Water cooler

Welcome to the water cooler This is a place to find out what is happening and to discuss our external projects and activities. Feel free to suggest ideas that could help our charitable mission or ask questions about how you can help. To discuss the inner workings of the charity, head over to the engine room.

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Proposal: Science/STEM Conference

This is an idea I have had on the back burner for a long time. Note the following:

• We have existing relationships with many scientific bodies such as the Institute of Physics, Geological Society, Medical Research Council, and many more. However, individual societies are usually unwilling to take the risk of running a big event centred on Wikimedia because, although they have some interest from their members, they can't be sure that enough [physicists, geologists, psychologists, whatever] will turn up.
• Many scientists are pure researchers working in small research centres: they aren't associated with universities, or at least university teaching. These small research centres or groups can easily be missed in our outreach but they can be very receptive: e.g. Sphingonet
• Scientists are under professional pressure 1) to engage with the public, 2) to make all the outputs of their research open-access and freely reusable. This is the case much more so now than just a few years ago. This makes them receptive to explanations of how they can achieve this. This has also led to a great expansion of science communicators/ public engagement professionals.
• Scientists are likely to do coding/markup in their daily work. This makes them "low-hanging fruit". It's not that they are more valuable to Wikipedia than arts/humanities experts: in fact I think WP is clearly more in need of content and expertise in arts/humanities areas. I mean that in the current atmosphere, outreach to scientists is more likely to result in enthusiasm and concrete outcomes.
• We have documentation and workshops aimed at scientists and their bosses, explaining how Wikimedia relates to their goals of research impact and public engagement. These materials need continual improvement and wide publicity.
• There are articulate scientist-Wikipedians such as Peter Murray Rust, Daniel Mietchen, Darren Logan, and Alex Bateman who are great at demonstrating Wikimedia's relevance to scientific practice.
• Wikimania 2014 and other events have shown that Wikimedia has useful friends in the scientific sphere, including the Public Library of Science and the many Open Access/Open Science advocates.
• We have raised a lot of awareness of Wikipedia as a platform for dissemination or for education, but not so much yet about WP as a platform for research itself.
• Wikimedia UK volunteers have run sessions at science conferences but there is just too much overlap between Wikimedia and science to cover in a single session.

I think all these facts suggest that a large conference (aiming at 100 attendees) on Science and Wikipedia would have a lot of impact. The themes of the conference would be:

• Wikipedia and Wikimedia as platforms for promoting informed public discussion of scientific topics and theories (acknowledging that the public have a curiosity about all sorts of scientific topics, and overwhelmingly use Wikipedia as a starting point to self-educate).
• Wikipedia and Wikimedia as a platform for research (e.g. the Research portal).
• Wikipedia and Wikimedia as a model for scientific publishing and citizen science (including Wiki-to-Journal publication, Journal-to-Wiki publication, altmetrics, machine-extraction of data from published research, open bibliographic data, data citation, crowdsourced enhancement of scholarly databases, integration of Wikipedia with open/free services such as Figshare, ORCID, Flickr...)
• Wikipedia and Wikimedia as a platform for scientific education. (The answer to "I haven't time to edit Wikipedia." is "Allocate your students to do it and assess them.")
• Women in Science and Technology: is Wikipedia reinforcing stereotypes or providing role models? What is being done?
• Since a lot of the attendees will be personally interested in editing Wikipedia, the event should include training.

I see this as potentially a day or day-and-a-half event, on the model of EduWiki. Much as I advocate for geographic diversity, the scholarly societies and science communicators are so concentrated in London that this event would realistically have to be in London. This means that for it to be financially feasible we'd need a host organisation to provide a cheap venue. It would need about a year's lead time to organise and publicise.

I realise that WMUK's funding makes it hard to plan costly activities in advance, that staff have a lot on their plate and that at this point the suggestion of organising another conference may come like fatty food after a powerful hangover. On the other hand, I think an event like this could be a great success, would continue the partnerships we've already worked to build up, could spawn more editors and more partnerships, and could involve shared effort with other Open Coalition organisations, such as Open Knowledge. Feedback welcome on this suggestion. MartinPoulter (talk) 14:20, 29 August 2014 (BST)

Sounds like a good idea in principle. Wearing my "Wikipedian-in-Residence at ORCID" hat, I'm in. We should consider whether there are other events to which this could be attached (to save/ share costs), and whether we need a traditional or "unconference" format (or a blend). Does the medical project do anything like this? What about the open access/ open publishing folk? Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 21:36, 29 August 2014 (BST)

Would be great to have you involved, Andy. Yay for a blend of keynotes/ scheduled sessions/ unconference blocks! That way we have appealing stuff to publicise, but lots of attendees get a chance to speak and people can talk about very new activities. I think medicine on Wikipedia could be a conference itself, but throwing the net wider means a wider potential audience, and STEM is a wide net. A conference like this is probably a necessary step on the way to more specialised conferences, and that's a big reason I'd like us to do it.

