Wikimedia news
Official bulletin from Wikimedia Italia Association.
Wiki Loves Monuments 2013
Sunday, September 1, Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 officially began. The photo competition is open to everybody who wants to help illustrate Wikipedia and enhance the world cultural heritage. The competition kicks off with the figures of the important achievements in the previous year (353,768 images received , more than 15,000 people involved) and with its recognition as "World's largest Photo Contest", as awarded by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2012 (as in 2011). In this issue there are news at the international level: 48 countries have joined, including several new entries, such as England, Armenia and Antarctica. We point out that you can follow online the evolution of the competition nation to nation; number enthusiasts should also not miss the sites with even more detailed statistics. In Italy we have received 13 sponsorships; more than 120 municipalities, associations and individuals have freed their cultural heritage for the competition, so that at this moment 971 monuments may be photographed (and the number steadily increases).
Here's what our president said , Frieda Brioschi, on the occasion of the launch: "Since its beginning, Wiki Loves Monuments had a huge success throughout the world, because the protection of artistic and cultural heritage of the entire planet is an issue really felt. We Italians are always sensitive to these issues, because we appreciate art and culture also as valuable resources for our country, as well as the pillars of world history. I am however very sorry that besides the unconditional support of WWF, regions and some superintendences, major entities as MIBAC [the Italian ministry for cultural heritage], FAI [Fondo Ambiente Italiano] and Italia Nostra systematically ignored the numerous attempts on our part to engage them. The aim of our project seems perfectly aligned with their charters; we should put our forces together, for a cause that has as its sole purpose the promotion of an immense heritage."
Visual Editor: What's the story
As we already announced in previous issues of WMINews, from the end of July 2013 a new editing interface for modifying Wikipedia entries, called VisualEditor (VE), is active. VisualEditor looks like a simple word processing program and does not require any knowledge of wikisyntax. Elitre is the contact person working with the Wikimedia Foundation to facilitate the introduction of the new instrument in the Italian community.
We asked her how things are going after about a month, and how Italian-speaking Wikipedians react. We learn that bugfixing is going on, new features are being introduced and that even many "historical" users accustomed to the classic mode of writing are using VisualEditor, and they are tirelessly helping to improve it with their advice. From a look at the Recent changes, however, is immediately apparent that, as expected, contributors using VisualEditor are mostly anonymous and newly registered users, thanks to its intuitive interface.
Information:
- To contact Elitre, you can write at https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discussioni_utente:Elitre_(WMF).
- You can subscribe to aperiodic updates (in Italian) and consult the back issues starting from this page
- For the latest news (in English) you can always refer to this link.
Curiosities:
- Jacopo Werther received a barnstar as "the first user to create 10 voices on it.wikipedia.org using VisualEditor"
- We are collecting comments on the characteristics of VisualEditor that the Italian community prefers. Did you already share yours?
Wikimedia Italia members contributing to international boards
Frieda Brioschi (President of Wikimedia Italia) has become part of the Grant Advisory Committee, the commission made up of volunteers who help the Wikimedia Foundation in allocating funding.
Andrea Zanni (Head of projects for Wikimedia Italia) announced that a new international mailing list (in English) was born. The list is about Open Access to scientific literature. Zanni says: "If you're a librarian, a researcher, a hacker or just a lover of free culture, join us! We'll reflect together on how to make concrete the research and science of the commons goods ".
Future appointments
Here there are the appointements involving Wikimedia Italia this month. For the complete calendar, look at Vi ricordiamo qui gli eventi che coinvolgeranno Wikimedia Italia nell'arco del prossimo mese, per il calendario completo vi invitiamo Diario di Bordo on our site.
- Grosseto, 16-17 September; Scandicci, 23-24 September: courses about Wikipedia for librarians and users during Bibliopride2013, promoted by the Tuscany Section of AIB (Italian Library Association).
- 4-5-6 October, Rovereto (TN): Annual Conference of the Italian community of OpenStreetMap.
- 5 October, Florence: Wikimedia Italy participates in the National Day of Libraries - Bibliopride 2013.
Flash news
2013 member cards are arriving into the homes of all members of Wikimedia Italia. If you are not yet registered you can do so by following the directions found on the site, while if you need to communicate a change in your address this is the right time (write to segreteria@wikimedia.it).
(Member card assembled by Jollyroger - Picture of Nicola D'Orta, cc-by-sa).
Notice: this newsletter is exclusively intended for information about Wikimedia Italia, both to its members and to the general public; as per Art. 1, Comma 2, Legge 7 marzo 2001 no. 62, it is not an editorial product