Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Any wikimaniacs?
Brianna is also going. I presume Angela and Tim too? As for memberships, the new membership year started on 1 July but we're not ready to accept memberships yet (software upgrades). I will make an announcement when we're ready. On Mon, Jul 5, 2010 at 5:58 PM, private musings thepmacco...@gmail.comwrote: G'day all, I'm curious as to which brave Chapter folk have made the trip up North and will be attending Wikimania? - It'd be cool to have a bit of an australian perspective update somewhere on the official wiki - I'm only really aware that Liam will be there - any others? Also - I had a (very) brief IRC chat with a fellow chapter chap this arvo, and couldn't recall if / when dues might be um... due again - do we owe WMAU money? - It's quite possible that I've just completely missed any email or notification or something, so apologies if so, I thought it was worth confirming :-) cheers, Peter, PM. ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Any wikimaniacs?
On Mon, Jul 5, 2010 at 10:21 PM, Angela bees...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Jul 5, 2010 at 6:45 PM, Sarah Ewart sarahew...@gmail.com wrote: Brianna is also going. I presume Angela and Tim too? No, unfortunately this is the first year that Tim and I won't be at Wikimania. I believe Andrew (Werdna) is going though. I'm feeling jealous now that I'm hearing about people arriving in Poland, but I'll be 30 weeks pregnant this week, so it's not a great time to make such a long trip! Oh Congratulations Angela! That's really exciting! Our first WMAU baby! ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
[Wikimediaau-l] Chapter selected WMF board seats
Hi all, The committee is currently considering the issue of chapter selected seats on the WMF board. We have the opportunity to submit nominees for consideration by the chapters. If you can think of someone you think might be an appropriate candidate (or you're that person yourself!) and you'd like to make any suggestions, please let us know by emailing us off-list on commit...@wikimedia.org.au. Regards, Sarah ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
[Wikimediaau-l] Technical problems and MediaWiki upgrade
Hi all, As some of you know, we've been having some technical issues. We have had some issues which affected the delivery of emails on the @ wikimedia.org.au domain, so if you have emailed one of the chapter email addresses and haven't received a response, please consider forwarding your email to us again. Particularly important, if you have written to me requesting a grant, please resend your request. We have also had some technical issues with the official website. Last week, Andrew Garrett (our systems administrator) successfully updated the MediaWiki software to version 1.16, so hopefully the earlier problems are now fixed with the upgrade, but please do let us know if you notice any further problems and issues popping up with the site operations. Our most sincere apologies for any convenience and frustration these technical problems have caused anyone. Regards, Sarah ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Committee changes
Hi all, Just to clarify a couple of things in my initial email on this subject. Liam and Brian are both in the UK but only Brian is attending the Wikimedia Foundation's fundraising meeting while Liam is doing other Wikimedia-related work and unfortunately won't be able to attend the fundraising meeting. My apologies for any confusion I introduced by saying they were both at the WMF UK meeting. Also, to shed a little more light on the issue of the treasurer seat. The teleconference on Sunday night was very short and only dealt with Brianna's resignation and we haven't even begun to discuss the treasurer seat in anything but superficial terms. With Liam ad Brian both overseas it is is going to be difficult for us to form a quorum within the next week or two so this is something that is very unlikely to be resolved in the immediate future. For the time being, Steve is effectively both treasurer and president and it wasn't really accurate of me to say that we have a vacant seat. We are down a member in numbers but technically there isn't a vacant seat yet. Regards, Sarah On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 10:47 PM, Sarah Ewart sarahew...@gmail.com wrote: Hi everyone, On Saturday May 8 Brianna informed the committee of her intention to resign as president of Wikimedia Australia. As a result, we convened a special purpose teleconference on Sunday night and, with deep regret, the committee reluctantly accepted Brianna's resignation. Brianna has been a president of integrity and her dedication and leadership will be greatly missed by all members of the committee. She has served on Wikimedia Australia's committee since its inception and her work was especially significant and important in the early history of the chapter. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that without her, the chapter would not have been successfully established at that time. As secretary of an interim committee that had no president or vice president, she played a critical role in ensuring Wikimedia Australia was established and recognised as an official chapter and legal entity by both the government of Victoria and the Wikimedia Foundation. She is very highly regarded and respected in the international community and I was staggered by the number of people who approached me at the Wikimedia Foundation meeting in Germany last month to ask after her. I hope that she will continue to be a significant presence in the both the global and local Wikimedia and free culture communities. We sincerely thank her for the tremendously valuable and important contribution she has made over the last four years to the chapter, the committee and to the free culture movement in Australia and we wish her all the best for her future endeavours. During the committee's teleconference on Sunday night, nominations for the seat of president were opened. Steve Peters, our sitting treasurer, accepted a nomination from me for president. No further nominations were received and Steve's nomination was unanimously endorsed and supported. Steve will take the seat of president effective immediately and lead us into the next Annual General Meeting. This, of course, means that we now have a vacant seat on the committee. The Rules of the Association allows the committee to appoint a financial chapter member from outside the committee to a vacant non-executive/ordinary member* *seat. Two committee members (Brian and Liam) are currently in the UK attending the Wikimedia Foundation's fundraising meeting, which has made it very difficult to organise a proper meeting but we are continuing to discuss these issues internally and will decide whether to leave the seat vacant until the AGM or seek to fill it under the Association Rules.The membership will be advised as soon as any decisions are made in regard to these issues. I hope Wikimedia Australia's membership, friends and supporters will join with the committee in thanking Brianna for her dedication and hard work over the last four years and in wishing her all the best for the futuer. Regards, Sarah Ewart Secretary Wikimedia Australia On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 10:31 PM, Brianna Laugher brianna.laug...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, Some news: on Sunday I resigned as president of Wikimedia Australia. The ctte accepted my resignation and as per our Rules, appointed one of the committee members to the office, who will serve until the next AGM. I guess this news may come as a shock or it may not. It's something I've been thinking about for quite a while and not something that I decided lightly or in haste. If anything, I probably decided too slowly. There's no bad blood with any of the ctte members, and it's not about anything that has happened in Wikimedia land. Rather, it's about what goes on in Brianna land (aka personal reasons), and whether or not I can do any useful work in the role. I don't feel able to any more, and I think my standing aside will be a good
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Wikimediaau-l Digest, Vol 46, Issue 15
On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 11:56 PM, bidgee-w...@virginbroadband.com.auwrote: Also congratulations to Steve! I'm sure he will serve the Wikimedia Australia community well and I'm sure his feet will fit in Brianna's pink fluffy slippers! ;) I must say, I'd be fully prepared to pay money to see Steve prancing around in pink fluffy girls slippers! :p ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] grants application this year?
