2013 Activity Plan/Ideas

Please give us your ideas to add to the 2013 Activity Plan. These should be ideas which are create impact, rather than being internal matters like governance or fundraising. Please think about the resource implication. E.g. "Hold Editathons at 50 museums" is a great idea, what would we need to make it happen in terms of money, volunteer time, or staff time? And don't be afraid to think big.

Sample idea

What? - what would we do, and why is it a good idea?

What would we need? - how much money, volunteer time, or staff time would it take to make this happen?

Please sign your ideas so we can follow up and give credit! (Don't worry, you're not committing yourself to anything).

Sound recordings of musical instruments

What? - currently there is a real shortage of sound clips in our articles on musical instruments. If you want to know what a {{w:violin}} sounds like, there is one openly-licensed file of some basic sounds, but nothing about its advanced technique, and nothing about a {{w:Historically_informed_performance}} of older music. For older instruments (e.g. the {{w:viol}} ) there is nothing at all.

What would we need? For modern instruments, we'd need musicians (professional or semi-professional) and recording equipment or studio time. To get audio reflecting the history of music, we would need a relationship with people like these. It is probably unlikely that a good archive of these sounds already exists, or that all the various specialist skills (not just performance, but studio time) would be donated free.

Submitted by The Land (talk)

Wikipedia in Schools

What? - Slightly amazed this isn't in the budget already. In this author's humble opinion, there should be wikipedia editing lessons as part of every school's curriculum for every subject.

What would we need? - A good start would be free educational materials; suggestions for lesson plans etc. Then a dedicated group evangelising to institutions and government. See also http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_strategy#Staffing_and_management

Submitted by EdSaperia

I've been picking at the fringes of this idea for a little while. It's not bad, but I think at School level we should focus on critical thinking, reading sources, research & other topics related to reading Wikipedia. As School age children tend to (not always, but generally) lack a broader perspective that makes them top notch contributors. On the other hand encouraging respect and interest in Wikipedia at an early age will create a much larger pool of prospective editors in their later lives :) --ErrantX (talk) 14:15, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Re-releasing the 2008/9 'Wikipedia for Schools' DVD with more content

What? - Several years ago, the WMF, WMUK and "SOS Children" released a DVD called Wikipedia for Schools, which is available here. We should re-release this in a larger, more up-to-date version.

What would we need? - An awful lot of volunteers, and a core staff (possibly at SOS Children) who have experience in managing/overseeing this sort of project. We already have links with education charities who work in some of the poorest areas worldwide.

Submitted by Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry

This may be a project where we could experiment with building a basic crowdsourcing system through toolserver - "is this version of this article suitable for release in a school's encyclopedia? yes / no, it needs work / no, it's inappropriate". That might be able to scale up the selection quite fast without needing a lot of on-wiki involvement. Andrew Gray (talk) 11:14, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Fully support this. I've been asking for a couple of years about when the next version of this will be released. My understanding is that the critical element that's missing is volunteers that are willing to support the project - if we can find such volunteers, then that's going to benefit the project much more than simply providing funds will. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 01:34, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

P.S., WMUK was never directly involved in the 2008/9 edition of the Wikipedia for Schools project. Very sadly. Mike Peel (talk) 01:36, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

Mapping the canal network

What? - Britain's canal network is currently undergoing a renaissance, with new canals being opened at a faster rate than ever before. UK canals are quite unlike any others anywhere else in the world - they are small, narrow, shallow and packed with history. They also have an abnormally large amount of listed buildings linked with them, whether they be directly linked with the canal, or simply nearby (eg an old warehouse, or river weir). The Kennet and Avon canal is peppered with untouched fortifications from World War Two, and the entire length of the Wey Navigation is a National Trust property.

Get to the point... - We could put a volunteer or two on a specially fitted-out (and Wikipedia-liveried?) live-aboard boat for the summer, and have them map the canal network - taking photos of every building, every lock, and even taking video footage of sections of the trip from a roof-mounted camera. A GPS system would trace the entire route for Open Street Map. British Waterways may also be interested, as we'd essentially be doing a mini-survey of the network, including all the structures, for them. We could fit the inside of the barge with a small supply of educational materials and a marquis for stopping the 'wiki-barge' in towns along the way.

What would we need? - A narrowboat, to hire, for the summer - needs to be quite small. Two volunteers, technically minded, at least one of whom knows about narrowboats. GPS equipment (possibly able to loan from OSM or British Waterways?). A 3G internet connection (wouldn't work everywhere, but would work when near a village/town). A camera (and possibly a video-camera). Lots of hard drive space. Expenses for the volunteers aboard. Brochures/booklets.

Submitted by Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry

Training events for volunteers

What? - WMUK currently puts on a lot of training events for newcomers, but fewer for established Wikipedians. These would be events marketed at established Wikipedians who want to expand their skill set. We should, in the author's humble(ish) opinion, have a combination of large events like the OTRS workshop, at which Wikipedians spend a weekend or several days sharing experiences and those with less experience of the subject matter can come along to learn, and smaller, skill-swap type events. This would hopefully result in personal development for the attendees, both on Wikipedia and as WMUK volunteers. Also helpful might be training in public speaking, alongside a continuation of the trainer training programme.

What would we need? - A few hundred quid per event for travel costs, possibly venue hire if other Development House tenants get sick of us occupying their basement, and hotels for multi-day events. Possibly consider flying in attendees from abroad where a good case can be made, which would add significantly to the cost. We would need a member of staff on hand for events at the office, and Daria's assistance in booking venues etc may be useful.

Submitted by Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?

Mozilla might be a great venue for this, especially if we throw some of the skill sessions open to the wider open-content/open-source community. Andrew Gray (talk) 11:15, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Train the trainer should definitely be continued, and may be expanded as we capture and understand our needs better. Other training events that we could explore are Media training (could include photography) Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 15:22, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

For volunteers who actively do things for WMUK, definitely. I was thinking particularly of experienced Wikipedians who aren't necessarily heavily involved in the chapter. For example, some editors have a lot of knowledge and experience of the more technical aspects of Wikipedia (like modifying the interface or abuse abuse filters, and templates), there might be interest in learning how to be an enwiki admin or what admins do, experience-sharing sessions for admins, FA/GA reviewing, copyright, etc. Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 15:28, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

I'm currently in the process of getting some media training organised, so watch this space. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 15:35, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Community meetups

What? - Establishing meetups in parts of the country that currently lack them. In the author's personal experience, coming to a meetup can leave an editor feeling much more positive about their participation in Wikimedia projects, can act as a mechanism for recruitment of new editors or retention of inexperienced ones, and the meetup can form the bedrock for a volunteer community actively doing exciting things in its area. This is already proving to be the case in Liverpool and Coventry, both relatively newly established communities. Somebody will no doubt point out that meetups are not strictly chapter activities, but that doesn't mean the chapter can't support them.

