundraising drive.
* Since 1 July 2008 there have been over 170 donations in Hungarian forints
to the WMF, totalling over $2600. Most of this was received during the
year-end fundraising period, with a noticeable increase after the Hungarian
translation of Jimmy Wales' appeal went live. Our chapter during the same
period has received about $150 worth of donations. Fundraising activities
are ongoing at press time.
== News from the Hungarian Wikimedia projects ==
* The Hungarian Wikisource has reached 6000 articles on 10 November, and a
further milestone of 7500 articles was achieved on 13 December.
* The Hungarian Wikipedia reached 110,000 articles on 12 November, and the
350 featured articles mark on 12 December.
* The Hungarian Wikibooks has reached 5000 articles on 18 November.
* The Hungarian Wikiquote has more than 750 articles since 25 November.
* On 17 November the Flagged Revisions extension was switched on the
Hungarian Wikipedia. (A news release [8] was prepared and the news was
reported [9] in the Hungarian Wikinews.)
== Press and media appearance ==
* Article about the vandalisms in the English Wikipedia articles of John
McCain and Barack Obama after the presidential election [10] (index.hu - one
of the big online news outlets).
* Articles published in connection with a Wikipedian meetup held in Győr on
15 November:
** Kisalföld [11] (regional newspaper);
** nol.hu [12].
* Article about the introduction of the Flagged Revisions extension [13] (
folder.hu).
* Articles about the Lutz Heilmann affair:
** itcafe.hu [14];
** Népszava [15] (national daily).
* Article about the reliability of Wikipedia articles about pharmaceuticals
based on Kevin A. Clauson's (and his team's) study [16] (index.hu).
* Article about the Stanton Foundation grant [17] (Magyar Online).
* Articles about the UK blocking of a Wikipedia article [18]:
** sg.hu [19];
** azta.hu [20];
** origo.hu [21] (one of the big online news outlets).
[1]:
http://wiki.media.hu/wiki/Megalakult_a_Wikim%C3%A9dia_Magyarorsz%C3%A1g_Egy…
[2]:
http://hu.wikinews.org/wiki/Megalakult_a_Wikim%C3%A9dia_Magyarorsz%C3%A1g_E…
[3]: http://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hoofdpagina
[4]: http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Pagina_principale
[5]:
http://wiki.media.hu/w/images/6/65/Response_to_Green_Paper_on_Copyright_in_…
[6]:
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/docs/copyright-infso/greenpap…
[7]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELTE
[8]:
http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:A_magyar_Wikip%C3%A9dia_bevezet…
[9]:
http://hu.wikinews.org/wiki/Jel%C3%B6lt_lapv%C3%A1ltozatok_a_magyar_Wikip%C…
[10]:
http://index.hu/politika/kulfold/usa/feher_haz/2008/11/05/lenegerszaroztak_…
[11]:
http://www.kisalfold.hu/gyori_hirek/barki_szerkesztheti_a_vilagenciklopedia…
[12]: http://nol.hu/belfold/wikipedia__avagy_a_friss_valtoztatasok_jarorei__
[13]: http://www.folder.hu/hirek.php?id=857
[14]: http://itcafe.hu/hir/wikipedia_nemetorszag_letiltas_heilmann.html
[15]:
http://nepszava.hu/default.asp?cCenter=OnlineCikk.asp&ArticleID=1123920
[16]: http://index.hu/tudomany/wikip1125/
[17]:
http://www.mon.hu/hirek/multimedia/cikk/a-wikipedia-nagy-penzt-kapott-hogy-…
[18]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation_and_Wikipedia
[19]: http://www.sg.hu/cikkek/64469
[20]: http://www.azta.hu/bnt-tettek/41/4232
[21]:
http://www.origo.hu/techbazis/internet/20081208-meztelen-gyerek-kepe-miatt-…
Here is Wikimedia Sverige chapters report for December 2008.
== Seminars and conferences ==
We were invited to speak about Wikipedia at the Christmas conference for
professors at teacher programs. It was a nationwide event held at the
University of Karlstad. The talk was taped and it is available online.[1]
== In media ==
=== Early announcement of Swedish Idol winner ===
Just a few days before the final of the Swedish Idol the page on Wikipedia
gets vandalised by announcing the winner as if the final already took
place. Unfortunately it stays there for 18 hours before being reverted,
long enough for one of the biggest Swedish tabloids to pick up the
news.[2] Although this wasn't a major situation it shows there is still
some education to do since the paper wrote "those responsible for
Wikipedia have now removed the information".
