Archiv/2012-Annual-Report
Internal Affairs
Membership
- 26 November 2010: 58 members
- 10 Dezember 2011: 81 members
- 28 November 2012: 105 members
10 members have left since 2010.
Finances
As mentioned in the previous report, accounting was now switched to a web-based system, which administers all contacts of the society and integrates bookings and membership. As part of the process, transaction costs were added to the book-keeping and membership fees demanded much more effectively.
The new accounting system allows for live monitoring of bookings and transactions:
http://www.wikimedia.at/wmse/audit/public
Movements on nominal accounts, compare financial year/calendar year and budget:
| Account | Budget 2012 | 01.09.2011 - 31.08.2012 | 01.01.2012 - 28.11.2012 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0900 Acquisition of assets | 24.788,59 EUR | 24.788,59 EUR | |
| 0901 AfA | -4.019,66 EUR | -4.019,66 EUR | |
| 4010 WMF Grant | 131.200,00 EUR | - EUR | |
| 4031 Direct donations public | 10.799,09 EUR | 2.320,00 EUR | |
| 4032 Direct donations anonymous | 4.552,06 EUR | 420,00 EUR | |
| 4040 Donations (manual booking) | 4.373,07 EUR | 3.687,90 EUR | |
| 4051 membership fees (automatic booking) | 110,00 EUR | 245,00 EUR | |
| 4052 membership fees (manual booking) | 1.565,00 EUR | 685,00 EUR | |
| 7011 Wikimania | 15.000,00 EUR | -17.246,81 EUR | -14.299,08 EUR |
| 7012 Wikimedia Conference | 1.200,00 EUR | -4.086,23 EUR | -3.145,78 EUR |
| 7013 Literature scholarship | 1.500,00 EUR | -1.972,88 EUR | -1.028,71 EUR |
| 7014 Wiki Loves Monuments | 7.000,00 EUR | -13.701,19 EUR | -5.790,58 EUR |
| 7015 Photography projects Austria | 13.000,00 EUR | -3.069,56 EUR | -5.305,04 EUR |
| 7016 International aid | 3.500,00 EUR | -1.282,34 EUR | -1.282,34 EUR |
| 7017 International Wikimedia editorial meetings | 4.000,00 EUR | -1.039,76 EUR | -1.039,76 EUR |
| 7018 WikiConvention | 3.500,00 EUR | 23.704,71 EUR | -1.309,52 EUR |
| 7019 Materials for promoting voluneering | 9.000,00 EUR | - EUR | - EUR |
| 7020 Admont Monastery / Wikisource project | 5.000,00 EUR | -3.441,86 EUR | -3.441,86 EUR |
| 7021 Infrastructure and programming project | 6.500,00 EUR | -8.159,73 EUR | -1.825,30 EUR |
| 7022 Library project | 4.600,00 EUR | - EUR | - EUR |
| 7111 School and university projects | 5.000,00 EUR | -33,24 EUR | -2.033,24 EUR |
| 7112 Public relations / Adverstising material | 6.000,00 EUR | -7.189,84 EUR | -6.092,82 EUR |
| 7113 GLAM / Open Content | 3.500,00 EUR | - EUR | -2.000,00 EUR |
| 7200 Open budget | 5.000,00 EUR | - EUR | - EUR |
| 7210 Community budget | 26.000,00 EUR | -5.884,22 EUR | -6.140,65 EUR |
| 7211 Photographic equipment | -17.158,00 EUR | -17.158,00 EUR | |
| 7520 General meeting | 1.800,00 EUR | -1.768,40 EUR | - EUR |
| 7710 Office rent and equipment | 4.250,00 EUR | - EUR | -4.187,50 EUR |
| 7720 Legel expenses | 1.500,00 EUR | -3.553,08 EUR | -2.653,08 EUR |
| 7730 Internal IT | 800,00 EUR | -5.276,90 EUR | -4.089,28 EUR |
| 7740 Office supplies | 1.350,00 EUR | -52,66 EUR | -52,66 EUR |
| 7750 Administration and office management | 12.000,00 EUR | -2.484,50 EUR | -5.371,31 EUR |
| 7760 Accounting | 6.600,00 EUR | -1.099,60 EUR | -1.099,60 EUR |
| 7771 Banking fees | -1.054,38 EUR | -805,11 EUR | |
| 7772 Capital returns tax | -151,35 EUR | -146,97 EUR | |
| 7773 Interests | 605,41 EUR | 587,68 EUR | |
| 7780 Internal communication | 400,00 EUR | -2.055,30 EUR | -2.064,86 EUR |
| 7790 Insurances | -1.048,88 EUR | -1.501,74 EUR | |
| 7800 Work of the board | -3.780,06 EUR | -3.510,50 EUR | |
| 7999 Other expenses | -2.329,90 EUR | -1.667,00 EUR | |
| 9021 Advancements | -182,20 EUR | 0,00 EUR |
Movements on nominal accounts, compare financial year/calendar year and budget:
| Account | 01.09.2011 - 31.08.2012 | 01.01.2012 - 28.11.2012 |
|---|---|---|
| Credit card | -2.565,63 EUR | 0,00 EUR |
| General checking account (Krentschker) | 7.028,46 EUR | -61,74 EUR |
