Wikimedia UK Blog

Introducing George Colbourn – our new Fundraising Development Coordinator

15 February 2021

In January we started the year as we mean to go on, by ensuring that Wikimedia UK is sustainable for the future. We grew our fundraising capacity by recruiting George Colbourn for the newly created role of Fundraising Development Coordinator. George joins our Development and Communications Team, headed by Natasha Iles, and accompanied by Katie Crampton… read more »

Editing Wikipedia: Stars, robots and talismans honours course

15 December 2020

By Glaire Anderson, Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art at the University of Edinburgh. I have steered my students away from Wikipedia for years, envisioning my role as a teacher to show students how to carry out ‘real’ research. But this year convinced me it was time to change my attitude, and so for 2020’s Fall term… read more »

London College of Communications – decolonisation through Wikipedia

25 November 2020

Written by the London College Communications Teaching Hub for their blog. Back in April and May we collaborated with London College of Communications students and staff around decolonising Wikipedia, building on work they’ve been doing to decolonise the curriculum. As part of that we are looking at a partnership with a focus on decolonisation, the visibility… read more »

Introducing Natasha Iles, our new Head of Development and Communications

10 November 2020

In October we recruited for a role that we have long known will be critical to the sustainability of Wikimedia UK’s vital work. Having a Head of Development and Communications gives us a strategic approach to our public image, fundraising, and external outreach. We wanted the role to be in senior management, leading a new… read more »

Happy Birthday Wikidata!

30 October 2020

It’s Wikidata’s 8th birthday today, and we’re incredibly proud of Wikipedia’s lesser known little sister. Twenty years ago an incredible idea was made reality in the form of a democratic encyclopedia built from the bottom up, all by volunteers with no corporate influence or advertisement. Now, there are many projects related to Wikipedia that make… read more »

Scots Wiki – moving forward

27 October 2020

By Dr Sara Thomas, Scotland Programme Coordinator As Wikimedia UK, we work to support language communities living in, or connected to the UK. This translates to a range of projects, including Scots Wikipedia. Up until recently, there were only a relatively small number of regular, active editors of sco.wiki. However, as of the end of… read more »

Education booklet – Imperial College London

19 October 2020

Extract from the Education booklet case study, written by Wikimedia UK and University of Edinburgh. Earlier this year we produced a booklet with the University of Edinburgh, bringing together a collection of case studies from across the UK in order to provide insight into the use of the Wikimedia projects in education. It is our… read more »

Introducing Mapping the Scottish Reformation: Clerics, Manuscripts, and Open Data

5 October 2020

Between 1560 and 1689, there were some 1,100 parishes in Scotland, each one served by a minister who, ideally, preached sermons once or twice a week, offered communion at least once a year, visited the sick and dying, oversaw the behaviour and morality of his neighbours, alongside a host of other responsibilities. As the Protestant… read more »

Online training for online trainers – a response to COVID-19

10 September 2020

By Sara Thomas, Scotland Programme Coordinator. At the beginning of the lockdown period in the UK, the Programmes Team, along with our network of Wikimedians in Residence, got to work on exploring how we could continue to support our community and partner organisations. We discussed ways in which we could offer engagement with the Wikimedia… read more »

Reflections on Roberta’s internship as it comes to an end

10 August 2020

In 2019 Wikimedia UK, Archaeology Scotland and The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland recruited a graduate intern through the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities Internship programme. These funded placements give PhD researchers the opportunity to spend up to three months with a partner organisation; improving their research skills and giving them an opportunity to… read more »