Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Deutschland/July 2014

VOLUNTEER SUPPORT PROGRAM

Because the communities carried out so many funded activities in July, this monthly report gives a brief overview only. Detailed information is available in the special blog article.

Photography projects

In July, volunteers again took part in cultural, sporting and political events with the goal of generating free knowledge. The festival summer project alone included around 30 events in July. Other events organized by volunteers and funded by Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE) were: July 1: Visit to the European Parliament, for photo opportunities with the newly elected parliamentarians and consultations on future activities (see Wikipedians in the European Parliament) July 6: Ironman Germany July 7: Press conference at the movie premiere of the documentary “Verräterkinder – Die Töchter und Söhne des Widerstands”; photos and footage taken of the director and contemporary witnesses July 16 to 17: Photography projects Bremische Bürgerschaft and Bremer Weserstadion July 22: Press conference on the occasion of the tenth “Tag der Legenden” with soccer greats such as Karl-Heinz Körbel, Thomas von Heesen and Thomas Berthold. Event moderated by Lou Richter.

Community spaces and events

Now that Berlin and Cologne already have their own community spaces, the communities in Hamburg and Hanover are also currently setting up their own local Wikipedia offices as meeting places and regional contact points for Wikipedians and other interested parties. The following list gives an overview of the community events funded by WMDE in July. July 2: Women Edit July 3: Wikipedian Salon on the topic of plagiarism July 5 to 6: Preparatory meeting for WikiCon July 11 to 13: Jury meeting for the photographic competition Wiki Loves Earth (see blog article of July 24) July 12: Sauerland meeting in Finnentrop, North Rhine-Westphalia July 12 to 13: Wikimania preparatory workshop with lightning talks, presentations and meet-ups July 16: Mate edit-a-thon (special edit-a-thon on the topic of mate) July 18 to 20: Copyright law workshop for Wikipedians July 19 to 20: Excursion and meetings of Wikipedians in and around Kempten July 26: Project meeting of the Wikipedia expert network wiki:team to discuss past activities and plan future ones July 31: Open Editing

Toolserver

After the Toolserver was switched off in late June, a central problem collection point was set up, in German and English. The purpose of this platform is to identify the tools that the communities miss the most from those that have not yet migrated, and to find people to take responsibility for the support and development of orphaned tools. The platform also allowed for failed transfers from Toolserver to Tool Labs to be located and fixed.

Other community activities

The collaboration between Wikipedia and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament was furthered with a visit to Schwerin Palace on July 2. Topics on the agenda included an explanation of free licenses and opportunities to participate in Wikipedia, Schwerin Palace’s candidacy for the UNESCO World Heritage List, and the use of an open MediaWiki.

Further notifications from the Volunteer Support Department

Our Communications Unit is now offering communities the chance to advertise their events relating to Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia, with adverts in city magazines and thus gain more interested parties. All information on this opportunity can be found on the relevant funding portal page (see also the blog entry from July 22).

Wiki Dialogue

Wiki Dialogue is a conversation format within Wikipedia that structures Wikipedia discussions and helps solutions to be found. The first Wiki Dialogue was initiated by the user Plani and is on the topic of quality. This dialogue is now coming to an end, and the results will soon be presented by the community in a Kurier article. Further Wiki Dialogues are currently in the development stages. Anyone is welcome to take part in the planned Wiki Dialogues, or to develop new ones. Currently, there are Wiki Dialogues planned on the topics of non-administrative conflict management and planning the 2015 Zedler Prize.

INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIPS PROGRAM

Coding da Vinci

The ten-week culture hackathon, organized by WMDE together with the Open Knowledge Foundation, the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek and digiS – Servicestelle Digitalisierung Berlin, came to a fitting close on July 6 at the Jewish Museum Berlin. The event was attended by 180 interested representatives from cultural institutions, the press, and the hacker community, all eager to witness the unveiling of 17 newly developed projects. All in all, datasets from 16 cultural institutions were made available for the hackers, which could be used in combination with other freely licensed data. At the award ceremony, five lucky teams were selected as winners. Photos from the event can be found at Wikimedia Commons and all developed apps are currently on display at the Coding da Vinci website. There is also a blog entry with more information.