| General savings account (Krentschker) | 55.497,27 EUR | 5.383,39 EUR |
| Grant checking account (Krentschker) | 4.523,15 EUR | -108.409,09 EUR |
| Grant savings account (Krentschker) | 75.000,00 EUR | 10.000,00 EUR |
Strategy
On the 20 and 21 April the board Wikimedia Austria met in Graz in order to consult about the future of the society, its strategic goals, annual aims and work out a structure and its realisation. We were resolved to set the framework for the next three years (2012-2015).
After gathering tasks and activities, we set up the following portofolios:
*Society - Infrastructure / Organisaiton (Operational processes and activities)
*International work - Conference scholarships / Chapters cooperation aid / Project coordiation
*Community work - Content: promotion of content production for Wikimedia projects / Community building: trust etc.
*External - Cooperation with like-minded organisations / Lobbying / Scientific work / Educaitonal work / GLAM etc.
The discussion showed rather clearly that:
- Community work is of pivotal importance for us and already a very successful part of the society's work. This is our main goal (50% weighting).
- External affairs were barely a part of our work while they support the main goal in many ways. We would like to expand this important area and therefore make it an auxiliary goal (30% weighting).
- International work is also an auxiliary goal, since it supports the main goal in various areas (Wikimania scholarships, Wiki Loves Monuments) and we're part of an international movement (20% weighting).
- The society needs to be sized and positioned according to these aims and is therefore an infrastructural goal.
In order to do justice to our current size and organisational level, we're focusing on one central goal, namely community work. This main goal is being aided by two auxiliary goals, external and international work. These two areas have to be seen as additional aims that support and complement our main goal. Coming from this we have defined yearly goals including measures for the different areas, which we want to achieve. This last part was the most time and effort consuming during the discussions.
Afterwards we took up discussion on the shape and form of our organisational structure that would be necessary to achieve the above mentioned goals and to run the society. This culminated in a first job description for a secretery. The plan is to initially distribute the workload to this position and part time manpower or further positions developed by the secretary. This way the society's work can be stabilised and set on an ongoing, continuous basis. This is intended to develop the foundation for the work of the coming years.
The details can be found in a somewhat rudimental form at http://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/Projekte/Zukunft. The raw material for this document can be sighted at http://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/Projekte/Zukunft/Protokoll as a protocol.
Denis Barthel
Staff
After a job advertisement in the newspapers "Standard", "Presse" and "Kleinen Zeitung" there was a several stages long selection process for the selection of a secretary. Finally Claudia Garad from Stuttgart was awarded the position. She moved to Vienna and dedictes herself from 1 October 2012 to the buliding up of our office there. Ruben Demus continued to work on a service contract, supporting several projects, including Wiki Loves Monuments 2012, the Ortsbildmesse, assisting municipalities, Photography workshops and school projects. The development of our staff was welcomed by the Wikimedia Foundation, the FDC however mentioned that our staff needs to gather more experience and should be expanded further. Wikimedia Sweden, for instance, has three permanent positions in the WLM/GLAM/Outreach sphere and hires additional support on service contracts. At Wikimedia Austria we are aiming at developing our backoffice capabilities in our office in Vienna as a first phase.
