Water cooler/2014

Invitation to Chapters and Photographers for the European Parliament Project 2014

Photographers needed

Hello everyone, please see the below information regarding a new project on Commons that's looking to help photograph and record members of the European Parliament. The group working on the project are looking for volunteers to help out with this piece of work and Wikimedia UK will consider providing funding for someone to go and help out. I've copied the below directly from the message originally circulated about the project so that those interested can get full details and context. Wikimedia UK also has equipment that we can loan for use on the project, including camera, lights, lenses and a sound recorder. Please comment below if you're interested, or feel free to email me directly. Thank you. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 11:56, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Preamble

Some might have heard about the State Parliament Projects done in Germany and Austria since 2009: A bunch of Wikipedians and photographers meet politicians in the parliament, shoot professional photos, discuss their Wikipedia articles etc. This way hundreds of free licensed, high quality images have been made, Wikipedia articles have been improved. In the latest project at Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) we added videos, politicians give a short introduction about themselves, their position and political focus in German and in their mother tongue if different from German. About 20 photographers were able to participate and processes how to work with the parliament's administration, how to interact with the politicians, how to efficiently take a lot of photos in a short time and with good quality have been established.

Next Level: European Parliament

Now we would like to take this to next level: After contacting the European Parliament I was able to get their approval, the support by the parties and a date! Unfortunately the date is already in February, 3rd to 7th, as we have to use the short time gap between budget deliberations and elections. MEPs only travel to the EP when deliberations are ongoing but then they are also busy with meetings, as soon as the election preperation starts there won't be any time for our project within the next 6 months. Anyway I am sure we can do that - the elections are also a great opportunity to raise awareness on our material we have in Wikipedia and on Commons. It is also an excellent opportunity to bring together volunteers in doing our core work together, maybe we can transfer the idea of Parliament Projects to other countries. Volunteers get the opportunity to learn from each other - the EP is a very challenging project, having more than 700 MEPs to be handled within a few days. And Wikipedia may improve its articles, also by bringing together volunteers from different EU countries. Many MEPs have their articles only in a few of the European languages, some not even in their native language!

Your Chapter Involved

We are looking forward to get volunteers from as many countries as possible involved in this project. In order to be handle it we need approx. 35 people to help. Obviously the german and austrian photographers are already waiting for it, from past projects they already know what will go on. But there is much more to it: We want your volunteers! Imagine a project where we could bring together volunteers from all 24 language communities in the EU - that is what we are trying!

Therefore we ask you for a favour:

• please forward this invitation to your local community - you can point them to our project page on Wikimedia Commons:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliament

• does your chapter provide travel support for those volunteers in your country who want to participate? Please do so. Your chapter pays for the transportation to / from Strasbourg and the accommodation (around 300 EUR per person for all 6 nights), we take care of the rest (transportation hotel - EP, catering etc.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliament/Participation

• does your chapter have photographic equipment we might need? We could use DSLRs, flash units, background systems, lenses...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliament/Equipment

• we would like to supply the volunteers with t-shirts or hoodies with Wikipedia logo or similar - for a unified appearance and to make them visible as volunteers and Wikimedians. Is your chapter (or the WMF?)

interested in providing 90 shirts / hoodies? (We planned 2 pc. per person as they will be worn almost one week.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wikipedians_in_European_Parliament/Marketing

• everyone who likes this project: state your support on the talk page of our grant request to the WMF which should cover the general costs of the project. By this grant request we make sure that each chapter only has to handle local support and can stay within it's budgeted limits and area of operation.
  • https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Olaf_Kosinsky/Wikipedians_in_European_Parliament

Existing online resources

Could we encourage volunteers to first think of uploading public domain/copyright free available media published by institutions such as the European Parliament Information Office in the United Kingdom, and to check if there are other media packs available to release on request from their off-line archives, before making plans to create amateur new media? My experience with uploading over 5,000 photographs relating to politicians from the Nordic Region was that this provided a plentiful supply of top quality photographs to illustrate Wikipedias in several languages. These photographs cost nothing in travel or equipment and so initial projects of this type are likely to be of incredibly high "bang for the buck" in terms of using the charity's funds.

If anyone finds such an archive with several hundred or more media files, and would like my help in a month or two with a mass upload, I would be happy to help out by making this part of my 2014 Faebot batch upload projects as well as claiming this as a success under the European Parliament Project umbrella. Thanks --Fæ (talk) 17:58, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Scholarship to attend Learning Day and EduWiki Conference 2014 in Serbia

To keep the conversation together and make it easier to link to the call and discussion in the future, use the Talk:Wikimedia Serbia EduWiki Conference 2014 Scholarship page there. Call content transcluded:

Wikimedia Serbia EduWiki Conference 2014

Wikimedia Serbia is organising an event called EduWiki Conference 2014 on Monday 24 March at the Belgrade Youth Center (Belgrade Serbia); this will be mostly in Serbian. Learning Day, an internal meeting between members of the WMRS education project and Wikimedians from other chapters takes place on Sunday 23 March, the day before the conference; this will be in English. This meeting will take place in Wikimedia Serbia Office. For more information please check the web page for this event from WMRS (in English).

WMUK is offering one scholarship (i.e. covering travel and accommodation expenses) to an active volunteer from the Wikimedia UK community willing to give a 15-minute presentation at the Learning Day. This scholarship is to cover a proposal made directly by the chapter in relation to its main Education-related activities for the Learning Day. We therefore need a volunteer to present the main Education-related work of the chapter at this event. Ideally, the presentation should be about at least three of the following topics:

• WMUK's EduWiki conferences
• WMUK-supported activities in Higher Education
• WMUK's partnership with JISC
• The Future of Education theme at Wikimania 2014

The call for applications for this scholarship is now closed.