Yeah, I know. I had the same problem when trying to upload some images from the Berlin meeting but I forgot to mention it to Werdna. There is an alternative, though Craig - you can use InstantCommons. Just upload your file to Commons and link to it on our website in the same way as when linking to Commons material on WP. On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 10:54 PM, Craig Franklin cr...@halo-17.net wrote: Well, I tried to upload some material in lieu of a full writeup, but I got this: Fatal error: Call to undefined method UploadFromFile::initialize() in /srv/www/www.wikimedia.org.au/html/w/includes/upload/UploadFromFile.php on line 17 Are uploads disabled/broken at the moment? Cheers, Craig -Original Message- From: wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Sarah Ewart Sent: Wednesday, 5 May 2010 8:50 PM To: Wikimedia-au Subject: Re: [Wikimediaau-l] grants application this year? Craig, please, please, please do write up on the wiki what you've been doing. I think it's very important for the chapter's health to see what members are achieving in their local communities. On 5/5/10, Craig Franklin cr...@halo-17.net wrote: Well, there's stuff going on. My little Wikipedia in the Classroom project has been boiling away pretty nicely (I really ought to update the page on the chapter site about that.), but it's mainly foundation-building stuff that'll let us pull of bigger things in the future. And as for grants, again, the outlay for my project has been about $20 so far, which included my petrol to drive to the venues and to purchase some mints to hand out. You don't need a big fat grant to pull off something worthwhile. Cheers, Craig From: wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of private musings Sent: Wednesday, 5 May 2010 7:30 PM To: Wikimedia-au Subject: Re: [Wikimediaau-l] grants application this year? 'Grant applications are serious, not something that you submit just to engage with a process and there needs to be a properly thought through application with an idea of who, what, when, where and how the proposed project will be run' - totally agree with this- and agree that it's a large stretch to try and get anything completed before the deadline - whether or not it's worth trying is a different question, I guess :-) 'I'd rather see us take the time to discuss possible ideas properly and get the details of any proposed projects members want to run nutted out as carefully as possible before submitting applications' - totally agree with this too - again, it does seem unlikely to be able to get this all done ahead of the deadline - I guess I wish discussions and activity had kicked off earlier - though that's largely down to us as a membership - hopefully we can get the ball rolling anyways ahead of future grant applications etc. 'Jimmy recently describing PM as a troll and calling for him to be globally banned' - this is not accurate - Jimbo never called me a troll, nor did he call for me to be globally banned - please take greater care in raising comments about me personally as oppose to my posts however; 'PM is really not an appropriate person to lead the chapter in requests to the WMF for not-insignificant amounts of money' - sure ;-) - as I mentioned I'd rather just try and help / chivvy / expedite existing efforts - my concern is to make sure that something happens - I'm concerned that we're heading for a pretty poor report card for the first half of 2010, and would like to help avoid that :-) cheers, Peter, PM. On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 6:56 PM, Sarah Ewart sarahew...@gmail.com wrote: To be entirely frank, I would have to agree that given both the long term and recent controversies throughout WMF universe which culminated in Jimmy recently describing PM as a troll and calling for him to be globally banned, PM is really not an appropriate person to lead the chapter in requests to the WMF for not-insignificant amounts of money. However, I don't have a problem with him suggesting potential projects and then seeing how others feel about them and whether they gel with other projects people are currently involved in. I attended the session on grants at the chapters meeting in Berlin (my notes are up on the wiki here- http://www.wikimedia.org.au//wiki/2010_chapters_meeting/Sarahs_notes#Working _group:_Volunteers http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/2010_chapters_meeting/Sarahs_notes#Working _group:_Volunteers ) and we discussed the final date for grant applications and Eric made it clear that while May 15 is listed as the deadline, it's more like a preferred date. If applications are in by then they'll be processed more quickly, but we're welcome to submit
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] grants application this year?
I honestly don't know much about Commons policy so hopefully someone can clarify their scope. They do have WM presentations and such hosted there though (eg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_presentations and http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_promotion which both include pdf presentations). Werdna is working on the website problem. Apparently it happened as a result of a failed MediaWiki upgrade when he was trying to fix the upload problems. He said he's working on it now and it should be fixed in the next hour or two. On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 9:55 AM, Craig Franklin cr...@halo-17.net wrote: Forgive me for being clueless, but what’s the Commons policy on meta-useful content though? The media in question is a PDF of the slideshow that I had (it was originally sourced as a .pptx file), I figure that if we make adjustments to make it more generic (which shouldn’t be all that hard), it might be a nice base for people in other states and regions to work off of. I’m not sure if that’s in-scope as far as Commons is concerned. Which is all moot, because the whole chapter website seems to be down at the moment anyway! Cheers, Craig *From:* wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto: wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] *On Behalf Of *Sarah Ewart *Sent:* Saturday, 8 May 2010 11:18 PM *To:* Wikimedia-au *Subject:* Re: [Wikimediaau-l] grants application this year? Yeah, I know. I had the same problem when trying to upload some images from the Berlin meeting but I forgot to mention it to Werdna. There is an alternative, though Craig - you can use InstantCommons. Just upload your file to Commons and link to it on our website in the same way as when linking to Commons material on WP. On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 10:54 PM, Craig Franklin cr...@halo-17.net wrote: Well, I tried to upload some material in lieu of a full writeup, but I got this: Fatal error: Call to undefined method UploadFromFile::initialize() in /srv/www/www.wikimedia.org.au/html/w/includes/upload/UploadFromFile.php on line 17 Are uploads disabled/broken at the moment? Cheers, Craig -Original Message- From: wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Sarah Ewart Sent: Wednesday, 5 May 2010 8:50 PM To: Wikimedia-au Subject: Re: [Wikimediaau-l] grants application this year? Craig, please, please, please do write up on the wiki what you've been doing. I think it's very important for the chapter's health to see what members are achieving in their local communities. On 5/5/10, Craig Franklin cr...@halo-17.net wrote: Well, there's stuff going on. My little Wikipedia in the Classroom project has been boiling away pretty nicely (I really ought to update the page on the chapter site about that.), but it's mainly foundation-building stuff that'll let us pull of bigger things in the future. And as for grants, again, the outlay for my project has been about $20 so far, which included my petrol to drive to the venues and to purchase some mints to hand out. You don't need a big fat grant to pull off something worthwhile. Cheers, Craig From: wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of private musings Sent: Wednesday, 5 May 2010 7:30 PM To: Wikimedia-au Subject: Re: [Wikimediaau-l] grants application this year? 'Grant applications are serious, not something that you submit just to engage with a process and there needs to be a properly thought through application with an idea of who, what, when, where and how the proposed project will be run' - totally agree with this- and agree that it's a large stretch to try and get anything completed before the deadline - whether or not it's worth trying is a different question, I guess :-) 'I'd rather see us take the time to discuss possible ideas properly and get the details of any proposed projects members want to run nutted out as carefully as possible before submitting applications' - totally agree with this too - again, it does seem unlikely to be able to get this all done ahead of the deadline - I guess I wish discussions and activity had kicked off earlier - though that's largely down to us as a membership - hopefully we can get the ball rolling anyways ahead of future grant applications etc. 'Jimmy recently describing PM as a troll and calling for him to be globally banned' - this is not accurate - Jimbo never called me a troll, nor did he call for me to be globally banned - please take greater care in raising comments about me personally as oppose to my posts however; 'PM is really not an appropriate person to lead the chapter in requests to the WMF for not-insignificant amounts of money' - sure ;-) - as I mentioned I'd rather just try and help
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] grants application this year?
To be entirely frank, I would have to agree that given both the long term and recent controversies throughout WMF universe which culminated in Jimmy recently describing PM as a troll and calling for him to be globally banned, PM is really not an appropriate person to lead the chapter in requests to the WMF for not-insignificant amounts of money. However, I don't have a problem with him suggesting potential projects and then seeing how others feel about them and whether they gel with other projects people are currently involved in. I attended the session on grants at the chapters meeting in Berlin (my notes are up on the wiki here- http://www.wikimedia.org.au//wiki/2010_chapters_meeting/Sarahs_notes#Working_group:_Volunteers) and we discussed the final date for grant applications and Eric made it clear that while May 15 is listed as the deadline, it's more like a preferred date. If applications are in by then they'll be processed more quickly, but we're welcome to submit applications after that date. Last year we had to pay back a grant a chapter member requested for an outreach conference they wanted to run because it fell through and didn't end up going ahead. Paying back the funds was a real headache for the committee (especially for Brian as the then-treasurer) and it took a considerable amount of time to resolve with the foundation. I don't want to see this happen again so I'd oppose any moves to rush through any ill-considered applications just to get them in before May 15 or that seem more orientated on getting money for the sake of it or for the simple stated purpose of engaging with the grant process. Grant applications are serious, not something that you submit just to engage with a process and there needs to be a properly thought through application with an idea of who, what, when, where and how the proposed project will be run. If we have to pay back another grant, it's going to reflect very poorly on the chapter so this isn't something that should just be slapped together at the last minute. I'd rather see us take the time to discuss possible ideas properly and get the details of any proposed projects members want to run nutted out as carefully as possible before submitting applications. On 5/5/10, Andrew orderinchao...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I'll be straight up and state I'm not going to support this, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I don't think our chapter is capable of producing a grant application to the standard WMF require for such a big area (education) in 10 days that addresses all the things WMF expect us to address. Secondly, this appears to be trying to reinvent the wheel. Craig's project up in Brisbane is already making significant advances, at least three other chapter members have made contacts with (or have been contacted by) educational departments and representative associations, and completed resources already in use in schools exist in other languages from other chapters - I'm presently trying to secure translations of these on behalf of the chapter. Without any attempt to coordinate the various approaches, we're not only less effective but also give the outward appearance of being disorganised to the various educational bodies involved. Thirdly, given your recent conflict with, among other people, Jimbo Wales and various concerns about past occasions when you have undertaken chapter work (in particular the Dictionary of Sydney episode), I do not think you personally should be making any outward representation of our chapter and, if the grant were to be approved, I think someone else should lead it. kindest regards Andrew On 5 May 2010 11:46, private musings thepmacco...@gmail.com wrote: G'day all, does the chapter have any grants proposals heading in this year? http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Index Do we have any structure for creating / supporting a chapter grant like this? I have a few ideas and opportunities - for wiki use in education, hopefully in partnership with nsw dep. of ed. - if I write something up in the next week or so, I suppose we could discuss it on our wiki, and forward it to the grants page linked above for consideration if appropriate? I think it's important for a functioning healthy chapter to try to engage with processes like this, so if you too have any ideas or opportunities, please do pipe up, and let's work on them on the wiki, and get them going :-) cheers, Peter, PM. ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] grants application this year?
