Page 59 – WMUK

Hasina says goodbye to Wikimedia UK

October 25th, by Hasina Khatun

Hasina Khatun, Wikimedia UK intern during September-October 2012

So, the time has come for me to say goodbye to Wikimedia UK. Being WMUK’s second ever intern has been an amazing journey from taking over where Isabelle (first ever intern) left off, to taking on new challenges with the team.

Working with the team here has certainly taught me a lot. The optimistic atmosphere in the office is great. I am very impressed by the attitude of the staff, no matter what they have to overcome.

My first week started off with the GlamCamp weekend. This was a brilliant opportunity for me to see knowledge being spread across different institutions, within and beyond the UK. I met many different people who are involved with Wikipedia and make such interesting contributions.

Throughout the past seven weeks at Wikimedia UK, I have helped Daria with various tasks related to events. One of the biggest and most important challenges by far was choosing the best cake for the Ada Lovelace Event at the Royal Society Library. The whole event was certainly a success – as the reaction on social media shows! I must say it was a brilliant choice (the event, not just the cake, of course!).

Another exciting event which I am working on to be enjoyed by the Wikimedian community is the Wikimedia UK birthday party! I hope that everyone will come along to enjoy themselves and reflect on the progress which has been achieved in the last few years. I am aiming to make it as nice as possible to show my appreciation to everyone I met throughout my time here. It would be great if everyone can make it to the November meet up on the 11th and enjoy not only the company of their fellow Wikimedians, but to celebrate such an exciting occasion.

Reflecting on my different tasks, I have learnt a lot about governance and transparency at Wikimedia UK. This is due to all the data handling I have been involved in. I have seen the importance of keeping track of all the expenses with Richard – not only have I maintained hard copies but online files as well. Katherine has also given me an insight to the ongoing generous amount of gift aid Wikimedia has received. I have helped sort out gift aid claims to ensure we’re up to date and ready for any regulating which may occur.

My involvement at the Imperial College Freshers’ Fair was a fun experience. I saw how students are keen to get involved and edit together. The Freshers’ Fair was a successful day for the Wikipedia Society as there were a lot of new sign-ups. This positive outcome was certainly something to blog about and with the help of Stevie, I managed to put up a summary for everyone to read.

I have also been involved in the recruitment of a new member of staff, which has been a very long process! Jon and I have heard from a great many people interested and it‘s great seeing such a large amount of people wanting to work for Wikimedia UK. Overall, my internship has been very instructive as I had a chance to work with everyone at Wikimedia UK and get insights to the different aspects of how the charity is run.

Finally, I would just like to thank everyone at Wikimedia for welcoming me and helping me throughout my time here. I have learnt a lot from each member of staff and am humbled by how genuinely nice and patient they have been with me.

Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia Foundation appoint independent reviewer

Today Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation are announcing the appointment of Compass Partnership to produce the review and report on the governance of Wikimedia UK. The governance review was announced on September 28, 2012 in a joint statement by Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation. The legal teams at Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation made suggestions for potential parties to conduct the review. A shortlist of two was drawn up, from which Compass Partnership was jointly selected.

The review will be led by Mike Hudson who is an independent specialist consultant with an outstanding reputation in the UK charitable sector. Mike will work with Keith Smith, who also has decades of experience as a manager, trustee and consultant in the sector, together with a research assistant.

The review will establish a full account of the recent events related to QRpedia, Monmouthpedia, Gibraltarpedia and related conflicts of interest. It will also aim to answer specific questions that arise on these topics. The review will also consider Wikimedia UK’s current governance arrangements, including internal policies such as the Trustee Code of Conduct, Conflicts of interest policy, Representing Wikimedia UK policy, and any other relevant policies of Wikimedia UK, in the light of external requirements and guidance and best ethical practices. These will include the Charity Commission guidance on Conflicts of interest for charity trustees, and the Nolan Committee Principles.

The review will involve conducting interviews with current and former trustees, staff and some key stakeholders. Compass Partnership will consider as part of the review such community views and information on the governance of Wikimedia UK as they deem appropriate. Such views should be restricted to matters directly related to the governance of Wikimedia UK as a UK Registered Charity, and the scope of the review does not include matters governed by the Wikimedia community on the Wikimedia projects.

Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation are confident that the review will bring Wikimedia UK to a stronger position. The results of this review will, of course, be made publicly available. A review of this size will necessarily take some time to complete, and some changes are likely to be made in the interim period. We anticipate the review will be published by January 31st 2013, and in any event by 15 February 2013. You can view the terms of reference for the review here.