What would we need? - Travel costs for volunteers not based in the area of the meetup (importing somebody to kickstart things and then hand over when a community is established is probably our best way of starting something in areas where we are not currently active, such as the north east, and has worked thus far in Liverpool); possibly venue hire; maybe some sandwhiches or something if we end up in a non-pub venue. Staff time required is next to nil unless they want to come to the meetups (and I strongly advocate that they should get out and meet the community at every opportunity); some help might be needed in liaising with venues if necessary.

Submitted by Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?

The big problem we've been encountering here is how we can effectively support such meetups. The problems we've been encountering include:

Meetups are traditionally community-lead. Volunteers don't necessarily like the chapter providing assistance for meetups.
It's unclear what support we actually can provide to community meetups. We're using charitable funds, so we can't really buy attendees a drink. That, and food, tends to be the main expense of such meetups at the moment. Equally, we can't really fund people's travel expenses to go to a booze-up. We can't provide advertisement in the form of banners at such an event, since locations tend to object to this (the community can provide advertisement via geonotices, but they're not chapter activities). We can't book rooms, since they generally aren't needed. So, help, please! Mike Peel (talk) 01:48, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

The former argument may apply to existing meetups, but my proposal is focused on founding new ones (and I think people object to an appearance of the chapter attempting to control or hijack meetups, rather than to it providing logistical or financial support where it is asked for). What I had in mind was essentially paying travel costs and possibly hotels and incidentals if needed for volunteers to start meetups in areas where we currently lack volunteers, with the aim of building a volunteer base there, which would eventually be able to sustain the meetup itself and then start doing other things, like building relationships with local GLAMs/groups/educational institutions. We currently do very little outside of London and the midlands (and arguably Manchester), and I'd really like to see things happening in the north east and south west of England in particular. The way to do this is to build volunteer communities there, and the way to do that, I feel, is to start meetups in cities like Newcastle, Leeds/Bradford, Hull/somewhere else on the east coast, Nottingham/Derby, perhaps somewhere on the south coast/M4 corridor, Oxford, and Exeter. Cardiff and Edinburgh would be on the list, but there have already been meetups there; I'm not sure if they need support. Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 16:09, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Sex-ed improvement project

What? - Wikipedia articles on human sexuality topics are numerous and have high viewing figures, yet are often poorly sourced and written. Improvements in this area (to GA or FA level) would benefit a large number of readers, especially younger readers.

What would we need? - Need to research / establish contact with sex-ed experts in government (Dept. of Education) and academia, pitch the idea to them, and help bring them up to speed with the internal workings of Wikipedia. May require travel costs, possibly venue costs, and on-wiki support. --Andreas JN 00:18, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

This is an area where we could get involved. Sadly we are a source of sex-ed and there are many people who would like to see sex-ed improved. A few letters to the correct NGOs may just get this moving and its as important as CancerUK and a similar "taboo" subject where we end up being the resource of last resort. I'm not sure you need "permnission" to do this. Why not just write to these people and see if they are interested. This should nt need to cost anything initially IMO Victuallers (talk) 10:25, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

This is an area I used to be a bit of an expert in - leading a Home Office/Department for Education and Department of Health pilot project that is still going...

Sex (and drugs) education was a minefield but one for which there is a very good single body The Sex Education Forum Just like with Cancer Research UK this would be a great starting point. BUT beware. We had to create policies and teaching material that would work from 4 to 16, in Catholic and non-denominational schools etc etc. The end result could be very bland. Jon Davies WMUK (talk) 11:47, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Fortunately, Wikipedia isn't censored so we don't need to worry too much about that. Wikipedia plays an important role in getting information to people that they aren't allowed to have. We normally talk about that in the context of countries with oppressive regimes, but the same holds for children of religious, or otherwise conservative, parents. Sex-ed info is the kind of thing children are going to be looking up on Wikipedia without their parents' knowledge, so we don't really need to worry about whether parents approve or not. --Tango (talk) 12:27, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

This is not just about censorship if we are to produce support material that will be endorsed and therefore stand a chance of being used by the schools and the educational establishment it has to be trusted, hence the need for educational partners.188.223.85.48 10:18, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

Bridging the needs of adults and children in Wikipedia will not be easy. But our articles in the entire field of human sexuality – anything from porn actors to paraphilias to plastic surgery – are in my experience either written from a popular-culture perspective, or from the perspective of practitioners. Given that we are a major source of sex-ed, especially for the most vulnerable readers, a major shift in perspective is required. A good initial step actually would be to get our articles in the whole field of sexology assessed by professional educators, so that we have some sort of baseline.

As far as Wikipedia's own quality assessment system is concerned, note that the only Featured Articles within WikiProject Sexuality are: Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, American Beauty (film), Elizabeth Needham, and Gropecunt Lane; to wit: an article on a Victorian directory of prostitutes, an article on a street where prostitutes plied their trade, an article on an 18th-century Victorian brothel keeper, and an American film about a man who becomes sexually infatuated with a girlfriend of his teenage daughter. Going down the scale, there then is an A-Class article on Wank Week. These are the project's top-rated articles, after 12 years of undirected crowdsourcing. :( Wikipedia can do better. --Andreas JN 16:27, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

How does this topic compare to other potential topics that the Wikimedia projects cover? Is it better or worse than other topics? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 01:25, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

Generally worse. It's, for obvious reasons, a popular topic area for readers - and also tends to attract a "certain type" of editor. Topics on sexuality are consistently poor, with bad sourcing and a lot of pop culture, when I come across them. I think this is a good area to focus on; we happily do outreach on other topic areas with light (World War I, for example) or poor coverage. Bridging professional sex ed people into Wikipedia would be a really great step; because working there at the moment can be like interacting with pre-pubescent children. --ErrantX (talk) 14:13, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

It's a very important area if we are to be taken seriously in the world of education. We know teenagers will look up sexual terms on Wikipedia just like many would have done with encyclopaedias and dictionaries in years gone past. If we really want to be for everyone, we need to be appropriate for use in schools and colleges. As a starting point that means that content is appropriate, educational and sensible. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:52, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

