Talk:Wikimedia Canada/Archive 2006

Hello from Toronto!

Hello from Toronto! This is my first time here to the Wikimedia Canada page and I'm surprised to see only two other registered users and a project that has just got started. I would have thought that more Canadians would be interested in contributing to wikipedia. I enjoy browsing through wikipedia and have come to realize that this will be an important source of information in the future. I would like to help you build the Canadian contribution in any way I can. please email me or add to my discussion page anytime. --Oreopoj 21:43, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

We haven't really promoted in yet, so that's why the slim numbers. You don't seem to have an account on en Wikipedia. Is this the case? -- user:zanimum

Necessity of third language?

Hi everyone. I wanted to ask the community a question about the comment saying that the organization will provide informations in chinese. I reproduced this comment because it was on the former page of the project but I must admit that it does seem a little odd to me, with no disregard to the considerable asian-canadian community, to provide informations in chinese before even thinking about the languages of the First Nations. I'd like to know if this was an explicit request from the members of the board or if this was added by a user that wished to see informations in chinese available from Wikimedia Canada. If this request is maintained, could a user interested in doing translation work for the chapter please add his or her name to the participants list ? Thanks. Stéphane Thibault 07:06, 10 January 2006 (UTC) ^Bla

That was just on a whim that I added that, as just before I created the page, I read Chinese is the 3rd most spoken language in the country. I'm not so sure we need it. While we definitely should promote the expansion of Native language Wikipedia projects, what one language would we choose, if we did indeed choose? Inukitut is often batted around in the media as a possible third national language, but I'm sure some Six Nations languages have wider populations of speakers... -- user:zanimum

The Cree/Ojibway communities are by far the largest. Eclecticology 11:38, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

As Inuktitut is an official language of both Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, I suggest that it should be the 3rd language. Anarchist42 00:16, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

If we did bother with a third language, that would mean we'd have to bother with have someone translating a heck of a lot of the content into Inukitut. Currently, we only have one or two contributors on iu.wikipedia.org. Perhaps once we initiate a Inukitut language development plan for Wikipedia and possibly Wikisource, and we get enough new contributors, then we worry about adding on a third language. Until then, is there much need beyond diplomacy? -- user:zanimum

Valid points. However we might want to think about it for articles concerning the arctic. Anarchist42 20:10, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Manitoba Here

Looking forward to hearing what people here might be contemplating. user: jdobbin

It's been a while sice I've actively done anything in the Wikipedia, but, yeah, I'm here, and willing to have a look at what you've got planned. Thanks for the invite, zanimum! 205.200.51.174 00:42, 12 February 2006 (UTC)(S'pose it'd help if I signed in, eh? Man, I'm outta practice) Weaponofmassinstruction 00:44, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Other chapters

Check out Wikimedia chapters to see a list of other chapters, and read what they're doing. Borrow any ideas you like, and post them here. -- user:zanimum

Why don't we take donations, issue tax receipts, and pass the funds on to the main Wikimedia Foundation? --w:user:unforgettableid

Yes, that's one of the primary functions of any chapter, we certainly will do so. -- user:zanimum

Corporate structure

I have added a link to the site for Federal non-profit incorporation. The overall structure should be federal rather than based in any one province. This could leads to the organization of sub-chapters in each province as circumstances warrant. Given our geographical infrastructure they would probably find it easier to meet. Eclecticology 11:51, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Ah, great! I knew there was a page, just couldn't figure out where it would be. -- user:zanimum

The first thing we will need to work on is a set of by-laws. That is a requirement for federal incorporation. Apart from the usual things that need to be in by-laws, are there any special items that people want in there? Eclecticology 02:34, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

How do we go about that? Jdobbin 02:22, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Droits d'auteurs de la couronne/Crown Copyright

