About us: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 09:14, 11 August 2022

Welcome to the wiki for Wikimedia UK, the national chapter for the global Wikimedia movement.

Wikimedia UK believes that open access to knowledge is a fundamental right, and a driver for social and economic development. A registered charity, we work with the Wikimedia Projects such as Wikipedia to enable people and organisations to contribute to a shared understanding of the world through the democratic creation, distribution and consumption of knowledge. We are committed to the ideal of a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge, and believe that here in the UK, we can play a unique and important role in realising that vision.

What we do

Participants in an edit-a-thon event at the British Library

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales speaks at an event for the press

Our mission is to support and advocate for the development of open knowledge, working in partnership with volunteers, the cultural and education sectors and other organisations to ensure that all knowledge is available, usable and reusable online. Our key activities include:

Developing our community of volunteers and editors through training, competitions, community engagement, small project grants, and other forms of support

Working in partnership with organisations from the cultural and education sectors and beyond in order to unlock content, remove barriers to knowledge, develop new ways of engaging with the public and enable learners to benefit fully from the educational potential of the Wikimedia projects
Supporting the development of open knowledge in the UK, by increasing understanding and recognition of the value of open knowledge and advocating for change at an organisational, sectoral and public policy level.
Working with scholars and academics on Expert outreach

How you can get involved

There are many ways to get involved in our work. Find out more about ways to contribute:

Become a member – Members play a key role in shaping the future of the Chapter. Membership is open to all and costs just £5 a year.
Attend an event – We organise and support events all over the country; why not go to one near you?
Apply for a grant – We offer grants to support members' editing or outreach work.
Donate – Your donations go towards supporting our events and keeping Wikipedia free and open.

Partner with us

We are always looking for like-minded organisations who want to work with us. Get in touch with us:

If you represent a cultural institution, please contact us on glamwikimedia.org.uk
If you represent an education establishment, please contact us on educationwikimedia.org.uk
If you don't fit into either of these, please contact us on infowikimedia.org.uk

Social media

Twitter: @wikimediauk
Facebook: WikimediaUK
YouTube: wikimediauk
Instagram: @wikimediauk

