Reports/2014/April

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Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for the period 1st to 30th April 2014. If you want to keep up with the chapter's activities as they happen, please subscribe to our blog, join a UK mailing list, and/or follow us on Twitter. If you have any questions or comments, please drop us a line on this report's talk page.

Program activities

Community

GLAM activities

Editathons

Live Art

One of the tables at the Live Art editathon

Wikimedia UK and the Live Art Development Agency (LADA) ran a very successful editathon on Feminism and Live Art at the LADA offices.

The Editathon focussed on Women artists, and was at LADA so the editors had access to their archives. Discussions have already started re a follow up event.

Tank Museum photography

Wikimedia UK is running a tripod friendly photography event at the Tank Museum in Dorset, the museum has given us some free tickets for Wikimedia photographers and various participants online are assembling a wish list. As we go to press there are still some tickets available for interested photographers.

Battle of Clontarf

Wikimedia UK gave logistical support to some Wikimedians in Ireland in order to support their first editathon.

The Battle of Clontarf. A thousand years on, was this defining moment in Irish history the occasion when Brian Boru himself drove the Vikings out of Ireland much as Saint Patrick had driven the snakes out a few hundred years earlier; Or was it a Game of Thrones style slaughter with two alliances of Irish and Vikings killing each other in sight of the walls of Dublin, leaving Dublin an independent Viking city state for a generation after?

The First Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in the Republic of Ireland, held in partnership with 1014 Retold, brought historians, Wikipedians and others together to improve the articles on Gormlaith, her various husbands and other interested parties.

The battle of Clontarf edit-a-thon took place in the Science Gallery in Trinity College, Dublin on Easter Saturday and was written up by 1014 retold. Coverage has been on Silicon Republic and Buzzfeed in their article the real Game of Thrones.

WIR Review

Daria Cybulska is leading a review of the Wikimedian in Residence program, anyone wishing to give feedback is welcome to contact her.

Future Events

The program for Wikimania is firming up as the Program committee decides which of 64 GLAM submissions to include in the GLAM track. Potential attendees of Wikimania and others are welcome to join in the assessment process by signing up for the talks they would like to attend and querying on the talkpages those that need discussion.

The Fringe is also expanding with several GLAM events for those staying on after Wikimania.

Later events include an editathon at the Institute of Classics in September and WW1 and Dissent in November

Education and expert outreach

Marjon training session

On 3 April WMUK supported a volunteer-led Editathon at University of St Mark and St John in Plymouth, organised by Harry Mitchell, along with Doug Taylor and Chris McKenna who provided training for the attendees.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: WMUK training event and editathon, University of St Mark and St John 2014-04-03

This was the most recent event in a string of education outreach activities during the first quarter of 2014. WMUK staff members Richard Nevell and Dr Toni Sant are in the process of collating basic information (mainly usernames and contact details, where appropriate) from all participants at these events to ensure appropriate follow-up and engagement through future Education-related activities.

Wikimedia Ambassador at Jisc

Dr Martin Poulter's engagement as Wikimedia Ambassador with Jisc has come to an end. Details about his work during the period July 2013 to April 2014 are available here.

Wikimania Future of Education Workshop

Another planning meeting for the Future of Education workshop (to be held 21-22 June as a Wikimania 2014 Fringe event) took place on 11 April via Google Hangouts. Planning for the event is well underway with registration set to open by the start of May. Registration will remain open until the first week of June.

EduWiki Conference 2014

The first planning meeting for the EduWiki Conference 2014 was held 14 April via Skype; details of the outcomes including proposed dates, themes and tracks, associated activities, and venues to be approached for quotes, are available on the planning page which will be updated continuously with new information as it develops. The conference will be held in Edinburgh on a tentative date of 31 October, with the final venue yet to be determined.

Technology

A tech committee meeting took place on 1 April. You can see the agenda along with some notes here.

Other activities

Project grants

The proposal for funding to support the production of a short documentary film about GLAM outreach efforts in the United Kingdom has been approved.

Information about project grants that are currently running, and how to submit an application of your own, are at Project grants/Applications.

Training

Keep Wales Tidy have agreed to a partership with Wici Cymru and will request all their 185 groups located on the Wales Coast Path to be trained in Wiki-skills. KWT will invite their groups to clusters of workgroups on the 1st June with roll-out in the following weeks.

UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)

Blog posts this month

Activities in April and May

April

For events in April 2014 and onwards, please see Events.

Administrative activities

Board activities

Preparation began on the Q1 accounts, covering 1 February to 30 April, for approval by the Audit and Risk Committee in May.

Communications

The chapter was approached by both Sky News and ITN this month with a view to finding someone to speak about Wikimedia and Wikipedia in relation to the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Unfortunately to the story of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, the segment was bumped both times. The approaches show that we are making progress in terms of recognition and awareness.

Another significant area of work this month was responding to the story about vandalism to the Hillsborough Wikipedia article. This made national news across the spectrum and Wikimedia UK was called upoon for comment. At one point we had one volunteer speaking on Radio 4 and another on Radio 5 at the same time. The BBC in particular offered a favourable quote from Wikimedia UK and the story leaned towards praising the practices of Wikipedia and its volunteers as actually working well.

Please see the above links to relevant press coverage received in April and blog posts published during the same period.

If you're interested in getting more involved with our communications or have any questions or comments, please email Stevie Benton – stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk

Fundraising and Membership

Fundraising

This month, we received £153 in one-off donations, with 6 individual donations. The average donation amount was £22.50 - of the donations that were eligible for gift aid, 83% had Gift Aid Declarations made and matched with their records. If anyone would like a full (but anonymised) csv file with more information, please get in touch with katherine.bavageatwikimedia.org.uk and let her know your requirements.

There were 4386 successful direct debits this month, bringing in a total of £17403.92

Membership

You can view more detailed membership data here

Visitors to the office this month

We received 55 visitors to the office this month, including for a meeting of the Tech Committee and some international visitors passing through on their way to the Berlin Wikimedia Conference.

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