Latest comment: 12 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Hello, PonyToast. Welcome to the Wikimedia Meta-Wiki! This website is for coordinating and discussing all Wikimedia projects. You may find it useful to read our policy page. If you are interested in doing translations, visit Meta:Babylon. You can also leave a note on Meta:Babel or Wikimedia Forum (please read the instructions at the top of the page before posting there). Happy editing!
Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
General Updates
To facilitate casual conversations between members, we now have a Facebook group! If you're on Facebook, feel free to request to join.
Kevin has prepared a 2019 Activities Rapid Grant to support our user group's activities through the end of the year. This includes funding for edit-a-thons, Wikipedia Connection activities at Ohio State, and other potential events. Please give it a review, and provide endorsements at the bottom and/or comments on the talk page. If you would like to plan an activity or can think of something that could be funded that isn't already included, please bring it up! The goal is to have the grant submitted for review early in the week.
Our membership list has been revamped and supports the addition of new details (such as name, picture, location, and titles). Members are welcome to update their entry if they wish (all details are optional).
Movement Strategy
Sam (PonyToast) and Maria (Rimmel.Edits) have signed up to serve as our Organized Groups Strategy Liaisons; through December, Strategy Liaisons will act as a conduit for ideas, questions, and updates between the Movement Strategy and organized groups such as our own. Thank you to both members for taking this on!
The Wikimedia Summit 2019 just came to a conclusion. Maria Rimmel (Rimmel.Edits) served as our representative this year, following her work at the Ohio State University and WikiConference North America. This year's event had a heavy focus on the Movement Strategy Process and its Working Groups. Maria will be providing updates and outcomes of the conference on the user group talkpage soon - keep an eye out!
Upcoming and Ongoing Events
This May is the election for two Affiliate-Selected Board Seats for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. The Ohio Wikimedians User Group will be eligible to cast one vote. Be on the lookout for updates on how we will decide our vote.
Two edit-a-thons are being hosted for Ohio State Department of Spanish and Portuguese students this month. One edit-a-thon is focusing on improving Wikipedia's coverage of female and under-representated language scientists, and the other on Latinx studies.
Recent Events
WikiConference North America 2018 (Oct 18-21) at the Ohio State University was a great success! Over 200 attendees (including those representing over 15 Wikimedia affiliates and 25 academic institutions) attended the 70+ sessions we had. A big thanks goes to all the event's organizers, volunteers (including those from Ohio Wikimedians), sponsors, and session hosts. View the full report (work in progress) for more details and outcomes. You can also check out the photos on the Commons.
"By doing an event like this, we can show people that you can edit; your contributions are valid; your contributions are valued. Beyond valued: necessary," Dalesio said.
Alden Library at Ohio University also independently hosted an Art+Feminism edit-a-thon on March 22. Check out the event page for more details. Outcomes included editing 27 articles, including the creation of a new one.
"We will be encouraging participants to use our collections to create and strengthen articles, and Library volunteers will be available help them do this effectively. In doing so, we hope to encourage participants to move beyond the role of information consumer, and to consider how they can enrich the information landscape—and maybe leave the internet a better place than they found it," Jennings stated.
Have something for the next newsletter? Add it to our May 2019 draft.
Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
General Updates
WikiProject Cleveland Museum of Art — Kevin (SuperHamster) and Maria (Rimmel.Edits) have been collaborating with Neal Stimler and the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) to launch WikiProject Cleveland Museum of Art on the English Wikipedia! Back in January, the CMA announced its conversion into an Open Access institution—and part of this initiative included the upload of thousands of photos and Wikidata items on CMA artworks. This WikiProject has been created to improve Wikipedia's coverage of topics related to the CMA, such as artworks and artists featured in the Museum's collections, while being able to leverage the great resources that have been released into the public domain. If you'd like to join in, please sign up to be a member here. We have an expanding list of articles to create here.
Mailing list live! — We now have admin access to the previously-deprecated Wikimedia-US-OH mailing list. All members are encouraged to subscribe here. Anyone who would like to communicate to subscribed members can email wikimedia-us-oh@lists.wikimedia.org.
Membership List — Reminder that our membership list has been revamped and supports the addition of new details (such as name, picture, location, and titles). Members are welcome to update their entry if they wish (all details are optional).
Movement Strategy
The Movement Strategy Working Groups have created their recommendations, located here. Community input will be accepted until September 15, so if you would like to provide feedback, be sure to do so in the next couple weeks.
Upcoming and Ongoing Events
Wiki Loves Monuments is back in the United States for 2019. Through the end of September, upload your photos of registered historical sites to the Commons to help document our history and illustrate Wikipedia - and have a shot at winning the national contest. If you're interested in participating, a guide to finding historic sites in Ohio is available here.