Fundraising Certificate
The Fundraising Certificate (Spendengütesiegel) is a quality seal for organisation collecting donations in Austria and guarantees quality standards, transparency and control. Its aim is to improve the security and trustworthiness of fundraising campaigns. In order to be allowed to use the seal, WMAT has to be audited yearly by an independent chartered accountant. There are seven auditing areas including the "correctness of financial accounting", the "integrity of the fundraising promotion and the responsibility for its regulation" as well as the the "statutable and designated use of donations", i.e. according to what was annouced during the funraising process. In total the organisaiton applying has to fulfill 35 criteria checked by a list of more than 300 quesitons in order to receive the „Spendengarantie-Ausweis“ badge of the Austrian chamber of chartered public accountants and tax consultants (Kammer der Wirtschaftstreuhänder - KWT). WMAT has submitted the necessary documentation which is currently being checked.
Regulation on Travel Expenses
Never before since the founding of our society in Austria have so many people participated in activities relating to Free Knowledge as in 2012. This doesn't always take place in the place thy live, oftentime volunteers were travelling across Austria and beyond. As part of their engagement they sacrifice their time and energy for the common cause. Having this in mind it is more than appropriate if the society supports them when it comes to travel expenses, which are sometimes a considerable part of the total cost of participation.
Travel expenses financing requests were already on the increas in 2011. In order to be predictable and fair vis-à-vis the volunteers and to be able to repsonsibly handle funds, the board adopted a travel expenses by-law in January 2012. Some details were improved in the course of the year, overall the expectations were confirmed and we now have a more simple and more balanced way to distribute the funds in this crucial area for the success of our society.
Fundraising Congress
Even if Wikimedia Austria can't itself become active in the yearly Wikimedia fundraising campaign, there are numerous other possiblities and situations to bid for support. In order to use these potentials in the best possible way, Wikimedia Austria is as of this year member of the Funraising Association of Austria (Fundraising Verband Austria - FVA). The FVA is an information and networking platform for non-profit organisaitons. Especially the annual Fundraising Congress is an excellent opportunity to to keep up with latest developments and trends, get inspiried and gather contacts in this sector. This year our secretary Claudia Garád was able to attend this event for WMAT. As part of our membership we are granted access to important basic knowledge and information about strategic financial planning.
Projects
ICANN
Wikimedia Austria became member of the ICANN in 2012 and was therefor accredited as a "At-large Structure" what made them a member of the "At-large Community".
The ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is an international organisation primarily dealing with the granting of names (Domains) and addresses (IP-Adresses) on the internet. While the ICANN is not doing this by itself it delegates the tasks to regional and national registrars. Therefor ICANN is mainly monitoring and setting up requirements for them, what makes ICANN one of the leading authorities of the internet and its regulation. This sets ICNAN partially in direct competition to other authorities such as IETF, IEEE (technological standards) and ITU (conventional telecommunication infrastructure).
Since the ICANN became independent from the United States Department of Commerce it has got a so-called "multiple stakeholder"-structure, which means, that it is holded and controlled by various pressure groups, such as governments, the economy and the society (where the "At-large structure" is situated).
As a member of the ICANN Wikimedia Austria now has full access to the work of the ICANN, is able to participate there and is via the internal mailinglists informed about recent discussions regarding the "internet government". The main reason for WMAT to become a member of the ICANN was our interest in topics regarding neutrality and open accessibility to the internet, which is important to ensure that the society is still able to influence the development of the internet, because the society still runs the Wikimedia projects. Until now WMAT is not taking an aktive part in the ICANN because the organisation is larger and more complex than the Wikimedia-movement, additionally there is a lack of time for the participation on larger events such as WSIS, IGF and EuroDIG. WMATs commitment at the ICANN is free of costs and in the long term. The main task is at the moment to monitor processes and discussions and give notice, if any interesting topics are coming up.
WMAT is represented at the ICANN by Manuel Schneider and Kurt Kulac. Manuel is already active at the ICANN for WMCH and since 2010 board member of the EURALO (European Regional At-Large Organisation).
- Application for accommodation at the ICANN by WMAT (17.1.2012)
- ICANN-Announcement of the accommodation of WMAT as the 162th ALS (25.4.2012)
Manuel Schneider
Wiki Women Camp
Regarding to a study of the Wikimedia Foundation in 2010 one of the main problems of the Wikimedia-movement at the moment is a lack of female editors. Therefor various concepts have been elaborated and activities have been set up to change this fact.
