Water cooler/2014

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Invitation to Chapters and Photographers for the European Parliament Project 2014

Photographers needed

Hello everyone, please see the below information regarding a new project on Commons that's looking to help photograph and record members of the European Parliament. The group working on the project are looking for volunteers to help out with this piece of work and Wikimedia UK will consider providing funding for someone to go and help out. I've copied the below directly from the message originally circulated about the project so that those interested can get full details and context. Wikimedia UK also has equipment that we can loan for use on the project, including camera, lights, lenses and a sound recorder. Please comment below if you're interested, or feel free to email me directly. Thank you. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 11:56, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Preamble

Some might have heard about the State Parliament Projects done in Germany and Austria since 2009: A bunch of Wikipedians and photographers meet politicians in the parliament, shoot professional photos, discuss their Wikipedia articles etc. This way hundreds of free licensed, high quality images have been made, Wikipedia articles have been improved. In the latest project at Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) we added videos, politicians give a short introduction about themselves, their position and political focus in German and in their mother tongue if different from German. About 20 photographers were able to participate and processes how to work with the parliament's administration, how to interact with the politicians, how to efficiently take a lot of photos in a short time and with good quality have been established.

Next Level: European Parliament

Now we would like to take this to next level: After contacting the European Parliament I was able to get their approval, the support by the parties and a date! Unfortunately the date is already in February, 3rd to 7th, as we have to use the short time gap between budget deliberations and elections. MEPs only travel to the EP when deliberations are ongoing but then they are also busy with meetings, as soon as the election preperation starts there won't be any time for our project within the next 6 months. Anyway I am sure we can do that - the elections are also a great opportunity to raise awareness on our material we have in Wikipedia and on Commons. It is also an excellent opportunity to bring together volunteers in doing our core work together, maybe we can transfer the idea of Parliament Projects to other countries. Volunteers get the opportunity to learn from each other - the EP is a very challenging project, having more than 700 MEPs to be handled within a few days. And Wikipedia may improve its articles, also by bringing together volunteers from different EU countries. Many MEPs have their articles only in a few of the European languages, some not even in their native language!

Your Chapter Involved

We are looking forward to get volunteers from as many countries as possible involved in this project. In order to be handle it we need approx. 35 people to help. Obviously the german and austrian photographers are already waiting for it, from past projects they already know what will go on. But there is much more to it: We want your volunteers! Imagine a project where we could bring together volunteers from all 24 language communities in the EU - that is what we are trying!

Therefore we ask you for a favour:

• please forward this invitation to your local community - you can point them to our project page on Wikimedia Commons:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliament

• does your chapter provide travel support for those volunteers in your country who want to participate? Please do so. Your chapter pays for the transportation to / from Strasbourg and the accommodation (around 300 EUR per person for all 6 nights), we take care of the rest (transportation hotel - EP, catering etc.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliament/Participation

• does your chapter have photographic equipment we might need? We could use DSLRs, flash units, background systems, lenses...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliament/Equipment

• we would like to supply the volunteers with t-shirts or hoodies with Wikipedia logo or similar - for a unified appearance and to make them visible as volunteers and Wikimedians. Is your chapter (or the WMF?)

interested in providing 90 shirts / hoodies? (We planned 2 pc. per person as they will be worn almost one week.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliament/Marketing

• everyone who likes this project: state your support on the talk page of our grant request to the WMF which should cover the general costs of the project. By this grant request we make sure that each chapter only has to handle local support and can stay within it's budgeted limits and area of operation.
  • https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Olaf_Kosinsky/Wikipedians_in_European_Parliament

Existing online resources

Could we encourage volunteers to first think of uploading public domain/copyright free available media published by institutions such as the European Parliament Information Office in the United Kingdom, and to check if there are other media packs available to release on request from their off-line archives, before making plans to create amateur new media? My experience with uploading over 5,000 photographs relating to politicians from the Nordic Region was that this provided a plentiful supply of top quality photographs to illustrate Wikipedias in several languages. These photographs cost nothing in travel or equipment and so initial projects of this type are likely to be of incredibly high "bang for the buck" in terms of using the charity's funds.

