The February newsletter has been published at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Newsletter/February2009 and is copied
below for your convenience:
Summary: The chapter is now up and running, and we have now opened our
bank account. We have a new website, and are putting plans in place
for the first Annual General Meeting. Meanwhile, February has seen the
successful Wikipedia Loves Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
bidding to host Wikimania 2010 has opened, and the Government's
Intellectual Property consultation has closed. We also bring the
regular news of meet-ups, and a new feature highlighting press
coverage of Wikimedia in the UK.
In this month's newsletter:
1. Chapter formation process
2. Website
3. Annual General Meeting
4. Wikipedia Loves Art
5. Oxford Wikimania bid
6. IP consultation
7. Meet-ups
8. News coverage
1. Chapter formation process
We now have a bank account with the Co-Operative Bank! We'll shortly
be processing the membership applications and donations received so
far, so if you want to be one of the first members of the chapters you
need to get your applications in as soon as possible!
2. Website
If you're reading this, then you'll notice that we have a new website,
http://uk.wikimedia.org/! The site's naturally a wiki, so every page
is editable, although we will be protecting the pages that formally
represent the chapter (e.g. the Main Page, the Memorandum of
Association, etc.). Please, go forth and edit!
We're after administrators for the site to help maintain it - remove
vandalism, block troublesome users, edit protected pages, etc. If
you'd be interested in helping your chapter this way, then please let
us know.
3. Annual General Meeting
Now we have our bank account, we can finally pin down a date for the
AGM. This will be discussed at the next board meeting, on the 2nd of
March, and on the mailing list over the following week.
4. Wikipedia Loves Art
The Wikipedia Loves Art photography contest has been running all this
month at fifteen museums globally, including at the Victoria & Albert
Museum in London. The launch event on Sunday 1st February saw at least
30 people come along to the museum, who laid out refreshments, cameras
to lend, computers for uploading photos and staff on hand to help. The
following Sunday saw the regular "second Sunday" London meet-up
relocate to the museum, and half a dozen more people showed up then.
So far over 3,000 images have been uploaded to the flickr group,
including over 200 from the V&A. You only have a few days left until
the end of February to take pictures and upload them - so keep
snapping to be in with a chance of winning one of the prizes on offer!
5. Oxford Wikimania bid
User:Seddon has been continuing his work on the Wikimania bid.
However, for it to have a chance of success he needs to be able to
demonstrate to the judges that he has a committed team. Thus if you
want Wikimania in the UK, now is the time to really get involved.
6. IP consultation
Earlier this month we submitted a document to the government
(available at
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Copyright_consultation) in
response to their request for comment on an IPO "Issues Paper". In our
response we focused on the issue of the copyright status of
photographs of public domain works. Currently in the UK anyone who
takes a photograph of a public domain painting (for example) holds
copyright over that photograph, which means, for example, that when
scanned post-cards of paintings are uploaded to Wikipedia, Wikimedia
is taking a legal risk. We argued that such photographs do not meet
the standards of originality necessary for a work to be copyrightable.
The deadline for submissions has been extended, so we have not heard
back from the IPO as yet, however we are optimistic that we will be
invited to discuss these issues further with them in the summer.
7. Meet-ups
The London February meet-up relocated to the Victoria & Albert museum
to take part in the Wikipedia Loves Art photography contest (see
above). We will return to the Penderel's Oak on 8th March. Meetups are
also planned over on 28th February in Cambridge and in the next couple
of months in Manchester and Birmingham.
8. News coverage
The possible implementation of flagged revisions on the English
language Wikipedia has been in the news in the UK, and we've been
providing accurate information. Mike Peel was interviewed by BBC Radio
Wales' "mousemat", who put together an informative feature. Meanwhile,
David Gerard spoke to the Daily Mail about some vandalism to the
article on Alan Titchmarsh.
Other stories this month have included a piece in the Sunday Times
based on an interview with Jimmy Wales, in which Giles Hattersley
claimed that his Wikipedia article had contained several errors - but
the Daily Telegraph noted that Hattersley has no Wikipedia article.
Reuters reported on a Conservative Party official altering a Wikipedia
article in an attempt to support a claim made by David Cameron. The
Independent published a article critical of Wikipedia, but David
Mitchell, writing in The Observer, thinks that Wikipedia is
"brilliant".