Discussions about Wikimedia UK ()

David Gerard | 1 Aug 13:34

University Wikimedia clubs?

A great idea from the WMAU list. University students could have a
spectacular time taking photos and writing stuff. Particularly as they
tend to have *rather nice* libraries to hand.

The main thing they would need is a few individuals at the university
in question willing to form the club, etc. Not sure what a Wikimedia
chapter could do in the first instance, but I'm sure someone will
think of something.

- d.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Vandenberg <jayvdb <at> gmail.com>
Date: 2008/8/1
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Chapter activity ideas
To: Wikimedia-au <wikimediaau-l <at> lists.wikimedia.org>

On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 4:53 PM, Brianna Laugher
<brianna.laugher <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> ...
> *? I thought of this last night, maybe encourage "Wikimedia Editors
> Clubs" in schools/universities? like enable local groups that are
> extremely light-weight on the admin side.

This is a brilliant idea, even more so because I separately thought of
in another post to this list just an hour ago!

University students are a group that are pour hours into Wikipedia and
other projects, both in reading, creating and maintaining.  There are

(Continue reading)

headers

Ian A. Holton | 1 Aug 16:03

Re: University Wikimedia clubs?

Hey,

it is indeed a fantastic idea, which I was also thinking about in the last two years during my time at SOAS in London. Even though every student uses Wikipedia, actually contributing to it regularly and taking part in events or administrator work has a geeky sound to it according to most and this is one of the reasons, from my personal experience, that Wikimedia Societies don't work well at most universities. Sad.

Still, it would be worthwhile looking into making active involvement with Wikipedia more popular at universities, among students as well as academics. We certainly don't have a lack of contributors, but we do to some extent lack content in some areas where specific knowledge or research work (non-original obviously) is required.

One of the ideas I had in this area was to hold a WikiAcademy in London (at the time at SOAS) at the time, but due to personal reasons I have left SOAS and the UK for at least a couple of years and therefor will most likely not be following up on this personally. I had contacted a few people, including Jimmy and the organizer of the last one in Germany - who were both very interested.

Ian
[[User:Poeloq]]

On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 1:34 PM, David Gerard <dgerard <at> gmail.com> wrote:

A great idea from the WMAU list. University students could have a
spectacular time taking photos and writing stuff. Particularly as they
tend to have *rather nice* libraries to hand.

The main thing they would need is a few individuals at the university
in question willing to form the club, etc. Not sure what a Wikimedia
chapter could do in the first instance, but I'm sure someone will
think of something.

- d.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Vandenberg <jayvdb <at> gmail.com>
Date: 2008/8/1
Subject: Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Chapter activity ideas
To: Wikimedia-au <wikimediaau-l <at> lists.wikimedia.org>

On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 4:53 PM, Brianna Laugher
<brianna.laugher <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> ...
> *? I thought of this last night, maybe encourage "Wikimedia Editors
> Clubs" in schools/universities? like enable local groups that are
> extremely light-weight on the admin side.

This is a brilliant idea, even more so because I separately thought of
in another post to this list just an hour ago!

University students are a group that are pour hours into Wikipedia and
other projects, both in reading, creating and maintaining. There are
also many existing clubs which we could work with. e.g. the
photography club at UoM would likely be interested in working closely
with Wikimedia Commons, and also to provide good quality photos for
Wikipedia articles about Melbourne and Australian flora and fauna.

http://union.unimelb.edu.au/clubs/special-interest#foto

There will also be Uni clubs existing or forming around "free content" themes.

--
John

_______________________________________________
Wikimediaau-l mailing list
Wikimediaau-l <at> lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

headers

Tom Holden | 1 Aug 16:33

Volunteer(s) needed

At least for the moment it makes sense if Kaihsu and I focus on the Oxford centric jobs (e.g. dealing with the OII/venues/accommodation/local sponsorship) but I really need someone to take the lead on looking for big national corporate sponsors.

I already seem to be spending about half my day on the bid, so it would be good if someone could take this task off my hands. (It’s pretty damn crucial that someone does it.) It basically just entails firing off lots of emails explaining what Wikimania is, why we need money, how they might benefit, what we’d like to get them from.