The successful scholarship applicant will be required to write reports about the Learning Day for the Wikimedia UK wiki and/or blog before and after traveling to Belgrade.

PLEASE NOTE: This scholarship offer does not exclude us from considering a separate request for support from any other individual interested in presenting their Education-related work, should their proposal be accepted for this conference in Serbia. Wikimedia Serbia is accepting individual proposals for presentations until Monday 6 January, as per the email circulated by WMRS on the Education mailing list.

Looking for a Wikimedia Training Coordinator

Wici Cymru and Wikimedia UK are looking for a Wales Coordinator to develop the Wicipedia Cymraeg and English Wikipedia in Wales through encouraging and training new editors via our Llwybrau Byw - Living Paths Project.

The Coordinator must have experience of editing Wikimedia projects (both English and Welsh) and supporting volunteers and training on a professional level. The work will involve organising and delivering training sessions throughout Wales.

Fluency in both the Welsh and English language is essential.

The post is for 6 months and the successful applicant will be seconded to Wici Cymru who will oversee the work, jointly with WMUK, the employer, and the Welsh Government as financial partner.

The post is subject to Wikimedia UK's guidelines and contracts and is for 3 days per week. Further information can be found here and application forms are available from: Jon Davies at jon.davieswikimedia.org.uk

Applications are welcome. The closing date is 10am on the 22nd of January 2013. Applications cannot be accepted after that date. Interviews are planned for the morning of 28th January in Wrexham. Candidates need to be available for this.

The successful candidate's salary will be paid for by the Welsh Government. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 16:20, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

"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)

Wikis for all - how to improve accessibility.

https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Accessibility_of_the_Wikimedia_UK_website

This paper has been written by Carol Campbell a trustee of Wikimedia UK. She is very interested in 'getting the ball rolling' on issues around accessibility on Wikipedia and all other wikis. She is fairly certain that this is not the first time these issues have been raised but would like to commit to bringing together people interested in finding answers to some of the challenges she is raising. Please add your names below and offer any background or insights you may have. Thanks. Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 15:45, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Please assure Carol that many people have already done a great deal of work on this area over several years. I suggest we are careful not to duplicate existing work or fail to take into account previous research. As a starting point I suggest contacting those leading Wikipedia:WikiProject_Accessibility, those behind the developments at mw:Accessibility and forming a library of existing research to reference and review against such as MediaWiki – Accessibility Enhancements. --Fæ (talk) 16:27, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi Fae, I agree we should build on existing work and communities. Some of this is also about style guide stuff (which is a point you've raised elsewhere). I started to collect together mediawiki accessibility resources on my blog, it's interesting to see where some projects seem to have stalled, and where there may be gaps in attention (see Carol's comment). If we can support existing work that'd be great, if we can continue development then that's positive too! Sjgknight (talk) 16:48, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

1st June is Global Sharing Day

Hello everyone. I had a really interesting conversation with some people who are developing Global Sharing Day (link is to old website, new one coming soon). Essentially, it is a global celebration of sharing and the "sharing economy". This year I think it would be great for Wikimedia UK to take part in this celebration as sharing is at the very heart of what we do. Some of the ideas I've had so far include an open day on 1st June where we all bring along some food, share lunch together and then teach each other new skills. We could also have an editathon on the topic. I also think it would be worthwhile delivering a training and editing session to some of the groups taking part in the event. I'd love to hear any suggestions you may have on how we can mark Global Sharing Day as a celebration of what we all do. Thoughts please! Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 18:20, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Sharing is great, we all agree, but please read the discussion first at the Engine Room as the company behind this appears to be a commercial venture and so we need to give it more thought before endorsing this day. Perhaps we could have a sharing day without aligning ourselves with this particular effort? Of course you could argue that every day is a sharing day for us already. Philafrenzy (talk) 14:30, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

The company behind Global Sharing Day have now confirmed they are a for-profit commercial venture. --Fæ (talk) 12:10, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Discussion about this day is also happening at: Engine room#1st June is Global Sharing Day

The third human editor to exceed a million edits on the English language Wikipedia

In the last few days User:Waacstats has become the third editor other than bots ever to contribute over one million edits on a single project. Immediately afterwards he overtook Rich Farmbrough, and he now has the second highest edit count on the English language Wikipedia.

Apparently Waacstats is in Wales, so I would like to suggest that we invite him to our next AGM and present him with an award for being the third editor ever to achieve this milestone. Perhaps Rich would be willing to make the presentation? Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 09:03, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Note that there is no authoritative list for edit counts. Other lists exist on projects other than the English Wikipedia, such as this Commons list of active contributors. I would be cautious about making general claims about all projects. --Fæ (talk) 10:02, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Sorry Fae, I didn't notice that you had also made the million on Commons. Very happy to broaden my proposal to mark your milestone as well. That means that other than Koavf, three of the four highest edit counts that I'm aware of are from people in the UK! It is certainly possible that people on some of the other major versions of wikipedia have also passed this milestone, but I'd be surprised if they were in the remit of the UK chapter. Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 11:16, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

Yes, passed the million a while back; nobody noticed. I celebrated by having a tea break. With bot edits I have more than 3.5m edits, you should imagine there are "bot" writers who have made around 10m. --Fæ (talk) 11:37, 16 January 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)

Hello LoopZilla. CRUK were managing the recruitment but we will certainly bear in mind your comments for any recruitment that Wikimedia UK manages. I;ve been told that only one person contacted CRUK after the closing date and that they weren't shortlisted. Hope this helps! Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 15:20, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Yes, but Daria sent out an email after the closing date. LoopZilla (talk) 21:15, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi Loopzilla, the email was sent as there was a concern about whether the recruitment message reached all relevant groups and I was asked to support the effort to spread the message wider. CRUK would have considered extending the deadline if the response to the message was significant -but as we have said, it was low. I am assured though that any application that came in was considered. Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 10:59, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