There are relevant conferences where we've previously been represented, like Science Online London and the national public engagement conference, and we've run workshops adjacent to major subject conferences (you may well have done this yourself), but I think the interesting work going on under the above themes has outgrown one subject or one session in a conference. MartinPoulter (talk) 23:55, 29 August 2014 (BST)

Worth noting that the Science Online London (now branded as SPOTON) has gone silent - no word whether there will be a 2014 event so I guess that means there won't. There is certainly a gap waiting to be filled. I would be happy to help out. Frank Norman

Love the idea of the conference. I have organised and facilitated an unconference as part of a wider conference before, so could do similar for this. Yaris678 (talk) 19:15, 30 August 2014 (BST)

I think this is a great idea, thank you for sharing. Wikimedia UK's proposal to the FDC needs to be complete and handed in on 1st October. If we wanted to include something like this in our proposal we would need to get a handle on how much it would cost and where it would fit into our strategic goals - which of course it does. If anyone is keen to start a wiki page for the proposed event where we can thrash out some details, I would be happy to help. We'd need to be fairly quick about it. If there is anything the office can do to help please do let me know. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 11:24, 1 September 2014 (BST)

I think this is a great idea and would happily help out17:30, 2 September 2014 (BST)143.65.196.4 <-- this is HenryScow, unfortunately I'm having login probs on WMUK!

Sounds a great idea. There's only so much you can do in a day (or 1.5) though, especially if training is included. Some narrower focus might be a good idea, leaving space for the next year .... Johnbod (talk) 22:27, 4 September 2014 (BST)

@Johnbod: I agree that pursuing each of these themes at length would make the conference too big. The idea is that we invite contributions on these themes and the conference participants decide which to prioritise. Also, the unconference format would mean that there could be sessions that cover a lot of ideas in a short time, eg. lightning talks or round-table discussions. I share the hope that follow-up events would have a different emphasis.

@Stevie Benton (WMUK): I want to take up your offer. I'm kind of worn out writing stuff, but I'm clear in my head how this relates to the strategic goals. If we talk over Skype and you ask me some questions, can you write down the details you need?

@all: So we need to decide quickly if this is actually happening, and it's not happening unless we have a venue we can use freely or very cheaply. That means that we must get a suitable host organisation. The Wellcome Trust/Wellcome Library would be an ideal location, as would the Royal Society, as would the British Library, as would the Science Museum (where we've previously had an AGM). My recollection of the Institute of Physics building is that its rooms are not quite big enough for the conference I envisage, but there are other scholarly societies that have suitable venues and would like to do a jointly badged event with Wikimedia UK. I'm assuming that once we have a venue, WMUK could pay for refreshments, handle bookings and we volunteers can organise programme and publicity. So let's all pump our respective contacts and try to get at least an in-principle agreement. This could be a headline-making event, especially with the right controversial speakers. MartinPoulter (talk) 15:02, 6 September 2014 (BST)

An additional thought: the one-and-a-half-day format assumes people are staying overnight. This will be more difficult in London than in other places. Perhaps it would be better to run the conference for two days, with a late start both days so that people can commute in (e.g. from Cambridge or Oxford) on off-peak trains. MartinPoulter (talk) 17:27, 6 September 2014 (BST)

Okay, good news everyone: contacts have been pumped and we have a willing host organisation which is absolutely ideal: the Wellcome Trust (who hosted the Medical Humanities editathon earlier this year)! Next important task is to decide *dates* for the conference. This would appeal to scientists, academics, science communicators, librarians and of course Wikimedia volunteers- very much the same bunch who would have attended SpotOn. For those based in universities, it's hard to find a convenient slot. May-to-mid-June will be difficult because of exams/marking. Mid-September onwards is the start of term. July is when people are usually away on holiday. The first week of August is out because Wikimedians will be in Mexico for Wikimania. We need to suggest some dates to Wellcome. MartinPoulter (talk) 14:13, 8 September 2014 (BST)

