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.

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"WOW!" Will in Other Words

Dr Tom Cheesman and others learning to edit Wikipedia; Swansea Library 21 January 2014.

I'd like your thoughts on how to develop a project based on Shakespearean text.

As part of the Living Paths Project, I recently met Dr. Tom Cheesman and others at Swansea University. I'd like to suggest a WikiProject titled "WOW!" Will in Other Words! which will use crowd sourcing to gather and organise reliable metadata for versions of Shakespeare’s works in languages other than English. I'm not sure if this should be part of the existing w:en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Shakespeare (may kick-start it!) or a brand new one?

Tom Cheesman's website www.delightedbeauty.org crowd-sources Shakespeare translations; it's a self-made Google site which displays around 180 versions, in over 30 languages, of one rhyming couplet from Shakespeare’s Othello (1604). As he told me, "This one couplet is a great challenge for translators, because of its ambiguity, its punning wordplay and its controversial implications regarding race, gender and political power. Each version expresses a different interpretation, making a fascinating study in re-translation-mutation-adaptation … or ‘versioning’. There can be no ‘straight translation’ of Shakespeare’s language."' I do believe that a WikiProject could develop this site in magnificent, way!

The second part of this projectwould be based on www.delightedbeauty.org/vvv demonstrates innovative, experimental interactive tools for exploring collections of comparable texts, working with 37 versions of one scene from Othello. This project was reviewed by Wired in Septemebr 2012. Tools include a time-map showing the historical and geographical spread of German-language Othello versions: at http://othellomap.nand.io/.

The Project would attempt to answer such questions as:

1. How many languages has Shakespeare been translated into?
2. What different cultural forms does translation (or “cross-language versioning”) take, in different times, places and languages? When plays are re-versioned as new playscripts, the texts can be ‘faithful’, full versions of the original, but they can also be adaptations of many different kinds, transposing the action to different times and places, reducing and expanding and revising, turning tragedies into farces, histories into satires, and so on. And plays can also be ‘versioned’ as other genres: prose stories, comic strips, films, radio shows, series of paintings, dance shows, etc etc.
3. What are the trends in popularity of Shakespeare’s different works in different times, places and languages, as measured by publications and performances?
4. When was Hamlet first or most recently translated into Danish? Or Henry V into Welsh?
5. In which African languages has Othello been published or performed?
6. How many Italian versions of Romeo and Juliet have there been, and which are considered the best for reading, or the best for staging?
7. The Merchant of Venice is on the national school curriculum in China today: 22 million 14-year-olds read the trial scene each year (source p.7). Which of the many Chinese versions are read in classes? Which versions are watched on screen (and who does the subtitling?) Do the various versions interpret Shylock in different ways? (You bet they do – but how different?)

Scope of Project

Probably 100+ languages have at least one work of Shakespeare. All of his works have been translated at least once into all the “major” European and Asian languages. In most “major” and some “lesser” languages, all or many of his works have been re-translated, re-adapted or re-versioned several times, even over and over again.

Let's look at one language: German: German has possibly the greatest number of Shakespeare versions, of all languages. Tom guesstimate around 5,000 items, growing by around 50 year on year. A bibliography published in 2003 includes around 2,000 printed items, and does not claim to be complete for the period covered (to 2000). From the past c. 250 years, we have around 70 published versions of the entire set of 154 Sonnets; hundreds of published versions of single sonnets or selections (over 200 versions of Sonnet 66 are collected in a recent anthology); around 60 versions of the Complete Plays (±37 plays); probably 120+ published versions of Hamlet; up to 80 versions of the 10 next most popular plays; numerous revised editions of many versions; hundreds of audiovisual releases (radio, film, tv, audiobooks); dozens of theatrical productions at major public theatres each year (each using a different version); scores more amateur productions each year; production-associated scripts; and assorted other versions. Since 2000, no fewer than eight new German versions (translations/adaptations) of Othello have been added to the theatrical script agencies’ catalogue (www.theatertexte.de).

