Newsletter April 2022
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General AssemblyeditOn Saturday 18 June, Wikimedia Belgium will hold its general assembly from 14:00-16:00. We prefer a virtual meeting because it is practical. Wikimedian in Residence project granteditFour organisations have submitted their candidacy for a Wikimedian in Residence project (in order of submission)
The Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund Board Committee will review the proposals in the coming weeks. African pagnes in the Museum of Industry (Ghent)edit The Museum of Industry (Ghent) organises a temporary exhibition on African pagnes until June 7, 2022. Several historical Ghent textile factories produced cotton textile for, and in Belgian Congo. On May 5th a writing session was held about Pagne Africain. Ghent ConservatoryeditArticle about Palmyre Buyst in RussianeditA photo about Palmyre was uploaded during the writing session on March 25, 2022. The picture was linked to Wikidata and automatically appeared on the Russian Wikipedia, thanks to reusing Wikidata statements from an infobox. Lectures in the Music LibraryeditOn May 19 and June 2, 2022 the Muziekbibliotheek Gent will hold two lectures. These presentations will be in English and are free and open to the public.
Ellie Nimeroski - François Xavier Tourte and L'Archet de Viotti: Perspectives from a Violinist at the Workbench.
Peter François - François Servais: The Paganini of the cello and the Belgian School of cello playing. Photo competition WindmillseditOn the occasion of the international Wind Day on 15 June 2022, the Flemish Wind Energy Association (VWEA) is organising a major photo competition. The assignment is: Visualise wind energy in a beautiful way. Participating is very simple. Upload a picture, or add the Category:VWEAfotowedstrijd to your pictures on Wikimedia Commons. The competition is open to amateurs and professionals who submit an image of a wind turbine. The prizes are grand and windy, in addition to a wide distribution of the nominated works. More information. Participation is possible until 6 June 2022, 12.00 hrs. WikipediaeditAn introduction to Wikipedia in less than 10 minutes on YouTube. Small remark: the number of 1300 Dutch volunteers was a bit misleading; amongst the 1300 volunteers there are an estimated 300 Flemish volunteers.... International projectsedit
Hackathon May 20-22editWikimedia Hackathon is organised online from May 20-22. There is an open call for sessions on the program page. If you'd like to host a session, you can simply pick an open slot in the category which best fits your topic. The developer advocacy team also put together some suggestions for how to create a fun session. You can also add project ideas to the Phabricator Board. WikiCheese evening in BrusselseditThe Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU organised a WikiCheese evening in Brussels on Wednesday 11 May, to give our volunteers an opportunity to meet each other. The chair of WMBE shared a few words with the participants about collaboration and energy. Wikipedia has always been international and multilingual. The same is true for other important and large projects like Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. The worldwide Wikimedia Strategy 2030 aims to establish regional hubs; continents are becoming more important and visible; building a distributed and decentralised worldwide organisation becomes increasingly important. So we do want more international collaboration between Wikimedia entities: the EU Policy Group, Wikimedia Belgium, Wikimedia France, and other chapters. Wikimedia Europe, WikiFranca, including all French speaking countries, are recent examples of new international organisations. We also want more collaboration amongst national cultural and humanity organisations. Local chapters can fund micro-grants to allow volunteers to develop better content. International travel by air plane is discouraged, due to climate change preventive actions. On the other hand, video is estimated to consume up to 40% of all internet related electricity capacity. 40% of the internet traffic growth in 2020 is due to video streaming and video conferencing. ICT causes 2% of all carbon emissions. Remember that the data centers also consume electricity when inactive. Also user devices, including routers, consume power when not actively used. Mobile networks currently consume considerably more kWh/GB than fixed networks. And more mobile data is consumed… room for drastic improvement… So, let us network, also amongst humans and organisations; maybe this would consume less energy? Wikimedia helpdeskeditVirtual Wiki Helpdesk, every Tuesday from 19:00 to 21:00. Everyone is welcome with their contributions, questions and ideas. The platform allows for simultaneous conversations in different languages and about different topics. Someone might also give a short presentation or a demo... Fiscal gift through the King Baudouin FoundationeditDonations to the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund of a minimum of 40 € per year through the King Baudouin Foundation entitle you to a tax reduction of 45%. Contact usedit Wikimedia Belgium NPO (WMBE) |