I'm personally not keen on the idea of the wiki-expedition as a grants application. (For informational purposes, according to the Polish chapter reps, the wiki-expedition was originally an Australian idea which they found on Meta, but I'm not sure if the Australians who were discussing the idea ever went ahead with it). Most of us do the Wiki-expedition anyway - taking photos when we go to under-represented areas, even detouring to a place just to take photos. I'd honestly see the Wiki-expedition as a wasted grant for us - I think there are far more important projects we should be looking at for grants, particularly in the areas of education and outreach and even more GLAM work. On 5/5/10, Andrew orderinchao...@gmail.com wrote: I'd like to pitch an idea regarding a possible grant application. One of the interesting things that came up in Berlin (both Sarah and I attended the Outreach Case Studies session where this was discussed) was the Wikiexpedition done by the Polish Wikipedia - I understand the Czechs also undertook a similar thing and got a grant for it (which included petrol, accommodation and buying a camera), and I seem to remember Estonia and a few others talking along similar lines. I was talking with a WA volunteer today and one issue we have is that some areas of our great country are hopelessly under-covered. Speaking from a WA point of view, the Wheatbelt region immediately comes to mind, but I'm sure anyone reading this can think of somewhere nearby (or at least within reach) which falls into this category. In the past, despite my non-car-ownership, I've done what I can to address this, and two other Wikimedians, Mattinbgn and Bidgee (Robert), have done tremendous work in getting photos of things like town halls and other monuments in Victoria to illustrate our articles and build up Commons. That shows what *individuals* can do with an appropriate plan. The Wikiexpedition was basically a bunch of volunteers with cars (15-20?) who coordinated and were driving around taking photographs of basically anything that was of importance or interest. Being done over a set time with a specific deadline for completing the photo runs and uploading them to Commons maximised the value of the exercise. Having so many people available made it so much better than just having one, as they could split up and do different things in the same town, for instance, or one could take the backroads and another could take the main road. The Polish dealt a lot with local businesses, municipalities and tourist offices along the way so were able to promote the cause somewhat as well to an entirely unexpected audience. Achievable, tick. Clear scope and measurable end points, tick. Engages the membership, tick. Promotes Wikimedia, tick. Meets our statement of purpose and the goals of WMF, tick. OK, it's a bit unconventional, but what do others think? On 5 May 2010 17:30, private musings thepmacco...@gmail.com wrote: 'Grant applications are serious, not something that you submit just to engage with a process and there needs to be a properly thought through application with an idea of who, what, when, where and how the proposed project will be run' - totally agree with this- and agree that it's a large stretch to try and get anything completed before the deadline - whether or not it's worth trying is a different question, I guess :-) 'I'd rather see us take the time to discuss possible ideas properly and get the details of any proposed projects members want to run nutted out as carefully as possible before submitting applications' - totally agree with this too - again, it does seem unlikely to be able to get this all done ahead of the deadline - I guess I wish discussions and activity had kicked off earlier - though that's largely down to us as a membership - hopefully we can get the ball rolling anyways ahead of future grant applications etc. 'Jimmy recently describing PM as a troll and calling for him to be globally banned' - this is not accurate - Jimbo never called me a troll, nor did he call for me to be globally banned - please take greater care in raising comments about me personally as oppose to my posts however; 'PM is really not an appropriate person to lead the chapter in requests to the WMF for not-insignificant amounts of money' - sure ;-) - as I mentioned I'd rather just try and help / chivvy / expedite existing efforts - my concern is to make sure that something happens - I'm concerned that we're heading for a pretty poor report card for the first half of 2010, and would like to help avoid that :-) cheers, Peter, PM. On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 6:56 PM, Sarah Ewart sarahew...@gmail.com wrote: To be entirely frank, I would have to agree that given both the long term and recent controversies throughout WMF universe which culminated in Jimmy recently describing PM as a troll and calling for him to be globally banned, PM is really
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] grants application this year?
as a membership - hopefully we can get the ball rolling anyways ahead of future grant applications etc. 'Jimmy recently describing PM as a troll and calling for him to be globally banned' - this is not accurate - Jimbo never called me a troll, nor did he call for me to be globally banned - please take greater care in raising comments about me personally as oppose to my posts however; 'PM is really not an appropriate person to lead the chapter in requests to the WMF for not-insignificant amounts of money' - sure ;-) - as I mentioned I'd rather just try and help / chivvy / expedite existing efforts - my concern is to make sure that something happens - I'm concerned that we're heading for a pretty poor report card for the first half of 2010, and would like to help avoid that :-) cheers, Peter, PM. On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 6:56 PM, Sarah Ewart sarahew...@gmail.com wrote: To be entirely frank, I would have to agree that given both the long term and recent controversies throughout WMF universe which culminated in Jimmy recently describing PM as a troll and calling for him to be globally banned, PM is really not an appropriate person to lead the chapter in requests to the WMF for not-insignificant amounts of money. However, I don't have a problem with him suggesting potential projects and then seeing how others feel about them and whether they gel with other projects people are currently involved in. I attended the session on grants at the chapters meeting in Berlin (my notes are up on the wiki here- http://www.wikimedia.org.au//wiki/2010_chapters_meeting/Sarahs_notes#Working_group:_Volunteers ) and we discussed the final date for grant applications and Eric made it clear that while May 15 is listed as the deadline, it's more like a preferred date. If applications are in by then they'll be processed more quickly, but we're welcome to submit applications after that date. Last year we had to pay back a grant a chapter member requested for an outreach conference they wanted to run because it fell through and didn't end up going ahead. Paying back the funds was a real headache for the committee (especially for Brian as the then-treasurer) and it took a considerable amount of time to resolve with the foundation. I don't want to see this happen again so I'd oppose any moves to rush through any ill-considered applications just to get them in before May 15 or that seem more orientated on getting money for the sake of it or for the simple stated purpose of engaging with the grant process. Grant applications are serious, not something that you submit just to engage with a process and there needs to be a properly thought through application with an idea of who, what, when, where and how the proposed project will be run. If we have to pay back another grant, it's going to reflect very poorly on the chapter so this isn't something that should just be slapped together at the last minute. I'd rather see us take the time to discuss possible ideas properly and get the details of any proposed projects members want to run nutted out as carefully as possible before submitting applications. On 5/5/10, Andrew orderinchao...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I'll be straight up and state I'm not going to support this, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I don't think our chapter is capable of producing a grant application to the standard WMF require for such a big area (education) in 10 days that addresses all the things WMF expect us to address. Secondly, this appears to be trying to reinvent the wheel. Craig's project up in Brisbane is already making significant advances, at least three other chapter members have made contacts with (or have been contacted by) educational departments and representative associations, and completed resources already in use in schools exist in other languages from other chapters - I'm presently trying to secure translations of these on behalf of the chapter. Without any attempt to coordinate the various approaches, we're not only less effective but also give the outward appearance of being disorganised to the various educational bodies involved. Thirdly, given your recent conflict with, among other people, Jimbo Wales and various concerns about past occasions when you have undertaken chapter work (in particular the Dictionary of Sydney episode), I do not think you personally should be making any outward representation of our chapter and, if the grant were to be approved, I think someone else should lead it. kindest regards Andrew On 5 May 2010 11:46, private musings thepmacco...@gmail.com wrote: G'day all, does the chapter have any grants proposals heading in this year? http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Index Do we have any structure for creating / supporting a chapter grant like this? I have a few ideas and opportunities - for wiki use in education
[Wikimediaau-l] new minutes and small grant applications now being accepted
Hi guys, There are some new minutes for the January and February committee meetings available on the wiki here: http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Meetings Also, the committee has now launched the Small Grants program. Chapter members can apply for grants of up to $100 to assist with their work on Wikimedia projects or other activities directly related to Wikimedia Australia's mission. We have set the limit for the trial of this program at $100 per applicant but we will review this after the program finishes in August, so feedback after the conclusion of the trial would be most welcome. Please be aware that while we will be accepting applications from March until August, the trial of this program has only a limited amount of funds available so it is essentially operating on a first come first served basis, so if you wish to apply for a grant, please do so as soon as possible. You can read more about this program and some examples of the types of projects you could request a grant for at http://www.wikimedia.org.au/w/index.php?title=Small_grantsoldid=1933. If you have any questions about the program please feel free to contact us. Regards, Sarah ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] follow up on committee meetup
On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 7:47 AM, private musings thepmacco...@gmail.comwrote: G'day all, I wonder if I could pester a committee member with a spare moment to fill in the redlink here; http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Meetings about the Jan. meetup :-) That meetings page is for my formal minutes, not for other things. The retreat pages that are not part of the minutes are kept as a separate collection of pages. ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Melbourne meetup 15: how was it?