I think most of what's there is, to steal your Phrase Stevie, "appropriate, educational and sensible". The problem tends to be that the articles are often thin, poorly sourced, and a magnet for vandalism. I think part of the problem is that these are taboo subjects, and editors who focus a large amount of their time on such subjects can be subject to ridicule far more than those who focus almost exclusively on other subjects. While bringing in sex-ed professionals would help with the immediate problem of low-quality articles, the social problems with these articles would remain. Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 16:25, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

I believe that improving the quality of the articles would help reduce the poorly sourced additions and the vandalism. Even the people making poorly sourced additions are mostly trying to help and if they see the article is already better than anything they might add they tend to stay away. Recruiting people to fight vandalism and help keep a good article good is easier than getting them to care about a poor article. I think this a great idea, not just for children but also for ignorant adults. I would suggest we should start with the most viewed articles in this field (anybody know what they are?). A reputation as a source of quality Sex Ed is our best defence against the accusations of porn-mongering that get aimed at us every now and then. Let's show people there is a reason why we have pictures of naked people on Commons. Let our slogan be "Wikipedia: Making sex less titillating since 2013!" Filceolaire (talk) 18:22, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Spoken Wikipedia (all languages)

What? - Planned support to add to Commons:Category:Spoken_Wikipedia. It would be excellent to have examples of new audio support for articles created in English and non-English languages such as Welsh, Gaelic, Cornish or Urdu (at the moment these languages have none).

What would we need? - Decent audio kit and a sound-proof space to use it in. Potentially a small audio kit to loan out for people to use at home or on outreach activities would make sense, along with online support to help re-process the files to OGG format if the readers find this difficult. In addition a number of our partners (in locations across the UK) have recording facilities or sound-proofed rooms that we could book on a monthly or other basis. Some partners have facilities that we need only promote in a directory of places to use and volunteers could self-book. We would need to advertise the initiative as an on-going programme for our regular volunteers but also our donors and the general public who may not be so interested in editing Wikipedia, but might enjoy helping with high quality readings to assist mobile and disabled access. A small amount of training in how to get best use from the equipment and how to plan for good quality readings (and feedback on test readings) might be needed. With expenses, kit and promotion (including some external advertising) I would expect £1,500 over 12 months might be a good investment for, say, 200 or more articles in spoken format.

Proposed by --Fæ (talk) 02:58, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

We have a good quality sound recorder in the office. It's very easy to make decent quality recordings these days, even with a £100 recorder and no studio. My NFL podcast is a good example. If we have a quiet space (and we can arrange some in the office, particularly after hours or at weekends, this is something we can do internally, whether by staff or volunteers. Audacity is a very good, open source sound editor which is easy to use. Our recorder creates high quality wav or MP3 files which can be edited in Audacity and converted to OGG if required. We can get this one started whenever we like I think. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:55, 13 August 2012 (UTC) Addendum: just a thought but the spoken articles may not remain accurate reflections of the copy for long. How would we address this? --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:57, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Turn donors to editors

(following on from WSC's first event, & as discussed a bit with Fae)

What? Using the donor database, organise a series of events lasting say 3 hrs, starting with quick "thanks very much", and "where your money goes" presentations, before moving on to sessions on editing, uploading, real life help, & generally contributing to the projects. Targeted at donors who are not existing contributors, but would like to be, with ideally 100+ at a time - first sessions plenary, then 3-4 tracks such as basic WP editing (prob x2), Commons including uploading, categories?, other stuff. One could offer the initial presentations, plus a coffee mingle, to an even larger number, and including existing editors, then non-aspirant editors leave. That might be a good way of igniting meet-ups in hard to penetrate regions.

What would we need? Could be done at various scales, but I'd like to see a tour of biggish events, so locations begged/borrowed/hired. Work on session material. Lots of volunteers. Some catering. Arrange targeted invitations to donor list. Arrangements for online follow-up and tracking.

Proposed by Johnbod (talk) 11:09, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Editing roadshow

What? A package we can take to larger events such as shows (county, garden, antiques, music & other themes) offering a series of short editing workshops - just 40 mins for 15-20 people say. Designed to capture those desperate to sit down. A session each hour all day.

What would we need? Marquee, lots of net books, banners etc. Some transport. Have to pay for the stand normally. Lots of volunteers - travelling trained trainers would need paying, supplemented by local volunteers, prob also paid. Standard lesson plans. Arrangements for online follow-up and tracking.

Proposed by Johnbod (talk) 11:09, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

A lower pressure version of this is the Wikipedia free internet cafe - the same marquee, net books, banners with a box for donations and roving volunteers with "I edit wikipedia. Ask me how!" badges available to do some one to one tutoring. Or a combination of the two - seats and screens in the marquee for those in the workshop, free wifi and charging points outside the marquee for everyone else. Filceolaire (talk) 17:44, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Could the transport be a canal boat? Seriously, though, I like this idea. Roadshows are something we're really missing out on. Richard Symonds (talk) 21:18, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Leutha's favourite pub proposal is the wiki-bus. I still like the idea of doing up a bus and going on tour. Anywhere we can find a power connection and pitch up a marquee tent, we could run an editathon, photo-uploading, scanning and audio recordings mega event. Seriously, anyone up for it? I can help drive a bus and quite fancy going around either Cornwall or Scotland. If we could share the programme between, say, 8 volunteers with a lot of free time, it could be a lot of fun. Imagine the public enthusiasm if we could get several councils to give us a space on the big market day in any major town's market space. --Fæ (talk) 21:36, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Count me in! I can't drive anything more sophisticated than a bicycle, but I make a reasonable navigator. It would be great to try and cover as much of the country as possible, perhaps starting in one corner and progressing towards the opposite one, stopping at towns and cities en route. It would be novel enough that it could make national news. How much would a stick-on livery (that could hopefully be removed easily once we're done with it) cost? Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 22:55, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

I remember discussing a wikibus proposal back in 2009 (which came about due to a discussion between Tango and myself) - it's great to see that this idea is still floating around. :-) Mike Peel (talk) 01:39, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

This is something that would go down brilliantly at festivals... get people editing on the acts they've gone to see, esoteric topics (crystals, yoga, cannabis), counter-culture and so on. The hippies would love it (although they are getting pushed aside by the people who go to be seen these days, but that's another story). --188.223.85.48 09:15, 10 August 2012 (UTC) Sorry, this was me - didn't realise I was't signed in. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 09:16, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

