Wikimedia Norwayreceived theFolkeopplysningsprisen (Award for Public Education) last week for "...[doing] perhaps more than any other [organization] to promote public education in Norway." Wikimedia Norway supports three major Wikipedia language branches, theBokmål/Riksmål version, which rounded 300,000 articles and its tenth million edit this year, theNynorsk version, which is currently nearing 75,000 articles, andSámegielat (Sami) Wikipedia, a minority language version with 3,700 articles.
The Folkeopplysningsprisen has been awarded by the Voksenopplæringsforbundet (The Norwegian Association for Adult Learning) on an annual basis since 1998, to "celebrate individuals, groups, organizations or institutions that make a continuous effort beyond the ordinary to lay the ground for liberation, cooperation, growth and development through knowledge". The award waspresented to Wikimedia Norway in a ceremony inOslo on October 28, during NAAL's annual conference. "This is the first such recognition Wikipedia Norway has received, and we hope the award will help pave the way for us and others to promote the growth of free knowledge in Norwegian languages," said Wikimedia Norway's chairperson, Jarle Vines, who accepted the reward on behalf of the organization. The award had previously been given to, among others, the paleontologist and popularizer of scienceJørn Hurum, the radio stationNRK P2, and the television programSchrödingers katt.
TheToday's Featured Article for Halloween 2011,The Human Centipede (First Sequence) led to one of thehottest debates atthe Main Page discussion in October. The article, created and developed byCoolug andjust recently promoted to featured status, was the subject of complaints focused on the graphic nature of the blurb, including theimage originally included and the use of the term "mouth-to-anus". While the debate was raging, the article received136,500 hits.
Meanwhile,Did You Know? (DYK) ran fourteen blurbs, on topics including cemeteries, ghosts, murderers,Ghost Frogs, and awrestler nicknamed Lucifer. One of the articles featured,Eternal Silence, received71,800 views while on the Main Page. This makes it thethird most-viewed DYK article ever, afterPaul the Octopus andEuthanasia Coaster. According to article creatorIvoShandor, "I really didn't intend on doing an article on the statue when I first went to see it, but when I came across Eternal Silence I was stopped in my tracks, it literally took my breath away. I can only hope that the effect of the article on others was in some way similar to the effect that the sculpture had on me in person." The sets, althoughinitially questioned thematically, weregenerally well-received.
Further down the page, thePicture of the Day(at right) was of anécorché, or flayed figure, riding a horse; theécorché was prepared by anatomistHonoré Fragonard. The image, created byJulia W as a derivative work of a picture byJebulon, was viewed by18,700 readers, but did not attract much commentary.
The UK Wikimedia chapter, which was founded in November 2008 and approved as a chapter by the Wikimedia Foundation in January 2009, wasawarded charity status by the UK Charities Commission late last week. The chapter, which is particularly active inGLAM and university outreach, recently hired as its first two employees an office manager and CEO, and is currently looking into expandingits outreach programs in Scotland.
Wikimedia UK chair Roger Bamkin (Victuallers) had this to say:
| “ | “Achieving charitable status is the culmination of much hard work by the Board... Wikimedia UK is anticipating another successful year of outreach work, building on the time, dedication and effort of a wonderful group of volunteers in the Wikimedia community.” | ” |
The news came just before the annual fundraiser, during which the UK chapter plans to raise £1 million; the decision is likely to be worth over a hundred thousand pounds a year to the UK chapter as donors who pay UK tax can now have their donation topped up by the tax office viaGift Aid. It also enables the chapter to use other forms of fundraising such aspayroll giving. In related news, the Wikimedia Foundation has been busy this week preparing for the fundraiser, as a peek inSpecial:RecentChanges shows.
The promotion of open access to content and user-generated and -enriched content has not, until now, been recognised as a charitable purpose under UK law. However, the chapter's recognition as a charity marks a significant step forward in changing views in the UK, and developments in modern communications and the evolution of user-generated content.
Actually, "Folkeopplysningsprisen" is in the definite form, so there probably shouldn't be any articles (same goes for "Voksenopplæringsforbundet").Lampman (talk)06:23, 10 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]
