Nyhetsbrev/Nummer 6, 2008/english

NEWSLETTER WIKIMEDIA SVERIGE NO 6/08

ORGANISATIONAL STATUS

The 20th of October the organisation celebrated one year anniversary. We have close to 160 members which makes us the third largesr local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation.

ACTIVITIES

Since the last newsletter in the middle of September, Wikimedia Sverige has arranged or participated in a number of large events.

Book and library fair

In the end of September the organisation had a booth at the Book and library fair in Gothenburg. It is the largest book fair in the Nordic countries with over 100 000 visitors.Our booth was well visited. The visitors wanted to know more about Wikipedia, buy our books (see below), or meet us. We took photographs of a fair amount of writers and established usefull contacts. Read more (in swedish) here: http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bok_och_Biblioteksm%C3%A4ssan_2008.

The Internet days

The 21-22th October Wikimedia Sverige participated on the Internet days in Stockholm. It is a fair where a large parts of the IT trade gathers. One of the keynote speakers was Lars Aronsson from the board of Wikimedia Sverige. I

FSCONS

In Gothenburg Wikimedia Sverige, together with Free Software Foundation Europe and Creative Commons, arranged a two day conference about a free society. In this context the free society includes free software, free licenses and free content. FSCONS had a little more than 300 visitors including Frank Schulenburg from the Wikimedia Foundation. WMSE had its own room, several speakers and met both old and new members as well as other interesting persons.

Wikipedia Academy

In November the first Wikipedia Academy in Scandinavia took place in Lund. Wikipedians and academics met to discuss how their respective worlds could meet. Several seminars are available on our website, http://wikimedia.se/wiki/Wikipedia_Academy The visitors also got a crash course in editing which was very much appreciated.

Wikipedia Academy was a cooperation between Wikimedia Sverige and the University library of Lund. The conference lasted two days and was reported by three bloggers, see http://wikipediaacademy.blogspot.com/

Beyond the scope of the conference this was probably the largest meetup for Swedish Wikipedians ever, with almost 20 people. Pictures from the conference is on commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_Academy_Lund_2008

Calender

27-28 November, SFIS autumn conference, Stockholm
29 November, organisations planning meeting and big Christmas wiki meetup
9 December, seminar in Karlstad
12-13 February, conference "Social media marketing", Stockholm
during the spring there will be a course at the Gothenburg city library about Wikipedia

Links to the different events are available on: http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia:Aktuella_h%C3%A4ndelser You will find more news about Wikipedia, its sister projects and the Wikimedia foundation at: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bybrunnen.

OTHER NEWS

The fundraiser

In the beginning of November Wikimedia Foundation started the annual fundraiser for keeping Wikipedia and the sister projects alive. All of Wikimedia Foundations projects are free to use and depends on donations. Please donate whatever amount you can afford to help us spread knowledge, More information will you find on the banner on every page.

Changes in the board

Since the last newsletter Einar Spetz has been elected for the board. Einar is a Wikipedian and has in his work as a librarian made a pre-study about Wikipedia.

Easier web address

It is easy to find us on the web now: wikimedia.se You don't have to change your bookmarks since the old address still will be functioning.

Scandinavian Wikipedia milestones

Soon the Danish Wikipedia will reach 100 000 articles, Norwegian (bokmål) 200 000 articles and Swedish 300 000 articles - about the same time. Obviously we are mostly focused an quality but it is still a joyous moment.

Wikipedia book on a "real" publisher

Lennart Guldbrandsson, chair of Wikimedia Sverige, has a previously mentioned written a book, "Så fungerar Wikipedia" (How Wikipedia works). After first being sold on the print-on-demand platform www.vulkan.se the book has now been released, in a slightly enhanced edition, by the publisher Hexa, http://hexaforlag.se/?page_id=475 The first edition of 120 copies sold in a week.

DONATIONS AND WEB SHOP

Both Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Sverige are non-profit charitable organisations. The member fee for Wikimedia foundation is only enough for our administrative expanses. It should be obvious that we are running many important projects. That is why we need donations. Everybody cannot give 100 000 SEK but everybody can give something. Our bank account is 5822-9915 (where you also send money to become a member). You can also recruit more members or buy our book "Svenska Fåglar" (Swedish birds) which is sold at http://www.vulkan.se

On our web shop you can buy various things related to Wikimedia Sverige. The address is http://wikimediasverige.spreadshirt.net. Go there and buy plenty and you will support us and also be fabulous. All t-shirts are in organic cotton.

The next newsletter will come in the beginning of February. Until then you can be updated on what happens in Wikimedia Sverige on http://wikimedia.se

Do you know anyone who would want this newsletter? Email name and address to lennart@wikimedia.org and it will arrive soon.

If you do not wish to receive this newsletter or if you want to change address please reply to this address.

Best wishes,

The board of Wikimedia Sverige

Lennart Guldbrandsson (chair), Jan Ainali (secr), Anders Wennersten, Johan Schiff, Lars Aronsson, Kristoffer Mellberg och Einar Spetz