Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Österreich/January 2015

January 2015
Report

Community Support

Guide-Camp in Berlin

Participants of the Guide-Camp in Berlin

As a follow-up to the first Guide-Camp in Kassel, the second Guide-Camp on conflict resolutions by non-admin actions in the German-language Wikipedia took place in Berlin from January 9th to 11th. It was conceived as a mixture of a conference and a bar camp.

The main topics were:

Immediate benefits: projects that can be implemented by the participants at once, e.g. to-do lists for the user namespace.
Analysis of fundamental problems: e.g. are there any problems concerning Wikipedia users at all? Should the categorization work on Wikimedia Commons be paid?
Break down barriers: e.g. moderate conflicts, increase motivation.
Reduce the misuse of power: e.g. persuading “door keepers“ to be more innovative.

The third Guide-Camp is scheduled for June.

Individuals involved: 17 (active editors: 17 (retaining 2 active editors who became new active WMAT volunteers in 2014 into the planning and/or executing)). - WMAT support: 3 travel grants for Austrian participants.

→ Guide-Camp in the German-language Wikipedia

→ Media on Wikimedia Commons

WikiDienstag

Fondue cooking on WikiTuesday

The WikiDienstag (“WikiTuesday“) is a weekly meet-up in the WMAT office. Volunteers share their knowledge and work together on improving the content of Wikimedia projects.

Topics in January:

January 6th: Wiki Loves Cheese – with raclette
January 13th: Report on the Guide-Camp in Berlin
January 20th: Hints for using WMAT's photographic equipment
January 27th: Wiki Loves Cheese – with fondue

Individuals involved: 28 (active editors: 27 (retaining 2 active editors who became new active WMAT volunteers in 2014 into the planning and/or executing), WMAT staff: 1) - WMAT support: infrastructure, co-organisation, promotion.

→ WikiDienstag in the German-language Wikipedia

We published a learning pattern to share our experiences with travelling Wikimedians who report to the stay-at-homes, see below.

Free Content Generation

Wiki Loves Cheese in Austria

Is cheese an underestimated and rewarding photo motif? This is at least what the French, the Germans and even the Californians thought. The Austrians didn't want to be ranked behind. Being skillful and innovative when it comes to Wikimedia Commons is something the Austrian community is rather proud of. Austria's cheese tradition might be sort of a hidden gem but with Switzerland as our neighboring country it became pretty clear that we wanted to concentrate on the real stuff: Swiss cheese and its traditions. Wiki Loves Cheese in Austria was framed by two cooking sessions at WMAT's office: the first one was dedicated to fondue and the second one to raclette, both of them were documented carefully by the photographers. The most important photo session took place at a renowned Swiss cheese shop in Vienna. The shop owner provided rare and awarded types of cheese. The focus of Wiki Loves Cheese in Austria was on quality: not only the best cheese but also as many quality images as possible. This proved to be successful: 79 of the 220 images of Wiki Loves Cheese in Austria reached the status of “quality images“ on Wikimedia Commons.

Images from Wiki Loves Cheese in Austria
Bergkäse with Antipasti
Blue cheese
Mühlistein
Tobermory
Jersey Blue

Individuals involved: 13 (active editors: 12 (engaging 1 active editor who has formerly not or very rarely been an active WMAT volunteer into the planning and/or executing), WMAT staff: 1) - WMAT support: premises, technical and cooking infrastructure, cheese grant.

→ Gallery on Wikimedia Commons

→ Wiki Loves Cheese in the German-language Wikipedia

Video workshop in Stuttgart

Participants of the video workshop in Stuttgart

Videos become more and more popular as media for knowledge transfer. Especially explainer videos are used to communicate complex content. In order to use this format in Wikimedia projects on a broader basis WMAT startet a cooperation with simpleshow, the market leader for explainer videos. Not only will some simpleshow videos be published under a free license on Commons, they also help us to build skills on how to create storyboards for explainer videos within our comunity and offer to produce them pro bono. In January, we hosted the first pilot workshop at the simpleshow office in Stuttgart and the feedback on the side of potential volunteers was immense. We had 80 applications for 20 places, 80% of the applicants are newbies, i.e. volunteers who are not yet active Wikimedians. Also, the percentage of female participants was fairly high (approx. 45%). What we can see from the follow-up of the workshop so far is, that despite the very positive feedback, motivated crowd and trainers, it stll takes a lot of time and effort to finish storyboards that are ready to be produced. We will follow up on the impact and report in the coming months about the progress. we also plan to present the project at Wikimania in Mexico.

Individuals involved: 22 (active editors: 4, other workshop participantsː 15, WMAT staff: 1, simpleshow staff: 2) - WMAT support: travel support for Austrian participants, organization, coordination. - WMDE/WMCH support: travel support for participants from Germany/Switzerland.

→ Video workshop in the German-language Wikipedia

→ Report in members wiki (in German)

Reach / Free Knowledge Awareness

School workshop in Sitzendorf

Building of the Neue Mittelschule Sitzendorf

One of the school teachers who participated in the our teachers' training course in November 2014 wanted to do even more than integrating Wikipedia in her curriculum and teaching the importance of free knowledge. Her plan was to establish sustainable contacts between the Wikimedia community and her school which do not necessarily depend on her as an individual and her personal skills. We could recommend a very active Wikipedian to her who lives in the same village in Lower Austria where her school, the Neue Mittelschule Sitzendorf, is located. He came to the school and introduced Wikipedia to a group of 36 pupils and 3 teachers. This was only the kick-off event for other Wikipedia activities at this school which are scheduled for the next months.

Individuals involved: 40 (active editors: 1 (retaining 1 active editor who became a new active WMAT volunteer in 2014 into the planning and/or executing)) - WMAT support: information material.

→ School projects in our members wiki (in German)

→ E-learning on the school website (in German)

Movement Sustainability

Organizational effectiveness survey

In December the Wikimedia Foundation launched a survery on organizational effectiveness among the Wikimedia affiliates. WMAT considers these activities as vital for the movement and supported the initiative by participating, translating the questionnaire into German and gathering feedback among the EDs of the various organizations who took part. WMAT is also represented the programme team of this year's Wikimedia Conference and thereby hopes to further the exchange on these issues among movement stakeholders.

Individuals involved: 4 (active editors: 3, WMAT staff: 1) - WMAT support: translation, coordination of WMAT participation and international feedback.

→ Organizational effectiveness/Tool/User guide

Learning Pattern

Grants:Learning patterns/Travelling Wikimedians report to the stay-at-homes

2014

Jan

2016