Wikimedia Philippines/Reports/Annual report, 2012

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2012 Chapter Update Report

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Events

January

• Wikipedia Blackout

Ninety percent of Filipino Wikipedia users use the English Wikipedia, and upon hearing word of the English Wikipedia blackout last January 18, Wikimedia Philippines quickly lent its support to the Wikimedia community's fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), two pending bills in the United States Congress with the potential to hinder freedom of information for Internet users worldwide. The chapter issued a press release highlighting the potential effects of SOPA and PIPA's passage in the Philippines, and WMPH President Joseph Ballesteros was interviewed by GMA News and Public Affairs on the blackout.

Press coverage:

• Buan, Lian. Filipino experts worry over US anti-online piracy bill. GMA News. 24 January 2012.
• Dimacali, TJ. Wikimedia Philippines joins fight vs. US anti-piracy bill. GMA News. 19 January 2012.

February

• First Open Web Day at Robinsons Place, Manila

Open Web Day is a monthly seminar-workshop jointly conducted by Wikimedia Philippines (WMPH) and Mozilla Philippines. This event focuses on Internet newbies who want to learn about the basics of Wikipedia editing and to help on localization of Firefox into Tagalog.

March

• Wiki Loves Monuments Philippines Launch

Citing the need to time the launch with the onset of summer and travel season in the country, Wikimedia Philippines held the kick off event of Wiki Loves Monuments at the Alumni Hall of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City last March 24. Despite an unusual summer downpour which caused heavy traffic around the metropolis, around 60 people came to the first global launch of the competition. Project co-manager Roel Balingit set the tone of the program by introducing the concept behind Wiki Loves Monuments, its beginnings in the Netherlands just two years ago and the feat it achieved when it gathered over 167,000 images of heritage monuments from 18 European countries in 2011.

Juliet Villegas, Executive Director of the National Parks Development Committee (NPDC) an agency under the Department of Tourism greeted the project with excitement and encouraged everyone to travel and capture all these cultural heritage, in line with the department's new branding campaign It's more fun in the Philippines as the project has also been endorsed by the Department of Tourism seeing that it will promote the fascinating narrative of the country through its heritage monuments. Ivan Henares, Vice President of the Heritage Conservation Society, who has traveled in all of the country's 80 provinces and a Wikipedia editor himself, called on everyone to contribute to the project and make Philippine heritage sites known to the world even as a lot of provinces do not have comprehensive listing of heritage sites.

Emman Ramirez, the other project co-manager shared his experience in the movement from his participation at the GLAMcamp Amsterdam last December and how the competition was brought to the country with much prodding from overseas counterparts during the meet. Video greetings from Wiki Loves Monuments organizers from Australia, Germany and Chile were shown to the audience including one from Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner, who broke the news that the winner of the Philippine competition gets an all expense paid ticket to Wikimania 2013 which may be held in London, Hong Kong, Surakarta, Bristol or Naples. The contest's mechanics and criteria were further discussed with the audience, plus the prizes at stake for the winners. The top ten entries from the Philippines, known by October 20, and other participating countries gets to advance in the international finals of the competition.

Wiki Loves Monuments is set to be participated by no less than 28 countries, with more than a dozen also building up their capabilities to organize their national competitions, Wiki Loves Monuments aims to gather quality free license images of the world's heritage monuments and make it available to anyone in the world through Wikipedia.

Wiki Loves Monuments in the Philippines is in partnership with the National Commission on Culture and the Arts and the Department of Tourism. The organizers of the event have also inked a deal with the NPDC and the Intramuros Administration, both under the Department of Tourism, to allow photographers to shoot around the site they manage without the imposition of non-commercial photography fees.

• Open Web Day at De La Salle University, Manila

May

• Open Web Day at Asian Institute of Management
• Second Philippine Wikiconference/3rd Annual Convention

• Berlin Hackathon 2012

WMPH member Tristan Marco San Andres was the chapter's official representative to the Berlin Hackathon 2012, the first time the chapter participated in such an event. Organized by the Wikimedia Foundation in cooperation with Wikimedia Deutschland, the hackathon, the premier event for MediaWiki and the Wikimedia technical community, was attended by around 100-150 participants from around the world.

June

• Officer Elections

Election of officers for the term 2012-2013 was held on June 2 at the WMPH office between members of the seven-man Board of Trustees, which resulted in the election of the following:

a. President: Eugene Villar

b. Vice-President: Butch Bustria

c. Secretary: Relly Bautista

d. Treasurer: Roel Balingit

The Board has also indicated its desire to hold a second election later in the year, this time for the newly-created position of Chair of the Board of Trustees, when amendments to the chapter's By-laws and Articles of Incorporation are approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This will be the first election held by the newly-expanded, nine-man Board of Trustees.

• Wikipedia Academy 2012

WMPH trustee Josh Lim was the chapter's official representative at the Wikipedia Academy 2012, held at the School of Business and Economics at the Free University of Berlin. Organized by Wikimedia Deutschland in collaboration with the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and the Free University of Berlin, the Academy provides a venue for the sharing of academic research on free knowledge in general, and about Wikipedia in particular. Presentations presented at this year's Academy covered several topics of interest, including Wikipedia metrics, research on Wikipedia contributors and editing communities, and the economics of free knowledge.

