Newsletter/August2009

Wikimedia UK Newsletter

August 2009 Issue

Summary: Our Initiatives are starting to be developed - please get involved! In this newsletter, we also announce the results and prizes for Wikipedia Loves Art, and we bring you the latest on our Charity status application, in addition to our regular features on Other Chapters' Activities, recent Press Coverage and recent and upcoming Meet-ups.

In this month's newsletter:

Initiatives

Schools Project:

The Wikimedia UK Schools Project is designed to bring Wikimedia projects into the classroom, to be used as both a teaching tool and a learning tool. It aims to create a set of materials, ranging from workshops, showing how to use Wikimedia projects correctly, to showing students and teachers how to contribute; to materials that teachers can distribute to students in order to allow the students to use Wikimedia projects effectively and correctly in their classroom assignments - whether it be in-class or homework.

Currently, the project is aimed at KS1-5 (Primary School thru Secondary School). Are you interested in helping us out? Join up with the mailing list here, and make yourself known! The project is still in the developing stages at the moment - so you have plenty of time to get involved, shape, and develop this Wikimedia UK Initiative.

Britain Loves Wikipedia:

We've broadened London Loves Wikipedia to Britain Loves Wikipedia to include the whole of the UK, and we're planning on running the event in several cities around the UK in February next year. Are you interested in helping run this event? Are there particular cities that you'd like to see the event run in, or particular museums you think would be interested in joining this event? Then please get in touch.

Workplace Learning Lunches

Planning for the Workplace Learning Lunches initiative is now well underway - we have recruited the presenters we need to provide the sessions and are in discussions with our first venue. Do you know of any other businesses that have "learning lunches" or similar who would be open to one on Wikimedia? If so, please let us know.

Wikipedia Loves Art prizes

Earlier this year, the Victoria & Albert Museum and Wikimedia UK took part in “Wikipedia Loves Art”, a free content photography contest. We have now announced the prize winners:

vavaval (Val_McG & dj_photo) – 142 points
opalartseekers4 - Forever Wiser – 88 points
ukfgr - (the wee pixie & mrsraggle) – 82 points
veronikab – 75 points

Over 30 people attended the Victoria and Albert event, and over 400 photographs were submitted to Flickr. Globally, more than 50 teams from fourteen museums submitted over 5,000 photographs, with London the second highest location. All of these photographs have now been assessed and processed and are now being prepared for upload to Wikimedia Commons and use on Wikipedia.

Many congratulations to the winners and our thanks to all those who took part - we hope you enjoyed it. Thanks also to the organisers including the Digital Team at the V&A, the Brooklyn Museum and Wikimedia New York. If you have any comments about this event or how it could be improved in the future, please let us know.

Charity status update

In our last newsletter we reported that we had received a start up grant from the Wikimedia Foundation. This put us over the £5,000 threshold which meant we could apply for charitable status directly to the Charity Commission, without having to go through the tax authorities. Since then we have been working hard on our application, which is now substantially complete. We are now beefing up our policies and procedures for child protection and conflicts of interest. We have pencilled in early September for completing these policies and submitting the application. In the meantime, we are engaging legal advice to assist us with the application.

Other Chapters' Activities

Wikimedia Australia hosted GLAM-WIKI - "Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums & Wikimedia: Finding the common ground".
Wikimedia Polska ran WikiExpedition 2009 in July, resulting in over 1000 photos uploaded to Commons.

Press Coverage

Rorschach test: The uploading of all 10 images has caused lots of discussion both on Wikipedia, and also in the press. In the UK it has been covered by The Guardian, The Independent, as well as BBC Newsnight (3 August).
Statistics: A group based in Palo Alto, California, have analysed the statistics of Wikipedia, and found that they are leveling out. Covered by the New Scientist (twice) and Wired.
Bigipedia: BBC Radio 4 launched a radio parody of Mikipedia, which was reviewed in The Independent and The Guardian.
3 millionth article The 3 millionth article on the English Wikipedia was Beate Eriksen at 04:04 on the 17th August 2009. Whilst the event was pending, the Guardian wrote an article both about the imminent 3 millionth article and the Palo Alto statistics. Also covered in the Guardian's Technology blog, and by the Telegraph. After the event, the Guardian also wrote a blog post, and the Telegraph wrote two article: "Wikipedia reaches three million articles" and "The 50 most-viewed Wikipedia articles in 2009 and 2008"
WMUK charity status: An article on our charity status from June was mentioned in the 3 August edition of The Wikipedia Signpost
Schools Project mailing list: The creation of this mailing list was noted in the 113rd English Wikizine (with a correction in the 114th edition).

Meet-ups

London 24 happened on Sunday 9th August @ 13:00 in Penderel's Oak Pub, Holborn WC1.
Manchester 6 will be on Sunday 6th September @ 13:00 in The Waterhouse pub, Manchester
London 25 will be on Sunday 13th September @ 13:00 in Penderel's Oak Pub, Holborn WC1.