It would also be good if someone could start work on improving our presentation. E.g. knocking up a banner, perhaps making a dedicated sub-page of our bid to show sponsors explaining who we are, what Wikimania is etc., tidying up the main bid page.

A final task for someone else (I’ll do this eventually if no one else volunteers) is to start knocking up a Gantt chart working backwards from the bid date. Copying Buenos Aires’s chart would be a good start.

Tom

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

headers

Ian A. Holton | 1 Aug 17:13

Re: Volunteer(s) needed

Tom,

it might be a good idea to wait until the preparations have progressed a little more. Currently I see a few minor problems in approaching major sponsors:

* The official UK bid city has not been decided upon yet
* Location in Oxford (venue) and dates have not been set
* Official bid on wiki is underpopulated currently

and a few more I can't remember of the top of my head. The reason I see this as problematic is that when questions are raised, there is little "official" information to rely on. This is why for one we should decide which UK city is going to be the official bid city and then of course also the venue.

Once some of this has been worked on, not only by you but all involved in the discussion and process, I think it would be the right time to approach major sponsors, such as telco companies (BT, Virgin...), UK branches of large Internet multinations (Google, Yahoo! etc) as well as local companies and start-ups (Zopa, web hosters, ...) and obviously any other companies that might potentially be interested in sponsoring such an event.

Now to the most important part: As this is a task that can be done non-locally I would be willing to help along with it, for example creating an "information pack" (introduction, key facts, links and contacts) that can be e-mailed with a cover letter to potential companies and then if requested also mailed. I believe that this task is too large to be just manned by one person and would like to do this, if I am asked to get involved, in a small team and open to suggestions, contacts and so on.

Ian
[[User:Poeloq]]

2008/8/1 Tom Holden <thomas.holden <at> gmail.com>

At least for the moment it makes sense if Kaihsu and I focus on the Oxford centric jobs (e.g. dealing with the OII/venues/accommodation/local sponsorship) but I really need someone to take the lead on looking for big national corporate sponsors.

I already seem to be spending about half my day on the bid, so it would be good if someone could take this task off my hands. (It's pretty damn crucial that someone does it.) It basically just entails firing off lots of emails explaining what Wikimania is, why we need money, how they might benefit, what we'd like to get them from.

It would also be good if someone could start work on improving our presentation. E.g. knocking up a banner, perhaps making a dedicated sub-page of our bid to show sponsors explaining who we are, what Wikimania is etc., tidying up the main bid page.

A final task for someone else (I'll do this eventually if no one else volunteers) is to start knocking up a Gantt chart working backwards from the bid date. Copying Buenos Aires's chart would be a good start.

Tom

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

headers

Al Tally | 1 Aug 17:21

Re: Volunteer(s) needed

2008/8/1 Ian A. Holton <poeloq <at> gmail.com>

Tom,

it might be a good idea to wait until the preparations have progressed a little more. Currently I see a few minor problems in approaching major sponsors:

* The official UK bid city has not been decided upon yet
* Location in Oxford (venue) and dates have not been set
* Official bid on wiki is underpopulated currently

Ian, did you miss the emal that said we were going for Oxford if no one had come up with anything else in 24 hours?

--
Al Tally
(User:Majorly)

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

headers

Tom Holden | 1 Aug 17:40

Re: Volunteer(s) needed

Re: Al he was just within 24 hours, though I confess I had already changed the UK bid page to a redirect to Oxford.

But seriously:

1) I haven’t seen any progress on cities other than Oxford in the last few weeks. We established Oxford was (bizarrely) even going to be cheaper than Manchester and we have a pretty high chance of getting the OII on board which would make for a superb bid. And in any case for national sponsors I don’t imagine it matters a great deal what city it’s in.

2) We have a strongly preferred venue (the town hall) and a second alternative and it certainly makes no difference whatsoever to sponsors precisely what our venue is.

3) I’m not sure what you mean by this.

There’s really quite a lot of official information around already what with previous bid pages, our bid page, this mailing list etc etc. I can e-mail anyone off list the standard spiel I’ve been sending to people so far, and for clarifications of things I’ll do my best to be on IRC during my waking hours (despite our infinitely annoying firewall) as I imagine so will Al and anyone else who’s interested.

