Talk:World War I/World War I Editathon

Access to sources, Pt 1

Chris, from my experience of the BL & editathons, it is worth saying that a) You can't remove books from the reading rooms to the room the editathon is using, and the editathon experiencce tends to break down to a stark choice between using good sources in the reading room, by oneself, or taking advantage of the experts but not being able to use stuff for references. b) The vast majority of the books I ever need are off-site & have to be ordered in advance, often 3-4 days. Even the ones in the building take 45 mins or more to arrive. It might be wise to pre-order some standard or relevant works. c) Alternatively they do "loan" books on a commercial basis. It would be worth exploring with the WiR whether we can get some free "loans" just to remain inside the BL building. Johnbod (talk) 16:00, 1 May 2012 (UTC)

I agree - I've added a note to clarify. Thanks! The Land (talk) 20:09, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

This is a pretty good point, and I'll look into it - as you say, having a "standard" collection to hand might be very helpful. The difficulty of cutting to and fro from the reading room was certainly quite discouraging last time around... Andrew Gray (talk) 20:50, 9 May 2012 (UTC)

I've had a quick chat about this. I can probably arrange to have some material in the room and available for reference - though I'll need to know in advance what the desired books are - and we may be able to request some stuff on the day if it is available on-site (a lot of material is only available at Boston Spa and requires a few days notice to be trucked down). I'll probably circulate an email closer to the day and see what people would like, what they recommend is generally useful, and what they have access to anyway. Andrew Gray (talk) 11:24, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

If we focus on a particular theme then detailed material will be more readily available to all. 81.178.153.61

Ooh, ooh - Official Histories. Newspapers from the time would be helpful too, although I understand that gets complex! Don't forget that people will need BL reading room cards, so they'll need to bring ID... Richard Symonds (talk) 12:07, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Great venue

Just to say; very pleased to see the venue :) I've always tried to get to one of our editathons there but always miss out. Plus it's right next to where I travel into. Thumbs up! See you there. --ErrantX (talk) 15:51, 4 May 2012 (UTC)

Online partciepation and vairius other stuff

Sorry about bad spelling I havenent got much time. First would it be possible to particepate online and if so how and where. Second can you do something on the surface raiders of WW1 and the operations in the pacfic. Thanks Nhog 5/23/12

Travel expenses

What nature are these? I would like to come from the Isle of Man. I am willing to pay the upgrade to first class if wikimedia pays for everything else? 217.28.12.57 19:57, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

For existing Wikimedians, UK travel expenses are fine (including accomodation if necessary). Isle of Man can be accomodated as well. We can buy them for you if you'd prefer. If you buy them, we'd need you to keep the receipts, and ideally try and keep the costs down! Our full policy, if you'd like to see it, is at Finance Policy 2012. All the best, Richard Symonds (talk) 12:04, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

When do you need to know by? 217.28.12.57 21:29, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

(also, as an alternative means of transport would you provide mileage? I could take ferry and drive...)

Quite soon, I suspect - drop Richard an email if you've questions. I don't know about mileage... Andrew Gray (talk) 09:59, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Photography Question

I do not mind being photographed. Nor do I mind my username being known to have been there. I would, however, object to my username being linked to my photograph - which presumably means that either my username would have to be kept off the list, or my photograph couldn't be used (unless there were at least say seven or eight other users with the same policy). Is this an issue? 217.28.12.57 21:29, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Your username would be hard to conceal anyway - you'd be editing linked to the event! Usernames are not usually publicly linked to photographs on pictures from events (unless people actively choose to do so), so there's a modicum of "safety in numbers", and in any event we would try to honour requests from individuals not to be photographed by making you known to the photographer. Emphasis on try, though - it's in a single room, and especially with group shots of people working, it's not always easy to spot the opt-outs. If this is a real problem for you, it's your call as to whether you want to attend. Andrew Gray (talk) 10:14, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

I'd suggest we just ask the photographer not to include you in any photos - that is the simplest way to do it. I'm sure hte photographer will be able to avoid you, it's worked at similar events before. The Land (talk) 11:11, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Europeana meets World War I Edit-a-thon

As you might know, Wikimedia Sweden (WMSE) and the Europeana Foundation (www.europeana.eu) are organizing an Edit-a-thon in Leuven, Belgium the days before this Edit-a-thon. Our Edit-a-thon will also have the WWI as the theme and the reason that we picked the same theme was not to compete with this Edit-a-thon in any way but because Europeana is planning to release a number of pictures that recently have been collected during the project Europeana 1914-1918 and we will try to use them on Wikipedia, but also because of a strong local connection in Leuven with the war. If you would like to use some of those pictures during this Edit-a-thon that would be awesome! Some of them are really great!

We would also love to see all of you also participate in our Edit-a-thon if you have the possibility. In fact, Europeana will reimburse your basic costs for travel back and forth and accommodation in Leuven and we have an interesting historical tour organized there to give all participants inspiration! For more information about reimbursement please have a look at this page that contain information about how it works and what the rules are. For more general information about the event and practical details, please see the project page. Perhaps we could also find ways of cooperating so please let me know if you have any ideas! Sincerely, John Andersson (WMSE) (talk) 23:34, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Access to sources, Pt2

There was talk of getting some sources via Andrew (see Pt 1 etc). Has this happened, and if so can we add to them? Otherwise, a reminder that many books need to be ordered 4 days in advance, ie about now. Johnbod (talk) 12:31, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the reminder - I'll follow up on this tomorrow morning & send out an email to those signed up. (There is currently a possible problem in terms of number of volumes, but I'll see what I can do!). Andrew Gray (talk) 23:04, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

Emails now sent to everyone attending in person. If there's other specific material you'd like to recommend for the list, do let me know... Andrew Gray (talk) 15:08, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

Virtual participants

Are any of the virtual participants around? Carcharoth (talk) 09:21, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Yes. I am here. About to start working on a stub I found. Whiteghost.ink (talk) 10:43, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I'm here. Just been reorganising the Ottoman Empire sections of the WW1 article. --RoslynSKP (talk) 11:10, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Metadata

The metadata on the event page is incorrect - it looks like it's been partly copied straight from the AGM's... Regards, Rock drum (talk • contribs) 09:38, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Follow up

I barely got started at the event and so am planning to follow up with more editing this week and beyond. Is this still the page where we should provide feedback or is there a separate after-action report? Andrew Davidson (talk) 11:34, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

Here is best, I think. Andrew Gray (talk) 15:47, 18 June 2012 (UTC)