Un projet sur lequel devrait éventuellement se pencher le groupe Wikimedia Canada est la question des droits d'auteurs du gouvernement fédéral et des gouvernements provinciaux. Il y a un tas d'images, de graphiques et de photos disponibles sur les sites web des gouvernnements canadiens qui pourraient être très utiles à nos articles dans les deux langues. Ces images ne peuvent être utilisées qu'à des fins non commerciales, ce qui les rend incompatibles avec la licence GFDL et les projets éventuels de la Fondation Wikimedia de publier des encyclopédies en papier ou de créer des alliances avec des entreprises à but lucratif. Voir par exemple le site de Parcs Canada [1] qui reflète la politique du gouvernment canadien sur les droits de reproduction du matériel appartenant au gouvernment fédéral. Certains collaborateurs s'en sont quand même servi, et d'autres les ont éliminé. Nous avons eu des discussions à ce sujet sur la Wikipédia anglophone, voir [2] et [3].

Wikimedia Canada should eventually deal with the issue of Crown Copyright by the federal and provincial governments. There are a whole lot of images and photos available on the web sites of different Canadian governments that could be very useful to the wikipedias in both languages. Those images can only be used for non-commercial purposes, which makes them incompatible with the GFDL. The Wikimedia Foundation's anticipated projects such as the pupblication of paper encyclopedias and alliances with profit making businesses are incompatible with the non commercial use provisions. See, for example, Parks Canada's site [4] that provides the federal government's policy on federal crown copyrighted material. Some editors have nevertheless used federal materials, and others have deleted them. We have discussed this issue in the English language Wikipedia, see [5] and [6].

The first tasks are, of course, to create a non-profit society and obtain charitable status. With those in hand, we would have more clout with the federal government. J'ajoute que les premières tâches comprennent la création d'un OSBL et l'enregistrement en tant qu'organisme de bienfaisance. ce qui nous donnerait plus d'influence avec le gouvernment fédéral. Luigizanasi 16:33, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Joining

I noticed everyone listed has an account here on Meta. I'd love to help, but to be honest I very rarely enter this side of things; could I get a better sense of what's involved in/expected from those signing up? en:User:Radagast 04:32, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Nothing, as far as I know. We'd rather have you as an inactive member, than not have you at all. Wikimedia Canada just gives a local presence for anyone wanting to launch any sort of initiative, and an online/offline social club for the rest of us. You don't have to participate in any of the projects WC (tee hee, WC) will manage, you don't have to donate, there's no obligation to do anything, besides join. -- user:zanimum

Invitation message

Here's a possible invitation to Wikimedia Canada message I've come up with. Edit away freely, let's get this into tip-top shape, so we can go around and increase potential membership. -- user:zanimum

Hi there! I'd like to invite you to explore Wikimedia Canada, and create a list of people interested in forming a local chapter for our nation. We'd also like to encourage everyone to suggest projects for our national chapter to participate in. Hope to see you there! -- user:zanimum

Okay, I've contacted everyone from Mantioba, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, NWT, Nunavut, PEI, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Acadia, from these lists. If anyone wants to do another province, just make sure you note it here. -- user:zanimum

Got the one guy I know is in the Yukon. CambridgeBayWeather 13:06, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

I did Alberta and its subcategories.--DarkEvil 02:48, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Same for British Columbia.--DarkEvil 03:08, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

That's one of the strange things, in the w:en:Category:Wikipedians in Canada, there's no category for the Yukon. -- user:zanimum

Well until I put the category listing on my user page there was no Nunavut category. It's just that I came across the guy (working on the same projects) and noticed he was from the Yukon but he doesn't have a Canada category on his page. CambridgeBayWeather 13:14, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

What's even stranger is that I've got the Wikipedians in Yukon category on my talk page. It does show up in the [7], but the Yukon does not show up in Category:Wikipedians_in_Canada. ?Go figure?? Luigizanasi 16:58, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Unless you explicitly put category:Wikipedians from Canada on your user page, you won't appear in that cat. My personal preference is that if you (as in anyone) is willing to say what province they're from, that they should only be in that prov's cat. If they're only willing to admit they're from Canada, then and only then should they be in "Wikipedians from Canada". -- user:zanimum

