Wikimedia South Africa/Board Meeting/11 August 2020

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Wikimedia ZA - BiWeekly Board Meeting - 11 August 2020

Attendees:[edit]

  • Wynand
  • Rossouw
  • Michael
  • Adri
  • Ian
  • Deon
  • Douglas
  • Coenraad
  • Bobby

Absent:[edit]

Agenda:[edit]

  1. Maroela Media: WMZA received a lawyer's letter from Maroela Media over the weekend. We are waiting on lawyer's feedback before responding.
  2. Update on Assistant hiring process

Advertisement has been created Hiring Committee to review tomorrow (12 August) Channels to be decided on

  1. WikimediaZA Research Award (WvdW)

Wynand met with John Guilliam (Rhodes University Grant Manager) to assist with how to go about this process. Draft notice circulated to Board for input. Once the letter is ready, it can be circulated to targeted entities, e.g. educators, universities etc.. The board has requested another week to review the letter.

In addition:

Encourage Afrikaans Wikipedia to create policies and procedures. We also need to familiarise ourselves with existing policies. What is the procedure for us in legal scenarios? How do we protect editors? Two protocols to keep in mind: One, people have the right to edit anonymously, to protect them from liable action. Secondly, all of Wikipedia is hosted in the US. If someone wants to remove something, but it's truthful, the person would need to approach the Foundation to remove it. Ergo, there is a blur between when a PERSON or the COMMUNITY is responsible. This is partly why it's important to have policies in place.

  1. Other
  • Communication and to-do lists etc.
  • Add the Year's Budget to the Agenda as a standing template so that we can touch base with the year's to-do items on a bi-weekly basis.
  1. African language support. We need to start actioning the actionable and commit to doing the things that we talk about.

Add "African language support" to the agenda at every meeting. This year we have budget for "African Language Champion". This is for two roles: One person that edits and one person that encourages people to contribute and edit in their language.

  1. Moleskin Foundation: We still don't have the MOU. We need a dedicated person that can liaise with them and make sure that discussed items get actioned.
  2. Puleng and the National Archives: Bobby has called, but didn't get through. He will follow up.
  3. LIASA is having a series of conversations regarding Copyright and related matters. The first session is with Tobias regarding copyright issues. 2nd Will be with Creative Commons SA with Paul West, Wynand will get Douglas onboard soon. The bill is being discussed in Parliament on 19 August. Wynand is aiming to get the senior representatives from multiple organisations to talk to each other.
  4. Do we have funding for courses? We can ask for the reallocation of funds. Wynand to write it up and share it with Douglas via Meta. The board to discuss then as well. Once approved, it can go to WMF for discussion and reallocation.

Communication and social media channels, infrastructure[edit]

From 28 July to 11 August:

  • Twitter: 1600 followers -> 1604
  • Facebook (English): 984 follows (896 likes) -> 983 (895)
  • Facebook (Afrikaans): 657 members -> 664
  • Mailing list (Afrikaans): 314 members. Suspect most are fake, aol addresses, little valid activity for years -> 315
  • Mailing list (English): 258 members -> 257
  • Instagram 178 Followers -> 179
  • Meetup: 128 members -> 130
  • YouTube: 52 subscribers -> 52
  • Zulip: 30 users -> 30
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