Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[HJ Mitchell]

There's very little I can say that would add to Doug's articulate and 
well-thought-out post, but I welcome Andreas' more substantive post as a step 
towards a rational, mature discussion about these projects. I think such a 
discussion has been needed for a while, but hasn't been possible until now 
because of the entanglement with wider issues about conflicts of interest etc.

Andreas raises some points that are worth addressing. The conflation of roles 
within the chapter is not something I'm in a position to opine on, but "the 
projects' being plainly described as tourism marketing initiatives in the 
press" is a legitimate concern. Wikipedia must be neutral, and of course that 
neutrality extends beyond the text of a given article. Nevertheless, the 
increased visibility of, say, Monmouth is an effect of these projects and one 
reason that local governments may wish to see such projects in their areas. 
There's no getting away from that - local governments aren't motivated by 
altruism in the same way that Wikipedians are. As for the controversy at DYK, 
mistakes were made there. I think it was the result of naivety and the lack of 
clear process for this sort of thing at DYK and certainly not of any malice. 
Roger was just trying to see that people writing articles got some recognition, 
as he had done for years before Monmouth- or
 Gibraltarpedia were conceived. I think Roger's naivety wrt conflicts of 
interest and volumes of nominations at DYK, and DYK's processes, have both been 
rectified or are being rectified.

All that said, we need to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Yes, 
Gibraltarpedia has its issues. No, those issues are not going to go away with 
the wave of a magic wand. But I've been to Gibraltar, and the number of people 
involved, and the enthusiasm with which the project is met by residents, 
cultural institutions, schools, and at least three different government 
departments tells me that something is being built that will outlive the 
politics surrounding the project, and it has real potential to make a positive 
change to the movement without compromising our movement's principles.

None of that is to say that Gibraltarpedia can carry on as though the events of 
the last few months never happened (see my first paragraph), but nor is it 
fatally flawed. It's also worth pointing out that almost everybody involved is 
involved as a volunteer and is contributing to the project and to Wikipedia out 
of altruism. 

Thanks,
 
Harry Mitchell

http://enwp.org/User:HJ

Phone: 024 7698 0977
Skype: harry_j_mitchell



 From: rexx 
To: UK Wikimedia mailing list  
Sent: Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 15:56
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia
 

My usual optimism can sometimes lead to disappointment, but I think I'd rather 
have it that way. Projects like Monmouthpedia and Gibraltarpedia have a huge 
potential for doing good work, and they need the community to support and 
engage with them to make sure they deliver that good work.

I am pleased to read Andreas' précis of the extent to which he would support 
projects, but it's worth fleshing out the positive side of engaging in such 
projects, either as volunteers or as a body:

1. There is an opportunity to create many new encyclopedic articles, 
not only in English but also in myriad other languages.
2. There is an opportunity to take and publish photographs of notable 
objects and people.
3. There is an opportunity to enthuse existing editors and recruit new 
editors, training them as we go along.
4. There is an opportunity to create networks to support more projects 
between interested groups who share our aims.For example, Monmouthpedia 
generated many new articles in multiple languages as well as new photographs; 
the volunteers' efforts have helped vitalise the Welsh Wikipedia; the contacts 
made are leading to a shift in attitude of the Welsh Government and academia 
towards free and open licensing of work that they create or are custodians of.

Gibraltarpedia has the potential to involve the whole area from Gibraltar into 
North Africa and create links between British, Spanish and North African 
wikimedians - perhaps even help to establish new communities of wikimedians 
where they do not yet exist.

Andreas' concerns are clearly genuinely held, and we should never fear honest 
scrutiny and criticism. I'm looking forward to seeing new initiatives in the 
future and I'd welcome everyone's input on how best to ensure that they meet 
the vision of our wiki-movement. Contributions from our sternest critics are 
potentially the most valuable.

