Wikisource Community User Group

The Wikisource Community User Group (WCUG) is a Wikimedia user group to support the Wikisource community and its vision both online and offline.

The Wikisource Community User Group focus is to support the Wikisource community in international communication tasks, outreach to external groups, coordination of software tools development, and facilitate fundraising according to its member needs.

Proposed activities

Outreach – attracting more active community members and raising awareness of Wikisource, collaborating with GLAM Wiki groups and their activities as much as possible
Community support - supporting volunteer editors in order to contribute more effectively
Communication - facilitate discussions and flow of information between Wikisource communities and the Wikimedia movement
Software development - supporting the development of MediaWiki features to accommodate the specific needs of the Wikisource community
Fundraising - raise funds both from the Wikimedia movement and from external and partner organizations to conduct its activities.

History of the WCUG

The need for a Wikisource supporting organization became clear after the Wikimania 2012 meeting when Aubrey and other involved wikimedians drafted a roadmap for Wikisource, and then the question about who would implement that roadmap arose. A dedicated group of volunteers coordinated at international level can accomplish a lot, and even if they don't have the knowledge or the resources to do it by themselves, they can find ways to get things done.

The "Elaborate Wikisource strategic vision" project led by Aubrey and Micru, with assistance of Tpt, continued that community building task and it proposed to create the WCUG as a long term strategy to coordinate efforts internationally, set priorities and manage funds whenever needed.

Members have been conducting Wikisource activities independently, among them we can point out to:

Elaborate Wikisource vision, internal effort to enhance cross-language and cross-community coordination, pave the way for future developments, and establish contacts with external organizations.
GLAM wiki boot camp: tutorial in editing Wikisource, which was entirely new to all but three people, generated a large amount of interest and led to the partial transcription of The Yellow Wall Paper.
Wikimedia Sweden: Use of public books libraries scanners.
State Library of Queensland transcriptions
Sundanese dictionary transcription competition
Wikisource Conference in Wien (Austria), from 20 to 22 November 2015.
Wikisource mission statement

Becoming a member

Currently there are no restrictions for becoming a WCUG member, anyone that participates frequently in any local Wikisource and wants to contribute to make Wikisource a more internationally coordinated community is welcome to join the mailing list and sign up below.

Once a year the group will be promoted to the most active members of all local Wikisource communities and the accomplishments of the WCUG members will be summarized.

Regular communication will happen on the already existing wikisource mailing list: wikisource-l. Whenever IRC meetings are needed, they will happen on #wikisource^connect.

Governance

In this initial phase, anyone can become a promoter and/or take the lead as "community liason" for their local wikisource, communicating their local Wikisource news to the international Wikisource mailing list, and importing the international news into their local community. All initiatives will be at individual level, or consensuated in the mailing list whenever needed.

As the group grows, the transition towards a thematic organization will be considered. In a possible scenario, we can set 100 members as a threshold: at this point some members will be elected as a board for a 2 years period, to either continue coordinating activities as user group or to start the transition towards incorporation.

Transforming words into action

In order to transforming the wishes and ideas of the WCUG members (and the Wikisource users in general) into action, the group counts on several tools:

User involvement to accomplish tasks by themselves or to find consensus in their local community about topics brought up in the international mailing list. For important issues members will be contacted individually by the promoters.
Coding grants (Google summer of code, Outreach Program for Women), for those projects that need development time that cannot be provided by volunteers alone.
Wikimedia grants for those projects that need monetary support
Calls for Action, when all the above fails or the task is too big to be handled by the WCUG members alone, the group will issue a Call for Action to the Wikimedia movement organizations.

Communication

For communication, we'd like to use the already existing wikisource-l. As the Wikisource UG would support all Wikisource projects, we think that the list would have a major impact than a dedicated, brand-new mailing list, and the scope of the list and the group perfectly match.

Whenever IRC meetings are needed, they will happen on #wikisource^connect.

And there is also the Facebook page (Aubrey has admin rights there).

