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Wikimedia UK (WMUK) is a
registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...
established to support volunteers in the United Kingdom who work on
Wikimedia projects The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundati ...
such as
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
. As such, it is a
Wikimedia chapter Wikimedia chapters are national or sub-national not-for-profit organizations created to promote the interests of Wikimedia projects locally. Chapters are legally independent of the Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or ...
approved by the
Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best kno ...
, which owns and hosts those projects. Wikimedia UK started out as Wiki Educational Resources Limited, but due to financial difficulties and other problems the organisation dissolved and was replaced by Wiki UK Limited. After its first attempt to gain
charitable status A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...
in 2009 failed, the group subsequently made changes to its charter in order to satisfy the charity criteria and was recognized as a charity in 2011. During the same year, WMUK added full-time staff and established a permanent office in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. The chapter has several collaborations with museums and other institutions and has organised events for volunteers aimed at adding content to Foundation projects. Several of the organisation's board members have been involved in controversies related to their contributions to Wikipedia, including claims that the Gibraltarpedia collaboration organised by a trustee was being used for promotional purposes.


History

The first iteration of Wikimedia UK was founded as Wiki Educational Resources Limited (WER) and was incorporated on 14 February 2006 with Alison Wheeler serving as chair of the board and
Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of WER. WER faced several problems during its time as a chapter organisation that included difficulty in its financing efforts and in its relationship with the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). Its persistent financial difficulties left the organisation with debts it was unable to pay and on 28 August 2008 Wheeler announced on the WMUK mailing list that she was planning to call an
Extraordinary General Meeting An extraordinary general meeting, commonly abbreviated as EGM, is a meeting of members of an organisation, shareholders of a company, or employees of an official body that occurs at an irregular time.' The term is usually used where the group wou ...
to decide on a proposal to dissolve the group. Wiki Educational Resources formally dissolved on 31 March 2009. Wiki UK Limited was incorporated as a private not-for-profit company under the Companies act 2006 on 5 November 2008 and, after the WMF terminated recognition of its predecessor, the organisation was officially recognized as a chapter in January 2009. It applied for official recognition of charitable status to
HM Revenue and Customs HM Revenue and Customs (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, or HMRC) is a non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial Departments of the United Kingdom Government, department of the His Majesty's Government, UK Government responsible fo ...
(HMRC) the same year, but was denied. The HMRC argued that WMUK's purpose of freely disseminating information through Wikipedia would not qualify as charitable unless it included teaching and education as part of its activities. Andrew Turvey, secretary of the WMUK, responded to the ruling by pledging to seek legal advice before appealing the decision. Following the rejection of its registration-application by the HMRC, Wikimedia UK amended its constitution by adopting new Articles of Association derived from an approved model for charitable status and applied to the
Charity Commission , type = Non-ministerial government department , seal = , seal_caption = , logo = Charity Commission for England and Wales logo.svg , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , ...
for registration as a charity, which was granted in November 2011 once WMUK had met the commission's minimum income requirement of £5,000. The Charity Commission had initially rejected WMUK's application as an educational charity but ultimately was able with a little help from WMUK's legal advisers to register it as a library-resource charity. A year later, Wikimedia UK hosted the three-day Wikimedia Fundraising Summit in Bristol. Christopher Brown of Bristol 24-7 described this as the first time the group had "hosted an event of this importance to the global movement." The following January, WMUK organised a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia's founding at
University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...
together with other groups such as the
Bristol City Council Bristol City Council is the local authority of Bristol, England. The council is a unitary authority, and is unusual in the United Kingdom in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Bristol. Bristol has 34 ward ...
and
Bristol Festival of Ideas The Bristol Festival of Ideas is a project established in Bristol, England, which aims "to stimulate people’s minds and passions with an inspiring programme of discussion and debate".Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known on Wikipedia by the pseudonym Jimbo, is an American-British Internet entrepreneur, webmaster, and former financial trader. He is a co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedi ...
gave a public lecture at the celebration. During its 2011 annual conference, Wikimedia UK announced its plans to open a permanent office and hire full-time staff within a year. During its efforts to establish a full-time staff, Wikimedia UK was assisted by several groups and individuals such as the president of
Wikimedia Deutschland Wikimedia chapters are national or sub-national not-for-profit organizations created to promote the interests of Wikimedia projects locally. Chapters are legally independent of the Wikimedia Foundation, entering into an agreement with the founda ...
and prospect-us, a recruitment agency specializing in non-profits, who helped vet candidates for the position of CEO. After introducing the final three CEO candidates to the community at a London "wikimeet" in September, WMUK announced on the 26th of that month that it had chosen Jon Davies, former CEO of
Families Need Fathers Families Need Fathers - Both Parents Matter (FNF), founded in 1974, is a registered charitable social care organization in the United Kingdom that offers information, advice, and support to parents whose children's relationship with them is under ...
, for the position. In a renewed effort to gain official recognition of charitable status, the board of WMUK had called an EGM to approve amended Objects and related charitable clauses in its
Memorandum and Articles of Association In corporate governance, a company's articles of association (AoA, called articles of incorporation in some jurisdictions) is a document which, along with the memorandum of association (in cases where it exists) form the company's constituti ...
pursuant to the advice of their legal team and the Charity Commission. At the meeting, the proposed amendment was passed by a vote of 49 to none. The Commission registered the company as a charity in November 2011, thereby allowing it to claim the
Gift Aid Gift Aid is a UK tax incentive that enables tax-effective giving by individuals to charities in the United Kingdom. Gift Aid was introduced in the Finance Act 1990 for donations given after 1 October 1990, but was originally limited to cash gi ...
tax incentive from HMRC on its donations from UK taxpayers. In its ruling the Commission said that WMUK provided a "public resource" by supporting public access to information through Wikipedia. As it did not serve the charitable purposes specifically outlined in the 2006 Charities Act, the ruling referred to a provision of the act allowing for considerations based on case law. Jonathan Burchfield, a partner from the law firm that represented WMUK in its application, stated that the ruling was unprecedented in charity law. During the proceedings, the group had to prove to the Commission that there were tight controls over Wikipedia content to prevent abuse. Following the ruling, Wikimedia UK stated it would have a fundraising effort aimed at raising a million pounds to support Foundation projects. The chapter opened its new offices in
central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...
on 14 November, changing its registered address from its previous location in
Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
. At its 2012 annual conference on 12 May,
public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...
experts gave a presentation on their efforts to collaborate with Wikimedia. Board member Steve Virgin described these efforts to work with the PR industry as "a positive first step" in establishing best practices to address concerns about the industry's work and conflict of interest editing on Wikipedia. In response to the controversy surrounding Gibraltarpedia, the
Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best kno ...
announced that it was taking control of UK-based donations to the organisation and was appointing an independent investigator to inquire into WMUK's governance standards and processes. The review of WMUK's governance, jointly commissioned by the Wikimedia Foundation and WMUK in October 2012, was carried out by Compass Partnership. The report, released on 7 February 2013, found that the charity's reputation was damaged, and that trustees' conflicts of interest were poorly managed.


