Vote for the Picture of the Year on Wikimedia Commons

The image shows a lightbulb against a red background. The filament within the bulb is burning sue to the presence of oxygen.
The Picture of the Year 2013 by Stefan Krause from Germany. Click to see in full.

This post was written by Wikimedia UK volunteer Livia Morarasu

It’s that time of the year! The voting for the annual Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year Contest is now open and there is plenty to marvel at.

Last year a total of 981 pictures  were promoted to ‘featured picture’ status in categories ranging from plants and fungi, cities and bridges, panoramic views, interiors and details or vehicles and crafts. All Wikimedians with more than 75 live edits before January 1, 2015 are welcomed to select their favourite shots and, thus, recognize the most remarkable contribution made on Commons in 2014.

We know that selecting just one great snap is a difficult task, and so users may vote for as many images as they like in the first round, ending on January 31, 2015, at 23:59 [UTC]. Only the top 30 pictures will be included in the second round, starting on February 14, 2015. Don’t forget that anyone can become a part of the Commons community by uploading  their work and maybe see their name in the Picture of the Year 2015 competition.

Congratulations to the photographers who shared their work as freely licensed content and good luck to all!

The truth gets its shoes on: the Black Death on Wikipedia

This post was written by Richard Nevell

Mark Twain said “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

The same applies to honest mistakes. The ease with which information spreads across the Internet means the stakes are higher when it comes to getting things right. But with a bit of help, it’s possible to get the genie back in the bottle. Mostly at least.

For several years, many sources – including a wide range of academic websites – described the image on the right as depicting people suffering from the Black Death, the pandemic of plague that swept through most of Eurasia in the mid-fourteenth century.  The illustration itself dates from 1360-75 and is from an illuminated manuscript, Omne Bonum by James le Palmer.[ref]Royal 6 E. VI; Page Folio Number: f. 301rb[/ref] In fact, the image shows clerics with leprosy being instructed by a bishop. It’s easy to see how the mistake happened: the Black Death affected a huge number of people across Europe, caused visible physical symptoms, and coincided roughly with when the illustration was produced. But the text itself is about leprosy, and that disease was commonly depicted in the medieval period with red spots like those shown in the image.

The misinterpretation had become so prevalent the issue became the topic of an article in a new academic journal: ‘Diagnosis of a “Plague” Image: A Digital Cautionary Tale’ in The Medieval Globe. Published just a couple of months ago, it didn’t take long before the paper started to have an effect. This is due in no small part to the fact that the article is freely available – in fact the entire volume of The Medieval Globe is open access. The authors approached the British Library to update its Images Online website and its Illuminated MSS Online Catalogue.

When used in print, there’s often not much which can be done until a new edition is printed, but online there’s the chance that a correction can spread just as the original error did. A reverse Google image search means that it’s possible to find out how this image is being used, and even approach those websites to get the image replaced. This has already started, and there have been some positive responses.

The article specifically mentioned Wikipedia’s use of the Omne Bonum image. It was used on 44 pages across 23 different languages, with another two uses on Wikibooks and Wikiquote. This shows how widely and easily Wikipedia can be used to spread information. In March 2014, the English Wikipedia’s page on the Black Death was one of the 400 most-visited pages on Wikipedia; over the course of a year, that page alone managed 4.3 million views.

The English pages were fixed very quickly once the issue was pointed out. On 4th December an anonymous editor mentioned the issue on the discussion page for the Black Death article. The following day another editor replaced the image in the article, and anywhere else on the English Wikipedia if it was being used to illustrated the plague. I chipped in with more edits myself in my free time, however, the further you move from the source language, the more persistent a mistake can be; the image still appears with the incorrect description on at least 28 pages and, with so many languages to take into account, it helps to have as many people joining in as possible.

If you speak and write in a language other than English, please take a look at the pages here (look for the image labelled “Leprosy victims taught by bishop”) and check that the image from Omne Bonum isn’t being used to depict the Black Death. If it is, please replace it! I emailed one of the authors of the paper which brought this issue out into the open, and was told that this image is a good alternative.

Any help would be very much appreciated!

National Library of Wales with a birthday gift to Wikipedia

Photo is a portrait of Jason Evans, a young man who appears to be in his late twenties.
Jason Evans, newly appointed Wikimedian in Residence at National Library of Wales

Wikimedia UK is proud to announce that the National Library of Wales has appointed a full time Wikipedian in Residence; this follows a 6-month appointment by the federal Welsh language university ‘Coleg’. The announcement comes on the day that Wikipedia celebrates its 14th birthday.

