Doug Taylor, another leading Wikimedian with thirty years experience of the non-profit and charity sectors was appointed Vice Chair in support.

Chris has a background in fundraising and campaigning, and he is a long-standing Wikipedia editor and administrator. Elected to the Board of Wikimedia UK in April 2011, his main priority is making sure Wikimedia UK communicates well with the Wikimedia community and with our other supporters. His skills and experience will be invaluable as he leads us through a busy, productive and important period.

The Board wishes to thank Ashley Van Haeften for his excellent contributions as Chair of our charity. There is no doubt that he will continue to perform well as a Trustee and volunteer, particularly in his GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) work, where he is a leader in the field. He continues as Chair of the Wikimedia Chapters Association

This change in leadership will not affect the day to day operations of Wikimedia UK as a functioning charity. The Board looks forward to supporting the Wikimedia community as we continue to work towards our objectives.

The post Wikimedia UK elects a new Chair appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

He’ll be working from the office in Old Street, but believes in being very hands-on and is looking forward to getting out and meeting as many Wikimedians, volunteers and partners as possible. Stevie is interested in all kinds of art, literature and music, enjoys video games and is a long-suffering fan of the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team.

Over the next few weeks Stevie will be working with Wikipedians to promote the Monmouthpedia Project in April and our AGM in the Science Museum in early May.

The post Wikimedia UK’s Communications Organiser appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Daria was selected after a highly competitive recruitment process: 61 people applied for the job, and Daria impressed the interview panel with her understanding of what makes Wikimedia UK tick and her experience of supporting volunteer-led events. She has worked for a number of charities tackling such diverse issues as sustainability, unemployment and diabetes, and was focusing on increasing volunteer involvement and building lasting relationships with supporters.

Her interests include music, philosophy (especially aesthetics), Edinburgh and derelict buildings. She is also fluent speaker of Polish!

She will be based in the office in Old Street but hopes to get out as much as possible to meet the community.

The post Wikimedia UK’s new Events Organiser appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Now Monmouthshire Council have agreed that we can document a whole town. Monmouthpedia has already led to over 40 new articles on the small Welsh town of Monmouth. We intend to have 1,000 QRpedia codes installed by April and many of you have helped already – Thank you!

The post Did you know there is a QRpedia code on the oldest computer in Bletchley Park, the Magna Carta and on the Domesday Book? appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Over the last few weeks, the Wikipedia community has been discussing proposed actions that the community might take with relation to proposed legislation in the United States called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives, and the PROTECTIP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If passed, these would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia. With more than 2,000 Wikipedians commenting on this legislation from all over the world, and a clear majority in favour of taking action, this was the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made.

It was felt that both SOPA and PIPA are pieces of clumsily drafted legislation that are dangerous for the internet and freedom of speech. It provides powers to regulatory authorities to force internet companies to block foreign sites offering ‘pirated’ material that violates U.S. copyright laws. If implemented, ad networks could be required to stop online ads and search engines would be barred from directly linking to websites ‘found’ to be in breach of copyright.

However, leaving to one side the fact that there are more than enough adequate remedies for policing copyright violations under existing laws, in most jurisdictions, these draft bills go too far and in the framing SOPA and PIPA totally undermine the notion of due process in law and place the burden of proof on the distributor of content in the case of any dispute over copyright ownership.

Therefore, any legitimate issues that copyright holders may have get drowned out by poorly-framed draconian powers to block, bar, or shut down sites as requested by industry bodies or their legal representatives. Copyright holders have legitimate issues, but there are ways of approaching the issue that don’t involve censorship.

Wikipedia depends on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. This needs other sites to be able to host user-contributed material; all Wikipedia then does is to frame the information in context and make sense of it for its millions of users.

Knowledge freely shared has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it.  Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikipedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or, if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, will mean that the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to

All around the world, we’re seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the Internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms. Our concern extends beyond SOPA and PIPA: they are just part of the problem. We want the Internet to remain free and open, everywhere, for everyone.