-- 
Rexx



On 12 February 2013 13:41, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:

Thomas,
>
>
>I don't think there is much wrong with projects like Monmouthpedia and 
>Gibraltarpedia at all. When I first heard about Monmouthpedia, I thought it 
>was a great project. 
>
>
>Problems arose from –
>
>
>1. the conflation of roles within the chapter, 

Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[Charles Matthews]

On 12 February 2013 16:31, Tom Morris  wrote:

> Let's be fair here, it's not just Andreas' concerns. It's not just a concern 
> for self-styled Wikipedia critics. Lots and lots of people thought that 
> Gibraltarpedia was problematic, myself included.*

Indeed, I had a phone call from an old friend and Wikipedian. I had to
explain my own personal attitude, that I never nominate anything I
write for DYK. But it wasn't really an adequate response to the
concern expressed about the use of the main page. Let me say that I
supported the Monmouth effort by starting 10 articles, and I don't
regret that work. But I wasn't in a hurry to get back into the water
after I had the system clearer in my mind.

Charles

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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[Tom Morris]

On Tuesday, 12 February 2013 at 17:06, rexx wrote: 
> 
> Please feel free to tell us how you'd handle a future request for a new 
> wiki-town. Even better, there's going to be a call for new trustees, both 
> elected and coopted in the near future. WMUK could certainly do with having 
> the benefit of your wisdom on the Board, and I'd vote for you.



Serving on committees goes against my religious beliefs, but thanks for the 
statement of confidence. ;-) 

-- 
Tom Morris




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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[rexx]

Well Tom, you have to remember that I write here as old Rexx, the dinosaur,
wikimedian volunteer. I don't speak for the WMUK Board, and I sometimes
wonder if I have to put a disclaimer on everything I write as a result.
Would you prefer that? It sounds like just the sort of bureaucracy that
will encourage others to stand as trustees in future.

I stand by my view that future projects will always have the potential to
do great good for the movement, as well as do harm if things go wrong. The
view that the Wikimedia community in the UK should be paralysed into
inaction for fear of doing something wrong is simply untenable. I seriously
hope that's not what you're suggesting.

Please feel free to tell us how you'd handle a future request for a new
wiki-town. Even better, there's going to be a call for new trustees, both
elected and coopted in the near future. WMUK could certainly do with having
the benefit of your wisdom on the Board, and I'd vote for you.

-- 
Rexx
Expressing my personal opinion only.


On 12 February 2013 16:31, Tom Morris  wrote:

> On Tuesday, 12 February 2013 at 15:56, rexx wrote:
> > For example, Monmouthpedia generated many new articles in multiple
> languages as well as new photographs; the volunteers' efforts have helped
> vitalise the Welsh Wikipedia; the contacts made are leading to a shift in
> attitude of the Welsh Government and academia towards free and open
> licensing of work that they create or are custodians of.
> >
> > Gibraltarpedia has the potential to involve the whole area from
> Gibraltar into North Africa and create links between British, Spanish and
> North African wikimedians - perhaps even help to establish new communities
> of wikimedians where they do not yet exist.
> >
> > Andreas' concerns are clearly genuinely held, and we should never fear
> honest scrutiny and criticism. I'm looking forward to seeing new
> initiatives in the future and I'd welcome everyone's input on how best to
> ensure that they meet the vision of our wiki-movement. Contributions from
> our sternest critics are potentially the most valuable.
>
> Let's be fair here, it's not just Andreas' concerns. It's not just a
> concern for self-styled Wikipedia critics. Lots and lots of people thought
> that Gibraltarpedia was problematic, myself included.* I think it's a clear
> case of WMUK collectively not having a good intuitive grasp of what the
> community on-wiki will and won't tolerate from chapters or chapter board
> members.
>
> It's not even about the rights and wrongs of what went on, it's about
> being able to make sane judgement calls about about whether one can get the
> community to buy-in to grand plans for outreach (whether clearly good
> things like working with GLAMs to more problematic things which skirt close
> to the edge of paid editing like the Gibraltar stuff). It's about realising
> that one has to think through the politics of these things and to have the
> cleanest possible hands in dealing with COI.
>
> Despite negative press coverage, negative reaction on-wiki and a
> governance review, based on Rexx's email, I'm starting to think that nobody
> at WMUK has actually learned anything useful from the Gibraltarpedia
> affair. Which is a shame.
>
> * See
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Miscellany_for_deletion/Wikipedia:GLAM/GibraltarpediA
>
> --
> Tom Morris
> 
>
>
>
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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[Tom Morris]

