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 2015

Pelican Books donates reference E-books for Wikipedians

We are delighted to announce that Pelican has given us 50 free Ebooks for Wikimedians to use. Applications are open now, details are on a page on the Wikipedia Library. Giving reference books to Wikipedians is one of the most practical ways to improve Wikipedia, and we are delighted to have Pelican's support in this. Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 15:01, 26 November 2014 (GMT)

Map finding - one last push

Over 16,000 old maps and plans have been found in the last 27 days as part of the British Library map tagathon, and with just 22% of the images to check and we might still complete this in a single month. Maps found so far are from all over the earth, come and join us or just come to enjoy what we have found so far. Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 16:08, 26 November 2014 (GMT)

Final governance audit report published

The WMUK board is today pleased to announce publication of the third and final report on the charity's governance. The report has been prepared by Rosie Chapman and Sarah Loader of Belinda Pratten and Rosie Chapman Associates.

Today's report (the second Chapman review) is a follow-up independent audit of the progress that Wikimedia UK has made to improve its governance since January 2013. It comes 18 months after completion of the initial 2013 governance review (the Hudson review) and nine months after the first follow-up audit (the first Chapman review) which covered progress in addressing the Hudson review’s recommendations.

In summary, Chapman's findings are that

"the charity has very largely addressed the 50 recommendations found within the original review. WMUK has developed very quickly, and the charity has clearly put a lot of effort into ensuring that its governance now meets best practice expectations. It has a cohesive, skilled and experienced board in place. They have a clear understanding of the charity’s vision and mission".

In the section comparing WMUK with similar UK charities, we were pleased to note Chapman's conclusion (para 42) that:

"for the stage that Wikimedia is in its lifecycle it compares well with similar UK charities. Its transparency about its procedures is a beacon of best practice, and its conflicts of interest procedures are robust and well-tested".

She further observes (paras 14 and 15) that:

"Inevitably, a lot of the Board’s efforts have to-date been internally focussed; putting in place robust governance arrangements and agreeing the new strategy that was published in March this year. Whilst there is still some fine-tuning to bed in the strategy, for example linking particular outcomes with detailed objectives, targets, budgets and performance measurement through-out the organisation, there is also the chance for WMUK’s Board to become more outward focussed in its time and efforts. This will, in turn, enable the Board to consider opportunities and choices for what the organisation does to deliver its strategy, and how it should be resourced to do so.

"From our discussion with trustees and staff it is clear that there is a real appetite for this shift in the board’s focus, and to consider more external opportunities".

The report is worth reading in its entirety, as it includes a wealth of advice, analysis and commentary that will be of interest and use not only to WMUK itself but also to the community at large and to other organisations within the movement.

The WMUK board would once again like to thank Rosie Chapman for her comprehensive and insightful analysis which will be of great help in enabling us to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 11:56, 28 November 2014 (GMT)

The charity's plans for 2015

The WMUK board's regular two-day strategy overview meeting was held in Cambridge last weekend. This is the time of year when we focus on future plans and we were joined by our interim CEO, D’Arcy Myers, who provided us with fresh perspectives from the point of view of a relative newcomer.

The minutes of the meeting are being prepared, and should be available within the next week, but the board felt that it would be useful to publish a guide to the broad challenges that face us, and how we are tackling them.

One of the tasks of the meeting was to review the third quarter financial report, which included a consideration of the full impact of Wikimania. The WMUK office ended up playing a larger role than had originally been anticipated, and the charity's costs on both staff and Wikimania-related programmes in the third quarter of the year has been significantly higher than anticipated. At the same time, the Funds Distribution Committee of the Wikimedia Foundation has indicated that it will not recommend granting WMUK the full amount we requested for the 2015-16 financial year.

These factors mean that the board needs to review our plans for the coming year in the light of the reduced funds available to us, and to ensure that in spite of financial constraints our reserves are not allowed to drop to an unacceptably low level.

It is inevitable that over the next year the charity will need significantly to reduce its direct expenditure, both on overheads and on programmes, and over the next few weeks our CEO will be working on his recommendations for a detailed action plan to achieve that. The focus will be not on 'business as usual' and salami-slicing our existing expenditure, but on the opportunity we have to re-direct our energies towards those programmes that are most able to provide us with high charitable impact when weighed against the resources required (direct costs, staff costs, number of willing and skilled volunteers available and so on).

We need to prioritise, and to accept that we no longer have the luxury of being able to support highly-resourced programmes that do not provide a commensurate level of direct charitable impact when measured against our strategic goals. There are an almost infinite number of useful free knowledge projects we could be involved in, including many which are directly aligned with our goals.  But we have to have the courage to turn projects down and acknowledge that our charitable aims are best met by doing a limited number of projects exceptionally well than accepting a multitude of ideas that we don't have the resources to follow up on.

Of course, the resources available to us are not fixed, and we will be making significant directed efforts to increase both volunteer resources and also locally-sourced finance via UK-based fundraising and gifts in kind. The extent to which we are able to accept and support project ideas for which we have insufficient core funding is likely to depend on whether the project has a sufficiently large and skilled group of enthusiastic volunteers who are able to lead and run it with minimal staff help, and whether it is of interest to external grant-makers who can be persuaded to cover the non-core costs.

Once the CEO has a draft action plan and 2015-16 budget prepared, they will be shared with the community for comment and suggestions before coming to the board for approval of a financially sustainable package of activities geared to achieving our agreed strategy. We are happy to accept general questions on this, but of course we can't discuss anything relating to internal HR or staffing issues. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 07:19, 17 December 2014 (GMT) for the board.

Bodleian Library WIR

The Bodleian Libraries and Wikimedia UK are delighted to announce that we will be supporting a part time Wikimedian in Residence at the Bodleian library in Oxford. The post provides the opportunity to work with some of the world’s richest collections to improve content on Wikipedia and its sister projects and to share with the world the resources held in the Bodleian Libraries. More details including how to apply at bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Regards Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 14:30, 19 December 2014 (GMT)

London Wikidata Meetup 2

Our next London Wikidata Meetup will be on Wednesday 5th January 2015 at Development House (where Wikimedia UK is based). Some of you may already be familiar with the recent Signpost article on Wikidata. This concerns Wikidata:WikiProject Wikidata for research page, which concerns a funding application for a virtual research environment with a deadline for 14th January. One of the topics we hope to discuss is how we might like to be involve in this. If you are interested, but can't make it to the event, we have a list for organising activities here, please join us. Fabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 12:41, 5 January 2015 (GMT)

BETT UK 2015

Free tickets are available to colleagues/guests to attend Bett UK 2015 between 21 and 24 January at Excel London. This is "the world's leading learning technology event".

Jimmy Wales is delivering a keynote and I'm on a panel about 'The changing landscape of technology in higher education'. I believe that Diane Strassmann (from Wiki Ed Foundation) is also participating in this multi-day event.

Feel free to contact me directly if you need any further information. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 07:28, 7 January 2015 (GMT)