Page 44 – WMUK

Preparing for the Wikimedia Serbia EduWiki Conference

Wikimedia Serbia (WMRS) is organising an EduWiki Conference which will be held in Belgrade on Monday 24 March 2013. A Learning Day, a meeting between members of the WMRS education project and Wikimedians from other chapters will also take place on Sunday 23 March, the day before the conference.

Brian Kelly will attend the conference and the learning day and will report on educational developments taking place in the UK. In this guest blog post Brian describes his involvement with Wikimedia, how it relates to his work as Innovation Advocate at Cetis, University of Bolton and his suggestions for enhancing the work of Wikimedia UK. Brian also invites feedback on related educational use of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia services taking place within the UK.

Background

About Myself

In December 1992 I saw a demonstration of the World Wide Web for the first time. Convinced of its importance, in January 1993 myself and colleagues at the University of Leeds set up a Web server for the University, the first institutional Web service in the UK. At that time Gopher was growing in popularity as a freely available tool which could be used for providing information services and its simplicity helped its appeal. However I felt that the Web, even at a time before inline images were available, had the potential to be of strategic importance to higher education and delivered a series of talks and seminars about the Web across the UK.

In 1996 I began work in a new post as UK Web Focus, an advisory role based at UKOLN, a national centre of expertise in digital information management located at the University of Bath. That position enabled me to continue in my advocacy work, promoting the benefits of the Web for the higher and further education sectors. After over 16 years in UKOLN in November 2013 I began work at Cetis, the Centre of Education Technology, Innovation and Standards based at the University of Bolton. As Innovation Advocate at Cetis I will be continuing my work in promoting the benefits of innovative technologies and practices. An area of particular importance is open education and open educational practices (OEP). This is an area in which I feel that Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects will have a role to play. Continue reading “Preparing for the Wikimedia Serbia EduWiki Conference”

Invitation to tender – Train the Trainers 2014

Wikimedia UK is the Wikimedia chapter covering the United Kingdom. We exist to help collect, develop and distribute freely licensed knowledge and other educational, cultural and historic material. We do this by bringing together the Wikimedia community in the UK, and by building links with UK-based cultural institutions, universities, charities and other bodies. We also represent UK-based Wikimedians to the Wikimedia Foundation and the global Wikimedia movement.

Wikimedia UK is seeking individuals or organisations to deliver our ‘Train the Trainers’ programme over the next two years.

The aim is to train active Wikipedians and educators to deliver consistent and high quality training to a range of audiences throughout the UK. These audiences will include volunteers hoping to edit for the first time, passing on new techniques to experienced Wikipedians as well as archivists and museum curators who will be working with users and editors of Wikipedia and all points in between.

If you would be interested in delivering this programme in cooperation with Wikimedia UK please send your tender to jon.davies@wikimedia.org.uk. It must include:

Details about yourself and your organisation including references that can be taken up regarding work of a similar nature you have undertaken in the past.
Examples of similar work you have undertaken in the past.
An explanation of your approach to working with volunteers.
A detailed description of the approach you will take with a timetable and success criteria. This should include teaching and assessment methods, and using the web to reinforce and extend learning.
The number of Wikimedians (i.e. those who regularly edit and contribute to the pages of our websites) you would be able to train.
How your work fits in with the open access ethos of Wikimedia UK.
An agreement that the training materials produced will be open access under a CC-BY-SA licence.
A detailed list of your tender amount and what it does and does not include.

The closing date for applications is Monday 7th April 17.00 hours UK time.

One sentence on Wikipedia: a microcosm of information literacy

Image shows a black and white icon often used to illustrate atoms — An “atomic approach” to Wikipedia can be useful

This post was written by Dr Martin Poulter, Jisc Wikimedia Ambassador

What are the building blocks or “atoms” of Wikipedia? A Wikipedia article can have many elements, but at its core is it built of originally-worded statements of fact with a citation to a reliable, published source which is independent of the thing written about. When a contribution is removed, it has usually broken at least part of this definition.

Taking each part of this definition, and asking “why?”, is a way to structure a discussion about the reliability of information found online. This briefing gives some examples of “why” questions that can emerge (or be elicited) and some pointers for discussion that will illuminate each point.

