Wikimedia Philippines/Reports/Annual report, 2011
Events
editJanuary
edit- Wikipedia 10 celebrations
The Philippine chapter was one with the Wikipedia community in celebrating Wikipedia 10, the global celebration of the 10th anniversary of the English Wikipedia, through a photo scavenger hunt contest. Wikipedia Takes Manila, held on January 15, attracted the participation of nearly 200 photo enthusiasts grouped into 34 teams, with the growing number of photo enthusiasts in the country and the popularity of Wikipedia ensuring the event's success. The participants met early in the day at the historic Paco Park, an 18th-century cemetery where the remains of national hero Jose Rizal was once interred in an unmarked site after his execution in 1896, and were set off at 10:00 am for a day of exploring the City of Manila.
After a day of weeding through the streets of Manila that also coincided with the Feast of Sto. Niño in Tondo and Pandacan which made traffic a nightmare in these sections of city, the participants made their way to a pizza restaurant not far from Paco Park, where the culminating dinner party and awarding ceremony took place. Receiving the top cash prize of ₱10,000 (≈ USD 226) after garnering a score of 889 points was Team RMD composed of Richard Espiritu, Mei Tanchico and DK Solis. Team Waka Waka came in second with 793 points, and placing third was Flashbang with 579 points. Over one thousand photos were added to Wikimedia Commons as a result of the competition, many of which were of sites and landmarks which previously had no photos for use on Wikipedia, such as the Hospicio de San Jose, Plaza Miranda, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and the Masjid Al-Dahab.
Organizers also celebrated a historic milestone for the Tagalog Wikipedia, which reached 50,000 articles on January 15 with the creation of the article Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal.
February
editThe chapter sponsored the 13th Manila Wikipedians meet-up, now called "Wikipedia Kapihan" (Wikipedia Café), event at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City on February 19. The meet was attended mostly by the participants of the Wikipedia Takes Manila contest and PhilIT.Org where several ideas for future projects were discussed and feedback was given by the participants in the recently concluded event.
- Microphone blog video coverage: First Wikipedia Kapihan @ Starbucks
March
edit- 2011 Wikimedia Chapters Meeting
Wikimedia Philippines participated for the second time at the annual Wikimedia Chapters Meeting held in Berlin, Germany on March 25 to 27. The chapter was represented by Jojit Ballesteros and Roel Balingit, the chapter's Vice President and Treasurer, respectively.
May
edit- Wikicon
Wikimedia Philippine held its 2011 WikiCon (Wikipedia Conference) last May 21 at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City. The event was attended by its members and students who got the chance to see the film Truth in Numbers? as well as participate in discussions in an open forum about the development of Wikipedia. Attendees were also given a first hand experience in editing Wikipedia.
- GMA News press coverage: Dispelling myths, advocating truths in Wikipedia
- Manila Bulletin press coverage: Searching for Wikipedians at WikiCon2011
June
edit- Usapang Tambayang Wikipedia
In 2010, the Tagalog Wikipedia has seen a significant increase of 95 percent in the number of its articles from 24,091 to 46,978; however, it remains to be a minor Wikipedia language project as several factors still affect its further growth and expansion. Tagalog is the language on which the national language — Filipino, is mainly based on. A thorny issue remains to be the language's orthography which has ensued lengthy debates between the some of the language project's contributors and administrators, who have favored a policy of keeping English language terminologies at bay, as much as possible.
Faced with the issue in the language project, the chapter conducted its first Usapang Tambayang Wikipedia (Wikipedia Hangout Talk) on June 18 at its office in Makati City. Invited to clarify the rudiments of the language's orthography guidelines was the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino Language) which was represented by Jomar Cañega and Cherry Mae Tadeo. A free-flowing discussion to iron-out the differences between "language progressives" and "language purists" was supplemented by inputs from the representatives of KWF.
- Wikimedia blog: Tagalog Wikipedia – Let’s Talk About Language
July
edit- 2nd Annual Convention
The Second Annual Convention was held on July 9 at chapter's office in Makati City. The first year of Wikimedia Philippines has already provided it a chance to evaluate its performance. It became apparent that some aspects of its organizational structure has hampered its ability to address pressing concerns. Various proposals were floated and discussed at length to make the organization more responsive and flexible to entice active participation of its members.
The general membership resolved to increase board membership from seven to nine members; however due time constraints, adoption of other amendments to its incorporation articles and bylaws notably regarding accountability had to be tabled for further discussion.
Election of officers for the term 2011–2012, was also held at the sidelines of the convention between members of the seven-man Board of Trustees, which resulted in the election of the following:
- a. President: Jojit Ballesteros
- b. Vice-President: Josh Lim
- c. Secretary: Eugene Villar
- d. Treasurer: Roel Balingit
Elected Auditor from the general membership was Meredith Talusan.