On Tuesday, 12 February 2013 at 15:56, rexx wrote:
> For example, Monmouthpedia generated many new articles in multiple languages 
> as well as new photographs; the volunteers' efforts have helped vitalise the 
> Welsh Wikipedia; the contacts made are leading to a shift in attitude of the 
> Welsh Government and academia towards free and open licensing of work that 
> they create or are custodians of.
> 
> Gibraltarpedia has the potential to involve the whole area from Gibraltar 
> into North Africa and create links between British, Spanish and North African 
> wikimedians - perhaps even help to establish new communities of wikimedians 
> where they do not yet exist.
> 
> Andreas' concerns are clearly genuinely held, and we should never fear honest 
> scrutiny and criticism. I'm looking forward to seeing new initiatives in the 
> future and I'd welcome everyone's input on how best to ensure that they meet 
> the vision of our wiki-movement. Contributions from our sternest critics are 
> potentially the most valuable.

Let's be fair here, it's not just Andreas' concerns. It's not just a concern 
for self-styled Wikipedia critics. Lots and lots of people thought that 
Gibraltarpedia was problematic, myself included.* I think it's a clear case of 
WMUK collectively not having a good intuitive grasp of what the community 
on-wiki will and won't tolerate from chapters or chapter board members.

It's not even about the rights and wrongs of what went on, it's about being 
able to make sane judgement calls about about whether one can get the community 
to buy-in to grand plans for outreach (whether clearly good things like working 
with GLAMs to more problematic things which skirt close to the edge of paid 
editing like the Gibraltar stuff). It's about realising that one has to think 
through the politics of these things and to have the cleanest possible hands in 
dealing with COI.

Despite negative press coverage, negative reaction on-wiki and a governance 
review, based on Rexx's email, I'm starting to think that nobody at WMUK has 
actually learned anything useful from the Gibraltarpedia affair. Which is a 
shame. 

* See 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Miscellany_for_deletion/Wikipedia:GLAM/GibraltarpediA

-- 
Tom Morris




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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[rexx]

My usual optimism can sometimes lead to disappointment, but I think I'd
rather have it that way. Projects like Monmouthpedia and Gibraltarpedia
have a huge potential for doing good work, and they need the community to
support and engage with them to make sure they deliver that good work.

I am pleased to read Andreas' précis of the extent to which he would
support projects, but it's worth fleshing out the positive side of engaging
in such projects, either as volunteers or as a body:

   1. There is an opportunity to create many new encyclopedic articles, not
   only in English but also in myriad other languages.
   2. There is an opportunity to take and publish photographs of notable
   objects and people.
   3. There is an opportunity to enthuse existing editors and recruit new
   editors, training them as we go along.
   4. There is an opportunity to create networks to support more projects
   between interested groups who share our aims.

For example, Monmouthpedia generated many new articles in multiple
languages as well as new photographs; the volunteers' efforts have helped
vitalise the Welsh Wikipedia; the contacts made are leading to a shift in
attitude of the Welsh Government and academia towards free and open
licensing of work that they create or are custodians of.

Gibraltarpedia has the potential to involve the whole area from Gibraltar
into North Africa and create links between British, Spanish and North
African wikimedians - perhaps even help to establish new communities of
wikimedians where they do not yet exist.

Andreas' concerns are clearly genuinely held, and we should never fear
honest scrutiny and criticism. I'm looking forward to seeing new
initiatives in the future and I'd welcome everyone's input on how best to
ensure that they meet the vision of our wiki-movement. Contributions from
our sternest critics are potentially the most valuable.

-- 
Rexx


On 12 February 2013 13:41, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:

> Thomas,
>
> I don't think there is much wrong with projects like Monmouthpedia and
> Gibraltarpedia at all. When I first heard about Monmouthpedia, I thought it
> was a great project.
>
> Problems arose from –
>
> 1. the conflation of roles within the chapter,
> 2. the projects' being plainly described as tourism marketing initiatives
> in the press, and
> 3. the use of the Wikipedia main page to increase project and customer
> visibility.
>
> I see a PR, credibility and integrity problem for the Wikimedia movement
> if such projects are prominently sold by Wikimedia as marketing projects
> designed to increase tourism – because this means we are saying it is fine
> to leverage Wikipedia to boost local business.
>
> Similarly, I don't think it is wise to leverage the main page to enhance
> such projects' visibility, or for Wikimedia UK to endorse any such use of
> the main page. Commercial interests should be kept at arm's length from WMF
> and the chapter, and from the Wikipedia identity.
>
> I don't want to see the Wikipedia main page play host to all manner of
> hidden commercial interests, especially when the commercial background is
> not transparent to the average reader. In relation to the lack of
> transparency, there is also a potential legal problem here under EU
> legislation, as described in the Signpost a while back:
>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-11-12/News_and_notes
>
>
> In my view, Wikimedia should support such projects as outreach efforts, to
> get people involved in writing content, but not as marketing ploys.
>
> In terms of content generation, and getting people involved in Wikipedia,
> these are good projects, and to that degree I support them.
>
> Best,
> Andreas
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 12:42 PM, Thomas Dalton 
> wrote:
>
>> On 11 February 2013 17:52, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:
>> > I would oppose any support from Wikimedia UK for targeted use of the
>> > Wikipedia main page to increase the visibility of projects like
>> > Gibraltarpedia.
>>
>> What do you count as "projects like Gibraltarpedia"? Are you opposed
>> to the entire concept of wikitowns? Or is it the specific
>> circumstances of Gibraltarpedia you object to?
>>
>> ___
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>>
>
>
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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Photograph cropping day!

[Andrew Gray]

Hi all - thanks for the interest!

We've finally secured a room, after an awful lot of phoning around and
juggling of bookings - we'll be working with the images on Monday 18th
March, at the BL Conference Centre (which some of you may remember
from GLAMcamp, or from one of my public workshops). I haven't set up
times etc yet, but we have the room all day - there's a public
wireless network, and I'll arrange coffee and sandwiches.

If you are still interested in coming along on the 18th, please drop
me an email to say so, and I'll start pulling names together :-)

- Andrew.

On 11 February 2013 17:19, Andrew Gray  wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> As some of you may know, I've been working on a project part-funded by
> WMUK to digitise and release a collection of historic Canadian
> photographs. After some work, we are now at a state where the metadata
> is at a high level of quality, and the glorious high-resolution TIFFs
> are piling up - there's currently about 2,000 waiting to go, and more
> are going to roll in. It's all very exciting, and I'm really looking
> forward to a big announcement once we've got them all on Commons.
>
> Unfortunately, they all look like this:
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chef_de_Police,_D._Legault,_de_Montreal_%28HS85-10-13348%29.tif
>
> and in terms of being useful on Commons, it would be good if we could
> offer this:
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chef_de_Police,_D._Legault,_de_Montreal_%28HS85-10-13348%29.jpg
>
> Rather than a couple of us spend hours every day for a month working
> on these, we thought we might try and do it in one go - I'm currently
> seeing if I can get a room at the British Library one afternoon, set
> up some laptops, bring in some coffee and sandwiches, and have a shot
> at breaking through the entire collection. Having a group of people
> look at the images also means we'll have more eyes looking out for
> interesting things, which can only be a bonus :-)
>
> We don't have a date yet, but tentatively we're thinking early/mid
> March. If anyone would be interested, in coming along, do let me know,
> and I'll be in touch once we've got fimer plans...
>
> --
> - Andrew Gray
>   andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk



-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk

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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[Andreas Kolbe]

Sometimes I wonder what happened, David. I recall you describing one of my
posts to Foundation-l as the "post of the year" a couple of years ago:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/wiki/foundation/216365#216365

What I am opposed to is poor content, BLP violations, or Wikipedia being
abused for commercial and political interests.

That applied then, and it applies now. I don't think the average Wikipedian
would have that much of a problem with that.

Andreas

On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 12:45 PM, David Gerard  wrote:

> On 12 February 2013 12:42, Thomas Dalton  wrote:
> > On 11 February 2013 17:52, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:
>
> >> I would oppose any support from Wikimedia UK for targeted use of the
> >> Wikipedia main page to increase the visibility of projects like
> >> Gibraltarpedia.
>
> > What do you count as "projects like Gibraltarpedia"? Are you opposed
> > to the entire concept of wikitowns? Or is it the specific
> > circumstances of Gibraltarpedia you object to?
>
>
> It is important to remember that Andreas is opposed to Wikipedia in
> general and to chapters doing anything.
>
> ("Assume good faith" does not mean "in the face of mountains of
> evidence and the subject's own words.")
>
> - d.
>
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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[Andreas Kolbe]

Thomas,

I don't think there is much wrong with projects like Monmouthpedia and
Gibraltarpedia at all. When I first heard about Monmouthpedia, I thought it
was a great project.

