Reports/2012/January

Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for the period 1 to 31 January 2012. If you want to keep up with the chapter's activities as they happen, please subscribe to our blog, join our 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

GLAM activities

See also the This Month in GLAM UK report for this month.

One of the images donated by Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry

Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry

• Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry contributed several watercolours of Coventry and the surrounding area to Wikimedia Commons.
• Herbert Art Gallery and Museum also hosted a talk entitled "Wikipedia and Me" this month. Presenter Roger Bamkin (Victuallers) gave an introduction to the Wikipedia and and with the assistance of local Wikipedian Harry Mitchell (HJ Mitchell) helped attendees make their first edits.

MonmouthpediA

• Monmouth Museum started to contribute several photographs from the several thousand they intend to release. MonmouthpediA created 50 new articles this month (several of which appeared in the "Did You Know" section on the Main Page) and improved another 100.

QRpedia

• QRpedia was shortlisted for a Smart UK award. See our blog post for more information.

Education projects

Martin Poulter, along with two members of Wikipedians at Imperial College, visited Oxford University on 27th January to train fourteen graduate students in basic Wikipedia editing. This is part of the Free Speech Debate project led by Prof. Timothy Garton Ash, which is creating its own multilingual site at http://freespeechdebate.com and is also improving Wikipedia articles. The target articles, which participants will improve over the next six months, are "Freedom of speech" in Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu.

The Free Speech Debate project was launched at a public talk featuring Jimmy Wales and Timothy Garton Ash. Despite being streamed online, it filled up the lecture theatre and an overflow room. Wikipedia, and its blackout the previous day, were the main focus of discussion. One Twitter comment described the event as a "love fest for Wikipedia". Prof. Ash acknowledged this, saying that the encyclopedia's success was something for other crowdsourcing projects to learn from.

Training

Wikimedia UK's site now has a voluminous section for trainers, including tips, syllabuses, ideas for interactive exercises and a suggested evaluation form. This is intended to support volunteers who want to run training or skill-sharing events. Comments and improvements are invited, especially feedback from putting the ideas into practice.

Expert outreach

The Girl Geek Dinner group in Bristol celebrated Wikipedia's 11th birthday with a training event/ editathon at the University of Bristol's Virtual Reality Suite. Wikimedia UK provided experienced Wiki editors and a birthday cake. Among the edits was a new stub page for the Nobel Women's Intiative.

OTRS workshop

Attendees during the workshop.

On 7-8 January we ran an OTRS workshop at the Wikimedia UK offices. OTRS volunteers handle e-mails sent to the various e-mail addresses for different Wikimedia projects, and their work includes answering questions and concerns from readers, BLP issues, complaints about copyright and permissions to reuse images and text. The workshop was well attended, with over a dozen people coming along from across the UK, and from as far away as Germany (thanks to Wikimedia Deutschland) and the USA (thanks to the Wikimedia Foundation). They discussed a range of issues from technical improvements to the OTRS system to recruiting OTRS volunteers. There were also several talks.

Further reading

• Blog posts/attendees' write ups:
  • Leutha's post
  • Lyzzy's blog post (in German).
• Photos on Commons
• Wikipedia Signpost article

Other activities

• Microgrants approved this month include ...

SOPA

This month's major news story was the English Wikipedia blackout against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) that took place on 18 January. The blackout was a community decision; Wikimedia UK supported the community's decision, and explained it to the media and public. Roger Bamkin, Jon Davies, David Gerard, Martin Poulter and Steve Virgin gave many interviews to the media, supporting the Wikimedia Foundation's media communications led by Jimmy Wales, Sue Gardner and Jay Walsh. WMUK also put out two blog posts: [1] [2]