Bringing evidence-based medicine to the world

Flow of article creation for WP: Medicine — A flow diagram illustrating the article flow process of the WP:MED journal collaboration and translation project

This post was written by Wikimedia UK Associate Dr Martin Poulter

Misconceptions about health are common throughout the world. For example diarrhoea patients respond well to oral rehydration therapy, but there are widespread beliefs that a child sick with diarrhoea needs to be given less fluids rather than more.

The research exists to refute those misconceptions, and if it were widely available it could be a huge step forward for public health. However, there are three big problems with the research: 1) it is often behind a “paywall” rather than on free access, 2) it is too technical for the general public, and 3) it is usually in English. Wikipedia, being freely available in hundreds of languages, is ideal for making this useful, relevant and reliable medical information accessible to the global public.

Wikiproject Medicine is a group of health professionals, academics, students and others who work to improve the quality of medical articles on English Wikipedia. They are currently concentrating on a core of eighty articles, improving them to a comprehensive, professional standard that reflects the most trustworthy current research. The articles include HIV/AIDS, Pregnancy, Tuberculosis, and Dengue Fever.

Other collaborators, including a group called Translators Without Borders, are translating these articles into other languages. Each different language version of an article is being translated by a native speaker, many with medical qualifications. This involves a lot of work: even an article that’s available in the ten most popular languages will reach less than half of the world’s population. To reach most of the world, the information needs to be in dozens of languages. You can follow the progress of the translation project, or take part, through dedicated pages behind the scenes of Wikipedia.

Wikipedia’s licence gives readers the freedom to redistribute articles on disk, on paper, or even as audio, so information can potentially reach people with no internet connection, no computers, or even no literacy. An important development for getting this information to some of the poorest countries is Wikipedia Zero. This is an agreement between the Wikimedia Foundation and mobile data providers serving Africa, the Middle East and South-East Asia. It lets people read Wikipedia on their mobile phones without being charged, potentially reaching hundreds of millions of people who until recently have been information-poor.

Each step in this chain – article improvement, translation and free access – is worth doing for its own sake. Together they achieve something even greater: reliable, relevant health information for billions.

There are benefits within the health profession, too. Wikipedia has very demanding requirements for the sources of medical information, giving the greatest weight to reviews of the highest quality research. Training people to contribute is a way to encourage this evidence-based approach to medicine.

Wikimedia UK’s role in this effort is to help health professionals contribute to Wikiproject Medicine. At a recent event hosted by University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust and supported by Wikimedia Canada and Wikimedia UK, fifty health professionals learned about Wikiproject Medicine and how to improve medical articles on Wikipedia. Librarians Helga Perry and Petra Meeson gave entertaining and useful talks about evidence-based medicine and its alternatives. Jon Brassey demonstrated the TRIP database, a search engine tailored for evidence-based medicine. Jacob Wolff, founder of Wikiproject Medicine, said that he became a Wikipedian for the same reason he became a doctor: to help ordinary people benefit from the findings in medical research literature. James Heilman – a Canadian doctor and very active Wikipedian – gave a presentation on which I’ve based most of this post.

This project builds on our collaborations with the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. We hope the medical community throughout the UK will join us in this effort and invite Wikimedia UK trainers into their workplaces. Contact info@wikimedia.org.uk if you are interested in a similar event in your own institution.

A message from the Wikimedia UK Board

Wikimedia UK’s Board of Trustees met on Tuesday 8 October to discuss recent events, review strategy and evaluate where we want to be in the future. Following the meeting, and subsequent discussions, the Board wishes to make the following statement:

“It has been almost a year since Wikimedia UK achieved charitable status. This is a sensible checkpoint to use to assess the progress we’ve made in the last year as a Board, with our community and our staff.

“We have had a difficult few months which have resulted in negative attention. Some of the coverage has been inaccurate, and much of it has been ill-informed, but we know our community deserves better. Collectively, we have made mistakes. Here and now, we apologise for these mistakes.

“We are determined to learn from our mistakes. We are equally determined to heal the wounds that recent events have opened.

“We welcome the independent review of our governance that we will be undertaking jointly with the Wikimedia Foundation. By looking closely at our governance policies and procedures, and how those have been acted on, we expect the review to have clear recommendations which will help us follow best practice in every area of governance. We are certain that the review will lead to our charity and our movement being in a much stronger position. The results of this review will, of course, be made publicly available and we reaffirm our commitment to transparency and openness.