On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 12:45 AM, Brianna Laugher brianna.laug...@gmail.comwrote: Hi Bron! Long time no see! Yes, welcome back, Bronwyn! :) Hope you're able to hang around and get involved again. -Sarah ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Brainstorming for 2010
Michelle, from my own point of view, I really don't see it as a get to know each other thing and if that is what I considered the meeting to be, I wouldn't bother giving up a whole weekend and traveling to Melbourne, and I really doubt I'm the only one who would feel that way. There's a number of issues that have come up in recent months that have been difficult to resolve via email and IRC meetings and discussions and they really require us to sit down and have a really good discussion. Also, I think it's important for the committee to get together in person at times and talk through different issues we're facing, difficult things we're trying to achieve, etc and make sure we're all on the same page. As we all know, text based communication can be very difficult and it can be very easy to misunderstand each others and issues, too. So that's just my own perspective of the face to face meeting. There are currently two sets of committee meeting minutes in the process of being approved and published and both should be upon the wiki at the end of this week and they might help answer your final question. :) On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Michelle Gallaway mgalla...@gmail.comwrote: I don't want to shit on what is otherwise a great idea, but wasn't the AGM in November? Does it really take two months to get to know one another? What has (or has not) been going on in that time? On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Brianna Laugher brianna.laug...@gmail.com wrote: Hello members and friends, At the end of January, the committee is having a face to face meeting in Melbourne to get to know one another, strategise and make plans for 2010. Before that meeting, it will be useful to have some explicit brainstorming as a way for the committee to collect some idea of what we collectively consider important, or would like to see. Last year we did a brief survey, which wasn't a huge success; this year I would like to try something different. I set up a site for us at http://wmau.ideascale.com/ This site lets anyone suggest an idea, and others can put a number of votes to support various ideas. I have it configured so that anyone who registers with IdeaScale can add a new idea or vote on ideas. With voting, every user has a fixed number of votes (50 I think), and you can put multiple votes on an idea if you really like it. If you don't like an idea, just don't give it any votes. :) You can also of course add comments, and that is probably the most valuable thing you can do. I would guess this is most useful for 1) things that take longer than a week to plan and 2) things that involve or have some impact on the membership and/or general public. So this will not encompass all of the committee's responsibilities; some tech and policy and governance things won't be relevant to mention here. Secondly for Melburnians, we are planning to arrange a meetup for one of the meals on the weekend, probably in Richmond or the CBD. The details will appear soon at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Melbourne_15 . Please feel free to give your feedback on this list or privately. thanks, Brianna WMAU president ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Brainstorming for 2010
Plus, the make up of the current committee is very similar to last year's committee. Brian, Brianna, Liam and myself were on last year's committee and Andrew was an observer. The only truly new member is Steve. Brian, Brianna and Liam attended the face to face meetup last year and I attended one day of it, and all six of us, including Steve, attended Glam; plus various other meetups and meetings etc that various members of the committee have attended. So, really the get to know each other value I think is realistically pretty limited and I wouldn't consider it good value for my time and money. However, I do think it is a very valuable opportunity for the committee to get together and properly discuss a number of issues that are difficult to discuss properly in text communication when we're all scattered around the country. On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 9:38 PM, Sarah Ewart sarahew...@gmail.com wrote: Michelle, from my own point of view, I really don't see it as a get to know each other thing and if that is what I considered the meeting to be, I wouldn't bother giving up a whole weekend and traveling to Melbourne, and I really doubt I'm the only one who would feel that way. There's a number of issues that have come up in recent months that have been difficult to resolve via email and IRC meetings and discussions and they really require us to sit down and have a really good discussion. Also, I think it's important for the committee to get together in person at times and talk through different issues we're facing, difficult things we're trying to achieve, etc and make sure we're all on the same page. As we all know, text based communication can be very difficult and it can be very easy to misunderstand each others and issues, too. So that's just my own perspective of the face to face meeting. There are currently two sets of committee meeting minutes in the process of being approved and published and both should be upon the wiki at the end of this week and they might help answer your final question. :) On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Michelle Gallaway mgalla...@gmail.comwrote: I don't want to shit on what is otherwise a great idea, but wasn't the AGM in November? Does it really take two months to get to know one another? What has (or has not) been going on in that time? On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Brianna Laugher brianna.laug...@gmail.com wrote: Hello members and friends, At the end of January, the committee is having a face to face meeting in Melbourne to get to know one another, strategise and make plans for 2010. Before that meeting, it will be useful to have some explicit brainstorming as a way for the committee to collect some idea of what we collectively consider important, or would like to see. Last year we did a brief survey, which wasn't a huge success; this year I would like to try something different. I set up a site for us at http://wmau.ideascale.com/ This site lets anyone suggest an idea, and others can put a number of votes to support various ideas. I have it configured so that anyone who registers with IdeaScale can add a new idea or vote on ideas. With voting, every user has a fixed number of votes (50 I think), and you can put multiple votes on an idea if you really like it. If you don't like an idea, just don't give it any votes. :) You can also of course add comments, and that is probably the most valuable thing you can do. I would guess this is most useful for 1) things that take longer than a week to plan and 2) things that involve or have some impact on the membership and/or general public. So this will not encompass all of the committee's responsibilities; some tech and policy and governance things won't be relevant to mention here. Secondly for Melburnians, we are planning to arrange a meetup for one of the meals on the weekend, probably in Richmond or the CBD. The details will appear soon at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Melbourne_15 . Please feel free to give your feedback on this list or privately. thanks, Brianna WMAU president ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Brainstorming for 2010
Just any issues the committee may discuss which might require fuller discussion rather than the kind of discussion you get from emails and irc. Our minutes are transparent and open as to the matters we discuss and which items we feel need further investigation and consideration and discussion, so I'm not going to go through and highlight specific things because that wasn't the point of my previous emails and I didn't actually write them with specific matters in mind. Rather, I was just trying to explain to Michelle (and anyone else who might have been wondering the same things she was) what I see as the benefit and purpose of an in-person meeting.There's always issues on any committee which come up and need to be discussed to a deeper and more thorough level which you just can't get from text-based communication, so it's not anything particularly interesting or revealing like you (PM) seem to be thinking. On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 9:54 PM, private musings thepmacco...@gmail.comwrote: would you be up for posting the agenda ahead of time on the wiki - maybe it'd be interesting to get comments on some of the issues? I'm genuinely curious (with a smile!) as to what they may be :-) ps. (for brianna really, I guess) - I don't know if there's anything you can do about it, but I thought you might like to know that the ideas site thing sends you an email when you register which ends up in gmail's 'spam' section with a big red bar warning saying 'be careful'... On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 9:46 PM, Sarah Ewart sarahew...@gmail.com wrote: Plus, the make up of the current committee is very similar to last year's committee. Brian, Brianna, Liam and myself were on last year's committee and Andrew was an observer. The only truly new member is Steve. Brian, Brianna and Liam attended the face to face meetup last year and I attended one day of it, and all six of us, including Steve, attended Glam; plus various other meetups and meetings etc that various members of the committee have attended. So, really the get to know each other value I think is realistically pretty limited and I wouldn't consider it good value for my time and money. However, I do think it is a very valuable opportunity for the committee to get together and properly discuss a number of issues that are difficult to discuss properly in text communication when we're all scattered around the country. On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 9:38 PM, Sarah Ewart sarahew...