Wikipedians in Yukon is in the Wikipedians from Canada category. It's on the second page. I just checked. CanadaGirl 16:22, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

DarkEvil's contacted a bunch of Ontarioans... did you contact everyone in that cat, or just particular cities within? Done are: Alberta, British Columbia, Mantioba, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, NWT, Nunavut, Ontario (most of at least) PEI, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Acadia. -- user:zanimum

I just finished contacting everyone in Ontario including particular cities. I'm starting to contact those left in the main category Wikipedians in Canada.--DarkEvil 15:31, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Meet-up

Just throwing out an idea: How many people plan to be in Boston for Wikimania in August? Could a one-day Canadian meetup be scheduled for immediately after Wikimania? If they are ready this could be a good time to sign the necessary documents for incorporation. Such a meetup could be in Montreal. For those of us in the West and North who are going to Boston such a meetup could be done as a stopover on the way back home. Eclecticology 10:17, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Getting in on the ground level

Howdy y'all. I just found about this thing this morning, and to be honest I really don't fully understand the point of wikipedia chapters (especially given that I see the whole point of wikipedia being that it draws on international resources and is essentially country-less), but if I understand its function to be simply drawing Canadians together to pool resources and improve Canada-related articles (many articles on Canada are lacking, whereas seemingly "international" articles have American or British slants), then this would be something I'd like to get involved with on the ground floor. I certainly do like the idea of further developing local histories and the like. My first suggestioin would be to put some sort of mission statement or general agreement at to what, precisely, "Wikimedia Canada" is, as my reading of its main page and subsequent little pages leaves me with a coherent idea as to the reason for its existence, and I'm reluctant to add my name to the particpant list until I better grasp this. 69.158.27.152 17:20, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

It's not a mission statement yet, but I've collected the ideas proposed across the project so far, and with chapters in general.

1. In the last donation drive, CDN$11,473.05 was donated by our nation. None of that was tax-deductable, as it was donated to an American charity. People donating within Canada will now be able to get tax receipts.
2. We'll be able to better organize programs to encourage the development of Wikipedia/Wikisource/Wiktionary in native languages that are loosing ground in an Anglocentric world.
3. We'll organize meetups, to encourage the community aspect of the project.
4. It becomes easier to plan representation at local events or conferences.
5. Increased voice on matters presented to the board.
6. Start projects to encourage new Canadian content. Encourage local historical groups, museums, town councils, boards of trade to add local info.
7. Within the projects, increase Canadian content in internationally relevant articles.
8. Occasionally take up moderate political causes that benefit the Wikimedia Foundation, such as loosening Crown copyright.
9. And, we don't represent the Wikimedia Foundation legally, thank god.

If anyone wants to start bouncing ideas off the community, of what the mission statement should be, please, we'd love to hear your ideas. (P.S. The primary reason for the lack of overall purpose, is mainly due to the fact there are no English-language chapters officially operating yet.) -- user:zanimum

Offline administration tasks

I am willing to help "behind the scenes" with office-type tasks. I especially have experience in bookkeeping (not fully qualified as an accountant though). CanadaGirl 02:46, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Great to hear. I'm not sure how many people we'll need for such tasks, but your offer is the first, and is much appreciate by any measure. -- user:zanimum

Maybe you could help us with getting registered as a charity so that we could issue income tax receipts. There's info at http://charityvillage.com/cv/guides/guide4.asp although I think the 'nonprofit' section at the top doesn't apply to us. It appears after a quick glance at the link to the CCRA website that nonprofits are companies that can't issue tax receipts, charities are those that can.

