Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia France/2010-07-12

Chapter report of Wikimédia France for July, August, September, October, November and December 2010.

Partnerships

French National Library − BnF

Cover of one of the 1400 books donated by the BnF.
− Public domain

After several years of talks, a partnership was concluded between Wikimédia France and the French National Library (Bibliothèque nationale de France). Signed in April 2010, it consisted of two parts. First, an experiment in collaborative proofreading taking place on Wikisource, with the donation of 1400 books in the public domain, including scans and OCR text (automatically generated during the digitization process and prone to many errors, especially with old texts). Second, the exploitation of the authority files of the Library on Wikimedia projects.

A team of three chapter members undertook the technical work. Three board members oversaw their work, acting as a steering committee, and interfaced with the Library staff; one acted as a Library Science and Wikisource advisor. Their work consisted in an extensive study of the formats used by the BnF and on Wikisource, and in the design and creation of a production line for the material. This line had to be able to sustain the sheer load of 1400 books, and handled the analysis and processing of metadata, format conversions, smart trimming and cropping of the scans, and preparation of a deliverable for the final upload to Wikimedia Commons. Because of the number and size of books, the actual upload was requested to WMF system administrator Tim Starling and was done in July.

After that, the team produced various documents, help pages, project reports for the chapter, and a progress report. This last document contains fairly advanced statistical analysis of the characteristics of the proofreaders body, and the work done, making use of mathematical tools to measure the amount of work accomplished during the proofreading process.

See the hub-page on Meta

City of Toulouse

Wikimédia France volunteer Ludovic in action at the Muséum de Toulouse.
— Rama, CC-BY-SA.

As part of the partnership with the City of Toulouse, signed in October 2010, two projects were undertaken with local cultural institutions.

The first one, named Phœbus project, was with the Muséum of Toulouse. It involved mobilizing Wikimedians to take high-quality photographs of objects in the non-permanent collections of paleontology and prehistory. The photographs taken in June by volunteers Rama and Ludovic were uploaded in November, and join the ones uploaded by Didier Descouens in April.

More than 450 documents are available on Wikimedia Commons, many of which were assessed Featured Pictures, Quality Images or Valued Images.

See on Wikimedia Commons the project page and the images.

French photographer Eugène Trutat in 1866.
− Eugène Trutat, public domain

The second project involved the Archives of the City of Toulouse, who contributed digitised photographs by its former curator, French naturalist, mountaineer, geologist and photographer Eugène Trutat. A Wikimédia France volunteer processed the extensive metadata provided by the Archives, in order to fit it into Wikimedia Commons auto-translated templates and provide accurate categorisation.

The 200 resulting files hit Commons in December.

See on Wikimedia Commons the project page and the images, and Signpost coverage

Rencontres Wikimédia 2010

On 3–4 December, Wikimédia France organised the « Rencontres Wikimédia 2010 » in Paris, in an annex of the Palais Bourbon, the building of the French National Assembly. The event aimed to gather "as many cultural actors as possible to discuss new online collaborative practices and opportunities to take free access to culture a step further". The conference was part of the Glam-Wiki series, and included a series of talks and panels given by wikimedians, professionals from the cultural sector, local representatives, and representatives of government cultural agencies.

See the detailed Signpost coverage and Wikimédia France blog posts

Activities

Participation to international Wikimedia events

GlamWiki UK: Five members of the chapter and staff Bastien Guerry attended the GlamWiki conference in London. They gave two talks, about the partnership with the French National Library and about the partnership with the City of Toulouse.
Wikimania 2010: Twelve chapter members (including four board members and one staff) attended the conference in Gdańsk in July.

Presentations, conferences, workshops

Novela Festival

Signing of the agreement by Pierre Cohen and Adrienne Alix.
— Ludovic Péron, CC-BY-SA

On October 2nd, the partnership between Wikimédia France and the City of Toulouse was made public and signed during the inauguration of the “digital” side of the Novela, the festival of shared knowledge. During the whole afternoon, we showed the public the genesis and the contents of the partnership which ties us to the City of Toulouse, and took that opportunity to raise awareness about free dissemination of knowledge.

The afternoon began with the signature of the partnership, between Pierre Cohen, Mayor of Toulouse, and Wikimédia France. It continued with joint presentations of institutional actors of this partnership and Wikimedians involved.