The future Wikisource Community User Group in short

target of 30-50 core members, reaching out to 100 people plus the general public
support possible workshops about Wikisource
propose technical developments and implement them through several sources (Google Summer of Code, grants, etc.)
offer an interface for the Wikisource community with other related institutions
coordinate and support Wikisource-related projects from Wikimedia Chapters and other groups

Updates

2013

See the full 2013 Report.

Invitation to the User Group: On 25 July 2013, this invitation was sent to the most active members of the Wikisource communities in order to raise awareness about the existence of the effort to create an international group that would help to "get things done" and foster participation in the Wikisource mailing list. This message was sent as a one-off and users who received it will not get more personal messages unless they register in the mailing list.
Wikisource community survey: in order to get to know what the community considers prioritary for Wikisource and its user group, everybody is invited to take this survey. The idea of the survey started on the Wikisource mailing list on Sept 19 (see initial message by Aubrey) and after a lengthy discussion and it being translated into 11 languages by volunteers, it went public on Oct 14 2013 for 2 weeks (see message). For the results see: Wikisource survey report
Wikisource 10th anniversary proofreading contest, run by volunteers in it-ws, ca-ws and en-ws, from 24th Nov 2013. More information in this blog post.

2014

See the full 2014 Report.

WMCON '14: On 12th April Micru and Aubrey were at Wikimedia Conference 2014 representing the WCUG. See report.
Preparations for Wikimania 2014: invitation sent to all Wikisource communities to the Wikisource Meetup.

2015

See the full 2015 Report.

WMCON '15: On May 16-17th Micru and Aubrey were at Wikimedia Conference 2015 representing the WCUG. See report.
Wikisource survey 2015: preparations for the Wikisource community survey 2015.
Wikisource Conference 2015: see report.

2016

See the full 2016 Report.

2017

See the 2017 Report.

2018

See the full 2018 Report.

Wikimania 2018: Wikisource Meetup at Wikimania

2019

See the full 2019 Report.

2020

See the full 2020 Report.

2021

See the full 2021 Report.

2022

See the full 2022 Report.

2023

See the full 2023 Report.

2024

See the full 2024 Report.