Wicipedia Cymraeg and the National Library have had a good working partnership since 2008 when they started to pilot the uploading of around 20 images of Wales’ finest photographer of his time – John Thomas. The world didn’t come to an end, and since then nearly 5,000 images have been uploaded.

The Library is one of only six legal deposit libraries in the UK and Ireland and have more than 5 million books, a million maps, 800,000 photographs and 50,000 works of art. In April 2012, the Library made a policy decision not to claim ownership of copyright in digital reproductions. This meant that the rights information attached to digital representations of works would reflect the copyright status of the original. In 2013, the Library was the winner of the Wikimedia UK ‘GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) of the Year Award’, as being ‘a reliable supporter of the Wikimedia movement aims.’

Both the Library and the Wikimedia movement have many things in common including to enrich the sum of shared knowledge available about Wales online, with a specific interest on the Welsh language Wicipedia.

Robin Owain, Wikimedia UK Manager in Wales said, ‘The Library has opened their doors, and have proven that improving access to their rich resources will benefit not only Wales but the wider world. They have been cutting edge in many ways and I look forward in consolidating our partnership in the coming months. What a great way of celebrating the 14th birthday of Wikipedia!’

Jason Evans has been appointed to the residency and he begins work on 19 January.

_____________________________________________________________

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru’n Penodi Wicipediwr Preswyl llawn amser

Mae Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru wedi penodi Wicipediwr Preswyl ar eu staff, yn llawn amser am gyfnod o flwyddyn. Mae hyn yn dilyn penodi Marc Haynes fel Wicipediwr Preswyl ychydig yn ôl yn y Coleg Cymraeg.

Ers Awst 2008, cafwyd partneriaeth anffurfiol rhwng Wicipedia a Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, a thros y blynyddoedd sylweddolwyd mai’r un oedd eu nod: rhoi lluniau, sgans o lawysgrifau, fideos a gwybodaeth eraill am Gymru a’i diwylliant ar drwydded agored fel eu bont i’w cael ledled y byd h.y. ehangu’r mynediad i drysorau’r Llyfrgell. Yn y flwyddyn diwethaf mae’r Llyfrgell wedi rhoi tua 5,000 o hen ffotograffau ar drwydded agored Comin creu (Creative Commons).

Mae’r Wicipedia gwreiddiol yn 14 oed heddiw (15 Ionawr) ac yn mynd o nerth i nerth. Wicipedia Cymraeg (sydd bron yn 12 oed!) yw’r wefan Gymraeg fwyaf poblogaidd gyda chyfartaledd o 2.4 miliwn o dudalennau’n cael eu hagor yn fisol. Ceir dros 280 o wicis mewn ieithoedd eraill a bydd y bartneriaeth hon rhwng y Llyfrgell Genedlaethol a Wici Cymru yn cynnig llwyfan arall i drysorau’r genedl.

Dywedodd Elfed Williams, Cadeirydd Wici Cymru, ‘Rydym yn ymfalchio yn y Llyfrgell Genedlaethol am y modd mae wedi cofleidio’r byd digidol a gwybodaeth agored. Ymfalchiwn hefyd yng ngwaith mae Wikimedia UK yn ei wneud yng Nghymru.’ Yn ôl Robin Llwyd ab Owain, Rheolwr Wikimedia yng Nghymru, ‘Mae llawer o lyfrgelloedd yn wynebu problemau enbyd ledled y byd, ond yng Nghatalonia, mae’r genedl gyfan wedi sylweddoli grym Wicipedia ac yn ei defnyddio fel cefnfor fawr o wybodaeth – a llwyfan i’r wybodaeth honno. Braf ydy gweld Cymru hefyd ar flaen y gad – yn datblygu yn hytrach nac yn ffosileiddio – ac mae llawer o’r diolch i weledigaeth pobl fel yr Athro Aled Gruffydd Jones a’r Dr Dafydd Tudur.’

Bydd y Wicipediwr Preswyl, Jason Evans o Aberystwyth, sy’n llyfrgellydd yn y Llyfrgell Genedlaethol yn dechrau yn ei waith ar 17 Ionawr.

Bodleian Library seeks a Wikimedian in Residence

Image shows the facade of the historic Bodleian Library on a sunny day.
The Bodleian Library, Oxford

The Bodleian Libraries and Wikimedia UK have joined forces to support a year-long Wikimedian in Residence in Oxford. The post provides the opportunity to work with some of the world’s richest library collections to improve content on Wikipedia and its sister projects and to share with the world the resources held in the Bodleian Libraries.

