Projects & Activities of Wikimedia Germany in March 2011

Wikimedium

The new Wikimedium was published just in time for the Wikimedia Chapters Conference. Overall there is still a lot of work for Michael and Catrin, but it is the first issue, where a number of external reports from Wikipedia authors were added. Please give us a signal in the future, if you have interesting articles and experiences from the Wikipedia universe and send them to <catrin.schoneville at wikimedia.de> or <redaktion at wikimedium.de>. We are happy about the distribution of the newspaper. The newspaper can be subscribed for free at Wikimedia Germany. In March 80 new subscribers were added. Altogether approximately 800 new subscribers receive the paper; plus events, informal meetings and other meetings where the newspaper is distributed. Wikipedia meetup groups or friends of Free Knowledge can of course order larger numbers from us to distribute the newspaper.

Press Relations

Michael attended a briefing session with the Tagesspiegel journalist Lars von Törne. The objective of the event was an exchange of experiences on the cooperation of press agencies and journalists. What do newspapers expect from press releases? What makes them curious as to what ends blindly in the trash? How should information be presented? Conclusion: Wikimedia Germany was the only NGO among the participants and from a journalist’s point of view does everything right in the press work. Catrin has worked intensively on the preparations for communication activities around the topic ‘Wikipedia must become world cultural heritage' and developed a Strategy-/Measure plan. This also includes a press conference, which was planned and organized for 24.3. In the short term however we have decided to move the press conference up to May. There were still a few inquiries about the women's quota in Wikipedia and we have indicated the importance of recruiting new authors (seniors project) and provided journalists with statistics material.

Information material

The information brochure on Wikimedia Commons was already prepared in the last months by Catrin and Michael and forwarded in the last week of March to individual experts from the community to get suggestions for improvement. The brochure will appear in April. Other brochures for Wikisource and Wikibooks are also in the layout phase. In March, there were also re-orders and updates of various information materials such as our Wikipedia-cheat slip, the Wikimedia flyer or the flyer of the school project. In addition, through its cooperation with the Berlin seniors computer club, a joint flyer was developed by Catrin, which was used for the promotion of the events with the SCC. The need for more information material is great and requested by WMDE. All information material can be downloaded from our website or can be ordered from the office. Catrin also has worked on the layout of the cover for the Wikipedia book and came out with some interesting designs for the publisher. In April we will present a temporary cover.

Website of the Association

The club website is currently being expanded to include more information about our projects, and the user interface is being simplified. In collaboration with Elvira, Michael has collected content on the project Silver Knowledge. Boris will coordinate the new contents and maintain them.

Wikimedia Conference

As part of the Conference the idea that ‘Wikipedia must become world cultural heritage ' was presented by Catrin and Sebastian. Catrin engaged herself in the following intensive discussions with Chapter representatives, in order to discuss the integration of the Chapter and participation of other countries. In addition some media representatives (ARD, Deutsche Welle, Welt Kompakt, dpa) were also present, who carried out interviews in connection with the conference with guests from around the world. We were even featured in the "Tagesschau" TV news with this issue. Michael documented the results of several discussions on this year's Wikimedia Conference and supported Catrin with the press representatives on site. Complete documentation of all protocol designers is available on Meta .

PR Chat

Catrin and Sebastian offered for the first time a chat with the office on 23.3. as announced in the blog. This will continue in the future and shall be carried out with different topics and employees. Suggestions for projects or topics that you want to talk about, please notify the employees directly. The next chat is on 21st April. More information will follow.

Wikipedia-Book

All contributions from the community for the Wikipedia book were ready at the end of February; the last weeks were marked with the correction, first revision and consolidation leading to a coherent manuscript. It quickly became clear that a selection and reduction of this content is inevitable - something that will intensively occupy us next month. At the same time negotiations closed with our publishing partners, so that the contract documents are now ready for signing. This made it possible for us to begin the process of substantive cooperation with the responsible editor and, in coordination with our press officer, take concrete decisions on the design, layout and so on. Finally most of the "external reviews" compiled by scientists and journalists are currently being incorporated at an appropriate spot in the manuscript.