This is incorrect, in my book LoopZilla (talk) 11:43, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

CRUK has been made aware of this discussion and will be contacting you directly - I hope it will provide the clarification you are seeking. Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 13:50, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Open Coalition Project Co-ordinator

Hello everyone. As you may be aware, for some time Wikimedia UK has been working with organisations such as Creative Commons and Open Knowledge Foundation to build closer working relationships across the open sector. We're now looking for a project co-ordinator to help take this work forward. It's a six month, part-time role and you can find all of the details here. Please do get in touch if you'd like more information. The closing date is Monday 3 February. Thank you! Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 17:07, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Discussion about this post is at Engine_room#Recruitment_-_Discussion_removed_from_Water_cooler#Open_Coalition_Project_Co-ordinator --Fæ (talk) 19:13, 17 January 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)

Has nobody got a sofa or spare bed? Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 08:31, 2 April 2014 (BST)

Training the Trainers Cardiff

Hi all, we've had a last minute drop out for Training the Trainers/February 2014 event in Cardiff this weekend. If anyone reading this are interested in the open spot, please let me know by calling 07885980534. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 17:28, 28 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 really need you!

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)

Wikimedia UK is hiring: Web

Dear all -

I would like to announce Wikimedia UK is hiring for a fixed term contract position for 6 months for a Technical Programme Manager

We will be promoting the post via Government Gateway, the Wikimedia-l and Wikimediauk-l lists, and the 3 beards and Tech City jobs boards. If you can think of any other suitable places do drop a line here, and of course, please forward the link to those you think should be applying!

Thanks Katherine Bavage (WMUK) (talk)

Zürich Hackathon scholarships

Opening of the 2013 Hackathon in Amsterdam.

Wikimedia UK will be offering two to three scholarships to the international Wikimedia Hackathon in Zürich this year. Application will be taken through the registration page for the Hackathon. The deadline for application is 16 March. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 18:43, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Individual Engagement Grants - from the Foundation

Some of you may be interested in this Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 10:45, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

The Wikimedia Foundation and the Individual Engagement Grants Committee invite you to submit and review proposals for community-led experiments to improve Wikimedia!

Individual Engagement Grants support individuals and small teams to organize projects for 6 months. You can get funding to turn your idea for improving Wikimedia projects into action, with a grant for online community organizing, outreach and partnerships, tool-building, or research. Funding is available for a few hundred dollars up to $30,000.

Proposals for this round are due 31 March 2014:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG

We're also seeking new committee members to help review and recommend proposals for funding. Candidates are invited to sign up by 9 March 2014:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Committee

Some examples of projects we've funded in the past:

• Organizing social media for Chinese Wikipedia ($350 for materials)[1]

• Improving gadgets for Visual Editor ($4500 for developers)[2]

• Coordinating free access to reliable sources for Wikipedians ($7500 for

project management, consultants and materials)[3]

• Building community and strategy for Wikisource (EURO 10000 for organizing and

travel)[4]

You can read more on the WMF blog:

https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/individual-engagement-grants/

Hope to have your participation in this round!

Best wishes,

Siko Bouterse - Wikimedia Foundation

Shouldn't you be promoting the WMUK's grant scheme, rather than the WMF's? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 18:21, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Anyone interested in applying for a grant form WMUK should check out the green box at the top of this page, if you haven't already seen it. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 03:56, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

Community consultation on WMUK's Wikimedia in Residence programme

Hi everyone,

As a chapter we have run the Wikimedian in Residence (WIR) programme since May 2012, when Andrew Gray started his residency at the British Library.

We have now agreed to reflect on the programme’s successes and challenges through a review. The WIR programme has been seen as one of the key ways we can engage with external organisations, extending our scale of activities and outreach. These residencies are often a considerable investment for WMUK (£2-8K) and need to deliver a meaningful impact.

We would like to see what the UK community thinks of the programme so far - you are now invited to take part in the survey that will form the first part of the review. Your answers will be an important element of influencing the future of the programme.

If you are not based in the UK, you are still welcome to comment - we are very interested in what our community thinks of the programme.

The deadline for responding is 24 March.

Thank you! Richard Nevell

Gnome home

I feel the absence of a central cleanup and gnoming place on this site, so I have created gnome home, and a category to go with. Charles Matthews (talk) 09:16, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

Royal Society editathon

My photos from the evening session of yesterday's editathon at the Royal Society are now on Commons at Commons:Category:Wikimedia UK Royal Society Women's editathon 2014. Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 23:06, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

Thank you seem to be the hardest words

A few months ago I wrote a critical review about a hotel I stayed in for Trip Advisor. I wanted to share my experience and warn off others. I posted and thought no more of it. I was surprised a few weeks later to receive a 'Thank you' email explaining how important by little piece of bile had been, and how many people had read it. I was chuffed. A month after that, and a couple more reviews, I was thanked again, given an update on the surprisingly large number of people who had read the reviews, and was awarded the equivalent of a 'gold star'.

OK, so it was a bot but it occurred to me how sad it was that we don't do something similar for our contributors. Barnstars are great but from what I observe many people never look at their user pages. Wouldn't it be great if every time one of my uploaded photos made it onto a page I got some sort of alert or just a 'thank you' for every twentieth edit?