Digital Competences

On June 23, we held the launch event of the Digital Competences series at our offices under the title “Data protection – an underrated digital competence.” Guests included Dr. Imke Sommer, Prof. Karsten Weber and Martin Müsgens, and we already published a report on the event here. We have now compiled a short video of the most important statements and moments from the evening, and have also conducted brief interviews with the speakers and WMDE Supervisory Board Member Prof. Jürgen Friedrich.

HIVE Berlin learning network

The monthly HIVE Berlin meetup was held at our offices in July, entitled “Hive Berlin Meets OK-Festival 2014”. Due to the fact that the Open Knowledge Festival was taking place the same week, many international guests attended the event. The short speech by Matt Hannigan of Hive Pittsburgh on the structure and operations of his network was particularly interesting for the HIVE Berlin network. In addition, the projects School of Open, Open Coalition and HacKIDemia were presented.

LEGAL AND SOCIAL FRAMEWORK PROGRAM

OpenGLAM workshop

We held a workshop on the topic of free cultural data as part of the Open Knowledge Festival. The aim of the meeting, which was attended by around 60 people with an interest in OpenGLAM (GLAM=galleries, libraries, archives and museums), was to establish a German-speaking network of people interested in digitization and free knowledge in the cultural sector. Other interested parties are welcome to subscribe to the specially created mailing list.

Implementation of the PSI Directive

Together with the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) and other associations, WMDE put together a joint statement criticizing the German Federal Government’s draft information reuse act (IWG). The main criticism is aimed at the government’s approach to implement the directive in its most narrow form conceivable and to not use any of the possibilities contained in the directive to go beyond the minimum requirements. The PSI Directive was amended in 2013, and all EU Member States have until summer 2015 to implement the directive into their national law.

Third edition of Monsters of Law

The third edition of the Monsters of Law event took place on July 2, with Dr. Ellen Euler of the Deutsche Digital Bibliotheca as speaker. The theme of her speech was the conflict between copyright laws and the task of cultural institutions to collect, preserve and make available cultural assets.

OER Conference 2014

OERde14 (OER = open educational resources) published its program in early July. A large number of international speakers will be present at the conference, including Michał Woźniak of Poland’s Foundation for Free and Open Source Software and Per Brahm, founder of Learnify, one of Sweden’s state-funded OER programs. We were also able to gain a number of partner and funding organizations for OERde14. The patron of the conference is the [www.unesco.de/home.html?&L=1 German Commission for UNESCO]. Partners include the http://www.mabb.de/ [Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg], the Technologiestiftung Berlin and the German Education Server. A full list of media partners and supporters can be found on website of the OER Conference.

The Free Education Alliance

The Free Education Alliance has invited experts to an initial meeting in August 2014 to compile new policy recommendations. The group is comprised of a wide range of individuals who are to agree on recommendations for political action that will further promote OER in Germany.

Additional information

Wikimedia Salon: The ABC of Free Knowledge, C is for Crowd rock

On July 10, we hosted the third Wikimedia Salon: The ABC of Free Knowledge, which focused on open systems in the music industry. This time, the artistic contribution came from Johannes Kreidler, who talked about his activities and explained GEMA’s outmoded rules and regulations Other podium guests included Danny Bruder, founding member of the alternative copyright collective C3S, Olaf Möller, chairman of Clubcommission, and Christian von Borries, composer, filmmaker und artist. The session was moderated by Andrea Goetzke of newthinking, among other organizations. Once again the event was also documented visually, and a video and photos of the evening can be found on the website.

Data Filling Station on the move

At the second Zukunftskongress Staat und Verwaltung (Future Congress on State and Administration), we were invited by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior to present our Data Filling Station to the public at its stand and speak about the advantages of free licenses for public sector content. Visitors to the stand included state secretary and Federal Government Commissioner for Information Technology Cornelia Rogall-Grothe.

Donor survey

In September 2013, our fundraising team carried out the second largest survey of WMDE donors. Just under 1,000 donors participated in the online survey, and those interested can access the results and more detailed information online.

Staff

Eileen Miedtank joined the office team on July 1, 2014. Also on July 1, 2014, Jacob Warkotsch joined the software development team as an intern and the International Affairs Unit gained valuable support with the arrival ofCornelius Kibelka. Philip Heltzel completed his student traineeship with the fundraising team on July 31.