Reports/2013/September

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Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for the period 1st to 30th September 2013. If you want to keep up with the chapter's activities as they happen, please subscribe to our blog, join a UK mailing list, and/or follow us on Twitter. If you have any questions or comments, please drop us a line on this report's talk page.

Program activities

Community

  • On 7 September 2013, Wikimedians and amateur photographers gathered in the Grade II-listed St Michael’s Church for Wikipedia Takes Chester, a day-long photo scavenger hunt, held to increase participation in Wiki Loves Monuments UK. At Wikipedia Takes Chester, and at Wikipedia Takes Coventry this time last year, many people attended who would not normally come along to Wikimedia events. A huge range of photographers attend these events, from the point-and-shoot-wielding amateur to the very-expensive-DSLR-toting professionals.


Microgrant outcome

GLAM activities

  • Wikimedia UK is pleased to announce its new partnership with York Museums Trust. The partnership, which was confirmed in September, is to be supported by the recruitment of a Wikimedian in Residence who will promote open access to collections data across the trust.
  • We were also delighted to announce in September that The Royal Society is recruiting a Wikimedian in Residence.

Education activities

This summer Wikimedia UK embarked on a systematic campaign to raise awareness of the assistance the charity can offer to university students towards the creation of new student societies associated with Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. With support from Wikimedia UK, Wikipedia student societies have already been established at Imperial College London and Cambridge University. We are keen to see this sort of activity develop on other campuses across the UK.

We’re in the process of discussing the possibility of new Wikipedia students’ societies developing at a number of universities in Cardiff, Dundee, Manchester, Hull/Scarborough, Swansea and London. Please help us spread this information across university campuses throughout the UK, or if you’re a university student and a Wikipedian just email education@wikimedia.org.uk and we’ll take it from there

We were also preparing for the delivery of the EduWiki Conference 2013 on 1-2 November.

Technology

In September, the WMUK wiki was migrated from the Wikimedia Foundation's datacentre to Wikimedia UK's. Details of the migration can be found on the WMUK website, which is now at the new address of wikimedia.org.uk

Other activities

15 October is recognised as Ada Lovelace Day and is dedicated to celebrating the contributions of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Wikimedia UK was proud to be a part of those celebrations. We have delivered many events about Women in Science in October. For example, along with Jisc, we have supported an editathon focusing on women in science which took place at the University of Oxford. As if to illustrate that the ongoing campaign to encourage greater recognition of women in STEM, BBC Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour show featured a discussion of this topic, featuring our very own Daria Cybulska. UK readers of this blog can listen to the show here. The section about Ada Lovelace Day begins after around 7:45 of the recording.


Wiki Loves Monuments

The UK's logo for Wiki Loves Monuments
  • September 2013 will always be the month the UK took part in Wiki Loves Monuments for the first time. The first few minutes of 1 September were nervous. Would everything work? Would we have long to wait for our first upload? What did the month ahead hold? Thirty days later we had 11,995 photos from 573 people - great success!

    To ensure participants could ask questions, it was possible for them to comment on the Wiki Loves Monuments UK website, get in touch via Twitter or Facebook, or send an email which would be picked up through OTRS.

Microgrants

Information about microgrants that are currently running, and how to submit a microgrant application of your own, are at Microgrants/Applications.

UK press coverage (and coverage of UK projects & activities)

Blog posts this month

Events in September and October

September

October

For events in October 2013 and onwards, please see Events.

Administrative activities

Board activities

On Saturday 14th September there was a board meeting in London. Minutes from the meeting are available online.

News from the Chief Exec

For information on Jon's activities this month, see News from the Office.


Communications

Please see the above links to relevant press coverage received in September and blog posts published during the same period.

If you're interested in getting more involved with our communications or have any questions or comments, please email Stevie Benton – stevie.benton@wikimedia.org.uk

Fundraising and Membership

Fundraising

This month, we received £1,164.50 in one-off donations, with 5 individual donations, one of which was for £1000. Removing that donation from consideration the average donation amount was £32.90 - 40% of these donors have had Gift Aid Declarations made and matched with their records. If anyone would like a full (but anonymised) csv file with more information, please get in touch with katherine.bavageatwikimedia.org.uk and let her know your requirements.

There were 4,786 successful direct debits this month, bringing in a total of £18,834.77

Membership

Up to 30th September 2013:

  • 193 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current members - with 9 new join-ups in September
  • 32 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership should be renewed)
This adds up to 225 members who were eligible to vote
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