Awesome. Great work and great location. I am flexible on date. Yaris678 (talk) 14:24, 8 September 2014 (BST)

@User:Yaris678: Thanks. I'll be taking you and everybody else up on their offers of help. :) MartinPoulter (talk) 17:10, 8 September 2014 (BST)

@all: We now have a planning page for the conference, at Wikipedia Science Conference, so please join in there. As the page develops, I hope we can move some planning stuff to sub-pages. MartinPoulter (talk) 17:10, 8 September 2014 (BST)

Volunteers needed to help pre-screen Wiki Loves Monuments UK entries

As you may know, the Wiki Loves Monuments competition closes tonight, and over the next couple of weeks we need to decide on the winning entries. In the UK, we have over 7000 entries, from which we need to select the 500 best for formal judging by the jury.

I'm seeking volunteers to help out with the pre-screening process, which we have to complete within the next two to three weeks.

Can you help us, please?

To help, you’ll need the following:

1. A minimum of few hours free between now and 14th October

2. A good level of ability to distinguish high-quality photography from lower quality (guidelines will be provided)

3. A fast broadband connection for downloading to your local computer several hundred high-resolution images (we’ll tell you how to do it)

4. Suitable software (eg Adobe Lightroom or some other photo-review software) for reviewing the images at full screen size.

You don’t need to be based in the UK to help.

If you can help, please get in touch now! Either reply directly to this posting, or contact me directly by email.

Many thanks, --MichaelMaggs (talk) 18:46, 30 September 2014 (BST)

I have listed this at Volunteer jobs#Help pre-screen Wiki Loves Monuments UK entries. Feel free to tweak the listing. Yaris678 (talk) 08:49, 1 October 2014 (BST)

Good thought. Thank you. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 10:28, 1 October 2014 (BST)

I note the deadline has passed. Has this been sorted now? Either way, it would be good to update the Volunteer jobs page. Yaris678 (talk) 04:54, 21 October 2014 (BST)

It has indeed – thank you to everyone who helped with the screening! I've updated the volunteer jobs page (thanks for keeping that in mind). Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 11:03, 24 October 2014 (BST)

Wiki hard to reach on mobile

On my mobile (HTC Desire HD, Android 2.3.5) there seems to be no way to reach this wiki, from the main page at https://wikimedia.org.uk/ Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 21:02, 1 October 2014 (BST)

Hello Andy. I've just taken a look at this. In the top right hand corner there's a menu. Select that and select the "Wiki" button. On the desktop version (and I believe tablet version) there's a green button labelled "Wiki" that is immediately available. Hope this helps. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 09:41, 2 October 2014 (BST)

There's no such menu link when viewing on my device (I've just double-checked). Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 12:19, 3 October 2014 (BST)

OK, that's interesting. Are you able to send me a screenshot or photo please? I will look into this a bit more deeply. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 13:52, 3 October 2014 (BST)

On its way. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 20:06, 3 October 2014 (BST)

Thank you for the screenshot Andy. I will pass this on and see what I can find out. I'm not around today or tomorrow but will keep you posted. In the meantime, a work around is to go to the URL wikimedia.org.uk/wiki and I'll let you know when I've found a resolution. Speak soon. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 09:21, 6 October 2014 (BST)

Hello again Andy. This should be fixed now. Do let me know if you have any other problems. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 08:59, 8 October 2014 (BST)

Volunteer Equipment

Following the Board Meeting on Saturday 4th October, anyone wishing to use volunteer equipment will have to be a member of the charity.Fabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 10:17, 7 October 2014 (BST)

Wow. This hard on the heels of the Chapter refusing to allow me to borrow a projector for this month's LGBT editathon and without tracking all attendees of the event on chapter databases. I would like to see a detailed public explanation of why it is necessary and in the interests of open knowledge to only loan equipment purchased to fulfil the shared open knowledge mission of the charity to members, and exclude non-members with active Wikimedia projects on the go who happen to not have membership along with the privilege of voting in chapter elections. Timing would seem to indicate this change has been agreed to ensure I am further excluded from working with the charity that I helped to create, so another "Fae case" change in membership policy.