August
edit- 2011 Wikimania, Haifa
Three members of the Board of Trustees: Jojit Ballesteros, Josh Lim and Eugene Villar, the latter two having received scholarships from the Wikimedia Foundation, attended Wikimania 2011 in Haifa, Israel on August 4–7. Vice President Josh Lim gave a presentation about the language policies of the Tagalog Wikipedia. Wikimedia Philippines organized a Wikimedia Asia Lunch to meet and greet fellow Wikimedians across Asia.
The Second Wikipedia Kapihan, which was also the 14th Manila Wikipedians Meetup, was held at the Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Metro Manila on August 27. It was again sponsored by Wikimedia Philippines. It was attended by WMPH members and partner organizations - Computer Professionals' Union and OpenStreetMap Philippines. Future collaborations and mutual partnerships were main topics discussed over a cup of coffee.
September
edit- Software Freedom Day
File of guestbook registrants at the Wikimedia Philippines booth during the Software Freedom Day at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila last September 17, 2011.
Software Freedom Day is the international commemoration of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS), free high quality alternatives to proprietary software ranging from operating system to application that people would use at home, in the office or at school. Hundreds to almost thousands of organizations worldwide are celebrating SFD every year. SFD is an outreach day where we inspire newcomers to the community with the values and quality of free software and communicate the broader issues of software freedom through a variety of activities. Various relevant and exciting IT topics are presented and discussed during the event. This event shares the Wikimedia Foundation's vision of spreading free and open sourced knowledge in each country in the entire globe.
The celebrations in the Philippines were held at the University of Santo Tomas, Asia's Oldest University and was hosted by the Computer Professionals Union and the UST Computer Science Society on September 17, 2011. Wikimedia Philippines, through a Wikimedia Foundation grant, has sponsored this event and has attracted hundreds of students at its booth. Jojit Ballesteros, its president, discussed free culture through Wikipedia at its two plenary venues, Beato Angelico (College of Architecture) Hall and AMV (College of Accountancy) Hall.
Lucky participants in the event receive souvenirs like Wikimedia Philippines signature fans, DVD that contains the Wikipedia offline Encyclopedia and its bookshelf project, and Wikipedia 10 Commemorative Pins.
WMPH also had an opportunity to talk with other open source groups, web developers, freelance writers, educators and Rep. Teddy Casiño of the Philippine House of Representatives (Congress).
October
edit- Committee Hearing for the FOSS Bill at the House of Representatives
In October 4, Wikimedia Philippines was invited by the Philippine House of Representatives’ Committee on Information Communications Technology headed by Congressman Sigfrido R. Tinga to give a position on the initial deliberations of House Bill No. 1011 otherwise known as the Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) Act. The committee hearing was attended by Jojit Ballesteros, Butch Bustria, Lee Bautista and Bel Ballesteros. The bill is authored by Reps. Teodoro A. Casiño and Neri Javier Colmenares that aims to mandate the use of FOSS, open standards and open formats in all government agencies and to encourage the use and development of FOSS in the private and public sectors. Wikimedia Philippines did not give any position during the hearing but the organization plans to support the FOSS Bill pending the approval of the Board of Trustees.
November
edit
Asaf Bartov, Head of the Global South Relationships of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), came to the Philippines as part of Wikimedia Foundation's East Asia Tour. WMPH organized the tour that started on November 20 and ended on November 26. Bartov gave public outreach lecture at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila to teach on how to edit Wikipedia, which potentially encourage volunteers to the online encyclopedia project. He also met like-minded organizations and government agencies in the Philippines to explore possible mutual partnerships and collaborations. There were also a relaxed socializing activity and formal meeting with Filipino Wikipedians and Wikimedians.
The goals of the tour are to further promote Wikimedia-related projects, such as Wikipedia and GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums), and open the doors for WMPH to like-minded organizations and government agencies. The schools, organizations and agencies that were visited during the tour were National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, Creative Commons Philippines, National Library of the Philippines, St. Scholastica's College, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Computer Professionals' Union, and Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines. Mozilla Philippines was met at a coffee shop in a mall in Ermita, Manila while Defenders of the Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago (DILA) participated during the discussion of the 2012 Program Plan of WMPH at Cambridge Center Building in Makati City.
December
editVice President Josh Lim and Emman Ramirez participated in GLAMcamp Amsterdam, a workshop targeting a small group of community-focused and technology-focused Wikimedians to kickstart the key elements of the glamwiki.org project. The event was hosted by Wikimedia Nederland and held at MediaMatic Lab, Amsterdam, Netherlands on December 2-4.
Administrative
editMeetings
edit- Q1 Meeting (2011-04-02)
- Q2 Meeting (2011-07-09)
- Q3 Meeting (2011-10-08)
- Q4 Meeting (2012-01-07)
- Board Meeting (2011-04-23)
- Board Meeting (2011-06-18)
- Board Meeting (2011-07-24)
- Board Meeting (2011-09-25)
Membership
editAt the end of 2010, membership in WMPH reached 20.
| Date | New Members | Total Members |
|---|---|---|
| 2011-02-19 | ||
| 2011-06-18 | ||
| 2011-07-09 | ||
| 2011-07-24 | ||
| 2011-08-27 | ||
| 2011-09-25 | ||
| 2011-11-26 |