Wikimedia South Africa/Board Meeting/31 July 2018

WMZA Board meeting

July 31, 2018 | 19h00 - 20h25 Hangouts

Attendance

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  • Ian
  • Raymond
  • Deon
  • Coenraad (19h45)

Apologies

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  • Douglas
  • Bobby (car troubles)

Agenda

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Biodiversity Heritage Library

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  • Deon has made contact with the Biodiversity Heritage Society (BHS)
  • They have sent 51 million records for our use (but there is some concern about the licensing)
  • Ian to follow up with both Sally from BHS and with Wikimedia Foundation for support - potentially we meet them in person.

Wikimania

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  • All feedback so far indicates a tremendously successful event. Well done to all involved, and special thanks to Douglas.
  • Lobbying for local administrators
    • Identified the need for local administrators (particularly smaller languages, (like isiXhosa, which has no admins, and needed assistance during the event)
    • Ian has been reluctant to face the grilling in the past but will do so if WMZA will support his application. Suggests others apply too.
  • Signing up new chapter members
    • Slow progress on sending out the email and payment details
    • Ian to check PayFast login and link generation process
    • Coenraad to send an email by Friday at the latest.
  • Raymond suggests post-conference party (maybe Cape Town and Jhb editions). Date to be identified.
  • Puku - children's book publisher interested in collaborating with WMZA. Dumi was due to have followup meeting with them in Jhb, possibly with Bobby
  • Deon mentions that Moleskine Foundation are looking to run editathons. They have a long track record with Wiki Africa, Ian has worked with them long ago.
  • Vodacom zero-rating - Raymond to get information, plan to put together proposal. Ian to put Raymond touch with person from Wikipedia Zero

Website, Social media, report back

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  • Twitter was very successful during the conference, Almost 6 years to reach 1000 followers. 5 days to get >100 more. Lots of interaction. Best social media channel.
  • Facebook is not as good a channel - Facebook wants to monetise pages, so doesn't make them easily viewable unless shared (please share!)
  • We still don't have access to our YouTube account. Theresa didn't have. Ian to follow up more, send reminder email.
  • Hosting on Wikimedia servers is not as easy as expected. They will not host other domains, such as wikiloves monuments, and require these to be transferred to meta. Also, the wikimedia.org.za domain will need to be za.wikimedia.org. We've put this process on hold for now pending further discussion.

Finances

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  • Overdue invoice from May for wikilovesmonuments.co.za (Douglas has forwarded for payment)
  • Continue discussion at next meeting.

Date for the AGM

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  • Proposed dates: Sat 27 October, Saturday 3 November, Saturday 10 November
  • Saturday 17 November, 24 November, 1 December and later were all not suitable for some current board members.

Next meeting

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  • Provisionally 14 August, but we need will discuss post-conference party on whatsapp/email