We've heard from a few people wondering why they're no longer seeing
fundraising banners on Wikipedia. An announcement about this was buried in
another thread, so I'll repeat it here.
We're now showing banners only to people (more accurately: browsers) who
have never seen them before. If you really want to see a banner, clear your
Wikimedia cookies and you'll be able to see what's running.
If you're seeing banners more than once on the same computer and browser,
please let us know so that we can figure out why that's happening.
>From December 26 to Dec 31 we'll begin showing banners again to everyone
for a final push to the year end goal.
--
Zack Exley
Chief Revenue Officer
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi everybody,
Today I created a page on Outreach called List of successful grant applications. I hope that you will add your Chapter's success stories there!
Based
on what grant applications we know have worked in other countries we
can copy the successful ones when we apply for external funding. This
will help speed things up and hence, increase our efficiency and
our external funding. This would be especially valuable for smaller
Chapters. If you have suggestions on how to improve the page I encourage
you to be bold!
So please add your examples there and let the successful examples of other Chapters inspire you!
All the best,
John
- - - -
John Andersson
Wikimedia Sweden
Event Manager Europeana Awareness
Phone: +46(0)73-3965189
Email: john.andersson(a)wikimedia.se
Skype: johnandersson86
Be sure to follow us on Twitter at @wikieuropeana
Visit http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Projekt:Europeana_Awareness/English for more information about our
project!
Thanks Sue.
I am cautious when there are specific cuts such as Fellowships in exchange for indeterminate benefits. That makes a cost-benefit analysis difficult to do. Maybe this is a good tradeoff, but from the information that's publicly available, I'm still particularly concerned about the loss of the Fellowships. Could those be funded by increasing the amount of the fundraising goal?
Some of the other possible tradeoffs and outsourcing do make sense to me. The loss of the fellowships is my main concern.
Looking at the bright side, I would be very glad if one of the benefits from narrowing focus is that the progress of the Visual Editor is hastened.
Thanks,
Pine
>
> From: Sue Gardner <sgardner(a)wikimedia.org>
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 105, Issue 1
> Message-ID:
> <CAGZ0=LNMvd+mYRLyRxOVxcFMPcHhhD4iUaxodgFF6dw=Mmdrbw(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi Pine,
>
> We haven't articulated specific and measurable benefits: that's why you
> haven't gotten an answer to your question. That's because the Narrowing
> Focus exercise is not a one-off immediate-term event: it's a longer-term
> decision which will have multiple implications in this year and in future
> years.
>
> The Board approved the general principle: that narrowing focus would
> benefit the organization, which had been spread too thinly. But, the
> precise implications won't be known until the process begins to play out.
> For example, we've made a decision to outsource some of the WMF work
> associated with Wikimania, but until we define the terms of the
> outsourcing, we can't know what the exact implications will be. (Because we
> don't know what it will cost, or what work the contractor/consultant will
> be able to do. We *will* know those things in future, and I could make
> educated guesses about them now, but we can't know with certainty until we
> run an RFP process or similar.)
>
> Upshot: this is a long-term-focused decision, and it'll take a while for
> the implications to begin to play out. I've told the Board we shouldn't
> expect to see too much in the way of benefits in 2012-13 (the current
> fiscal year) because there will be work required to execute the various
> components of it, which will offset whatever gain we might otherwise have
> seen this year. We may see a little pay-off this year, but mostly it will
> start to happen in 2023-14.
>
> Thanks,
> Sue
> On Dec 2, 2012 3:56 PM, "ENWP Pine" <deyntestiss(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > Tilman,
> >
> > Thanks, I always like reading these reports.
> >
> > Again, I'd like to ask what specific and measurable benefits the "changing
> > focus" changes will accomplish. I've been asking this for awhile.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Pine
> >
> > > Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:55:37 -0800
> > > From: Tilman Bayer <tbayer(a)wikimedia.org>
> > > To: wikimediaannounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > > Subject: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation
> > > Report, October 2012
> > > Message-ID:
> > > <CAPDdKA5QRw_+kn=Pdb9Ryc9=
> > VpOeZTxXbGFz5KWnCPHee7me8Q(a)mail.gmail.com>
> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
> > >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > please find below the WMF report for October 2012, in plain text.
