Wikimedia UK’s new board held its first meeting last Tuesday. There are a lot of exciting opportunities this year and the Board really wants to make the most of them.
Some of the highlights are:
The Board meeting on 11 June will be devoted to producing a long-term strategy for Wikimedia UK. It’s clear that as we continue to grow and professionalise, we will need a documented vision for the next few years. At the WikiConference a few weeks ago, there was a discussion about strategy and the way forward. We will be taking more steps to involve the community in this discussion – starting with an IRC discussion on Tuesday May 3rd. You’ll be hearing more from us about this soon.
Fae is in the process of setting up a 6-person UK GLAM Steering Committee to build our capacity to work with cultural institutions. Fae will also be attending the Wikimedia Foundation’s “GLAMCamp” in New York in May on WMUK’s behalf. If you are a Wikimedian interested in working with our cultural partners, or from a cultural institution interested in working with Wikimedia UK, please contact Fae directly on fae@wikimedia.org.uk
The Board also decided that the next AGM would be held in May 2012, in London. If you have suggestions for venues or possible partner organisations, please drop Roger a line.
The new Board, elected at the WikiConference on April 16th, is made up of:
Roger Bamkin (Victuallers) – Chair
Andrew Turvey (AndrewRT) – Treasurer
Michael Peel (Mike Peel) – Secretary
Chris Keating (The Land)
Martin Poulter (MartinPoulter)
Ashley Van Haeften (Fae)
Steve Virgin (Steve Virgin)
Gemma Griffiths continues as a pro-bono public relations consultant to the Board.
You can find more details of the new Board on the Wikimedia UK Wiki. If there’s anything you’d like to discuss, please do get in touch with any of us – we can all be reached by email on firstname.surname@wikimedia.org.uk.
Finally, for all the latest news, don’t forget to follow Wikimedia UK on Twitter: @wikimediauk
A waterfowl observation platform by Lipno Lake in the Wdzydze Landscape Park
Ten is turning out to be the number of the year for Wikimedia. First, the Wikimedia Foundation celebrated the tenth anniversary of Wikipedia in January, and now Wikimedia Commons – the library of images, sound files, and videos that constitutes an integral component of Wikipedia’s user experience – has logged its 10,000,000th file. All files on Wikimedia Commons can be used for any purpose, including commercial use, under terms consistent with the Definition of Free Cultural Works. This, together with its educational focus, makes Wikimedia Commons a media repository unlike any other.
The ten millionth file uploaded to Commons is a photograph of a waterfowl observation platform near Lipno Lake in the Wdzydze Landscape Park in Poland. It was uploaded by Commons user Leinad, who has been uploading to Commons since 2006. Leinad is also active on the Polish Wikipedia, and attended the 2010 Wikimania conference in Gdansk.
What stories these ten million files can tell. The scope of Wikimedia’s ambitions has always been epic, and comparing 2006’s 1 millionth image – a pygmy hippopotamus at the Singapore Zoo – to 2009’s five-millionth upload – an article detailing democracy from an 1838 Danish newspaper – succinctly demonstrates the near-limitless capacity for sharing knowledge we’ve fostered.
While the frequency of new articles appearing on Wikipedia may have slowed, our repository of educational media is growing faster than ever. Today’s entry marks less than a two year period during which more than five million new files have been uploaded. This is in part thanks to Wikimedia’s global volunteer building more and more relationships with cultural institutions and collection holders around the world, receiving and uploading large treasures of photographs, video and other content. And we are hoping to accelerate the project’s growth further, with a new media upload tool (login required) which we are currently beta testing, as well as improved video support.
Our huge thanks to the tens of thousands of individuals who have contributed to Wikimedia Commons and who have helped bring the project to this milestone. You have helped us create the largest, and almost certainly, the highest quality trove of entirely freely re-usable, education-oriented media files in history.
Wikimedia UK’s Annual Conference and AGM is this weekend. This is an opportunity for all Wikimedians in the UK to have their say about the future of their local chapter.
The prospects for next year are looking very promising: we start the year after a very successful fundraiser, with over £600k available to support and promote the Wikimedia projects in the UK. We’re building a track record of successful partnerships with museums and other “GLAM” institutions – including events at the British Museum, the British Library and Derby Museums. We have engaged with researchers at places like Cancer Research UK and the Bristol Wiki Academy.
Press coverage of Wikimedia issues has shown been a remarkable turnaround with a large number of positive articles in the national and local press and TV. This was particularly true of the coverage of the 10th Anniversary of Wikipedia.
