Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Nederland/201505

Report on Wikimedia Nederland’s activities in May and June 2015

Community and Participation

Survey among the editing community of Dutch language Wikipedia

WMNL commissioned a survey to get insight into how the Wikipedia community experiences the working atmosphere on NL-Wikipedia, the views of editors on the low number of women who contribute to Wikipedia, and the recruitment and retention of new editors. Two years ago WMNL also surveyed the editing community, but on different topics. From 3 to 16 June, logged-in editors could take part in the survey via a general notice on NL Wikipedia. In total 452 editors completed the survey: 322 Dutch, 91 Belgian en 39 other nationalities. 51 of the respondents were female. (11%). The full results will be available early July.

Scholarships

WMNL provided scholarships to three volunteers from the Netherlands to attend the International Hackathon in Lyon. A further three volunteers have received scholarships to attend Wikimania in Mexico City next month.

Wikimedia Conferentie Nederland

Preparations have started for organizing the 8th annual Wikimedia Nederland Conference in November, with former WMNL chair Ziko van Dijk taking the lead.

Erasmus Prize

The awards ceremony for the Erasmus Prize will take place on Wednesday 25 November 2015, at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. On behalf of the international community, three representatives will receive the award, which is presented by the Dutch King Willem Alexander. Other Wikipedians are welcome to attend the ceremony as a spectator. Together with the Dutch community, WMNL has compiled the invitation list for this event. During the week of the award ceremony, a number of other activities will take place, such as conferences, lectures and Wikimeets. The program for this ‘Erasmus Week’ is in development and can be found here.

Content

Project Nature

In May, 250 historical images of birds were added to Wikimedia Commons. These pictures are from the book de Nederlandsche vogelen donated by our partner Koninklijke Bibliotheek. The images can be found here. So far 145 have been used to enhance Wikipedia articles.

The project nature working group has been very active: they have made contact with the volunteer organisation IVN to explore cooperation and are planning activities with the National Park Utrechtse Heuvelrug. In both cases, the aim is to inspire the volunteers behind these organisations to start contributing the Wikipedia. Furthermore, the working group are preparing an online writing event to commemorate Dutch nature conservation pioneer J.P.Thijsse.

Wikipedian in Residence Hans Muller started work at Naturalis on May 1. He is cooperating closely with WMNL's project nature working group.

Project World War II

The Institute for Sound and Vision released broadcasts by Radio Oranje, the London based radio station for the occupied Netherlands during the Second World War. The broadcasts - in Dutch, naturally, can be heard here. Already 22 broadcasts, or just over 12%, have been added to Wikipedia articles.

Textile project

A group of representatives from Dutch cultural institutions, with support from WMNL, has initiated a project to improve Wikipedia articles about textiles, primarily on Dutch Wikipedia. It appears that articles about basic textile techniques (weaving methods, types of fabrics, materials used for the production of textiles) still need a lot of improvement.
Activities will include:

Creation of a structured wishlist and action list of articles to be written and improved.
Guidelines for articles about textiles.
Edit-a-thons with Wikimedians and textile experts from Dutch and Belgian museums.
Image donations, especially of close-up images of textile types and techniques which are still missing on Wikimedia Commons.
If possible: release of reliable out-of-copyright sources.

More information can be found on the project page.

Wiki Loves Monuments

After a one year break in 2014, when WMNL organized the photography contest Wiki Loves Earth, the Wiki Loves Monuments working group is getting ready to organise Wiki Loves Monuments once again this year. Even though here was no contest last year, a lot of work was done to prepare the list of municipal monuments for this year's event.

Gendergap

The gendergap taskforce has finalized the projectplan for the Dutch Gendergap project. Our plan has two main goals:increase the number of articles on women subjects & recruitment of female editors. In June we have had a very positive follow-up meeting with ATRIA, the institute for gender history, to discuss possible cooperation in this project.

Wikipedia and libraries

The Royal Library, WMNL, and several public libraries are discussing a pilot project on Wikipedia in the Library; a project very similar to the successful Catalonia’s Network of Public Libraries. We reached out to Amical to discuss their experiences and we hope to incorporate those in our project in the future. The project also builds on, and will likely expand, the scope of the already-running Wiki Loves Eemland library project.

Education programme: trainees translate Wikipedia articles

On 1 May, Arjen Lock and Eveline Poser started as translation trainees for the Wikipedia Education program. Arjen and Eveline are students from the ITV School of Translators and Interpreters, for Russian and German respectively. The coming months they will be translating articles suggested by Wikipedians following an appeal by WMNL in De Kroeg (the Dutch Wikipedia's Village Pump). Arjen and Eveline will not post their translations on Wikipedia themselves. The Wikipedian who requested a translation remains responsible for processing the translation. More information, and the first translated articles are available on the projectpage.

At Maastricht University (NL), a bachelor research course titled On Expedition was organized from February- June 2015. During the course, students were assigned to read and analyze a travel report from the collection of the Maastricht Jesuit Library. In addition, they were invited to contribute some of their acquired knowledge to Wikipedia and, if relevant, donate digitized illustrations from the books to Wikimedia Commons. The course was attended by international students, which resulted in articles on the Dutch, French, English and German Wikipedia.

Expedition Wikipedia closing seminar

The Expedition Wikipedia Wikipedian in Residence project took place in 2014. Ten Dutch university museums and collections and the Tropenmuseum contributed media to Wikimedia Commons, with a relation to the general theme of expeditions, and journeys of discovery. Wikipedian in Residence (WiR) was Sandra Fauconnier (User:Spinster). On 28 May 2015, the project was formally closed with a seminar on shared authority.

Freedom of panorama

WMNL has been working with other chapters and the EU Free Knowledge Advocacy Group in creating awareness of the proposed harmonisation of copyright throughout the EU, and in particular of the proposed changes in regulations on the so-called “freedom of panorama”. A amendment proposed by a Member of the European Parliament would have resulted in freedom of panorama being restricted in as many as 16 EU member states. We produced a blogpost and issued a press release, (together with Kennisland]. We also sent a letter to Dutch MEPs urging them to take action on this matter. An overview of publicity on this matter can be found here.

Communication and publicity

Seminar for information professionals on working with Wikipedia

The KNVI (Royal Society of Information Professionals) organised a seminar to inspire librarians and other information professionals to cooperate with Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. WMNL director Sandra Rientjes gave a presentation, as did representatives of WMNL partners National Archives, Royal Library and Institute for Sound and Vision. A report can be found here (in Dutch).

The WMNL newsletter for May and June were sent out to the subscribers.

Governance and organization

WMF site visit

Garfield Byrd, WMF Chief of Finance and Administration, visited WMNL June 8-10. As part of their commitment to due diligence, WMF staff make site visits to major grantees every 2 - 3 years. Garfield was pleased with the progess WMNL had made in professionalising its financial systems since his visit in 2013.

Wikimedia Conference Berlin

WMNL Boardmembers Frans Grijzenhout (chair) and Ad Huikeshoven (international affairs), and ED Sandra Rientjes attended the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin.

Message to donors

We sent out a letter to all the people who have donated to WMNL over the past six months, informing them of our activities and thanking them for their support.

Other news

The Institute for Sound and Vision published the results of research into the audience reached by GLAM institutions when they share their collections via the Wikimedia projects.