=== Donations / Fundraiser ===
Wikimedia Sverige received a donation from the media company Mindpark. The
donation was 1 per employee (totalling 2000) and 500 from the CEO. It
was also a challenge to other companies to do the same, and so far one CEO
have matched this. This and the fundraiser was noticed in one of Sweden's
biggest newspapers, with a surprisingly accurate article. [3]
The 29th of December one journalist writes in her blog "Why I never will
donate to Wikipedia" about how the article about her blog was being
deleted for the reason it was not notable. Lennart, our chair, gave a very
good reply, which in turn hasn't got a reply from the journalist. The
interesting part is that Wikimedia Sverige noticed a substantial increase
of donations after this.
== Milestones ==
=== Swedish Wikipedia reaches 300 000 articles ===
At 14:23, December, 13 Swedish Wikipedia reached 300 000 articles. The 300
000th article was Arvidsjaurs kyrka [4] a church in the northern Sweden.
Wikimedia Sverige issued a press release [5] that were picked up by
Piteåtidningen.[6] Some tables and graphs are available.[7]
=== Swedish Wikipedia has more than 92 488 users ===
Why is this significant? Because it is more than 1 % of the population of
Sweden. User 92 489 is [[:sv:w:User:Akew]] and signed up on 30 December.
== Wikipedia Academy aftermath ==
Without any involvement from WMSE, one of the participants at WA arranged
his own seminar about Wikipedia and general criticism of sources at the
University of Kalmar.[8] We believe that is a huge step towards a more
broadened and nuanced (or should I say relevant) debate.
== Board meetings ==
During this period we have had one board meeting. One of the most
important outcome was the decision to get an online payment system for
donations. Minutes are only available in Swedish. [9]
== Members newsletter ==
We have sent out one newsletter to our members. It is available in
English.[10]
Jan Ainali [[User:Ainali]] for Wikimedia Sverige
==Links==
[1]
http://video.kau.se/tcs/#page:conferenceList&status:recorded&pageNumber:1
[2] http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/idol2008/article3957304.ab
[3] http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=2374&a=868568
[4] http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvidsjaurs_kyrka
[5] http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pressmeddelande_2008-12-13
[6] http://www.pitea-tidningen.se/nyheter/artikel.aspx?ArticleId=4266413
[7] http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipediadiskussion:300K
[8]
http://www.newsdesk.se/view/pressrelease/foerelaesning-om-wikipedia-och-kae…
[9] http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6tesprotokoll/Protokoll_2008-12-15
[10] http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nyhetsbrev/Nummer_6,_2008/english
The December newsletter has been published at http://
meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK_v2.0/Newsletter/December2008 and
is copied below for your convenience:
Summary: You can now join Wiki UK Ltd, which hopes to become the
official UK chapter of Wikimedia in January. The organisation is
planning its first Annual General Meeting, where members can vote on
who is on the board, and put forward and vote on resolutions. The
organisation is already supporting activities such as a bid to hold
Wikimania 2010 in Oxford and the exciting Wikipedia Loves Art project
at the Victoria and Albert Museum. We also bring you news of the the
recent Wikimeet in London.
In this month's newsletter:
1. Chapter formation
2. Membership
3. AGM
4. Wikimania 2010 - Oxford bid
5. Wikipedia Loves Art
6. London Wikimeet
Chapter formation
As mentioned in our November newsletter, the Chapters Committee has
recommended we are approved as a chapter of Wikimedia, and we are
expecting the Wikimedia Foundation to decide on this at their next
meeting, on 9th–11th January. We hope to complete bank account
opening shortly after we are approved. In the meantime, we are
preparing for the rush of events which will happen immediately
afterwards (see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK_v2.0/
Timeline ), and we are also supporting activities ranging from the
bid to hold Wikimania 2010 in Oxford to Wikipedia Loves Art.
Membership
As we announced in our last newsletter, we are now inviting
membership applications: being a member gives you an official say in
what the company does, allowing you to attend and vote at AGMs, put
forward written resolutions, elect the new boards at the AGMs, and
much more. You can download the application form here: http://
meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Wiki_UK_Ltd_membership_application_form.pdf .
