Water cooler

Welcome to the water cooler This is a place to find out what is happening and to discuss our external projects and activities. Feel free to suggest ideas that could help our charitable mission or ask questions about how you can help. To discuss the inner workings of the charity, head over to the engine room.

WMUK Grants programme - a piece of cake?

Applying for a grant is easy.

If Wikimedia UK can help you improve Wikimedia projects, check out our grants page.

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Spare beds for Wikimania

Something modest like this?

We are thinking about how we can spread our resources for Wikimania 2014 and one way is finding supporters who will offer a bed or even a sofa, to people attending Wikimania this year. The cost of accommodation in London can be a deterrent to people. If you could put up someone in London during the period August 5th to 10th could you let Katie Chan know by emailing katie.chanwikimedia.org.uk. She will start a database with preference e.g. non smokers etc. Thanks Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 10:11, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

Has nobody got a sofa or spare bed? Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 08:31, 2 April 2014 (BST)

Gnome home

I feel the absence of a central cleanup and gnoming place on this site, so I have created gnome home, and a category to go with. Charles Matthews (talk) 09:16, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Royal Society editathon

My photos from the evening session of yesterday's editathon at the Royal Society are now on Commons at Commons:Category:Wikimedia UK Royal Society Women's editathon 2014. Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 23:06, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

Thank you seem to be the hardest words

A few months ago I wrote a critical review about a hotel I stayed in for Trip Advisor. I wanted to share my experience and warn off others. I posted and thought no more of it. I was surprised a few weeks later to receive a 'Thank you' email explaining how important by little piece of bile had been, and how many people had read it. I was chuffed. A month after that, and a couple more reviews, I was thanked again, given an update on the surprisingly large number of people who had read the reviews, and was awarded the equivalent of a 'gold star'.

OK, so it was a bot but it occurred to me how sad it was that we don't do something similar for our contributors. Barnstars are great but from what I observe many people never look at their user pages. Wouldn't it be great if every time one of my uploaded photos made it onto a page I got some sort of alert or just a 'thank you' for every twentieth edit?

When I started working for Wikimedia UK I was warnedthat I was entering a culture that didn't 'do thank yous'. I think that we are missing out here and if we want to encourage and retain editors a few words of thanks from time to time would be a powerful tool. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 18:27, 6 March 2014 (UTC) - on behalf of User:Jon Davies (WMUK)

I received a very nice thank you after doing the work on the membership survey and the UCL editathon. It touched me more than I think I let on at the time, and certainly more than I expected something as simple as that to. So thank you again to Jon, Katherine and Daria.

I'm also reminded of a few years ago when I moved house, I looked up the days for rubbish collection on the council website and was very impressed with how easy it was to find what I was looking for, as my previous council's website made it unnecessarily difficult. So I wrote a quick thank you email. About two days later I got a reply from the manager of the person responsible for that, saying that my note had made their day. So I fully agree with the aim to encourage more thank yous. Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 21:01, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

All good points. I see that WMCH have started a page on Meta to discuss how to encourage new users to stick around by thanking them after the fundraiser. This seems of interest to WMUK as well. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 10:03, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Free Wiki Loves Monuments calendars 2014 (with 2013 pictures)

Thanks to the WLM International Group we have received some rather nice Wiki Loves Monuments wall calendars for 2014, with photos from the 2013 international contest. I have deposited them at the WMUK offices from where they are available free to anyone who was involved in the 2013 competition, either as an organizer or as an competitor. Although they are a little late, they still have 10 months of useful life in them! If you would like one, please contact the staff. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 17:00, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

[INFO] Scripts in Lua

Hi, I have setup a few days ago the Scribunto extension on our wiki. You are now consequently able to create scripts in Lua on this wiki. Kelson (talk) 10:55, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Wikimedians in the UK

I've been working on the categorisation of photos into commons:Category:Wikimedians in the United Kingdom (moving files over from commons:Category:Wikipedians in the United Kingdom). I'm curious to know - how many of these users do you recognise? Who's missing? (these are both open questions to anyone that reads this!) Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 22:30, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

You removed me from both "Wikipedians in the United Kingdom" and "[Commons] User in the United Kingdom". I assure you, I am both. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 23:00, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes, as am I. However, people seemed to be split between "Wikipedians in" and "Wikimedians in" for no apparent reason or order, and you were one of only two people that had all of their photos in the User category rather than just their user page... Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 07:52, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Open Access Reader

I have come up with an initiative called "Open Access Reader", a project to systematically have every piece of notable open access research cited in Wikipedia. I'd like to develop this into a grant proposal, and I welcome comments and suggestions, both on the project itself and where best to get grant funding: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Open_Access_Reader EdSaperia (talk) 00:37, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Just linking to the prelim discussion on your userpage https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/User_talk:EdSaperia/Wikimedia_UK%27s_2014_Strategy#Open%20access%20reader Sjgknight (talk) 11:55, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