When I started working for Wikimedia UK I was warnedthat I was entering a culture that didn't 'do thank yous'. I think that we are missing out here and if we want to encourage and retain editors a few words of thanks from time to time would be a powerful tool. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 18:27, 6 March 2014 (UTC) - on behalf of User:Jon Davies (WMUK)

I received a very nice thank you after doing the work on the membership survey and the UCL editathon. It touched me more than I think I let on at the time, and certainly more than I expected something as simple as that to. So thank you again to Jon, Katherine and Daria.

I'm also reminded of a few years ago when I moved house, I looked up the days for rubbish collection on the council website and was very impressed with how easy it was to find what I was looking for, as my previous council's website made it unnecessarily difficult. So I wrote a quick thank you email. About two days later I got a reply from the manager of the person responsible for that, saying that my note had made their day. So I fully agree with the aim to encourage more thank yous. Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 21:01, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

All good points. I see that WMCH have started a page on Meta to discuss how to encourage new users to stick around by thanking them after the fundraiser. This seems of interest to WMUK as well. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 10:03, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

[INFO] Scripts in Lua

Hi, I have setup a few days ago the Scribunto extension on our wiki. You are now consequently able to create scripts in Lua on this wiki. Kelson (talk) 10:55, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Wikimedians in the UK

I've been working on the categorisation of photos into commons:Category:Wikimedians in the United Kingdom (moving files over from commons:Category:Wikipedians in the United Kingdom). I'm curious to know - how many of these users do you recognise? Who's missing? (these are both open questions to anyone that reads this!) Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 22:30, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

You removed me from both "Wikipedians in the United Kingdom" and "[Commons] User in the United Kingdom". I assure you, I am both. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 23:00, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes, as am I. However, people seemed to be split between "Wikipedians in" and "Wikimedians in" for no apparent reason or order, and you were one of only two people that had all of their photos in the User category rather than just their user page... Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 07:52, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Open Access Reader

I have come up with an initiative called "Open Access Reader", a project to systematically have every piece of notable open access research cited in Wikipedia. I'd like to develop this into a grant proposal, and I welcome comments and suggestions, both on the project itself and where best to get grant funding: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Open_Access_Reader EdSaperia (talk) 00:37, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Just linking to the prelim discussion on your userpage https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/User_talk:EdSaperia/Wikimedia_UK%27s_2014_Strategy#Open%20access%20reader Sjgknight (talk) 11:55, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Free Wiki Loves Monuments calendars 2014 (with 2013 pictures)

Thanks to the WLM International Group we have received some rather nice Wiki Loves Monuments wall calendars for 2014, with photos from the 2013 international contest. I have deposited them at the WMUK offices from where they are available free to anyone who was involved in the 2013 competition, either as an organizer or as an competitor. Although they are a little late, they still have 10 months of useful life in them! If you would like one, please contact the staff. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 17:00, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

We still have about ten left and would be happy to post them to people who can't make it to the office. Email us jon.davies@wikimedia.org.uk Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 09:27, 4 April 2014 (BST)

West Midlands Police Museum editathon

Just a reminder that the West Midlands Police Museum editathon is this Saturday, in Birmingham; some places remain! Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:53, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

I couldn't make this, Andy - much though I wanted to! I was stuck in London doing training. How did it go? Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 16:51, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

Very well, thank you, though over 470 very fine images are stuck on Flickr while the tool to import them to Commons appears borked. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:59, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

Andy, is the tool still broken? Which tool is it that isn't working? I'm not sure there's much we can do, but we can nudge the person who runs the tool. Extra voices saying how useful it is might help. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 11:25, 3 April 2014 (BST)

Letter to UK MEPs

Hello everyone. You may be interested to note that Wikimedia UK is writing to all 73 UK MEPs regarding copyright. In line with the work we've done with the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU (group of European Wikimedia chapters) we are looking for support for change in three areas: freedom of panorama; public domain of publicly-funded works; and use of orphan works. If you'd like to see the letter, it's here. It will be going out next week (with a couple of minor modifications) in the post and also by email. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 17:07, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Following this up, after some discussion with UK and international community members some minor changes were made. The final version of the letter was sent out yesterday and can be seen in pdf format by clicking here. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 16:10, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

A quick update - we've received four letters and emails of support for our view on copyright reform so far, from the three main political parties. I view this as being a good start and will share more information as we receive more replies. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:15, 2 April 2014 (BST)

Day of the week of events

There's been no reply to my message at Talk:Women in Science Wikipedia edit-a-thon 13 May 2014 - University of Liverpool. Does anyone know why it is happening on that day? I'd hate to think that we'd do an event on a day that is convenient for someone in a partner institution but results in us reaching very few people. Yaris678 (talk) 19:42, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Hi Yaris, I have passed this on to my colleagues so hopefully someone who is able to answer your question will be in touch soon. Thank you. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 12:19, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Replied on the event page - hope it helps. If you are interested in being a trainer for this event, do note your interest on the event page. Thanks! Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 09:45, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Wikidata workshop

Do you want to learn more about Wikidata? On Saturday 26 April, Wikimedia UK is organising a one day workshop focusing on Wikidata, its tools ecosystem, and what you can do with it. More details and registration can be found here. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 14:50, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

I do, but I can't make that date. Will the event be re-run? Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 13:57, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

I imagine it will be. This is the second one we have ran, but Wikidata is still developing and maturing rapidly, so there will be lots of new things to cover in a few months no doubt. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 12:29, 1 April 2014 (BST)

Wikimania delegate packs

Hello everyone. It's time to start preparing delegate packs for Wikimania. What materials would be useful to include in a perfect world? What information would be useful to visitors to the conference, and to London? Things like Tube maps and guides to using Oyster cards of course, emergency contact details, directions to the Barbican and Wikimedia UK office... but what else do you think would be helpful? Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Note: While it seems like Wikimania is a long way away still, if we want new materials they need to be written, designed and printed so the sooner we start, the better. Thanks very much. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 11:12, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

