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Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Polska/August-October 2008

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Wikimedia Polska report: August, September and October 2008 (up to October 22):

Tax deducible donations

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The amount of tax deducible donations exceeded 140 000 PLN (around 40 000 EUR and 50 000 USD), much more than it was expected by us. Therefore we started general discussion how to spent these money. The wiki page was created to collect and analyse the ideas: [1].

The board has decided to transfer 50 000 PLN to safe bank investment fund for 3 months and the other 50 000 PLN for 6 months. The rest of tax deducible donation will be spent on current activities.

Board meeting

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On 13 August we had “real life” Board meeting (we meet on IRC every Thursday, but for this time we wanted to meet face-to-face). We discussed:

  • What to do with tax deducible donations – it was decided to collect as many as possible ideas, than analyze them and finally discuss during General Asembly in September.
  • To open a real office (now we have just a “virtual” address) with a part-time secretary. It was decided to open a small office, at the beginning of 2009 but, a the moment to avoid hiring regular staff at least in 2009.
  • To produce a professionally looking set of advertising materials for various occasions and to hire a professional company or freelancer to do it. We decided to spent 10 000 PLN on it.
  • How to organize better summer Polish Wikimedia conference and how much to spent on it – it was decided to announce sending proposals for places by the end of the 2008, choose one and support it by hiring paid main organizer of the conference – the head of local organizing commitee.
  • Wikikonkurs – it was decided to continue the contenst despite its committee is actually not active. The duties of the committee is about to be taken by Wikimedia Polska Board.
  • Wikimania 2010 – it was discussed how to support the local organizing committee in Gdansk, which is trying to start to contest for Wikimania 2010. It was decided that although it doesn’t seem to be very probable to have Wikimania 2010 in Poland, we must support local committee in any way we can.

Promotional activities

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During GDJ meeting there was small celebration of 7 years of Polish Wikipedia, which was covered by local TV station and several radio stations.

On 20 September 2008 Wikimedia Polska organized its own stand during Non-profit organizations picnic in Warsaw. This remainded us again that we desperately need profesional looking advertising meterials.

After 2 months of looking for we had big problems to find a good company or freelancer to project and produce a set of promotional materials. Therefore it was decided to create a team of 3 volunteers who are about to project the materials themselves and then find a company which only will produce this stuff.

Press and media coverage (August 1st - October 22):

TV and radio stations

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Papers and journals

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Internet news media

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Meetings

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27 September 2008 General Assembly took place in Poznań. Before and after the Assembly there was workshop of Polish Wikipedians - GDJ called Where are we? Where do we aim? How? There was around 80 participants of GDJ of which roughly 50% were our chapter members. The main reason to organize General Assembly was to make minor changes to our bylaws and discuss projects on spending money from tax deducible donations. Changes to bylaws have been discussed and successfully accepted. Discussion about projects was quite hot. All proponents could briefly explain their ideas, and then it was discussed by others. Finaly a survey was made, which projects were found most interesting. The results of survey is placed on Polish Wikimedia page: [3].

Cooperation with other organization

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The idea to create “Edukonf” – an informal group of free-content producing organizations is in its final stage. The group consists of Fundacja Nowoczesna Polska, Polish Librarian Associations, CC-Polska and us. Although it is still not formally organized, we already coordinate some actions. Among others we sent several, exactly the same opinions about proposed changes in Polish copyright law and organized a promotional action during Open Access Day: [4]

Others

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As the result of General Assembly discussion there are currently preparation to organize this year:

  • A contest called “Hufiec harcerski” [5] – "Scouts writing contenst" in which several groups of Polish scouts from two largest scouting organizations will be writing articles in Wikipedia about their organizational structures and notable people involed in it. Wikimedia Polska together with authorities of both scouting organizatons is going to create a jury and donate around 2000 – 5000 PLN for prizes for best articles. (probably books or some scouting equipment)
  • Wikipstryk 2008/2009 [6] – a contest for amateur photographers from Wrocław, for photographs of notable objects in this city sent to Wikimedia Commons. The jury is about to consist of Polish Wikimedia Board members and professional photographers. The prizes are cameras, photo-accessories and books about photography. The cost is estimated to around 5 000 - 10 000 PLN

Next year:

  • Wikiekspedycja (Wikijourney) – the idea is to organize several teams of wikipedians with laptops, cameras and cars and send them to regions in Poland which are not well photographed and described in Wikipedia. [7]


On 30 September 2008 we had a meeting with City Major officials in Gdansk. We discussed how they can support us in organizing Wikimania 2010. They found idea to have Wikimania in Gdansk very interesting and suggested various ways how they can support us. The details of this talks cannot be made public at the moment.

One of Wikipedians applied for funds to participate in Russian Wikimedia Conference and give a lecture about Polish Wikipedia and Wikimedia Chapter. The Board has accepted this application.

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