Problems arose from –

1. the conflation of roles within the chapter,
2. the projects' being plainly described as tourism marketing initiatives
in the press, and
3. the use of the Wikipedia main page to increase project and customer
visibility.

I see a PR, credibility and integrity problem for the Wikimedia movement if
such projects are prominently sold by Wikimedia as marketing projects
designed to increase tourism – because this means we are saying it is fine
to leverage Wikipedia to boost local business.

Similarly, I don't think it is wise to leverage the main page to enhance
such projects' visibility, or for Wikimedia UK to endorse any such use of
the main page. Commercial interests should be kept at arm's length from WMF
and the chapter, and from the Wikipedia identity.

I don't want to see the Wikipedia main page play host to all manner of
hidden commercial interests, especially when the commercial background is
not transparent to the average reader. In relation to the lack of
transparency, there is also a potential legal problem here under EU
legislation, as described in the Signpost a while back:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-11-12/News_and_notes


In my view, Wikimedia should support such projects as outreach efforts, to
get people involved in writing content, but not as marketing ploys.

In terms of content generation, and getting people involved in Wikipedia,
these are good projects, and to that degree I support them.

Best,
Andreas

On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 12:42 PM, Thomas Dalton wrote:

> On 11 February 2013 17:52, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:
> > I would oppose any support from Wikimedia UK for targeted use of the
> > Wikipedia main page to increase the visibility of projects like
> > Gibraltarpedia.
>
> What do you count as "projects like Gibraltarpedia"? Are you opposed
> to the entire concept of wikitowns? Or is it the specific
> circumstances of Gibraltarpedia you object to?
>
> ___
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>
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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Photograph cropping day!

[John Byrne]

I use www.photoscape.org, which I picked from the reviews online a 
couple of years ago. It's free, easy to use, & allows full cropping and 
rotating, & simple versions of editing for colour, contrast & all that 
stuff.  However the cropping is very far from lossless, and reduces file 
size well beyond the pro rata for the area removed. I'd love to know of 
a free easy to use lossless cropping thingy.


John

On 12/02/2013 14:31, wikimediauk-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Photograph cropping day! Message-ID: 
 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 For Windows users, 
IrfanView (freeware) allows batch rotation and cropping (to specific 
sizes; it doesn't do edge detection, though I will raise a feature 
request). It's also useful for manual cropping, resizing, format 
conversion, etc. being small and lightweight. On 12 February 2013 
14:01, Andrew Gray  wrote:

>On 12 February 2013 13:59, Michael Peel  wrote:

>>Install Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/) on the visitor laptops and take them
>>along?

>
>GIMP is indeed on all the visitor laptops (at least on the Ubuntu
>side). I'll leave the Windows side up to Richard:-)
>
>(We should probably document this on-wiki somewhere...)
>
>--
>- Andrew Gray
>   andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk


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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Photograph cropping day!

[Andy Mabbett]

For Windows users, IrfanView (freeware) allows batch rotation and
cropping (to specific sizes; it doesn't do edge detection, though I
will raise a feature request). It's also useful for manual cropping,
resizing, format conversion, etc. being small and lightweight.

On 12 February 2013 14:01, Andrew Gray  wrote:
> On 12 February 2013 13:59, Michael Peel  wrote:
>> Install Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/) on the visitor laptops and take them
>> along?
>
> GIMP is indeed on all the visitor laptops (at least on the Ubuntu
> side). I'll leave the Windows side up to Richard :-)
>
> (We should probably document this on-wiki somewhere...)
>
> --
> - Andrew Gray
>   andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk
>
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--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

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[Wikimediauk-l] Volunteer equipment

[Richard Nevell]

The charity has a budget of £2,000 to purchase equipment to be used by
volunteers. There are some suggestions already, and people are invited to
take a look and add their own. The page is at

here .

-- 
Richard Nevell
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0753

Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).

*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Photograph cropping day!