We will start processing the applications received as soon as the
bank account is set up. We should also be able to accept tax-
refundable donations at that point, and claim back the tax from the
donations already received with the permission of the donors.
AGM
As soon as the chapter status is approved and the bank account
opened, the board will move to call the first AGM. This is currently
pencilled in for the end of February, giving us enough time to give
the statutory notice and to organise the elections. However, if there
are any delays this may be pushed back. The draft of the agenda for
the AGM (see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK_v2.0/AGM )
currently includes the election of the first permanent Board,
discussing the priorities of the chapter and passing some formal
resolutions.
Wikimania 2010 - Oxford bid
Wiki UK Limited is keen to bring Wikimania to the UK, and the 2010
Oxford bid still seems like the best chance we will have for this in
the next few years, since there is a common feeling that 2010 is
Europe's year. Organising a conference on the scale of Wikimania is a
lot of work, and we desperately need your help (see below for details
of things you could do). A lot of progress was made on the bid over
the summer, but since then the momentum has died down a little due to
the other commitments of those who had been working on it. In the
last few weeks, Seddon has once again begun work, obtaining the
support of the local flickr group, and investigating a new source of
sponsorship for us.
How you can help:
* work on the bid page (expand existing sections, fill in place
holders) - see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2010/Bids/Oxford
* contact potential sponsors and partners on our behalf (see
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2010/Bids/
Oxford#Organisations_not_currently_being_investigated and the talk page)
* show your support by signing up as a member of the local team:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2010/Bids/Oxford#Local_team
Wikipedia Loves Art
The Victoria and Albert Museum, the world's largest museum of
decorative arts and design with a collection of over 4.5 million
objects, is joining in with a world-wide project in February 2009 to
photograph major pieces of work and release the images under public
licence: Wikipedia Loves Art. They have invited Wikipedians to get
involved in collecting the images, putting them online and using them
in Wikipedia articles. More information is available here: http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:WLA@V%26A . Please sign up to get involved
and let us have your ideas!
London Wikimeet
Sunday 14th December saw the 16th London Wikipedia meetup ( http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/London_16 ). As the numbering
suggests the meetups have been running for quite some time, with the
first one in June 2004. The meetups currently take the form of a pub
lunch at the Penderel's Oak in Holborn on the second Sunday of every
month. Eight Wikipedians came along, falling within the stereotypical
Wikipedia demographic (15-45, higher education, involvement in a non-
manual job). Topics discussed included Wikimedia UK and its current
status, the (now concluded) Arbitration Committee elections,
(briefly) contract law and various other tidbits. The meetups are
excellent fun and a good opportunity to meet other Wikipedia
contributors and get to know them; several projects people have
worked on have come about as a result of interactions with people at
these meetups. The next one is due to be held on Sunday 11th January
2009 at 13:00 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/
London_17 ).
Wiki UK Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in
England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. The Registered Office is
at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham, NG9 1RL, United Kingdom.
*W i K i M e D i A N e W s* no. 22 - December 3rd, 2008
Official monthly bulletin from Wikimedia Italia Association.
Editorial
This number of Wikimedia News, just before Christmas, is being published
in a characteristic period for our association and all of WMF; we are in
the middle of fundraising
(http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/it). I believe that
everybody, and especially our members, know that it's necessary to
support, also financially, both Wikimedia Italia and Wikimedia
Foundation. Together with the usual reports for activities and events,
so, the Board wants to urge all readers to take part, both physically
and financially, in the needs of the the association.
Senpai
What happened last month
* November 2, Pavia: we attended /Sapere libera tutti!/, a day
dedicated to the new ways for creating a collective culture. The
report from EdoM:
I don't know what kind of promotion the event had, but at
least in the morning there were just we speakers among the
members of WMI. I don't know if in the afternoon some other
people came.
Cristina Moretto made a short introduction, then Simone talked
about history and logic of the licenses. His talk was quite
interesting, and the public from a lot of questions. I talked
more or less for 20 minutes about wiki philosophy and the
various projects.
The other speakers were Simone Cortesi (OSM) and Christian
Biasco (about his work).
* November 28-30, Faenza: we attended Meeting delle Etichette
Indipendenti. The report from Senpai:
This year, Meeting delle Etichette Indipendenti was below par.
