Wikimedia in Catalan/en

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Wikimedia in Catalan is a proposal by the "Associació Amical Viquipèdia" (in English: "Friends of Wikipedia in Catalan" Association) about creating a local Wikimedia chapter for Andorra, Alghero, Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Pyrénées-Orientales and Valencia, as well as for all Wikimedians in the Western Strip or Franja and Carche who may wish to join. It also aims to cover Wikimedia users from the Catalan-speaking community who are located outside of the traditional linguistic territory. Its priority aim is promoting and supporting Wikimedia free knowlege projects in Catalan and Catalan Culture related contents in any language.

We hope to cooperate with Wikimédia France, Wikimedia Italia and other European Union Chapters, perhaps in a future Wikimedia European Union Chapters Council.

Contents 1 Board 2 Activities 3 Questions and answers 3.1 Why not Wikimedia Andorra? 3.2 Why does it use a language name to identify a territory? 3.3 Relation with existing chapters 3.4 What about the possible future Wikimedia Spain? 3.5 Political reactions 3.6 More questions? 4 See also 5 Contact

[edit] Board

The board of the Association Amical Viquipèdia is composed of the following people:

Name	Nick	Position
Joan R. Gomà	Gomà	President
Jordi Coll	Jordicollcosta	Secretary
Josep Nogué	Josepnogue	Treasurer
Jose Daniel	Cdani	Andorra Representative
Roger Rocamora	RR	Andorra Representative
Gustau Navarro	Gus.dan	Alguer Representative
Pau Cabot	Paucabot	Balearic Islands Representative
Carles P. Lanau	KRLS	Catalonia Representative
Claudi Balaguer	Capsot	Pyrénées-Orientales Representative
Montxo V. Sempere	montxovs	País Valencià (Valencian Country) Representative

[edit] Activities

Organizational and financial support to the Catalan Viquipedist Congress and wikipedia meetings

• Aid for attending the congress ( Jordicollcosta)
• Rencontre bilingue catalan/français de viquipedistes à Perpignan

Agreements with organizations to publish contents under free license

• Town council of Barcelona: 300 biographies of Catalan Modernisme (i.e. Art Nouveau) artists, English, French and Spanish ( KRLS).
• Academy of the Catalan Cinema: publish under free license materials relating to movies and actors granted the Gaudí Award by the academy (Pallares).
• Ramon Muntaner Institute: publish under free license material that is the property of the institute's members (Gomà).
• Archive of Traditions of the Alguer: publish under free license material that is the property of the Archive. (Gomà)
• OpenThesaurus-ca: more than 8,000 words with their synonyms for use in the Catalan Wiktionary. (KRLS and Vriullop)
• Girona Provincial Council’s Image Centre Negotiations are underway to free thousands images for Wikipedia publication. (Vriullop)

Leaflets and advertisements

Coordinador Leptictidium

Initiatives fostering the use of Viquimèdia at school

• Balearic Islands: project Viquibalear (Paucabot)

  Balearic Government has proposed to provide € 4,000 to finance several awards for sudents and schools making the best contributions to Wikipedia.

• Catalonia: Viquiproject Students (Barcelona)
• University: Viquiproject: Medicinal plants project, Project awarded at the International Congress of Higher Education in the Pharmaceutical Sciences (Simonjoan)

Conferences and courses explaining Wiquimedia and teaching to edit

Wikimedia conferences (coordinador Gomà)

• February 17, 2009, at Centre d'Estudis Comarcals del Baix Llobregat
• At University of Perpignan (Delayed due to the srike. New date to be confirmed).
• March 28, 2009, 16h (4 pm) at the annual meeting of "Entitats d'Estudis del Baix Llobregat"
• March 28, 2009, at Museu Vicenç Ros in Martorell
• April 25, 2009, at Bellmunt del Priorat
• April 21 and 28, 2009, at Tiana
• Mai 13, 2009, 20h Andorran Society of Sciences
• June 27, 2009 16h Barcelona
• June 13, 2009 13h Mollerussa

Other

• Conversations with Enciclopedia Catalana to find ways of cooperating. (Pallares Gomà and ca:Usuari:Carles Riva)
• Conversations with Dot CAT domain Foundation to finance prices for a a wikicontest (Paucabot)

Mass media relationship

Not formally started yet ( Jordicollcosta)

• Press notes News about Viquipèdia.
• Catalonia TV program explaining Wikipedia and interviewing Qllach . (This TV is seen in Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Andorra, South France and some cities in Valencia)
• Interview of Andorra TV to Cdani, the first Wikimedia user of a non English project.
• Press notes explaining the catalan wikipedia achieved the 3rth place in: List of Wikipedias by sample of articles
  • directe!CAT
  • A latafanera.com
  • Racó Català
  • Tnet Xarxa ciutdana
  • Tribuna de Mallorca
  • unitatbarcelona
  • Directe .cat
  • Radiocatalunya.ca
• Interview at COM Radio From minute 8'20 to 35'34 (KRLS and Gomà)

Wikimedia in Catalan/en/Members

[edit] Questions and answers

[edit] Why not Wikimedia Andorra?

