[Wikimediauk-l] Wikimedia UK soon move to an employee controlled website
Do any fellow unpaid volunteers have a view on the changeover of the charity from using the volunteer controlled wiki as a front end, to using a fixed employee controlled website? I feel this will be the end of the UK wiki in terms of being a public landing site with immediate engagement with fellow volunteers. Instead, we will have a public relations website subject to control by the Chief Executive, presumably full of good news, and hidden behind it will be the UK wiki, now acting only as a forum rather than a space where volunteers could create pages that support fund-raisers, openly discuss real issues, problems and so forth. As a community of volunteers, we seem to have let the charity gradually drift away from being volunteer driven and volunteer centric and become overly sensitive to public relations. I am not sure why we let that happen. Link https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Digital_design_work_required Fae -- fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Wikimedia UK soon move to an employee controlled website
Like other chapters, including the Netherlands, Swiss, French, Swedish and German chapters, we need a professional looking website that will attract new volunteers and contributors, not just people who have an existing knowledge of wikis. The wiki will not change: indeed it will still be linked to through this website 'overlay'. We have smartened it up already through the support of UK Wikipedians but it has its limits. Stevie has explained it in greater detail at https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Digital_design_work_required On 8 June 2014 17:58, Fæ fae...@gmail.com wrote: Do any fellow unpaid volunteers have a view on the changeover of the charity from using the volunteer controlled wiki as a front end, to using a fixed employee controlled website? I feel this will be the end of the UK wiki in terms of being a public landing site with immediate engagement with fellow volunteers. Instead, we will have a public relations website subject to control by the Chief Executive, presumably full of good news, and hidden behind it will be the UK wiki, now acting only as a forum rather than a space where volunteers could create pages that support fund-raisers, openly discuss real issues, problems and so forth. As a community of volunteers, we seem to have let the charity gradually drift away from being volunteer driven and volunteer centric and become overly sensitive to public relations. I am not sure why we let that happen. Link https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Digital_design_work_required Fae -- fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk -- *Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK*. Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169 tweet @jonatreesdavies 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). Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990. Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Wikimedia UK soon move to an employee controlled website
If someone makes a mistake when putting content into the new website, then that mistake will remain for longer as volunteers won't be able to fix it. On the other hand, a wiki isn't a great primary website for an organisation, and WMUK should gain a lot from having a website that's easier to navigate and use. Whether this tradeoff is worth it or not depends on the structure of WMUK's plans and how much the website and wiki are used in conjunction with each other, so I think there's insufficient information to draw a conclusion either way at this stage. Dan On 8 June 2014 09:58, Fæ fae...@gmail.com wrote: Do any fellow unpaid volunteers have a view on the changeover of the charity from using the volunteer controlled wiki as a front end, to using a fixed employee controlled website? I feel this will be the end of the UK wiki in terms of being a public landing site with immediate engagement with fellow volunteers. Instead, we will have a public relations website subject to control by the Chief Executive, presumably full of good news, and hidden behind it will be the UK wiki, now acting only as a forum rather than a space where volunteers could create pages that support fund-raisers, openly discuss real issues, problems and so forth. As a community of volunteers, we seem to have let the charity gradually drift away from being volunteer driven and volunteer centric and become overly sensitive to public relations. I am not sure why we let that happen. Link https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Digital_design_work_required Fae -- fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Wikimedia UK soon move to an employee controlled website
