Reports/2011/November

Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for the period 1 to 30 November 2011. 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

Education projects

Harry Mitchell helping new editors during the Manchester Girl Geeks Editing Day.

• 3rd - Steve Virgin met with Heads at Bristol Metropolitan Academy, there is now interest on building a project promoting Wikis at the school (which has a language specialism) - with a promise to discuss more details in New Year
• 4th - Martin Poulter met with a researcher for a University of Bristol/ University of Cardiff project on crowdsourcing. Explained how Wikimedia projects can benefit arts and humanities researchers
• 7th - Jon Davies (CEO) came to Bristol - along with Martin Poulter & Steve Virgin - discussions were held with the City Council Cabinet member for digital initiatives across the city....with a representative of the Somali language community...the Dean of Engineering & Computer Sciences at the University of Bristol where possible collaboration on a joint Wiki-University project was explored and it was agreed that further ideas would be discussed at next meeting
• 8th - Fiona Apps and Roger Bamkin meet with John Rylands University Library in Manchester
• 10th - Association of Science & Discovery Centres AGM for marketeers & PR teams at National Space Centre in Leicester (Steve Virgin spoke about Derby Museum and QRCodes work) - already 2 centres have stepped forward keen to discuss further collaboration
• 12th - Manchester Girl Geeks Editing Day; Harry Mitchell, Rexxs, and Julia W led girl geeks through the beginnings of their Wikipedia careers. Several interesting stumbling blocks were discovered, one of which has been passed onto the Foundation, but the attendees all enjoyed themselves and several draft articles were created, one of which (Cold Specks) was moved to mainspace on the day.
• 13th - Sue Gardner Speaking at Imperial College
• 22nd - Liverpool Wiki Lounge; staff and students at the University of Liverpool dropped in to discuss Wikipedia with Harry Mitchell, RexxS, Phil Knight and Marek69.

Wikisym - Mark Graham's presentation at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Two case-studies put together by the Wikipedia Ambassador at Bristol over the summer: Case study: Wikipedia as an assessment and learning tool and Case study: Group learning through Wikipedia

GLAM activities

Behind the scenes at the National Archives.

• 10th - Steve Virgin speaking at UK Association of Science & Discovery Centres Marketing Managers Conference - event entitled 'Word of Mouth'
• 14th - John Cummings and Roger Bamkin discuss QRpedia project with Monmouth County Council
• 16th - Roger Bamkin speaking at Lillehammer
• 17th - Roger Bamkin on Special Libraries Assoc panel
• 18th - Sue Gardner, Geoff Brigham, Maryana Pinchuk, Jo Pugh, Roger Bamkin and Fæ at National Archives
• 18th - Martin Poulter speaking at ESRC Research Seminar on "Digital Policy: Connectivity, Creativity and Rights", Leicester University
• 24th - Fæ presenting at Open Data in Cultural Heritage workshop hosted by Wellcome Trust & Open Knowledge Foundation

Technology

Attendees came from different demographics: different genders and ages were all represented.

The weekend of the 19th-20th saw the UK's first ever Hackathon, in Brighton. The two-day event brought together Wikimedia Foundation developers as well as other new and experienced coders. Over 25 bugs were squashed, including a complex one involving GeSHi.

Further reading

• Signpost coverage,
• Etherpads:

• Saturday
• Sunday

• Tweets
• Photos: On Commons
• Blog posts:

• Post by Tom Morris

Other activities

• UK Wikimeets this month: London (13th), Liverpool (22nd)
• 1st - Fae at PICTFOR meeting on Hargreaves' report on UK copyright changes, blog post
• 28th - Fæ gave evidence at the Privacy and Injunctions committee. Video

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

Press coverage of Wikipedia in UK publications this month included:

• Jimmy Wales on the future of the internet at the Cyberspace conference:
  • Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on the internet's future, BBC News
  • Jimmy Wales: 'Wikipedia can topple tyrants', Telegraph
  • Injunctions are 'bad law', says Wikipedia founder, Independent
• 3rd - Wikipedia Loves Monuments in St Petersburg on Russian TV. QRpedia labels in Russian, English, Catalan, Finnish
• 3rd, Martin Poulter, 25 minute interview on BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Somerset on Wikimedia and other topics
• Charity status
  • Wikimedia UK granted charity status, Third Sector
  • Charity Commission approves promoting Wikipedia as a charitable purpose, Civil Society
  • Wikimedia UK gets charitable status, The H
  • Bristol trustee’s delight at charity status for Wikimedia UK, Bristol 24/7
• Sue Gardner visit:
  • The World at One, BBC Radio 4 (at 0:30:40)
• Jon Davies appointment:
  • Wiki & History, History Association
• WikiConference India
  • Wikipedia hosts India conference amid expansion push, BBC News
• Jimmy Wales on Question Time - [1]
• Mapping geotagged Wikipedia articles, Dr Mark Graham Graham from Oxford Internet Institute:
  • The world of Wikipedia's languages mapped, Guardian
  • Wikipedia mapping by OII, Cherwell

Upcoming activities in December

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

For events in January and onwards, please see Events.

Administrative activities

Board activities

Sue Gardner talking about editor retention during the full-board meeting.

• 1st - Exec board meeting
• 19-20th - In-person board meeting

Charitable status

• Recognition as a charity

News from the Chief Exec

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

Fundraising

For more information about our participation in this year's fundraiser, see 2011 Fundraiser.

We received £310,000 in donations from 19,000 donors via paypal this month, and expect to receive £206,000 from 19,000 donors via direct debit over the coming year. For more information please see the daily Wikimedia fundraising statistics and our monthly fundraising report at Fundraising Report - Monthly Totals 2011.

This month we also began to allow donations via text.

Membership

(Current number of members, number of new members this month, number of lapsed members)

Staff

Office

The offices in Old Street.

On November 14, we moved into our new office, in the Old Street area of London. We are currently in the process of equipping it and welcome any donations. Currently only Chief Executive Jon Davies is in the office full time although visitors are welcome.

Office and Development Manager

(Update on the Office and Development Manager to come here.)