West Midlands Police Museum editathon

Just a reminder that the West Midlands Police Museum editathon is this Saturday, in Birmingham; some places remain! Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:53, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

I couldn't make this, Andy - much though I wanted to! I was stuck in London doing training. How did it go? Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 16:51, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

Very well, thank you, though over 470 very fine images are stuck on Flickr while the tool to import them to Commons appears borked. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:59, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

Andy, is the tool still broken? Which tool is it that isn't working? I'm not sure there's much we can do, but we can nudge the person who runs the tool. Extra voices saying how useful it is might help. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 11:25, 3 April 2014 (BST)

Letter to UK MEPs

Hello everyone. You may be interested to note that Wikimedia UK is writing to all 73 UK MEPs regarding copyright. In line with the work we've done with the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU (group of European Wikimedia chapters) we are looking for support for change in three areas: freedom of panorama; public domain of publicly-funded works; and use of orphan works. If you'd like to see the letter, it's here. It will be going out next week (with a couple of minor modifications) in the post and also by email. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 17:07, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Following this up, after some discussion with UK and international community members some minor changes were made. The final version of the letter was sent out yesterday and can be seen in pdf format by clicking here. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 16:10, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

A quick update - we've received four letters and emails of support for our view on copyright reform so far, from the three main political parties. I view this as being a good start and will share more information as we receive more replies. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:15, 2 April 2014 (BST)

British cartoons 1780—1830 available in very high resolution

Example parody of George IV and his desire for divorce, 1820.
7,068 × 4,638px, 93MB

There may be some UK Wikipedians interested in helping with 18th/19th century articles on British society, so I thought it worth highlighting my upload of over 700 new high resolution scans to Wikimedia Commons of the Library of Congress British Cartoon Prints Collection (for usability, both large tiff and more modest jpeg files are available). Many of these are notable political parodies that are either worth including on Wikipedia articles of the artists, their unfortunate subjects, or some may be notable enough for their own article. Alternatively, you may find some of the recently uploaded (complete) books, manuscripts and maps at World Digital Library an untapped resource for an article or a new Wikisource project.

The Library of Congress has other collections with a connection to UK history or there may be different on-line public domain collections that you would like to see uploaded. Drop me a note on Commons if you have an idea for future batch upload projects. --Fæ (talk) 08:40, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

Day of the week of events

There's been no reply to my message at Talk:Women in Science Wikipedia edit-a-thon 13 May 2014 - University of Liverpool. Does anyone know why it is happening on that day? I'd hate to think that we'd do an event on a day that is convenient for someone in a partner institution but results in us reaching very few people. Yaris678 (talk) 19:42, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Hi Yaris, I have passed this on to my colleagues so hopefully someone who is able to answer your question will be in touch soon. Thank you. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 12:19, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Replied on the event page - hope it helps. If you are interested in being a trainer for this event, do note your interest on the event page. Thanks! Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 09:45, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Wikidata workshop

Do you want to learn more about Wikidata? On Saturday 26 April, Wikimedia UK is organising a one day workshop focusing on Wikidata, its tools ecosystem, and what you can do with it. More details and registration can be found here. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 14:50, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

I do, but I can't make that date. Will the event be re-run? Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:57, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

I imagine it will be. This is the second one we have ran, but Wikidata is still developing and maturing rapidly, so there will be lots of new things to cover in a few months no doubt. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 12:29, 1 April 2014 (BST)

Wikimania delegate packs

Hello everyone. It's time to start preparing delegate packs for Wikimania. What materials would be useful to include in a perfect world? What information would be useful to visitors to the conference, and to London? Things like Tube maps and guides to using Oyster cards of course, emergency contact details, directions to the Barbican and Wikimedia UK office... but what else do you think would be helpful? Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Note: While it seems like Wikimania is a long way away still, if we want new materials they need to be written, designed and printed so the sooner we start, the better. Thanks very much. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 11:12, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