Interested users

Aubrey (it-ws, Wikimedia Italia) as promoter. Profile.
Micru (ca-ws, Amical Wikimedia) as promoter. Profile.
Tpt (fr-ws, MediaWiki (maintainer of Proofread Page))
GorillaWarfare (en-ws)
KRLS (ca-ws, Amical Wikimedia)
Dominic (en-ws, GLAM Consortium)
VIGNERON (fr-ws, br-ws, Wikimedia France)
Jane023 (nl-ws, en-ws)
Shreya (commons, hi-wp, Board Member- Commons Photographers User Group)
Lankiveil (en-wp, Wikimedia Australia)
Shizhao (zh-wp)
Anivar Aravind (ml-ws)
Zaran (fr-ws)
Erasmo Barresi (it-ws)
Rtdwivedi (mediawiki)
Alex brollo (it-ws)
Bellayet (bn-ws)
Ijon (he-ws, Wikimedia Foundation)
John Vandenberg (en-ws, Wikimedia Indonesia)
Clockery Fairfield (en-ws)
Blurpeace (en-wp, en-ws)
Nonoxb (fr-wp, fr-ws as Nonox)
Zabia (de-ws, de-wp)
Dovi (he-ws, en-wp)
Candalua (it-ws, vec-ws)
Bodhi-Baum (de-ws, de-wp)
EncycloPetey (en-ws, en-wt, wikispecies)
Akwugo (en-ws)(ig-ws)
Econterms (talk) (en-wp, Wikimedia DC)
Wieralee (pl-ws)
Isha (es-ws, Wikimedia Argentina)
Mr impossible (en-ws, en-wp, Wikimedia UK)
Sam Wilson (en-ws)
Hinote (ru-ws)
Arnd (de-ws, de-wp)
-jkb- (cs-ws, de-wp, sourceswiki etc.)
joergens.mi (de-ws, de-wp, commons)
Yann (fr-ws, en-ws, sa-ws, commons)
Romaine (nl-ws, nl-wp, Commons)
Jayantanth (bn-ws, bn-wp, Commons)
Jonathan Groß (de-ws, de-wp, commons)
AdamBMorgan (en-ws, en-wp, en-voy, commons, etc)
555/Lugusto
John Carter (en-ws primarily)
Dick Bos (en-ws, nl-ws, en-wp, nl-wp)
eitan (he-ws, he-wp)
Daniel Mietchen (Commons, Wikidata and en-wp, with a growing interest in en-ws)
DutchTreat (en-ws)
Manojk (talk) (ml-ws)
User:OrbiliusMagister (talk) (it-ws)
Pradeep (new to en:ws, India)
Nahum (talk) (he-ws)
Bluerasberry (en-wp, en-ws)
-revi (ko-wp, ko-ws, Commons)
billinghurst sDrewth (enWS, plus odds and sods)
Weft (fr-ws, fr-wp)
geraki (el-ws, el-wp, com, wd)
Ankry (pl-ws, com, sourceswiki)
Accurimbono (wikidata, it-ws, la-ws)
Slowking4 (talk) (en-ws)
Touzrimounir (talk) (ar-ws, Wikimedia Tunisia)
Zdzislaw (pl-ws)
Rachmat (ace-wp, id-ws, Wikimedia Indonesia)
Satdeep Gill (pa-wp), (pa-ws)
Bodhisattwa (bn-ws, commons, wikidata, West Bengal Wikimedians)
Masssly (en-wp, incubator, Wikimedia Ghana UG)
Hamed gamaoun (fr-ws, ar-ws, Wikimedia Tunisia)
Emna Mizouni (en-ws, ar-ws, fr-ws, Wikimedia Tunisia)
Psychoslave (talk) (en-misc, eo-misc, fr-misc, WM France)
perigou (en-ws, ar-ws, fr-ws, Wikimedia algeria)
KuboF (eo-ws, sk-ws, rue-ws, UG Esperanto and Free Knowledge, Wikimedia Slovakia)
86.175.103.193 (en-ws,de-ws)
Subhashish Panigrahi (or-ws, or-misc, Commons)
Omshivaprakash (kn-ws, kn-wp, kn-wq, commons)
Leutha (talk)
Danny B. (cs-ws, sk-ws, cs-misc, sk-misc, other projects)
Spiritia (bg-wp, bg-ws, commons, meta, Wikimedians of Bulgaria UG)
Balajijagadesh (talk) (ta-ws, ta-wp, ta-wiktionary)
Mohammed Ammar (talk) (ta-wp, ta-ws)
Mardetanha (fa-ws and other projects)
Jamie Tubers (en-wp, yo-wp, en-ws, wikidata, commons, meta, WUGN)
Ah3kal (el-ws, en-ws, sourcewiki, el-misc)