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-[[File:Ambox blue question.svg|150px|right]]
+__NOTOC__
+Welcome to the wiki for '''Wikimedia UK''', the national chapter for the global Wikimedia movement.
-Hello and welcome to the wiki for '''Wikimedia UK''' (WMUK), the local Wikimedia chapter covering the United Kingdom. Please note that Wikimedia UK is an organisation separate from the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), but exists to support and extend that WMF's reach in the UK. This page is '''not''' for those seeking help in contacting WMUK (instead, see [[Contact us|here]]), and more details about the exact structure of WMUK are on the [[Main Page|main page]]. Instead, this page gives advice for editors of the wiki.
+Wikimedia UK believes that open access to knowledge is a fundamental right, and a driver for social and economic development. A registered charity, we work with the Wikimedia Projects such as [[:en:Main Page|Wikipedia]] to enable people and organisations to contribute to a shared understanding of the world through the democratic creation, distribution and consumption of knowledge. We are committed to the ideal of a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge, and believe that here in the UK, we can play a unique and important role in realising that vision.
-== The setup here==
+=== What we do ===
-'''Anyone''' can edit the wiki - membership of WMUK is strongly encouraged, however, particularly for frequent contributors. [[Membership]] costs only £12 for adults and £6 for concessions per year. Membership does not equal having an account - you can register before or after becoming a member. Note that because uk.wikimedia.org subscribes to the [[meta:single user login|single user login]] (SUL) system, once you've made your account global, there is no reason to re-register here. Permissions are not carried over, however: rollback, sysop and so forth must be left at the door.
+[[File:Bl editing1.jpg|thumb|Participants in an edit-a-thon event at the British Library]]
+[[File:Jimmy Wales at Wikimania Press Day.JPG|thumb|Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales speaks at an event for the press]]
+Our mission is to support and advocate for the development of open knowledge, working in partnership with volunteers, the cultural and education sectors and other organisations to ensure that all knowledge is available, usable and reusable online. Our key activities include:
+* Developing our community of volunteers and editors through  [[training]], competitions, community engagement, small project [[Project grants|grants]], and other forms of support
-Editing this wiki is just like editing, say, [[wikipedia:|Wikipedia]]. If you are unfamiliar with wiki-editing in general, you'll want to consult the thorough [[wikipedia:Help:Contents|help files there]]. Obviously, this wiki is much more focused, and also much newer (handy redirects may not always be available, for example). Virtually all editing in conducted in the main namespace; there are no editing policies here, but conforming to certain accepted standards - such as civility - is imperative. Though the wiki does not have a vandalism problem (or any tools to deal with it), [[board members]] are given admin ("sysop") status, and are responsible for maintaining pages which denote policies of the organisation and other important pages - largely analogous to the pages residing on [[meta:|"meta"]], the superwiki for the WMF, rather than on its constituent parts.
+* Working in partnership with organisations from the [[Cultural partnerships|cultural]] and [[Education projects|education]] sectors and beyond in order to unlock content, remove barriers to knowledge, develop new ways of engaging with the public and enable learners to benefit fully from the educational potential of the Wikimedia projects
+* Supporting the development of open knowledge in the UK, by increasing understanding and recognition of the value of open knowledge and advocating for change at an organisational, sectoral and public policy level.
+* Working with scholars and academics on [[Expert outreach]]
-Areas in which it is easy to contribute include our [[initiatives]] (particularly if you are able to donate your time to make a difference) and fleshing out the [[cultural partnerships]] section. The [[water cooler]] is the main place of discussion on-wiki at the moment, performing the same role as the village pumps of Wikipedia and Commons. It is strongly advisable to subscribe to [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediauk-l the mailing list], as you will receive news on which areas are most in flux and requiring your help. Attending [[Meetings|board meetings]] is optional; they involve mostly working through internal business, but also get members together in one place so that ideas can be shared. For those wishing to take a casual role, the monthly [[newsletter]] is great for keeping up with developments.
+=== How you can get involved ===
+There are many ways to get involved in our work. '''Find out more about ways to contribute:'''
+*'''[[Membership|Become a member]]''' – Members play a key role in shaping the future of the Chapter. Membership is open to all and costs just £5 a year.
+*'''[[Events|Attend an event]]''' – We organise and support events all over the country; why not go to one near you?
+*'''[[Project grants|Apply for a grant]]''' – We offer grants to support members' editing or outreach work.
+*<span class="plainlinks">'''[https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk Donate]'''</span> – Your donations go towards supporting our events and keeping Wikipedia free and open.
-This wiki can (and does) hook into [[Commons:|Wikimedia Commons]], the free media repository, so there is no need to copy files from there to here: just using the normal image syntax.
+<!-- Test edit -->
+=== Partner with us ===
+We are always looking for like-minded organisations who want to work with us. '''Get in touch with us:'''
+*If you represent a cultural institution, please contact us on [mailto:glam@wikimedia.org.uk glam{{@|12px}}wikimedia.org.uk]
+*If you represent an education establishment, please contact us on [mailto:education@wikimedia.org.uk education{{@|12px}}wikimedia.org.uk]
+*If you don't fit into either of these, please contact us on [mailto:info@wikimedia.org.uk info{{@|12px}}wikimedia.org.uk]
-== Glossary ==
+{| style="margin:0; background:none;"
-;Board
+| class="MainPageBG" style="width:55%; vertical-align:top; color:#000;" |
-;:The [[board]] are a statuary body, required under UK law, to ultimately decide the various expenditures and correspondence of Wikimedia UK. They voluntarily devote time (and often their own money) to make sure that Wikimedia UK moves in the right direction.
+{| id="mp-left" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="5" style="width:100%; vertical-align:top;;"
-;Chapter
+|-
-;:[[wikt:chapter|Wiktionary]] defines a chapter as "an administrative division of an organisation, usually local to a specific area" - in this case, the organisation is the WMF and the area is the United Kingdom. In [[meta:Wikimedia chapters|Wikimedia terms]], chapters are "'''independent''' organisations founded to support and promote the Wikimedia projects... Like the Wikimedia Foundation, they aim to 'empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally'."
+| {{Header blue|Social media}}
-;Initiative
+*Twitter: @[https://www.twitter.com/wikimediauk wikimediauk]
-;:An [[initiative]] is a project run the WMUK. Discussion, suggestions and proposals are welcomed.
+*Facebook: [https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaUK WikimediaUK]
-;Meetup
+*YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/user/wikimediauk wikimediauk]
-::An informal occasion, when Wikimedians get together to discuss the latest developments. Though attended and promoted by WMUK's members, they are not within the WMUK's control. See also [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Meetup|Wikipedia's "meetup" page]].
+*Instagram: @[https://www.instagram.com/wikimediauk/ wikimediauk]
+|-
+|}
+|}
+__NOEDITSECTION__