Activities

Wikimedia UK has organised or supported many volunteer efforts to contribute to Foundation projects. One such effort was a month-long competition in February 2010 called "Britain Loves Wikipedia" aimed at increasing the amount of freely licensed images available for use on Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia. Participants photographed exhibits at participating museums in order to win cash and other prizes. WMUK has sponsored similar events since then, as well as "edit-a-thons" in order to generate content for Foundation projects. The organisation has collaborations with other institutions such as
The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...
and the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
with event attendees given tours of the institutions so that content can be added to Wikipedia and its sister sites. Wikimedia UK has also worked with the
Herbert Art Gallery and Museum Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (also known as the Herbert) is a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre, media studio and creative arts facility on Jordan Well, Coventry, England. Overview The museum is named after Sir Alfred Herb ...
in
Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
. Wikimedia UK also operates
QRpedia QRpedia is a mobile Web-based system which uses QR codes to deliver Wikipedia articles to users, in their preferred language. A typical use is on museum labels, linking to Wikipedia articles about the exhibited object. QR codes can easily be gene ...
, which uses
QR codes A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...
in museums, archives and other venues so that people viewing exhibits and collections can instantly see related Wikipedia content on mobile devices, in their preferred language, where available. Rights in QRpedia are owned by Cultural Outreach Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of WMUK. WMUK pledged in 2012 that it would provide support to a six-month program establishing a full-time paid
Wikipedian in Residence A Wikipedian in residence or Wikimedian in residence (WiR) is a Wikipedia editor, a Wikipedian (or Wikimedian), who accepts a placement with an institution, typically an art gallery, library, archive, museum, cultural institution, learned socie ...
position at the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
, the longest-lasting position of its kind. Its efforts have included support for the
Monmouthpedia Monmouthpedia (styled as ) is a collaborative project linking the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia and the town of Monmouth in South Wales. The project uses QRpedia QR codes to provide multilingual smart phone access to Wikipedia articles coveri ...
and Gibraltarpedia projects.


Controversies

After obtaining charitable status, Wikimedia UK was exposed to controversies that have received international attention.