Pilot Adult Education Project

I teach at a respected Adult Education Establishment in Waterloo. It has good computer facilities and is accessible. The college is strapped for cash, like the whole sector, but are interested in running classes in editing. They have good IT staff and facilities. We could put financial support into a series of Sunday or Saturday schools that would be run by the college but using our people to teach a range of courses around Wiki editing. Ideas could be "Newbies", 'Up to 100 edits', etc etc. The target students would be ordinary people who know the college and are generally from local communities but do come from all over London. Our funds wold be there to help subsidise the costs. Jon Davies WMUK (talk) 14:06, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Good - I think we could justify/spend money if the outcome was that we could write an email to every adult education centre in the UK that said ::"Dear Adult Educ Centre - please find attached a url to everything you need to teach, advertise and reward editors on a course called "Creating your first Wikipedia Page" - this page lists all the articles created by the first people who were trained in Waterloo and includes links to some videos saying what they got out of it. (The course and its material were created by Wikimedia UK staff and are all available via our wiki site). We are running a competition for the best wikipedia page created on these course with a prize for the trainee and another for the best adult education establishment and best tutor. The first 50 applications will receive ..." Victuallers (talk) 14:59, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

And a 'how to' guide for the college admins who get often get nervous about anything new. 188.223.85.48

Training in Community Centres

We could aim to deliver Wikipedia training in community centres - church halls, parish halls, meeting rooms, etc. that are not traditional venues for IT-related training because of lack of infrastructure. Aim would be to meet the needs of a broad audience - not all of whom would own portable pcs, but might have access to a shared pc at home, or in an internet cafe, etc. Target might be perhaps a dozen venues in a year?

Resources

We'd need to create a "mobile classroom" that does not depend on the local infrastructure. Buy a dozen(?) computers - perhaps a mixture of laptops (£400 each); netbooks (£275 each); tablets (£175 each). Buy a projector and screen (£500-£700); an OHP, pens and screen (£250); a scanner/printer and replacement inks (£60); a card reader (320), spare usb, vgs, dvi, hdmi, audio leads; extension leads and sockets, storage boxes to carry equipment around (£100). Buy a phone subscription that includes a good data plan so that the phone becomes the wireless access point.

Targeting

Use the membership and donors to find out-of-the-way places that they would be a point of contact for. Coordinate with other charities to reach their centres that are off the beaten track and do some advertising through their newsletters. If necessary, use an agency to buy in some local expertise in Cornwall, Scotland, Northumberland, etc. to make initial contacts who can identify locations.

Depending on measured success against PIs, the budget could be scaled up in the future to duplicate the mobile classroom in different parts of the country, thus avoiding having to get the MC from a central location each time. --RexxS (talk) 16:52, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Many language minorities have cultural centres. Training at these could be a way to work with other language wikiprojects.

For people with minimal literacy skills finding an educational site in their own language can help.
People learning English can translate articles (basic articles about the local area or advanced articles about science, history etc.) into their own language.

The hands-on nature of Wikis mean that a wiki-trainer, with a little help from a translator, can teach the basics. If editors in that language are available then even better. If they are no experienced editors in that language then maybe when we go back next year there will be.

Filceolaire (talk) 12:01, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

I love this idea - certainly a pilot would be possible. Using the WEA model visiting small vilages and delivering sessions on a weekly basis for say four weeks could work really well. I think this would be a full or part time job for someone who had their own wheels and could fit into a network in partnership, such as the WEA, that already existed. So not cheap but certainly doable and would get a lot of attention. 188.223.85.48 10:07, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

More volunteers able to deliver training events

The proposals for establishing more editing events sound great, but I would say already there are not enough volunteers to deliver these if we had one workshop every week or a fortnight. What is needed is an expanded network of volunteers who are happy to deliver such events - talk about rather basic editing skills, or even just presenting about Wikipedia/Wikimedia UK to raise awareness. These could be achieved by training inactive editors, or even complete newbies. Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 11:55, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

There are two points I'd like to make in reply to that. First, I think these are more ideas for brainstorming than formal proposals at this stage. And second, we definitely need more volunteers, but training isn't necessarily the most helpful thing. There is some use in training the volunteers we have, but we need more of them. To that end, both my existing ideas, and another I'm about to make, focus on the recruitment and development of volunteers (for anyone who hadn't noticed, that's something I feel strongly about!). Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 16:31, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Oral citations

WMF has doen some research on Oral Citations in India and South Africa - interviews with named persons describing things they have personal knowledge of to use as citations where published sources are unavailable.

We should pursue this; run a project to record peoples personal reminiscences, things they witnessed. Part mass observation, part field recordings. Visiting primary schools, recording pupils interviewing their grandparents; visiting festivals of comemoration to record memories; visiting cultural centres to record minority languages, stories, dances, colonial history from the other side; visiting local radio stations to play our most interesting recordings and invite people to volunteer to be interviewed; visiting the site of big news stories after the fact to record the survivors/victims/bystanders.

resources needed.

A recording studio in a box (laptop, microphones, camera + tripod, audio/video editing software) with a full time reporter/producer/facilitator

Next: work with existing archives of recordings (BBC, EFDSS etc. ) to get older recordings released under open licenses.

Later: Provide training and sponsorship for the same to happen in other countries.

Equipment pool

What? Over the last year Wikimedia UK has started to build up a pool of equipment which it lends out for use at events. While this is good (laptops, an HD video camera, and an audio recorder are all very useful) it would be helpful for the chapter to have more equipment available for loan to Wikimedians in the UK. Wikimedia DE have built up such a collection since 2011. While there is some stuff there that is probably best bought on a need-to-buy basis (read: it's unlikely many Wikimedians in the UK will need dissection equipment and if they do, it can be bought through a microgrant as and when required) other equipment such as camera lenses, ethernet cables + WiFi routers (for outreach events where lots of media will be uploaded - so as not to make the WiFi too slow) and (possibly) studio lighting would be useful.

I know it was proposed some time ago that the chapter actually buy a mid-range DSLR for lending out and this is still a good idea. It is possible, however, that anyone who wants a camera has one or knows someone who has one.

What would we need? A longer-than-kit-lens lens will cost somewhere in the region of £300-400. Presuming you want to get one that fits a Canon EOS and another for Nikon DSLRs you could double that figure. You can get a set of three softbox lights (including carry cases etc.) for $179 which Google tells me is about £114 (which does seem too cheap to be true...).

