Hello, as one of the soon retiring board members, I'd like to congratulate you on this excellent initiative.
I do not know whether you have already know about this: Frank Schulenburg, who was formerly a member of the board of Wikimedia Germany and is now Head of Public Outreach with the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco, has launched an initiative called "Generation_50plus" (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Generation_50plus). Amongst other things, it includes workshops in collaboration with the Forum Seniorenarbeit NRW in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. See also http://www.forum-seniorenarbeit.de/index.phtml?sNavID=373.120&mNavID=373.117&&ffsm=1&ffmod=tx&object=tx|373.2201.1&La=1&FID=373.2201.1 and http://www.forum-seniorenarbeit.de/output/La1/373.38/373.38/_/tx|373.2251.1/_/_.html The short abstract of the project is: "Generation 50plus ist ein Projekt mit dem Ziel, aus dem Potential älterer Erwachsener zu schöpfen und sie dabei zu unterstützen, Inhalte in Wikipedia einzubringen. Interessierte Mitglieder können sich aktiv an dem Projekt beteiligen. Der erste Teil dient der Vorstellung des Projekts und der bisherigen Vorbereitungen, dazu zählen auch Ergebnisse einer ersten Umfrage unter Benutzern der deutschsprachigen Wikipedia. In der anschließenden Diskussion sollen Ideen und Anregungen ausgetauscht und, wenn möglich, konkretisiert werden." I think it might be quite useful to contact Frank and share experiences/notes, if you have not done so already. His email address is fschulenb...@wikimedia.org By the way: Our General Assembly takes place in March 2009, therefore the new board should in theory be able to make a decision by end of April on a formal commitment, especially as all board candidates are on this mailinglist and should be able to form their provisional opinion already now. This said, please consider yourself very much invited to our General Assembly on March 28th (see http://www.wikimedia.ch/General_Assembly_2009) in Berne, where you would also have a chance to meet with possible participants and talk about your project during the informal lunch etc. Best wishes and I look forward to hearing more about the project from afar (Vancouver, for the next few months) Michael Bimmler 2009/3/10 Estermann Beat <beat.esterm...@bfh.ch>: > > Dear Wikimedia CH - Community, > > At the Bern University of Applied Science we are currently working on a > project proposal which we are planning to submit in response to the current > AAL Call for Proposals (European Commission: "Ambient Assisted Living"; the > Call-2009-2 deals with questions related to "ICT-based solutions for the > advancement of social interaction of elderly people"). > > > Our project's main goal is to facilitate and to promote access of elderly > and early retired people to online collaboration projects. To do so, we > would like to collaborate with two types of online communities: communities > particularly targeted at elderly people and communities with a mixed > target/user group (introducing elderly people in online settings which at > present are dominated by a younger user base). > > > At first glance, Wikimedia would be a perfect partner for us to cover the > second type of community for several reasons: > > With its large and lively communities covering several projects, Wikimedia > already has a large user base and offers a large palette of possible > activities. > Because of their openness and large visibility, innovations implemented on > Wikimedia projects can be expected to spread quickly, which would ensure > maximum impact. > Wikimedia is used to collaborating in international settings and has > different local chapters in Europe which can serve as the primary contacts > for a project financed by the European Commission and which has to be > carried out in several European countries in parallel. > Wikimedia appears to be very open with regard to innovations. > One of our project's aims is to boost open production by harnessing the > reservoir of potentially active elderly people. Therefore, we would clearly > expect Wikimedia to be on the winning side of our project. > > From Nando Stöcklin I learned that Wikimedia CH is about to see some major > changes in the Board and that it is therefore unlikely that the association > will be able to committ itself to a large project spanning over 2-3 years by > the end of April. > > So I decided, as he suggested, to address you individually over the mailing > list. My question therefore is: Who among the Wikimedia CH community finds > the project interesting and would be ready to take an active part in it? > (The exact type of the engagement would depend on the number of people ready > to participate as well as on their availability and interests - or to put it > in other words: it is open to negotiation). > > You'll find attached a short project summary. I can give you more details > about the project on request (details are evolving as the project planning > goes on - so it does not make much sense to post them widely at this point). > > Feel free also just to e-mail me your comments about the project. I'm > curious to hear from you, and of course, I am also curious to get to know > the new board members by the end of this month! > > Best regards, > > Beat Estermann > > P.S.: Feel free to write me in French or German. Italian is ok too, but my > response will be in French, English or German (just indicate your > preference). > > <<Project_Summary_20090304.pdf>> > > _____________________________________________________ > > Beat Estermann > Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter > > Berner Fachhochschule > Kompetenzzentrum Public Management und E-Government > Morgartenstrasse 2a > Postfach 305 > CH-3000 Bern 22 > > beat.esterm...@bfh.ch > www.e-government.bfh.ch > > T+41 31 848 34 30 > T direkt +41 31 848 34 38 > F +41 31 848 34 31 > > _______________________________________________ > http://wikimedia.ch Wikimedia CH website > Wikimediach-l mailing list > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediach-l > > -- Michael Bimmler mbimm...@gmail.com _______________________________________________ http://wikimedia.ch Wikimedia CH website Wikimediach-l mailing list https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediach-l
