Hi all,
I found this a bit comical:
http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/1159206/pr-industry-blames-cumbersome-wikiped…
They don't get it that the COI policy affects everyone.
They think that just because they want people to pay them to change the
articles they should be allowed to do so!
"Ingham added that too many of the people who edit Wikipedia still do not
understand PR."
"Too many of them continue to have the knee-jerk reaction that
information from a PR professional must intrinsically be wrong.
Ingham urged Wikipedia to implement radical reform to its editing process."
Just because someone does not agree with you, does not mean that they do
not understand you.
No-one is saying their information is intrinsically wrong, just that they
should not edit articles relating to their clients.
all the best
Leuthe
Hi all,
I do not think it is particularly useful to look at these issues of
customers and employees with all the vexatious legal hoo-haa that that
involves.
Wikipedia works as a community gathered around a social goal.
A "reader" is an editor who has not made their first edit, a window
shopper, a "Man Friday" who has yet to leave a foot print in the sand.
A "subject" is a living person. We need suitable processes for ensuring
that all biographies of living people are handled appropriately.
Companies are legal fictions, and although we do not cover them quite as
well as filmic and televisual fictions, this may be because wikipedians
find them less interesting. If people find them such dull topics that
no-one cares to prioritise updating their information, it is no good PR
companies moaning. They should wake up to the fact that one of the reasons
no-one does their role gratis is that it is completely thankless.
Perhaps they should also remind themselves that Wikipedia became the sixth
most popular website on the planet without their help. Then they should
cut themselves some slack and edit some pages connected to one of their
hobbies. Then they might learn to be less obsessive . . . or perhaps more
obsessive, but about something more interesting.
all the best
User:Leutha
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:10:22 +0000
From: Thomas Morton <morton.thomas(a)googlemail.com>
To: UK Wikimedia mailing list <wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] PR industry blames 'cumbersome' Wikipedia
(Andreas Kolbe)
Message-ID:
<CAKO2H7_9RiYSR9KtfiJQoZdf46WvcotYHO7DGXmZrafq2ZGgJA(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
We have two customers, and one "employee" role, I think. And it should go
something like (in order of importance):
Reader (Customer)
Subject (Customer)
Editor (Employee)
Or in other words; because the PR company represents the subject of the
article, and we rank so highly on Google etc., they should reasonably
expect to receive a good service from us.
Tom
FYI
[image: Open Rights Group] <http://bit.ly/ORGis5join>*
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*
*
*
*
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* Dear Jon Davies,* *Stop the Snoopers' Charter tickets open to all*
You are invited to:* *
*Stop the Snoopers’ Charter* <http://stopsnooperscharter.eventbrite.com/#>
A joint event with Index on Censorship
*Headline Speaker: Cory Doctorow*
Presentations by: Liberty, Index on Censorship, Big Brother Watch, FIPR
Saturday 24 November
2pm - 6pm
Free Word Centre, Farringdon, London
*Free tickets*
Last week we opened limited tickets to our big campaigning event to ORG
paying supporters only. We’ve now released the remaining *limited free
tickets* to the general public so please register
now<http://stopsnooperscharter.eventbrite.com/>before they are all
gone.
*What is it? *
Stop the Snoopers' Charter <http://stopsnooperscharter.eventbrite.com/> is
a series of talks and workshops to explain the Communications Data Bill.
The Bill has been debated in the select committee over the last few months
with civil liberties groups, internet service providers and spooks giving
evidence. The media has taken various sides to the
story<http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Society/article1162048.ece>and
the Government is claiming that mass surveillance is necessary to
capture terrorists and paedophiles.
This is a great opportunity to learn the specifics in the draft and make
your own mind up about the bill that everyone is talking about. It’s also a
chance to introduce your friends to the work of ORG and learn the practical
implications of the CDB.
*Communications Data Bill training events*.
We’re not just campaigning against the Communications Data Bill in London,
we are also running Communications Data Bill training events across the
country, coming to a location near you:
- Edinburgh, November
21<http://stopsnooperscharteredinburgh2-eorg.eventbrite.com/#>
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29<http://stopsnooperscharterbristol-eorg.eventbrite.com/>
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5<http://stopsnooperschartermanchester-eorg.eventbrite.com/>
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Tickets are free to all events, but please book in advance to make sure you
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We look forward to seeing you soon.
Sincerely,
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Member Support Officer
Open Rights Group
If you like what we do, please join us
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*Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK*. Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169
tweet @jonatreesdavies
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990.
Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk
Hello everyone,
I'm writing to let you know of about some media training Wikimedia UK has
arranged for volunteers. The training is specifically designed for people
with little or no experience of dealing with the media and it's aimed at
volunteers who are likely to have some dealings with the media as a result
of their volunteering with Wikimedia UK.
You can find the details at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Media_training_for_volunteers_-_register_of_in…
Places are strictly limited so if you'd like to take part, please either
drop me a line or comment on the talk page. The date has not yet been set
(although it will be on a Saturday), but will be arranged to suit the needs
of those taking part. I'm happy to answer questions either on the page or
by email.
Many thanks,
Stevie
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, a Company
Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No.
6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor,
Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United
Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation
(who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.
Hello everyone,
Wikimedia UK has just published a blog post giving its response to today's
news stories in The Times and The Daily Telegraph about paid editing of
Wikipedia.