If anyone finds such an archive with several hundred or more media files, and would like my help in a month or two with a mass upload, I would be happy to help out by making this part of my 2014 Faebot batch upload projects as well as claiming this as a success under the European Parliament Project umbrella. Thanks --Fæ (talk) 17:58, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Scholarship to attend Learning Day and EduWiki Conference 2014 in Serbia

To keep the conversation together and make it easier to link to the call and discussion in the future, use the Talk:Wikimedia Serbia EduWiki Conference 2014 Scholarship page there. Call content transcluded:

Wikimedia Serbia EduWiki Conference 2014

Wikimedia Serbia is organising an event called EduWiki Conference 2014 on Monday 24 March at the Belgrade Youth Center (Belgrade Serbia); this will be mostly in Serbian. Learning Day, an internal meeting between members of the WMRS education project and Wikimedians from other chapters takes place on Sunday 23 March, the day before the conference; this will be in English. This meeting will take place in Wikimedia Serbia Office. For more information please check the web page for this event from WMRS (in English).

WMUK is offering one scholarship (i.e. covering travel and accommodation expenses) to an active volunteer from the Wikimedia UK community willing to give a 15-minute presentation at the Learning Day. This scholarship is to cover a proposal made directly by the chapter in relation to its main Education-related activities for the Learning Day. We therefore need a volunteer to present the main Education-related work of the chapter at this event. Ideally, the presentation should be about at least three of the following topics:

• WMUK's EduWiki conferences
• WMUK-supported activities in Higher Education
• WMUK's partnership with JISC
• The Future of Education theme at Wikimania 2014

The call for applications for this scholarship is now closed.

The successful scholarship applicant will be required to write reports about the Learning Day for the Wikimedia UK wiki and/or blog before and after traveling to Belgrade.

PLEASE NOTE: This scholarship offer does not exclude us from considering a separate request for support from any other individual interested in presenting their Education-related work, should their proposal be accepted for this conference in Serbia. Wikimedia Serbia is accepting individual proposals for presentations until Monday 6 January, as per the email circulated by WMRS on the Education mailing list.

Looking for a Wikimedia Training Coordinator

Wici Cymru and Wikimedia UK are looking for a Wales Coordinator to develop the Wicipedia Cymraeg and English Wikipedia in Wales through encouraging and training new editors via our Llwybrau Byw - Living Paths Project.

The Coordinator must have experience of editing Wikimedia projects (both English and Welsh) and supporting volunteers and training on a professional level. The work will involve organising and delivering training sessions throughout Wales.

Fluency in both the Welsh and English language is essential.

The post is for 6 months and the successful applicant will be seconded to Wici Cymru who will oversee the work, jointly with WMUK, the employer, and the Welsh Government as financial partner.

The post is subject to Wikimedia UK's guidelines and contracts and is for 3 days per week. Further information can be found here and application forms are available from: Jon Davies at jon.davieswikimedia.org.uk

Applications are welcome. The closing date is 10am on the 22nd of January 2013. Applications cannot be accepted after that date. Interviews are planned for the morning of 28th January in Wrexham. Candidates need to be available for this.

The successful candidate's salary will be paid for by the Welsh Government. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 16:20, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

Wikis for all - how to improve accessibility.

https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Accessibility_of_the_Wikimedia_UK_website

