Open Access/2011/April
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This newsletter issue is a draft, and will be coming out some time in April. Please help write it! |
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Open Access
Issue 2 - April 2011
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Editorial
(To come)
Follow Wikimedia UK also on blog.wikimedia.org.uk , and for general discussion join the mailing list at lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l .
Upcoming events
- List to go here
Features
- Features cover the activities and interests of UK Wikimedians as well as topics related to the UK and/or to Wikimedia UK. Want to write a feature for the next newsletter? Please pitch your idea to editor
wikimedia.org.uk before the 20th of this month.
- (Gemma Griffiths, Steve Virgin and Martin Poulter) talks about Wikipedia's 10th Birthday and media coverage
Wales spoke to an audience of 700 at the University of Bristol's Victoria Rooms, with 3000 more watching live streaming, and about 25,000 on recorded videos shot by BBC Anchor Project, local Wikipedians & Bristol City Council. Local user Jezhotwells had made it his ambition to get the article about the event to Good Article status beforehand, and managed it at 3am on the day of the talk. After an introduction from Guy Orpen, the University's Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Wales gave a prepared speech and answered selected questions. His comments about Net Neutrality & HP Labs led to several hundred news stories on the event being available on Google News the next morning. A six minute video of the talk, edited at BBC Broadcasting House, has been uploaded to Commons. Earlier in the day, Wales had spoken at the Bristol Cathedral School, from which a YouTube video is available.
Short entries
- Short entries are one paragraph summaries of recent events and interesting topics. Want to write a short entry for the next newsletter? Please send them to editorwikimedia.org.uk before the end of this month.
- Cancer Research UK Workshop, by (Mike Peel?)
- Student Wikipedia Society at Imperial College, by (Vinesh?)
- Bristol Wiki Academy, by Martin Poulter
Saturday 19th March saw a one-day event at the University of Bristol, jointly branded between Wikimedia UK and the University, and organised by Steve Virgin and myself. Attending were representatives from potential partner organisations and the local Somali and Bengali-speaking communities, as well as some students from the city's two universities. After my overview, Alex Stinson explained the Five Pillars, GLAM sector partnerships and the Ambassador programme. Rod Ward spoke about article quality and WikiProjects (see Rod's blog). William Avery demonstrated image uploading. Steve Woods gave a non-technical intro to MediaWiki (see Steve's blog). Roger Bamkin made a very persuasive case for QR codes, placing examples around the room. Jezhotwells was on hand to provide one-to-one help to new users. I spoke to local radio in the morning to promote the event. Matt Jukes of the Medical Research Council blogged favourably: "I think if more people were aware of just how tough the Wikipedia peer-review system was then there would be a lot less nay-sayers. The focus not only on getting things factually correct and well cited but also on the quality of the copy (and even layout) was really impressive."
- Wikipedia and Academia, by Martin Poulter
The ongoing survey into Expert barriers to Wikipedia caught the attention of the Guardian, who ran an article on Tuesday 29th March. Mike Peel sent the Guardian a variety of suitable contacts, and the paper chose Mike's own photo and interview to lead the article. The article mentioned a number of ways in which Wikimedia is reaching out to academia, including Wikipedians at Imperial College (see above). Wikipedia's haters piled into the online comments, as did some veteran editors. The article caught the attention of the BBC World Service, who asked the Board for an academic interviewee. They were directed to Rod Ward, who lectures at the University of West of England. The interviewer seemed taken aback when Rod explained that Wikipedians are not paid for their contributions. The programme is currently available on iPlayer, with Rod's interview starting at 35.03 minutes.
- Chapters meeting, by (Mike Peel?)
Summary from Manuel Schneider, meta:Wikimedia Conference 2011
About Open Access
Open Access is by and for UK Wikimedians, is edited by ???, and is published under a CC-by-SA license. All images are files from Wikimedia Commons. Their image description pages contain attribution and license information, accessible simply by clicking the image.
Open Access is a publication of Wiki UK Ltd, a company limited by guarantee (Registered No.6741827), trading as Wikimedia UK. The Registered Office is at 23 Cartwright Way, Nottingham NG9 1RL.
Wikimedia UK is the United Kingdom chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia UK Board trustees are Andrew Turvey (Chair), Michael Peel (Secretary), Thomas Dalton (Treasurer), Joseph Seddon, Steve Virgin. Follow the links to their user pages for contact details. To join or to donate to Wikimedia UK, go to the left-hand sidebar.
Views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect those of the company.
Comments
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