> > >
> > > As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
> > >
> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_October_2012
> > >
> > > and the reports are being posted on the Wikimedia blog, too:
> > > https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/
> > >
> > > As usual, we are also publishing a separate "Highlights" summary.
> > > Please consider helping non-English-language communities to stay
> > > updated, by providing a translation:
> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2012
> > > Many thanks those who have translated the September "Highlights" into
> > > Arabic, Breton, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Piedmontese, Russian,
> > > Ukrainian, Chinese and Telugu!
> > >
> > > While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a
> > > small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
> > > Suggestions for the soon to be published November issue are welcome
> > > until Wednesday (December 5) at
> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights
> > >
> > > Regards, Tilman
> > >
> > > --
> > >
I was going to send this just to comcom, but I think all of us should read
it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20576409
A small shop in Delhi is being sued for copyright infringement, for copying
academic textbooks for students.
The action is being taken by three leading international publishers.
Students - and some authors - have accused the publishers of putting profit
before knowledge. But the publishers say they had no alternative.
Richard Symonds
Wikimedia UK
0207 065 0992
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT.
United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
(This release is also posted online at
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Announcement_of_Wiki_Lov…)
*Winners Announced in World’s Largest Photo Contest, Wiki Loves Monuments
**International jury selects top 15 photos from more than 350,000
photos worldwide
San Francisco, California and Utrecht, the Netherlands - 3 December
2012 -- The international jury for Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 announced
the 15 winning photographs from the world’s largest photo contest,
which ran from September 1st through 30th. More than 15,000
photographers uploaded more than 350,000 freely-licensed photographs
of historic buildings, monuments and cultural heritage sites in 35
countries to Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org) for use
on Wikipedia and other free-knowledge projects.
The grand-prize winning photograph depicts Safdarjung's Tomb and
marble mausoleum in New Delhi, India, and was taken by Pranav Singh.
The tomb was built in 1754 in the late Mughal Empire style as tribute
to the prime minister for Muhammad Shah, the Mughal emperor from 1719
to 1748. As noted in the jury report, “With gravity and a perfect
sense for the angle of view and light, this picture presents the
object - the architecture and light forming a stage for the tomb,
focusing on the details of the stone carving.”
(Photo link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tomb_of_Safdarjung,_New_Delhi.jpg)
Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 more than doubled the photo total from 2011,
when 5,000 photographers from 18 European countries uploaded 168,208
photos. In 2012, volunteer Wikipedians in 35 countries organized the
contest nationally, with the 324 winning photos from national contests
considered by an international jury for the top prize. The grand prize
is a trip to Hong Kong for a photo tour as part of the Wikimania 2013
conference.
“We have a beautiful selection of images representing the world’s
heritage” says Lodewijk Gelauff, one of the international coordinators
of the contest. “I’m so proud of the hundreds of volunteer Wikipedians
who helped organize the contest in their countries and around the
world. Not only do we have hundreds of thousands of free images that
anyone can use, but we also have a great set of heritage lists on
Wikipedia, which give an overview of more than 1 million monuments
globally. That leaves plenty of unphotographed monuments for next
year!”
The top 13 photos will be displayed in a travelling international
exhibition, and will be showcased in a special Wiki Loves Monuments
calendar for 2013.
Other top photographs:
The other finalists represent countries from four continents,
including South America, North America, Asia and Europe.
2nd Place - Aqueduct of Segovia in Segovia, Castilla y León, Spain.
Photographer: David Corral Gadea. The Aqueduct of Segovia is one of
the most significant and best-preserved monuments left by the Romans
on the Iberian Peninsula.
(Photo link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Acueducto_de_Segovia_01.jpg)
3rd Place - Ifugao Rice Terraces in Batad, Ifugao, Philippines.
Photographer: Captaincid. Built over 2,000 years ago, the Rice
Terraces of Batad make up one of the four clusters of rice terraces in
Ifugao province that are identified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
(Photo link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Batad_Rice_Terraces_after_the_rain.…)
4th Place - Château de Maintenon in Eure-et-Loir, France.