@gmail.comwrote: Michelle, from my own point of view, I really don't see it as a get to know each other thing and if that is what I considered the meeting to be, I wouldn't bother giving up a whole weekend and traveling to Melbourne, and I really doubt I'm the only one who would feel that way. There's a number of issues that have come up in recent months that have been difficult to resolve via email and IRC meetings and discussions and they really require us to sit down and have a really good discussion. Also, I think it's important for the committee to get together in person at times and talk through different issues we're facing, difficult things we're trying to achieve, etc and make sure we're all on the same page. As we all know, text based communication can be very difficult and it can be very easy to misunderstand each others and issues, too. So that's just my own perspective of the face to face meeting. There are currently two sets of committee meeting minutes in the process of being approved and published and both should be upon the wiki at the end of this week and they might help answer your final question. :) On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Michelle Gallaway mgalla...@gmail.comwrote: I don't want to shit on what is otherwise a great idea, but wasn't the AGM in November? Does it really take two months to get to know one another? What has (or has not) been going on in that time? On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Brianna Laugher brianna.laug...@gmail.com wrote: Hello members and friends, At the end of January, the committee is having a face to face meeting in Melbourne to get to know one another, strategise and make plans for 2010. Before that meeting, it will be useful to have some explicit brainstorming as a way for the committee to collect some idea of what we collectively consider important, or would like to see. Last year we did a brief survey, which wasn't a huge success; this year I would like to try something different. I set up a site for us at http://wmau.ideascale.com/ This site lets anyone suggest an idea, and others can put a number of votes to support various ideas. I have it configured so that anyone who registers with IdeaScale can add a new idea or vote on ideas. With voting, every user has a fixed number of votes (50 I think), and you can put multiple votes on an idea if you really like it. If you don't like an idea, just don't give it any votes. :) You can also of course add comments, and that is probably
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Brainstorming for 2010
(By the way, I’m sure the Brisbane community would love to welcome you all up here next time ;-) ) I for one would love this, but it probably wont happen until we get some Queenslanders on the committee. Of course, that's not my motivation in urging all QLD members to stand for a seat on the committee! :p Cheers, Craig *From:* wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto: wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] *On Behalf Of *Sarah Ewart *Sent:* Wednesday, 20 January 2010 8:46 PM *To:* Wikimedia-au *Subject:* Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Brainstorming for 2010 Plus, the make up of the current committee is very similar to last year's committee. Brian, Brianna, Liam and myself were on last year's committee and Andrew was an observer. The only truly new member is Steve. Brian, Brianna and Liam attended the face to face meetup last year and I attended one day of it, and all six of us, including Steve, attended Glam; plus various other meetups and meetings etc that various members of the committee have attended. So, really the get to know each other value I think is realistically pretty limited and I wouldn't consider it good value for my time and money. However, I do think it is a very valuable opportunity for the committee to get together and properly discuss a number of issues that are difficult to discuss properly in text communication when we're all scattered around the country. On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 9:38 PM, Sarah Ewart sarahew...@gmail.com wrote: Michelle, from my own point of view, I really don't see it as a get to know each other thing and if that is what I considered the meeting to be, I wouldn't bother giving up a whole weekend and traveling to Melbourne, and I really doubt I'm the only one who would feel that way. There's a number of issues that have come up in recent months that have been difficult to resolve via email and IRC meetings and discussions and they really require us to sit down and have a really good discussion. Also, I think it's important for the committee to get together in person at times and talk through different issues we're facing, difficult things we're trying to achieve, etc and make sure we're all on the same page. As we all know, text based communication can be very difficult and it can be very easy to misunderstand each others and issues, too. So that's just my own perspective of the face to face meeting. There are currently two sets of committee meeting minutes in the process of being approved and published and both should be upon the wiki at the end of this week and they might help answer your final question. :) On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 8:10 PM, Michelle Gallaway mgalla...@gmail.com wrote: I don't want to shit on what is otherwise a great idea, but wasn't the AGM in November? Does it really take two months to get to know one another? What has (or has not) been going on in that time? On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 2:34 PM, Brianna Laugher brianna.laug...@gmail.com wrote: Hello members and friends, At the end of January, the committee is having a face to face meeting in Melbourne to get to know one another, strategise and make plans for 2010. Before that meeting, it will be useful to have some explicit brainstorming as a way for the committee to collect some idea of what we collectively consider important, or would like to see. Last year we did a brief survey, which wasn't a huge success; this year I would like to try something different. I set up a site for us at http://wmau.ideascale.com/ This site lets anyone suggest an idea, and others can put a number of votes to support various ideas. I have it configured so that anyone who registers with IdeaScale can add a new idea or vote on ideas. With voting, every user has a fixed number of votes (50 I think), and you can put multiple votes on an idea if you really like it. If you don't like an idea, just don't give it any votes. :) You can also of course add comments, and that is probably the most valuable thing you can do. I would guess this is most useful for 1) things that take longer than a week to plan and 2) things that involve or have some impact on the membership and/or general public. So this will not encompass all of the committee's responsibilities; some tech and policy and governance things won't be relevant to mention here. Secondly for Melburnians, we are planning to arrange a meetup for one of the meals on the weekend, probably in Richmond or the CBD. The details will appear soon at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Melbourne_15 . Please feel free to give your feedback on this list or privately. thanks, Brianna WMAU president ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Member / non-member
Hi Richard, Thanks for supporting the chapter. If you can remember the exact reasons you decided not to join, we can talk about it. Unfortunately the membership requirements are set down in both the Association Rules and the Victorian legislation and there's not much flexibility. I'm personally not really comfortable with asking people for their real names and addresses and it was something that the membership discussed at length when forming the chapter but it's just not something we can get around. Cheers, Sarah On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 8:33 PM, Richard Ames rich...@ames.id.au wrote: I sent in a donation in lieu of joining and I don't really remember why... but it was something to do with too much trouble to meet the requirements to join... FWIW, Cheers, Richard. ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Membership, regional participation and other things
Just to say that I also agree with membership concerns and it's something that's worried me for a long time, just from being aware of the membership from membership records and it's something that's going to need to be addressed for the viability of the chapter in the medium-long term. I don't think there's any quick and easy solutions to the problem though. However, I don't think it's correct to say the chapter activity has been concentrated in Melbourne. Melbourne always gets lumped in with Sydney when talking about the chapter, but really, its probably been as active here as in Queensland and pretty much anywhere else except Tassie (poor Chuq). On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:42 PM, Craig Franklin cr...@halo-17.net wrote: Hear hear! I’d like to add some of my own to cents to this discussion. The turnover in Queensland isn’t quite as bad, but based on the secretary’s report and my own observations of who’s been showing up to the AGMs, we had a forty percent turnover of membership in the last year. As Andrew says, that sort of statistic is simply not sustainable in the long term, and it **must** be addressed by the committee in 2010. As Andrew says, a lot of this is due to the fact that a lot of the chapter activity to date has been concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne, while things have been fairly quiet everywhere else. To a degree, in the case of Brisbane at least, this has partially been our own fault; events and perks for members simply are not going to materialise out of this air for us. At the same time though, there has to be a realistic commitment from those in the southern/eastern states to assist us in the northern/western in growing our local communities and membership. I note with satisfaction that those I’ve spoken to in the committee seem to “get it”, so hopefully there can be some real progress on this front. In closing, I think Andrew’s idea is an excellent one, and I’d encourage everyone (particularly those of us in Queensland) to get aboard and start brainstorming. Cheers, Craig F. *From:* wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto: wikimediaau-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] *On Behalf Of *Andrew *Sent:* Sunday, 13 December 2009 7:41 PM *To:* Wikimedia-au *Subject:* [Wikimediaau-l] Membership, regional participation and other things Fellow