The post Why Wikipedia was blacked out for a day appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

This year, we’ve achieved charitable status, raised over £1 million in our annual fundraiser, and run a bigger-than-ever programme of outreach work. However, we have also started to go through a major change. While before we were a purely volunteer organisation, our work is now supplemented by a growing number of staff.

The new Board of Trustees elected in May will need to build on these successes. It will also need to overcome the challenges that come with continuing growth and professionalisation. To this end, the current Board will soon be starting to advertise for expressions of interest in becoming a Trustee.

Presently, the Board is mainly composed of people who are active editors of one or more of the Wikimedia projects. However, we would particularly like to encourage new trustees who have valuable skills and experience – regardless of whether they are currently involved in the Wikimedia movement. The only essentials are commitment to our vision of making the world’s knowledge freely available to all, and an understanding of the dynamics of a charity that relies on a community of volunteers for its impact. We value increasing Board diversity and in particular encourage female candidates to apply.

The Board currently holds four weekend meetings a year and four evening phone conferences between those meetings. All Board members are expected to attend these meetings, and work in between meetings is generally a minimum of five hours a week. Trustees are currently elected for a period of one year, though there will be a motion at our AGM to increase this to a two-year term.

Anyone interested is invited to look at our website for further details of our work, and to contact either Roger Bamkin (Chair) or Jon Davies (Chief Executive) for an exploratory discussion. Potential candidates are invited to our Board meeting on 10th Saturday 11th Feb in London to observe, and for a discussion about future growth and the role of Trustees. The AGM will be in May.

The post Could you help lead one of Britain’s newest and fastest-growing charities? appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Gaining Charitable Status

Over the last year, Wikimedia UK has begun an innovative program of outreach activities that have included partnerships with cultural sector organisations including the British Library, the British Museum, Derby Museum, the National Archives, Coventry’s Herbert Art Gallery and Museum and the National Maritime Museum. There have been a number of Wikipedia training academies with organisations such as Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and a workshop at the Institute of Physics. The University of Bristol partnered Wikimedia UK with a UK Outreach summer internship, and there was also a Wikipedian in Residence working with the leading global biodiversity organisation ARKive.

Contact details

The post Charity Status for the world’s favourite encyclopaedia – and a milestone for Charity Law appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

The post Wikimedia UK one step closer to charitable status appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Many of you will have met Jon at the September Wikimeet, along with the other finalists. He is the former Chief Executive of Families need Fathers, Britain’s leading shared parenting charity, and a former leader of the London Cycling Network. He will be coming along to the 50th London Wikimeet and the Wikimedia UK EGM on 16th October, where he is keen to meet as many people as possible and hear how they would like the chapter to develop.

Jon is a fantastic find for us. His skills and experience – working with volunteer led organisations and leading charities though periods of change and growth in activities – are just what we have been looking for. His consensual approach is a natural fit to Wikimedian culture and his confident and reassuring manner will be invaluable in the times of change ahead. I am very confident that he will be a very successful addition to the chapter.

Finding and choosing the right person would not have been possible without the help of many people along the way. I would like to thank everyone involved in this. In particular, thanks go to:

• Everyone who gave us feedback from the Wikimeet
• The three external people whose experience was essential to ensuring the right questions were asked and we chose the right person: Nick Poole from the Collections Trust, Matthew Cock from the British Museum and Sebastian Moleski from Wikimedia Deutschland
• Barry Newstead from the Wikimedia Foundation who gave important help when we were drafting the job description
• The board members who gave significant time and effort wading through CVs, attending shortlisting meetings, candidate interviews and board discussions
• Prospect-us, our recruitment agency, whose widespread marketing of the position and advice along the way has been invaluable
• The British Library, who kindly donated a venue for the interviews.

Please give your every support to Jon when he starts and let me know if you have any further queries about his role.

Andrew Turvey

Wikimedia UK

The post Welcoming our new Chief Executive appeared first on Wikimedia UK.