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Wikimedia Ireland

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This page is the landing page for a possible establishment of a 'chapter', an active community group has been established since 2014. Please see Wikimedia Community Ireland for the active community group.

This page is for discussion of the possible establishment of a Irish chapter of Wikimedia.

A Wikimedia chapters is an independent organizations founded to support and promote Wikimedia projects in a specified geographical region. A Wikimedia chapter is not a cabal and is not involved directly in content creation on Wikipedia or any other project. See What could a Wikimedia Ireland do? below.

Discussion on establishing a Wikimedia chapter in Ireland is currently taking place on Wikimedia Ireland mailing list.

Interested users

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Please add your name below if you would like to help out or take part.

Consider linking to your user page on the project you are most known on (e.g. use [[w:en:User:User_name|User_name]] or [[w:ga:User_name|User_name]]). At this stage it is not necessary to reveal your real-life identity. Depending on your level of involvement, it may be necessary to do so in future.

Discussion is currently taking place on the Wikimedia Ireland mailing list. If you are interested, please join in. All are welcome!

What could a Wikimedia Ireland do?

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Because a chapter is an (officially recognised) organisation, it is able to do some things more effectively than individual Wikimedians alone. For example, a local chapter could:

  • Answer media criticism of Wikipedia in Ireland and act as a contact point for questions.
  • Convince the estates of deceased Irish authors to donate works to Wikisource.
  • Ask Irish newspapers and television media to donate an archive of photographs of events in Irish history to the Wikimedia Commons.
  • Organise Wikipedia info/training days in Irish universities, cities and local communities.
  • Get universities, schools and public libraries to put a link to Wikisource on their PCs.
  • Get artists' management agencies to release photographs of Irish artists for use on Wikipedia articles.
  • Convince the Department of Communications to have as a requirement for state-aided broadband, that operators have a Wikipedia search box on their customer start pages.
  • Work with Irish teachers' organisations to create curriculums around Wikimedia content.
  • Set up a "wikipedia.ie" website. Such a website might be a version of Wikipedia that is specifically tailored for Irish audiences e.g. a custom Irish-interest main page, specific search features for Irish towns, biographies, etc.
  • Make Irish-interest publications of Wikimedia content e.g. a book form publication of a Wikimedia guide to Irish history. Or facilitate commercial publishers to do.
  • Apply for a budget (to the Wikimedia Foundation and/or to the state) to pay for specific content generation projects. For example, such a project may be to pay someone to take photographs of a specific list of buildings across Ireland. Once we get off the ground, we could even raise our own funds to do this (with membership fees and such).
  • Make representations on behalf of the Irish Wikimedia community directly to the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • Facilitate an offline network of Irish Wikipedians, e.g. organise meet-ups (maybe even with a budget for beer!) or to help editors coordinate offline work (e.g. a group of editors might coordinate taking photographs for a specific set of articles)
  • Encourage Irish wikipedians to become full members with active user pages to enable feedback and assessment.

There is already a page for Projects which may start before we having an official Wikimedia Ireland chapter.

Requirements to establish a local chapter

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Main article: Requirements for future chapters
  • Mission: "The mission of the organisation must be in line with the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation."
  • Geographical base: "The chapter is geographically based/anchored in a legal jurisdiction."
    • Geographically based in the island of Ireland
    • Legally based in the Republic of Ireland
  • Structure: "The chapter must have a legal structure/corporation that is legally independent from the Wikimedia Foundation."
  • Contributor involvement: "The chapter must involve contributors to the Wikimedia projects"
  • Critical mass: "The chapter must involve a critical mass of participants."
    • Requires 10—20 members minimum

Setting up

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Main article: Step-by-step chapter creation guide

Current stage in setting up the chapter is highlighted in bold and with an arrow ("→").

  • → Step 1: Gather the people
    • 10—20 user willing to be members are required to establish a chapter.
    • Minimum eight required for legal registration as a Friendly Society in Ireland.
    • Minimum 7 shareholders for a company limited by guarantee not having a share capital (max 99)
    • Minimum 7 members for a co-op
  • Step 2: Write the bylaws (See draft here)
  • Step 3: Submit bylaws to the chapters committee for approval
  • Step 4: Register with the authorities
  • Step 5: Get some money
  • Step 6: Go!
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Setting up

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