This AGM will elect the fourth Board of Trustees of the chapter. We have received a record number of nominations and there are eight candidates contesting seven seats. You can ask a question of the candidates online here and read their candidate statements here.
The members are also being asked to decide whether to extend the term for board members from one to two years, to improve the continuity around the time of the AGM. We are keen to hear members’ views on this proposal.
If you are currently a member, you can vote on the potential board members and the resolutions by emailing tellers@wikimedia.org.uk and following these instructions:
You can also come along to the AGM to hear the candidates set out their plans in person and debate the resolutions.
If you haven’t joined the chapter yet, it’s not too late. You can join online here and then cast your votes straight away. Please note membership is subject to acceptance.
The Wikipedia Contribution Team was founded in 2010 to help with the Wikimedia Fundraiser and to help encourage people to edit and build community spirit. Since 2010, their numbers have increased from 10 participants to over 40 and growing! The team has begun their Backlog Drive – which aims to severely reduce the backlogs on Wikipedia in 6 weeks – and now they have started real-life outreach to help encourage members of the public to edit.
It started with an event at Imperial College, London. On the 9th of February, six Wikipedians joined the Imperial College Wikipedia Society to hand out leaflets and encourage students to edit. They also spoke to the college’s librarian about possible collaboration in future between Wikipedia and the library. The event was a roaring success with future events planned at Imperial College over the next few weeks.
However, the biggest success has been the amount of interest the program has garnered from other Universities. People from institutions as diverse as the Open University to the University of Sheffield have been interested in having events held in conjunction with their college. Because of this, the Contribution Team is happy to announce a series of events, funded with the help of Wikimedia UK, at various Universities throughout Britain. This includes the Universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham and Leeds.
Next year is set to be another big year of growth for Wikimedia UK: we have just raised over £500,000 in the Wikimedia Annual Fundraiser. Most of this money will support the technical side of Wikimedia through donations to the Foundation and the Toolserver. However, we also plan to use the funds to recruit four more members of staff. These staff will mean we can scale up our activities, enable more activity by volunteers and professionalise the chapter. Our own developer, events organiser, a full time office manager and a chapter manager pulling everything together will no doubt transform Wikimedia UK.
However, a key factor in our success will still be the board, which will continue to lead the chapter and be made up of unpaid volunteers. It will continue to be elected by our members, ordinary Wikimedians who support our mission and want to make Wikipedia and free knowledge even more successful.
Can you help lead the chapter to success in 2011 by standing for election as a board member? If so, you’re warmly invited to join us on Saturday 5th February from 5pm where you can find out more about what is involved in being a board member and have an opportunity to ask any questions and meet other interested people.
This “board interest day” will take place in central London (venue to be confirmed). If you are interested please drop me a line to chair @ wikimedia.org.uk to reserve your place. You can also give me a ring on 07403 216 991 if you would like to discuss further.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales delivered his only UK lecture at Bristol University on Thursday as part of a tour to celebrate the site’s tenth anniversary (#wp10).
Founded on 15 January 2001 with the aim of making knowledge available for all, Jimmy Wales shared his thoughts on the rise of Wikipedia and how it is shaping the world.
From a very small operation Wikipedia today is the 4th most visited website in the world, available in 199 languages, administered by 50 full-time employees and thousands of volunteers around the world who are dedicated to sharing knowledge.
Today, Wikipedia has over 17 million articles, with those in English accounting for only 20% of the total.
Jimmy Wales spent some time discussing censorship online, highlighting Google’s experiences within the Great Firewall of China. While Jimmy was asked if he’d consider pulling out of China his reply highlighted the strength of the site as Wikipedia did not have a presence in the country. Wales believes that China will one day “abandon it’s current censorship policy.”
Looking ahead Wales is focusing on “content sharing, looking deeper and allowing and supporting content creators.”
Wikipedia is a site built by people for people. It relies on people to factually check edits and so requires support of its users. While he introduced the ‘Pending Changes’ software, developed to safeguard the biography of living people, he is a believer that making knowledge to all requires people to continue joining this growing community.
Wikimedia and British Library join forces to improve content relevant to the Library on Wikipedia
The British Library, home to some of the world’s unique printed and written collections, is hosting a two-day Wikipedia ‘editathon’ on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 January. Co-organised by Wikimedia UK and the Library’s new Digital Research & Curator team, the event is aimed at sharing the expertise of real-world cultural institutions with wiki-knowledge. Details about the event are available on Wikimedia UK’s wiki.