Anyway starting to produce an information pack sounds like a reasonable idea. I suggest you do it in a subpage of our bid for now. So your help is most certainly appreciated. You do have to be careful to ensure initial approaches are pretty concise though as no one wants to wade through a 20 page PDF.

Thanks,

Tom

From: wikimediauk-l-bounces <at> lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces <at> lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Ian A. Holton
Sent: 01 August 2008 16:13
To: wikimediauk-l <at> lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Volunteer(s) needed

Tom,

it might be a good idea to wait until the preparations have progressed a little more. Currently I see a few minor problems in approaching major sponsors:

* The official UK bid city has not been decided upon yet
* Location in Oxford (venue) and dates have not been set
* Official bid on wiki is underpopulated currently

and a few more I can't remember of the top of my head. The reason I see this as problematic is that when questions are raised, there is little "official" information to rely on. This is why for one we should decide which UK city is going to be the official bid city and then of course also the venue.

Once some of this has been worked on, not only by you but all involved in the discussion and process, I think it would be the right time to approach major sponsors, such as telco companies (BT, Virgin...), UK branches of large Internet multinations (Google, Yahoo! etc) as well as local companies and start-ups (Zopa, web hosters, ...) and obviously any other companies that might potentially be interested in sponsoring such an event.

Now to the most important part: As this is a task that can be done non-locally I would be willing to help along with it, for example creating an "information pack" (introduction, key facts, links and contacts) that can be e-mailed with a cover letter to potential companies and then if requested also mailed. I believe that this task is too large to be just manned by one person and would like to do this, if I am asked to get involved, in a small team and open to suggestions, contacts and so on.

Ian
[[User:Poeloq]]

2008/8/1 Tom Holden <thomas.holden <at> gmail.com>

At least for the moment it makes sense if Kaihsu and I focus on the Oxford centric jobs (e.g. dealing with the OII/venues/accommodation/local sponsorship) but I really need someone to take the lead on looking for big national corporate sponsors.

I already seem to be spending about half my day on the bid, so it would be good if someone could take this task off my hands. (It's pretty damn crucial that someone does it.) It basically just entails firing off lots of emails explaining what Wikimania is, why we need money, how they might benefit, what we'd like to get them from.

It would also be good if someone could start work on improving our presentation. E.g. knocking up a banner, perhaps making a dedicated sub-page of our bid to show sponsors explaining who we are, what Wikimania is etc., tidying up the main bid page.

A final task for someone else (I'll do this eventually if no one else volunteers) is to start knocking up a Gantt chart working backwards from the bid date. Copying Buenos Aires's chart would be a good start.

Tom

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

headers

Thomas Dalton | 1 Aug 19:15

Re: University Wikimedia clubs?

>  it is indeed a fantastic idea, which I was also thinking about in the last
> two years during my time at SOAS in London. Even though every student uses
> Wikipedia, actually contributing to it regularly and taking part in events
> or administrator work has a geeky sound to it according to most and this is
> one of the reasons, from my personal experience, that Wikimedia Societies
> don't work well at most universities. Sad.

There are several geeky societies at my Uni that seem to cope fine.
They form an ad hoc alliance together against the rest of the world
where needed too, called GeekSoc! (We managed to double or even triple
the usual turnout to Student Union meetings when one of the societies
was threatened - a force to be reckoned with!) I could probably
organise a Wikimedia Soc, book a computer room in the library one
evening a week or something, see what happens... Someone remind me
once term starts again (October for me)!

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

headers

joseph seddon | 1 Aug 19:16

Re: University Wikimedia clubs?

I'll see what i can do in cardiff in october.

> Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 18:15:23 +0100
> From: thomas.dalton <at> gmail.com
> To: wikimediauk-l <at> lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] University Wikimedia clubs?
>
> > it is indeed a fantastic idea, which I was also thinking about in the last
> > two years during my time at SOAS in London. Even though every student uses
> > Wikipedia, actually contributing to it regularly and taking part in events
> > or administrator work has a geeky sound to it according to most and this is
> > one of the reasons, from my personal experience, that Wikimedia Societies
> > don't work well at most universities. Sad.
>
> There are several geeky societies at my Uni that seem to cope fine.
> They form an ad hoc alliance together against the rest of the world
> where needed too, called GeekSoc! (We managed to double or even triple
> the usual turnout to Student Union meetings when one of the societies
> was threatened - a force to be reckoned with!) I could probably
> organise a Wikimedia Soc, book a computer room in the library one
> evening a week or something, see what happens... Someone remind me
> once term starts again (October for me)!
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia UK mailing list
> wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
> http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

Get Hotmail on your mobile from Vodafone Try it Now!

