Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Oesterreich/April2013

Vienna Office

Our main focus in April was on preparing and finalizing our first quarterly report for the FDC. After the initial shock on the extensive reporting requirements (we thought that we would be well prepared with our monthly reports ready at hand) we did our best to focus on the report without sacrificing our project-related priorities. CiviCRM was very helpful when it came to compile the financial part of the report on short notice. The harder part was the question of how to document project evaluation, as the expectations concerning methods and scope of evaluation on the part of the FDC are still quite blurry. Hence, we are looking forward to the evaluation workshop in June in Budapest.

apps4austria Jury

Austria is a pioneer when it comes to open government data. In order to support public use of the available data, the apps4austria contest was established. It is Austria’s first country-wide open government data competition. The aim is to gain new, innovative and user-friendly applications, visualisations and concepts based on open government data. WMAT was invited to join the jury and was represented by ED Claudia Garad. Being part of the jury was a great way of networking with likeminded stakeholders from public administration, civil society, sciences and creative industry. Open Data is a quite important resource for editing Wikipedia, therefore WMAT and representatives of the Open Knowledge Foundation, who where also part of the jury, decided "spontaneously" to donate a special award for an app that represents an extraordinary contribution to the idea of Open Data (the so-called "Open Data Viewer") which didn't really fit into the other catgories of the contest. The prize consists of an invitation to the Open Knowledge Conference in Geneva. WMAT supports this by covering travel costs up to 350 Euro. The award presentation ceremony was held on June 11, 2013 in Linz. Further information (in German): http://apps4austria.at

Wikimedia Conference Milan

WMAT sent two board members (Kurt Kulac and Andrea Kareth) and the ED Claudia Garad to the chapters conference in Milan and supported Manuel Schneider's participation, as he is WMAT's elected representative in context of the Chapters Association. The conference facilitated exchange with other chapters and WMF staff on important topics such as FDC, evaluation and governance as well as project-related networking (e.g. photography projects). Reports (in German) for interested comunity members were published on our public mailing list and the Member's Wiki.

GLAM Wiki Conference

See report in German: https://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/Nachrichten/2013-05-15

Linuxdays in Graz and Vienna, BarCamp in Graz

WMAT at the Linux Day in Graz
Picture: Plani, CC-BY-SA 3.0 AT

Representing the Wikimedia-Projects and our chapter at external events of like-minded organizatons is one of our fields of activity. During the last years WMAT focused on the Linux events in Western Austria (Dornbirn) and Germany. This year we shifted the focus to networking with the communities in the Eastern Austrian hotspots. Therefore Wikimedia Austria was present at the Linuxdays in Graz (20^th April) and Vienna (2^nd - 4^th May) as well as at the BarCamp in Graz (26^th - 28^th April). All of these events were organised by external organisations and WMAT was invited to participate. At the two Linuxdays WMAT had a small info-booth were interested attendants were able to get informations about the projects of Wikimedia Austria and the Wikimedia Foundation. In addition, our experienced Austrian Wikipedian and community-manager Thomas Planinger held a Workshop at the Linux event in Vienna in order to encourage the participants to become new editors in Wikimedia projects. At the BarCamp in Graz Kurt Kulac participated in some speeches and held two on his own.

Similar to our experiences with the Linux events in former years, we realized that we will have to find ways to reduce our efforts / ressources we spend on these events in future. Effective networking does not necessarily require an information booth, especially at events that last longer than one day. Nevertheless, the participation at this years Linux events was important to get in contact with like-minded communities in Vienna and Graz and provide a good basis for future activities.

Kickoff-Event of WLM 2013

WLM kick-off meeting
Picture: Brücke-Osteuropa (Own work) CC0

At April, 27^th the Kickoff-Event of Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 took place in Vienna. It was organised by the board of Wikimedia Austria and moderated by the boardmembers Regiomontanus, Ailura and AleXXw. 16 intersted Wikipedians from all over Austria and even from Germany participated at the Kickoff-Event which officially started the organising-process for this years WLM-contest in Austria.

Our german colleague, Brücke-Osteuropa, who was present at the WLM-Kickoff-Event in Vienna and is part of the team of WLM in Germany wrote a detailed article about the event at the de.wikipedia-"Kurier" (the German Signpost): Find it here (German language).