“Bearing all of this in mind, it is crucial that we do not lose sight of the many excellent achievements of our community and our staff during the same period. We have led the way in our relationships with GLAM institutions. Monmouthpedia was voted the year’s coolest Wikimedia project at Wikimania. Our Wikimedian in Residence programme continues to bring benefits to our movement. Our ground-breaking EduWiki conference highlighted the important role that Wikimedia projects can have in higher education. We are continuing to work hard to grow our volunteer and editing communities, particularly within under-represented groups. We have even taken over the city of Coventry for a day.

“These efforts are continuing every day. Take a look at just some of the activities we have planned for the month of October:

We are celebrating the achievements of women in science and technology on Ada Lovelace Day (in partnership with the Royal Society) and hosting an editathon to encourage more women to edit
We are working with Parkinson’s UK to teach their volunteers and staff to edit Wikipedia, helping to improve the encyclopaedia on a critical topic for many people
We will deliver a workshop at the British Library for groups that have received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council
We are teaming up with The Equiano Centre at University College, London, to host an event for Black History Month, improving coverage on Wikipedia and encouraging the participation of new editors.

“That these events are happening at all is a result of the hard work, determination and motivation of our excellent volunteers, our dedicated and committed staff and our generous donors and supporters.

“This has been a difficult few weeks for us. We must learn from it, and we must not let it prevent us delivering our mission. We will continue to work hard for our community and we will continue working to make the sum total of human knowledge available to everyone, everywhere, for free.”

One year on: 12 months working with the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum

1 October marked the first anniversary of Wikimedia UK’s ongoing partnership with Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, the longest-running GLAM partnership in the UK outside of London. Over the past 12 months, we’ve achieved a great deal. We’ve organised four events at the museum with over 80 people attending in total, the museum has donated images to Commons and we’ve turned readers into editors.

From little acorns

This time last year, we ran a Backstage Pass event at the museum. 25 people attended, coming from as far away as Southampton and Wales. Attendees worked on expanding several articles and created new ones. In January, we worked with the museum to upload some watercolour paintings from the museum’s upcoming exhibition, in addition to several others images from the museum. We also ran a training event for locals, and reached out to several local historians.

A rolling stone…

In March, we ran our first edit-a-thon, based around the historic city of Coventry. Several new editors attended, who have since come to other events. This is key to what we’ve tried to do with this project: we want to keep new editors attracted through the project involved. It’s for this reason that we also now regularly have Wikimeets in the city.

Evolving and growing

Our most recent, and arguably most successful event was Wikipedia Takes Coventry. This was a “Wikipedia Takes…” event where participants set out to photograph the city. Over 50 participants took over 2,100 photographs of historic and otherwise interesting places in Coventry, releasing them under a free license for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere.

So what’s next? We’re having our next meetup later this month and we’d love as many people as possible to come! Our ongoing collaboration continues; head over to the project page to learn more and get involved.

Joint statement from Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK

Over the past six months, a Wikimedia UK trustee led two Wikipedia-related projects, Monmouthpedia and Gibraltarpedia, in a way that seemed to some observers to blur his roles as a Wikimedia UK trustee, a paid consultant for the projects’ government partners, and an editor of the English Wikipedia. This raised questions in the Wikimedia community about whether a trustee was able to balance appropriately the interests of his clients with his responsibilities to Wikimedia UK, the values and editorial policies of Wikipedia, and whether any conflict of interest that arose as a result was effectively managed.

To better understand the facts and details of these allegations and to ensure that governance arrangements commensurate with the standing of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia UK and the worldwide Wikimedia movement, Wikimedia UK’s trustees and the Wikimedia Foundation will jointly appoint an independent expert advisor to objectively review both Wikimedia UK’s governance arrangements and its handling of the conflict of interest.

The review will consider Wikimedia UK’s current governance arrangements, current internal policies, such as the Trustee Code of Conduct, the Nolan Committee Requirements, the Conflicts of Interest policy, the Representing Wikimedia UK policy, any other relevant policies of Wikimedia UK, and best ethical practices.

Considering specifically the conflict of interest, we will ask the expert advisor to identify any gaps between how the conflict of interest situation within Wikimedia UK would ideally have been handled and how it actually was handled, and to recommend how situations such as this should be managed in the future. The review will also touch on any activities that may have blurred work as a paid consultant with work as a Wikipedia editor, but recommendations for changes to Wikipedia’s policies and practices will be outside its scope: we leave the broader topic of reviewing Wikipedia’s editorial policies to the community.

