Wikimedia news/numero 24/en

W i K i M e D i A N e W s no. 24 - April 4, 2009

Official monthly bulletin from Wikimedia Italia Association.

Editorial

This month the newsletters starts with a small warning to all members. The organization of the Extraordinary Members' Assembly showed that it's not always easy to communicate within out organization. Many members were removed because they did not pay their yearly dues; some of them however payed after the Assembly, and they were reinstated. We really like that everyone of us had a look at the formal communications we send every now and then, and take part in the life of our association.
As for the upcoming events, in May and June there will be plenty of new events and wonderful chance of meet people. All our members are urged to take active part in organization and success of these initiatives.

Senpai

What happened last months

• January 9, Reggio Emilia: at "la Gabella", meeting about Wikipedia and Wikimedia. Paginazero says:
  • This year Telecitofono included once again Wikimedia Italia - which I represented - among the meetings held by the School of Ethics and Politics "Giacomo Ulivi".

Like last year, we had a two hours' meeting/talk about Wikipedia, Wikimedia, their workings and the philosophy beneath them.

The day after I had another talk about these topics with the students of three classes of Computer Science at the High School BUS Pascal. These students teach elder people to use a PC and the Internet, as I already talked about last year: see [1].

• Wikipedia wins Premiolino 2009! Frieda reports:
  • the prize was awarded in Milano, at Palazzo Marino (the City Hall). About 200 people attended: prizewinners, jury, sponsor (Birra Moretti) and its testimonial (Orso Maria Guerrini aka Baffo Moretti), some journalists. The reason for the prize to Wikipedia (Because it let at everybody's disposal a great, open, democratic encyclopedy, continuously perfected in real time - like for example the voice about President Giorgio Napolitano, checked and revised by the presidential staff) so that it became a really useful tool for journalists.) was written by the renowed journalist Gian Antonio Stella, great fan of us. Mr Stella gave himself the prize, asking me some question (on things we already talked about). The audience cheered us a lot, and many people asked me questions and explanations about Wikipedia and how it works. Jollyroger, who was with me, took the chance to make some pics to the other famous prizewinners, so that we could add them to the relevant voices in Wikipedia.
• March 22, Milan: Assembly of Wikimedia Italia. Sunday, March 22, 2009 we held on Ordinary and Extraordinary Members' Assembly of Wikimedia Italia at Domus Academy in Milano. We approved the final balance for year 2008 and the estimation for year 2009, and ratified the members' list (removing all members who did not pay the fee for year 2008 and/or 2009); then we changed the bylaws of the association. The modifications we made were needed because we want to be listed as APS (Association for Social Promoting), being thus able to allow tax deducibility status for donations to the Associations, and to be recipients of "5 per mille" (destination of part of our taxes). Here you can find the minutes of the Ordinary Assembly; here the ones of the Extraordinary Assembly. (Both pages are in Italian).

What will happen next month

• May 22-24, Vicenza: Festival delle libertà digitali. Wikimedia Italia organizes together with Vicenza LUG the first Festival of Digital Freedoms.
  

The event has been presented in advance during WMI Assembly. For the first time our Association organized such a large event. The official program of the Festival will be unveiled at mid April in the site of the Festival, http://www.libertadigitali.org ; our members may find the draft program in advance.

As a highlight, Saturday May 23 Wikimedia Italia will hold a 10-hours no-stop event in the historical downtown of Vicenza; there will also be several side events.
We ask all our members to propose their ideas in our association's wiki, and to take an active part in the organization of the Festival. If you cannot attend, at least discuss about it!)

News from WMF projects

• Wikibooks: new logo is official; we have also the localized version («Libri liberi per un mondo aperto»).
• Wikinotizie: reached 6,800 articles.
• Wikipedia: a proposal has been made to make the tab "edit this page" more prominent, like in pl.wiki, fr.wiki or en.wiki for better usability: the solution is however disliked.
• Wikiquote: Quaro75 has been voted sysop . There are now 7 sysops. A proposal has been made to make the tab "edit this page" more prominent, like in pl.wiki, fr.wiki or en.wiki for better usability: there are doubts about the chosen shade of blue. (For the time being the tab, has been put in boldface).
• Wikisource: reached 3,000 users.
• Wikiversità: After a survey, the community voted that teaching material different from university lessons are allowed; they approved the creation of two new departments which will hold teaching material for younger age classes, and "not formal" contents.
• Wikizionario: reached 5,000 users.

News from Wikimedia Italia

• On February 5th we issued a press release: Rettifica dell'intervista pubblicata da Il Giornale (Amendments to an article by Il Giornale). The article rectifies some statements written in an Italian newspaper, and it was a joint effort from several members of WMI; it appeared also in the Italian newssite WebNews, ang got about 1,000 impressions at our site.

News from our projects

News from W@H

Wiki@Home starts again, after the winter hiatus! We are working on several interviews. We need a couple of people to help Draco in the organization.

Project Schools

• In February and March Cotton held two short courses about Wikipedia and the related projects in two high schools in the province of Padua. Cotton reports:

In Istituto Leopardi I made two lessons, one hour each. I made a general introduction about the history of Wikipedia and WMF, a brief presentation of the related project and said something about the GFDL license and the difference with copyright. After a suggestion from the teacher, I tried to go in depth speaking about the awareness of the use of Wikipedia, thinking about the end-of-school short dissertations; I made an analysis of some articles, pointing at their characteristics.

In Liceo Einstein I made two lessons, one hour and half each. Contents were more or less the same, but I had the time to go more in depth.

You may read the report (in Italian) at this page.

• VirtualSkiz, together with other members from Campania, started supporting Project Schools, and they got several connections and some results. They said:

In cooperation with the secondary school "San Giovanni Bosco" of Trentola-Ducenta, Wikimedia Italia was involved as local partner in the prestigious European project of intercultural education "Comenius Regio".

During last Assembly in September we met the Referent for P.O.N. Projects. Together, we devised two project (for secondary schools “Istituto Comprensivo Stroffolini�? at Casapulla and “Benedetto Croce�? at San Prisco): “Parolando e Wikando�?, an educational project which puts together classroom tutorials, use of a wiki platform and acquaintance with the on-line encyclopedia.

At the PProfessional High School 'O. Conti' of Aversa, VirtualSkiz is teaching as external expert; 30 hours of activities to let the pupils understand the underlying philosophy and be able to use the wiki platform.

In this page (in Italian) you may find the account of the activities during the last semester.

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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