This could be used with a very wide variety of learners, depending on how you frame the discussion and on your examples. The discussion could be directed to focus on critical thinking, understanding of digital resources, knowledge of a specific subject, or even abstract questions about the nature of knowledge. Continue reading “One sentence on Wikipedia: a microcosm of information literacy”

Wikimedia UK strategy consultation – two weeks remaining!

Wikimedia UK is continuing to consult Wikimedians on the charity’s strategic planning for 2014-19. There are some key components of this work that would benefit from a wider input. These include the Strategic Plan, the model we have used, our Vision and Values and our five high-level Strategic Goals.

There are a few things we’re especially keen to hear from you about, including:

Does our planning represent the full range of activities we engage in, and their aims towards our mission?
Does it indicate how, and why, measurement will take place
Are the measures appropriate (aligned with our aims) and achievable (things we can actually measure)?
Do you have ideas of other measurements, or tools we might use to measure, our impact?
Are the targets given here ambitious, achievable, and trackable?
Which Outcome Measures we should be using against which to measure our impact, and also what targets we should aim to meet by the end of January 2015.
Given we will be associating our activities – including volunteer led activities – with the aims and measures given, are you happy the strategy represents a structure you can work with as a member of our community?

These plans are important because they establish a framework for our work over the next five years and present ways for us to measure the success of our activities.

The community consultation period is open until 28 February 2014 so please do have your say before then.

Interested in helping improve OpenStreetMap?

The OpenStreetMap logo

Our friends at OpenStreetMap are working to collaboratively create a global, openly licensed map that’s free for everyone to use. They are always keen for more people to participate in their work and many Wikimedians are among the contributors.

OpenStreetMap is hosting a “hack weekend” on 8 & 9 March for volunteers to get together and focus on some technical work to improve the tool. This may be development of the “core” components, the editors, or any other side projects. There’s work to do in almost any programming language, as well as tasks like documentation, and even some non-technical graphics design and translation tasks.

If this sounds of interest to you, take a look at the full details of the event, including details of how to sign up, here.

*This post includes text from the event page by OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA 2.0

Wikipedia training at the Royal Society of Chemistry

Wikimedia UK is to collaborate with the esteemed Royal Society of Chemistry this March for Wikipedia training session and editathon.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is a learned society and professional body for chemical scientists. With 48,000 members and a knowledge business that spans the globe, the RSC is a not-for-profit organisation with 170 years of history. Its mission it to work to shape the future of the chemical sciences – for the benefit of science and humanity.

As a result of a discussion between John Cummings, our recent Wikimedian-in-Residence at the Natural History Museum and Science Museum, and staff members of the Royal Society of Chemistry, this collaborative event between the Society and WMUK will take place on Friday 28 March 2014 at Burlington House, the London home of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The event will involve basic Wikipedia training for beginners, followed by an editing session focused on improving articles related to the chemical sciences and notable scientists.

This free event is open to the public but places are limited. To apply for a free space at the event please email the Society with your name, Society membership number (if applicable), why you are interested in the workshop and, most importantly, what would you like to get out of the day. The registration process closes on Sunday 16 February.

Vote for your picture of the year…

This post was written by Stuart Prior, Wikimania Liaison

Once again, it’s time for Wikimedia Commons’ Picture of the Year. This really does showcase the quality of photographers we have out there contributing to the community, and there’s a lovely diversity in the work displayed. Not to forgot those adding illustrations, maps and diagrams (I love the maps, personally).

It’s fun to have these competitions, but I think it’s important not to understate the value and importance of being able to collect and share images like this freely, given the situation that in many countries there is still no true Freedom of Panorama. Fortunately in the UK we have a lot of latitude as photographers, but there is a long way to go in terms of expanding these freedoms in other countries and regions.

Given this context, I feel as though I should be voting for them all, and it is another thing that makes it harder to choose. Also, I am never sure whether I am judging this based on how good I think the picture is, or how much I like the content?

As it is, the images in the Interiors & Details category are among my favourites, and I hope to see see something from there reach the finals. Place your own votes now!

A big thanks to those who have submitted, and good luck to all.

Voting for round one finishes tonight. Round two will begin soon after.

