UK Wikimedian of the Year 2017/Nomination

There are three categories:

• UK Wikimedian of the Year – individual who has made a significant contribution to Wikimedia UK's work.
• Partnership of the Year – an organisation working with Wikimedia UK.
• Honourable Mention – recognising a person or organisation's contribution to Wikimedia in the UK.

To submit a nomination, please specify who you're nominating along with a brief description on why you think they should win the award. Please no comparisons ("Bill is so much nicer than Mary" would be better phrased "Bill is very nice"). The deadline for nominations is Friday 14 July.

Nominations

UK Wikimedian of the Year

Kelly Foster

Wikimedia relies on people to edit it, and its aims of enabling people to share knowledge in a neutral way means making sure that all sorts of different people are able to edit it. This makes trainers absolutely key as Wikimedians. As an excellent and effective trainer, Kelly Foster made an enormous contribution in training the members of our Wikipedia project, which is a huge part of why its members are now confident and frequent editors. This is just one of many training sessions she has run for groups and the quality and effectiveness of her contribution deserves this recognition.

(For some reason I'm having issues logging into my Wikimedia account and have no time right now to fix it - I'm Claire 75 on Wikipedia) ~~~~ Claire 75, 14 July 2017 (BST)

Ewan McAndrew

Ewan's work with Edinburgh University is hugely important for normalising the use of Wikipedia in an academic setting. Without being able to point out the great work he has done there i doubt i would have got Aberystwyth University to start taking Wikipedia seriously as a teaching tool. But the main reason for nominating Ewan is the Celtic Knot Conference. Ewan clearly worked incredibly hard on putting this event together, which by all accounts was a great success. From a Welsh perspective, a Wiki conference focused on smaller and minority languages was hugely valuable, as issues on smaller Wiki's can be very different to those on en Wiki. Jason.nlw (talk) 15:44, 11 July 2017 (BST)

I'd like to endorse Ewan's nomination for all his valuable work in Scotland, especially the Celtic Knot Conference. --86.24.232.177 17:05, 11 July 2017 (BST)

I wish to endorse this nomination. Ewan was a fantastic support the last time we ran a twin event together. He's developed some great training resources that will benefit all wikimedia trainers and the scope and variety of the events he has run as a wikimedian in residence are truly outstanding. Elflin (talk) 22:07, 13 July 2017 (BST)

Ritchie333

Ritchie, despite being part of a group including myself who constantly have to deal with idiots on the site has remained strong and focused on content. He deserves the award for that alone haha but the real reason is his promotion of List of London Monopoly locations to Good Article and Featured list status. He put in a massive amount of work and time to sort out those core articles and promote them which deserves recognition, they make a big difference to London topics on Wikipedia. Dr. Blofeld (talk) 15:56, 11 July 2017 (BST)

Brianboulton

I would like to nominate Brianboulton as the Wikipedian of the year. He is one of our finest FA contributors, one of only three to have written over a hundred Featured Articles and, until recently, one of the co-ordinators of the TFA process to administrate over the FA front page contribution. He has been hugely active in the Peer Review and FAC process, aiding editors constantly to ensure that the highest standards are retained for our best work.

Aside from his tireless work on content and processes, he brings a light touch of tact and diplomacy in discussions, remaining calm, even and balanced – even when discussions become fraught. He is a credit to Wikipedia and we are lucky to count him amongst us. – SchroCat (talk) 13:04, 13 July 2017 (BST)

Jason Evans

I know that Jason has nominated the National Library of Wales for Partnership of the Year but I think he also deserves recognition for his hard work and enthusiasm, which has been in no small part the driving force behind the NLW's engagement with Wikimedia. He successfully completed the Welsh Government funded Wicipop project earlier this year and will soon be managing the Wici-Health project, again in collaboration with the Welsh Government. Obviously, working with major stakeholders is challenging and requires a great deal of skill and dedication but it does result in projects that engage with the community and deliver social benefits by creating content in the medium of Welsh. The innovative use of the ArticlePlaceholder application and Wikidata lists during the Wicipop project is an excellent example for other language editions of Wikipedia to follow. Jason has been very busy during the past year running edit-a-thons to engage with new audiences and advocating Wikipedia and Wikidata during his conferences presentations but still finds time to scrape websites for metadata, answer random questions and generally support my Wikidata Visiting Scholar projects. We should be grateful to have Jason as a member of our Wikimedia community. Sic19 (talk) 09:45, 14 July 2017 (BST)

