Water cooler
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British cartoons 1780—1830 available in very high resolution
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)
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
c.1711 by Herman Moll of London
6,021 × 2,562 pixels, 44MB
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
For those interested in what went on over the long weekend our report is now up on the wiki.
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):
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
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)
- 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)
Trained trainers - post-refresher meetup
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)
Tools for identifying Wikimedians at press events, etc
Copied from a post I made to the UK mailing list at Michael Maggs's request:
Reading about the making of videos at Eurovison I was stuck by the positive response to the "Wikipedia representative", not least engendered by his use of a branded microphone windshield (see third picture in the above post; that windshield is far too big for use on the Zoom H1 which I use for the voice project, but something smaller would be useful).
Similarly, my local branch of OpenStreetMap issues mappers with branded high-viz vests; these often reassure the public (or at least facilitate the opening of a discussion), when someone is walking down their road noting house numbers and other features.
I suggest some thought is given to providing WMUK volunteers who are likely to attend press calls and related events with something to identify them in a crowd; this could include microphone windshields, tabards, baseball caps, or perhaps something else.
I strongly suggest that the primary brand used should be Wikipedia, with Wikimedia and WMUK (or WikiNews or whatever) beings secondary, as it is the former which the lay public recognise most readily; and which elicits the positive response referred to above.
On a related note, are we ever going to get the promised business cards?
Michael asked:
perhaps you could kick off a discussion there by summarising the sort of recognition and/or materials that you would find it helpful for the charity to supply?
I've mentioned some items above; I welcome suggestions from others. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 20:57, 15 May 2014 (BST)
I sent an email yesterday to the UK list and it has not been posted. If any one wishes to read my summary of the background, please email me for a copy. There seems little point in re-sending emails to the list as I have been given no explanation and this may be intended as censorship. Be aware than any emails I send may misleadingly appear in the list archives as if it was posted at the time I sent it. Thanks --Fæ (talk) 14:04, 16 May 2014 (BST)
Business cards
- I would hope that we can make the best possible use of this excellent suggestion to increase the range and scope of our charitable work.
- If we were to supply business cards or other items implying accreditation, what should be on them? Something like "Volunteer Photographer, Wikimedia UK" or the equivalent, with the globe logo if we can persuade the WMF to allow us to use their trademark in that way? The wording "Wikipedia representative" may not be possible as we are not legally allowed to speak for the "Wikipedia community" as a whole, in the same way that we cannot control what goes into the encyclopedia. Just thinking aloud here; of course we will have to look into the legal issues of representation before we can be absolutely certain about what is safe. Ideally, it would be best if we can avoid having to print disclaimers, as any sort of legalise will tend to undermine the member and will scare people off.
- What would members find useful, in practice?--MichaelMaggs (talk) 23:01, 15 May 2014 (BST)
- Why the word "volunteer"? from comments on the mailing list there seems to be an assumption that it offers some form of legal indemnity to WMUK, or WMF; I remain to be convinced that that's the case. I've used my (voluntary) work with the RSPB as a yardstick before; when I appear in public alongside their paid staff, I have the same type of badge, and the same branded clothing, as they do. The voluntary nature of my participation is nowhere made apparent. [I've split this as a subsection of the above, lest that get bogged down]. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 00:04, 16 May 2014 (BST)
- That was just my suggestion. I suspect that the term, or something equivalent, might be needed on a formal business card, but as you say would seem unnecessary on clothing, badges and so on.--MichaelMaggs (talk) 07:39, 16 May 2014 (BST)
- Why the word "volunteer"? from comments on the mailing list there seems to be an assumption that it offers some form of legal indemnity to WMUK, or WMF; I remain to be convinced that that's the case. I've used my (voluntary) work with the RSPB as a yardstick before; when I appear in public alongside their paid staff, I have the same type of badge, and the same branded clothing, as they do. The voluntary nature of my participation is nowhere made apparent. [I've split this as a subsection of the above, lest that get bogged down]. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 00:04, 16 May 2014 (BST)