Page 61 – WMUK

A message from Jon Davies, Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK

This morning I have been in discussion with Ashley Van Haeften.

Ashley is keen that there should be no division in the WMUK community over his role as Chair, especially at a time when so many great things are being achieved. He has therefore resigned as Chair. A board meeting, already scheduled for this evening, will see the election of a new Chair.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ashley for his valuable contributions as our Chair and look forward to our continued working relationship.

Jon Davies, Chief Executive

A response to The Daily Telegraph article

The Daily Telegraph ran an article online today referring to Ashley Van Haeften, Chair of Wikimedia UK. The story tells how Mr Van Haeften has been banned from editing the English language Wikipedia for a minimum of six months.

The Board of Wikimedia UK discussed this issue at their meeting last week. Minutes of this meeting are publicly available here. The meeting was not ‘secret’ although for obvious reasons the discussion regarding Ashley was held ‘in camera’, but held under normal conditions and is a matter of public record.

The Daily Telegraph has chosen its headline to create maximum impact. The reality is far, far more complex.

Following the board meeting, the statement below was sent to our mailing list.

“As some members of Wikimedia UK will know, our Chair, Ashley Van Haeften, user name Fae, has been the subject of sanctions by the Arbitration Committee of the English Wikipedia (Arbcom), the volunteer committee that exists to provide binding remedies to Wikipedia disputes. In particular, he has been banned from editing the English language Wikipedia for at least the next six months, after which he can appeal the ban.

“The Board of Wikimedia UK notes the decision of Arbcom.

“The Board is united in the view that this decision does not affect his role as a Trustee of the charity. His work at Wikimedia UK has always been enthusiastic and diligent. In particular, his knowledge of charity governance, and his ability to bring about consensus at WMUK’s board meetings, have been particularly valuable.

“The Board points out that the editing issues were fully public before, and during, the recent elections to the board, and were openly and publicly discussed. Our membership placed their trust in him by electing him as a Trustee. He was then elected unanimously as Chair of the Board. He continues to have the full support of the Board.”

Jon Davies Chief Executive, Wikimedia UK.

Working with the Welsh language Wikipedia

You may think that Wikimedia UK focuses solely on the English Wikipedia. However, we seek to support all language Wikipedias, with a focus on those that originate from, or are used in, the UK. Indeed, one of our activities that Wikimedia UK is particularly well known for in the global Wikimedia community is the multilingual challenges that we run, where we invite volunteers to write Wikipedia articles on a given topic in any language.

As a result of MonmouthpediA, we have recently started a number of projects with Wicipedia Cymru, the Welsh Wikipedia. Our point of contact, Robin Owain, is a bureaucrat in a community of about 200 editors who currently maintain over 36,000 articles in Welsh. This may sound small, but it is the biggest Welsh language website in existence, and it receives over 2.7 million visits per month.

Robin and Wikimedia UK trustee Roger Bamkin recently met with the People’s Collection of Wales, Cadw and the National Library of Wales, who have agreed to experiment with making the content they curate available on Wikipedia by releasing 150 images under a Creative Commons license. If this test works, then they may be willing to release thousands more.

Robin and Roger also met with the Welsh Education Minister, Leighton Andrews, who agreed to investigate a number of challenging objectives for WMUK such as Robin joining an education advisory panel. As a first step in this cooperation, Robin now sits on a board helping the Welsh Education Minister on Digital Technology.

Not content with just those achievements, Robin and Roger also presented a bid to the Geovation project on the 18th July on behalf of a team including Andy Mabbett and John Cummings. Out of well over a hundred ideas, they made it to the final seven, and the project was awarded £17,500 to help fund the training of editors and to create QRpedia codes on the Wales Coastal Path!

You can find out more about how we’re supporting the Welsh language by visiting the Wicipedia Cymraeg stand at this year’s National Eisteddfod at the Vale of Glamorgan on 4-11 August 2012.

If you would like to help us provide support for your language, please get in touch! You can contact us on-wiki, call our office on 020 7065 0990, or email stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk

Wikimedia UK and JISC join forces for World War One editathon

Wikipedians on their way to the editathon

The history of the World War One inevitably attracts a great deal of attention and interest, especially on Wikipedia. That’s why Wikimedia UK and JISC teamed up for our first WWI edit-a-thon at the British Library last month.

The editathon brought together academic experts and editors of Wikipedia (Wikipedians) to create and improve Wikipedia articles on WWI. The aim of the event was to increase coverage and make the information as accurate, consistent, wide-ranging and up-to-date as possible, as well as building bridges between Wikipedian and academic communities.

The Wikipedia page about World War One attracts approximately 7.3 million page views per year – 597,945 for the month of June 2012 alone. Other key articles attract impressive numbers of readers, such as the Treaty of Versailles (114,190, ~1.4m/year) and the Battle of the Somme (56,071, ~680k/year).