Wonder Women of Natural History editathon

This post was written by John Cummings (Wikimedia UK volunteer) and Emily Humble (Zoological Society of London)

The Wonder Women of Natural History Wikipedia editathon was held in the Mappin Pavilion at the Zoological Society of London on 18 January. This one-day event was dedicated to improving the Wikipedia pages of some of the most remarkable women who have helped shape our understanding of natural history. There has been a big push to raise the profile of women in all fields of science since last year’s Ada Lovelace Day and many editathons have been held across the country to facilitate this.

Wikipedia is the most used reference work in the world, receiving 21 billion page views per month. It is therefore vital there is better coverage of historical and current women scientists to help to inspire the next generation of women scientists. Only 13% of STEM jobs in the UK are held by women. Last year the UK Government made £400 million available to encourage more women to study these subjects.

Like in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, Wikipedia sees quite similar gender divides. The 2011 Wikipedia editor’s survey shows that less than one in ten Wikipedia editors are women. Many people have spoken about the importance of the gender balance of editors on Wikipedia including Mary Gardiner at Wikimania 2012. Women were particularly encouraged to attend this event to tackle this divide and in fact, all new editors attending were women.

During the day we were lucky enough to take a trip to the ZSL library where senior librarian Ann Sylph had prepared a fascinating collection of books, illustrations and letters. Some of our favourites included a book on Bivalves by Martin Lister from 1696 where all of the illustrations were by his daughters, a letter from Mary Anning to William Buckland and the Minutes of the ZSL Council from 1827, noting Lady Raffles’ admission of women as Fellows to the Society.

Liz Smith from the Darwin Correspondence Project gave us an explanation of their gender project which has revealed a greater than expected number of women involved in scientific study in Darwin’s time. The screening of Darwin’s Women, produced by the Darwin Correspondence Project, then got everyone sufficiently inspired to begin their editing that continued through the day.

Articles that were created or improved during the event included:

We’re looking for Wikimedian in Residence projects!

Wikimedia UK is looking for UK institutions eager to work with us by hosting Wikimedian in Residence posts. This is one of the most effective ways to explore how your organisation can engage with the 6th most visited website in the world. The resident will add capacity to allow for delivery of open knowledge projects that may not have been possible before.

Our budget is limited but there is great scope for flexibility. These posts could be for one day a week, limited term posts, based at home – or full time positions at an institution, like the previous project at the British Library. We are looking for projects that are aiming to deliver big impact to the Wikimedia projects. We will be pleased to see applications from institutions with whom we have already begun a positive relationship – but please do note that the applications have to be from the institutions, rather than individual volunteers. Applicants are strongly recommended to consider how their project will make an impact on the most important content on Wikipedia (such as these vital articles) and on the sister Wikimedia projects.

Time is short so we need applications to be received by 5pm on 23rd February. Please contact daria.cybulska@wikimedia.org.uk for an application form. Daria will be convening a panel to make recommendations to the Wikimedia UK board in March. Please also feel free to request more information by emailing Daria or calling Wikimedia UK office on 020 7065 0990.

For background information, including who should apply and why, please visit this page on our wiki. You can read about some excellent previous Wikimedian in Residence projects here.

Have your say on Wikimedia UK’s strategy

Wikimedia UK’s board and staff have been working hard over the last few months on our new Strategic Plan, and we have just released the draft for community consultation. We hope that the model we have used may be of general interest to the wider wiki community, and we hope that as many Wikimedians and other interested parties as possible will help us in critiquing and building on it.

The model we have used starts with our Vision and Values, and uses those to inform our Mission. Within the Mission, we have identified five high-level Strategic Goals that will help us focus our activities. For each goal, we will be measuring our ongoing progress against a series of desired outcomes, using numerical targets where possible and narrative measures where we are unable to track hard numbers.

This approach should ensure that our day-to-day activities are closely focused on our Mission, and that our ‘distance travelled’ charitable impact can be tracked over the entire five year term of the plan.

Please do get involved in the discussion following the links above. There is also a page for general feedback and comments here. The consultation period closes on 28 February 2014 with a view to the board approving the documents at their meeting in March.

You may also be interested in a related blog post by Simon Knight, one of the WMUK trustees who has been closely involved in this work.