Will we end up needing a lawyer or accountant for help with this stuff? Does anyone know one who's interested? --w:user:unforgettableid

This here appears to be the actual government site to refer to. I know the WMF has a probono lawyer, albeit American. It don't think that any of the other chapters have, but I don't know honestly. Plus international laws are all different. And we of course need to elect a board, create a constitution and by-laws, and ratify it. -- user:zanimum

I am part of another group (locally) that is trying to become a charitable organization, so I will ask the "higher-ups" for info on how to register. CanadaGirl 01:09, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Purpose

I've browsed through other Wikimedia chapters, and due to may horrendous language skills, I am still unclear of the purpose of this Chapter. Can anyone in the know explain? How would this differ in content to the Main Wiki?--AlphaTwo 23:35, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, for one, a chapter is everything but a wiki. A chapter is the counterpart, based on geographical basis to the Wikimedia Foundation, ie. an organisation that furthers the goals of the Foundation (broden access to knowledge, etc.)in a given geographical area. Members of a chapter are not editors (well, they can be, but that is not the reason why they are in a chapter) but rather the people who help supporting the projects through events, partnerships etc. on a local basis. You might want to take a look at the Local chapters FAQ for a better understanding of what a chapter is. notafish }<';> 01:57, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Purpose racking

I've racked my brain and cannot for the life of me see a reason to waste resources on creating a nonprofit for something that should just be a wikiproject on wikipedia. Do you people actually see anything good coming out of wasting so much time? Just tell friends and add to the articles you know about, how hard is that? 65.95.127.81 05:49, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, that's one point of view. But when you don't have any site to add articles to, maybe you'll realize that having non-profits taking care of the technical aspects of things and bringing money in to support the servers was, indeed, not such a bad idea. :-) notafish }<';> 11:37, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Who needs a nonprofit for something where the servers already exist and are all over the world? The infrastructure is in place already, it's not going to do anything more than the already present American servers do. If there was anything of merit to having these other than as a mirror, it may not be a waste of money, but I've seen no cause for puting resources into something like this. 65.95.127.81 17:56, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

For starters, we won't mirror the Wikipedia content, we'll just redirect to Wikipedia itself, from wikipedia.ca, which has been snapped up already by some random domain registar.

If we don't create Wikimedia Canada:

1. There is no formal body to go to orgs and ask them to add stuff to Wikipedia et al., just a bunch of random volunteers.
2. There's little chance we can apply for project grants within Canada, as there'd just be a Florida-based org, and random Canadian contributors.
3. People are less likely to donate to Wikimedia, because they won't get a tax receipt.

There's all kinds of reasons to have a formal organization, beyond what I've presented. And look, if you're so skeptical, there's no need to join, just contribute to Wikipedia independently, and let us get on with things. -- user:zanimum

But if you're not actually contributing anything, then you are arguing my point. 65.95.242.151 07:26, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

I think we're bordering on the troll here, dear anonymous. Your reaction shows a cruel lack of understanding of what Wikimedia and chapters are all about. As zaninum said, you don't have to join. Happy editing on Wikipedia. notafish }<';> 13:37, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Allons, n'allons pas attribuer à la mauvaise foi ce qui peut s'expliquer par l'ignorance. Vous êtes immergée quotidiennement dans le fonctionnement de Wikimedia, mais ce n'est pas nécessairement le cas de Wikipédiens qui pourraient atterrir sur cette page-ci en suivant un lien depuis l'une des nombreuses annonces laissées par les promoteurs du chapitre. It could be just a case of a confused user, something that can be expected considering that links to this page were left in many places and may bring here a few unsuspecting Wikipedia users who have no prior knowledge of wikithingies. To anonymous User 65.95.*.*, I would simply suggest that you do some basic reading about the nature of the projects. I think that perhaps you were looking for WikiProject Canada, which is the content-oriented project for editors working on Canadian content in Wikipedia. Of course, you are also welcome to constructively contribute to the project Wikimedia Canada. -J. Asclepias 19:39, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I have done plenty of reading, and I could find no merit in your attempt to make a foundation. You're doing nothing that a wikiproject cannot do. 70.49.146.144 19:59, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Great! Then don't join, and don't come back. Stop wasting our time, will you? There's benefits to our project, no matter how blind you are to them, and we don't need your consent to create this chapter. So good bye. -- user:zanimum