By the way, we wrote the policy on volunteer loan equipment to state that "The borrower need not be a member of Wikimedia UK" (which nicely fits our the original values of the charity of not just existing for the benefit of members) and the policy still states this. --Fæ (talk) 14:12, 7 October 2014 (BST)

Thanks for pointing out the inconsistency on the volunteer equipment page, it has now been corrected.Fabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 14:29, 7 October 2014 (BST)

Maybe the name of the page should be changed from 'volunteer equipment' to 'member equipment' as well? TheOverflow (talk) 07:35, 8 October 2014 (BST)

I may have to borrow a laptop for the LGBT Editathon as my usual one went bust and it may take a while to be repaired. Will this still be possible? I guess we could manage without the projector but as a chapter member I would like the option of it being borrowed in my name instead. I was also interested in claiming travel costs back from the chapter as this event is within its aims and objectives. On that subject, I note that we do make grants to non-chapter members and I presume that this situation hasn't changed as a result of this resolution. CT Cooper · talk 14:57, 7 October 2014 (BST)

No problem, I shall e-mail you as regards borrowing the equipment and volunteer expenses. Also you are correct that there has been no change as regards the policy regarding making grants to non-chapter members.Fabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 15:30, 7 October 2014 (BST)

@CT Cooper: - On a bit of a tangent, Chris, but can I ask when you think we've made grants to non-chapter members? For at least a year now - more like two or three - our grants have been to members only. If you've spotted one otherwise please let me know so I can either put the record straight or find out how it happened! Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 17:11, 9 October 2014 (BST)

Hi Richard. I was thinking of my role on the Grants Committee. I've never asked about membership when reviewing grant requests as I didn't think it was necessary. However, I have always considered whether the applicant is trustworthy and in good standing. Possible examples of non-member grants include Project grants/Transport for WikiIndaba Creative Commons event and the still ongoing Project grants/GAN Treasure Hunt. I'm not sure blanket disallowing grants to non-members is a good idea, though if this is the case, then this should be noted on the project grants page. I do note though that the loaning of equipment and grants are not mutually exclusive issues. For example, some grants are for the purchase of new equipment which becomes WMUK property and must be returned to WMUK when the user no longer needs it. CT Cooper · talk 19:19, 9 October 2014 (BST)

Friends Newsletter 06

The latest Friends Newsletter 06 has been posted. Any comments, feedback etc would be welcome on the talk page. Fabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 10:21, 7 October 2014 (BST)

Quirky Wikipedia articles

Hello everyone. As a part of a project that we're developing to participate in the Science Museum Lates event in November, I'm looking for a selection of quirky Wikipedia articles - think Buffalo buffalo (etc) and Toilet paper orientation, those that are odd but still have some academic or scientific merit. Participants in the session will be selecting some of their favourite lines from unusual Wikipedia articles and putting them together to create found poetry. I'm looking for some of the quirkier articles that might be fun for this, so if you have any suggestions please do let me know! Thank you Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 15:04, 9 October 2014 (BST)

Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development and FKAGEU polocy paper on copyright

Hello everyone. I wanted to give you all a brief update on a couple of advocacy-related matters. I'm really happy to report that in the last couple of days Wikimedia UK has signed the Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development. I believe this is an important statement for us to make, underscoring our belief that: "increasing access to information and knowledge across society, assisted by the availability of information and communications technologies (ICTs), supports sustainable development and improves people’s lives." The second policy item for update is the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU position paper on copyright reform. Wikimedia UK has now signed this paper, joining several other European chapters and other open knowledge organisations. This work is important on a European level as collectively the FKAGEU is making a strong case for copyright reform favourable to the Wikimedia and open knowledge movement. The main areas of interest the group is working on are harmonisation of freedom of panorama across the EU to the most liberal model, the public domain licensing of publicly funded works, and the right to use orphan works. If you'd like to know more, please do contact me directly or leave some questions here and I'll respond. Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 10:30, 13 October 2014 (BST)

Short code for linking to this wiki ?

What's the inline code for linking to this wiki -- ie the equivalent of the prefix :commons: that specifies a wikilink is to Commons ?