I wouldn't really expect much extra staff time to be needed to handle the whole project. If the equipment is purchased by WMUK it would need to be kept catalogued on the Fixed Asset Register and it could be kept at the WMUK office. Rock drum (talk • contribs) 14:06, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

We could consider a high-end DSLR rather than a mid-range one. But even for a mid-range DSLR the person behind the camera is as important as the kit. Would we also need to think about training for volunteers to make best use of it? The Land (talk) 20:19, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

So, I lent my Canon EOS 400D to Wikimedia UK, via Harry Mitchell. I bought this camera for ~£500, and it would currently be worth somewhere around £150. My expectation was that this would cover WMUK's interim needs for a camera, prior to purchasing a better one. This loan was directly a result of the requests that WMUK was receiving to have a reasonable camera available, but were unable to fund immediately. As best as I can tell, the camera has been lost, and there's no way of making it available to other volunteers, or returning it to myself. As such, I'm currently unable to support any such requests for expensive equipment that will be entrusted to volunteers, since the risk of losing it is far too high. How can we deal with this sort of issue? Mike Peel (talk) 01:22, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

The only cameras I would support would be a fixed one for photographing objects and documents in the office (in the same way that the reading rooms in the National Archives have photography stations available to the public) and one for webcasting/video for events and meetings which we already have. At a time when every volunteer has a camera/video camera on their phone, and every volunteer interested in photography already has a very decent camera or pocket camera (I have only ever had a pocket camera and get very decent results, always having a camera with you is far more important than having a tripod and DSLR), I have struggled to understand the justification for the charity buying a camera for £500 to loan to volunteers which will be highly likely to be out of date within a year. Unfortunately the discussion about A/V kit always gets distracted on this point of a high quality camera on vague general loan without a clear justification as to which projects it is really needed for; I will continue to reject this part of the proposal and support the main concept. I am disturbed to read Mike's story of embarrassingly lost kit which seems discouraging, to be honest that story convinces me that if the charity lends out £500+ worth of kit for use on anything but a major planned event, then we should think of asking for a returnable deposit so that volunteers are likely to treat the equipment with some respect or lose some of their own cash. The concept of a deposit for any casual loan should extend to all kit; as an example one of our volunteers has managed to brake or lose 3 (of their own) laptops in 12 months, reminding us that such accidents are commonplace.

The charity has just purchased a number of reasonable quality (they cost 50% more than mine) new laptops for loan as well as having a fair amount of other kit available for events, based on the asset register these sorts of capital items (mostly reserved for staff use) are running at around £9,000 worth of kit. I firmly recommend the office carefully measures how well used these are by volunteers and staff and then work out the resulting value for the charity and the fulfilment of our mission before investing more in equipment. If at the end of the day a rapidly depreciating capital item is only used for 3 events in a year, then I would question this as a useful investment.

For training, Peter Weis' initiative in Scotland should probably be replicated in England. If anyone wants to do a photography event in Cornwall, I might even arrange a free field for a few folks to pitch a tent for a week. ;-) --Fæ (talk) 04:44, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

I would be a little wary of this. I think equipment should be bought for specific projects where the project can justify the cost. At the end of the WMUK project the equipment would be passed on to the group carrying on the project (WMUK project are meant to be sustainable aren't they?). Filceolaire (talk) 18:27, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Commission a steampunk skin for mediawiki

What? Find a graphic designer and get them to create a steampunk themed skin for mediawiki. Wikipedia needs more skins and steampunk might be different enough to attract attention.

What would we need? fair bit of money. Reskinning something as messy as mediawiki may not be cheap.

Geni (talk) 16:33, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

With all due respect, I feel I should play devil's advocate and ask why it would be worth investing a "fair bit of money" - donors' money, that is - in a steampunk-themed skin for MediaWiki. :-) Regards, Rock drum (talk • contribs) 16:41, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

a)worse spending decisions have been made b)I want one.Geni (talk) 07:27, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

There might be something in this - perhaps a Steampunk skin would be a little... far from our charitable objectives, but maybe we should be putting money into developing a new, more user-friendly skin for newbies? Or a skin for people with visual impairments? Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 14:16, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

If we approach it from an accessibility perspective I'd definitely be in favour. I'd suggest a high contrast version as well, if possible. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 15:54, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Maybe the answer is to spend some money making it easier to develop skins for mediawiki? That way it won't cost a fortune for someone else to create a steampunk and all the other skins. Filceolaire (talk) 18:31, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Translations from Wikimedia Deutschland

From Daria:

Commission translations of some of the Wikimedia DE materials. They have tons of useful brochures and leaflets that would be extremely useful at events (e.g. Wikimedia Commons guide, or materials for volunteer speakers)

It shouldn't be too hard to get this done at no cost. :-) Rock drum (talk • contribs) 10:06, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps the translation itself not (although that makes me wonder why it hasn't been done yet), but the redesign and printing do carry a cost implication. The amount of support materials for volunteer speakers that WMDE has is really impressive, and it may be too laborious to have volunteers translate it all. Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 11:26, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

To find out if anyone is interested, a good starting point is to ask on the Translators list - https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/translators-l. --Fæ (talk) 13:07, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Some ideas from Stevie Benton - Comms officer

Some ideas from me.

World Wars project

There's plenty of work that could be done around Remembrance Week. Not so much around WWI perhaps, but some living history style work with veterans of WWII (and others who lived through the war) - photos, audio / video interviews for Commons, perhaps some intergenerational work.

What: speak to people who have lived through the second world war to record their experiences – as service personnel, on the Home Front, as children... record videos and audio to create a living history project. All of these resources would be made available on Commons and to support relevant articles on Wiki projects. It also opens up the possibility that the people we speak to and / or their families would allow us access to their photos or other resources from the time (ration books, diaries and so on). It may be something we can work in partnership with the Imperial War Museum – potentially leading to archive access. This could culminate in some kind of event around Remembrance Sunday. The intergenerational element is an interesting one – we could run projects in partnerships with schools / IWM (school visitors) to bring together veterans / those who lived through the war together with those learning about it. These workshops would include some element of Wikipedia / Commons editing and also utilise our trained trainers.

I would hope we don't limit this to 'World Wars'. Many of the other wars the UK has been involved in are not well documented, particularily the colonial wars and political struggles. For some of these we could even find sources on the 'other' side amongst the immigrants here in the UK as a first step to helping inspire similar efforts in other countries. Filceolaire (talk) 21:15, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

I agree with that point. The reason I mention the World Wars project here is that I understand there's an existing piece of work around WWI. Just seems like this extension would be a natural fit. No objection against looking at other conflicts from me.--Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 09:06, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

What would we need: I suggest we'd need a project co-ordinator for the duration of the project. If we develop this as a partnership with the Imperial War Museum this could potentially take the form of a Wikipedian in Residence. This could open up the potential for some funding, too. As far as equipment goes, we have a sound recorder and video camera in the office. We may need an extra video camera to support other work that's happening at the same time. We'd need volunteer support, such as transport costs. We'd need to be able to devote some staff time to administrative support of the project. We'd also need to cover recruitment and salary costs, were we to employ a project co-ordinator. The training element would also need to be accounted for. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 12:25, 13 August 2012 (UTC) Addendum: This could fit in well with Chris's proposed WWI coordinator. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 13:44, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

University / women's outreach

What: Given the recent furore about Kate Middleton's wedding dress and whether it's notable, and given that we need to increase our diversity, how about holding events for students in more "female-oriented" areas (apologies for the clunky phrasing). Women's studies for example, fashion and so on. The Women's Library is not far from our office. St Martin's College is another place that's not too far away. London College of Fashion... these may not be suitable for this year but next year they'd certainly be realistic.