Bug

The Wikimedia Canada page showed up for me wrong at first till I clicked "purge". I am on (old) Firebird Browser/0.6.1 for WinXP. Does this happen to others? --w:user:unforgettableid

It just did that for me with the most recent Firefox for Macs. We'll hopefully be founded and have our own domain soon. -- user:zanimum

Why do we need our own domain? That would make it harder to make wikilinks to other chapters' pages. All that's necessary is for someone to fix the problem relating with the {{FrameEn}} and {{FrameFr}} templates that Steph. put in for bilingualism purposes. Maybe it's worth it to use w:Wikipedia:Transclusion instead or to to ask on the w:Village pump how to fix it? --w:user:unforgettableid

OK, fixed, though now the edit-section links are gone, but at least everyone can see the page. :-) --w:user:unforgettableid

Hate to say it, but it isn't working for me. If anyone familar enough with wikicode minds recreating the page entirely without template, that perhaps might be the best option. -- user:zanimum

Great stuff, anon who recreated the home page. -- user:zanimum

Do you mean me? I don't always edit logged in. :) --w:user:unforgettableid

Federal and provincial entities

The project's main page and some subpages are currently pointing to both federal and provincial systems for organizing entities. This seems unnecessarily confusing. I can't see the reason for it. Does anyone think that it is relevant to even explore the possibility of creating provincial entities? A Canadian Wikimedia chapter can have a Canada-wide mission, which fits exactly into the raison d'être of an entity created under the federal legislation. Unless someone sees any advantage to creating provincial entities instead of, or in addition to, a federal entity, I think it would be better if all references to provincial systems were removed from the project's pages, to prevent confusion, and so that people who contribute their time to the project don't waste it on useless tasks. Just a suggestion. -J. Asclepias 20:32, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Of course a federal entity is preferable, and a legal entity needs to be established before we can seek tax exempt status, and before the the .ca domain can be transferred I did start something a little while ago at Wikimedia Canada/Incorporation but that does not seem to have attracted any interest at all. Nor has the idea of a national meet-up. Eclecticology 10:12, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Throwing my name in

Hey there everybody. Just like to throw my name in to the mix, for help in things that need to be done. I have unmetered access to an inhouse lawer (not in the corporate sense of the word) who I can draw on for advice in this noble cause. -- PeterKD

Cool, we may call on you and them. -- user:zanimum

Integration

Hello people, I'd like to contribute with Wikimedia Canada also, I studied English and Spanish rhetoric, and I worked in P.R. during 4 years. I've been always told that I'm very good when it comes to announces, declarations, memos, notices, reports or anything to communicate written or spoken messages. I'm not a professional in P.R. I'm an Engineer who happens to be good at redacting ;)

En plus, j'aimerais vous dire que je parle aussi le français, pas aussi bien comme l'anglais, l'espagnol ou le portugais, mais je pense que, en pratiquant, on peut maîtriser n'importe quoi.

Best Regards,
EOZyo 03:57, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Great, don't know how much PR we'll be doing, but it's good to know you have an interest in it. BTW, to all members, head on over to Wikipedia hits milestone 1 million English articles, where you can collaborate on the press release for the 1 million English Wikipedia article. -- user:zanimum

Anyone interested in the top job?

Is anyone here interested in pursuing the Chair of the Board of Directors? For that matter, the Vice-Chair, Treasurer or Secretary posts. Those are the only ones I think that we legally need have. Listing yourself does not mean you'll actually "run" for the post, just that you'll consider the option. One caveat for 23 of you, you need to reveal your real ID to have a position in a non-profit Canadian entity. -- user:zanimum

Framed!

Hey everyone. Just a little follow up on the so-called bugs with the frames.

