Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia France/2011-02

Chapter report of Wikimédia France for June, July & August 2011.

GLAM

See also the “This Month in GLAM” newsletter for July.

Residence at the Palace of Versailles

The hameau de la Reine seen from the tour de Marlborough.
- Trizek, CC-BY-SA 3.0.

July will be dedicated to the project autonomy, training resource people inside the palace and setting up teaching aids in order encourage the public, employees and wikimedians to take part in the project. Some initiatives (visits, lectures, etc.) are under the on-going program for September, so we can move forward.

The key moments were the General assembly of June 18 and the visit of Starus, who has a passion for the Hameau de la Reine; he came from Dominican Republic to Versailles in order to discover more fully his favorite subject. He was welcomed by Annick Heitzman, an archaeologist from the palace who studied the hamlet; further elements were brought to the article.

In the meantime, we were able to notice the continuous growing of available resources on our projects or created by them: more than 360 articles about the subject on Wikipedia (not to mention the several improved articles), more than 1 800 pictures on Commons (including 76 quality or featured images) and about fifty books suggested for Wikisource.

In June we also experienced a new way of contributing to Wikipedia, with 24 hours for an article. The first article concerned was Grand Trianon: twenty contributors worked on it, tripling its content by adding new sources and illustrations (before - after). This method can also be used in meetings days: on July 6, some Wikipedians and members of the palace research center will combine their efforts to improve the article about the palace of Versailles as much as possible.

The residence ended on August 12. The process towards autonomy is currently getting prepared, with the redaction of dedicated pages in order to enable people to find useful resources to contribute on articles about the Palace. The process of visits, study days and workshops initiated during the residence will continue in September.

In brief

On August 20, the Swiss chapter Wikimedia CH organized a study day about relationship with cultural institutions, or "GLAM". Adrienne (Serein) and Benoît (Trizek) were invited to assess their experience in Wikimédia France activities in this field: Adrienne went back over the association's work for the past years in France, and Benoît presented the project of a Wikimedian in residence at the Palace of Versailles.

Wikimédia France was invited by the IRI (Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation) to co-organise its seminair on museums for 2011/2012.

Presentations - Conferences - Workshops

European Parliament meeting

A dozen Wikimédia France members went to the European Parliament in Bruxelles on June 28. There they met the French MEP Yannick Jadot and coworkers from the Verts group/European Free Alliance. The purpose of the work meeting was to think about the current problems in terms of free knowledge dissemination at an European level :

• No harmonization of the UE legislations (freedom of panorama…);
• Issue of (cultural or not) public data and their dissemination;
• Adapt the rules to the Internet context (fair use extended to pictures, immediate dissemination of information…).

This useful, rich reunion lasted for two hours.

Afterwards the group visited the parliament and could learn about the decision process in the assembly, thanks to a public servant (fonctionnaire) of the Parliament.

See the report on MEP Yannick Jadot website (in French)

In brief

On June 1st, Lionel Allorge led a workshop about Wikipedia for one hour and a half in front of a dozen teachers in Marly-le-Roi at the regional center of pedagogic documentation (CEDP) in Versailles district (académie de Versailles). After presenting how Wikipedia works and how one can contribute, the exchange was about how to use Wikipedia in class and how to use wiki in an academic context.

On June 20, Julien took part in a workshop “Open data and civil society” in the school ENS, organized by the Île-de-France region. He stressed on particularly useful data for Wikimedians, as geolocation or election results.

From June 29 to July 1, Léa , Nicolas, Sylvain and Pierre-Yves took part in the Étés TIC 2011 of Rennes, whose theme was “Popular Digital” (“Le numérique populaire”). Workshops, projects presentations and exchanges took place during these three days. On Thursday afternoon, a meeting called “Knowledge, learnings and know-how in Britanny” (“Connaissances, savoirs et savoir-faire de Bretagne”) was the opportunity to present Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource) and previous partnerships. There were rewarding contacts and projects could be put in place very soon.

Media interventions

On June 18, Adrienne Alix (Serein) was portrayed in the last page of daily newspapers Le Courrier de l’Ouest of Saturday. The same month, L’Express published a two pages article about Wikipedia with interventions of Adrienne and Rémi Mathis.

Chapter life and activities

Staff

In June, Adrienne Alix and Carol Ann O’Hare started working for Wikimédia France, respectively as a program director and a Research and Education Manager.

Our previous permanent employee is gone since March. This departure was decided by mutual consent; regarding the labor law, the Board is bound by professional secret about its terms. This first hiring enabled us to put in place tools for following up a salaried employee (outils de suivi d’un salarié) and help us to become familiar with employer role. All these experiences will help us to integrate our next employees.