You can see the blog post at http://bit.ly/ZfSaln but the full content is
below.
If you have any questions please do let me know.
Thanks,
Stevie
In response to today’s news articles in The Times and The Daily Telegraph
about PR editing of Wikipedia
This morning The
Times<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/telecoms/article3597035.e…>
ran
a story about how staff at the public relations firm RLM Finsbury edited
the Wikipedia article on Alisher
Usmanov<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alisher_Usmanov>,
including removing negative material. The story was also republished online
by The Daily Telegraph<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/…>
.
Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia and as such its articles should be written
with a neutral point of view. To maintain this neutrality we recommend that
anyone with a conflict of interest, such as PR professionals, follows
the guidelines
we created with the
CIPR<http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/policy-resources/best-practice-guides-toolkit…>.
When PR professionals engage with the volunteer community via talk pages,
we almost always see good results. If you need to seek an urgent
correction, you can email info-at-wikimedia.org for assistance – there is a
volunteer team on hand 24/7 to help.
We are pleased The Times notes that, while it took more than a month for
the Wikipedia community to initially spot the changes and undo them, once
they were changed again it only took seconds for this to be picked up on
and undone once more. This shows that the Wikipedia community is active and
that protecting articles from this kind of editing is taken seriously. This
is important for Wikipedia’s credibility and for its readers and editors.
We also welcome the CIPR
response<http://newsroom.cipr.co.uk/cipr-responds-to-reports-of-rlm-finsbury-editing…>
to
these reports. It is clear that the majority of PR professionals are
willing to work with the Wikipedia community and to follow the community’s
guidelines. Problems arise when PR professionals try to “fix” articles by
directly editing them, as this story shows.
Wikimedia UK is always happy to engage with anyone, including PR
professionals, about how Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects work. You
can contact us by emailing info-at-wikimedia.org.uk or by calling our
office on 020 7065 0993.
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England
and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513.
Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street,
London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a
global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the
Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
I was very pleased to find this in the release notes for Mediawiki 1.20
.... getting the Mediawiki message out there with the huge Linux userbase.
***********************************
We're working closely with Linux distributors to make sure that the
MediaWiki bundled in Linux is something that we feel more comfortable
supporting. In this vein, MediaWiki 1.19 is being targeted for "long
term support". Since Debian (the Linux distribution with the longest
release cycle) has a two year cycle between each freeze and we've
gotten MediaWiki 1.19 into Wheezy, we'll support MW 1.19 for the next
two years. (Thank you especially to MediaWiki developer Platonides
for his help in working with the Debian developers.)
***********************************
Tempted to copy edit that statement though...
>>we've gotten MediaWiki 1.19 into Wheezy.......
:-)
Gordo
Good afternoon everyone,
Just a reminder that the consultation on membership strategy has been open
for ten days - and so far elicited some useful feedback (so thank you to
those who have commented) Its looks at how members are different to
volunteers, whether we think they should have a more direct role in the
governance of the organisation (perhaps by developing chapter policy) and
what we think a membership strategy should aim at (a wide membership base
paying a nominal joining fee, or a smaller group of more invested people?)
Please have a look and if you've got the time, join in the discussion
<http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/2012_Membership_strategy_consultation>with
the benefit of your experiences. The consultation will remain open until
the 2nd of November.* *
More pressing - the draft members' survey questions
<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMUK_membership_survey_-_suggestions_and_comm…>are
now up! These asks some tricky and varied questions - from trying to see if
members think staff are responsive to queries to whether a change in voting
system would make them more or less likely to vote in elections.
I would like to send the survey out to members soon to give them time for
people to respond and then for me to incorporate response results in a
report to Trustees that must be finalised by the 7th November.
Therefore I'd be grateful if all comments could be made by *no later than
9am this Friday morning (26th October) *which will allow me time to make
any final tweaks prior to sending out the survey via email.
Thanks all - hope you're having a good week!
--
*Katherine Bavage *
*Fundraising Manager *
*Wikimedia UK*
+44 20 7065 0949
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
*
*
On 11 October 2012 11:20, Katherine Bavage <
katherine.bavage(a)wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
> Good morning everyone!
>
> If you have time do look at pages on the UK Wiki about the direction
> Wikimedia UK's membership can take in future.
>
> Here is the page<https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMUK_membership_survey_-_suggestions_and_comm…>discussing the kinds of things you think a survey to members should cover -
> I'd like to get the survey developed soon so contributions made now would
> be very timely, and I can put up a draft of the survey questions when I've
> written for further comment.
>
> Here is the page <https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:RecentChanges>with some initial thoughts on building a membership strategy - all comments
> welcome, including links to previous meeting minutes or otherwise that you
> think should be considered.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> --
> *Katherine Bavage *
> *Fundraising Manager *
> *Wikimedia UK*
> +44 20 7065 0949
>
> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
> Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
> Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
> United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
> movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
> operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
>
> *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
> over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
>
>
I have posted a proposal for an Audit Committee on the wiki:
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Audit_Committee
Please feel free to edit it or comment on the talk page. (Please don't
comment here - let's keep everything in one place.)
Thank you.
All,
Please make your way to the back of the Penderel's Oak pub, rather than
downstairs. We have about 30 seats booked, and a cake!
Richard Symonds, Wikimedia UK