• Wikivoyage:Wikimania 2014 London Guidebook is intended to cover a lot of things like this. Some of it doesn't work well offline (the URLs mainly) but that project's page are designed to be printed off and used manually. (At one point I was thinking of useing QRpedia to create a quick QR link from a printed page to the website but that doesn't seem to work any more for non-pedias.) - AdamBMorgan (talk) 11:39, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• A Wikimedia branded memory stick. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 12:50, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• An A4 local map showing the venue, the locations of the evening events, the accommodation and the public transport links Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• the Wikimania schedule Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• A list of friendly dos and don't such as "on tube escalators stand on the right, walk on the left". Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
  • +1 Jarry1250 (talk) 16:05, 31 March 2014 (BST)
• A wikimedia UK sticker and coaster Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• Re the emergency contact details, there is a draft already started on the Wikimania wiki. Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
• a Weather forecast for the 8-11 August. We would need to print this on the 7th and add it to the delegate bags. Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 13:23, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Surely people can check the weather for themselves? I mean, paper is going to be out of date quickly. Jarry1250 (talk) 16:05, 31 March 2014 (BST)
    • And given how quickly we'd need to get the info printed, it would either be expensive or look like it was home made so probably best to put this one on the back burner. Unless we want something tongue-in-cheek and just put 'drizzle' for all Wikimania. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 17:15, 31 March 2014 (BST)
      • Possibly just the URL of a good online weather forecast or two (e.g. BBC, Met Office). Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 00:41, 1 April 2014 (BST)
• I've always wanted to hand out physical copies of the Signpost at a Wikimania, and I may finally get the chance this year :) A special "Wikimania" edition could provide some curated editorial insight into what was going on in different interest areas. Of course, it needn't be in the delegate packs, that's just an extra thought of mine. Jarry1250 (talk) 16:05, 31 March 2014 (BST)

Hi Jarry1250, the office can help with that if you'd like some support arranging this. I do like the idea of The Signpost as a one-off printed product. I think it could be very good. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 10:22, 1 April 2014 (BST)

• Nothing at all. Rather than packing bags, put things out on a table near to the registration desk, and let people help themselves to what they're interested in. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 16:26, 31 March 2014 (BST)

Scholarships available to OKFestival & OpenSym

Group photo of participants of WikiSym+OpenSym 2013 in Hong Kong

Wikimedia UK is offering up to two scholarships each to both the Open Knowledge Festival 2014 (15-17 July) & OpenSym 2014 (27-29 August), both of which are being held in Berlin, Germany.

OKFestival, run by the Open Knowledge Foundation is an open data and open knowledge conference that will bring together over 1,000 people from more than 60 countries in a bid to encourage innovation in the open sector through sharing experiences and skills. Furthermore, the event is a celebration of the open movement itself and what it has already achieved.

OpenSym, previously known as WikiSym, is the International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration where researchers from all over the world gather to present their latest research and practice on "open access, open data, open education resources, IT-driven open innovation, open source, wikis and related social media, and Wikipedia".

To qualify for either scholarship, you must be based in the UK, be able to travel to Berlin and attend all days of the event, and agree to produce a public report (which may be published on the Wikimedia UK blog and in our newsletters) summarising the key things that you have taken from the event. Applicants for OpenSym must also be engaging in research about Wikimedia or other free content projects. The scholarship will cover conference registration fee, travel, accommodation, along with a per diem allowance to cover local expenses.

To apply for the scholarship to OKFestival, complete this online form by Sunday 20th April. The deadline for OpenSym scholarship is Sunday 30th April, and you can apply here.

-- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 12:31, 1 April 2014 (BST)

Looking for a Research Volunteer to help us with the Wikimedian in Residence survey - interesting opportunity!

Hi All,

Over the last two years, Wikimedia UK has worked towards creating a firmer structure supporting our Wikimedian in Residence project. ‪This started with, in November 2012, running a call for applications to attract institutions wanting to engage with such a project (background for that is [2] and [3]). ‬Some of the organisations we have worked with since can be found here.

Towards the end of 2013, we have agreed to reflect on the programme’s successes and challenges through a review. With significant learning for any organisation or institution wanting to be involved with the Wikimedian in Residence project, it's important that Wikimedia UK gathers the results of the surveys and creates a clear report summarising the results and producing recommendations for the future. We are now looking for a volunteer to deliver this report.

Please have a look here for more details. Looking forward to hearing from people who are interested in working on this.

Many thanks, Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 11:31, 3 April 2014 (BST)

Is too much stuff ending up in the engine room?

I am of the opinion that too much stuff is ending up in the engine room. Discussions like Engine room#Mini pop up banners and Engine room#Museum photography could definitely be had here, at the water cooler.

My impression, when the engine room started, was that we wanted to separate off the discussions that could get too noodly or too self-flaggelting for most people to be interested in. Am I right? At the moment, it is difficult to tell which venue is for what.

Yaris678 (talk) 22:57, 7 April 2014 (BST)

I agree that both of those topics could and should be on the WC. The distinction is set out in the headings of the two pages. Essentially, the WC for Open Knowledge projects and outwardly-directed stuff and the ER for inwardly-focused discussions eg policy, how we measure ourselves etc. (ps if anyone wants to start a discussion thread on this, the proper place - as an inwardly-focused topic - would the the ER rather than here)--MichaelMaggs (talk) 23:19, 7 April 2014 (BST)

I just did start a discussion thread on this and it is here.

I'm glad you agree with me on those two topics. I think they are the ones that most obviously should be here. But I think other things could be here too, like the one on affiliate-selected seats on the WMF board.