The widely reported Wikipedia editing gender gap clearly illustrates that there's a definite need to reach out to more women to engage in our projects. This idea is just a start but would clearly need to be a part of a long, ongoing campaign to widen participation among under-represented groups. If possible, we could try to attract some high profile ambassadors to the project such as Sandi Toksvig and Germaine Greer – highly intelligent women with a high profile and an academic background. We could also work to engage with large, existing online communities, such as MumsNet (as one well known example). Other routes in would be through student societies, the SU, groups that promote women in science / technology / add topic here. Updated --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:35, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

What would we need: Top priorities for this project would be open minds, determination to succeed and a genuine desire to increase inclusivity. It would be perfect for any volunteers with particular interests in diversity and increased participation. Further down the page I suggest that an outreach officer would be a good appointment – this is the kind of project which illustrates a longer term need for this – especially if the post can be filled from within our community. The project would need to be supported by events, and our very useful trainers. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 12:51, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Education

What: There's lots of potential in this relationship we've been developing with Demos and Digital Disruption. Not sure how many of you have read the proposals or the details of the upcoming meeting I have booked with them but we could easily get a good return from investing in this - events, publications, digital work, training programmes, research... education is a critical area for us to develop in. It's an area where we can make a lasting difference. If this does turn in to something we take beyond the discussion phase resource requirements will be discussed at that point.

What will we need: This will be discussed as the ideas develop, depending on if / how we take the project forward.

Staffing

What: If we were looking to hire more paid employees, I’d suggest an education officer, an outreach officer and an administrative assistant would all be very useful. The admin assistant could divide their time between acting as a PA for the office and providing help for other staff as needed. Many of the projects listed on this page would benefit from extra staffing, particularly the roles suggested. Education and outreach seem to me to be the main two areas that would benefit from extra staffing. The roles would support increased participation in our projects and extend our reach and influence in the educational world. I would suggest they are key and ideally would be recruited from within our community.

What we would need: Recruitment, salary and on-costs. Office space and equipment. Buy-in from the trustees and Chief Executive that these roles are worthwhile.Updated - --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:29, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

All for the office admin/events support person. It would take a huge weight off everyone's shoulders. Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 11:29, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Isn't that Richard's job? Do we need to start a cloning programme? --Tango (talk) 23:03, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

If there's a guarantee that we can clone Richard, then yes. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 09:20, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

User experience assessment of the UK wiki

What: The UK Wiki is our public facing website but it doesn’t look, feel, or behave like one. Let’s get some experts in to test the site with people who have never used it before. This is very important. At the moment it’s almost like a Wiki club for members. I advise we find some community members with some experience of user experience testing and accessibility testing and set up some testing. The results of the testing would then inform changes to the site layout, navigation and architecture. It may lead to the development of a small website that sits on top of the wiki, it may equally lead to some amends to the Wiki. These changes would then be implemented by any experts in Wiki design or layout we have within the community. This is an important piece of work in my view if we are to become more accessible to newcomers – particularly with the fundraiser coming up.

What will we need: Potentially budget required for testing, design, and implementation of changes. Volunteer travel, etc. Alternatively we could contract out the work but this would be more expensive and they wouldn't be so familiar with our culture and requirements. Always better to recruit from within the community.

Wikimedia Commons workshop

What: There are many elements of Commons that are worth discussing, to the point where we can justify a day-long (or half day) workshop devoted to it. A proposed, rough “agenda” would include a welcome and introduction to Commons, a session on copyright (very confusing stuff) and different types of CC license.

We could then have a panel debate about mature content and image filtering (this would apply to all kinds of mature content, such as images of violence, war, the Holocaust, drug use / abuse and so on, not just sexual content). It's important we have this debate, and it's just as important that we are seen to have this debate too.

Other areas for discussion / talks could include the importance of good tagging and metadata, and quality control. We could also issue a call for submissions and presentations. I genuinely think this is worthwhile and could lead to some really positive outcomes.

What we would need: We'd need money for a venue (depending on size of delegation we could host it here), catering and some travel costs. Some money set aside for promotion possibly. A couple of thousand should be enough, depending how big we want to go with the event. --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 16:35, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

And finally

And if all else fails, let’s just buy a helicopter and a swimming pool to land it in. Wouldn't need to be a big helicopter, but obviously the swimming pool would need to be a bit bigger to facilitate a successful landing. Silver and blue the preferred livery, please --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:32, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

All our other helicopters (of which, of course, we have none) are black. WMUK should stick with tradition, I think. --Tango (talk) 23:06, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

I can buy a cheap paddling pool and you can twirl around in it with your arms out while making chopper sounds (health and safety guidelines permitting). I think these were going for around £15 in the Peckham Lidl recently. Worth it for the video we could put on Youtube. --Fæ (talk) 10:09, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Sources Helpdesk

What? - At the moment we are in principle doing a lot to help Wikimedians get hold of sources for articles, via microgrants. But, actually, could do more here to streamline the process. We could create a sources helpdesk which will, on request, make available any source (within reason) to a Wikimedian who needs it to research an article or similar.

Books and other printed publications - The office could find the best prices, place the order, pay using Wikimedia UK accounts, receive the book, asset stamp it, and pass it on to the person who requested it.
Journals which offer free subscriptions to Wikimedians - We can make sure the office has subscriptions and is able to pass on articles to individuals
Pay-as-you-go journal content - we can set up accounts, pay for requested articles, and pass on the articles (subject to licence limitations)
PD content that only exists on paper - we could then scan this in and put it on Wikisource/Internet Archive etc.

Once we have a well-streamlined, easy-to-use process we could be much more confident in publicising it.

