Friends' Newsletter/2018/Issue 01

Welcome to the 2018's Spring Newsletter!

By Sandy Balfour, Interim Chief Executive

2017 Impact Report

By Daria Cybulska

Working with the Kurdish Community

By Stuart Prior

Why Non-Commercial licenses aren't useful

John Lubbock, Owen Blacker, Stuart Prior

Why and how the music industry should engage with Wikipedia

By John Lubbock

Sara Thomas appointed Scotland Programme Coordinator

By Sara Thomas

The Scotland Programme Coordinator is a new role at Wikimedia UK, one which I was very excited to see advertised, and am absolutely delighted to be taking on. The emergence of this role represents a

significant investment by WMUK in Scotland, and I’m very happy to be playing a part in this development.

Since becoming Wikimedian in Residence at Museums Galleries Scotland in 2015, and then going on to hold the same role at the Scottish Library and Information Council last year, I’ve had both the pleasure and privilege to watch Scotland’s Wikimedia community grow and develop. Ewan’s residency at the University of Edinburgh is now full-time, and Susan has just recently completed her residency with the National Library of Scotland as Gaelic Wikimedian. My residency with SLIC is now at a point where we have the first public library services across Scotland starting to run editathons, and I’ve had recent meetings with both further and higher education institutions who want to know more about using Wikipedia in the classroom. It’s been obvious to me for a while that there’s a good deal of demand in Scotland for this kind of work, as well as significant scope for increasing volunteer engagement.

The role of the Scotland Programme Coordinator will be to support and encourage volunteer involvement in Scotland, as well as to support existing Wikimedians in Residence and partnerships, and

pursue new relationships with partner organisations. I’m hoping to grow our network – particularly outwith the central belt – and encourage not only further participation in Wikimedia projects in Scotland, but to help to further the representation of Scotland in Wikimedia projects. I know that there are Scottish women who aren’t on Wikipedia who should be, and having worked in events and heritage

– and travelled all over Scotland to do so – I’m keenly aware of the incredible store of knowledge that Scotland holds in its cultural and heritage institutions. I want to see more of it openly available, and I’m going to do everything I can to encourage its release…

On a sad note, taking up this role has meant that I’ve had to resign my position at SLIC. I’ve loved working on this project and I’m very proud of where we’ve gotten to so far. But I’m really very happy to

be handing over the residency to my replacement, who’ll be starting in just a couple of weeks! Until then, you can read more about the SLIC residency here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/SLIC , the University of Edinburgh residency here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:University_of_Edinburgh and you can sign up to the Scot-wiki

mailing list here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSctpnDjO_PHZeOTrA0yjtVLqE4oDfjLtYhWzQVTwk712BSJJQ

/viewform

When not involved with Wikimedia-related projects, Dr Sara Thomas has been/is a music venue manager, fundraiser, trainer, Event Coordinator for the Beltane Fire Society, Volunteer Coordinator for Mugstock Festival, Project Officer for Dig It! 2017, storyteller, writer, and Chair of a Community Arts charity.

Pictures:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sara_Thomas,_Wikimedian_in_Residence.JPG

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blurry_wikimedian.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hiding_wikimedian.jpg