Wikipedia must become world cultural heritage

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia, we want to start a campaign for broad discussion on cultural, social and political significance of Wikipedia and Free Knowledge. For this, since the beginning of March Sebastian Sooth is working, especially in the preparations for the campaign "Wikipedia must become world cultural heritage". The main points in March will be presenting the project to the community, preparing a petition and information website for the campaign and to prepare materials to spread the campaign idea. Coordination with the agency Leo Burnett was also part of it, which is supporting us for the project pro bono. During the community open space Sebastian Sooth and Catrin Schoneville have introduced the idea to the Community on 20.3. and collected the first feedback, ideas and wishes. On 22.3. the first "Chat with the office" was all about the campaign idea. Catrin and Sebastian also presented the project on 25.3. on the Wikimedia Chapters Conference to the participants and representatives from around the world, who responded with great enthusiasm. The next steps will be the development of specific events and projects together with the community. Thanks to Sargoth and Ziko on the community project page, which is intended as a starting point. You are welcome to register on the project page or by e-mail to <sebastian.sooth at wikimedia.de> to support the project. We are looking forward to your participation.

Space for the community of free knowledge

A wide variety of commercial real estate space was sighted by Sebastian Sooth, who is in search of a great location for an office for Wikimedia Germany. The office will no longer be just an office after the shifting, but likewise shall offer a work and event areas for the community. Denis Barthel and Sebastian have presented this idea on the open space on 25.3. and get a lot of ideas for the equipment and uses of these spaces as feedback. Denis continues to take care of the equipment sector and technology pool. Together with newthinking Sebastian is currently exploring whether a common site for clubs, groups and companies from the Free Knowledge / open-source movement could start to happen as a leasing. Through such an open start and event space, we want to strengthen the network, increase visibility and promote free knowledge through specific projects, events and tools. If you are interested send us an e-mail to <Sebastian.Sooth at wikimedia.de>.

Wikimedia Conference

In March Nicole was exclusively busy with the Organization of the Wikimedia Conference. There have been discussions with the Boell Foundation, the caterer, the hostel, the locations for the evening events and – above all with support of Cornelius – many smaller and larger requests of the participants were processed. Bence Damokos gave the finishing touch to the program and met in his function as program coordinator with the presenters and prepared content and discussion topics in a two-day meeting. In our view, the Conference was a complete success, as can be seen in the very detailed blog post.

Wiki loves Monuments

At the Open Space there was a fruitful exchange on the project Wiki loves monument in connection with the Menbers meeting. Maarten Dammers traveled from Netherlands to share experiences from last year. Preliminary results and the current discussion can be found on the Wikipedia project page. The project was initiated by the community and will be pursued with great commitment. Point of contact for Wikimedia Germany and for this project is Nicole, the club provides financial support, assists with the creation of information and promotional materials and will be happy to communicate with authorities or other official bodies.

Berlin Hackathon 2011

Daniel and Nicole have taken up the preparations in March for this year's developer’s meeting. On 13-15. May developers and other project managers will get together in Berlin for the "Berlin hackathon 2011". The application was opened and about half of the places have already been taken. We are talking to the Wikimedia Foundation, which will send 25 developers to Berlin, and have invited both the leaders of the Language Committee and of Wiki loves Monuments to register for the event. Currently Elly and Cornelius are taking care of accommodation and arrival of participants. The list of topics that will be dealt in the hackathon is getting longer: At the top is for example, "Fixing the parser”, and thus the desire improve the Wiki-syntax, so that one can formally describe and parse it properly. Mathias and Angela will also discuss and edit the RENDER project with the developers.

The RENDER project

Angelika has taken up the office work regarding the RENDER project and has involved herself in the project internal matters. A brief overview of this can be found in the RENDER blog post. In this context a meeting was held with a graduate student who would like to use Wikimedia as part of his research work.

Literature Scholarship

The collaboration with Georg Thieme Verlag since last month, wherein the chemistry editorial department received a number of accounts for the "Römpp," a standard work of chemistry, proved to be wonderfully productive. Hardly a month has passed and 30 articles have been already developed and completed. Respect! In the "traditional" literature scholarship, three new commitments are given. Particularly encouraging was the premiere of the Department of Philosophy, where a work of Michel Foucault is now accessible. If you are an author and need something: Mail to <litstip at wikimedia.de> The area "Access to electronic literature databases" is challenging. After negotiations by Denis Barthel with JSTOR and Springer-Verlag did not go as expected, currently a "meta solution" is considered. More info soon.