Didier Descouens, president of the Institut Picot de Lapeyrouse, paleontology enthusiast, Wikimedian and a driving force behind this partnership since 2009, presented the terms and the value of the partnership. Pierre Gastou and Catherine Bernard, from the Archives of the City of Toulouse, presented their vision of the partnership involving uploading on Wikimedia Commons a collection of photographs from Eugène Trutat, taken in the early twentieth century. Pierre Gastou presented Eugène Trutat and the collection (ethnography and daily life, collections of the Museum of Toulouse and monuments) and their historical significance. Catherine Bernard explained how this partnership is part of a wider project of digitisation and connection between archives and the Internet.

Wikimedian Rama presented Wikimedia Commons, explaining the organisation of the project, what it contains and how to contribute, and demonstrated the importance of free and open licenses for the dissemination of culture. He relied particularly on the report that Wikimédia France provided two years ago to the Ministry of Culture on the subject. Ludovic Péron ended the afternoon by showing the work done on the Wikimedia projects about the historical monuments, and the rise of this project bringing together more and more Wikimedians. It aims to identify, photograph, geotag and describe as many historical monuments as possible, in France and abroad, to provide a coherent and reusable body of knowledge.

See Wikimédia France blog posts: Wikimédia France signe un accord avec la Ville de Toulouse and Wikimédia France à la Novela : retour sur le partenariat avec Toulouse

Other events

RMLL − July 2010, Bordeaux: As every year since 2005, Wikimedia France was at the Rencontres mondiales du logiciel libre in Bordeaux, from July 6 to 10. Nojhan gave a 20 minute talk titled "What's really in Wikipedia?" (« Qu’y a-t-il vraiment dans Wikipédia ? »), and several members held the booth during five days.
JMLL − September 2010, Rouen: During the Journée Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, David gave a talk about the MediaWiki software and how it can be used, with the example of the Wikimedia projects.
Grande Braderie − September 2010, Lille: several members held a display and answered queries at the world's biggest open air market
9e forum E-culture − September 2010, Lausanne: Florence Devouard presented Wikipedia at the 9e forum E-culture in Lausanne, on September 8, 2010. The meeting was about "Netizenship - citoyenneté numérique et cyberintimidation"
Bibliothèque du Chesnay − September 2010, Chesnay: Thierry gave a conference on Wikipedia on September 21, 2010 followed on Saturday and Wednesdsay by two workshops by Benjamin et Thierry.
Open-air conference: On September 29 2010, asked by local association "Carrefour culturel Arnaud Bernard" (by the name of a city district), Adrienne Alix gave an open-air talk, right in the district square; many passers-by stopped to listen to the conference.
Festival des sciences − October 2010, Acigné: Nicolas gave a talk in October at the multimedia library of Acigné (Ille-et-Vilaine), as part of Festival des sciences ("Science festival"). The conference was followed by a workshop, with four other chapter members helping the attendees.
Ubuntu Party − November 2010: In Paris, several members held a booth and answered queries during the Ubuntu Party. Thierry gave a presentation about Wikipedia, and Aude held a workshop for middle-school students as part of a project to help young people understand the Internet.; In Toulouse, four members held a booth on Saturday 20, and Adrienne gave a talk titled 'Beyond software: free licenses as a mean to disseminate culture"
Talk at the CEMAF − November 2010, Paris: As part of an ongoing project with the Centre d'études des mondes africains, a CNRS laboratory, Kropotkine_113 gave a talk to researchers and PhD students. The CEMAF members are looking into contributing to Wikipedia, and the chapter will help by holding workshops in 2011.
Contact with the IT department of the multimedia libraries of Paris − November 2010, Paris: Following several contacts with the multimedia libraries of Paris, Julien presented the Wikimedia projects and the chapter works to the IT department.
Congrès RESTART − November 2010, Lisboa (Portugal): Florence gave a keynote during the APDC<http://congresso10.apdc.pt/>, as part of the session "Digital Natives & Crowd Sourcing".

Media interventions

October 23 : Thierry was invited on national radio network RTL for a radio debate. It was moderated by journalist and author Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, and the other invitee was the director of Who's Who. The talk lasted for about ten minutes, and was focused on the issues with Biographies of living persons on Wikipedia
December 5 : Florence Devouard was invited on TV show Vivement dimanche on France 2, presented by Michel Drucker and with politician François Bayrou.
December 20 : Adrienne Alix talked about the fundraiser on national radio network Europe 1

Workgroups

Strengthening of communication with members

At the end of the year, a taskforce was set up to focus on writing the monthly newsletter to the chapter members. It also contributes to the chapter annual report, due to be published early 2011.