After I spent quite many hours with the help of another wikipedian troubleshooting the original template in order to have it run smoothly in the main article namespaces (this namespace behaves differently than the others for technical reasons), someone was unhappy that the link provided to edit the subpages wouldn't open them with the "&action=edit" directly. By doing so, he introduced a new bug in the template that created external links with the template structure instead of internal links like it should. I reverted the project back to the way it was only to have it reverted to the newer version once again. We had a quick chat, I let things slide and unfortunately, this is when all the other bugs started coming in.

After I posted invitations to join the project on both the french and english Québec/Canada portals, a lot of you joined this project and this is wonderful. At that point, I understand that the original choice of colors might not have suited everyone's desires, but at least the template was working. Right now, a lot of people have signed up but what good is it if no one knows how to access the project pages?

So now, it's really your call. I can't fix the current project page since someone removed all the frames on which the structure is based but I don't want to offend anyone by reverting it to the version I know worked. If you want me to have a look at it, just send me a message and I'll get on it. If not, I think I've already done my share for this project.

Yours,

Stéphane Thibault 10:48, 10 March 2006 (UTC) ^Talk

English/French

You should separate English and French into two wikis much like en.wikipedia.org and fr.wikipedia.org. If you try to combine the two you'll do three things:

1. Annoy the English-only speaking Canadians
2. Annoy the French-only speaking Canadians
3. Possibly please the French+English speaking Canadians —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.28.167.37 (talk • contribs) .

That's a possibility. However, keeping things together is more of a guarantee that things stay together, that neither site for Wikimedia Canada is more informed than the other. And besides, two columns on each screen isn't that bad, is it? -- Zanimum 23:11, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Any young canadian born here should be able to flow freely between french and english, there is no excuse for a canadian under 30 born here to not be able to at least read french, unless they are ESL speakers. Stettlerj 20:22, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

chaque canadien né ici pendant les trente dernières années et qui ne parle pas l'anglais comme langue seconde devrait être capable d'au moins lire le français. Stettlerj 20:33, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Er, I don't want to burst your bubble here, but there are many, many young anglophone Canadians who have effectively no ability in French beyond greetings and the names of food products. Any university-educated Canadian anglophone is fairly likely to be reasonably comfortable with French, yes, but this doesn't extend to all young Canadians, and is heavily dependent on what part of English Canada one comes from. However, this doesn't affect the issue at hand: I agree that partitioning the pages to pander to the people who might be driven off just by the sight of a foreign language is silly. --Saforrest 05:30, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't plan to join your Wiki Chapter, as I think it'll be a legal mess, like with the German chapter. However, you cannot assume every Canadian under 30 knows French fluently, especially out West. I live in Ottawa and I barely read French. (I'm also a member of Canadians for Language Fairness.) I agree it should be broken up. Ardenn 23:48, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Quoi que vous en pensiez, la majorité des jeunes canadiens anglais ne peuvent pas se débrouiller en français, même dans des régions supposées bilingues (tel qu'Ottawa). Et une majorité de jeunes canadiens français sont dans la même situation par rapport à l'anglais. Pour cette raison, tous les textes du Chapitre Canadien se doivent d'être bilingues ou alors de ne pas exister! Le Canada est un pays bilingue et son chapitre Wikimedia se doit donc de l'être aussi... (By the way, I'm not very bad in English, especially for understand (both oral and reading comprehension) and writing. But I wrote that in French because there is not enougth French here..)--Willhelm 17:06, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Screwy templates

I've noticed a few (Mediawiki) bugs with this page. Sometimes everything just works, and sometimes the entire page consists of broken Template:Wikimedia Canada/... links. I guess the use of the template inclusion syntax for non-template articles is not especially well-supported. --Saforrest 02:37, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

The links appear to be bogus "subpage" links, which aren't supported in the main namespace. --brion 08:01, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

See my comments on the topic posted above under "Framed!". It took a lot of work to make it functional in the regular namespace the first time around and the subpage links aren't bogus. But my work has been reverted twice and I want to be sure it sticks if I'm asked to do it a third time... Stéphane Thibault 10:49, 4 April 2006 (UTC) ^Talk

a couple of comments from me

I'm going to put everything here to avoid spreading out comments over the plethora of talk pages.

