Uh and the attached PGP signature does not belong to me, this somehow found it's way from the other post... Michael
On 5/21/06, Michael Bimmler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What appears on wikimediafr-l shall also appear on wikimediach-l... > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > > Subject: [Foundation-l] Chapters news > Date: Dimanche 21 Mai 2006 03:14 > From: "Delphine Ménard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > I have just come back from various trips which allowed me to attend, > in my capacity of member of the Chapters committee, various Wikimedia > meetings across Europe. > > Here is a little report on what I saw happening here and there. > > ==Wikimedia Polska== > > I attended the annual Wikimedia Polska meeting in Wroclaw on April > 30th-May 1st. The meeting consisted of two parts. The first part was a > conference which gathered Wikipedians as well as non-wikipedians to > talk about and around Wikimedia projects. It was all in Polish, so I > can't really report on the exact content of most of the talks, but I > also had Łukasz (TOR) as a personal translator who sat by my side for > some of the talks given (and I hereby thank him). > > *Tomasz Ganicz (Polimerek) did a very interesting presentation about > NPOV, original research and how those two ground principles are linked > and important for the building of Wikipedia. > *Jarosław Lipszyc presented his project of Polish wiki-textbooks > writen by schoolteachers, a project designed to make free textbooks > available in Polish schools. > *Zbigniew Braniecki (Gandalf), member of the board of Mozilla Europe > and developper in charge of internationalisation and localisation for > Flock presented Web 2.0 and how Wikipedia fits in. He explained how > Wikipedia was a precursor of Web 2.0 through its social implications, > and also how the Wikimedia projects and the Mediawiki software still > had to improve their usability and accessibility to join the social > and technical implications of Web 2.0 > * Łukasz Garczewski (TOR) gave a talk about the different activities > of Wikimedia Polska. > *I gave a talk on organisational issues, stressing the importance of > local initiatives through chapters as a means of ensuring > international outreach of the Wikimedia projects. > > Among other interventions I did not follow as thoroughly, Rafał > Próchniak of Creative Commons Poland gave a talk on Creative Commons > Licenses, Bogumił Cieniek (A_Bach) a talk on Templates, their use and > their technical background... May those I forgot forgive me. My Polish > is rusty. > > ==Wikimedia Deutschland== > I attended the annual meeting of the board of Wikimedia Deutschland on > May 6th-7th 2006. Every year, all members of the board get together > for a week-end to work on the projects of the coming year. > > Among the different issues raised: > *Officialization of the "Geschäftsstelle" for Wikimedia Deutschland. > Arne Klempert, until now Vice-president of Wikimedia Deutschland, has > been hired as Executive Director of WIkimedia Deutschland to start in > October 2006. The creation of the position of Executive Director was > given a go by the Member's general assembly in February 2006 and the > position advertised brought in about 70 applications. > *Run down on the Wikipedia Academy final preparations. Frank > Schulenburg gave a summary of the Wikipedia Academy, which seems to > have hit its target, namely academics, students, teachers who are > interested in learning about Wikipedia and how they can participate. > All about the Wikipedia Academy on the official website: > http://wikimedia-academy.de > *There are various projects in the air, in collaboration with partners > as diverse as schools, other non-profits and possibly companies. > *Participations in trade-shows and events in Germany were planned for > the year 2006 > *The board of Wikimedia Deutschland also had a lengthy discussion > about the role (or lack of) of Wikimedia (the organisation) in the > conduct of the Wikimedia projects. > > ==Wikimedia Italia== > My flight to Belgrade had a stop over in Milano, which I used to have > an informal meeting with some members of the board of Wikimedia Italia > as well as with some wikipedians. Around a home-made pizza, we > discussed a few topics. > *Wikimedia Italia has had various offers from sponsors, especially on > the technical side, and needs to find out whether they are viable or > not, reviewing them with the technical committee. > *Wikimedia Italia has been working in partnership with the > "Politecnico di Torino" to develop an offline reader to put the > Italian Wikipedia on a DVD. The reader is in working state and works > with a browser, the technology being based on the html static > Wikipedia. The project is released under a BSD licence, and Wikimedia > Italia is looking for a publisher who could be interested in producing > the DVD. > *I realized something, ie. how boring it can be for people who are not > involved in Wikipedia to hear us all speaking about Wikipedia. Sitting > here, listening to very particular problems involving users or > articles I had no clue about, I had a thought for all our > companions/friends/parents who have to put up with this Wiki thing all > the time. I just want to take this opportunity to tell them I > understand. > > ==Wikimedia Србије и Црне Горе (Serbia and Montenegro)== > I was in Belgrade for two days, assisting a Free culture, free > software and free knowledge festival, originated by Wikimedia Serbia > and Montenegro and joined by other Free-movement organisation. Talks > and presentations included: > *Free art display - some real weird stuff, and some very nice art, I > particularly liked the illustration of 'an axe in honey", a Serbian > saying which displayed a major sized axe in a major sized pot of honey > ;-). > *Free music and concerts > *Free software, open source distributions were presenting their products. > *Free knowledge (I gave a small talk about Wikimedia) > Many organisations joined this event which was in part driven by the > chapter, among which an organisation about free wireless internet, a > feminist organisation... > > The festival was hosted by the Cultural Center DOB, a state funded > organisation, which is very interested in working with Wikimedia on a > longer time basis, their goal being to try and develop communities > around different topics, whether software, culture, knowledge etc. > Again, the presentations were in the local language, which gave me > little possibility of understanding them. > However, I had long talks about the Serbian Wikipedia, and very > interesting ones, as this Wikipedia is much smaller than those the > other existing chapters are tied to by language. Their problems and > solutions are both the same and very different, which is food for > thought how Wikipedias can help each other (or not). > > All in all, these meetings were rich and interesting, and comfort me > in the idea that local representaiton is definitely the future of > Wikimedia. It is very important that we keep in touch with the > initiatives that originate around the Wikimedia projects locally in > order to ensure the maximum outreach, in as many countries as > possible. > > I also hereby want to thank all my hosts, who were just perfect. :-) > > Delphine > -- > ~notafish > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > -- > Association Wikimédia France > http://www.wikimedia.fr > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediafr-l mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediafr-l > > > > > > -- > Regards > Michael Bimmler > > Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens > Wikimedia CH - Association for the advancement of free knowledge > www.wikimedia.ch > > -- Regards Michael Bimmler Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens Wikimedia CH - Association for the advancement of free knowledge www.wikimedia.ch _______________________________________________ www.wikimedia.ch Wikimedia CH website Wikimediach-l mailing list http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediach-l