As Wikimedian in Residence you will engage with staff, the public and researchers to encourage contributions to the development of content on Wikipedia and to make the Libraries’ digitised collections more accessible, with a particular focus on areas currently under-represented on Wikipedia, from women to non-Western collections. You will also undertake academic and public outreach work to encourage understanding and development of Wikimedia projects and improve access to the Libraries’ collections, including events such as editathons and workshops.

This exciting position is ideal for someone with an understanding of Wikimedia’s mission to preserve open knowledge as well as experience of delivering training. You will be an experienced Wikimedian with excellent verbal and written communication skills and an ability to teach and support other users.

The position is part-time (18.75 hours per week/0.5FTE) for a fixed-term of 12 months. The Wikimedian in Residence will work with both the Communications Team and the Bodleian Digital Library Systems and Services team.

Applications close at 12pm on Monday 19 January, and interviews are expected to take place on 4 or 5 February. For more information, please visit their website.

Anyone wishing to speak more informally about the position or ask questions is welcome to contact Liz McCarthy by emailing elizabeth.mccarthy(at)bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Wellcome Library grateful for Wikimedia UK support

Wikimedia UK received a very encouraging email this morning which highlights the nature of the work of our movement.

In a collaboration between the Wellcome Library, Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia volunteers, around 100,000 images from their collection have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

The message, from Phoebe Harkins of the Wellcome Trust, said: “The Wellcome Library is thrilled with the mass upload of the historical Wellcome Images to Wiki commons, and would like to thank the staff and volunteers of Wikimedia UK who have assisted in getting Wellcome Images into Wiki commons, in particular Fae, who has worked on the mass upload over the past few months. We are delighted that 100k images from our extraordinarily diverse collection are now visible through the most consulted information resource on the planet.”

Projects of this nature highlight all that is best about our movement – the collaboration between chapter, volunteers and collections holders to share this knowledge with everyone, for free, is exactly the kind of work we will be focusing on in 2015. We look forward to you being an important part of it.

Royal Society of Chemistry grants journals access to Wikipedia Editors

Image shows the logo of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a yellow, blue and beige device which looks like the letter C
Logo of the Royal Society of Chemistry

The Royal Society of Chemistry has announced that it is donating 100 “RSC Gold” accounts – the complete portfolio of their journals and databases – to be used by Wikipedia editors who write about chemistry. The partnership is part of a wider collaboration between the Society’s members and staff, Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia community. The collaboration is working to improve the coverage of chemistry-related topics on Wikipedia and its sister projects.

The project recently saw the appointment of Andy Mabbett as the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Wikimedian in Residence. Andy said: “Royal Society of Chemistry journals are the first port of call for many scientists and Wikipedia is the first port of call for both students and lay people. It absolutely makes sense for the two to work together to share knowledge, freely, for the benefit of everyone”.

Stephen Hawthorne, Deputy CEO of the Royal Society of Chemistry, explains that this sort of partnership is part of their vision for the future. He said: “By granting access to our journal content, we are looking to forge stronger links with the volunteers who build those projects and to encourage more chemists to edit Wikipedia.

“Around the world, we invest in educating future generations of scientists, partner with industry and academia and promote collaboration and innovation. And we promote the talent, information and ideas that lead to great advances in science”.

The Wikipedia Library will arrange for donated subscription accounts to journals and online archives to be allocated to Wikipedia editors who have demonstrated a commitment to working on the projects, in relevant topic areas.

Understanding Sustainable Agriculture Through Wikipedia

By John Cummings, Wikimedia volunteer

Wikimedia volunteer John Cummings has worked to make available on Wikipedia 2400 images of tropic agriculture research from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and 4000 new images of vegan food, all the images were originally posted on Flickr by people who share their content under a Creative Commons license.

“I want to give people a greater understanding of agriculture’s impact on the environment and of alternative diets that have a much smaller environmental footprint.”

Understanding the impacts of agriculture

The Priority Products and Materials: Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production report by the United Nations Environment Programme found that “Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products.”

“Animal products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as [burning] fossil fuels.”

Edgar Hertwich, lead author of the report

 

Greenhouse gas emissions

A Worldwatch Institute study found that 51% of greenhouse gas emissions were produced by the livestock industry, more than the combined impact of industry and energy. Each year 58 billion animals are killed for food, the impacts of a diet that includes animal products will increase as the population grows, the UN predicts the world population will grow to 9.1 billion people by 2050“

Species loss

New research by scientists at the Worldwide Fund for Nature and the Zoological Society of London shows that populations of terrestrial, freshwater and marine species have decreased by 50% since 1970. The study identifies food production as a major cause.

“We have missed the ultimate indicator, the falling trend of species and ecosystems in the world, if we get [our response] right, we will have a safe and sustainable way of life for the future,”.

