Newsletter/June2009

Wikimedia UK Newsletter

June 2009 Issue

Summary: This month, we have details on our response to HMRC, updates on our Initiatives and Membership drives, as well as our regular sections on Press Coverage, Upcoming Meetups, and activities from the other WMF Chapters around the globe. We're also pleased to announce that we now have a Paypal account! We also want your input on the future of this newsletter - get involved! We are hoping to get the July issue out very early in July in order to fit with our new distribution schedule, so don't be surprised to see two newsletters in quick succession.

In this month's newsletter:

HMRC Response

The Board has posted its response to the HMRC Decision in April to deny our charitable status application. We are now awaiting the HMRC response to our letter - which we hope will be a positive one! Stay tuned to future newsletters for updates on our charitable status.

Initiatives

Wikimedia UK is still soliciting ideas for Initiatives for the chapter to pursue! Our new Initiatives Director, Zeyi He, is looking to develop and take forward as many initiatives as we can - and we need your input and assistance in making as many of them work as possible. The Board is looking at a minimum of 3 completed initiatives before the next AGM - so if you have any ideas, you can either list them on the Ideas page, develop them on the Proposals page, or contact our Initiatives Director at initiatives@wikimedia.org.uk.

Membership Drive

Wikimedia UK is looking to grow! If you have any ideas on how we can push forward our membership, or perhaps want to work with us to gather new members, please get in touch with Paul Williams, our Volunteers Director. He is looking for new and innovative ways we can use the varied connections of our members to reach new parts of the UK that may benefit from our work.

PayPal

Wikimedia UK can now accept donations via PayPal!

To donate with PayPal, go to:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=1609676 or click on the button below:

...

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Press Coverage

Several British newspapers covered a Wikipedia Arbitration Committee ruling banning members of Scientology from editing articles on the subject. [1][2][3]

Our chair, Mike Peel, was interviewed for an Australian newspaper after a mother found explicit vandalism on Wikipedia.

Several blogs carried stories about the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee member who resigned after being exposed as a sockpuppet who had previously been de-sysopped, and was reported to have edited articles where he had a conflict of interest. [4][5][6] This was also covered by The Independent and Daily Mail, who interviewed our Volunteers Director, Paul Williams.

Our application to HMRC has been covered by Charity Finance and ThirdSector, who both quoted our Secretary, Andrew Turvey.

The London Review of Books ran an in-depth article about Wikipedia

A 5,000 page printed book of Wikipedia's featured articles created by Rob Matthews from Brighton was covered by The Telegraph and The Sun.

Other Chapters' Activities

The Netherlands chapter, Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland, is currently running Wiki Loves Art.

A Wikimedia Conference in Japan is currently being planned, and a the 1st Wiki-Conference New York is scheduled for July 25-26 2009.

Meet-ups

Since the last newsletter, the 22nd London meetup was held. The next in the series, London 23, will be on Sunday 12th July @ 13:00 in Penderel's Oak Pub, Holborn WC1.

Newsletter Feedback

We are looking for your input on how this newsletter should be distributed, what it should contain, and how often we distribute it! Let Paul Williams, our Volunteers Director, know - either by email, talk page, or on IRC. All feedback is welcome - would you rather see a tri-monthly edition? Perhaps a PDF instead of an email? Would you like to to be mailed to you? Any ideas for new regular sections? Get in touch!