Wikimedia news no. 68
Wikimedia News no. 68 - January 22, 2014
Official bulletin from Wikimedia Italia Association.
WMI projects: where we are
The activities of Wikimedia Italy are going on at a goold pace. At the start of the new year, here there is a recap of our ongoing and future projects. Wiki Loves Monuments Italia, whose 2013 edition ended last September, is already back in the start-up phase: new enrollments are open for municipalities wishing to participate with their own monuments. Please note that to do this it is necessary to "free" them: that is, to grant permission to photograph them, as per Codice Urbani. This year, participation is also open year photography courses and schools, so come in and contact our staff sending them an email. With the 2012 edition of Wiki Loves Monuments Italia, Wikimedia also participating to in the tender for the Premio Cultura di Gestione (Management Culture Prize), organized by Federculture with the aim of bringing out valuable initiatives across the country, rewarding those who have made particularly innovative projects in valorization and management of cultural heritage.
In the meantime, the project Archeowiki is in full swing. Archeowiki involves schools in a wonderful journey to explore the lesser known archaeological heritage of Lombardy. Through the "wikigite" the boys have the opportunity to study cultural aspects that often they did not even imagine; this is much appreciated, as evidenced by this article written by a student at the Mendel Agricultural Institute of Villa Cortese.
In our future issues we will update you on the other projects: stay tuned!
SUPPORT THE CULTURE How can you contribute to these and other projects? Easy: become a volunteer of Wikimedia Italia, or make your donation on sostienilacultura.it by bank transfer, postal order, credit card or Paypal. With just 25 Euros you will help freeing a monument; 50 euro help us to provide the material on Wikipedia to a class of students.
GLAM: a new collaboration starts
The collaboration between Wikimedia Italia and Fondazione Edmund Mach in San Michele all'Adige will soon kick off. The collaboration is devoted to the development and protection of the agri-food, forestry and environmental system. The agreement is part of the GLAM/Libraries project, for which Virginia Gentilini is referent Virginia Gentilini. On February 20 Virginia will give a presentation at the offices of the Edmund Mach Foundation. The project will involve the Agrarian Institute attached to the Foundation, through the care and development of the Wikipedia entry dedicated to it, as well as the expansion of the activities of information literacy in the school curriculum of the institute.
Ombudsman Commission
M/, one of the founders of Wikimedia Italia and former member of our Board of Directors, has joined the Ombudsman Commission, the body that investigates complaints of violations of the privacy policy on any Wikimedia project. The members of the Ombudsman Commission are selected by Wikimedia Foundation within the Wikimedia community; they act on behalf of the Board of Trustees. To file a complaint about an alleged infringement you can write directly to one of the members (M/ will be able to respond in Italian) or write to cu-ombuds-l@lists.wikimedia.org.
Past and future appointments
- On January 11, in Lugano, Laurentius (Secretary of Wikimedia Italia) attended the public meeting eDem - Digital Democracy and Participation Online - Tools and Projects, promoted by the Pirate Party of Ticino. The appointment was at the Libri al Centro (formerly Melisa) bookstore. Other speakers were Maolo Attivissimo (blogger snd radio author), LIlario Valdelli (Community Manager, Wikimedia Switzerland); moderator was Carlo Brancati (Liquid Party manage, "Servizio Pubblico" tv show).
- On January 17, Andrea Zanni on Radiotre Rai Scienza has bestowed a tribute to Aaron Swartz, programmer and activist in favor of open access, on the occasion of the first anniversary of his death on January 11, 2013. You can listen to the episode on the Rai Radiotre site. Also on Aaron Swartz, Bernardo Parrella of Global Voices and Andrea Zanni have also created an interesting [e-book, which can be downloaded freely under a Creative Commons license.
- February 27-28, Rome: Luca Martinelli, member of Wikimedia Italia, will speak about Wikidata on the occasion of the international conference Faster, smarter and richer. Reshaping the library catalogue, promoted by the Italian Libraries' Association.
- March 14, Milan: Pierfranco Minsenti, digital librarian, will participate in the Convegno delle Stelline with a speech entitled Wikipedia as a collaborative work environment for a cross-community of libraries. The aim is to define the impact on librarians of the collaboration of to Wikipedia.
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