Personally, I think the outwardly/inwardly divide means that too many things will end up in the engine room. Anything could be construed as inwardly focused. Look at this discussion, it is about how we organize the wiki... of course it is inwardly focused... except that it effects how much stuff gets discussed here, in this nominally more public location... so its all about communication with the wider public really so it should be here. See? This is the problem with outwardly/inwardly.

I got the impression at the time that the engine room was created that the idea was that it was for stuff that was too noodly or too self-flaggelting for most people to be interested in. It's just that we couldn't think of any more precise language to express it in.

Look at it another way. Do we want the water cooler to be a place where announcements about banners and photos are made, or does it have a wider scope? A lot of the threads on here have 0 to 2 replies. Is that what we want it to be about?

Yaris678 (talk) 18:40, 8 April 2014 (BST)

Perhaps (and I hate to say it) we, as Wikimedians, are too inwardly-focussed? Or perhaps we need to have more open-ended discussions on here (and thus more opportunity for replies?) Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 23:47, 8 April 2014 (BST)

Wikimania support contractors

Wikimedia UK are looking for two people to act as Wikimania support contractors. Check out the page for details of what the post involves and how to apply. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 14:38, 9 April 2014 (BST)

British cartoons 1780—1830 available in very high resolution

Example parody of George IV and his desire for divorce, 1820.
7,068 × 4,638px, 93MB

There may be some UK Wikipedians interested in helping with 18th/19th century articles on British society, so I thought it worth highlighting my upload of over 700 new high resolution scans to Wikimedia Commons of the Library of Congress British Cartoon Prints Collection (for usability, both large tiff and more modest jpeg files are available). Many of these are notable political parodies that are either worth including on Wikipedia articles of the artists, their unfortunate subjects, or some may be notable enough for their own article. Alternatively, you may find some of the recently uploaded (complete) books, manuscripts and maps at World Digital Library an untapped resource for an article or a new Wikisource project.

The Library of Congress has other collections with a connection to UK history or there may be different on-line public domain collections that you would like to see uploaded. Drop me a note on Commons if you have an idea for future batch upload projects. --Fæ (talk) 08:40, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

William Henry Pyne cartoon deriding the Spanish during the Anglo-Spanish war, 1796-1808. 11,817 × 3,120 pixels, 105MB.

As an exemplar of the Library of Congress's work in digitizing this collection, I have put the above cartoon up as a Featured Picture Candidate. Old etchings tend to be difficult to get through on technical grounds, though historical significance should be taken into account. --Fæ (talk) 17:00, 15 April 2014 (BST)

If they prove difficult to get promoted on Commons, it may be worth going through the Featured Picture process on Wikipedia as encyclopedic value ("EV") is explicitly one of the criteria (#5). Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 11:51, 22 April 2014 (BST)

VLE released for beta testing

Hello everyone, I'm very happy to report that the Wikimedia UK virtual learning environment has been released to a small group, including those who have been through the Train the Trainers programme, for beta testing. I'm pretty excited by the potential the VLE has for supporting trainers and those who wish to learn about Wikipedia independently. Following this round of testing, a wider test period will begin in which the system will be shared with anyone within the movement who would like access before a final rollout of the system later in the year. Many thanks to Charles Matthews who has put an enormous amount of work into writing the course content and quizzes, as well as putting the thing together. Big thanks also to Doug Taylor and Tom Morton for their technical support, without which we would not have made it to this point. If you have any comments or questions please do let me know. Thank you. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:54, 2 April 2014 (BST)

That's good to hear, thanks. And congratulations to all who have made this happen. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 17:30, 2 April 2014 (BST)

Report: Supported work by Faebot

WMUK supported world map of trade winds
c.1711 by Herman Moll of London
6,021 × 2,562 pixels, 44MB

Commons:User:Faebot/WMUK report

This is a running report on activities using the Chapter supplied Macmini. The report is intended as a quarterly report so that the board can have oversight and ensure transparency for the positive outcomes of this funded project, however other volunteers and members might find it of interest. At the moment around 80% of all media identified as supported by chapter funding is a result of this project.

There are other, mostly one-off, things that I automate, along with odd WMFlabs hosted stuff such as the TARDIS and the Facebook Funfair. Requests from fellow volunteers are welcome, and have (quietly) resulted in some interesting uploads and mass improvements. Though with a large backlog of stuff, I cannot promise to do everything, nor to do it quickly :-) --Fæ (talk) 12:03, 12 April 2014 (BST)

Interesting report. Thank you. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 18:27, 14 April 2014 (BST)

Great video from Wikimedia Armenia

This is a lovely video from Armenia touching on their work in schools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSbrivrpzmw

Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 09:15, 15 April 2014 (BST)

To see the English text, make sure you have the captions option switched on. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 10:44, 16 April 2014 (BST)

WikiCon Berlin 2014

Attendees at the Wikimedia Conference

For those interested in what went on over the long weekend our report is now up on the wiki.

• WIKICON_BERLIN 2014 report

Jon Davies (WMUK) (talk) 09:43, 16 April 2014 (BST)

Photography at the Tank Museum

Dear all, Wikimedia UK has been given some complementary off peak tickets by en:the Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset so that our photographers can improve our coverage of their tanks and other vehicles. Interested photographers can apply for a ticket by emailing me with their snail mail address. Regards Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 12:43, 23 April 2014 (BST)

Contractor Scoping brief

In order to further the charity's goal of encouraging and supporting technological innovation, Wikimedia UK are looking for a contractor to undertake a scoping exercise to report to the charity's Board with proposals for how best we can achieve our mission in this respect. Details of the tender can be found here. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 12:58, 24 April 2014 (BST)

Upcoming volunteer opportunities to speak about Wikipedia

Dear All,

There are two exciting volunteer opportunities within expert outreach and Wikipedia that I wanted to flag up.