Education meeting in Berlin

Wikimedia Germany has not only hosted the Wikimedia Conference this month, but also a small "education summit". In addition to representatives of Wikimedia Italia and Wikimedia UK and one external participant, Frank Schulenburg, Rod Dunican and Annie Lin of the Wikimedia Foundation visited Berlin. They presented the Campus Ambassadors program in detail, while Denis Barthel and Elly Köpf presented the school project of Wikimedia Germany. The collaboration with the voluntary Ambassadors and universities as well as the positive response in the media and community let Nicole Ebber and Denis Barthel consider a possible localization of Campus Ambassador Program in Germany. Details soon on this channel.

Editorial meeting

The funding program that was launched last month for meetings and workshops of disciplines in Wikipedia has started successfully. Some departments have begun with their first plans enthused by the support program, there are also some for whom it will be their first meeting, e.g. the portal "Eating and Drinking" or the portal "weapons". We welcome this opportunity to be able to support you. Do you like the idea? Then please mail to <treffen at wikimedia.de> and off you go.

Silver Knowledge / TAO

Under the direction of Lienhard Schulz the first workshop was conducted in Senior Computer Club Berlin-Mitte (SCC Berlin Mitte). Lienhard showed the participants how to draft an article – at first as subpage of their user page. The seniors met for the second time; during the first meeting without accompaniment of a Wikipedia- speaker, they made their “first steps". The meetings will continue, first in April for the mutual exchange of experience and again in May with a referent. As another speaker Aleksander Dera explained the Members meeting of the chroniclers of the district of Potsdam-Mittelmark about the functioning of Wikipedia and how everyone can participate in it. The chroniclers were interested from the beginning, asked questions and discovered the possibilities of active participation. The interest in a workshop for introduction in the work as an author and positioning of source and photos was confirmed by the Board of Directors of the Chroniclers Association. Also in March, Elvira Schmidt participated in the actor workshop of the initiative "Experience the Internet". Initiator of the initiative is the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The partners are the service agency of the Federal working committee of the Senior Citizens Organizations, the Competence Center Technology-Diversity-Equal Opportunities e.V. and the Foundation Digital Chances. For the project, two themes were interesting for the Silver Knowledge: The idea to find sponsors for “Internet newcomers” and educate as well as the question of how exactly the way to the internet can be made easy for the senior citizens. The experiences explained in the workshop cannot be transferred directly, but offer a methodological suggestion for their own actions.

School Project

March was a very eventful month for the school project with a strong focus on networks, therefore that many organizers considered March as the official start to the year 2011. During this month we could spread the school project over two portals: We could make an entry both in the online portal www.jugendnetz-berlin.de and also in the GMK -newsletter that provides information on educational projects every month. More cooperation possibilities and workshop ideas were obtained through contacts to other projects. We directly addressed 70 schools in and around Frankfurt and 60 schools in and around Stuttgart. Personally the school project came across a variety of meetings in this month, like for example on the media day in Steglitz, the EduCamp in Bremen, Bielefeld Media Day and the School Library in 2011 in Berlin. On 23rd March, Denis Barthel was invited at the Gautinger Internet meeting that is one of the largest regular conferences for media educators in Germany and he presented the school project there. This was not only an opportunity to present the program but to receive the approval of qualified experts. The discussions showed that the initiative was welcomed and its targets were found as very important. With the combination of personal response to events and the direct transmission of information materials, new requests for the project could be obtained and will be implemented in the coming months. In March the school project had 8 workshops and several information sessions. Other workshops are being planned. The growing demand by universities and media centers in having workshops on the topic "Dealing with Wikipedia" is very encouraging. We are particularly pleased about our newly designed Internet presence and on the upcoming speakers camp in Berlin in early April.