Promotional documents

Background on the cover of the leaflet about the chapter.
− Logos all rights reserved, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. ; montage by Trizek

A complete revamp of the promotional documents was undertaken this year. It gained great momentum when Benoît Evellin worked for the chapter as part of an internship during the month of August. Most of the work was wrapped-up for the Rencontres Wikimédia.

The documents created include:

leaflets for Wikimédia France and for each Wikimedia project ;
a booklet aiming to introduce the chapter, the Wikimedia projects and previous partnerships to institutions ;
a small reference guide summing up in 10 key-points how to edit Wikipedia ;
chapter business cards.

Photographs & accreditations

Photo workshop in Paris

On September 4 and 5, 2010, a photo workshop organised by Rama, and financially supported by the chapter, was held in the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris. The workshop was primarily intended for Wikipedia and Commons contributors to share their experiences, but was also open to the general public. The event gathered around thirty people, mainly Wikimedians, and was livetweeted with the hashtag #wikiphoto.

On the first afternoon, several Commons contributors gave presentations on specific aspects of photography. Inisheer taught the basics of photographic composition; Ceridwen talked about licenses and personality rights; esby explained the techniques used to create panoramas. As part of a "Museum" track, Jastrow made a general presentation about museum photography, and Zil focused on techniques used to take pictures of paintings. The last track was about photojournalism, with Rama and Ceridwen talking about concert photography and Ludo29 and Inisheer about sport events.

On the second day, after Ludo29 explained how to begin with a digital reflex camera, several workshops were held, about various subjects such as image editing, panoramas or macrophotography. In the afternoon, the contributors strode the streets of Paris, trying out their new-found knowledge, particularly on listed historical monuments. Some of the pictures taken can be found on Wikimedia Commons. As many more contributors were interested and as early feedback is very positive, a new edition is already being planned.

See Wikimédia France blog post and Signpost coverage

North Cape raid

In July, members Ludovic and Fanny took part in the "Raid Paris – Cap Nord", a photographic challenge where competitors are ranked by a jury on the basis of the pictures they take during the trip. The journey starts in Paris, goes through Finland, Sweden and Norway, up to North Cape in Norway, the northernmost point of Europe, and ends back in Paris. Over the four weeks, the raiders drove 12,000 km in a car branded with the logos of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikimédia France. The French chapter provided financial support.

See Signpost coverage and Wikimédia France blog post

Other events

The chapter helped with getting accreditations for members for many events.

Festival de Cornouaille − July 2010, Quimper (images)
Bibliothèque Sainte-Barbe − June, Paris (images)
O Tour de la Bulle − September 2010, Montpellier (images)
Mondial de l'automobile − October 2010, Paris (images)
Toulouse Game Show − November 2010, Toulouse (images)

Fundraising

Wikimedia France participated in the annual fundraiser of the Wikimedia movement.

All revenue data mentionned below are (good) approximations.

November 2010

Total amount fundraised : 241 171 euros
Total number of donations : 6196 (including 254 in checks)

December 2010

Total amount fundraised : 227 422 euros
Total number of donations : 5382 (including 418 in checks)

January 2011

Total amount fundraised : 22 775 euros
Total number of donations : 619 (including 116 in checks)

Fundraising was organised largely with volunteers, with the administrative support of a freelance secretary, Elisabeth (who has been working for Wikimédia France since the summer of 2009).

Wikimédia France does not use (yet) a CRM such as CiviCRM (data is collected using a spreadsheet).

Link to the donation platform: http://dons.wikimedia.fr/dons.php

Wikimédia France blog posts summary

July

August

September 4: a photo workshop for Wikimedia Commons

September

October

November

December

Contributors

Contributors to the monthly newsletter in French (from which this report is derived) in July-August-September-October-November-December: Bzg, Jean-Frédéric, Ash Crow, Thesupermat, Trizek, VIGNERON, Ludo29, Bapti, Zetud, Serein, (:Julien:), TCY, Crochet.david, David Berardan, Kropotkine 113, Gdgourou, Citron, Pymouss, O2
Contributors to this newsletter: Jean-Frédéric, Bapti, Ofol, Gribeco, Anthere, notafish

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