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

headers

Thomas Dalton | 1 Aug 19:20

Re: Volunteer(s) needed

> Now to the most important part: As this is a task that can be done
> non-locally I would be willing to help along with it, for example creating
> an "information pack" (introduction, key facts, links and contacts) that can
> be e-mailed with a cover letter to potential companies and then if requested
> also mailed. I believe that this task is too large to be just manned by one
> person and would like to do this, if I am asked to get involved, in a small
> team and open to suggestions, contacts and so on.

I wouldn't send out such a pack unless requested. Start with just a
simple email explaining the concept briefly and asking if they're
interested. If they are, we can then send them the info pack. No-one
likes receiving unsolicited attachments.

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

headers

Oliver Keyes | 2 Aug 03:16

Re: University Wikimedia clubs?

Just to interject here (I've been quietly watching the mailing list for
about a week) I think that's a fantastic idea. I'd be happy to help set one
up in Portsmouth as soon as term starts (roll on October) since uni's have
everything a good WP editor needs; large amounts of free time, vast
libraries, hundreds of computers and a fuck-off good internet connection.
Plus everyone there is studying a particular academic subject, which helps. 

Oliver

-----Original Message-----
From: wikimediauk-l-bounces <at> lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces <at> lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Thomas
Dalton
Sent: 01 August 2008 18:15
To: wikimediauk-l <at> lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] University Wikimedia clubs?

>  it is indeed a fantastic idea, which I was also thinking about in the
last
> two years during my time at SOAS in London. Even though every student uses
> Wikipedia, actually contributing to it regularly and taking part in events
> or administrator work has a geeky sound to it according to most and this
is
> one of the reasons, from my personal experience, that Wikimedia Societies
> don't work well at most universities. Sad.

There are several geeky societies at my Uni that seem to cope fine.
They form an ad hoc alliance together against the rest of the world
where needed too, called GeekSoc! (We managed to double or even triple
the usual turnout to Student Union meetings when one of the societies
was threatened - a force to be reckoned with!) I could probably
organise a Wikimedia Soc, book a computer room in the library one
evening a week or something, see what happens... Someone remind me
once term starts again (October for me)!

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia UK mailing list
wikimediauk-l <at> wikimedia.org
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK
http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun

				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

51	February 2012
292	January 2012
116	December 2011
103	November 2011
140	October 2011
252	September 2011
92	August 2011
131	July 2011
95	June 2011
123	May 2011
135	April 2011
44	March 2011
96	February 2011
45	January 2011
45	December 2010
16	November 2010
7	October 2010
45	September 2010
29	August 2010
14	July 2010
12	June 2010
24	May 2010
44	April 2010
32	March 2010
97	February 2010
121	January 2010
147	December 2009
63	November 2009
71	October 2009
97	September 2009
147	August 2009
101	July 2009
92	June 2009
101	May 2009
172	April 2009
198	March 2009
153	February 2009
228	January 2009
304	December 2008
127	November 2008
279	October 2008
648	September 2008
203	August 2008
367	July 2008
16	June 2008
10	May 2008
45	April 2008
37	March 2008
27	February 2008
40	January 2008
57	December 2007
58	November 2007
70	October 2007
80	September 2007
114	August 2007
55	July 2007
63	June 2007
16	May 2007
31	April 2007
65	March 2007
4	February 2007
109	January 2007
10	December 2006
6	November 2006
32	October 2006
91	September 2006
12	August 2006
27	July 2006
15	June 2006
2	May 2006
17	April 2006
97	March 2006
62	February 2006
119	January 2006
92	December 2005
22	November 2005
35	October 2005
11	September 2005
52	August 2005
23	June 2005
9	May 2005
7	April 2005