members and supporters, A key priority for 2009-10 has to be building the chapter and make it successful. Before being elected to my present role, I heard lots of people saying they felt this chapter was overly Sydney- and Melbourne-focussed not just in activity but in priorities. There was also a fair few people saying (both among those who stayed/newly joined, and some who lapsed) that the chapter was overly focused on central or headline priorities and, in their view, gave insufficient support to members. Using the figures from the secretary's report at the AGM, in regional terms our numbers were stable, here in WA we went from 5 to 3 members (I am in fact the only original WA member left) and, even more concerningly, nationally we lost 2/3 of our initial intake although we actually gained a fair number of people. We need to do *far* more to retain members, and to give those outside the two biggest cities reasons to join and ways to participate - otherwise this chapter will fail. I ran on a platform to that effect and got support for it, so I'm hoping that means the members trust me to find ways to act on those concerns. I am happy for people to approach me privately with project ideas they want feedback on or support for. I think peer support is vital to keeping people's enthusiasm up, and I understand not everyone wants to go public with projects before they're ready. I would note in saying so that I can't give official chapter approval to anything although I can certainly seek it on your behalf from the committee if you wish me to. On the wiki I've been working on an early draft for a regional participation drive, and I'd also appreciate comments on that. I'll be adding more to it after the first committee meeting on the 20th as I'll know then what I have support for. kindest regards Andrew Owens (WM-AU committee general member) ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Membership, regional participation and other things
On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 2:45 AM, Andrew orderinchao...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Before I reply, I'll note that I actually agree with Sarah here re Melbourne - it's also evidenced by Victoria's membership following the national trend rather than NSW/ACT's. In fact, melbourne's situation may actually be even worse that elsewhere as far as the typical uptake of memberships goes. Of the 8 Victorian members, 3 are current committee members and two are former committee members (and one of those two now actually lives in regional NSW but was counted as a Victorian for the purposes of my stats of last years memberships), so only 3 members from Victoria are typical (for want of a better word) members and at least one of those is from regional Victoria and not from Melbourne. So if you're considering the regular uptake of memberships, Melbourne really only has two members that don't have some kind of atypical connection with the chapter. 2009/12/13 Liam Wyatt liamwy...@gmail.com So, if there is a concern that the chapter is focusing too much on Sydney (and/or Melbourne), I wouldn't want this to be the perception, off the back of local Wikimedians being particularly interested in hosting meetups. Liam, I agree that meetups organised outside the chapter shouldn't be attributed as chapter activity. But I also agree with Andrew that it's really not the meetups that give the impression that Sydney is the central focus, but more an unintentional attitude thing. It's very difficult because as I said last night, I don't see an easy or simple solution to these issues. I've been telling Andrew for some time now, and Craig referred to this as well in his earlier email, people in other states who want to see the chapter active locally need to become active themselves and make things happen in their local regions because the reality is that we're all volunteers and we just don't have the resources to swoop in and organise things for people around the nation. So it's really important that members around the country become active, create and build connections with their local organisations and organise functions, events etc but in turn the committee needs to be able to come on board and provide support, both in the form of emotional/mental support, facilitating connections, and potentially also financial support of some degree. I think everyone on the committee is on board with this and I've never sensed any kind of resistance to providing support to local members pursuing local activities, but from my perspective, it's really vitally important that local members who want the chapter to be active in their local regions take on some responsibility for that as it's really not going to happen otherwise. At the same time, I think we also need to be careful of unintentionally or inadvertently penalising the more vibrant regions because they've only become active due to the efforts of local members. For example, Glam was only organised because Liam had an idea and followed through with it to the fullest extent. Same with the Backstage program.They weren't projects the committee or even the chapter came up with or organised or pursued, but rather an individual member had a vision and pursued it and the committee played more of a support and facilitation role. and we can do that kind of thing for other members in other states if they keep the committee informed of what they're doing but they need to be prepared to basically do what Liam did - come up with an idea, pursue it and work to implement it. ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] AGM report
You could also try to link in with other like minded groups, other wikis, free culture groups etc. On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 10:10 PM, Andrew orderinchao...@gmail.com wrote: We get an average of 12 turning up these days to our ad hoc wikimeetups... although we've previously attempted to recruit them and failed. With a WM-specific project going in Perth (I'm certainly going to try for it) we may have more success. cheers Andrew 2009/12/2 Peter Jeremy peterjer...@acm.org On 2009-Dec-02 10:28:29 +, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote: Of course, that's difficult in Perth, whose defining characteristic is that it's 1500 miles from anywhere - and the anywhere in question is Adelaide ... Darwin is in a similar situation if you take 'anywhere' to mean anywhere in Australia. I'm not sure what to suggest. Advertise more widely? Attract the general public? (That'd be interesting!) Depending on what is being planned, attracting the general public may be useful - you might score a few new editors. Do you have a list of Perth-resident Wikimedians, to have some idea of the potential if everyone showed up? There are 42 names in Category:Wikipedians_in_Perth. That won't be an exhaustive list. The Sydney page has a section where interested people can ask to be contacted for future meetups [1] - there are currently 25 names on it, which is 11% of the people in Category:Wikipedians_in_Sydney. Something similar might be useful to gauge interest in Perth. Looking through attendees at the previous meetups could also be useful [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Sydney#Interested_in_future_meetups -- Peter Jeremy ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] fixing wmau wiki
Bug andrew and tell him what to do then :p Andrew as in Orderinchaos? Or Andrew as in Werdna? Andrew as in Werdna, he's our volunteer sysadmin. I've told him several times about the history tab (most recently when Angela mentioned it to me). ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] reminder about AGM deadlines
Hi folks, Just a final reminder that nominations for a seat on the next committee need to be completed today. You can see a list of all confirmed candidates so far at http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/2009-2010_AGM/Candidates. If you would like to nominate but don't know anyone to nominate you, please email me off-list. Cheers, Sarah On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 12:06 PM, Sarah Ewart sarahew...@gmail.com wrote: Hi guys, Just a reminder that today is the last day to get memberships paid in time to be eligible to participate in the AGM and vote/nominate/co-nominate in the elections for the new committee.(I really, really hate asking people for money so apologies for the repeated emails about paying membership fees!) Also, the deadline for nominating for a seat on the committee is Sunday 22 November. So if you're thinking about standing yourself or nominating someone else, please make sure you get the nomination to me by Sunday at the latest. If you would like to stand for a seat but don't know anyone to nominate or co-nominate you, please let me know off-list. I will be happy to nominate any member interested in standing and will also help you find a co-nominator if necessary. Cheers, Sarah ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
[Wikimediaau-l] reminder about AGM deadlines
Hi guys, Just a reminder that today is the last day to get memberships paid in time to be eligible to participate in the AGM and vote/nominate/co-nominate in the elections for the new committee.(I really, really hate asking people for money so apologies for the repeated emails about paying membership fees!) Also, the deadline for nominating for a seat on the committee is Sunday 22 November. So if you're thinking about standing yourself or nominating someone else, please make sure you get the nomination to me by Sunday at the latest. If you would like to stand for a seat but don't know anyone to nominate or co-nominate you, please let me know off-list. I will be happy to nominate any member interested in standing and will also help you find a co-nominator if necessary. Cheers, Sarah ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] The A E Bert Roberts photograph collection