How? I'd see us delegating more responsibility to approve requests to the staff, rather than continuing to use volunteer time to approve small requests. The actual work involved could be done by an intern. We could also include these kinds of requests in our volunteer database (e.g. if someone asks for some books on Jane Austen we make sure we invite them to the next BL Editathon). We could also, as a matter of routine, drop people a line receiving the books an email a month later saying "By the way, did you update those articles yet? Is there anything else you'd like to get involved with." - and be much more active monitor~ing impact.

Suggested by The Land (talk)

Scanning centre

What?: At the moment Wikisource, and some references on Wikipedia, rely heavily on the Internet Archive in California. The Archive is great but its content is heavily weighted towards American and Canadian works. It would be nice and beneficial to have something similar to a scanning centre in the UK. One that could both go through a library's public domain collection and act as a drop in centre for people in the UK (Wikimedian or otherwise); mobility would be a bonus.

What would we need?: Professional V-cradle scanner(s) and software. People capable and willing to operate this equipment and give up the time necessary to do the scanning (some knowledge of UK and US copyright laws will be useful). Storage space for the equipment (and/or space from which to operate the scanners). I would recommend hosting everything on the Internet Archive itself and mirroring the scans on Commons. We could build towards this rather than creating the whole thing from scratch and maybe the equipment can be rented. If we go for a mobile scanning centre, one we can take to a library or similar destination, then transport will need to be hired and we'll need drivers.

Suggested by AdamBMorgan (talk) 00:09, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

This could possibly be done in partnership with other groups - A museum or archive prepared to host and operate the machine, Project Gutenberg Europe, others. Filceolaire (talk) 21:18, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Brain Donor

Simple idea. We build a web site where you can register your name, establish your identity using next of kin etc and you can then give your intellectual rights away on the day of your death. I think this would be part of your will and testament. It may not be legally binding but it would record what your wishes were. It would also get us in the news so that we could educate people about how bad a choice (c) can be Victuallers (talk) 00:18, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Build a tech team

What? As an organisation that meets our goals entirely through technology, technology is seriously underrepresented in our activities, and our volunteer and staff skillset. The WMF has ~40-50% of its staff working on technology, and they manage to cover the basics, with a limited capacity to build upon that. WMDE is currently leading the way with chapters having significant technical capacity. We should follow their lead, and invest significantly in setting up a tech team at WMUK.
A really obvious low-hanging fruit for us is Wikimedia-OpenStreetMap integration, which has seen limited development thus far, and a small team could make a huge impact on a timely basis. Another topic could be improving the workflow at Wikisource via the ProofReadPage extension. There are many other opportunities here - ask the community of any Wikimedia project, and they'll give you a long list of things that need to be fixed or can be significantly improved.
What would we need? We've tried hiring a single developer, and that didn't work, primarily because of technical management capacity. So we need to think bigger, and take more of a top-down approach. We need to set up a team that can work together to focus on and significantly improve key development projects, whilst providing general support for our other activities. So this proposal is to hire somewhere around 4-5 full-time staff, starting with an experienced manager via a professional recruitment organisation.
Note: A key principle that we've consistently followed when hiring our staff is that they are there to support volunteers. This continues to follow that principle, but in a slightly different way - here, we're hiring staff to contribute directly to an open source project, which then goes on to support volunteers via content creation and curation.
Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 19:23, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Could we achieve similar aims by contracting the work to existing wikimedia development teams - such as WMDE or even Wikia? Filceolaire (talk) 21:22, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Not really, no. One of the key points here is that there's insufficient development capacity in the movement, which this would help improve. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 10:45, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

In the light of how difficult it has been to recruit development talent in the UK at reasonable costs, for this to grow any legs, I recommend a careful analysis of how much it would be to run a development team in the UK compared to other parts of Europe. Supplementing funds for an international cross-chapter joint team would probably be politic, pragmatic and remaining open-minded on host country is likely to result in more efficient use of the charity's funds. Advice from our international community of developers such as Multichill could make quite a difference. --Fæ (talk) 12:04, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

So... the developer hiring didn't work out? (ahem..). Anyway; this would be good to see on the plan, but I suggest (gently) that one of the issues with the previous attempts was a lack of planning out (in detail) what we wanted and what was needed. I suggested before that our list of projects was quite hand wavy in terms of the actual work needed, and if we aim for a development team then that problem will only get worse.

I suggest one idea is to hire someone specifically to act as an "evangalist" - someone who can program but also blog and interact with the community. This person could then be charged with building a paid & volunteer development team.

The cost need not be prohibitive; hiring a dev team in the UK can be cheap compared to the continent (unless you want to look into Eastern bloc countries, which I don't entirely recommend). However Fæ's comments about a cross-chapter funded team is a good one, worth considering - do we have any other chapters looking at this sort of thing?

Regardless; I'd still recommend a UK-based management role, as this will help solidify communications. (disclaimer; that's exactly the form of job I am interviewing for at the moment ;)) --ErrantX (talk) 15:35, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

If you found yourselves unable to hire one person, I'm not sure hiring 4 or 5 people is the solution... you need to give more thought to what went wrong. A lack of technical management is something you just have to deal with - it's always going to be a problem with your first technical hire. I would caution against expanding the staff too rapidly. Take the time to get used to having staff. Overcome the inevitable teething problems. Then you can think about expanding. --Tango (talk) 22:31, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Musical notation support for mediawiki

mediawiki doesn't at the present time support musical notation. An attempt with lilypond has security issues but that was some years ago and no progress has been made since. Support for musical notation would be useful across a range of articles and on wikisource and be useful to at least some third parties.Geni (talk) 21:15, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

Sercquiais Wikipedia

There are 15 or so speakers of Sercquiais, the language spoken on Sark. Why not teach the entire population to edit? Cost: Perhaps £5,000 maximum. Largest cost would be to hold a series of edit-a-thons on Sark, over a week. We could then potentially have an entire population editing Wikipedia, forming a basis for a Sercquiais-language project. The language is dying out, and this is a fantastic way to preserve it. I'd be happy to take the lead on this project as a volunteer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk • contribs)

It doesn't seem to have an ISO 639 code, so you won't be able to start any new projects without getting one. Also, the article you link to says there isn't a standard way of writing it, which would be a problem. Finally, the impact is going to be minimal when there are so few speakers. We are in the business of providing knowledge to people, not preserving languages. --Tango (talk) 23:00, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Wiktionary projects for Bantu languages

What: There are Bantu languages, spoken by millions but with only a small percentage of the speaking population having any written skills in their spoken language (as often only written Swahili or European languages are taught in schools), with hardly any publications and no recent published dictionary or on-line free dictionary. Supplying a well written Wiktionary project for the top ten Bantu languages (by population) which is not only free online but can be supplied free on CDROM to any school or library that has a use, would be a major achievement.