"From the engine room"

The month of March was above all dedicated to the preparation and planning of upcoming projects in the area of technology. Daniel transferred the search portal wikipedia.de due to overload to another server, while we are preparing to transfer our websites. For the development work on CiviCRM, our address management program, Daniel has set up a test installation. And for CatScan, Daniel has monitored a second phase of a new implementation, that will allow searching the category structure of Wikipedia in a few seconds. Daniel has given an overview of the 2011 planned activities in the area of technology on the open space on the day after the member meeting. It was clear once again that we urgently need more staff in this area. In addition, the notification for the developers meeting ("Hackathon") has begun, which we are organizing on 13th to 15th May in Berlin. The detailed planning of the program will start after the Chapter's Conference.

CeBIT

Mathias was a participant in a panel discussion at the media days of the CeBIT in Hanover, regarding privacy rights in blogs and Wikipedia. The discussion was more practical, even the lawyers on the podium warned not to exclusively use legal means to complain about a defamatory posting on the net (also see: Streisand effect).

Google Apps

The office of Wikimedia Germany is using Google Apps for the members of the board. In March the relocation work has begun, which takes place during the operation hours and should not mean any outage time for people's reachability. Wikimedia Germany has been - among other things - influenced by the success of the Google Apps deployment at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Collab

The 3rd Collaboratory on copyright supported by Google presented on 16th March an interim report of its work. Mathias was one of the co-authors in a policy paper on the future of copyright, which will be published in the coming weeks under the responsibility of the lawyer Till Kreutzer.

Members

Very good news came from Henriette in relation to the development of the membership during the members meeting: In February and March 2011 we have 355 members with active membership and in addition 29 members with associate membership, however unfortunately four members have cancelled their membership on 31st December 2011. The association currently has 856 active (= right to vote at the General Assembly, only natural persons) and 219 supporting members (= financial support of the association), a total of 1,075 members, in addition an honorary member (Jimbo Wales).

Volunteer support

As always the cooperation between the participants and organizers worked out well for the photo workshops in Nuremberg that was organized for the eighth time by Henriette: For a total of 10 participants a full or part payment of travel costs and / or seminar fees was agreed on request, almost all applications have been processed in the meantime.

A few weeks before the photo workshop we received a question from the community, whether Wikimedia Germany could take care of press cards and buy a camera equipment to lend it to photographers. Henriette's proposal to discuss these ideas at the workshop in Nuremberg and then develop project proposals was fortunately successful. There were detailed previous discussions and during the workshops on Sunday the presentation case came into application; meanwhile we received the project applications (read below [A] to [E]) and have been included will be planning for the coming community space (see above ). Thanks again to the organizers and participants for spontaneously taking this point in the official program! More to this event: Catrin took care of the request, whether a group of photographers from Nuremberg could visit the DB museum on 5th March and take photographs there. The photographers were very excited by the given permission – in addition to the friendly acceptance and accompaniment in the museum - because usually one is not allowed to take photographs in there.

A Nuremberg participant who regularly visits talk shows in Hamburg to illustrate Wikipedia article about celebrities, was given advice to ask questions for Wikimedia Germany after an accreditation for the NDR–Talkshow. After Henriette had established an agency, which issues the accreditations, everything happened very quickly and easy: Chester100 is now regularly invited to the talk shows. We are looking forward to more great pictures to complement the celebrity items! Links:

Wikisource

Mid-March a digitization request was sent to the Berlin/Unter den Linden state library by Henriette: Both volumes of the rare works of "Lina's book of fairy tales: a Christmas gift" by Albert Ludwig Grimm, released in 1837 were ordered. They will reach the purchaser hopefully soon, so that the hard-working participants of Wikisource can begin with the transcription and proof-reading.

Fundraising

In the month of March, three issues dominated the fundraising. The first issue was the incorrect mailing of tax receipts by the service provider (see blog entry here). The many questions both by email and by telephone were quickly processed by us. In particular, we are pleased that despite unfortunate circumstances, many donors have opted for a continuous commitment. As Henriette explained, we have earned 360 new members due to sending tax receipts. The second area relates to our future fund-raising software. For this, we want to further the development of the free software CiviCRM. Since this software is not so widespread in Germany, Till has initiated a network with Oxfam Germany e.V. of interested organizations and agencies. The first meeting was held on 29.03.2011 at Oxfam. There is also a platform to the network. Finally I was occupied with the so-called fund-raising agreement, which currently is signed annually between the Wikimedia Foundation and the fundraising chapter. The first draft can be viewed here.