Professor Jonathan Baillie, Director of Conservation, Zoological Society of London

The rate of species extinction is 1,000 to 10,000 higher than the natural state and the recent Global Biodiversity Outlook 4 shows “The average risk of extinction for birds, mammals, amphibians and corals shows no sign of decreasing.”

All images are available on Wikimedia Commons under the categories Vegan food and International Center for Tropical Agriculture.

English Heritage and the Archaeological Data Service: What does it mean to Wikipedia?

In October, English Heritage made 84 of their publications freely available online through the Archaeological Data Service. The ADS has been running since 1996 and it brings together a huge amount of information from archaeologists in the UK. Amongst the gems on the site you can find copies of unpublished fieldwork reports (known as grey literature) and copies of journals such as the Proceedings of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland. These resources are freely available online. The release of the monographs by English Heritage adds to the rich tapestry of information already available.

Digitisation is not universal. Many archaeological societies would like to digitise their publications, particularly those which are out of copyright, but time and money can be difficult to come by. But progress is being made, and the ADS is a valuable resource to researchers.

The release was so popular the ADS server struggled to keep up with the demand.

But what does this mean for Wikipedia? These books aren’t just reliable sources, they are written by some leading archaeologists, the likes of Philip Barker, Francis Pryor, and Timothy Darvill. In many cases, these are the definitive works on a particular subject. The 1990 survey and history of Carlisle Castle should be the starting place for anyone looking for detailed information on the site. The account of the excavations at Beeston Castle are the most detailed available.

The breadth and depth of these books is tremendous, and cover prehistory right up to the 20th century. It’s not hard to imagine how they could be used in Wikipedia. The pages on Acton Court (224 words) and Camber Castle (265 words) are both very short, yet have entire books written about them. Battle Abbey (686 words), Wroxeter Roman city (698 words), and Bodmin Moor (1,037 words) could be a lot more detailed and during November was read more than 1,000 times. Even sites as well known as Hadrian’s Wall which have lengthy articles could benefit from the quality of information available.

Wikipedia has an important role to play, not just in helping people discover this information but in accommodating a general audience. These monographs are often technical, and Wikipedia can be an easily accessible bridge. By using these sources to improve Wikipedia, editors are also helping English Heritage and ADS spread this information and making it more accessible.

Work has already begun: an IP has visited many of the relevant articles and added the publication available through ADS and English Heritage as a source, but there’s plenty still to do. So browse through the list and see if something catches your eye. Maybe you can be the one to make a difference to the reader.

Who writes Wikipedia’s health and medical pages and why?

By Nuša Farič, UCL, Centre for Health Informatics & Multiprofessional Education (CHIME)

Half of the editors working on Wikipedia’s 25,000 pages of medical content are qualified medics or other healthcare professionals, providing reassurance about the reliability of the website, according to our newly published research results. Those editors, who are contributing their time for free, are motivated by a belief in the value of Wikipedia, a sense of responsibility to help provide good quality health information, and because they find editing Wikipedia supports their own learning.

Wikipedia is known to be a go-to place for healthcare information for both professionals and the lay public. The first question everyone asks is: but how reliable is it? In a new study, just published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, we took a different approach. We wanted to know more about the people behind the medical pages on Wikipedia, what background do they come from, whether they have specific interests in health and what drives them to contribute to Wikipedia. Because getting health-related content on Wikipedia right is about more than getting the facts correct. It’s about how the information is presented, how topics are covered and what perspectives taken. You can read the paper here.

I’m at the beginning of my research career and I’m very proud that my first published paper is on Wikipedia and Wikipedians. I did this study over 8 months as part of my Master’s course in Health Psychology at UCL. The project was with Dr Henry Potts, a senior lecturer at UCL’s Institute of Health Informatics, who is also a long-time Wikipedian as User:Bondegezou.

Findings

In the study, we randomly selected a set of health-related articles on Wikipedia and invited people contributing to those pages to complete a questionnaire and a follow-up interview. We received 32 replies from 11 different countries, namely the UK, USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia and Colombia. In that snapshot of time (July-September 2012) the editors of health-related articles were predominantly men (31 out of 32), ranging in age from 12 to 59 years. 21 spoke more than one language.

Reassuringly, 15 were working in a health-related field, which included general medicine, cancer research, health psychology, health education, internal medicine, health advertising, regulatory affairs, pharmaceutical drug discovery, microbiology and medical publishing. The other half of the sample included individuals with particular health interests and students, including medical students.