[Andrew Gray]

On 12 February 2013 13:59, Michael Peel  wrote:
> Install Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/) on the visitor laptops and take them
> along?

GIMP is indeed on all the visitor laptops (at least on the Ubuntu
side). I'll leave the Windows side up to Richard :-)

(We should probably document this on-wiki somewhere...)

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk

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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Photograph cropping day!

[Michael Peel]

Install Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/) on the visitor laptops and take them along?

Thanks,
Mike

On 12 Feb 2013, at 13:52, Richard Nevell  
wrote:

> My laptop doesn't have image editing software, otherwise I'd bring it, but if 
> there will be laptops available I'd be interested in helping out.
> 
> Richard Nevell
> 
> On 12 February 2013 10:53, Andrew Gray  wrote:
> Very nice! I will have a play, but it looks like that's more oriented
> towards reorienting than cropping...
> 
> (I feel like there *ought* to be some kind of monstrous
> seventeen-clause command line script I can write to do this sort of
> thing, but no luck so far)
> 
> - Andrew.
> 
> On 11 February 2013 20:06, Harry Burt  wrote:
> > Has anyone tried using unpaper [1] on a sample of images? I could do -- all
> > you really need is a Unix-based OS and some command-line savvy - but I'm a
> > little tied up just at the moment.
> >
> > Harry
> >
> > --
> > Harry Burt (User:Jarry1250)
> >
> > [1] http://unpaper.berlios.de/
> >
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> >
> 
> 
> 
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> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Richard Nevell
> Wikimedia UK
> +44 (0) 20 7065 0753
> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and 
> Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered 
> Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. 
> United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia 
> movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who 
> operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
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> Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.
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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Photograph cropping day!

[Richard Nevell]

My laptop doesn't have image editing software, otherwise I'd bring it, but
if there will be laptops available I'd be interested in helping out.

Richard Nevell

On 12 February 2013 10:53, Andrew Gray  wrote:

> Very nice! I will have a play, but it looks like that's more oriented
> towards reorienting than cropping...
>
> (I feel like there *ought* to be some kind of monstrous
> seventeen-clause command line script I can write to do this sort of
> thing, but no luck so far)
>
> - Andrew.
>
> On 11 February 2013 20:06, Harry Burt  wrote:
> > Has anyone tried using unpaper [1] on a sample of images? I could do --
> all
> > you really need is a Unix-based OS and some command-line savvy - but I'm
> a
> > little tied up just at the moment.
> >
> > Harry
> >
> > --
> > Harry Burt (User:Jarry1250)
> >
> > [1] http://unpaper.berlios.de/
> >
> > ___
> > Wikimedia UK mailing list
> > wikimediau...@wikimedia.org
> > http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
> > WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> - Andrew Gray
>   andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk
>
> ___
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>



-- 
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Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0753

Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).

*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[David Gerard]

On 12 February 2013 12:42, Thomas Dalton  wrote:
> On 11 February 2013 17:52, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:

>> I would oppose any support from Wikimedia UK for targeted use of the
>> Wikipedia main page to increase the visibility of projects like
>> Gibraltarpedia.

> What do you count as "projects like Gibraltarpedia"? Are you opposed
> to the entire concept of wikitowns? Or is it the specific
> circumstances of Gibraltarpedia you object to?


It is important to remember that Andreas is opposed to Wikipedia in
general and to chapters doing anything.

("Assume good faith" does not mean "in the face of mountains of
evidence and the subject's own words.")

- d.

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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[Thomas Dalton]

On 11 February 2013 17:52, Andreas Kolbe  wrote:
> I would oppose any support from Wikimedia UK for targeted use of the
> Wikipedia main page to increase the visibility of projects like
> Gibraltarpedia.

What do you count as "projects like Gibraltarpedia"? Are you opposed
to the entire concept of wikitowns? Or is it the specific
circumstances of Gibraltarpedia you object to?

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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia

[Andreas Kolbe]

I would oppose any support from Wikimedia UK for targeted use of the
Wikipedia main page to increase the visibility of projects like
Gibraltarpedia.

Beyond that, I believe it would also be extremely unwise for WMUK to offer
such support.