In July, Wikimédia France hired Sylvain Boissel as a tech & community manager (« chargé de mission communauté / technologie »). Sylvain (aka Ash Crow on Wikimedia projects) is a long-standing contributor on Wikipedia and an active member of the association. He will be in charge of animating members work and supporting work groups. Presently system administrator and web developer, his competences will enable him to work on more technical issues.

Wikimédia France now rents four workstations at Lawomatic, a coworking space on rue Jean Moinon, 10^th arrondissement of Paris, for his new employees.

Julien Fayolle (:Julien:) has been hired as a Fundraising project manager 2011. He will work on a fixed-term contract from mid-Septermber to mid-February 2012. Julien is a long-standing contributor on Wikipedia and a very active member of the association. He has been present in the Board for several years, which is a guarantee of his reliability and of his understanding of our issues. His technic experience will also be useful for the set-up of our future CRM.

General Assembly

The ordinary and special sessions of the general Assembly took place on June 18 2011 at the Palace of Versailles. The certified accounts (Les comptes certifiés) and the resources employment account (Le compte emploi ressources) were approved, as the new statuses and rules of procedure.

As Adrienne Alix resigned her post as a president on May 28 in order to carry the functions of programs director, Rémi Mathis stood in for president. On July 18, the Board elected Rémi Mathis as a president and Florence Devouard as a vice-president. Other Board members stay the same.

The 2010 annual report has been published on Wikimedia.fr site; so were the 2010 accounts report (le rapport sur les comptes 2010) from our auditor and the certified accounts 2010.

Participation to international Wikimedia events

Wikimania − Haïfa, Israël.

Eleven association members took part in Wikimania. Several members were supported with scholarships given by the chapter.

Five presentation were given by French chapter members:

• Submissions/Palace of Versailles and Wikimedia projects : feedback on the experience
• Submissions/What place for companies on Wikipedia ?
• Submissions/GLAM partnerships in the real life
• Submissions/Let's get local!
• Submissions/Stand Up

In brief

A micro-funding Commission has been put in place. It makes possible the assignment of funds for the relatively low-budget usual activities related to the association projects. The commission has been assigned by the Board the decision of funding projects whose budget is lower than 2000€ and which will be reimbursed on the basis of actual costs.

The association signed the declaration in favor of Open Data in France, co-authored by Creative Commons France, Regard Citoyens et Veni Vidi Libri, in association with the Open Knowledge Foundation. Open Data is a movement which supports the opening-up of public data, which should not only be accessible freely but also be under a free license allowing the free re-use.

Workgroups actions

Photographs & accreditations

Bernard Lavilliers performing live at festival the Bout du Monde festival in Crozon
- Thesupermat - CC-BY-SA 3.0

From 19 to 24 July, (Thesupermat) covered the Cornouaille festival in Quimper, Britanny. That was the second year he obtained an accreditation via Wikimédia France to take photos of this event. Several artist pictures (of James Blunt, Nolwenn Leroy, etc.) should be imported very soon on Commons.

After the Fête de la musique in Brest and the Festival de Cornouaille of Quimper, Fabrice (Thesupermat) covered the Bout du Monde festival in Crozon. Thanks, among other things, to Wikimedia France support, who financed a professional lens renting, this was the occasion to enrich Wikimedia Commons with 250 pictures of artists, like Yael Naim, I Muvrini, Aloe Blacc and Bernard Lavilliers.

Communication et promotion

The workgroup worked on a flyer project, a Wikisource guide, defining visual guidelines, a LaTeX style package and Wiki Loves Monuments material.

Technique

An HTTPS encrypted connection was set up on the chapter sites. This was of high priority for the online donation platform.

Further to a discussion among the group, the chapter now rents a second server of "pre-production" for the members to experiment more freely.

Wikimania in France

The workgroup “Wikimania in France” has decided to put Toulouse forward for the organisation of Wikimania in 2013.

See the bid on Meta

Communication

This Month in GLAM

• July

Blogposts

July

• The AFP forbids to use Wikipedia as a source: between obviousness and irony
• Wikimeida France / AFP joint statement
• Wikimedia France signed the declaration in favor of Open Data in France
• The Picture of the Year of Wikimedia Commons

August

• Wikimédia CH signs a partnership with the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne to enrich biographies on Wikipedia
• GLAM study day in Switzerland: feedback from Wikimédia France
• Workshop at the Centre Pompidou to create Wikipedia articles on modern art

Contributors

• Contributors to the monthly newsletter in French (from which this report is derived) in June, July & August: Ash Crow, Bapti, Benjism89, Crochet.david, David Berardan, Jean-Frédéric, Moyg, Pymouss, Seb35, Thesupermat, Trizek, VIGNERON, Zetud,
• Contributors to this newsletter: Cha matou, Bapti, Jean-Frédéric, Zetud

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