Newspaper coverage

• BBC: Wikipedia joins web blackout in Sopa protest, 17 Jan, Wikipedia co-founder defends 24-hour shut down, 17 Jan, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales explains 24-hour shutdown, 17 Jan, Without Wikipedia, where can you get your facts? 18 Jan, Почему Википедия и Google видят угрозу в Sopa и Pipa?, 18 Jan, Wikipedia - after the blackout, 19 Jan, 24 hour blackout is over as Wikipedia goes online, 19 Jan (CBBC Newsround), Sopa and Pipa protests not over, says Wikipedia, 19 Jan, Support wanes in US Congress for anti-piracy bill, 19 Jan
• Telegraph: Wikipedia to shut down for 24 hours in piracy protest, 17 Jan, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales defends SOPA protest blackout, 17 Jan, Jimmy Wales's Wikipedia shutdown shows a failure of imagination over the online piracy act, 17 Jan Wikipedia and Google join anti-piracy bill protest, 18 Jan], Keep your claws out of Wikipedia’s anthill, 18 Jan, How to access Wikipedia during the 24-hour blackout, 18 Jan, Wikipedia hails blackout protest as success, 19 Jan, Yesterday's SOPA blackout proved that we're lost in a world without Wikipedia, 19 Jan (Telegraph blogs), Wikipedia blackout draws traffic boost, 21 Jan
• Guardian: Twitter boss slams Wikipedia's 'silly' Sopa protest, 16 Jan, Wikipedia's blackout looms, 17 Jan, Wikipedia blackout a 'gimmick', MPAA boss claims, 17 Jan, Wikipedia begins blackout in protest against US anti-piracy laws, 18 Jan, Sopa blackout and day of action - as it happened, 18 Jan, Wikipedia blackout: a nation of students mourn, 18 Jan, Why the Wikipedia blackout is good news for art lovers, 18 Jan, onarts blog Behind the music: What if the culture industry shut down for a day?, 19 Jan, Music blog, Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea), 19 January, grrlscientist blog, Wikipedia blackout pushes traffic to mobile site, 20 Jan
• TechRadar: 24-hour Wikipedia blackout will protest SOPA/PIPA, 16 Jan, Wales: Wiki blackout will send global message, 17 Jan
• Metro: Wikipedia blackout to hit the web in protest against US anti-piracy laws, 16 Jan - Front page news, Wikipedia stages 24-hour blackout protest but loopholes remain, 18 Jan, Wikipedia users beat 24hr blackout over privacy laws (print), 19 Jan
• Reuters: Wikipedia to shut for 24 hours to stop anti-piracy act, 16 Jan, Wikipedia to shut for 24 hours to stop anti-piracy act, 17 Jan
• The Register: Wikipedia to shut down Wednesday in SOPA protest, 16 Jan
• Financial Times: Wikipedia’s anti-SOPA blackout will go ahead on Wednesday, 16 Jan
• Wired: Wikipedia will go down on 18 January, 17 Jan
• Huffington Post: Wikipedia To 'Go Dark' For 24 Hours In Protest Against US Stop Online Piracy Act, 17 Jan
• T3: Wikipedia UK goes offline in protest of SOPA, 18 Jan
• The Independent: Why I want to bring down the internet – for a day, 17 Jan, Wikipedia blackout: A reminder we shouldn’t take internet freedom for granted, 18 Jan, WWW: World Without Wikipedia, 19 Jan, Wikipedia hails 'blackout' success, 19 Jan, Is Wikipedia winning the war? US Senate slips into reverse after blackout day, 20 Jan
• The Week: Wikipedia alternatives: where to go during piracy blackout, 17 Jan
• New Statesman: Wikipedia 24-hour blackout: a reader, 17 Jan, Why we're taking Wikipedia down for a day (by Steve Virgin), 17 Jan
• The i (Independent-connected), print, 17 Jan, "Protest sees Wikipedia go offline"
• New Scientist: Wikipedia to shut for 24 hours over US anti-piracy laws, 17 Jan
• The Mirror, Wikipedia: Why it will 'black out' tomorrow - the background explained, 17 Jan, Wikipedia to shut down from 5am - here are the reasons for 24-hour blackout, 18 Jan, Wikipedia blackout: How to workaround site shut down and continue to use Wikipedia, 18 Jan, Wikipedia blackout against anti-piracy laws hailed a success, 19 Jan
• The Times: Negative opinion piece by David Aaronovitch, behind paywall
• Daily Mail: Google joins Wikipedia 'day of darkness' protest - but is it a blackout after all?, 18 Jan, Wikipedia blackout: It may inconvenience students, but will it concentrate the minds of US politicians?, 18 Jan, Wikipedia protest hits home: U.S. senators withdraw support for anti-piracy bills as 4.5 million sign petition, 19 Jan
• Bristol 24/7: Bristol Wikipedians back protest against piracy laws
• MSN UK: Wikipedia hails 'blackout' success, 19 Jan
• UK Press Association: Wikipedia hails 'blackout' success, 19 Jan
• publicservice.co.uk, Top UK government official supports Wikipedia blackout, 19 Jan
• The Sun, Bogus facts flood the net during Wikipedia blackout, 19 Jan
• The Drum, Wikipedia traffic increases during blackout, 19 Jan
• V3, European Commission digital chief backs anti-SOPA protests, 20 Jan
• The Daily Mash, The Mashipedia Emergency Fact Service, 18 Jan, Headache epidemic caused by having to think, 18 Jan
• Oxford Student, Wikipedia blacks out arts students, 19 Jan
• Yorkshire Post, Wikipedia blacked out in piracy law protest, 18 Jan
• politics.co.uk, Comment: The nuanced politics of Wikipedia's 'blackout', 18 Jan
• Londonist, Wikipedia Blackout: Here’s What You Need To Know About London, 18 Jan
• Oxford Student, The Malcontent on: The Wikipedia Blackout, 26 Jan