72% of the sample were long-term contributors with 8 having contributed between 3-5 years, 10 between 5-8 years and 5 over 8 years. 90% contributed to other non-medical Wikipedia pages spanning architecture, astronomy, mythology, languages, history and art.

People edited health-related content on Wikipedia because they wanted to help improve content; they find that editing Wikipedia is a good way to learn about the topics themselves; they feel a sense of responsibility – often a professional responsibility – to ensure accuracy and reliability of health information for the public; they enjoy editing Wikipedia; they think highly of the value of Wikipedia. This process of inter-related value systems which drives contributing behavior is graphically depicted in our motivational model of contribution. This could be seen as Wikipedians internalising the principles of Wikipedia, the site’s Five Pillars, and that’s a key part of the social contract that makes the site work. Maybe there is a link between the idealism of many Wikipedians and the idealism of many in healthcare.

Even though we randomly selected health articles, we encountered the same editor accounts over and over. It became apparent that the core editor community number is small: it currently consists of around 300 people. Although this number is still clearly much larger than would normally be brought together to write a medical textbook!

We also observed the egalitarianism of Wikipedia: everyone has equal right to edit content if their claims are verifiable. While the high proportion of healthcare professionals provides reassurance about the accuracy of content, Wikipedia is a place of verifiability and not authority. Contributions from those who are not healthcare professionals are important too. Wikipedia’s focus on what is said rather than who is saying it has parallels with the peer review process that journal papers go through, a system that is often anonymous. Likewise, the evidence-based medicine movement, that has become dominant in healthcare, has worked hard to put research evidence above expert opinion.

Current state and the future

Plenty of doctors and patients are still wary of Wikipedia’s use in healthcare, but other research has shown that Wikipedia is extensively used by patients, by medical students, by doctors and by health researchers. We would like to see more of those using Wikipedia becoming editors and there are several recent initiatives in that area. The more people are editing, the better Wikipedia gets… although we also have to help new contributors get used to Wikipedia’s rules. That balance, between increasing participation, improving reliability and maintaining the community, is a challenge for health-related editors as it is for Wikipedia in general.

Healthcare research has already seen a big shift to open access publications, journals that are free to read, so researchers and health practitioners are becoming open to the principles of Wikipedia. I believe strongly that everyone in the world deserves access to high quality healthcare information in the language of their choice. Wikipedia is the only viable method to achieve this goal.

nfaric{at}gmail.com (User:Hydra Rain)

Final report on Wikimedia UK governance released

This post was written by Michael Maggs, Chair of Wikimedia UK

On behalf of the Wikimedia UK board I am pleased to announce the publication of the third and final report on the charity’s governance. The report has been prepared by Rosie Chapman and Sarah Loader of Belinda Pratten and Rosie Chapman Associates. It marks the conclusion of a process that began almost two years ago.

This report is the second Chapman review and is a follow-up independent audit of the progress that Wikimedia UK has made to improve its governance since January 2013. It comes 18 months after completion of the initial 2013 governance review (the Hudson review) and nine months after the first follow-up audit (the first Chapman review) which covered progress in addressing the Hudson review’s recommendations.

In summary, Chapman found:

“The charity has very largely addressed the 50 recommendations found within the original review. WMUK has developed very quickly, and the charity has clearly put a lot of effort into ensuring that its governance now meets best practice expectations. It has a cohesive, skilled and experienced board in place. They have a clear understanding of the charity’s vision and mission”.

In the section comparing WMUK with similar UK charities, we were pleased to note Chapman’s conclusion (para 42) that:

“For the stage that Wikimedia is in its life cycle it compares well with similar UK charities. Its transparency about its procedures is a beacon of best practice, and its conflicts of interest procedures are robust and well-tested”.

She further observes (paras 14 and 15) that:

“Inevitably, a lot of the Board’s efforts have to-date been internally focussed; putting in place robust governance arrangements and agreeing the new strategy that was published in March this year. Whilst there is still some fine-tuning to bed in the strategy, for example linking particular outcomes with detailed objectives, targets, budgets and performance measurement through-out the organisation, there is also the chance for WMUK’s Board to become more outward focussed in its time and efforts. This will, in turn, enable the Board to consider opportunities and choices for what the organisation does to deliver its strategy, and how it should be resourced to do so.

“From our discussion with trustees and staff it is clear that there is a real appetite for this shift in the board’s focus, and to consider more external opportunities”.

The report is worth reading in its entirety, as it includes a wealth of advice, analysis and commentary that will be of interest and use not only to Wikimedia UK itself but also to the community at large and to other organisations within the movement.

On behalf of the board I would once again like to thank Rosie Chapman for her comprehensive and insightful analysis which will be of great help in enabling us to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead.