Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Oesterreich/June2014

Community Support

WikiDienstag

The WikiDienstag ("WikiTuesday") is a new regular event which takes place at WMAT’s office every Tuesday evening. While the Wikipedia Meetups in Austria (in Vienna once a month and in Graz, Innsbruck, Linz and Lower Austria at irregular intervals) are perceiced as social events by many attendants, the WikiDienstag focusses on content development. Volunteers (as well as WMAT staff for special occasions) are invited to host a WikiDienstag and to present and discuss a specific topic. This might also include conventional workshops and excursions. The topics in June were the WMAT library, categories on Wikimedia Commons and natural monuments. It remains unclear whether and how these events might also be used for editing actitivity – this has been an important additional aspect of the WikiDienstag but it didn’t work yet. The participants seem to prefer to do the editing afterwards and to use the WikiDienstag for learnings and coordination. – Active volunteers involved: 7–8 each time; WMAT staff involved: 1. – WMAT support: location, infrastructure (WLAN, video projector, WMAT library etc.), basic snacks and drinks; coordination and promotion.

→ WikiDienstag in the German-language Wikipedia

WMAT Library

There is a bookshelf in the WMAT office which contains more than 20 books on Austrian topics. They were returned by book grantees or were donations to WMAT. In June, these books were inventoried and made available for volunteers: they can be used on-site, e.g. during the "WikiDienstag" (see above). - WMAT staff involved: 1.

→ WMAT Library in the German-language Wikipedia

Free Content Generation

Wiki Loves Earth: the winners are ...

In June the main work for our volunteers juries began: Until the June 15 the community-based pre-jury pre-selected the pictures that were handed over to the main jury for their deliberations ont June 30, when the 10 winners were picked. The main jury consists of 5 people: 1 Wikipedian, 1 professional photographer, 1 person from a civil society organization (International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges (IAAI), 1 public administration (Federal Environment Ministry), 1 scientist (Head of the Botanical Garden in Graz). WMAT developed the online jury tool, coordinated the juries, hosted the main jury event and communicated the results to the participants, within the community and to the general public in Austria.

The prizes are two camera sets sponsored by Canon (worth 550 EUR each) as main prizes. WMAT provides 50 EUR vouchers (e.g. for camera equipment) as smaller prizes for 8 more winners (worth 400 EUR in total).

The 10 winners of Wiki Loves Earth 2014 in Austria

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

→ wikilovesearth.at (in German)

→ Commons:Wiki Loves Earth 2014 in Austria (in English)

Writing workshop on legal issues

Many German language Wikipedia articles about legal issues focus on the situation in Germany and neglect the differences to Austria. Therefore an Austrian volunteer participated in a workshop on comprehensible writing about legal issues at the "Die Presse" journalism academy in Vienna. His efforts resulted in 1 new article and 1 revised article so far. - Active volunteers involved: 1 - WMAT support: negotiating a reduced participation fee, grant for most of it.

→ Report in members wiki (in German)

QR code project in the Botanical Garden in Graz

The QR code project in the Botanical Garden of the University of Graz (Austria) began two years years ago (see July 2013 Report#QR Codes Botanical Garden). Small signs with QR codes next to some plants link directly to the Wikipedia articles about the specific plants. In the beginning, 316 articles were to be written or revised systematically for the project. This year, the list – as the number of different plants in the Botanical Garden – was expanded by another 375 entries. In order to create or enhance the articles needed, WMAT sponsored three book tokens as special prizes for the June edition of the Article Writing Contest ("Artikelmarathon"). 16 articles about the new plants in the Botanical Garden were created during the contest and another 9 articles were created since the announcement of the special prizes. - WMAT board involved: 1, WMAT staff involved: 1. - WMAT support: coordination, prize sponsoring.

Reach / Free Knowledge Awareness

GloCha Conference in Klagenfurt

A volunteer participated in the Klagenfurt GloCha Conference 2014 on Sustainable Development, Innovation and Youth. The conference was organized by the International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges. WMAT was an official conference partner as well as the Academic Council on the United Nations System, the Alpen Adria University of Klagenfurt, the Central European Initiative and the Conference of Non Governmental Organizations in Consultative Status with United Nations. The topics of the conference included the needs and potentials of a growing global youth population in the context of global challenges and opportunities as well as new thinking regarding the contributions every human being can make to efforts of local and global communities towards sustainable development. A WMAT representative and representatives of 4 other conference partners signed the Klagenfurt Leadership Declaration on Global Challenges, Youth and ICT, supporting global youth engagement in sustainable development by access to free knowledge. - Active volunteers involved: 1, WMAT board involved: 1. - WMAT support: travel grant.

→ Report on members wiki (in German)

→ Images on Wikimedia Commons

Organisational Development

General Assembly

In the context of our annual general assembly in Klagenfurt on June 14, 2014 WMAT conducted elections for the board, the internal and external auditors and the community representative of our good governance committee. After a successful and constructive term of office we are happy to announce that all representatives were available for re-election and were confirmed in office by our members:

Board:

Kurt Kulac, president
Alexander Wagner, vice president
Beppo Stuhl, secretary
Michael Karolzak, vice secretary
Reiner Strubert, treasurer
Michael Kranewitter, vice treasurer
Andrea Kareth, adviser
Bernhard Wallisch, adviser

Auditors:

Andrea Pfandner, Steirische Wirtschaftstreuhand GmbH & Co. KG, external auditor
Gerhard Wrodnigg, community auditor

Good governance committee:

Franz Pfeiffer, community representative
Berhard Wallisch, board representative
Thomas Planinger, staff representative

We are convinced that this team with its various personalities and areas of expertise and experience will lead WMAT through another two successful years on the quest for free knowledge. We are looking forward to this exciting time!

WMAT continued the tradition to hold the assembly in a different federal state every year. This year it was Carinthia, where there are only few Wikimedians who participate in offline activities. Hence, we used the opportunity to foster our relationship to other civil society organizations who help us raising awareness for Wikimedia and free knowledge in this part of Austria. The International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges IAAI, which recently helped us to promote WLE in Carinthia, also hosted our assembly. Although Carinthia is relatively remote we could welcome approximately 20 attendees, including interested guests and new members.

We also managed to improve our programming by reducing the formal parts to an absolute minimum and using the rest of the time to present current projects and discuss new ideas and our activities for the rest of 2014. The fact that we are able to do this proves the constructive atmosphere between all stakeholders of our organization. Thsi is also underpinned by the first Good Governance report by the respective committee, that was presented at the assembly: There were no complaints from any chapter stakeholder, the only times the committee had to take action was, when the board by its own choice consulted them on potentially controversial decisions, in order to get an independent view. This shows that the codex is more than words but becomes established practice for members, board and staff of the chapter. - Active volunteers involved: approx. 20, WMAT staff involved: 2, WMAT board involved: 7. - WMAT support: event organization and catering.