Radio

• BBC World Service: 12:30, 17th Jan, Roger Bamkin
• BBC Radio 4, World at One (13:30, 17th Jan, Jimmy Wales), [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019fx9v PM, 5:45pm, David, discussion with pro and con
• BBC Radio Scotland. Newsdrive, 4-6pm Tue, David Gerard. Morning show, David, 8:15am
• BBC Radio 5 Live, Jimmy Wales. Also 8.20am, 18 Jan, Steve.
• BBC Radio London: David, Wed 18th, 7:12am
• BBC local radio stations: Devon, Foyle, Shropshire, Cornwall, Manchester, Humberside, Bristol, Guernsey, Jersey, 3CR Luton, Northampton, Lincolnshire (18 Jan, Steve), BBC Derby 17-19, LiveEurope (Barcelona) 19th, Roger
• BBC Radio Wales/Cymru Wednesday AM - Martin P.
• Monocle: 12.30, 17th Jan, David Gerard (live + podcast, ~4 mins long)
• NPR (US), David Gerard, circa 13.30 GMT, 17th Jan
• Voice of Russia, American Edition, David Gerard, 15 mins, to be broadcast 18 Jan

TV

• BBC Newsnight, 17 Jan: interview with Jimmy Wales by live feed (36 mins in); also see [3]
• BBC News 24, 18 Jan (Steve)?
• BBC News at 10, 18 Jan - about 18 mins in, Jon Davies
• 19 Jan, New Zealand TV, Jon Davies, http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/wikipedia-blacks-in-protest-video-4693707)
• Russia Today TV, Wed, London Jon Davies, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUNi7wE5Lto
• Channel 4 News, 18 Jan, 19.25
• ITV News at 10 (Jon Davies)
• Channel 4 News - Wikipedia web blackout in piracy law protest - January 18, 2012
• BBC News - Wikipedia's blackout protest against SOPA explained - January 18, 2012

UK Wikimedian blogs

• http://davidgerard.co.uk/notes/2012/01/19/sopa-blackout-post-mortem/

More information

• http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative
• http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-sopa-blackout-january-18/ (over 2,000 comments!)
• http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/13/how-sopa-will-hurt-the-free-web-and-wikipedia/
• https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/how-pipa-and-sopa-violate-white-house-principles-supporting-free-speech
• http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-01/17/sopa-101 (good background guide)

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

Monmouthpedia

MonmouthpediA Cup cakes for meeting with local business people

• Wikipedia launches new QR code project to document daily life in Monmouth, UK Qrcodepress.com, 2 January
• Monmouth becomes the world’s first Wikipedia town monmouthshire.gov.uk, 2 January
• Wikipedia as travel guide (Croatia) IT Vesti, 2 January
• Wikipedia names Monmouth for new cultural project, Women in Technology, 3 January
• Wikipedia brengt dorpsleven in beeld De Morgen (Dutch) 4 January
• Wikipedia Takes Tourism Mobile business 2 community, 4 January
• Is Monmouthpedia The Future Of Wikipedia?, TechDirt, 5 January
• Monmouthpedia launched to cover all aspects of life in Welsh town 100gf | Politics and Computers, 2 January
• The Monmouthshire Beacon sparks global interest in Monmouthpedia Monmouthshire Beacon 11 January
• Council Backs Creation Of Monmouthpedia e-government bulletin, 12 January
• Monmouth to be first Wiki-town Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Review, 18 January
• Wikipedia puts Monmouth on frontier of a new kind of local history The Guardian, 26 January
• Welsh town of Monmouth gets Wikipedia treatment, ComputerActive, 26 Jan

Wikimedia fundraiser

• Wikipedia raises record $20million in fundraising as annual campaign ends, Metro, 3 January
• Wikimedia reaches funding targets, fights SOPA, Wired, 3 January
• Wikipedia attracts $20m from donors, The Times, 3 January
• Wikipedia meets $20 million fundraising target, TechRadar, 3 Jan
• Wikimedia raises record-breaking $20m, CivilSociety, 4 Jan
• Wikipedia raises £12.8 million, IAB UK, 5 Jan

PR company and Stella Artois

• The lobbyists, the Russians, Google and “wife beater”, Tom Watson's blog, 2 January
• Lobbying company tried to wipe out 'wife beater' beer references, Independent, 4 January
• Lobby firm tries to get ‘wife beater’ nickname for Stella wiped off Wikipedia entry for beer, Daily Mail, 4 January
• Stella Artois hires PR firm to get rid of "wife beater" nickname on Wikipedia., Mirror, 5 Jan

