Welcome to the March 2012 edition of the Bugle, the home for news about military history on Wikipedia! This month is seeing a few interesting discussions. The first concerns the current 'essay' we have on the notability requirements for military biographies, WP:MILPEOPLE, and whether it should be promoted to a guideline. The discussion is currently here. The second is a full Request for Comment on the use of medal pictograms in articles – whether they should be used at all, and if so, how big and how detailed? The discussion on that is located here, and any interested editors are encouraged to jump in.
In Wikipedia news, old-timers will remember a "Core Contest" run by Danny back in 2007. Casliber has revived it, and interested editors are encouraged to pick one article from the vital article list and improve it as best they can. The contest runs until 28 March. More information about the contest is available at the contest page or from our sister publication, the Signpost.
HighBeam Research is offering free, one-year accounts to their search engine of newspapers, magazines, academic journals, trade magazines and encyclopedias. Our writers in military history will most likely find the first and third categories to be of use, so if you would like, signups are here. The only requirement is a thousand edits and one year of editing.
The Bugle would also like to issue a call for contributors. We would like writers for whatever suits your fancy, from op-ed articles on most things Wikipedia-related, review essays assessing a museums' or a similar institution's coverage of a military history-related topic, book reviews of any military history-related book, or an interview of just about anyone as long as it can be tied back to military history or Wikipedia. We are also open to other ideas – use your imagination, and we will work with you on getting your piece included in next month's newsletter!
That's it for us this month. We would like to encourage you to check out the "Australian War Memorial" section below and its accompanying op-ed, both written by Hawkeye7. We are both excited to see what will come out of it, and perhaps you can use his approach as a model to approach a military history museum in your area? Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Ed (talk)
On 23 February, Wikimedia Australia's vice president and HOPAU Wikipedian in Residence LauraHale and Wikiproject Military History coordinator Hawkeye7 met with Liz Holcombe, Marylou Pooley, and other members of the Australian War Memorial's Online group to discuss how Wikimedia Australia and the greater Wikipedia community could help the War Memorial meets its institutional objectives and mission statement of assisting "Australians to remember, interpret and understand the Australian experience of war and its enduring impact on Australian society." LauraHale and Hawkeye7 mentioned the quality of work being done on the MilHist project and the credibility English Wikipedia has with Australian military historians, the assessment project in MilHist, the community of avid contributors which can be tapped by the War Memorial, the photographers that would be interested in doing projects related to the War Memorial's mission, and efforts to improve content for the centennial of the Gallipoli Campaign and World War I. In turn, the Australian War Memorial discussed with LauraHale and Hawkeye7 possible programming ideas going forward which included the possibility of Australian War Memorial staff training and a possible event for Commons photographers. There are plans to follow up with additional conversations later in March.
The contest department completed its fifty-seventh round of competition last month. A total of 20 articles were submitted by 4 editors. Sp33dyphil came first with 43 points from 9 entries, followed by Djmaschek with 36 points from 6 entries. They receive the Chevrons and the Writer's Barnstar, respectively. Ian Rose and The Bushranger also fielded entries. Please submit any articles you are working on for this month's contest now.
About The Bugle
First published in 2006, the Bugle is the monthly newsletter of the English Wikipedia's Military history WikiProject.