Maybe there were less visitors, but it's certain that they
were much less willing to support our projects. Takins were
much lower than last year: many visitors looked at our stand,
said "Oh, Wikipedia", and then went away. I had the impression
that the casual user takes our projects for grant. Maybe we
should try and explain that the fact that Wikipedia and the
other WMF project are free (as in beer) does not mean that we
don't need money to run them.
Maybe we could think at some effective slogan to let people
know that the lack of donations will lead to the closing of
the projects.
Leaving aside the financial issues, we took advantage from
MEI. We managed to get in touch with some music companies
interested in copyleft; in the near future we will be
therefore able to insert a lot of new content, especially for
classical music, but also for some rock and electronic music,
in the pages of our project Musica <http://musica.wikimedia.it>.
Future events
* March WMI Meeting: The meeting which should let us change our
Charter and eventually become a Non Profit association might not
be held. After the proposal of a few location for the meeting, no
official bid has been made yet: we need to have a final bid by the
end of December, or the meeting shall not be held.
* Wikimangia: Since March and April 2009 will be full of events (WMI
Meeting, Chapter Meeting, Easter), Senpai thought that it would be
nice to anticipate the usual "eat-and-drink-alot" gathering in
February. The program will consist in a day of skiing (Saturday),
while laziers will appreciate the typical pubs near the ski
tracks, and quaff hot chocolate or alcoholic beverages. As usual,
we need quickly to know how many people think to attend the event,
so please gave us some feedback!
News from our projects
News from Italian WMF projects
* *Wikibooks*: New logo
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Wikibooks_simple_book_blue_beige.svg>
was approved. We need just the last details.
* *Wikinotizie*: Reached 6,500 articles.
* *Wikipedia*: Fundraiser started. Here there are the statistics
<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/11/25/wikimedias-fundraiser-which-banners-cl…>
about efficacy of the various requests to donate.
* *Wikiquote*: A proposal
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:it:Bar#Burocrazia> was
made to promote all sysop to bureaucrat, like in es.wiki. Two new
pages featured: /Matrix <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/it:Matrix>/
and /Fight Club
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/it:Fight_Club_%28film%29>/.
/Catechismo della Chiesa cattolica
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/it:Catechismo_della_Chiesa_cattolica>/
was voice #8,000.
* *Wikisource*: Still discussions
<http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/s:it:Wikisource:Bar#Sempre_sempre_copyright_.…>
about copyright: text of posters, leaflets, flysheets, may be
defined /public domain/ like public speeches?
* *Wikiversità*: Danielg
<http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/v:it:Utente:Danielg> quit from sysop.
* *Wikizionario*: Approved
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/it:Wikizionario:Discussione_policy#transfen_e…>
a rule which will lead to deletion of thousands
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/it:Categoria:Da_ricontrollare> of
lemmata
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/it:Categoria:Voci_trasferite_dal_wikizionario…>
automatically imported from en.wikt in 2005 and 2007.
News from association
* Wikimedia Italia, together with Wikimedia Nederland
<http://nl.wikimedia.org>, sent a statement about the Green Paper
on copyright
<http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/Libro_verde_su_%C2%ABIl_diritto_d%27autor…>
which European Union prepared (the link refers to the statement by
Wikimedia Italia).
* For the holiday season, our Association promotes *"Regala
Wikimedia"* (Wikimedia as present). Through our online shop, at
this page <http://shop.wikimedia.it/index.php?main_page=gv_faq>,
people may buy a gift token that can be spent in Xmas gadgets by
WMI; we suggest to every member to pamper her/himself with a
wikigift! By the way, we added new pins and some stickers; we are
also purchasing a new model of t-shirt and a new sweatshirt.
* Wikimedia Hungary <http://wiki.media.hu>, one of the latest
Wikimedia Chapters, partially modeled its homepage after ours.
News from Biblioteca
* Mizardellorsa has nearly completed the upload of the latest book
by Simone Aliprandi about copyleft. Whoever wants to lend a hand
will find our guidelines here
<http://biblioteca.wikimedia.it/wiki/Guida_all%27uso_delle_licenze_e_degli_a…>.
News from Musica
* At MEI we approached some recording label interested in copyleft.
During the next days we will fatten our site.