Oxford free speech project

Related to http://freespeechdebate.com/

• Wikipedia Founder Launches Free Speech Project in Oxford Today, eNews Park Forest, 19 January
• Wikipedia boss in city debate, Oxford Mail, 20 January
• Wikipedia founder launches free speech project, Cherwell.org, 25 Jan
• Wikipedia founder in free speech debate, Oxford Student, 26 Jan

Orange making Wikipedia available data-free in Africa and the Middle East

• Orange to provide Wikipedia free in Middle East and Africa, Guardian, 24 Jan
• Orange offers free mobile Wikipedia access in Africa and Middle East, Wired, 24 Jan
• Orange promises free Wikipedia in Africa and the Middle East, Tech Week Europe, 24 Jan

Android App

• Wikipedia Reveals Official Android App, TechWeekEurope, 20 Jan
• Apps Rush: Wikipedia, Michael Owen, Soul Calibur, Tribe, Niko, FourFourTwo, Hatchi and more, Guardian, 19 Jan
• Wikipedia Android app review, PC Advisor, 31 Jan

QRpedia

• T-Mobile launches Britain's first ever totally unlimited phone plan, Metro, 31 Jan
• Sécurité IT : Google scanne le bon côté des QR Codes, ITEspresso.fr, 17 January
• also included in some MonmouthpediA stories above

Vatican

• Vatican uses Wikipedia to compile cardinals' biographies, Guardian, 8 Jan
• Vatican goes to Wikipedia for profiles of cardinals, Irish Times, 9 Jan
• Vatican accused of cut and paste job from Wikipedia, Telegraph, 9 Jan
• The Vatican Plagiarises Wikipedia for Biographies, International Business Times, 9 Jan
• Vatican used Wikipedia for new cardinals' biographies, BBC News, 9 Jan
• Vatican admits using Wikipedia for Cardinal biographies, Irish Examiner, 9 Jan

Johann Hari

• Leveson inquiry: Tony Gallagher, Chris Blackhurst, Lionel Barber appear, Guardian, 10 Jan
• Johann Hari to return to Independent in '4 or 5 weeks', Journalism.co.uk, 10 Jan
• Hari to return in March as columnist but not interviewer, Press Gazette, 10 Jan
• Johann Hari to return to Independent, Leveson Inquiry hears, TNT Magazine, 10 Jan
• Independent 'plunged into profound shock following Johann Hari plagiarism scandal', Daily Mail, 10 Jan

Miscellaneous

• The 2012 news: read it here first, Guardian, 1 Jan (predicts "Wikipedia scrambled by hackers overnight" in March 2012)
• CIPR to work with Wikipedia to provide interaction guide, The Drum, 6 Jan
• The PR Transparency Project – Part #1: making an example of Tim Bell, Bloggerheads
• In a networked world, why is the geography of knowledge still uneven?, Guardian, 9 Jan
• Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and Chime's Lord Bell in editing row, PRWeek, 17 Jan
• Zambia president 'assassinated' according to Wikipedia prank, Telegraph, 23 Jan
• Emily Coyte: Act now to stop new threat to freedom of online speech, Bristol 24/7, 30 Jan (regarding ACTA)
• Zambian living in South East London, UK near Gatwick Airport edited Wikipedia, claimed President Sata assassination, UKZambians, 28 Jan

Upcoming activities in February

• (To be copied here from Events at the end of this month)

For events in March and onwards, please see Events.

Administrative activities

Board activities

Board meetings

• 3 January 2012 (Board)
• 24 January 2012 (Executive)

A particularly important decision this month was the resolution approving our statement on fundraising and funds dissemination principles. Two of our board members will be attending the Finance meeting in Paris in February to continue participating in these discussions, which have already been extensively discussed on Meta.

We are currently planning a Board Interest Day, to be held in London on 11 February, ahead of the board elections in May. See our blog post for more information.

News from the Chief Exec

For information on Jon's activities this month, see News from the Office.

Fundraising and Budgeting

During the annual Wikimedia fundraiser, we raised over £1 million for the Wikimedia movement, thanks to over 43,000 UK donors! This was the first year when we were able to offer direct debits and Gift Aid, and we saw a considerable take-up of both.

Our 2012 budget is now available, and our 2012 Activity Plan has been updated accordingly. We are looking forward to a very active and exciting year!

Staff

This month the chapter began recruiting for a Communications Organiser and interviews were conducted for the Events Organiser.

An appointment was made with the Events Organiser starting on March 1st

Office

The office attracted a wide range of volunteers and visitors. Richard and Jon gradually made sure that it was properly functioning. The addition of a hat stand has made it a lot tidier.

We held our OTRS event over a weekend and this went well.

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