• Wikivoyage:Wikimania 2014 London Guidebook is intended to cover a lot of things like this. Some of it doesn't work well offline (the URLs mainly) but that project's page are designed to be printed off and used manually. (At one point I was thinking of useing QRpedia to create a quick QR link from a printed page to the website but that doesn't seem to work any more for non-pedias.) - AdamBMorgan (talk) 11:39, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• A Wikimedia branded memory stick. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 12:50, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• An A4 local map showing the venue, the locations of the evening events, the accommodation and the public transport links Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• the Wikimania schedule Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• A list of friendly dos and don't such as "on tube escalators stand on the right, walk on the left". Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
  • +1 Jarry1250 (talk) 16:05, 31 March 2014 (BST)
• A wikimedia UK sticker and coaster Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• Re the emergency contact details, there is a draft already started on the Wikimania wiki. Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• a Weather forecast for the 8-11 August. We would need to print this on the 7th and add it to the delegate bags. Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Surely people can check the weather for themselves? I mean, paper is going to be out of date quickly. Jarry1250 (talk) 16:05, 31 March 2014 (BST)
    • And given how quickly we'd need to get the info printed, it would either be expensive or look like it was home made so probably best to put this one on the back burner. Unless we want something tongue-in-cheek and just put 'drizzle' for all Wikimania. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 17:15, 31 March 2014 (BST)
      • Possibly just the URL of a good online weather forecast or two (e.g. BBC, Met Office). Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 00:41, 1 April 2014 (BST)
• I've always wanted to hand out physical copies of the Signpost at a Wikimania, and I may finally get the chance this year :) A special "Wikimania" edition could provide some curated editorial insight into what was going on in different interest areas. Of course, it needn't be in the delegate packs, that's just an extra thought of mine. Jarry1250 (talk) 16:05, 31 March 2014 (BST)

Hi Jarry1250, the office can help with that if you'd like some support arranging this. I do like the idea of The Signpost as a one-off printed product. I think it could be very good. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 10:22, 1 April 2014 (BST)

• Nothing at all. Rather than packing bags, put things out on a table near to the registration desk, and let people help themselves to what they're interested in. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 16:26, 31 March 2014 (BST)

Scholarships available to OKFestival & OpenSym

Group photo of participants of WikiSym+OpenSym 2013 in Hong Kong

Wikimedia UK is offering up to two scholarships each to both the Open Knowledge Festival 2014 (15-17 July) & OpenSym 2014 (27-29 August), both of which are being held in Berlin, Germany.

OKFestival, run by the Open Knowledge Foundation is an open data and open knowledge conference that will bring together over 1,000 people from more than 60 countries in a bid to encourage innovation in the open sector through sharing experiences and skills. Furthermore, the event is a celebration of the open movement itself and what it has already achieved.

OpenSym, previously known as WikiSym, is the International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration where researchers from all over the world gather to present their latest research and practice on "open access, open data, open education resources, IT-driven open innovation, open source, wikis and related social media, and Wikipedia".

To qualify for either scholarship, you must be based in the UK, be able to travel to Berlin and attend all days of the event, and agree to produce a public report (which may be published on the Wikimedia UK blog and in our newsletters) summarising the key things that you have taken from the event. Applicants for OpenSym must also be engaging in research about Wikimedia or other free content projects. The scholarship will cover conference registration fee, travel, accommodation, along with a per diem allowance to cover local expenses.

To apply for the scholarship to OKFestival, complete this online form by Sunday 20th April. The deadline for OpenSym scholarship is Sunday 30th April, and you can apply here.

-- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 12:31, 1 April 2014 (BST)

VLE released for beta testing

Hello everyone, I'm very happy to report that the Wikimedia UK virtual learning environment has been released to a small group, including those who have been through the Train the Trainers programme, for beta testing. I'm pretty excited by the potential the VLE has for supporting trainers and those who wish to learn about Wikipedia independently. Following this round of testing, a wider test period will begin in which the system will be shared with anyone within the movement who would like access before a final rollout of the system later in the year. Many thanks to Charles Matthews who has put an enormous amount of work into writing the course content and quizzes, as well as putting the thing together. Big thanks also to Doug Taylor and Tom Morton for their technical support, without which we would not have made it to this point. If you have any comments or questions please do let me know. Thank you. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:54, 2 April 2014 (BST)

That's good to hear, thanks. And congratulations to all who have made this happen. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 17:30, 2 April 2014 (BST)

Looking for a Research Volunteer to help us with the Wikimedian in Residence survey - interesting opportunity!

Hi All,

Over the last two years, Wikimedia UK has worked towards creating a firmer structure supporting our Wikimedian in Residence project. ‪This started with, in November 2012, running a call for applications to attract institutions wanting to engage with such a project (background for that is [1] and [2]). ‬Some of the organisations we have worked with since can be found here.

Towards the end of 2013, we have agreed to reflect on the programme’s successes and challenges through a review. With significant learning for any organisation or institution wanting to be involved with the Wikimedian in Residence project, it's important that Wikimedia UK gathers the results of the surveys and creates a clear report summarising the results and producing recommendations for the future. We are now looking for a volunteer to deliver this report.

Please have a look here for more details. Looking forward to hearing from people who are interested in working on this.

Many thanks, Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 11:31, 3 April 2014 (BST)