Well done on this, Craig. You seem to have been doing a great job with GLAM contacts in Queensland and hopefully others will be inspired and follow your lead and find ways to work with their local GLAM institutions. It's really very important that members take an active role with this kind of work. Cheers, Sarah On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 10:35 PM, Craig Franklin cr...@halo-17.net wrote: Hi All, I’m pleased to announce that based on some contacts that I made at the GLAM-WIKI conference back in August, and some onsite work that the Brisbane Wikimedia community has been doing at the Queensland Museum (QM), the Museum has commenced uploading digitized images from their “A E (Bert) Roberts” photograph collection to Commons. Bert Roberts was a coachbuilder from Ipswich in the early 1900s , but also enjoyed photography and took photographs of a wide variety of subjects, chiefly scenes of everyday life in Queensland from the time. While not famous for his photography during his lifetime, after his death his collection of images came to be recognised as providing a unique view into the society of the time. His photographs are the subject of a Queensland Museum exhibition, which chiefly resides at their Toowoomba campus (the Cobb Co Museum), but which presently has travelled to Ipswich for a limited time. So far, 21 images have been uploaded to Commons, but there are over a thousand glass plate negatives in total that the Museum has. You can see what’s been uploaded so far here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:A_E_%22Bert%22_Roberts_plate_glass_photo_collection My request to all of you, basically, is to: · Categorise, enhance, and basically edit the file pages as much as possible. · Look for appropriate pages on Wikipedia and other places where this content can be used, and use it. · Spread the word that GLAM institutions are seeing the benefits of making their collections available through Commons and other free media repositories! · Watch out and make sure the pages aren’t vandalised, and any problems that crop up are dealt with quickly so that QM can concentrate on providing us with free content, and not learning arcane points of Wiki-law. Many of the original plate glass negatives held by the museum have not been digitised yet, but if there is anyone who would be interested in volunteering some of their time to learn how to do, and then actually **do ** the digitisation, there may be an opportunity to get in and do that. If you’re interested (and preferably have some “serious” photography experience), let me know and I’ll pass your details on. It’s my hope that this will be but the first of many successful collaborations between WMAU people and GLAM institutions throughout the country. I already have a couple of other collaborations cooking away here in Queensland that will hopefully result in a win not only for the WM projects, but also open access to cultural and heritage material in general. If anyone has any questions regarding these particular images, please feel free to ask me! Cheers, Craig Franklin ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
[Wikimediaau-l] NLA's Pandora archive and survey
Hi guys, Recently the NLA contacted us wanting permission to archive the Wikimedia Australia website. It is now archived on their Pandora archive at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/107722. The NLA is currently conducting a survey on community attitudes towards their collection and their creation of digital material, focusing on how much effort they should put into archiving digital material (like the WMAU website, for example) and digitising their archive of hardcopy material (i.e. books, journals etc). This is obviously important for accessing free information and free culture in Australia and if you would like to complete the survey you will find it here - http://survey.acnielsenonline.com/wix1/p477643250.aspx?type=1 Thanks to the guys who brought the survey to our attention. Cheers all, Sarah ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
[Wikimediaau-l] Minutes 13 June
Hi all, The minutes from the committee's 13 June meeting are now available on the wiki at http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Meeting:Committee_(2009_June_13). Please be aware that the committee has decided to use the member's mailing list for notifying the members of availability of new minutes (which all members should be automatically subscribed to). Unfortunately this means that after this email, non-members will need to keep an eye on the wiki for future minutes. I'm sorry if this causes any inconvenience. Regards, Sarah ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
[Wikimediaau-l] Minutes of the committee's February 8 meeting
Hi guys,
The minutes from the committee's 8 February meeting are now available below
and on the wiki -
http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Meeting:Committee_(2009_February_08).
Cheers,
Sarah
Sec
Minutes of committee meeting 2009-2-8:
'''Opening:'''
The meeting opened at 8:50PM AEDT.
'''Attendance:''' Brianna (Chair), Brian, John, Nathan (minutes), Sarah
(partial)
'''Apologies:''' None
Agenda:
__TOC__
==50th member==
The committee discussed whether or not we should give our 50th member a
gift. It was decided to defer the decision.
==Banking update (Brian)==
Brian is waiting for the form to arrive removing Stephen as a signatory and
adding Brian. It is expected that Brian will receive the form on Monday.
{{action}} Brian to lodge the change of signatory form with the bank.
'''Resolution:''' That our address at the bank be changed from Sarah's PO
Box to Brian's address
*Moved: Brian
*Seconded: Nathan
Carried without dissent
==[[Retreat March 2009|Retreat]] update==
The committee discussed attendance at the Retreat. Nathan has applied for
leave, John is working on attendance.
==Linux.conf.au Open Day==
The committee held a vote of thanks for Brianna, Karl, Angela and Tim who
helped at the Open Day.
*Moved: Brian
*Seconded: John
*Abstained: Brianna
Carried without dissent
==Expenses update==
Brianna has paid $15 for our hosting [[:Image:Webhosting ASO invoice 3.png]]
and $91.05 for materials for the Open Day.
''Resolution:'' That we reimburse Brianna $106.05, being $15 for web hosting
and $91.05 for materials for the open day in Hobart
*Moved: Nathan
*Seconded: John
*Abstained: Brianna
Carried without dissent
==Items Deferred==
Discussion of two items was deferred:
# Relationship of Official-wiki to WM-AU on Meta
# Wikipedia Loves Art update, with a twist
==Closure==
The meeting was closed at 9:46PM
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Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Overseas donation
Yes, it is possible. We've had foreign payments into the WMA bank account before using [[Swift]]. I've sent money to the US before - I just went into my bank and told them I wanted to transfer money to an American bank account and they organised it for me but that was a long time ago and I'm sure there are easier ways to do it now. Brian or Angela probably know more about this sort of thing. 2009/2/6 private musings thepmacco...@gmail.com g'day all, so I have this friend in the US who'd like to donate $20 to the AU chapter is this possible? and if so, how? :-) cheers, Peter PM ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
[Wikimediaau-l] Minutes of the committee's 15 January meeting
Hi all,
Following are the minutes from the committee's meeting on 15 January. This
was the first meeting for the newly elected committee.
Cheers,
Sarah
(as Secretary)
Minutes of Committee Meeting 2009-1-15.
'''Opening''': Meeting opened at 9:15pm AEDST
'''Attendance''': Brianna (Chair), Brian, John, Liam, Nathan, Sarah (minutes)
'''Apologies''': Nil
Agenda:
__TOC__
==Confirmation of Minutes==
'''Resolution''' Minutes of the meeting held on 2008-12-17 and
previously circulated are accepted.
*Moved: Brianna.
*Seconded: Nathan.
*Abstain: Brian and Liam
Carried without dissent
==AGM follow-up - treasurer's report==
{{action}} Brian will establish a format for full financial years so
comparisons are possible. Brian will report at a later meeting.
===Bank account signatories===
'''Resolution''' Brianna Laugher, Sarah Ewart, John Vandenberg and
Brian Salter-Duke are named as signatories to the Wikimedia Australia
account at Bendigo Bank.
*Moved: Brianna
*Seconded: Nathan
Carried without dissent
{{action}} Brian will attend Bendigo Bank and obtain papers for change
of signatories.
==Public Officer ==
The committee discussed the Public Officer (PO) position and whether
to replace Brian now that he has been elected to the committee but
Brian is happy to remain PO so the committee decided to leave the
position unchanged.
==LCA Open Day, Wikipedia Day==
Brianna and Liam will be attending linux.conf.au. Brianna will be
operating a table at the Open Day and will be giving out promotional
material.
'''Resolution''' The committee approves Brianna's expenses up to $100
with details to be reported to next meeting.
*Moved: Brian
*Seconded: John
*Abstained: Brianna
Carried without dissent.
==Access issues==
===Outgoing interim committee members===
The committee discussed managing access of outgoing interim committee
members to committee level communications and decided access to email,
committee mailing list and committee wiki would be turned off at the
end of January.
===Access to WMF Internal===
Per
[http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Chapters_committee/Access_to_internal
Access to internal] up to five persons from each chapter's board may
be given access to WMF internal.
'''Resolution''' Brianna Laugher, Liam Wyatt, John Vandenberg, Sarah
Ewart and Brian Salter-Duke are nominated to be given access to WMF
internal wiki and mailing list.
*Moved: Brianna
*Seconded: Nathan
Carried without dissent.
{{action}} Brianna will organise access to internal and the chapters wiki.
===Inviting non-voting participants to committee discussions===
After discussion it was agreed that the committee would invite Gideon
Digby and Andrew Owens to participate in a trial process of having
non-voting participatory observers join committee discussions. The
process will be subject to review 1 May 2009.
'''Resolution''' The committee invites Gideon Digby and Andrew Owens
to take part in a trial process of having non-voting participatory
members, subject to review 1 May 2009.
*Moved: Brianna
*Seconded: Sarah
Carried without dissent.
===Payment of fees===
'''Resolution''': That pending members be given 28 days in which to
pay their fees, after which time their membership application is
considered expired.
*Moved: Nathan
*Seconded: Brianna
Carried without dissent
==Face to face/semi face to face meeting==
The committee discussed the possibility of an in-person meeting for 28
February - 1 March, possibly with the use of Skype or video
conferencing for those unable to attend in person.
{{action}} Brianna to start a page on the committee wiki for further
discussion and planning.