JISC note in their blog post about the event: “With so many students and researchers increasingly using Wikipedia to, at the very least, inform further research, the need for improved accuracy is a pressing issue.”

The event resulted in 33 new or improved articles. This was just a start, as the process raised a debate about the content itself and the wider issue of academic engagement with Wikipedia and its educational and research benefits.

Chris Keating, Wikimedia UK trustee and World War One project lead, said:

“When the centenary of World War One begins in just two years’ time, hundreds of thousands of people will use Wikipedia’s coverage of the war as the beginning of their personal journeys of commemoration and remembrance. It’s important that Wikipedia’s coverage of the subject is as good as possible.”

“I’m very pleased that we are working with JISC on this project. Both the academic community and the volunteers who edit Wikipedia are in their own ways absolutely committed to the pursuit of knowledge. Bringing the two communities together can help demystify Wikipedia to people who work in higher education, while helping improve Wikipedia articles which form a lasting resource for students at all levels.”

As successful as the event was, it’s just a beginning. The legacy of this event is more than accurate content on a key topic – which in itself shouldn’t be under-estimated – but wider academic engagement with Wikipedia, which can establish a model for the future.

JISC is the UK technology consortium for education and research providing leadership, advice and guidance. For more information visit www.jisc.ac.uk and view more resources put online by JISC at http://www.jisc-content.ac.uk/explore-themes. For media enquiries please contact press@jisc.ac.uk

English language Wikipedia hits 4 million articles!

As around 1,000 international Wikimedians gathered in Washington, D.C, for Wikimania 2012, an historic landmark was reached today as the English language Wikipedia recorded its 4 millionth article just eleven years after its creation.

It’s taken a huge, ongoing collaborative effort to reach this point and everyone involved in the project can feel a warm glow of satisfaction.

The four-millionth article was Izbat Al Borg, a short article about a city in Egypt. The article was created by Mohammed Farag, an editor from Alexandria, Egypt, who edits under the username User:Meno25. This article reflects the global nature of the site’s content, and a lot of potential remains for new articles covering countries like Egypt, which are currently under-represented on the English Wikipedia – as has been shown by Mark Graham’s work at the Oxford Internet Institute studying the global distribution of Wikipedia articles.

In the run-up to the 4 millionth article, User:Dr Blofeld created a long series of articles expanding Wikipedia’s coverage of Turkish villages. He is one of Wikipedia’s biggest contributors, and has made over 300,000 edits to articles. On his talk page, he explained “I rarely ever create “sub stubs” anymore, but today feels right to create a few thousand missing Turkish village stubs as a one off as 4 million articles approach. If we think long term on Wikipedia then it’s at least working towards something more productive. A true encyclopedia would have articles on all of them anyway.”

Other articles created around the 4 millionth include articles on highways in Idaho, such as Idaho State Highway 48, the Siersza Power Station in Poland, Albert C. Baker, an American judge from the early 20th century and Intelsat 605, a satellite launched in 1991.

Past milestones have included 1 million articles (Jordanhill railway station) on March 1, 2006, 2 million articles (El Hormiguero) on September 13, 2007 and 3 million articles (Beate Eriksen) on August 17, 2009.

The edits continue as Wikipedians pursue their shared mission of making the sum total of human knowledge available to everyone, everywhere, for free. Wikipedia exists in over 270 different languages, which have a combined total of over 23 million articles – but there is still quite a way to go before articles on all topics exist in every single human language!

Volunteer’s efforts win Gibraltar the right to be the first Wikipedia ‘city’

Tyson Lee Holmes was with friends when he read about ‘Monmouthpedia, the World’s First Wikipedia Town.’ His first thought was, wouldn’t it be great if we could do it here, in Gibraltar? So, next day, he took the initiative. He contacted the Minister for Tourism, Neil Costa, and asked for permission to talk to the team behind Monmouthpedia.

Tyson’s initiative, in talking to Neil Costa, and instigating an approach on behalf of this British Overseas territory, greatly impressed the Monmouthpedia organisers, Roger Bamkin and John Cummings. They had already been inundated with offers from people looking for their city to be the world’s second Wikipedia town. Offers had come in from the Czech Republic, the USA, Norway and elsewhere. None had such strong political support behind them.

Within a few weeks, the Monmouthpedia team was in Gibraltar. They met Tyson and the Gibraltar’s Director of Heritage, Clive Finlayson. Next, they met the Minister of Tourism, Neil Costa. In Tyson’s company, the team toured Gibraltar and experienced its rich cultural heritage first hand. To end the visit, they met with a large group of committed local Wikipedian volunteers and discussed how a project might be taken forward in Gibraltar. They felt that Tyson had all the key ingredients in place, so much so, that some preparatory work has already started, with Tyson creating articles, and volunteer editors already showing interest in starting work.