I've made a page Digital maps Halloween tagathon, October 2014, but I'm not sure how to link to it from other wiki sites? Jheald (talk) 16:46, 13 October 2014 (BST)

Hey! looks awesome I think wmuk: should work? Sjgknight (talk) 16:59, 13 October 2014 (BST)

Perfect! Thanks very much. Jheald (talk) 17:16, 13 October 2014 (BST)

Gill Hamilton co-opted as trustee

I'm very pleased to be able to confirm that the board has today resolved to co-opt Gill Hamilton as trustee to replace Padmini Ray Murray who stepped down last month. Gill is Digital Access Manager at the National Library of Scotland, in Edinburgh, where she is responsible for the development of open and linked data strategies and policies. She has recently lead the development and implementation of a policy to enable Library resources and metadata to be licensed openly. Gill maintains a broad range of contacts with national cultural heritage organisations, and brings to the board very valuable direct experience of the national GLAM sector. Please join me in welcoming her to the board. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 11:09, 14 October 2014 (BST)

Wikimedian in Residence post at Museums Galleries Scotland - applications welcome

Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) is the National Development Body for the museums and galleries sector in Scotland. They are seeking applications for a Wikimedian in Residence from dedicated individuals with excellent presentation and digital skills to work with Glasgow Museums for a 4 month secondment followed by 8 months at the MGS office in Edinburgh. The post will run for 12 months starting in early January 2015.

The project will support museums and galleries to improve their skills in creating online content and open data projects from the digital curation of their collections. This is a unique opportunity to help enrich Wikipedia and its sister projects and share with the world the expert knowledge from Scottish museums and galleries and to engage with curators, members of the public and researchers to encourage contributions to the development of Wikipedia articles.

MGS works with Scotland’s museums and galleries to create ambitious, dynamic and sustainable enterprises: connecting people, places and collections; inspiring, delighting and creating public value.

Deadline for applications - 12:00pm on the 31st Oct 2014. Do pass it on to anyone that may be interested. - Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 13:55, 14 October 2014 (BST)

Looking for help setting up a MediaWiki distribution with Visual Editor and Flow (needs Parsoid)

Hi All

I do some volunteer work for a charity called WYSE International, I'm trying to set a wiki to help young leaders around the world collaborate on projects. I'm happy with setting up a basic MediaWiki distribution but really struggling to get Visual Editor and Flow to work, I can work out the instructions for Parsoid at all. Ideally I'd really love someone to help me set up the wiki, I'm very happy to learn how to do it but realise it may be simpler and quicker for someone to just press the buttons to make it work.

Many thanks

Mrjohncummings (talk) 19:17, 16 October 2014 (BST)

Quick survey ideas

Hello everyone. As you might recall, Wikimedia UK is taking part in a Science Museum Late event in November, running a few sessions. One of the things we plan to be doing is asking people in queues a very quick couple of questions related to Wikipedia and Wikimedia UK. If you could ask one question about Wikipedia and one about Wikimedia UK, what would you ask? Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 14:51, 20 October 2014 (BST)

xml users and potential users

In order to use the GLAM wiki toolset and do mass uploads of media from institutions such as museums we need their metadata to be in an appropriate xml format.

So we are looking for volunteers who know or would be willing to learn xml and are interested in helping museums do mass uploads to Commons.

A good understanding of the Commons category structure is also useful as the idea is to format the xml in such a way as to enable the migration of metadata.

If you'd like to get involved please email me whether or not you already know xml as if there is sufficient interest we can organise an xml training session. Jonathan Cardy (WMUK) (talk) 17:53, 22 October 2014 (BST)

Storytelling at the Science Museum

Recently there has been a great deal of conversation about storytelling within the Wikimedia movement. We have a good opportunity to capture some compelling stories at the Science Museum Late event on 26 November. With the variety of events taking place being delivered by Wikimedia UK volunteers and staff, as well as a significant audience, there are many ways we can create video and photographic resources for us to use in future communications. In order to make the most of this chance it will require some planning and some thought as to what we would like to record and what we plan to use these materials for. I envisage us gathering lots of footage that we can use for different materials. Firstly, a collection of views on Wikipedia could be recorded with event attendees. These would act as a supplement to the survey that will be conducted during the event. Other footage would be of some of the sessions themselves, and interviews with some of the staff and volunteers, as well as colleagues form the Science Museum. Does anyone have any other particular thoughts? In order to complete these tasks, we will need some volunteers. We'd love for you to be involved, so sign up here! Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 13:01, 24 October 2014 (BST)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Public Art/London

A London task force of WikiProject Public Art was created recently. WMUK participants who are interested in public art are welcome to join. We have identified a list works without Wikipedia entries, so feel free to help us eliminate these red links! I hosted an art edit-a-thon here in Portland, Oregon once, which resulted in the creation of several new articles. WMUK might consider doing the same, if it hasn't already. Just a thought! :) -Another Believer (talk) 01:59, 26 October 2014 (BST)