==Backstage Pass==
Liam updated the committee on the Backstage Pass program. Discussion
to continue on the mailing list regarding the possibility of a gift
for hosting the event.
==Trademark==
'''Resolution''' That Brianna be authorised to enter into negotiations
with the Wikimedia Foundation Inc for the establishment of a trademark
agreement between WMF and WMAU.
*Moved: Nathan
*Seconded: John
Carried without dissent
==Wikimedia Chapters Meeting, Berlin, Germany==
Brianna updated the committee on the planned chapters meeting to be
held 3-5 April, in Berlin, WMAU's participation will be subsidised by
WMF and wealthier chapters.
==Items deferred==
Discussion of three items were deferred:
#Open committee meetings
#School Science Wiki
#Relationship of WM-AU pages on 'meta' relative to our own wiki.
==Close of meeting==
The meeting closed at 11:03pm.
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Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Special:Import on the au wiki?
Hey Peter, I just went to special import and it seemed to be going to allow me to do it. It said: Please export the file from the source wiki using the export utilityhttp://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Special:Export. Save it to your computer and upload it here. Upload XML data Filename: Comment: This might be helpful (or not): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Import. It says: Normally any user can export wiki pages to a file, but to import pages into a wiki from a file, you must have 'Sysop' privileges on that wiki. -Sarah 2009/1/20 private musings thepmacco...@gmail.com Hi all, being a 'starter of many things' (and the jury's out on whether or not I finish any of them!) - I've created this page; http://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Schools%27_Wikipedia_Australia I'm aware of quite a few discussions in this area, and believe it's a great direction for the chapter to pursue... it's certainly something that I'm up for working on as a fun and interesting project. I was chatting with Werdna about how technically we might copy articles from en into a smaller 'collection for schools' - and he talked me through the 'Special:Export' and 'Special:Import' functions - which basically just copy across an article and the last 1,000 revisions between wikis... here's my technical question though - when I visit 'Special:Import' on the au wiki it gives me a 'permission error (The action you have requested is limited to registered users. Please read Accountshttp://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Accountsto find out how to register an account.) I wonder if anyone technically minded has any ideas on how this could be fixed? - I'd like to test the funcitonality of this stuff, and maybe make a few 'proof of concept' type collections :-) cheers, Peter PM. ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Wikipedia Loves Art! photo contest at the Powerhouse Museum
I don't really know the details of what people have decided to do or not to do so I'm not speaking on behalf of anyone but myself. However, a general problem we have is that Australia is geographically a very large country, nearly as large as mainland USA but a very small population, somewhere in the order of 21 million people. Thus we are a small group of people very spread out geographically. I do not feel it would be appropriate for WMA to press the Sydneysiders to take on any project if they have decided against it as they will be the ones who have to follow through with it. It may be a mistake, as you say, I'm not sure how or why, but I think that it is entirely up to the Sydneysiders rather than the chapter or members in other states/countries who won't be involved. You said, I hope that Wikimedia AU can reconsider and join our little effort. The chapter isn't going to overrule the local members and force them to participate in an event if they have decided to do something else instead, so I think you will have to resolve this with those local members. -Sarah On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 12:09 PM, Pharos pharosofalexand...@gmail.comwrote: Hi folks, It has come to my attention that Liam and you folks have decided not to pursue this project. I think this would be a mistake. So, I thought I would write you folks and everyone at Wikimedia AU this e-mail so we can start a broader conversation. I understand you folks were interested in doing another project with Powerhouse, which is great, but I don't see why that would preclude joining us in this project as well. The important thing to understand is that this is a pre-wrapped project, where the model has already been developed and accepted by several different museums around the world, and getting it going in Sydney would require minimal work on your part. Since this is a project that has some establishment cred with the other museums, it could even be a great way to get your foot in the door for future, and hopefully more ambitious, activities. I know Liam expressed concern about having to schedule something for a particular day. It should be clear that this event is not on one day; it's run during the whole month of February, but the museums can choose to have a public event on any particular day they might like. You should know that we currently have four museums that are part of this project, in New York City, London, Los Angeles and Indianapolis, and we're working on Wikimedian teams in each. On the chapters front, in addition to Wikimedia New York City (which if we're lucky might become official by event time), we're also working closely with Wikimedia UK, and their Secretary Andrew Turvey. Jay Walsh has commented to me that this is really the first inter-chapter project of this type, and I hope that Wikimedia AU can reconsider and join our little effort. As I understand it, they're maybe on the fence now at Powerhouse with WLA, and a simple word from you folks could push them into positive territory. Thanks for your consideration, Pharos 2008/11/9 Liam Wyatt liamwy...@gmail.com: Regarding powerhouse museum: I think they are the best place to start if we try and do this kind of thing (which I think would be great) because the PHM gets web 2.0 - they don't necessarily succeed at it (vis - their attempt at QR codes described here: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2008/10/23/some-qr-code-clarifications/ ) but they are involved more than any other institution in australia that I know of. Thank their web services manager Seb Chan for that - which is why I would really like him to come to Wiki-Wednesday. He has been involved peripherally with the Dictionary of Sydney too which is where I first met him. I have a feeling I've said this before but I can't remember so I'll say it anyway (apologies if I repeat myself). I would think that the PHM would be a good place to start if we wanted to try a backstage tour for WM-au. That is, they show us around somewhere normally not accessible and we, in return, spend time with them improving articles of their choice (and teaching them how to do it themselves too). I think that if this is successful with the PHM we should approach the National Trust... my 2cents. Regarding sister chapters. Honestly, the first I heard of this was talking with Pharos. I think it's great that chapters are friendly to each other and share ideas etc. but I'm yet to see what kind of special relationship could be made. We're hard pressed (so far) to put into effect plans for ourselves - so doing anything special for other chapters will be even more difficult. We should, of course, endeavour to help when asked but I don't know what kind of special arrangement we could possibly put in place in relation to another chapter. I'm yet to be convinced about the concept of a sister chapter outside of close neighbouring
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] IRC meeting Sunday, 3pm?
Hi guys, unfortunately I think I might need to send apologies for this meeting as well. I have an appointment at 2pm and I don't think I will be back in time. I will pop into the channel if I do get home in time, even if it's a bit late, but otherwise I send my apologies. Cheers all, Sarah On Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 12:20 PM, Nathan Carter [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi guys, I'll have to put my apologies in for this one. I won't be near a computer. Cheers, Nathan On 12/5/08, Brianna Laugher [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, We probably won't be having a ctte meeting this weekend, but how about a general meeting? 3pm, Sunday, #wikimedia-au ? cheers Brianna -- They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment: http://modernthings.org/ -- Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
Re: [Wikimediaau-l] Quiet campaign on freely licensed politicians photos
*Cough* This is something that I've been working on quietly and there is a real possibility that things will improve at a higher level than political parties. I can't really say very much on here because the important bits were shared in confidence but I am hopeful about next year and images are already starting to filter out slowly via this person (I received another one for a federal MP just today actually). On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 4:12 PM, Brianna Laugher [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: Hi, I have noticed for a while the difficulty that Wikipedia editors have had in obtaining freely licensed photographs of Australian politicians for their biographical articles. I think a good project for us might be to do some gentle (private) lobbying to political parties and/or their branches to encourage them to release a set of high quality portraits under a free license. The best case would be if we could get a party or parties to release a bunch of photographs rather than individuals (a last approach), mostly because it is much more efficient. I think it is a good project because it will be positive for both them and us, it's very easy for us to point out the benefits for them, it will further raise awareness of free licenses to politicians and the work necessary to achieve it is mostly on-wiki and easily divisible, making it easy for people to contribute even in small amounts. Probably starting with current politicians and working backwards is the easiest way to go. It could go something like this: * Collate stats about articles via different ways of categorisation (eg state, fed/state/local [in cities?], party) * Prepare letters and arguments to help persuade parties and individuals * Find and collect contacts in all the parties and at all levels of government * WMAU sends letters, phones people etc. So you can imagine this is one case where having a body behind a letter might hopefully be more persuasive than an individual. We have lots of starting points already -- * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Australian_politicians * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Australian_politics Thoughts? cheers, Brianna -- They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment: http://modernthings.org/ ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l ___ Wikimediaau-l mailing list Wikimediaau-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaau-l
