Wikimedia news/numero 25/en

W i K i M e D i A N e W s no. 25 - June 04, 2009

Official bulletin from Wikimedia Italia Association.

Editorial

This issue of Wikimedia news is written soon after the end of the Festival of Digital Freedoms, the first event which Wikimedia Italia organized directly. Our members are urged to have a look at the report. In June we won't have time to rest, since we will attend Biografilm Festival and have other tasks. I also want to remind everybody that in September we will renew the Board of the association: we need all members lending us a hand to organize the meeting.

Senpai

What happened last month

Festival of Digital Freedoms, Vicenza - piazza dei Signori, in front of Basilica Palladiana

• Festival of Digital Freedoms - From May 20 to May 24 Wikimedia Italy and LugVi (Linux User Group of Vicenza) organized the the first Italian event about digital freedom with a full calendar: 15 different events, extended over 3 weeks in Vicenza and in several towns nearby. It was the first major occasion that we have fully organized, coordinated and managed, and we can assure that it was not easy! Members Luca Menini and Marco Chemello conceived and organized the event. Several agencies have been involved in the festival: among them, the City of Vicenza (who offered its rooms and "liberated" their cartographic data); Schio (for the guided hike on Mount Novegno); the Conservatory of Music in Vicenza (which hosted the conference "Reform of copyright in the dawn of new media"); the Bertoliana Civic Library (with the conference "The future of libraries in the Internet time"); and other associations operating in the territory. A "core" event of the festival was the "Wiki-Music Day", 10 hours no-stop in the central Piazza dei Signori in Vicenza, under the Loggia del Capitaniato of Palladio, with live music by the boys of the project IMakeMusik, with, during which the winners of the Prize Wikimedia Italy were announced.

• Wikimedia Italia Award 2009 - We exploited the Festival of Digital Freedoms to launch a premium promoted by our association: "Wikimedia Italia Award 2009". We hope it may become an annual event. The prize originates from the idea of recognizing the value of volunteer work related to Wikimedia projects. Each of the projects we support are involved in the premium, which was divided into all of 10 different categories, including "release of contents." The jury was composed from the town councillor for Culture of Vicenza, the Director of Bertoliana Public Library and the President of Wikimedia Italia. The special prize (a Netbook) was generously offered by one of our members. Here is the list of winners (in Italian).

• Flying Frieda - May has been an intense month for our tireless chairperson, who - besides having coordinated the jury of our new award - attended several public meetings. On May 13 in Milan she talked about Wikipedia to the students of Web Communication course in the faculty of Communication Sciences at the University San Raffaele Vita-Salute; on May 21 and 26, also in Milan, she talked to the students of Management of non-profit social enterprise in Università Bocconi; on May 21 she also took part in Women @ Internet Show - Women and the Web will meet in the theater.

What will happen next month

• Biografilm Festival 2009: For the second year the association will be in Bologna, June 10-15, in the Cineteca, with a particularly interesting addition to Wikinews: all festival guests (actors, directors and musicians) will visit our stand for a short interview. In addition we have been assured a better climate than last year (the opposite would be impossible); anyway, our stand will be indoors.
• OSMit2009: we gladly sponsor the first conference of the Italian OpenStreetMap project, also in virtue of the relationship between OSM and WMF. The conference will be held in Trento, June 5 and 6.
• Festambiente Vicenza 2009: We replicate the traditional experience at Parco del Retrone, June 24-28.

News from WMF projects

• Wikinotizie: Reached 7000 articles.
• Wikiquote: Since many users and readers of Wikiquote don't realize that quotes in the "theme" voices are not unreferenced - the source is displayed in the voices of the authors - after a w:q:it:Wikiquote:Bar&oldid=255411#Citazioni_tematiche_e_fonti consensus we added a notice in all 1248 theme voices to explain it and refer to the relevant guide. We hope to make people understand the significance of the sources and the correct way to insert a quotation in Wikiquote.
• Wikizionario: Two new user groups have been activated: autopatroller and patroller. Reached 100 000 lemmata.

Featured Wikimedian/Picture of the month

Group photo during the Festival of Digital Freedoms in Vicenza, at Loggia del Capitaniato, with some Wikimedians, members of the Vicenza LUG and the actor-author Christian Biasco

Strip of the month

Kind permission of Persichetti Bros.

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Editorial staff:

• Luca Sileni;
• Frieda Brioschi;
• Marco Chemello;
• Nemo (section "News from our projects")
• Aubrey (section "News from Biblioteca")
• DracoRoboter (section "News from W@H")
• .mau. (English version)

To contact the staff, write at: redazione@wikimedia.it or directly to the editor:

• Luca Sileni - wikisenpaigmail.com
• Frieda Brioschi - ubifriedagmail.com

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Notice. This newsletter is exclusively intended for information about Wikimedia Italia, both to the members and to the general public; as per Art. 1, Comma 2, Legge 7 marzo 2001 no. 62, it is not an editorial product