Once the review is completed, it will be reviewed by both the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK and then published.

At the same time, Wikimedia UK has agreed with the Wikimedia Foundation that the Foundation shall process payments for the United Kingdom during this year’s fundraiser.

Wikimedia UK has the benefit of legal and professional advice to assist in understanding and handling conflicts of interests. The goal of both organizations in carrying out this review, and Wikimedia UK’s in deciding to absent itself from the 2012 fundraising campaign as a payment processor, is to demonstrate that we mutually recognize the importance of handling conflicts well beyond simple requirements of the law. We understand our responsibilities to you: the members of Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia movement, its donors, editors, and readers.

First ever Wikimedia UK intern waves goodbye

Isabelle, the first Wikimedia UK Intern, has finished her internship on 21 September 2012. Here is a message from her written on the last day in the office:

Today is the final day of my internship at Wikimedia UK, and now that the last few things have been wrapped up or handed over to my lovely successor Hasina, I have time to reflect a little on my past six weeks here.

Considering this has been a bit of a trial run for the office, having never had an intern before, as far as I’m concerned it couldn’t have gone better! They welcomed me with such warmth and explained everything so well that the ‘settling-in’ process took all of a day and I quickly felt comfortable as part of the team. I’ve particularly enjoyed working in an office building with numerous other charities doing interesting and worthwhile things, and where the environmentally-friendly ethos is proudly upheld.

The time has certainly gone quickly but it’s been long enough to achieve some things that I’m rather proud of!

Firstly, the compilation of a database of contacts at every university in the UK which then enabled us to mail out our Education Booklets to over 300 academics, plus many more digitally. This was a key process in raising awareness of the Education Program amongst teaching specialists who will hopefully realise the potential of Wikipedia in education practices, and this database of contacts should be a useful resource in the future.

This led into the EduWiki Conference in Leicester (5-6 September 2012), which was the highlight of my internship. It was extremely satisfying to see everything come together and the preparation pay off when the two-day event (the first of its kind) took place with great success. For me it was nice to put faces to the names I had been adding to lists and printing onto badges, and to see the passion of the attendees as they shared their ideas and experiences, and returned to their various posts with fresh optimism about the progress that can be achieved by collaborating with Wikimedia. This was certainly the largest event I have helped to organise and was therefore a valuable experience in working on such a scale and over two days.

Although I was unable to attend the GLAMcamp in London at the British Library I did assist during the run-up, booking flights and accommodation for GLAMcampers coming from all over Europe to attend, as well as a few from the UK, and arranging the restaurants for the all-important evening meals. There was certainly a lesson to be learnt in making group hostel bookings! But I believe the weekend went well, and I’m sure next year’s GLAM conference will be even more of a success.

As well as making the odd cup of tea or coffee, I also made myself useful in the office by helping out with the annual accounts, sourcing expenses claims to fill in a few gaps which involved a bit of detective work that was actually quite fun! I made the acquaintance of the franking machine and the shredder, too – happy memories. And my French skills even came in handy when a document on Wikimedia Commons needed translating, so my seemingly irrelevant degree actually did have some use!

All in all I’ve had a genuinely fulfilling experience working for Wikimedia UK. I’ve felt valued by the team and been allowed responsibility and independence in the tasks set for me, which have been varied and interesting. More importantly I’ve met some fantastic people with overwhelming knowledge and dedication, who have convinced me that in nine months’ time (maybe ten – I’ll give myself a few weeks off!) when I’ve finished my Masters and I’m looking for my first ‘real’ job, the charity sector is the first place I’ll look.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the team at Wikimedia UK, especially Daria and Richard who have been such wonderful managers, and all of the board members and volunteers I’ve met along the way who have been so supportive to a newcomer like myself. Thanks to WereSpielChequers I now have the basic skills to edit Wikipedia, so I can continue to contribute to the Wikimedia mission of free and open knowledge for all wherever I go next.

By: Isabelle Yates

Gibraltarpedia: WMUK press release

1. What’s Gibraltarpedia?

Gibraltarpedia is a project by the Government of Gibraltar to improve coverage of Gibraltar-related topics on Wikipedia. It is co-ordinated by two Wikipedians, Roger Bamkin and John Cummings, who are working with Gibraltar residents to train them in how to use Wikipedia and add appropriate photos, etc to Wikimedia Commons; as well as adding QRpedia codes which link places and buildings in Gibraltar with their Wikipedia articles. Roger and John are being paid as consultants by the Government of Gibraltar to help deliver this project. This project was announced at Wikimania in July 2012, and is currently underway. Gibraltarpedia was inspired by the successful Monmouthpedia project (see below).