Andreas

On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 5:41 PM, HJ Mitchell  wrote:

> I don't want to set the cat among the pigeons, but does this mean that
> WMUK can now support GibraltarpediA?
>
> I perfectly understand that things are a bit more complicated when it
> comes to money and formal agreements, but after the wonderful success in
> Monmouth, it would be a shame if the excellent work going on in Gibraltar
> continued to be overshadowed by the controversies about conflicts of
> interest and ownership of QRpedia. I think WMUK could do quite a bit to be
> seen to be supportive, and I think recognition of the project from formal
> entities within the movement (such as chapters) can go a long way towards
> changing the "default narrative" (to pinch Stevie's phrase).
>
> All that said, I'm very pleased to see that this has finally been resolved
> and (it seems) with a minimum of acrimony. Hopefully all those involved
> will be happy with what they have contributed to the Wikimedia movement and
> will continue their involvement with it for a long time to come.
>
> Harry Mitchell
> http://enwp.org/User:HJ
> Phone: 024 7698 0977
> Skype: harry_j_mitchell
>
>   --
> *From:* John Byrne 
> *To:* wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> *Sent:* Monday, 11 February 2013, 16:37
> *Subject:* Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia
>
> What we had is best described as "a delay in agreeing terms for the
> donation" or similar.
>
> John
> On 11/02/2013 14:03, wikimediauk-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
> > Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:21:39 + From: Stevie Benton <
> stevie.ben...@wikimedia.org.uk> To: UK Wikimedia mailing list <
> wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org> Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] QRpedia
> Message-ID:  l8dv9ugbijybubfhs-goudtl...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1" This is something I'm liaising on with the WMF. The
> original copy was put together jointly between WMF and WMUK and I'm keen
> that any revisions are accepted by both sides. I'm hopeful that we can get
> this fixed today. Thanks, Stevie On 9 February 2013 20:40, Andy Mabbett <
> a...@pigsonthewing.org.uk> wrote:
> >> >On 9 February 2013 17:10, Chris Keating >
> >> >wrote:
> >>> > >The intellectual property in QRpedia and the qrpedia.org and
> qrwp.org
> >>> > >domains will be transferred to Wikimedia UK
> >> >
> >> >It would be a good idea to update
> >> ><
> >> >
> http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/02/questions-and-answers-related-to-the-governance-review/
> >>> > >
> >> >ASAP (which I appreciate might mean Monday)
> >> >
> >> >--
> >> >Andy Mabbett
> >> >@pigsonthewing
>
>
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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Governance review

[Andreas Kolbe]

Thanks, Stevie.

Andreas

On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 11:30 AM, Stevie Benton <
stevie.ben...@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> Just a couple of things here to tidy up from my side. Apologies for my
> lack of communication over the weekend but as it was my anniversary and
> working may have led to it being my last, I hope you'll forgive me.
>
>
>- Use of logos - the use of logos is covered by fair use. Publications
>using a logo to illustrate a story about an organisation is totally
>sensible and reasonable.
>- Dispute over QRpedia - the description isn't ideal, of course.
>However, to outsiders it's probably reasonable to think there is a dispute
>given the length of time it took to reach an agreement.
>- Sister charity - I have no problems with the description of WMF and
>WMUK as sister organisations really. It makes sense to the audience they
>are writing for.
>- Who got in touch with the publications? - I confirm that I contacted
>both Third Sector and Civil Society directly. It was nothing to do with
>Andreas, or anyone else for that matter. I liaised very closely with the
>team in San Francisco until very late on Wednesday to get this sorted. They
>suggested that we give a heads-up on the story to a publication or two that
>we've dealt with in the past. I didn't provide them any copy, simply
>advised that the announcement was due. The journalists had covered the
>story before. This is fairly standard practice.   Sometimes, unfortunately,
> the press use over-dramatic language and we have to live with that. As our
>relationships with the press improve, and they have more positive stories
>to cover, the default narrative will become repositioned. This will take
>time.
>
> I hope this answers the questions from earlier in the thread. Please do
> let me know if there's anything I've missed and I'll do my best to provide
> any answers or clarity.
>
> Thanks and regards,
>
> Stevie
>
> On 9 February 2013 21:56, Charles Matthews <
> charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>> On 9 February 2013 21:01, David Gerard  wrote:
>> > On 9 February 2013 20:56, Andy Mabbett 
>> wrote:
>> >> On 9 February 2013 13:08, Thehelpfulone 
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >>>
>> http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/governance/news/content/14428/wikimedia_uk_trustees_have_been_too_involved_to_govern_the_charity
>> >
>> >> This also refers to an "an intellectual property dispute over
>> >> QRPedia", which is, of course, bunkum.
>> >
>> >
>> > Oh, look who else quotes this claim:
>> >
>> >
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2013-02-11/In_the_media
>> >
>> > I wonder where they got it from.
>>
>> To clarify: User:Jayen466 is Andreas Kolbe, who is a Wikipedian in
>> good standing. That article is a draft that may or may not be in the
>> Signpost in Monday. Andreas is also an associate of Wikipediocracy, a
>> website that hosts contributions by people I wouldn't willingly be
>> seen dead with. On the other hand Andreas comes to some Cambridge
>> meetups, and is welcome to do so, and I have been in the pub with him
>> afterwards. DG seems to do the "guilt for association" thing to
>> excess, whatever irritation events in 2012 have caused WMUK and its
>> trustees. Steve Virgin and other Board members from 2010 do bear some
>> collective responsibility for the subsequent governance, as far as I'm
>> concerned. I'd rather see some humility from them.
>>
>> Charles
>>
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>
>
>
> --
>
> Stevie Benton
> Communications Organiser
> Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
> @StevieBenton
>
> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and 
> Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered 
> Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. 
> United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia 
> movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who 
> operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
>
> *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over 
> Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
>
>
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[Wikimediauk-l] Cambridge meetup 2 March