1. I saw the mention of creating a website above. This is not an unique skill on Wikipedia, but I daresay I'm fairly good with webdev, so I can help with that.
2. Also above, I saw a mention of a need for officers. I'm probably not the most qualified person for these out there, but if we lack better candidates I'd be happy to help.
3. Wikimedia Canada/Projects mentioned a program to encourage local history, geography additions. If I might add to this, some sort of a partnership program with local libraries would be nice as well. These are excellent sources for this sort of data; I know I certainly found them helpful when doing write-ups for Niagara-related topics on enwiki. One thing we might want to look into is an official letter from Wikimedia asking for permission to use library's archive of photos on enwiki or commons. I was rephrasing and sourcing the text, but the photos (often very good photos of past events that cannot be duplicated) had copyright notices. I considered asking my local library for permission personally, but an official letter from Wikimedia Canada should be given more consideration than a single person's request.

I'm going to repost this at Wikimedia Canada/Projects#Discussion 3 --Qviri (talk) 17:40, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

I think that's all I can think of right now. Thanks. --Qviri (talk) 17:24, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Great, thanks for the offer. As for websites, we'll primarily be using the MediaWiki software, so limited help is needed there. Officer wise, I'd welcome you on. I do like the idea to ask any institution with photo archives for formal permission to use the images, though anything that we can use on Commons (i.e. P.D.), we can use without permission. -- Zanimum 15:31, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Pedia and Media articles

If this gets going, would this mean moving Canadian articles and photos to here or would there be duplicate information?? WayneRay 02:16, 7 June 2006 (UTC)WayneRay

No no. We are not creating a seperate edition of Wikipedia, a wiki-based w:Canadian Encyclopedia if you will. We are:

• Creating wikipedia.ca, which will be a one-page site, linking to the EN, FR, IU, and other editions.

• Creating ca.wikimedia.org, which will be our stomping ground for encouraging Canadian contributions and usage of Wikipedia, on any of the Wikimedia projects, be it the Spanish Wikipedia, Dutch Wikisource, Chinese Wikiquote, English Wikinews, or French Wikibooks.

We're solely organizers and cheerleaders, trying to make every project more useful to Canucks, and making sure the world has a clear and accurate picture of our culture, society, geography, economy, history, politics, food, etc. We might choose to release a publication of Featured Articles relating to Canada, or something like that, but we will not be a "fork". -- Zanimum 15:24, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, that's a relief. Thanks for the information, I am doing my part in a effort to create and edit articles and media.I look forward to this project. WayneRay 22:55, 14 June 2006 (UTC)WayneRay

Local Chapters

I think we should divide Wikimedia Canada into three local chapters:

• Wikimedia Ontario: For the province of Ontario.
• Wikimedia Western Canada: For Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the territories.
• Wikimedia Eastern Canada: For Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces.

If we were to divide Canada into the regions defined above, then we would be fairly dividing Canada by population. Each of the regions would have about 10 million people. FreshFruitsRule 19:21, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

No, I'd rather not. This would only make three times the amount of paper work to deal with. Let's keep it simple until there's a true need. -- Zanimum 16:14, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Hello WMCAN!

Hi. RealGrouchy here. I'm an Ottawa-based activist and reluctant University student. I don't remember how I got here, but since I encourage my fellow students and teachers to contribute to Wikipedia, I'd might as well add myself to the list! Outdated info about me is available on my user pages at WP (RealGrouchy) and on Viki (IRL). I try to keep my identities separate. I'd love to help out WMCAN organizationally, but I'm too stretched for the foreseeable future. --RealGrouchy 03:22, 26 November 2006 (UTC)