Reports/2013/May

Below is the Wikimedia UK monthly report for the period 1st to 31st May 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

Microgrants

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

GLAM activities

Oxford - Queen Victoria's Journals

On 24 May Liz McCarthy of the Bodlean libraries and Wikimedia UK ran an editathon in Oxford using resources that included Queen Victoria's journals, which the Bodleian and the Royal Archive have launched online in a site with different versions of the text, indexes, essays, and other facilities. The site is free to users in the UK, and until the end of June 2013 only to all global users. Nearly 20 people took part, in Oxford or just online, and articles worked on included:

• w:EN:George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, generally touched up, lead expanded, bits from journals added.
• w:EN:John Russell, 1st Earl Russell bits added from Journals, (diff)
• w:EN:Queen Victoria's journals - this article about the overall topic has now been nominated to appear on the main page in the Did You Know? section.
• w:EN:Coronation of Queen Victoria ran on w:EN:WP:DYK on June 2nd, 60th anniversary of the w:EN:Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and received over 12,000 views
• w:EN:Marquis, w:EN:Viscount, w:EN:List of marquesses in the peerages of Britain and Ireland, w:EN:List of marquessates in the peerages of Britain and Ireland
• w:EN:Sir William Molesworth, 8th Baronet

Liz has also written a Blog re this

Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums

Wikimedia UK has had a Wikipedian in residence at Tyne and War Archives and Museums. Successes include outreach to relevant Wikiprojects (Tyne and Wear used to be a centre of the world's shipbuilding). Results include a number of pictures now used in featured articles, such as at w:EN:Minas Geraes-class battleship#Bidding and construction.

Future WikimediaUK GLAM events

People can now sign up for the following future events:

• British Black Music Editathon 30 June
• Bloomsbury Group editathon 19 October

Other activities

• An editathon was held in London for members of the Burgon Society, a learned society dedicated to the study of academic dress (full report).

Other UK-related news

This new section is for UK-based Wikimedians to share their activities. These are not Chapter projects, but may well be of interest.

JoburgpediA

Joburgpedia plaques - picture by Luis Corvini

Thanks to the help of Fae we were contacted by Dumisani Ndubane of the Joburgpedia project. They are building on Monmouthpedia and Gibraltarpedia to create the second African Wikitown funded by the Swiss Chapter. For reasons to complex to explain here they wanted to get their plaques made at, Swan Crafts (the place that John Cummings had found in Monmouth that made the Monmouthpedia plaques). The request was to get the items made to a very tight timescale. The project is targetting twenty specific places and intends to have principally other South African languages as the obvious alternatives (via QRpedia). Although other contributions are welcomed. As you can see the design has turned the old plaque upside down to that the Joburgpedia logo can be prominently displayed. Do consider if you could spare some time to help.

Try these - they are mainly stubs so they need some tlc:

1. Satyagraha House (Gandhi House), Orchards
2. Friedenskirche German Lutheran Church, Hillbrow
3. Orlando Stadium, Orlando East, Soweto

More available if you have time --Victuallers (talk) 19:20, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

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

• Jimmy Wales: Boring university lectures 'are doomed'
• Wikipedia: you don't get to decide who's interesting
• Wikipedia for Schools 2013 nearly ready for release!
• Wikipedia page views could predict stock market changes
• Rachel Johnson in the grip of Wikipedia's ‘Orange Mike’
• Should university students use Wikipedia?
• Wikipedia: call for case studies
• The Controversial Topics of Wikipedia

Blog posts this month

• 2nd May - British Library Wikipedian in Residence: conclusions This post was written by Andrew Gray, and was originally published on the British Library's blog
• 3rd May - Wiki Loves Monuments in the UK: a review of the exhibition
• 7th May - Oldham and new trainers This post was written by User:WormThatTurned about a Wikipedia training workshop held in Oldham
• 8th May - A look back on GLAM-Wiki Daria Cybulska writes about our flagship international GLAM conference
• 14th May - HEA Senior Fellowship for Wikimedia UK Education Organiser Dr Toni Sant receives a prestigious fellowship
• 16th May - Calling all Wikimedians interested in the First World War A short post encouraging volunteers to suggest potential projects linked to the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War
• 22 May - Glasgow/1 Wikimedia meetup - Wikipedian Graeme Arnott writes about the recent meetup in Glasgow
• 23 May - Catch and Release: My Secret Adventure into the World of GLAM-WIKI This post was written by Dr Melodee Beals of Sheffield Hallam University and is about her experiences at GLAM-Wiki. It was originally published on her website here

Upcoming activities in May and June

May

• 05 - Oxford meetup
• 11 - Board meeting (in-person, London)
• 12 - First Glasgow meetup
• 12 - First Nottingham meetup
• 12 - London meetup
• 15 - IRC office hours
• 18 - Liverpool meetup
• 18 - Cambridge meetup
• 19 - Lua on Wikimedia
• 20 - Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums 20 May Wikipedia training
• 24 - Queen Victoria's Journals University of Oxford editing day
• 24–26 - Amsterdam Hackathon
• 25 - Academic Dress editathon, London
• 28 - Education Committee conference call

June

• 03 - Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums 3 June Wikipedia training
• 08 - WikiConference UK 2013 & 2013 AGM, Lincoln
• 08 - Technology Committee - Time tbc UTC+1 (BST) in person at WikiConference UK 2013
• 09 - London meetup
• 19 - IRC office hours
• 22 - Editathon at the Royal Opera House
• 29 - Provisional - WWI editathon with the British Library\Europeana

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

Administrative activities

Board activities

There was an in-person Board meeting in London on 11 May. You can read the minutes here

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 April.

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 £170 in one-off donations, with 3 individual donations. The average donation amount was £56.6 - 33% 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.bavagewikimedia.org.uk and let her know your requirements.

There were 5118 successful direct debits this month, bringing in a total of £20,730.27.

Membership

Up to 31st May 2013:

• 174 new (membership commenced in preceding three months) and current members - with 5 new join-ups in May.
• 55 'grace' members (membership within six months after date membership should be renewed)

This adds up to 229 members who are eligible to vote

• 49 Expired members
• May 2013 Members Newsletter