[Charles Matthews]

The next Cambridge meetup will be on Saturday 2 March. See

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Cambridge/17

As usual we will start at 3 pm, upstairs in CB2 cybercaff (more of a
brasserie these days, in fact), on Norfolk Street, and all are very
welcome.

Charles

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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Photograph cropping day!

[Harry Burt]

On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 10:53 AM, Andrew Gray wrote:

> Very nice! I will have a play, but it looks like that's more oriented
> towards reorienting than cropping...
>

Yes; well, it seems to only want to crop black borders from around the
edges. But in any case, reorientation alone is going to save volunteers a
lot of time; and there are good GUIs for batch cropping IIRC once you've
taken out the need for reorientation.

Harry

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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Photograph cropping day!

[Andrew Gray]

Very nice! I will have a play, but it looks like that's more oriented
towards reorienting than cropping...

(I feel like there *ought* to be some kind of monstrous
seventeen-clause command line script I can write to do this sort of
thing, but no luck so far)

- Andrew.

On 11 February 2013 20:06, Harry Burt  wrote:
> Has anyone tried using unpaper [1] on a sample of images? I could do -- all
> you really need is a Unix-based OS and some command-line savvy - but I'm a
> little tied up just at the moment.
>
> Harry
>
> --
> Harry Burt (User:Jarry1250)
>
> [1] http://unpaper.berlios.de/
>
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  andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk

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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Photograph cropping day!

[Jon Davies]

Fabulous!

On 11 February 2013 20:06, Harry Burt  wrote:

> Has anyone tried using unpaper [1] on a sample of images? I could do --
> all you really need is a Unix-based OS and some command-line savvy - but
> I'm a little tied up just at the moment.
>
> Harry
>
> --
> Harry Burt (User:Jarry1250)
>
> [1] http://unpaper.berlios.de/
>
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>


-- 
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tweet @jonatreesdavies

Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Victorian-era Dictionary of National Biography digitised on Wikisource

[Charles Matthews]

On 11 February 2013 20:24, Andy Mabbett  wrote:
> On 11 February 2013 18:25, Charles Matthews
>  wrote:
>
>> WP:WP DNB, the WikiProject devoted to quarrying out the
>> good stuff from the DNB,
>
> Excellent job.
>
> Is there a template for linking from Wikipedia articles to the
> corresponding DNB entry on Wikisource?

Yes, {{cite DNB|wstitle =}}, in which you place the Wikisource title,
such as Darwin, Charles Robert (DNB00), without the suffix. So {{cite
DNB|wstitle = Darwin, Charles Robert}}. That's for citations: plain
{{DNB}} works the same way for attribution of copied text.

Charles

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