MassiveEartha (en-wp, en-ws, commons)
MartinPoulter (en-ws)
Hsarrazin (fr-ws, wd)
carlojoseph14 (en-wp, tl-wp, en-ws, commons, wd)
MJL (en-ws~~, en-wp~~)
Ananth subray(kn-ws, kn-wp, kn-wq, commons, Wikidata)
Avicenno (ar-ws, ar-wp, en-wp)
Renessaince (be-ws, be-tarask-wp)
Jon Harald Søby (mul-ws, no-ws, wd, nb-wp, Wikimedia Norge)
Gopala Krishna A (kn-ws, kn-wiki, commons)
Gurlal Maan (pa-ws,pa-wp)
Stalinjeet Brar (talk) (pa-ws,pa-wp, Wikidata, Commons, pa-wiktionary)
B20180 (th-ws, th-wp, Thai language sister projects, etc.)
Satpal Dandiwal (talk) (pa-ws,pa-wp, Wikidata, Commons)
Lokesha kunchadka (kn-ws, kn-wiki, commons)
Ranjithsiji (ml-ws, commons)
J ansari (hi-ws and other projects)
Wikilover90 (pa-ws and hi-ws)
अजीत कुमार तिवारी (hi-wp, hi-ws and bh-wp)
अनिरुद्ध!, (hi-wp, hi-ws)
User:HakanIST (tr-wp, wikidata, commons, tr-ws)
Geonuch (th-ws, th-wp, Thai language sister projects)
Viztor (zh-ws)
Consulnico (fr-ws)
Arxivist (uk-ws, commons, uk-wp, wikitada)
कन्हाई प्रसाद चौरसिया(hi-wp, hi-ws and multilingual)
Atudu (talk)((bn-ws, bn-wp, Commons)
Leh Palych (uk-ws, uk-wd, uk-wp)
Ruthven (it-ws, nap-ws, Wikimedia France)
Nehaoua (ar-ws, fr-ws, en-ws)
Jahl de Vautban (fr-ws)
Agus Damanik (id-ws)
Newbamboo (zh-ws)
Obuezie (en-ws)(ig-ws)
Draco flavus (pl-ws)
AKibombo (en-ws)
Atibrarian (talk) 21:18, 15 December 2022 (UTC) (en-ws)
NANöR (ar-ws)
Mulkh Singh (talk) 17:34, 4 March 2023 (UTC) (pa-ws,pa-wp, Commons)
حبيشان (ar-ws)
Omorodion1 (talk) 19:44, 3 June 2023 (UTC) (en-ws)
Osps7 (ar-ws/ en-ws)
Info-farmer (talk)ta.wikimedia,Commons,wd Stalk toy.)
GeoO (talk) (hy-ws)
RukayatAjeigbe (en-wp, wikidata, meta & Commons)
Macocobovi (en-ws, ig-ws, ha-ws, wikidata & Commons)
Mndetatsin (en-ws, fr-ws, fr-wp, fr-wiktionary, Wikidata & Commons)
Lim Natee (ms-ws, id-ms, zh-ws, th-ws)
Giantflightlessbirds (en-ws, Wikimedia NZ)
Azogbonon (talk) 18:23, 24 October 2023 (UTC)
Timzy D'Great (talk) 09:16, 1 November 2023 (UTC)
Frederick Noronha (talk 02 Nov 2023
Arian (fa-wp, fa-ws, Wikidata & Commons)
Borandokht (talk) 22:02, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
Salema younus (ar-ws,en-ws)
Angayubagia (ban-ws,id-ws)
Mutumanikam (talk) (id-ws,su-ws)
Anup Sadi (talk) (bn-ws, bn-wp, Commons)
Ninjastrikers (talk) (my-ws, my-wp, my-wt & incubator)
Mrifqis713 (talk) 13:30, 2 June 2024 (UTC) (id-ws)
Filipinayzd (talk) (bcl-ws, war-ws, ilo-ws, ceb-ws, Commons)
Maffeth.opiana (talk (bcl-ws,Commons)
Aspere (talk) (ko-ws, ko-wp)
Darafsh (talk)
Nivopol (talk) (fr-ws)
Perohanych (talk) (uk-wp, commons, uk-ws, wikitada)
Lepticed7 (fr-[ws, wp, wikt], eo-ws, Wikimedia France)
Maire (talk) (pl-wp, pl-ws, Commons, WMPL)
Arash (talk)
— Alien333 ( what I did
why I did it wrong ) (en-ws, en-wp)
--Ignacio Rodríguez (talk) 15:24, 1 September 2024 (UTC) (es-ws sysop)
Goodymeraj (talk) 04:20, 17 September 2024 (UTC)
JyotiPN (talk) 05:30, 25 September 2024 (UTC)JyotiPN (as-ws, as-wp)
Mr. Snatch (talk) 10:45, 02 November (UTC) (en-ws, en-wv, commons)