This paper has been written by Carol Campbell a trustee of Wikimedia UK. She is very interested in 'getting the ball rolling' on issues around accessibility on Wikipedia and all other wikis. She is fairly certain that this is not the first time these issues have been raised but would like to commit to bringing together people interested in finding answers to some of the challenges she is raising. Please add your names below and offer any background or insights you may have. Thanks. Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 15:45, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Please assure Carol that many people have already done a great deal of work on this area over several years. I suggest we are careful not to duplicate existing work or fail to take into account previous research. As a starting point I suggest contacting those leading Wikipedia:WikiProject_Accessibility, those behind the developments at mw:Accessibility and forming a library of existing research to reference and review against such as MediaWiki – Accessibility Enhancements. --Fæ (talk) 16:27, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi Fae, I agree we should build on existing work and communities. Some of this is also about style guide stuff (which is a point you've raised elsewhere). I started to collect together mediawiki accessibility resources on my blog, it's interesting to see where some projects seem to have stalled, and where there may be gaps in attention (see Carol's comment). If we can support existing work that'd be great, if we can continue development then that's positive too! Sjgknight (talk) 16:48, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

1st June is Global Sharing Day

Hello everyone. I had a really interesting conversation with some people who are developing Global Sharing Day (link is to old website, new one coming soon). Essentially, it is a global celebration of sharing and the "sharing economy". This year I think it would be great for Wikimedia UK to take part in this celebration as sharing is at the very heart of what we do. Some of the ideas I've had so far include an open day on 1st June where we all bring along some food, share lunch together and then teach each other new skills. We could also have an editathon on the topic. I also think it would be worthwhile delivering a training and editing session to some of the groups taking part in the event. I'd love to hear any suggestions you may have on how we can mark Global Sharing Day as a celebration of what we all do. Thoughts please! Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 18:20, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Sharing is great, we all agree, but please read the discussion first at the Engine Room as the company behind this appears to be a commercial venture and so we need to give it more thought before endorsing this day. Perhaps we could have a sharing day without aligning ourselves with this particular effort? Of course you could argue that every day is a sharing day for us already. Philafrenzy (talk) 14:30, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

The company behind Global Sharing Day have now confirmed they are a for-profit commercial venture. --Fæ (talk) 12:10, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Discussion about this day is also happening at: Engine room#1st June is Global Sharing Day

The third human editor to exceed a million edits on the English language Wikipedia

In the last few days User:Waacstats has become the third editor other than bots ever to contribute over one million edits on a single project. Immediately afterwards he overtook Rich Farmbrough, and he now has the second highest edit count on the English language Wikipedia.

Apparently Waacstats is in Wales, so I would like to suggest that we invite him to our next AGM and present him with an award for being the third editor ever to achieve this milestone. Perhaps Rich would be willing to make the presentation? Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 09:03, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Note that there is no authoritative list for edit counts. Other lists exist on projects other than the English Wikipedia, such as this Commons list of active contributors. I would be cautious about making general claims about all projects. --Fæ (talk) 10:02, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Sorry Fae, I didn't notice that you had also made the million on Commons. Very happy to broaden my proposal to mark your milestone as well. That means that other than Koavf, three of the four highest edit counts that I'm aware of are from people in the UK! It is certainly possible that people on some of the other major versions of wikipedia have also passed this milestone, but I'd be surprised if they were in the remit of the UK chapter. Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 11:16, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Yes, passed the million a while back; nobody noticed. I celebrated by having a tea break. With bot edits I have more than 3.5m edits, you should imagine there are "bot" writers who have made around 10m. --Fæ (talk) 11:37, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Open Coalition Project Co-ordinator

Hello everyone. As you may be aware, for some time Wikimedia UK has been working with organisations such as Creative Commons and Open Knowledge Foundation to build closer working relationships across the open sector. We're now looking for a project co-ordinator to help take this work forward. It's a six month, part-time role and you can find all of the details here. Please do get in touch if you'd like more information. The closing date is Monday 3 February. Thank you! Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 17:07, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Discussion about this post is at Engine_room#Recruitment_-_Discussion_removed_from_Water_cooler#Open_Coalition_Project_Co-ordinator --Fæ (talk) 19:13, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Training the Trainers Cardiff

Hi all, we've had a last minute drop out for Training the Trainers/February 2014 event in Cardiff this weekend. If anyone reading this are interested in the open spot, please let me know by calling 07885980534. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 17:28, 28 January 2014 (UTC)