IMPORTANT! This message has been blind-carbon-copied to you. Do not reply-to-all or forward it without the author's permission. Hi Angela, Hello to the list Thanks for your input! The idea is that as an academic, I would like to hold a conference on "Using Wikis in Research and Public Engagement" in Brighton, UK. I'm pretty sure I can convince my academic department to waive the fees they usually charge for the venue, give us IT support, etc. So no, we dont need money for the venue. But conferences have other costs: invitations, publicity, handouts, coffee, lunches, speaker travel, and the time spent organising them. A small conference would not take much organising, but I want a bigger one, and I want to invite the top UK research funding people and raise awareness of the usefulness of Wikis, so that the funders see how useful Wikis are. My vision is a world where research funders allow Wikimedia people to co-apply with academics for research and teaching grants to get funding for Wiki activity, to allow research results to be brought to the world. Instead of locking new knowledge away in a private-access journal, it would be available for all. I want to approach one of the Research Councils to get some funding for the conference. I also believe that if I do this, they may well be interested in funding a *project* as well. This project would need to be co-designed by us, so that it is useful to Wikimedia and Wikimedia UK. Support for a conference would also help our chances of succeeding with the £2million Beacons for Public Engagement proposal (UK), which involves Wikimedia. We have been asked by the funders: "What commitments are your partner Wikimedia offering?", and it would be great to have an exciting answer to that. The stream of funding I have identified is only open if Wikimedia can commit to co-funding, or 'benefit in kind'. The funders who are interested. But I need to work with someone in Wikimedia who has the authority to offer backing to a funding proposal, and other people in Wikimedia who can tell me the kinds of academic-related activities they would really be interested in getting funded. Then we can talk and identify some common ground. This has to be collaborative. Speakers, yes, definitely Jimmy. I'll drop him a line. Yes, Cormac too. Cormac and I have been discussing about Wikis, as we have much in common in our research. He is using similar theoretical framework in his PhD to the one I used when I did my doctorate. He's definitely my first contact as soon as someone from the Wikimedia Foundation says, 'Yes, this is a good idea. We'll support it. We can offer *X* co-funding or *X* benefit in kind'. I keep trying David Gerard at Wikimedia UK, but no reply as yet. Where would be a good place to start a note on this topic?? best wishes Jenny/Open Research --On 30 August 2007 11:34 +0200 Angela <beesley(a)gmail.com> wrote:

This whole letter was music to my ears, but yes I think the conference is a phenomenal idea...and if you want, I can def. get you in touch with a few people, and I think that you should reach out to UK wikimedia people to get their input as well, but I' am ALL FOR THIS. And yes, I really need hlep with wikilove meme.....you guys need to start the momentum for others to follow :) sandy Jennifer Gristock wrote: -- Sandy Ordonez Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Phone: 727.231.0101 Fax: 727.258.0207S E-Mail: sordonez(a)wikimedia.org

Yeah, it's very useful if you need some help from people who live there! :-) On 8/30/07, Sean Whitton <sean(a)silentflame.com> wrote: -- Casey Brown Cbrown1023 --- Note: This e-mail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails sent to this address will probably get lost.

On 8/30/07, Jennifer Gristock <J.J.Gristock(a)sussex.ac.uk> wrote: Hi Jennifer :-) I'm sorry to hear about your father - I hope he makes a full recovery soon. [snip] I'm very interested in getting such a conference together - thanks to Angela for thinking of me - I've just joined this list. :-) Christophe's suggestion of a Wikipedia Academy is something I've been dreaming about for a while now. ;-) I suggest we contact Frank Schulenburg (I can do this), and others who have been active in previous Wikipedia Academies. By "big names", are you referring to people in the Wikimedia world, well-known academics in a given field (free culture, open education, etc), both, or other? By "co-funded" - do you mean by Wikimedia, or by any other organisation? I would like to brainstorm what Wikimedia could give to and gain from such an event in terms of resources, and opportunities for further work.I would also like to brainstorm what the likely "draws" of such an event would be - what angle are people in the academic world likely to be interested in? For example, there are plenty of academics interested in the world of wikis and other collaborative tools in education and research - are we pitching to an already-aware audience, trying to get more people interested in such work, or pitching it somewhere in the middle? I'd also like to know where this bid has gone, and where it is going. Specifically, who are the potential funders you have applied to? FWIW, I think bodies like JISC and ESRC would be prime candidates for bigger bids in the future, though I'm not sure if they would fund a one-off conference. Is it better for us to stick to email for the moment, or should we organise/discuss this on Meta? In any case, count me in! Cheers, Cormac PS: Yes, I'm studying in Manchester - though briefly located in Reading. :-)

Hello, I will endeavour to answer your questions - I think this will help for other people too who may have similar concerns etc. On 30/08/2007, Cormac Lawler <cormaggio(a)gmail.com> wrote: [snip] Right now it just means able to accept work because there is no direct assignment at group level. I envisage that within projects, our new project managers will be getting involved in assignment, but at group level everyone volunteers for projects. They are generally announced to the list. This just means co-ordinator, project manager, or member. I have seperate them on the table to easily track down what you want. Basically, you are choosing between project manager and member when you list yourself. Anyone can join, yes. If we ended up with a troublemaker, it would be the case that myself as the list administrator (or Cary or Sandy who also have access) may well ban them from the list. Their activities on meta are then a case for meta admins, basically (which I am too). Right now there is no ComProj-specific procedure for removal. I will go in and answer these. I am not sure, to be honest. We were never good at keeping thsoe up to date. Using a search on Special:Allpages seems to me to be the best way to track down projects for templating and listing under the new system. Thanks, Sean

lolol. we promise, we promise, ....and encourage suggestions :) ie, we are still trying to test best way for projects :) Cormac Lawler wrote: -- Sandy Ordonez Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Phone: 727.231.0101 Fax: 727.258.0207S E-Mail: sordonez(a)wikimedia.org

Hello, Sandy, this should already be there under "areas of interest in communications". I would request that people list this information there - unless you think another column is needed? Also, project management is an area. Any current members who would like to try this out, please just move yourself up to the project management section if you think you can do it. Sean On 30/08/2007, Sandy Ordonez <sordonez(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

Agreed, Delphine. All we need now are PMs! Two ComProj members have presently volunteered for this role. Sean On 31/08/07, Delphine Ménard <notafishz(a)gmail.com> wrote: