On 11/29/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 11/29/08, Andrew Turvey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> michael west said: >> >>>> A board seat for a representative of indigenous non English speakers >>>> would Ipresume only represent a member of the Celtic language speakers. >>>> The facts are that non-indigenous people who contribute to the WMF who >>>> speak languagesat home or in prayer outweigh those whose languages are >>>> official languages of the UK. It just seems bizarre. >> >> The reason why I think Wikimedia UK should focus more on, say, Sottish >> Gaelic with its 50,000 speakers than, say German, with its 500,000 >> speakers >> in the UK, is that we already have a German chapter which can promote >> German >> language projects. > > Here, here.
This *was* iphone's auto spelling correct. Really. Or so I hope. Ouch. >I'm not saying that you should turn away or 'forward' > German-speaking UK residents, for obviously if I move to the UK (which > is not altogether unlikely and depends on 3*20 minutes in > mid-december), I'd join and participate in the UK chapter as well, it > being not viable to go to Switzerland for many chapter > events/projects. > > However, it is unreasonable for the UK chapter to publish, say, > leaflets about Wikipedia in German, there being three chapters who can > and should do this. Same for French, Italian etc. > > Michael > >>We are the only chapter which could ever promote Scottish >> Gaelic, and, as I said before, we may be able to unlock public funds in >> order to do so. I don't remotely agree that this is racist. >> >> There is clearly a danger that Wikimedia UK will end up just being >> Wikipedia >> London; recognising the diversity of UK Wikimedians - across projects, >> languages and the constituent countries, would I think be a positive step. >> >> My suggestion of 2 had in mind a board of around seven. Of course it would >> be fewer if there were fewer board seats. >> >> >> From: Andrew Turvey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> To: [email protected] >> Sent: Saturday, 29 November, 2008 0:40:35 >> Subject: Re: Election Rules (non-english speakers) >> >> >> Q5: Is there any way that you think the election should be run differently >> to the election of the interim Board? >> >> I wanted to answer one of the questions I put with a suggestion regarding >> minority languages. >> >> Most of the people active in Wikimedia UK seem to be active in the english >> Wikimedia projects. However, there are some other smaller Wikimedia >> languages where UK editors form a vital part of the editing and readorship >> base. I'm thinking particularly of the native languages of the UK such as >> Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and maybe Irish, Scots/Ullans, Cornish, Manx etc. >> >> As well as recognised the diversity of the Wikimedia community, there are >> also significant public funds available for promoting these languages >> which >> could be used by us to support these projects. >> >> The Board has already reached out to these projects by asking if the >> newsletter could be translated into these languages. My suggestion is we >> set >> aside two reserved seats on the Board for people who actively contribute >> to >> at lease one wikimedia project in a minority language of the UK. >> >> What do you think? >> >> >> > > > -- > Michael Bimmler > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -- Michael Bimmler [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_UK http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