• Science Communications and Public Engagement workshop on 19 June, London, run by Society for Applied Microbiology, but open to a wider audience from other science organisations. See a draft agenda below. This is a really good opportunity to talk about using Wikipedia in Science communication to the right audience. Some details remain to be pinned down, so whoever is keen to deliver this can adapt the programme.

• A talk about Wikipedia and how a learned society can engage with it at Physiology 2014, London, which takes place over 30 June - 2 July. Probably a brief presentation (or a workshop, depending on your preference) to function as a part of the conference, to lead to a full training workshop in October in the office of the Physiology Society. The details are up for discussion and so we would arrange a meeting with the conference organiser to pin it all down.

Do get in touch if you are interested in getting involved! Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 10:15, 28 April 2014 (BST)

Wiki Education Cooperative

Prompted by the Wiki Education Foundation's latest monthly report, and in preparation for WMUK's next monthly report, I think it's appropriate to share the following information on the Water Cooler (with apologies that it has taken me slightly longer than I would have liked to do so):

Wiki Education Cooperative kick-off event delegates

In early March, I attended the Wiki Education Cooperative meeting in Prague. At this meeting, the WMUK joined other Wikimedia education programs (including Israel, Nepal, Czech Republic, Mexico, Ukraine, United State, Canada, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Serbia) and the Wikimedia Foundation’s Global Education Program team to determine a plan moving forward for sharing best practices and fostering collaboration among educational efforts on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia project. Outcomes of the Prague meeting include:

• Cooperative members will spend the next several months in small teams that target the initial goals agreed upon by the whole group. From now through Wikimania 2014, I will be a part of the Resources Team, which initially aims to consolidate existing resources so that everyone can find everything in one (very visible and easy-to-find) place. I see this as an important step in aligning our Education activities to the successful approaches on the global education program and similar efforts in other parts of the world.
• The team at the Wikimedia Foundation will help the group redesign an online portal that is more cohesive and accessible than the varied portals have been in the past.
• The cooperative will network at Wikimania 2014 with other stakeholders to expand its reach and to welcome new members into the community.

For more about the kick-off meeting in Prague see this Education newsletter post.

The cooperative is technically still in formation and is presently only operating under a working name. Aims, goals, scope and other essential elements for any such grouping are still to be codified, but we are already formulating these ahead of a potential official launch at Wikimania 2014.

As ever, please do not hesitate to direct any questions or comments directly to me. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 15:31, 4 May 2014 (BST)

Wikimedia Sweden launches Umepedia Challenge

Hello everyone. You might be interested to learn that Wikimedia Sweden has launched an article improvement competition called the Umepedia Challenge. The contest is focused on writing and editing articles about the Swedish city of Umea. The contest runs through the month of May and more details can be found here. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 10:10, 6 May 2014 (BST)

10,000 research quality maps of the world

Map of Britain, Samuel Thornton, c.1705
Scan at 6,078 × 4,968 pixels.
NYPL maps project page.

I have been drafting a note about this GWToolset based maps upload project for the Wikimedia Commons Village pump. The upload should complete within the next couple of days (due to extreme file sizes, and an WMF Operations request to throttle speed of uploads, this has taken a lot longer than I expected). As this is Chapter supported media, would a UK blog post along similar lines published at the same time be of interest? --Fæ (talk) 10:20, 8 May 2014 (BST)

Notice posted here. --Fæ (talk) 12:04, 9 May 2014 (BST)

A UK blog post would be very interesting. As I mentioned below, this should really be on the Water Cooler as it relates to an external programme. Would you be good enough to repost there? --MichaelMaggs (talk) 14:52, 11 May 2014 (BST)

Done.

If my blog account ("Fae") is re-enabled (it appears to have been restricted from editing without anyone informing me), then I will draft a post on WordPress. --Fæ (talk) 17:11, 12 May 2014 (BST)

Hi Fae, if you'd like to draft a blog post about this excellent project I would be more than happy to publish it with an appropriate attribution on your behalf. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 18:17, 12 May 2014 (BST)

I would rather create it exactly as it will be displayed using my account, which is on the system. I was under the impression that volunteers can do that, rather than eating up employee time cut & pasting and reformatting. I assume that there is a review process for draft blog posts, though I recall that the board of trustees no longer needs to approve them. --Fæ (talk) 21:05, 12 May 2014 (BST)

I'm going to skip this now. Too many days have passed since my notice on Commons about the project, and time passed without further response here. My original intention was to hold off the Commons notice for a day or two so that the post on the chapter blog would be news.

It would be nice if we could return to allowing unpaid volunteers to draft blog posts on WordPress, rather than this entirely relying on employees along with the associated lost opportunity costs. However this is just an observation comparing how things used to be done, not that long ago, to the reality of how the charity works today. This is not a request for an employee to do anything, neither is it a criticism of employees, the shift to using closed processes for managing the chapter blog being the choice of the board of trustees. --Fæ (talk) 14:21, 20 May 2014 (BST)

Trained trainers - post-refresher meetup

Alcohol can encourage sharing, but may inhibit other brain functions required for learning.

Not that kind of workshop!

Who is going to the refresher of the train-the-trainers course on Saturday the 28th of June?

Who would be interested in some kind of meet-up afterwards?

We could do something that evening or something on Sunday. We could do an informal chat over a pint or we could have some kind of workshop where we share and reflect on our experience as trained trainers and learn from that. It depends on who is around when and what exactly is planned for the refresher. I don't know what is planned for the refresher yet but perhaps we should start by asking questions of availability.

Who will be around the evening after the refresher? Who will be around - or could arange to be around - the next day?

