Talk:The History of the Paralympic Movement in Australia/Tender

Support letters

Support letter from Wikimedia Australia

This is a copy of a signed letter sent to UCNISS

To the University of Canberra's National Institute of Sport Studies, regarding the proposal to assist the Australian Paralympic Committee develop and publish texts and media on Wikibooks and Wikimedia Commons for the purpose of developing a document called, History of the Paralympic Movement in Australia.

Firstly, let us state how pleased we are to see yet another Australian cultural organisation engaging with the projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, helping to build reliable, usable, accessible and ultimately sustainable information resources for the world over, not least, Australians. Should your proposal be successful, we at Wikimedia Australia would like to extend an offer of support.

Looking at your draft proposal, we are particularly interested in the list item:

o Support in the development of an APC volunteer base to take a contribution and editing role in the project.

We think this point relates to us and what we can offer.

The purpose of Wikimedia Australia is to:

1. organise and participate in educational and social events that promote development of Free Cultural Works and related open source software systems, in particular wikis
2. increase public awareness, support and participation in the projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF)
3. develop resources to assist Australians in the creation and maintenance of Free Cultural Works

Wikimedia Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, whose primary aim is to promote equality of opportunity to access and participate in the collaborative creation of "Free Cultural Works", especially educational works, and works about Australia, its culture, natural environment, and Australian news and media.

At this stage, this letter is encouragement for this proposal. Should it be successful, we hope you will engage us for assistance in developing a volunteer community of APC content contributors, editors and managers. This could be in the form of funding workshops and seminars in regional Australia, printing information, and networking events.

Good luck with this proposal, and congratulations on this conceptual first step. We hope it is successful and given the opportunity to prove its worth.

John Vandenberg
President
Wikimedia Australia

Support letter from Graham Pearce

To whom it may concern,

My name is Graham Pearce, and I am a totally blind Wikipedia editor from Perth, Western Australia. I have been editing Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects for six years, and I am an English Wikipedia administrator.

It is vital that the history of the Australian Paralympic movement be documented in a manner that is easy to access for everyone. I believe that the current proposal is the best way to achieve this aim, because Wikibooks is well-suited to the creation of structured online texts, which do not have the same space limitations as printed books. The resulting product would be freely available online around the world, thus increasing the profile of the Australian Paralympic Movement. Due to its license, it could be easily adapted by educational institutions, disability organisations, or any other interested parties, to meet their individual needs.

Both Wikibooks and Wikimedia Commons use the MediaWiki software, which is accessible to users of screen readers and screen magnifiers. Therefore the results of the proposal would be easy-to-use for people with visual impairments. It would also be possible for people with disabilities, including users of screen readers and screen magnifiers, to take part in this project on an equal footing with their non-disabled peers.

In conclusion, this proposal presents a unique opportunity to document the history of the Australian Paralympic Committee using collaborative tools, and as a screen reader user, I fully support it.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Pearce 02:35, 4 March 2011 (UTC)