#betacowork ; a great place to work in #Brussels

In time for #FOSDEM; #Wikimedia people were looking for a place to work, have great connectivity and talk shop. At BetaGroup Coworking we found a warm welcome, and experienced how its customers are provided with what they need. For us it was a white board and guess what, someone brought chocolate cake..

We found a quiet spot where we discussed the usability and the user interface of the Translate functionality. Having Jon Harald with us proved to be a boon. He did the project management for the Fundraiser localisations and brought us a large amount of observations and suggestions.

Having a white board allowed us to easily visualise our ideas and as easily replace them with something else, something better. Once we achieved a common understanding, Jon Harald's input was translated in a "user story" by Siebrand and this will eventually end up as more work for Niklas.

PS According to Jon Harald it is not cold ... not cold enough to wear a coat.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikimedia #Netherlands #NewYear reception

The Dutch chapter organised its start of the New Year again in a Museum. What was not clear was that you had to register because there is a limit to how many people can have a tour at the same time. It was SO popular, that it was oversubscribed before this registered on most of us. The Teylers museum prepared a spectacular tour for us; it included a look at the first print of the Diderot and  d’Alembert encyclopaedia.

For the Wikipedians this is obviously a treat: seeing the first Western encyclopaedia and knowing that Wikipedia is just the latest incarnation of what started in the Enlightenment is quite awesome.

At the reception it became clear how many of the regular Wikimedians were absent. However, when several of the people present participate in the Teyler's writing challenge,  it will be proven well worth it.

Other subjects that were discussed were quite diverse as well;

• a Geograph project for the Netherlands and combining this with the Wikimedia smartphone apps
• statistics and whether the API data use is included
• having pictures of persons on the Internet with or without names
• ...

All in all a magnificent start of the year for Wikimedia Nederland.

Thanks,

      GerardM

Dutch chapter's annual meeting

Annual meetings have their compulsory parts: the minutes of the last meeting, the monetary parts and the discharge of the treasurer, the board. The choosing of a new board. The plans for the coming year.

There were eight wonderful candidates and only six seats on the board. I am happy with the new board but I feel sad for Wutsje and Ziko that they were not elected.

The plans for the new year are promising: the intention is to professionalise the operations of the "vereniging". Many of the projects that are under way have to do with cultural heritage. A conference like the GLAM conference in Australia, contacts with several interesting cultural heritage organisations. Plans for cycle tours showing monuments and other artefacts .. it is a long list.

As is usual, we had a meal afterwards and many of the details, the tall stories, were told. My impression was one of a chapter that is going places.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Dutch chapter's annual meeting

Yesterday I went to the annual meeting of the Dutch chapter. In a way it was a celebration of the things that went well. There was a lot that went well. In another way it was the moment to reflect on the things that did not go as well as was hoped for. For me it is always great to have such a group of wonderful people in one place.

The ambitions for this and the next year are high. We hope that Wikimania 2010 will come to the Netherlands. The aim is to extend and intensify our contacts with organisations and government so that we can promote a more inclusive and open culture. Thanks to Wikiportret we have uploaded many portraits of famous Dutch people to Commons for instance this one of Carice van Houten.. At the meeting the first tentative arrangements were made to internationalise this project for other countries and other languages.

At an annual meeting, there are the obvious and boring things, the financial statements the discharge of the trearurer, the old board, the election of a new board. All these things happened. What I like most is having so many interesting people together, learning what they have been up to.
Thanks,
GerardM

Closed curtains

Yesterday, as part of the News Year event of three Dutch Open Content organisations, we had a guided tour of de Wallen, the famous red light district of Amsterdam. Even though the area is world famous, there is much more then meets the eye. Our guide was able to provide us with an astonishing wealth of details and, us being mostly Wikipedians we noticed the friezes in the classicist style, we wondered if next to the head of Zeus it was Hera where others had only eyes for the scantily clad ladies in the many windows. I must say they reminded me of a Patti Page song.

On a more serious note the relative merits of a red-light district were mentioned. With a decreased official tolerance for prostitution, more and more illegal brothels pop up all over the country. The girls are typically illegal and often forced in to prostitution.

At the end of the tour we made a group photo in front of a house with the curtains drawn. It is certain that Paul has an alibi as well, he took the picture ... :)
Thanks,
      GerardM

Amsterdam

Today the Wikimedia Vereniging Nederland and Creative Commons Nederland have their new year's do. The first part of the meeting will be about photos and making them available under a CC license. There will be a tour of Amsterdam, it will be fun.

In order to make the photos even more interesting, we have proposed to revisit the places where these historical pictures were taken. In the nineteenth century people did not travel in the same way as we do today. Publishers had photographers travel the world to bring the world closer to people by selling cards. Many of such cards ended up in archives like the Library of Congress.

Durova has promissed to restore at least two of these pictures when they get their modern equivalent. These old pictures are gorgeous, have a look at this picture of the Dam with Naatje still on it.

 

Thanks,

    GerardM