2. What’s Wikimedia UK’s link to Gibraltarpedia?

Wikimedia UK has not funded this project – our only material involvement has been to supply some “how to edit Wikipedia” leaflets, which is the kind of thing we would do for any institution, and to refer any enquiries received by the office about the project to Roger. However, we do think that mobilizing volunteers to write Wikipedia articles is a good idea – and indeed we do exactly the same thing with the help of galleries, libraries and museums. To this end, we have long intended to give more formal support to this project; before we can do so we would need a clear memorandum of understanding with the Government of Gibraltar setting out shared aims and objectives, and we are working on such a document.

3. What’s Monmouthpedia, and what’s it got to do with Wikimedia UK?

Monmouthpedia is a project by Wikimedia UK and Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) to improve coverage of Monmouth-related topics on Wikipedia. Monmouthpedia took place mainly in the first 6 months of 2012 and, similarly, involved Wikipedians working with local volunteers to help write articles, upload photos, and tag places in Monmouth with QRpedia codes. Wikimedia UK was very much involved with this – we co-funded a Wikipedian in Residence in Monmouth, and a number of QRpedia plaques, as well as various other expenses relating to the project. Again, Roger Bamkin had a consultancy relationship with MCC, though in this case not directly concerned with the delivery of this project.

4. Who owns QRpedia and does anyone benefit from its use in these projects?

Roger Bamkin and Terence Eden have developed QRpedia, which is a system which allows you to generate QR codes which link to Wikipedia articles. They own the domains qrpedia.org and qrwp.org which are used by this service. They have developed this service as volunteers, there is no advertising, and there is no charge to anyone for its usage. The software is released under an open licence and anyone can re-use it. Wikimedia UK is in the process of finalising an agreement which will transfer qrwp.org to Wikimedia UK’s ownership, with the intention that Wikimedia UK will support existing and future QRpedia codes. No money will change hands as a result of this agreement.

5. What about Roger’s conflict of interest between his role in these project and as a Wikimedia UK trustee?

Roger has always been open with Wikimedia UK about his commercial interests and has declared them in public at appropriate times. He has not voted in any Wikimedia UK decisions about Monmouthpedia since the start of his consultancy relationship with MCC or on any decisions about Gibraltarpedia or QRpedia. All our decisions about this have been taken by the other trustees, with the aims of the charity in mind. Roger has not received any Wikimedia UK funds for any of these projects, except for out-of-pocket expenses incurred in his role as a volunteer in the early development stages of Monmouthpedia before becoming a consultant, paid in line with our normal expenses policy.

6. If he hasn’t done anything wrong, then why has Roger resigned?

After discussions with the Board, everyone agreed that the best way to avoid any confusion between Roger’s role running projects like Gibraltarpedia and Wikimedia UK projects, was for Roger to step down.

— Chris Keating, Chair of Wikimedia UK on behalf of the Board of trustees.

Board update

Wikimedia UK would like to announce that Roger Bamkin has stepped down as a Trustee.

“Roger’s energy and enthusiasm has been central to the establishment of Wikimedia UK as a registered charity, our outreach programme, and to many other aspects of our work. QRpedia, one of his creations, is now in use in dozens of museums and galleries worldwide,” said Chris Keating, Chair of Wikimedia UK.

“Roger has always conducted himself with openness and honesty with regards to his business interests, which the Board greatly appreciates. However we have reached the decision together that it is best if Roger steps back from the Board, and thus the Board has accepted his resignation. I look forward to working with Roger in future.”

The constitution of Wikimedia UK allows the Board to co-opt a Trustee to fill Roger’s place until the next AGM when elections will be held, and we will update the community about our intentions about filling this vacancy in due course.

Wikimedia UK appoints Saad Choudri to its Board

Wikimedia UK is pleased to announce the appointment of Saad Choudri to its Board of Trustees. This appointment is effective from 19 September 2012.

Saad brings a wealth of skills and experience to the Board. He is a practising solicitor in the video games industry and has offered legal advice pro bono in the past. He is a member of the Law Society, and stood as a candidate in this year’s Trustee election, where over half of the membership voted for him. You can see his candidate statement and his answers to candidate questions from that election.

We welcome Saad to the Board and very much look forward to working with him.

Chris Keating, Chair, Wikimedia UK