One of these activities was the WikiWomenCamp in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 23rd to 25th of May 2012, which should take influence on the direct activities of the women as well as beeing a strategy meeting for further thoughts. Some involved female Wikimedians organised this conference especially for women. As a part of this organisation they had a look at all countries examining the situation for women there:
Wikimedia Austria was supporting this conference with an ammount of 5.000 EUR to enable female Wikimedians from Austria to participate in the conference. Unfortunately despite various announcements and invitations at the public mailinglists, the website and WMATs internal Wiki there was no interested participant from Austria. In addition WMAT hold an ammount of 2.000 EUR for the conference, which was given to WMDE by the organisers to support additional participants by an international scholarship.
In the end 23 participants met for three days at Buenos Aires and disussed in 16 Workshops and meetings about the lack of female editors in the Wikimedia-projects and how to solve this problem.
Manuel Schneider
Photography Project
What began last year with an expensive equipment acquisition and the setting of ambitious objectives turned out to be a major project for Wikimedia Austria. There is hardly a week without a request for an accreditation and a transport of WMATs noticeable camera equipment somewhere.
WMAT still uses its existing contacts to football-clubs and the -league as well as responding to individual wishes of Wikipedians. But especially these wishes are what makes this project this notable. Because at first the wishes and requirements of the Community are making the results of the project so diverese.
Not only sports and nature-photographs but also pictures of celebrities such as politicians, actors and rock musicians are now categorised at the project-category with nearly 7000 pictures on Wikimedia Commons. Not only the doubtlessness of the photographers which handle the equipment but also WMATs self-confidence has raised in the last year, so that we also ask at large and important events for an accreditation for our photographers. Let's see, where we are going next in the name of Wikimedia-projects. Evereything's possible!
Photography Workshop Nuremberg
In March 2012 I participated as the only Austrian participant at the Wikipedia photography workshop in Nuremberg. Besides the exchange of experiences with numerous other Wikimedia-photographers the topics of the workshop were the "Landtagsprojekte" (Projects to photograph the memebers of the regional assemblies in Germany and Austria), Focus Stacking, problems with owners of national heritage monuments and neutrality in photographing of modern buildings. I did'nt participate at the main topic, nude photography but was still able to gain experience at handling the flash-module.
In October I was participating a second time at the photography workshop in Nuremberg. There have been talks about a potentially upcomming "cultureclash" between authors and photographers, Hugin, Divas in front of the camera and the operation of flash. Additionally there has been an excursion through Nuremberg and a tampon and a model railway have been photographed.
Aliura
Photography Workshop Vienna
In spring, there was a own photography workshop held in Vienna especially for Austrian photographers. The workshop took place at the "Wiener Medienzentrum", a premises of the city of Vienna, where the participants brought their individual camera-equipment with them and were coached by the lecturer. It has been a personal gain for every single participant – for the beginners as well as for the professionals. Everyone was surprised by the quality of pictures which can be made with very low-budget-cameras. At the end of the day there were some exercises done and the lecturer showed some tricks at dealing with various lighting conditions.
On the eve of the previous day Olaf Kosinsky from WMDE met the photographers in Vienna to tell them about his "Landtagsprojekt" at which the objective is to photograph the memebers of the regional assemblies in Germany and Austria. This meeting led to an intensive cooperation with photographers of Austria which were especially involved in the shootings at the Bavarian regional assembly (Bayrischer Landtag) and the Regional assembly of Salzburg (Salzburger Landtag). Detailled information about this project are available in section Landtag Project in this Annual Report.
Wikipedia Get-together of the Biology Editorial Team
Like in the last years Wikimedia Austria supported the meeting of the Biology Editorial Team of the german-language Wikipedia by compensating for travelcosts of participants. This years get-together took place at Podgorje in Slowenia. A car was rented with wich the participants traveled to expeditions in several areas around Podgorje, including the 1014 meters high mountain Slavnik. Not only four Austrian Wikimedians, but also members of the communities of Germany and Slowenia took part in the get-together.
Furthermore the Wikipedians gained insight into the fieldwork of an entomologist, access to nature protection areas and markable biotopes. Througout the numerous expeditions they were able to take pictures of unique animals of the karst, which were uploaded at the Wikimedia Commons. The identification of these animals was no problem with the help of some scientists and their books. The cooperation with the Slowenian Wikipedians is going to be continued next year.
Hackathon Berlin
With the support of Wikimedia Austria I was able to participate in the "Berlin Hackathon 2012" at the begin of June this year. About 100 technically interested Wikipedians, Wikimedians and Mediawikians got there together to work on projects collaborative, share news and for socializing. Additionally to the work on my tools I was able to have some good conversations and listen to some speeches.