In April, two edit-a-thons were hosted at the Ohio State University:
The Female and Under-represented Language Scientists edit-a-thon, hosted by the Hispanic Linguistic Colloquium in collaboration with the Buckeye Language Network (BLN) Student Association. The goal of the event was to improve articles on under-represented language scientists. 11 editors contributed 50+ edits that consisted of 1.54k words across 24 articles, including one new article.
The Spanish & Portuguese Edit-A-Thon, hosted by students from the Spanish and Portuguese department (Dona pipoca and Caesarologia, with support from SuperHamster). The edit-a-thon focused on expanding coverage of Spanish and Portuguese topics on the English Wikipedia, primarily by translating articles from Spanish/Portuguese to English. In doing so, attendees sharpened their Spanish/Portuguese skills, gained experience editing Wikipedia, and learned about new topics. 23 editors contributed 180+ edits that consisted of 15.8k words across 70 articles, including four new articles.
Wikimania 2019 took place in Stockholm this year, with several Ohio Wikimedians attending. If you're interested in some of the sessions, many of them were recorded and are available on the Commons here.
Have something for the next newsletter? Add it to our October 2019 draft.
Latest comment: 4 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Upcoming and Ongoing Events
Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access Anniversary Campaign — January 23rd (today!) is the one-year anniversary of the Cleveland Museum of Art's Open Access program. To celebrate, we are hosting an editing campaign (with postcard souvenirs!) from now through February 9. Help expand and create articles related to the Cleveland Museum of Art (including artists and artworks featured in their collection), and receive a postcard from the Museum. If you'd like to participate, check out the task list and sign up on the event page.
Recent Events
In December, the Cincinnati Art Museum hosted an Art+Feminism edit-a-thon. The museum was an excellent place to have an edit-a-thon, with a café and staff who were helpful in setting up and ensuring there were enough tables, outlets, and plenty of resource materials available. There was a related exhibit, Women Breaking Boundaries, that was of interest to attendees. In total, 9 people attended.
Movement Strategy
The Movement Strategy document, with 13 recommendations, has been released and is located here. You may utilize each recommendation's respective talk page to leave any feedback you might have.
Between February and March 2020, the recommendations will be finalized, incorporating final feedback. By the end of March 2020, the recommendations are slated to be approved by the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees.
Kevin (SuperHamster) will be attending Wikimedia Summit 2020 on behalf of the Ohio Wikimedians. This year's Summit will be focusing on discussing the implementation of the finalized Movement Strategy recommendations. Please get in touch with Kevin if you have ideas and suggestions that you would like conveyed.
Latest comment: 4 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
General Updates
I hope this message finds you well and in good health during these trying times. Below is a list of some online activities that you may be interested in participating in.
The Wiki Global Check In has started! This initiative is gathering check-ins from Wikimedians all around the world, and asks for a photo that captures something related to life in your context or part of the world during the pandemic.
WALRUS (Wikimedians Active in Local Regions of the United States) is now hosting virtual meetings twice a month on Monday evenings. This is a place to discuss anything Wikimedia, as well as a place for Wikimedians to come together and mutually support each other. The next virtual meeting should be on Memorial Day, May 25th. You can sign up for the Wikimediaus-l mailing list to stay up to date on all WALRUS happenings and to receive meeting invites.
Wikipedians have been busy documenting the pandemic. In Ohio, we have articles on the pandemic in Ohio and in Columbus (the latter of which was written by our newest Ohio Wikimedians member, Ɱ!). If interested, you're encouraged to help update and expand these articles, or even consider creating articles documenting the pandemic in other Ohio metro areas.
If you miss visiting your local museums, don't forget that the Cleveland Museum of Art's entire collection is available online and in the public domain (when permissible). Our WikiProject Cleveland Museum of Art is currently tracking 44 English Wikipedia articles and 40,322 images, which are now acquiring over 2,000,000 views a month. If you're interested in contributing, there is still plenty of work to be done to expand and create new articles!
Movement Strategy
The finalized Movement Strategy Recommendations have been published! This is a clarified and refined version of the recommendations that were released in January.
The Wikimedia Summit 2020 that was to occur in April was canceled, and Wikimedia Deutschland will not be hosting a virtual replacement. In its stead, Ryan Merkley, members of the movement strategy core team, and external consultants are exploring options to move the contents of the conference into a series of virtual events.
Have something for the next newsletter? Add it to our June 2020 draft.
Facebook group! If you're on Facebook, feel free to request to join.
Columbus Metropolitan Library tour
Thursday group photo at the Thompson Memorial Library
Friday group photo at the Thompson Memorial Library
Wiki Education Foundation group photo