And that's just one language. I might be wrong, but I do believe this could be one hell of a project! Any takers?

Robin Owain (WMUK) (talk) 23:36, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

Robin, we should consider making this one of the Education activities WMUK supports in 2014-15. As you know, Dr Cheesman has already contacted me about this and he had hoped to come to EduWiki last November to discuss possible developments, but couldn't make the dates in the end. I'll contact him to follow-up and copy you in since it's clear that a substantial amount of constructive discussion has occurred in the interim. I have a feeling that this is something that some members of TaPRA (the Theatre & Performance Research Association) will find interesting. We're supporting a Wikipedia workshop for them soon, so the timing is probably just about right this time. Thanks! --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 14:49, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

Many thanks Toni. Swansea University representatives (including Tom) were trained in Wiki editing skills on the 21 January. The first list was of translations into Welsh. A great start! Robin Owain (WMUK) (talk) 10:35, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

That's great Robin! I look forward to inviting Dr Tom Cheesman and/or colleagues from Swansea University to the Wikimania Fringe/Hack event we're planning for June, so that we can look into ways to take the project forward as discussed. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 14:12, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

Giant meetup for all UK Wikimedians

Reference above. Definitely give him something. Even better, why not invite every active Wikimedian in the UK to an event of some kind and give them a membership application at the door (or free membership for a year just for turning up?) There are about 2000 who say they are in the UK. Including 83 in N.I., 319 in Scotland and 136 in Wales. Philafrenzy (talk) 11:03, 16 January 2014 (UTC) Add extra ideas here:

Maybe we should have a UK meeting around Wikimania - when people are likely to be down in London anyway? Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 11:00, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

We could let the French in, but only if they salute the flag as they pass - in line with tradition of course! Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 11:10, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

Wikimedia UK has many non-British citizens as voting members, we should remain sensitive to that. Personally I avoid nationalistic jokes unless they are mildly self-deprecating. --Fæ (talk) 11:42, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

Richard did not specify which flag people would be required to salute. Personally I'd choose this one as being particularly worthy of salute. Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 15:58, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

True, though French visitors might struggle to recognize it. A more internationally recognizable one like this might go down well if we expect them to salute it. Alternatively, considering that London is France's sixth city, we would probably do well to put up a Tricolour for us to salute. --Fæ (talk) 16:24, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

I had forgotten I had even made this suggestion. The point, of course, was that there are vast numbers of UK resident editors on Wikipedia, far more than the 2000 who self-identify, almost none of whom are members. As membership growth is stalled, a one-off event could be run specially for them, separate to Wikimania, to celebrate their contribution to all of the projects. This could be combined with a membership drive. To be honest, I don't have the time to organise this and I don't know if anyone else does either, but I think that it's the sort of thing that ought to be happening. Wasn't there some sort of awards system once? We could give awards like at the Oscars - Wikis? As far as flags go, the Severn Cross of Gloucestershire would be my choice, though the design may need updating now that the county is under water. Philafrenzy (talk) 22:05, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

A UK meetup at Wikimania would be a great idea - no flags needed. ;-) Particularly if it can be combined with a membership drive/sharing of information about WMUK. The awards system from last year is described at UK Wikimedian of the Year 2013. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 22:32, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

Wikimedia UK and Cancer Research UK to recruit Wikimedian in Residence

Hello everyone. I thought you might like to know that Wikimedia UK has teamed up with Cancer Research UK to recruit a Wikimedian in Residence. The exciting new role will include teaching Cancer Research UK’s scientists to edit the website as well as researching how cancer patients use the site to access information and helping to make information on its pages as easy as possible to understand. They will also support Wikipedians already editing its cancer science pages. You can find more details of the role, including how to apply, on our blog - https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2014/01/wikimedia-uk-and-cancer-research-uk-to-take-cancer-information-to-the-next-level/ Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:23, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