Roger Bamkin, who co-created QRpedia and Monmouthpedia said: “As the GibraltarpediA project evolves, QRpedia codes for each new Gibraltar Wikipedia page will be created. The botanic gardens, the nature reserve, all the notable historical monuments across this culturally rich territory, will have specially designed plaques that link to Wikipedia. Anyone with a smartphone scanning the QR code on these signs will see Wikipedia pages about these cultural treasures, in their own language if available, sent directly to their phone.”

Monmouthpedia Project Leader John Cummings concluded: “Gibraltar is a truly multicultural place, squeezed on an isthmus between Europe and Africa. Because it is so close to both Morocco and Spain there are opportunities to reach out to cultures on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. Indeed, that is what we hope to do as the project unfold.”

This post was written by Steve Virgin.

Russian language Wikipedia blacked out for 10 July protest

Image taken from the Russian language Wikipedia during their protest on 10 July 2012

The Russian language Wikipedia is blacked out today in response to a proposed law “on information”. The decision was taken by around 300 members of the Russian language Wikipedia community and is an independent action. The below text is taken from Wikimedia Russia’s blog (with some very minor amends). You can see the blog in the original Russian, alongside English, here.

Wikipedia in Russian will be closed on 10 July because of Russian parliament’s debating of amendments to the law about information (in Russian) that could create real censorship of the internet — a blacklisting and filtering of internet sites.

Supporters of the law’s proposition say that it is aimed only at widely prohibited content such as child pornography and “things like that”, but conditions for determining the content falls under this law will create a thing like the Great Firewall of China. The existing Russian law’s practice shows the high possibility of the worst scenario, in which access to Wikipedia soon will be closed in all country.

World first for St Paul’s Church, Birmingham

St Paul’s is the first church in the world to utilise innovative QRpedia technology

Visitors and worshippers at St Paul’s Church in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham have a new way to learn about the history of the church. This beautiful, Grade I listed building has become the first church in the world to utilise QRpedia codes.

QRpedia codes – a variation of QR (or Quick Response) codes – are objects that can be scanned using a smartphone, which then direct you to a Wikipedia page about the object or location, in the language used by the phone – so providing multi-lingual content to overseas and local visitors alike.

As well as a code linking to the article about the church itself, others provide information about famous parishioners such as James Watt and Matthew Boulton – who both had their own pews in the church. We can only wonder what such scientific pioneers would have made of this innovative technology.

Andy Mabbett is a well-known local Wikipedian who helped install the codes within the church. He said: “There are a huge range of topics related to historic churches so it’s marvellous to be able to share information with visitors and parishioners. I very much look forward to working with more places of worship, with all faiths, to install QRpedia, which is free to use.”

Other topics covered by the codes include the artists who designed and made the famous east window, Benjamin West and Francis Eginton, Francis Goodwin, who added the spire and renowned organist, James Stimpson, who was the city’s first.

Mr Mabbett was keen to encourage more people to get involved with the work of Wikipedia. He said: “When we announced we’d completed this project, members of a Hindu temple in Mumbai got in touch to say that they’d been inspired to work on a similar project. I’d encourage anyone linked with a place of worship, or any historical building or place, to have a go.”

Birmingham is also home to the first railway station in the world to implement QRpedia technology, Birmingham Moor Street station.

To find out more about adding QRpedia codes to a place that’s important to you, please email andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk

Wikimedia UK welcomes Katherine to the team

We are really pleased to introduce our latest member of staff Katherine Bavage to the Wikimedia community as the Fundraising Organiser of Wikimedia UK.

Katherine’s role will be to coordinate work around the annual fundraiser, and work with volunteers to expand opportunities to attract fundraising for projects in partnership with other organisations. She brings to the role her fundraising experience from working in the Higher Education sector in Development roles, as well as experiences of being a volunteer and board member in other organisations.

Her interests include board games (think 7 Wonders, not Monopoly) and playing Roller Derby – she skates as ‘Mo Roll’em’ for a league near her home town of Leeds.

She will be based between the office in Old Street and Leeds before moving to London full-time in October, and will be using the commuting opportunity to get to some wikimeets going on around the UK. Her contact number is 07803 505 171 and she can be emailed at katherine.bavage@wikimedia.org.uk.

What did you think of our annual report?

The front page of Wikimedia UK's 2012 Annual Report — The front page of our 2012 Annual Report

We recently published our annual report for the period 2011-12. It’s available as an optimised PDF here and also in print (for a copy drop Stevie Benton a line here).

The report features information about our fundraiser, some key statistics, a report on Monmouthpedia, the Wikipedia blackout, media activity, and GLAM and education activies, among other things.

As a part of our monitoring and evaluation we’d like to put a call out for feedback. What did you like about the report? What didn’t you like? Do you have any suggestions for next year’s report?

We’d like your views on all elements of the content, including copy, images and design. You can either leave your feedback as a comment on this blog or email Stevie.