Wikimedia CH/Newsletter/05/2017

Please find Wikimedia CH's newsletter for the month of May.
If you wish to share an event or activity through this newsletter, please feel free to send us a message at info@wikimedia.ch. Happy reading!

What happened in May?

Conference Dario Taraborelli at EPFL

Dario Taraborelli at the EPFL by Rama CC-BY SA 4.0

Dario presented WikiData at the EPFL. The slides from his presentation can be found here.

Idea workshop (20th May)

The 20th May the Idea Workshop has been held in Olten. The group discussed about the strategy, the plan for 2017 and about main problems to be solved within Wikimedia CH. At the end of the meeting the output has been a list of issues to be solved and the biggest problem identified by all of the participants has been that of the multi-lingualism. The participants agreed that the use of the English is a big baarrier to have more active members and Switzerland misses a "lingua franca" to be used. Some brainstorming has been done to address this issue, but the solution is still open. As a second issue it has been discussed the lack of participation of the experts because the rules of Wikipedia discourage the active contribution of the researchers and of the experts of some disciplines. We hope to find a solution for both problems in the near future!

Part of the group

GLAM-on-Tour in Fribourg

The second event of GoT in Switzerland was assessed by the participants, of WMCH and the partners to be successful. The regional press was also impressed by the cooperation and devoted half a page to the weekend. Our partners, the Gutenberg Museum and the Cantonal and University Library Freiburg (KUBF) provided interesting insights into their existence and their work and were well prepared for the onslaught of the Wikipedians. The professional city guide gave additional background details of the history of the city and its changes in time.

There were written 36 articles about Gutenberg and the Counter-Reformation so far and about ten times as many photos have been taken. The authors were able to deliver the articles in four different languages. Most were written in German, as was the composition of the group, some in French and few in Catalan and in Russian. The next event in this format will take place in Ticino in mid-November.

Announcements

Participating Countries WLE 2017

Wiki loves Earth

This year Wikimedia CH will join the Wiki Loves Earth international photo contest.

Wiki Loves Earth is an international photo contest dedicated to collecting pictures of natural heritage sites and landscape and ornamental gardening objects to illustrate articles in the worldwide free Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects. The target will be the Swiss natural parks, Swiss mountains and the Swiss lakes. There are some gratuities of our chapter; the ten most popular photos will take part automatically at the international contest. Go on reading…

Community Space discussion

After an unsuccessful attempt to get a common room in the heart of Zurich at the beginning of 2017, there was some frustration within the community. The reason for the rejection was the lack of funding. The association is now beginning to get prosper to this nice idea how to realize a common space for their members in or around the most likely place for them. Link: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikimedia_CH/Community_Space (German)

Third request for technical wishes

Collaboration and communication regarding technical wishes of the German-speaking communities

After 2013 and 2015 the German department of software development has started a new requirement of technical wishes. The German-speaking communities are requested to utter thier ideas and wishes for improvments of the wiki software. There is even an International Community Wishlist, which takes place in a four-year rhythm, you are kindly invited to phrase at the German chapter's developers.

WikiCon has opened Call for papers and I want an island!

Since May and only until 15th of June, the organisation team of the WikiCon has opened a Call for papers (in German) to fill the annual convention with content. The time schedule has space for 32 lectures, workshops and / or discussion sessions, 44 short presentations, eleven Engineering workshops and several excursions. Furthermore it is planned to erect several islands of knowledge. These information stands in the forum of the event hall Kubus are implemented to help offering a low threshold for the communication also to Wikipedia strangers. The concept of opening up a part of the entrance area also to the interested public had proved itself true and will be set up again this year. This year, the german-speaking WikiCon will take place in Leipzig from the 8th to 10th of September 2017.

List of events

You may also consult the upcoming list of all the events happening in Switzerland through the Wikimedia CH website.

Date	Events	Location
01.06.2017 - 30.06.2017	Wiki Loves Earth	Switzerland
08.06.2017 - 10.06.2017	Swiss archive day 2017 WP:DE, WP:FR, WP:IT	Multiple locations in Switzerland
24.06.2017 - 18h00	56. Züri-Stammtisch	Zurich
08.07.2017 - 10h00 - 16h00	Schreib-Atelier (Editathon) in the National Library Bern	Bern