There's a few points I made on the wiki that I think are worth repeating here and that I hope can help: - The* wiki is not going anywhere* and will remain the primary resource. - For those who wish to go straight to the wiki, there will be a simple option on their first visit to add a cookie which will take them to the wiki at every subsequent visit. This is a requirement of the brief. - Each page of the website will directly link to the wiki, especially the volunteer, GLAM and education areas. - The website will include portals for GLAM, education and volunteering as well as a home page and an about page. These pages will build on existing, community-driven content. - This is not an abandonment of our values. Several other significant chapters, including many listed in the brief itself, have websites as well as wikis - this is very much bringing us in-line with the work of other chapters. It is not something new or something that is a departure from the work elsewhere in the movement. - It is also a chance to make sure that stuff that is really important for those new to Wikimedia UK, and aren't Wikimedians, is highly accessible. Our wiki, like pretty much any Media Wiki installation I can think of, is not very accessible. We haven't really made any progress with this and it is extremely important that we do so, one way or another. I also want to clarify that *existing Wikimedians are not the key audience for this and will be unaffected*. We want to have a space for newcomers, too. I'm confident this will help us actually grow our volunteer community. I hope this helps, and I'm happy to answer direct questions on my talk page https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/User_talk:Stevie_Benton_(WMUK) if you would like me to, although here is obviously fine as well, as is the Wikimedia UK wiki https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Digital_design_work_required. Thank you. Stevie On 10 June 2014 17:51, Dan Garry (Deskana) djgw...@gmail.com wrote: If someone makes a mistake when putting content into the new website, then that mistake will remain for longer as volunteers won't be able to fix it. On the other hand, a wiki isn't a great primary website for an organisation, and WMUK should gain a lot from having a website that's easier to navigate and use. Whether this tradeoff is worth it or not depends on the structure of WMUK's plans and how much the website and wiki are used in conjunction with each other, so I think there's insufficient information to draw a conclusion either way at this stage. Dan On 8 June 2014 09:58, Fæ fae...@gmail.com wrote: Do any fellow unpaid volunteers have a view on the changeover of the charity from using the volunteer controlled wiki as a front end, to using a fixed employee controlled website? I feel this will be the end of the UK wiki in terms of being a public landing site with immediate engagement with fellow volunteers. Instead, we will have a public relations website subject to control by the Chief Executive, presumably full of good news, and hidden behind it will be the UK wiki, now acting only as a forum rather than a space where volunteers could create pages that support fund-raisers, openly discuss real issues, problems and so forth. As a community of volunteers, we seem to have let the charity gradually drift away from being volunteer driven and volunteer centric and become overly sensitive to public relations. I am not sure why we let that happen. Link https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Digital_design_work_required Fae -- fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk -- Stevie Benton Head of External Relations 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.* ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
[Wikimediauk-l] Wikipedian in Residence at ORCID
As of today, I am Wikipedian in Residence [1] at ORCID [2]. The role is described in [3]. Please let me know if I can assist you, in that capacity. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:ORCID [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORCID [3] http://orcid.org/blog/2014/06/04/announcing-orcid%E2%80%99s-wikipedian-residence -- Andy Mabbett @pigsonthewing http://pigsonthewing.org.uk ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Wikimedia UK soon move to an employee controlled website
On 10 Jun 2014, at 17:12, Jon Davies jon.dav...@wikimedia.org.uk wrote: We have smartened it up already through the support of UK Wikipedians but it has its limits. This is the bit I don't understand. What does the current proposal do that *can't* be done on the wiki? Why do we *have* to have these non-editable pages? If it's just visual content, then that can be done on the wikis fairly straightforwardly *. If it's to add technical features (e.g. in-line contact forms etc.), then I can understand this move - it's analogous to how donate.wikimedia.org.uk isn't on-wiki as that uses technical features that the wiki can't support. My understanding is it's just the former, though, which is why this doesn't make sense to me. * The exception being the side-bars / page surround, but that's an intrinsic part of the Wikimedia/Wikipedia brand identity (it's what people recognise as 'Wikipedia' beyond the logo) so should really be kept regardless. Thanks, Mike ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Wikimedia UK soon move to an employee controlled website
On 10 Jun 2014, at 20:16, Dan Garry (Deskana) djgw...@gmail.com wrote: Obviously for the more regular, hardcore WMUK volunteers, the wiki will remain the primary resource, and if someone wants to become a hardcore volunteer then they'll need to deal with that. But for other casual volunteers, having the wiki not be a barrier to entry sounds good to me. Although there is definitely a barrier for entry onto the wikis, a) that's a barrier for editing not reading content (here, I think we're primarily talking about trying to make content easier to read and harder to edit/comment on/contribute to), and b) one of the main points of WMUK is to help people overcome that barrier and start contributing to the Wikimedia projects! Thanks, Mike ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