• Meeting between Wikimedia Philippines and Wikimedia Hong Kong at Tsing Yi, Hong Kong.

• Open Web Day in Naga City

Refer to Naga 5 meetup

July

• 2012 Wikimania, Washington, D.C.

Treasurer Roel Balingit attended Wikimania 2012 in Washington, D.C. on July 13-15. Wikimedia Philippines also organized, alongside Wikimedia Hong Kong, the annual Wikimedia Asia lunch for Asian Wikimania attendees.

August

• Strategic Planning Meeting
• Bikol Wikipedia Edithon

Refer to this page from Bikol Wikipedia

September

• Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 in the Philippines

At the stroke of midnight of September 1 in the Philippines, Wikipedia launched what it’s targeting to be officially the world’s largest photo competition — the 2012 edition of Wiki Loves Monuments. Owing to the success of Wiki Loves Monuments in 2011 where over 5,000 participants uploaded over 165,000 photos of cultural heritage sites from across 18 European countries, this year’s Wiki Loves Monuments has gone global with 35 countries in participation, including the Philippines.

Wikimedia Philippines, the local chapter of the San Francisco-based Wikimedia Foundation, is spearheading the local campaign to gather images of Philippine cultural heritage sites until September 30 when the uploading period winds up.

The top 10 entries will advance to the international round of the competition where it will compete against the best cultural heritage photographs of the other participating countries. With about 690 officially declared cultural heritage and historical sites throughout the country, plus practically every 50 year-old structure as defined under the National Cultural Heritage Law, Philippine organizers are hoping that a good number of these sites and structures will finally have their freely-licensed photographs so that they can find their way to related Wikipedia articles and at the same time showcase the beauty and richness of the country’s cultural heritage as Wikipedia is consistently among the most visited websites worldwide.

The winners of Wiki Loves Monuments Philippines will be announced on October 20 with the top winner receiving a cash prize of ₱15,000 and an all expense-paid participation at the 2013 Wikimania in Hong Kong. Wiki Loves Monuments Philippines is being held in partnership with the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, the Department of Tourism and the National Parks Development Committee.

Press coverage:

• Wikipedia launches largest photo contest
• Wikimedia rallies support for PHL cultural heritage sites

• Wikimedia PH at Software Freedom Day 2012
• Manila 17: First Philippine WikNic
• Open Web Day at University of Santo Tomas

October

• Wiki Loves Monuments Philippines Awarding Ceremonies

2012 Wiki Loves Monuments Philippines Winner: Vigan Cathedral by James Singlador

In ceremonies appropriately held at a cultural heritage monument — the Nielson Tower, home to the Filipinas Heritage Library at the Ayala Triangle, Makati City, the winners of Wiki Loves Monuments Philippines 2012 were announced in a culminating event that celebrated the beauty and splendor of Filipino Cultural Heritage. Over 2,300 entries from 319 participants were submitted in the month long uploading period that began at the stroke of midnight of September 1st and ended at the close of the last minute of September 30.

Wiki Loves Monuments Philippines 2012 finalists were treated by event organizers Wikimedia Philippines to dinner and were serenaded by the Molave Theatre Guild of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila. Host and project manager Roel Balingit proceeded to present some interesting facts about the local competition and the attainment of the 2011 edition of Wiki Loves Monuments of the Guinness World Record for the largest photography competition. See full article and list of winners

• Workshop Transjakarta in Jakarta, Indonesia

November

• WikiProject Pangasinan Outreach Activity

Refer to this Detailed Report.

• Bikol Wikipedia Day

Refer to this page from Bikol Wikipedia

• Meeting between Wikimedia Philippines and Wikimedia Indonesia, at FX Mall, Jakarta.

December

• Wikipedia at Lipa City Colleges IT Convention
• Wikimedia Philippines Year End meeting

Administrative

Meetings

• Quarterly Meeting (2012-01-07)
• Project Committee Strategic Planning (2012-01-28)
• Wiki Loves Monuments Committee Meeting (2012-02-04)
• Board Meeting (2012-03-03)
• Quarterly Meeting (2012-04-14)
• GLAM Project Planning (2012-04-21)
• Second Philippine Wikiconference/Third Annual Convention (2012-05-26)
• Board Meeting (2012-06-02)
• Open Web Day Planning Meeting (2012-07-14)
• First Strategic Planning Meeting (2012-08-25 to 26)
• Second Strategic Planning Meeting (2012-09-01)
• Wiki Loves Monuments Committee Meeting (2012-09-01)
• Quarterly Meeting (2012-09-22)

Membership

At the end of 2011, membership in WMPH reached 48.

Date	New Members	Total Members
2012-02-21	2	50
2012-03-03	2	52
2012-04-14	9	61
2012-04-20	3	64
2012-04-30	8	72
2012-05-15	3	75
2012-08-26	7	82

See also

• 2012 Audited Financial Statements