How: By spending £10,000 or more on events, outreach and research with the goal being to create, improve and promote Bantu Wiktionaries along with nicely produced materials at GCSE standard for free Swahili or Shona language courses. This would have huge long term impact on access and preservation on the world's knowledge (including improving the lives of many thousands who happen to live in the UK). Active coordination with a chapter in Africa, where we supply most of the funding, would be a great approach.

As an example, Shona, which has 11 million native speakers and is the most widely spoken native Bantu language (around thirty times more than fluent Welsh speakers), had its Wiktionary closed down in 2007 due to a lack of any supporting project or volunteers.[1] --Fæ (talk) 12:29, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Partnering with and supporting smaller chapters would be really good. --Tango (talk) 22:51, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Regional coordinators

What: Appoint a paid coordinator (possibly part time, possibly full time) to support and develop volunteer bases and activities in various areas of the UK. They would act as the point of contact for their area of responsibility, and would support or establish meetups in major population centres, build relationships with local government and relevant government/public sector agencies, and support volunteers in establishing relationships with GLAMs, universities, etc. These needn't be permanent roles&mdsah;ideally they would make themselves redundant by having built a volunteers base that is capable of carrying on the work—but they would probably need to be in-post for 12 to 18 months to really make a difference. They would need to be based in the relevant region while in-post, and would ideally know the area reasonably well. I would suggest we have one for Scotland, one for Wales, on for southern England, one for northern England, and one for Northern Ireland who could possibly assist volunteers in the ROI if they wanted assistance from WMUK.

What would we need?: Salaries/stipends and overheads for each regional coordinator, somewhere for them to work where they would have a phone and a computer. We may be able to get the latter for free or significantly discounted if we could persuade councils/public sector organisations/sympathetic charities/other organisations working on regional development/GLAMs/universities to provide a desk in their office. The cost could be high, possibly running into six figures, but if we can negotiate free desk space, the only real cost would be salaries or stipends, though they would probably need to travel regularly. Although it would be a significant chunk of our budget, probably our biggest budget line after the office, the potential impact compared with ad hoc volunteer efforts alone is huge. We wouldn't see results overnight, but the hope is that it would lead to better contacts with local government and other similar or sympathetic organisations, resulting in these organisation better understanding Wikipedia/WMUK (an end in itself imo), and possibly opening up potential sources of funding for local projects, as well as building active volunteer bases in all corners of the UK. Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 19:19, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Regional office(s)

What: As we hire more staff, quite simply, base some of them in an office (and possibly multiple offices if the staff grows significantly) outside London. This shows that we are committed to being Wikimedia UK and not Wikimedia London, and ensures that job applicants from ~~out in the wilderness~~ outside London aren't put off by the prospect of having to relocate to the capital. I would suggest the West Midlands or Manchester for the first regional office, and then possibly Cardiff or Edinburgh if we open a third office (not least to make sure we're not seen as Wikimedia England). These offices should have space for volunteers and interested others to drop in to do some work or chat to staff. This proposal is separate from the one above, but the two could be combined.

What would we need?: The usual overheads associated with running an office. Again, may be possible to get desk space donated. Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 19:19, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

I like the idea of regional offices, but I think 2013 might be too soon for that. There are significant inefficiencies involved in having multiple offices. There are the obvious financial costs, but it also makes it more difficult for the staff to work together, more difficult to manage staff, etc.. I think you would need the regional office to have at least 3 people in it before it became worth it, and that would be too rapid hiring (assuming not all new hires would want to be in the new office). --Tango (talk) 22:36, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Agree with Tango that it's too early for this. Let's concentrate on strengthening the volunteer communities outside of London for now. the wub "?!" 16:47, 18 August 2012 (UTC)

Volunteer coordinator/volunteer development officer

What: A member of staff dedicated to recruiting and looking after volunteers. Would be a vital bridge between the office and the community and would act as the first port of call for any enquiries from volunteers. Would try to find ways that volunteers can become (even) more involved in the chapter, as well as recruiting new volunteers for the chapter and assisting with initiatives to recruit more editors for the projects. Would support existing volunteers by keeping them motivated, helping them to find things to do, putting them in touch with other volunteers to help with projects or events, and introducing them to other people involved with the chapter (particularly staff and board members) when the opportunity arises. Would get to know volunteers and potential volunteers personally, learning what skills they have to offer, what their interest are, what experience they have, what their ambitions are, what their views are on issues facing the chapter at a given moment, and generally make volunteers feel good about what they do, like they're making a difference, like they're supported by the chapter, like they matter to the chapter, etc. Could also help with coordination of large initiatives requiring lots of volunteers (for example, with the wikibus proposal above, they could coordinate getting volunteers to the right place at the right time to meet/join the wikibus) and could take some of the load off the events organiser by assisting with volunteer-led events. Most importantly, would act as an advocate for the volunteer community to the board and staff. It's absolutely essential that this person have a thorough understanding of Wikipedia and WMUK. They would need to maintain or build a network of contacts across the country and so would have to travel regularly for meetups and events.

What would we need?: Salary/stipend and overheads. Probably another desk in the London office. Travel expenses and incidentals for trips on business, occasional hotels. for multi-day or long-distance trips. Some foreign travel to the WMF offices and the offices of other chapters, both to see how they do things and so that staff there become familiar with this person. Total cost, probably £30-40k, 45 absolute maximum I would have thought, based on a salary; £20-30k based on a stipend (less if the post-holder were based outside London, though they would be most effective based with other staff, all of whom are currently based at the office in London). Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 19:19, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

I suggest the name "volunteer liaison". "Coordinator" sounds a little too much like they would be in charge of volunteers, which is something we want to avoid. --Tango (talk) 00:56, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

I would be a little worried that creating this post would mean the other staff could breath a sigh of relief and wash their hands of the volunteers. I would hope that liaising with volunteers is part of every staff members duties. If additional resources are needed then I would be a little wary of taking the volunteer liaison part out of any of the staff positions - I would hope that is one of the fun parts of the job. Filceolaire (talk) 01:56, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

First aid improvement project

What: Collaborate with the British Red Cross and/or St John Ambulance to improve our articles on first aid topics and also the associated Wikibook. Get some decent posed photos of treatment situations (the Red Cross have some excellent ones in their books, maybe they are willing to free-license?), video showing CPR performed on a mannequin etc.

What would we need?: Probably similar resources to the #Sex-ed improvement project above. the wub "?!" 16:45, 18 August 2012 (UTC)