Given that the territory where you serve contains a whole state, this would allow you to apply for a local chapter within the current scheme of one chapter - one state. So, why you don't apply for the Andorra local chapter?

Because we don’t want to generate any confusion. Our natural community is baes around the area where Catalan is spoken. The cultural ties are so clear that working together is very practical for us. If we applied for Wikimedia Andorra we would work in exactly the same territory as now, with exactly the same people affiliated, but the name would no longer reflect reality.

Why do you apply for a single local chapter instead of a national local chapter for Andorra and several sub-national local chapters for the other territories?

Because we know each other, we are used to working together, there is a good understanding among us, we are all within the European Union, we don’t like borders and, in practice, there are not borders; the currency is the same, we are near enough to be able to meet in less than 2 hours journey. And the most important reason: because we want to. We want to work together in favor of free knowledge and administrative borders shouldn't stop us.

[edit] Why does it use a language name to identify a territory?

If local chapters have to be anchored in a territory, why does the name makes reference to a language?

We fully understand the sensitivities of people in this territory. The name Catalan Countries is the most well-known denomination for this territory. But in some zones, mainly in Valencia, political bias is attributed to this denomination. We want a name that clearly establishes the area we serve and at the same time makes it clear that our organization does not have any political purpose. Our purposes are purely cultural.

Does it mean that you only want to promote projects in this language?

We mostly promote projects in this language and the contents concerning these territories and this culture in all languages. Obviously the final goal is that all the knowledge of the humanity can be available to everybody, which requires it to be accessible in all languages, and we support this goal. But we can contribute above all in the language we know and love.

[edit] Relation with existing chapters

What do you think about the fact that the territory where WM-FR and WM-IT operate partially overlap with this territory?

From our point of view, the territory is linked to a legal system with rules which is necessary to fulfill in order to carry out certain activities. Therefore we need our association duly registered in this territory so that our associates' actions are covered. But the people are the project. We are convinced that the people will contribute more and better to projects if they have the opportunity to do it in several ways rather than if they have only one. In this case we think that 1+1=3.

Do you foresee possible conflicts with WM-FR and WM-IT?

Since conversations have begun with both of them and they have been very positive, we foresee no longlasting conflict, but rather cooperation.

[edit] What about the possible future Wikimedia Spain?

What impact could this chapter have on the possible creation of a Spanish chapter?

We cannot speak for the others, but in our opinion, it should be a stimulus so that they finally get themselves together and go ahead with the project. We are highly interested in increasing the knowledge of Catalan and of the Catalan culture in Spain, which is generally very low. There are less university chairs of Catalan philology in Madrid than in Berlin. It is vital that an organization promoting free knowledge in Spain comes into being. And if it collaborates with us to promote free knowledge of Catalan and Catalan culture in Spain and in Spanish, we will jump for joy. Most of us are from Spain, but it is important to remember that the first Wikimedia project in Catalan (as also the first non-English project)[1] was pioneered by an Andorran (cdani),[2] and that we have the support of Andorran, French and Italian collaborators and entities.

[edit] Political reactions

Could the creation of a Catalan-speaking chapter create political reactions?

Possibly in Spain. Nationalism is very passionate in Spain. Spanish nationalism would be openly hostile and aggressive to our chapter. Catalan or Valencian nationalism will only regard us with a mild friendliness because we keep our work exclusively within the area of culture and language. The politicians never approve greatly of that which they cannot control, and free knowledge and a transnational organization cannot be controlled by them. We do not have any political purpose, and this may be a great opportunity. We think that this is to our advantage. If a Spanish chapter is eventually created, the grants and support for both of us would multiply. The key to success is to not allow these nationalist sensitivities to act in a negative way by blocking constructive contribution: we want to maintain the option of collaborating constructively by supporting associations who look upon us positively.

[edit] More questions?

Use the talk page, or see the contact section below.

[edit] See also

• Presentations
• Bylaws

[edit] Contact

• Web: Associació Amical Viquipèdia
• Mailing list: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikica-l