Yaris678 (talk) 13:33, 14 May 2014 (BST)

Sadly I can't make the training on the Saturday, but a meet up sounds like a cracking idea to me. It was great to get to know everyone better at the Manchester TtT event. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 11:49, 16 May 2014 (BST)

Registration was opened two months ago, with prospective attendees approached by direct email, and there is no public registration page or schedule (the emailed link was to a restricted web page which specified timing as 9.30am—6.30pm). I would not like to make plans around it until there is a confirmation that there have been sufficient numbers, and confirmation that registrations were accepted. --Fæ (talk) 11:32, 20 May 2014 (BST)

There is no public registration page because this is not a public event, rather one intended only for people who became accredited trainers for Wikimedia UK before February this year. Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 11:41, 20 May 2014 (BST)

I would say it is an event restricted to past trainees, it does not automatically follow that we must not use an open page to coordinate the event, such as discussing the schedule and content, sharing a list of who is coming or negotiating the social side. Coordination by direct private email increases the number of touch-points needed to confirm anything, and makes change unlikely, rather than the wiki norm of self service and encouraging suggestions for changes.

As a counter example, ARC meetings are restricted yet have an openly shared agenda in advance of meetings, public minutes afterwards, and a long term open meeting schedule, all of which can be discussed by anyone. Ensuring processes of the charity default to openly sharing as much as we can, rather than defaulting to closed communications, is part of meeting Value 4 of Vision, values and mission. In this case, one consequence of coordinating using closed channels would be that no other volunteers who might happen to be interested in training, would think of joining an evening social nearby. --Fæ (talk) 12:01, 20 May 2014 (BST)

Registration is not on a pending-approval basis, anyone who registered has a place. If it were on a pending-approval basis, the registration confirmation page and email would have stated so. Yes, the event is happening. The exact programme for the day is determined by the training provider base on expectation provided by attendees during registration. There's nothing stopping discussion and or planning happening in public, such as is going on right here......... Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 12:56, 20 May 2014 (BST)

Thanks for confirming that, I was unaware of it and would not want to presume. If the training provider (Midas?) can provide a schedule/description it might be an idea to create a simple event page and move this specific discussion about the day's logistics to that talk page. As there is time before the event, the provider might want attendees to have a pre-discussion on expectations, which is not relevant to share on the watercooler. Is there a reason to not share the attendee list? I doubt this has an expectation of privacy, or represents private data. --Fæ (talk) 13:50, 20 May 2014 (BST)

I have created the page Train the Trainers refresher 2014. Anyone got any thoughts on it before we link to it from Events? Yaris678 (talk) 15:07, 27 May 2014 (BST)

Cool. I note that Katie added the link to the event from the events page. Now we have somewhere to keep discussions about the event. Yaris678 (talk) 16:51, 29 May 2014 (BST)

Scholarships to Wikimania London

Wikimania 2013 group photo

Application for scholarship support to attend this year Wikimania is now open. Wikimania 2014, the 10th annual international conference of the Wikimedia movement, is being held between 6 and 10 August 2014. The venue is in the Barbican Centre, London.

To qualify for assistance, you must either be based in the UK or a UK citizen living abroad, and agree to produce a public report (which may be published on the Wikimedia UK blog and/or in our newsletters) summarising the key things that you have taken from the event. Applications may be made for the cost of conference registration, accommodation for the duration of Wikimania, and/or travel within the UK.

Application should be made by completing this application form. The deadline for application is Sunday 8 June 15 June. After the deadline, we will be in touch to offer scholarships as soon as possible. Any UK residents who have previously made an application for scholarship through the Wikimedia Foundation process and had agreed to share their application details with their local chapter need not apply again. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 17:19, 16 May 2014 (BST)

Thanks Katie. May I ask out of curiosity how many scholarships are on offer and/or how much money is being made available for this? CT Cooper · talk 19:10, 18 May 2014 (BST)

It will be depending on needs and applications. The estimated amount is approximately £7,800, which is on par with last year. I hope that helps. Regards -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 14:22, 19 May 2014 (BST)

Bad copyright rules killed Hadfield's Space Oddity

There is an interesting op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen[4] complaining about misuse of bad copyright law to take down Chris Hadfield's cover of "Space Oddity" on the ISS. This is something that is probably of interest to many people here - maybe something we can issue a comment about? Also covered by Boing Boing. Thryduulf (talk: local | en.wp | en.wikt) 13:43, 19 May 2014 (BST)

The UK community of active volunteers might not have a solid consensus that this was "bad copyright law". It is no surprise that David Bowie would want to protect the copyright of his most well known works, or have the performing rights negotiated, before finding them globally published. If there is interest in taking official positions on copyright, there are other examples that would illustrate how UK copyright law or its frequent poor interpretation damages open knowledge; misunderstood orphan works or national institutions claiming commercial rights on publicly funded copies of public domain artwork spring to mind.

Thanks for highlighting the story, there are interesting user comments on the article. --Fæ (talk) 12:20, 20 May 2014 (BST)

Wiki Loves Monuments UK 2014 planning meeting

Wiki Loves Monuments United Kingdom

Wiki Loves Monuments is a public photo competition around cultural heritage monuments, organised by volunteers within individual countries taking part. Last year UK competition focusing on Listed Buildings resulted in over 11,000 photos being contributed by over 500 participants. An in-person planning meeting has been scheduled for this year UK participation of the competition. This is to take place on Sunday 29 June from 12:30pm BST at the Wikimedia UK office building in London. Wikimedia UK will cover travel cost of attendees going to the meeting. For more information, and to sign up to attend, see WLM 2014 planning meeting. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 13:55, 29 May 2014 (BST)