Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Sverige/200812

Here is Wikimedia Sverige chapters report for December 2008.

Seminars and conferences

We were invited to speak about Wikipedia at the Christmas conference for professors at teacher programs. It was a nationwide event held at the University of Karlstad. The talk was taped and it is available online.

In media

Early announcement of Swedish Idol winner

Just a few days before the final of the Swedish Idol the page on Wikipedia gets vandalised by announcing the winner as if the final already took place. Unfortunately it stays there for 18 hours before being reverted, long enough for one of the biggest Swedish tabloids to pick up the news. Although this wasn't a major situation it shows there is still some education to do since the paper wrote "those responsible for Wikipedia have now removed the information".

Donations / Fundraiser

Wikimedia Sverige received a donation from the media company Mindpark. The donation was 1€ per employee (totalling 2000€) and 500€ from the CEO. It was also a challenge to other companies to do the same, and so far one CEO have matched this. This and the fundraiser was noticed in one of Sweden's biggest newspapers, with a surprisingly accurate article.

The 29th of December one journalist writes in her blog "Why I never will donate to Wikipedia" about how the article about her blog was being deleted for the reason it was not notable. Lennart, our chair, gave a very good reply, which in turn hasn't got a reply from the journalist. The interesting part is that Wikimedia Sverige noticed a substantial increase of donations after this.

Milestones

Swedish Wikipedia reaches 300 000 articles

At 14:23, December, 13 Swedish Wikipedia reached 300 000 articles. The 300 000th article was Arvidsjaurs kyrka a church in the northern Sweden. Wikimedia Sverige issued a press release that were picked up by Piteåtidningen. Some tables and graphs are available.

Swedish Wikipedia has more than 92 488 users

Why is this significant? Because it is more than 1 % of the population of Sweden. User 92 489 is sv:w:User:Akew and signed up on 30 December.

Wikipedia Academy aftermath

Without any involvement from WMSE, one of the participants at WA arranged his own seminar about Wikipedia and general criticism of sources at the University of Kalmar. We believe that is a huge step towards a more broadened and nuanced (or should I say relevant) debate.

Board meetings

During this period we have had one board meeting. One of the most important outcome was the decision to get an online payment system for donations. Minutes are only available in Swedish.

Members newsletter

We have sent out one newsletter to our members. It is available in English.

User:Ainali for Wikimedia Sverige