Using the resources of the British Library and guided by the expertise of its curators, the Editathon will aim to update Library treasures on Wikipedia. Library curators will be on hand to guide Wikipedia editors, some of whom have already expressed an interest in improving the entries on Magna Carta and the King James Bible.
Chris Clark, the British Library’s Head of Digital Research and Curatorial Team commented: “There is a great deal of interest in the Library’s collections, both physically and digitally and we are pleased to be able to help Wikipedians add value to the information about our collections.”
Mike Peel, organiser on behalf of Wikimedia UK, commented: “Wikipedia gets 410 million views per month and they will benefit greatly if we are able to update even just a little of the information about the British Library’s unique resources. This is a marvellous way to celebrate Wikipedia’s tenth birthday”
This week Wikipedia is celebrating its tenth birthday. To mark this momentous occasion, people all over the world are gathering at events to celebrate Wikipedia, the fifth most popular website in the world with 410 million monthly readers (comScore, November 2010).
There are three key events in the UK this week:
Thursday 13th January (12pm to 1pm): The man behind the project, Jimmy Wales, will be in Bristol speaking at an event hosted by Bristol University, HP Labs, Bristol Festival of Ideas, BBC Anchor Project and Bristol City Council. Jimmy will be talking about the key milestones over the last decade and discussing ‘what next’ for Wikipedia. Watch Jimmy’s talk live here on our Wikimedia UK blog this coming Thursday.
Thursday 13th January (7pm to 9pm): Jimmy will be hosting a party in West London where a mixture of community members, press, donors, and some. We’ll keep you posted of ‘behind the scene’ pictures and party gossip via Twiiter. Follow @wikimediauk for more information.
Friday 14th January and Saturday 15th January (9.30am to 5pm both days): An Edit-athon will be held at the British Library. The aim of the gathering is to improve the content on Wikipedia that is relevant to the British Library’s collections. Attendees will have access to the resources of the British Library and guided by the expertise of its curators. If you are interested, please sign up before Wednesday 12th January. An update from the event will be posted on here on our Wikimedia UK blog next week.
Do keep us posted of your plans. You can email us on press@wikimedia.org.uk or tweet at us @wikimediauk. The hashtag for the celebrations is #wp10. We’d love to hear how you are celebrating Wikipedia’s 10th birthday…
Every year the Wikimedia movement sets a fundraising goal that it knows will be a stretch. They have to do it, because the Wikimedia websites and movement keep growing. Wikipedia is now the fifth most-visited website in the world, but our staff, infrastructure and budget are just a fraction of that of any other top 10 website.
Every year, the world comes together to support Wikipedia and its sister sites. But this year is a little more incredible than most because this year we celebrate Wikipedia’s tenth anniversary. It’s so important that we kick the year off just like this: by fully funding Wikimedia UK’s budget to support Wikipedia and all the sister projects as we head into the next decade of our work together.
This year Wikimedia UK raised more in the United Kingdom than has ever been achieved, raising £500000 in the shortest fundraiser ever.
We’ve got a few more statistics for you:
Over 30,000 donations to Wikimedia UK.
Almost 630,000 donations to whole Wikimedia movement world-wide.
Two of the largest fundraising days in Wikipedia history.
Average UK donation size: about £18.
This fundraiser had all the ingredients of what we love about Wikimedia projects: people come together, contribute what they have, and together we do something amazing. The contribution of a technology worker in Mumbai, India joins with the contribution of a stock broker from London, and of a student in Moscow, and the result is that we’re able to sustain and support this joint endeavor for another year.
From the bottom of our hearts, and on behalf of the more than 100,000 active volunteers,
thank you.
Wikimedia UK
P.S. If you haven’t yet made a contribution, it’s not too late. Click here to donate.
Wikimedia UK is very pleased to welcome Gemma Griffiths to a new pro-bono position as our Head of Public Relations. Gemma will be working with us to develop a media relations strategy that will raise our profile and encourage people to use and submit content to Wikimedia projects. Priorities for Gemma include strengthen relationships between Wikimedia UK and key journalists, and supporting the promotion of up and coming activities including the Annual Fundraiser, Wikipedia’s tenth anniversary and our Annual Conference & AGM.
Gemma has six years experience in the PR industry and has predominantly worked in the technology sector. Her previous clients include Nominet UK, the national registry for .UK domain names, Sony Reader, the digital reading device manufacturer, and the mobile handset company, Motorola.
Gemma will be working for us for one day per week for an initial period of six months, up to Wikimedia UK Annual Conference in April, subject to a review after three months.
Please join us in welcoming Gemma to the Wikimedia community.
Next year is set to be another big year of growth for Wikimedia UK: we have 
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