Newsletter/July2009

Wikimedia UK Newsletter

July 2009 Issue

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Summary:

In this month's newsletter:

1. Wikimedia Foundation Grant
2. Chapter Initiatives
3. Phorm
4. Business Cards
5. Wikimania 2013
6. Technology in Education
7. Other Chapters' Activities
8. Press Coverage
9. Meet-ups

Wikimedia Foundation Grant

Wikimedia UK is please to announce that our bid for a £5,000 grant towards the start-up of our chapter has been approved! This has a number of benefits to the chapter, including, but not limited to, funding for our Initiatives, and the possibility of applying for charitable status direct to the Charity Commission. Work has begun on filling out the necessary forms to apply direct to the Charity Commission, and details of our Initiatives are below!

Chapter Initiatives

With the approval of our grant, our Initiatives process has had quite a kick start! With money now available for our Initiatives (see the Bid page for a more detailed breakdown), the Board has agreed on three Initiatives that will be our targets for completion in March 2010, prior to our 2010 AGM. They are:

• London Loves Wikipedia - Encouraging museums and galleries to open their doors to our volunteers to generate content for Wikimedia projects!
• Schools Project - Generating a series of materials and workshops to encourage the proper use of / contributions to Wikimedia projects in schools and educational establishment.
• Workplace Learning Lunches - Bringing together a group of speakers from the membership who are willing to give "learning lunch" talks at businesses like the BBC.

Wikimedia UK now needs your help! We need members who are willing to get themselves involved in these Initiatives - whether it be through technical, speaking, motivational, or any other means you can think of. You can sign up at the Initiative pages, or on our Speakers list.

Phorm

Wikimedia UK has requested that the wikimedia.org.uk and wikimedia.co.uk domain names are excluded from the Phorm service. Phorm have replied with an acknowledgement of our request, which can be seen here. Wikimedia UK consider the scanning and profiling of your browsing bahaviour by a third party to be an infringement on your privacy - and thus we have opted out of the scheme.

Business Cards

Business Cards are planned to be available to any member who wishes to represent the chapter. If you are interested in purchasing some, please email Paul Williams, our Volunteers Director, at paul.williams@wikimedia.org.uk to express your interest. Prices will be decided based on the number of people expressing an interest, as costs change with number printed. The cards will be designed as per the Wikimedia standard, and will be generic cards - containing only Wikimedia UK information.

Wikimania 2013

Wikimedia UK is tentatively planning to include a bid for Wikimania to be hosted in Manchester in 2013. We have already had interest from the Manchester Tourist Board in hosting the annual conference. Thoughts, comments, and suggestions are welcome on the mailing list!

Press Coverage

• The Guardian covered the use of unattributed passages from Wikipedia articles in the upcoming book Free by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, uncovered by The Virginia Quartely Review
• The Times covered the case of a New York Times journalist whose kidnapping was hushed up by Wikipedia office actions so that his ransom price wasn't increased.
• The Telegraph and The Register reported that the Crown Prosecution Service is encouraging the use of Wikipedia by the UK police force.