Reports/2012/February

Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for February 2012. If you want to keep up with the chapter's activities as they happen, please subscribe to our blog, join our mailing list, and/or follow us on Twitter. If you have any questions or comments, please drop us a line on this report's talk page.

Program activities

GLAM activities

Ruben Demos and Anna from Wikimedia Austria visited Derby Museum to see QRpedia 3 Feb

See also the This Month in GLAM UK report for this month.

QRpedia

• QRpedia made the final four top UK mobile innovations.
• QRpedia: Language code, Telecoms.com, 20 Feb
• Mentioned in Mobile World Congress: The UK firms hitting Barcelona, BBC News, 24 Feb

Monmouthpedia

Black country backstage pass

• Wikipedia day aims to highlight borough's hidden treasures, Stourbridge News, 11 February (also Halesowen News)

Wikipedian in Residence at the British Library

• Wikipedian in Residence for British Library, CorpComms, 13 February
• British Library seeks taxpayer-funded Wikipedia-fiddler, Register, 16 Feb

Wiki Loves Monuments brainstorm

• http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/WLM-2012-wmuk-brainstorm
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:2012_UK_Wiki_Loves_Monuments_brainstorm

Education projects

• Wikipedia looks to expand Arabic content via educational initiative, Guardian, 15 Feb (US-based interview)

Technology

An organisation that was using a domain name that was a typo of Wikipedia in order to get people to call a premium-rate number was fined by the UK watchdog PhonePayPlus. News coverage:

• Watchdog fines £100,000 for online 'squatting' that misled consumers, PhonePayPlus press release, 16 Feb
• ‘Typosquatting’ websites fined £200,000, Telegraph, 16 Feb
• 'Typosquatting' premium rate phone firms fined £100,000, BBC News, 16 Feb
• Typosquatting Sites ‘Wikapedia’ and ‘Twtter’ Have Been Shut Down, Mashable, 17 Feb
• Wikipedia, Twitter Typosquatting Websites Shut, Fined £100,000 each, IT Pro Portal, 19 Feb

Wikipedia android app:

• An encyclopaedia in your pocket with Wikipedia for Android, ComputerActive, 9 Feb

Wikipedia blocked in Uzbekistan

• Uzbekistan blocks Wikipedia pages say witnesses, Telegraph, 20 Feb

Other activities

• Microgrants approved this month include ...

Wikipedia vandalism

• Suffolk: Anglian Bus boss hits back on online claims, EADT24, 1 Feb (also EDP24)
• RIP Mr Bean: False rumour of actor Rowan Atkinson's death trends worldwide on Twitter, Daily Mail, 26 Feb

PR companies

• Wikipedia: Friend or foe?, PR Week UK, 2 Feb
• Wikipedia: the real public relations opportunity, CIPR, 3 Feb

Upcoming activities in March

• (To be copied here from Events at the end of this month)

For events in April and onwards, please see Events.

Administrative activities

Board activities

Board meetings

• Feb Board and BID

There was a full board meeting at the charity's offices on 11-12th February. We were pleased to welcome our third member of staff in five months and a number of people who had shown interest in becoming a trustee. For the first time the board had avertised for non-Wikipedians to broaden our approach. We now have staff and Jon Davies had arranged to have a large number of draft policies which were nearly all agreed. A volunteer policy was presented by Tom Dalton. On the Sunday the trustees presented the work they had led since the last board meeting. Not all the items were dealt with but this meant that the board were able to join the 54th London meetup and reminder ourselves of our membership.

News from the Chief Exec

For information on Jon's activities this month, see News from the Office.

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