This is excellent news, and UK-based Wikipedians with a background in science should consider having a look at the job description. Jfdwolff 20:08, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Excellent news. Well done. Andreas JN 11:24, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments folks. We're really excited about this and it will have a great impact on important content. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 16:02, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

Can I ask why expressions of interest were sought after the closing date had passed? LoopZilla (talk) 11:49, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi Loopzilla. We believe it's because the number of applications has been disappointing. Hope this helps. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 12:03, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. This breaks a standard of recruitment. Opportunity to apply is equal for all (that is the closing date is the same for all candidates). LoopZilla (talk) 12:43, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

OpenSym 2014

WikiSym has changed it's named to OpenSym and this year it will take place on 27th – 29th August in Berlin. It's an annual symposium about open collaboration. The list of tracks includes:

• Open access research
• Open data research
• Open education resources research
• Free, libre, and open source software research
• IT-driven open innovation research
• Wikipedia research
• Wikis and open collaboration

They issued a call for papers last week so if you're interested, the page on their website about submissions has more details including the array of deadlines for different tracks. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 13:06, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

I'd be interested to know if anyone is planning on going to this, last year had a lot of v interesting looking papers! (Sadly unlikely I'll make it) Sjgknight (talk) 22:08, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

Will WMUK be offering scholarships this year, as per past years? (I can pass on the contact details for the organisers if you don't have them already!) Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 22:29, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

Yes, scholarships will be available. More details soon. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 10:56, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Going somewhere? Check for 'missing' images

Mount Melleray Abbey (geograph 3381465)

Having a play with some tools, I've just come across Wiki ShootMe! which allows you to search (coordinates or placename) geographic areas for articles associated with those areas that have no images e.g. http://toolserver.org/~magnus/wikishootme/index.html?autorun=1&language=en&lat=52.15&lng=-7.85&distance=10&art=Cappoquin Mostly I just wanted to share (there's so much going on it's hard to keep track of)! Also,

1. if anyone else has cool tools it'd be great to hear about them,
2. if people have ideas about how we could use, promote, and support tools that'd be good too,
3. I was wondering how easy it'd be to play with e.g. Open Street Maps to map these articles & browse that way (or if that exists?).

On '2' obviously there's scope for WLM/WikiTakes, but maybe we could also drop links like this onto event pages as a simple activity to engage people and remind people of the tools. (Incidentally the photo is from geograph.ie cross-loaded semi-automatically into Commons. I probably have one myself somewhere (grandmother from the area)) Sjgknight (talk) 16:47, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

A slight tangent of background and history that some may find interesting

Though Simon used a tool to do a one-off transfer of the example image, 4 years ago the vast majority of nearly 2 million UK Geograph images were transferred by Multichill's clever GeographBot as a large project, which become controversial and has yet to be re-run due to the difficulties of categorization of the resulting backlog. One of the projects that WMUK is now supporting is adding sensible location categories to all Geograph images (such as a County name) and we'll be looking again at an exercise Multichill experimented with a couple of years back to take this down to, say, the UK "village" level, something that my work with the Ordnance Survey open data makes far more accurate since the earlier experiments (in a way that does not exist for most other countries!). Multichill approached me recently about running GeographBot again for a refresh, and I hope in a few months time to make a joined up smart workflow so that the images can appear with more helpful categories than the last time.