A speech by Tim Starling about next years plan to introduce a real programming language for the creation of templates gave us a first insight into the Scribunto-extension of MediaWiki. Although it is supporting all popular programming languages, in the Wikimedia-projects preliminarily only the language Lua is going to be established. Further speeches were about the usage of the new revision-management for MediaWiki under Git&Gerrit by Patrick Reilly and about tipps for the improvement of MySQL-Statements by Roan Kattouw.
Solanaceaen Congress
From the 26 to the 30th of August the SOL2012 took place in the swiss town of Neuchâtel [1] - a conference abou the nightshade family plants. For the first time such a scientific congress was supported and sponsored by a Wikimedia chapter (in this case CH). By taking care of the travel expenses Wikimedia Austria allowed Cartse Stiller [2] - the most active contributor on the German Wikipedia when it comes to nightshade family plants - to visit this event. On location he was able - together with Charles Andrès (board member Wikimedia CH) and Daniel Mietchen (Wikimedia DE) - to contact and interact with the people whose work he ususally covers and explains while editing articles.
The present scientists were given an understanding of Wikipedia and the wider work of Wikimedia. This happened during the Wikipedia workshop [3], which was part of the conference schedule, as well as in plenty conversations. The main conservation topics were how Wikipedia works, how the scientists can help improve the articles in their field of expertise and how crucial Open Access is in the diffusion of research results outside of the science community.
Currently the contacts gained during the conference are being maintained with the idea to foster new cooperations and to build up further exchanges between the science world and Wikipedia. A first, direct success can already be reported. The article Nicotiana attenuata [4] created by Carstor for demonstration purposes during the workshop was further improved after the conference for a writing contest where it won the 5th place.
- http://www.sol2012.ch/
- http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Carstor
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Daniel_Mietchen/Talks/SOL_2012
- http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotiana_attenuata
User:Carstor
WikiCup and Writing Contest
The WikiCup and the Wikipedia Writing Contest were supported by Wikimedia Austria by providing prizes. The main prize was each time a weekend in Vienna (including invitation to the regulars' table). Im the WikiCup contest, which takes place during the course the year, all particianpts of every round received a specially designed t-shirt. These t-shirts were ordered in very limited quantities and soon become popular souvenirs and thereby fulfilled their purpose, to motivate the participants to take part in the next round.
Wiki TV
WikiTV is a community-project that traces its roots back tot he Wikipedia anniversry celebrations in 2011. Then, a first TV show was produced online in cooperation with the ORF (Austrian Public Broadcaster). Over the following months other video projects were added to that cooperation so that by the end of the year funds from the Community project budget were requested.
In March 2012 the WikiTV project received a 36.000 Euro budget from Wikimedia Deutschland. With these funds a camera was acquired, a large amount of the money remains unspent. Due to the amount of work required by the WikiCon the project developped only slowly until now, still several kilometer stones were reached:
- The camera was used for the first time at the Wikipedia Academy (29-30 June). Marco Fleckinger spontaneously found enough free time to go to Berlin to attend the event. The goal here was to gather experiences with the new device.
- A un unexpected collaboration with the German TV station NRW.TV took place during the LinuxDay 2012. The ComputerClub2, a very successful TV show in Germany which ran for decades on WDR (West German Public Broadcaster), wanted to question the organisers of the event. WikiTV and ORF established a connection from Berlin via Vienna to Düsseldorf, which allowed for an interview in the highest possible TV quality. We were also able to present WikiTv during the show, whose recording we keep, but still haven't secured a release under a free license.
- At the Wikimania the technology was presented in front of a full room and the idea of WikiTv was spread internationally. In Sweden a similar project is already taking place, in the Czech Republic it is in the workings.
- During the Wikimania we spontaneously visited the ORF-Centre in Washington D.C. After a very interesting tour with the correspondent Wolfgang Geier the local team shot a short interview. Well packaged this appeared about one week later as a short film in the Austrian news broadcast "Zeit im Bild 2".
- At the WikiCon 2012 the project was presented in a short session. The following workshop attracted new interested participants and answered detailled questions.
- We were further able to gather experiences at the open SUSECon in Prague. At the event in October we helped the filming crew in several rooms simultaneously. The know-how and contacts gained during this event can be subsequently used to tape-record and cut various presentations at OpenSource events.
Book Scanner Project
- Budget: 5000,00 EUR
- Expenses: 3441.86 EUR
- Responsible person: Heinz Egger