Chairman resigns

One such case concerned the group's previous chair, Ashley van Haeften. In July 2012, Wikipedia's
Arbitration Committee On Wikimedia Foundation projects, an Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) is a binding dispute resolution panel of editors. Each of Wikimedia's projects are editorially autonomous and independent, and some of them have established their own ArbComs w ...
ruled that they had violated policies regarding use of multiple accounts and had behaved in an uncivil manner when faced with concerns about
sexually explicit material Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,
. Although the Committee stated that van Haeften had been subjected to harassment, it also found that they had not been separating harassment from legitimate criticism. The case resulted in them being banned from contributing to the English Wikipedia for an indefinite period. Despite the results of the case, Wikimedia UK's board supported van Haeften remaining in their position as chair and praised their work with the group. The board's decision was met with criticism from some members of the organisation, who proposed an
extraordinary general meeting An extraordinary general meeting, commonly abbreviated as EGM, is a meeting of members of an organisation, shareholders of a company, or employees of an official body that occurs at an irregular time.' The term is usually used where the group wou ...
that would discuss removing them from the board. CEO Jon Davies subsequently announced on 2 August 2012 that van Haeften was resigning from their position as chair to avoid creating division within the organisation. They retained their position as a board member and remained chair of the Wikimedia Chapters Association. Chris Keating was subsequently elected to replace them as chairman of the board.


Gibraltarpedia

Another member of Wikimedia UK's board of trustees, Roger Bamkin, was exposed to controversy in 2012 due to his involvement with Gibraltarpedia. During the month of August, material about Gibraltar appeared on the front page of Wikipedia 17 times in the "Did you know" section as a result of the work on Gibraltarpedia. In several instances Bamkin reviewed these entries and, as he was receiving payment from the government of Gibraltar in connection with his work on Gibraltarpedia, editors raised concerns that the project was using Wikipedia's front page to promote the territory of
Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...
in exchange for financial compensation. Gibraltar's government later stated on 21 September that their contract with Bamkin did not involve him being paid for work on Wikipedia but was limited to providing advice on the QR codes and training volunteers. Bamkin's involvement with Wikimedia UK as a board member while performing work on the project prompted further concerns about his position with the group. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales stated on 17 September that, if the claims about paid editing were well-founded, it was inappropriate for Bamkin to sit on the board of Wikimedia UK given its charitable status. Wales then suggested he resign from the board of the organisation or end his work with the government of Gibraltar. On 20 September, Bamkin resigned from the board of Wikimedia UK following a mutual decision by the board supporting the move in response to the concerns about Gibraltarpedia. The level of WMUK's participation was also brought into question regarding the situation with Gibraltarpedia. While the organisation does not prohibit paid editing, its support of Bamkin's activities was criticized as potentially inconsistent with its charitable status. In a press release following his resignation, the organisation stated that it had provided minimal material support for the effort, that Bamkin had disclosed his commercial interests, and that he had not been involved in the group's decisions regarding the project.


Grant Shapps

In April 2015, a WMUK employee blocked an account on English Wikipedia he claimed was associated with then
Chairman of the Conservative Party The chairman of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom is responsible for party administration and overseeing the Conservative Campaign Headquarters, formerly Conservative Central Office. When the Conservatives are in government, the off ...
Grant Shapps Grant Shapps (born 14 September 1968) is a British politician who is serving as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy since October 2022. He previously served as Secretary of State for Transport in the Premiership of Bo ...
. The employee, a
LibDem The Liberal Democrats (commonly referred to as the Lib Dems) are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. Since the 1992 general election, with the exception of the 2015 general election, they have been the third-largest UK political ...
activist, did so after discussing the accusations with ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper using his WMUK email. English Wikipedia's
Arbitration Committee On Wikimedia Foundation projects, an Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) is a binding dispute resolution panel of editors. Each of Wikimedia's projects are editorially autonomous and independent, and some of them have established their own ArbComs w ...
censured the editor for his actions, claiming there was "no significant evidence" linking the blocked account to Shapps. In July Shapps filed a Data Protection Act request, asking for WMUK communications concerning him. WMUK sent Shapps 80 pages of data but claimed that most emails about the incident had been "deleted in the normal course of business." Schapps described the deletion as "highly suspect." In one email released, a member of the WMUK board states "We should be glad that Shapps has a pretty safe seat, because if he lost his seat, we would be open to the accusation that the charity had acted in a partisan manner during an election period." D'Arcy Myers, then interim Chief Executive of WMUK, refused to apologise to Shapps, stating that the charity was "not involved" in the controversy.


Board of Trustees

The current Board of Trustees for Wikimedia UK can be found on their site.


References


External links

* {{official website, http://www.wikimedia.org.uk Charities based in London Media and communications in the London Borough of Southwark Organisations based in the London Borough of Southwark Wiki communities Wikimedia Foundation Articles containing video clips