Jane Doe

Because she's great! ~~~~

Partnership of the Year

National Library of Wales

Even if i do say so myself, i think the National Library of Wales deserves a nomination for their unparalleled commitment to Wikimedia UK and the wider Wikimedia movement. The NLW are now coming to the end of a 36 month full time residency. They have released 15,000 images to commons and have helped to create 33,000 wikidata items. They have held 20 Edit-a-thons, and users attending NLW events have created 10,000 new articles since January 2015. The library has been committed to supporting Wikimedia projects and has helped other Welsh content producers share their content on Wikimedia platforms, such as CADW (27,000 wikidata items) and Sain Records (7,000 sound clips). They have agreed to open their doors to Wiki visiting scholars, and have embeded Wiki based activities into their volunteer programme. They have partnered with the Welsh Government to run projects aimed at improving Welsh language content, and they have now appointed a permanent full time Wikimedian to their staff in order to maintain and develop their partnership with Wikimedia long term. Jason.nlw (talk) 15:15, 11 July 2017 (BST)

Wellcome Library

Like Jason, I'd like to nominate the partner who I've worked with over the past year: Wellcome Library has been a fantastic partner institution. Having already uploaded 94,450 images to Commons, this year they've also hosted their first Wikimedian in Residence. As part of this, they've fully funded and catered lots of events, and helped engage other organisations (such as the Royal College of Nursing, the Institution of Engineering & Technology, CREST, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) in contributing to Wikimedia projects. Wellcome have been particularly strong in supporting events aimed at improving the gender gap and also working with potentially challenging topics such as mental health. Their pride in and communication of the Wiki-work happening has been priceless in bringing the possibilities of working with Wikimedia to the attention of lots of people, institutions and groups who might not have previously considered it. Zeromonk (talk) 14:07, 12 July 2017 (BST)

National Library of Scotland

I'd like to nominate NLS for their continued support for open knowledge in Scotland. Not content to have recruited Scotland's first Wikimedian in Residence Ally Crockford, back in July 2013, NLS have this year recruited Dr Susan Ross, the world's first Gaelic Wikimedian in Residence. The Library holds a significant collection of Gaelic material, and the residency is an opportunity both to engage the public with that collection, and to provide much-needed support to Uicipeid. As was shown as the recent Celtic Knot conference, minority language Wikipedias (and collaboration thereon) provide a key site for the production of cultural identity. Their support and leadership is invaluable to the sector. Lirazelf (talk) 10:39, 13 July 2017 (BST)

I would like to endorse this nomination. From the very beginning of Ally's residency, NLS have embraced Wikimedia and worked hard on an organisational level to look at how they can make their resources more accessible on Wikipedia. Elflin (talk) 22:02, 13 July 2017 (BST)

Awesome partner organisation

They're brilliant! ~~~~

Honourable Mention

User:Sic19

Simon Cobb (Sic19) has worked incredibly hard this year developing cultural Wikidata. As the Wikidata visiting scholar with National Library of Wales he has created over 10,000 Wikidata items and showcased the benefits of creating open linked data using visualisations, and by writing blogs. He ran a successful session at LODLAM 2017 aimed at developing collaborative Wikidata projects across the sector. In his role at the Leeds University Library he has also run several Wikipedia sessions and has been a strong advocate for Wikimedia within that institution. Jason.nlw (talk) 15:29, 11 July 2017 (BST)

I endorse, over 10,000 items is incredible, he's doing a lot of great work for Wikimedia.Dr. Blofeld (talk) 16:08, 11 July 2017 (BST)

User:Jesswade88

Jess Wade has only been editing since October 2016, but in that short time she's been fantastic at promoting Wikipedia editing and at planning and executing Wikipedia learning events. She's done a fantastic job of highlighting to scientific and acaedemic communities how they can improve Wikipedia and be involved in editing, and perhaps most importantly she planned, secured funding and external speakers for, and hosted two huge sessions for school students (more to follow!). The focus on women in STEM meant that her work has been excellent for highlighting gender gap issues and working to improve them too. For more details of her work, see the Wellcome Residency Reports. Zeromonk (talk) 14:07, 12 July 2017 (BST)

User:Andrew Davidson

Andrew D. has been a tireless supporter of editors, editathons, and general-wikiness. He's attended a great many events over the past year and done a stellar job of helping new editors to find their feet. He's particularly briliant at putting new pages through DYK so that they find a wider audience. Events such as the huge school session at Imperial would have been impossible without his support. Zeromonk (talk) 14:07, 12 July 2017 (BST)

- I would support this nomination, Andrew has been excellently supportive to the Women's Classical Committee Wikipedia project. (for some reason I'm having issues logging in and have no time right now to fix it - I'm Claire 75 on Wikipedia) ~~~~ Claire 75, 14 July 2017 (BST)

London Wikimedians

I know this is probably too broad to be acceptable as an entry, but I would like to recognise the support provided by London Wikimedians who attend the regular Meetups. They have been so welcoming and generous with their time and ideas for how to run events (many of which London Wikimedians have come and helped with too). Zeromonk (talk) 14:07, 12 July 2017 (BST)

User:Example

For her tireless work as the example user on all Wikimedia projects. ~~~~