Being millions of images, rather than thousands or even a hundred thousand, it's the sort of extremely large project that seems daunting and can burn out volunteers (it has taken me more than a full year of helping Faebot plod away mostly unnoticed to add categories across the whole of the UK). I think it's also the sort of thing that WMUK should be seen to find ways of encouraging or funding local projects, competitions and "gamification" (as well as wikishootme, have a look at Facebook Funfair which makes a game out of an otherwise dull maintenance job). --Fæ (talk) 17:46, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Cool! Thanks for the additional info Fae Sjgknight (talk) 17:59, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

On '1', there's also Unvisited, an Android app. I've not used it myself as it doenst seem to support older Android versions, but looks good.--Rhyswynne (talk) 15:15, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

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)

Initiatives for 2014

I had some ideas for significant initiatives that would be interesting to do this year, that WMUK might be able to support. I could amplify their effect significantly with Wikimania, which I am organising. I'd be interested in comments or, better yet, co-conspirators - please feel free to weigh in on the talk page: 2014 Initiatives.

EdSaperia (talk) 00:16, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

Unconference as part of Wikimania 2014

An open way to plan sessions, using unconference ideas at Wikiconf NYC 2010

Does anyone know if there is any plan to have an unconference as part of Wikimania 2014? I have been to an unconference that was part of a wider conference and found it was a great way to find people of a common interest and get them talking to each other. I am planning to run a small unconference as part of a larger conference in March so will have experience of that in time for Wikimania. I could organise the unconference for Wikimania 2014 if people would like me to do that. If someone is already planning to run one, I would be happy to help out. Yaris678 (talk) 10:27, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

Hey! Yes, we hope to have a lot of unconference, or maybe open space type activity, and it would be great to have volunteers to facilitate. Email me: ed@wikimanialondon.org EdSaperia (talk) 19:55, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Cool! Email sent. Yaris678 (talk) 09:43, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Community consultation - WMUK response to European Commission copyright consultation

WMUK intends to lodge a response to a review by the European Commission of EU copyright rules. Community feedback is invited on the draft document indicated below.

• File:EU copyright consultation - WMUK response.pdf

(I apologise that the draft response has so far been uploaded to the wiki only in pdf format. If anyone has the time and expertise to create an easier-to-manage series of wiki pages, that would be much appreciated. I have not so far been able to get the OpenOffice export to wiki functionality to work, perhaps because there are so many footnotes in the document. In the meantime, I can email an editable OpenOffice document to anyone who would like a copy).

Please make comments on the text not here but on the main wiki page Talk:WMUK response to European Commission copyright consultation.

This consultation will close at midnight on Saturday 8th February 2014.

--MichaelMaggs (talk) 07:47, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

The consultation is now closed, and the charity's response will be sent to the Commission shortly. Thank you to all who responded, both online and off. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 04:44, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Drafting a digital literacy strategy

Hello everyone. Wikimedia UK's education committee has often spoken about the need for us to have a digital literacy strategy. I've made a start on a draft here and would welcome some constructive input in developing the document. Thank you. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 12:00, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

International Women's Day 2014

International Women's Day

As you may have noted from the events page, WMUK is in the process of supporting a number of events in London around International Women's Day 2014. Trainers will be needed for some of these events, so if you're a trainer, please take a closer look at the planning pages and let us know whether you're interested and available in helping out as a trainer.

Planned events on or near 8 March include:

• 4/3: Women in Science Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at the Royal Society [1], Wiki page tbc
• 8/3: Women's Art Library at Goldsmiths editing event
• 8/3: Women Archaeologists editing event at the Petrie Museum

Please use the talk pages for the individual events to discuss availability, needs, etc. Many thanks! --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 13:47, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

Some support needed

We have been approached by a wikimedian who has been affected by a medical problem and can't edit easily any more. He wants to finish a couple of pages that are important to him (adding links I think) and I wonder if there is a kind person out there I could put him in contact with. An interest in military history would be an advantage. Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 10:30, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

What's the area of military history? I'm a coordinator of the Military History Project on enwiki, so I might be able to take it on, or I could find someone who knows the topic area. Harry Mitchell (talk) 21:34, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

20th Century I think. Can put him in touch with you? Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 10:26, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

I can't promise I won't pass him to someone else, but sure. Harry Mitchell (talk) 15:57, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Great man! Thanks Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 08:50, 20 February 2014 (UTC)