Photographer: Selbymay. The château, developed from the original
castle, is situated in the commune of Maintenon in the Eure-et-Loir
region of France. It is best known as being the private residence of
the second spouse of Louis XIV, Madame de Maintenon.
(Photo link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maintenon_-_Chateau_03.jpg)
5th Place - Teatro Comunale di Ferrara in Ferrara, Italy.
Photographer: Andrea Parisi. The Rotonda Foschini, the internal court
of the Teatro Comunale (''city theatre''), in Ferrara was built at the
end of the 18th century.
(Photo link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teatro_Comunale.jpg)
Jury Report
Read the full jury report, including the top 42 photos, here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_international_j…
Related blog posts and announcements
*http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012_winners
(2012 contest finalists)
*http://blog.wikimedia.org/c/community/wiki-loves-monuments/ (coverage
on Wikimedia Foundation blog)
*http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/WLM_photo_contest_launches_August_2012
(initial press release)
More information
*International contest: http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org
*Statistics: http://toolserver.org/~emijrp/wlm/stats.php
About Wikipedia
Wikipedia and the related sites operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 488 million unique visitors per month, making them
the 5th most popular web property worldwide (comScore, October 2012).
Available in 285 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 24 million
articles contributed by hundreds of thousands of people around the
world.
Media contacts for international contest
Lodewijk Gelauff and Barbara Fischer
Phone:+49 (0) 30 219 158 26 18
Email: press(a)wikilovesmonuments.org
Media contact at the Wikimedia Foundation
Matthew Roth
Phone: 415-839-6885 x6635
Email: mroth(a)wikimedia.org
(to stop receiving press releases from the Wikimedia Foundation, reply
with "unsubscribe" in the subject line)
_______________________________________________
Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
_______________________________________________
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WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
Dear all,
last weekend Wikimedia Österreich (Austria) had its General Assembly in
Linz.
A new board has been elected:
* President: Kurt Kulac (as before)
* Vice President: Alexander Wagner (new)
- Christoph Breitler didn't recandidate
* Secretary: Beppo Stuhl (as before)
* Vice Secretary: Michael Karolzak (new)
- Ingo Allmer didn't recandidate
* Treasurer: Reiner Strubert (as before)
* Vice Treasurer: Michael Kranewitter (as before)
* Adviser: Andrea Kareth (new)
- Denis Barthel didn't recandidate
* Adviser: Bernhard Wallisch (new)
- Manuel Schneider didn't recandidate - WCA Council Member
This General Assembly was also an opportunity to meet Claudia Garád, our
Director who started her work on October 1st.
There were some changes in the bylaws:
* the seat of Wikimedia Österreich moves from Graz to Wien, where we
rented an office a few weeks ago
* Members who didn't pay their membersgip fee despite a reminder until
the General Assembly have no voting right. They can regain it by
clearing the membership fee with one of the treasurers.
* several cosmetic changes with no change in the meaning
The WCA Council Member, formerly appointed by the board, has been now
approved by the General Assembly.
Activity and Financial reports, motions and bylaw changes can be found
here (in german):
http://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/Archiv
Translations of the Activity and Financial reports to english will be
started soon.
Every board and staff member can be reached under
firstname.lastname(a)wikimedia.at.
For general inquiries the association (board and staff) can be reached
under <verein(a)wikimedia.at>. If you have a confidential inquiry you can
reach only the board under <vorstand(a)wikimedia.at>.
Thanks for your attention and cooperation,
Manuel
--
Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
Lausanne, +41 (21) 34066-22 - www.wikimedia.ch
Tilman,
Thanks, I always like reading these reports.
Again, I'd like to ask what specific and measurable benefits the "changing focus" changes will accomplish. I've been asking this for awhile.
Thanks,
Pine
> Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:55:37 -0800
> From: Tilman Bayer <tbayer(a)wikimedia.org>
> To: wikimediaannounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation
> Report, October 2012
> Message-ID:
> <CAPDdKA5QRw_+kn=Pdb9Ryc9=VpOeZTxXbGFz5KWnCPHee7me8Q(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>
> Hi all,
>
> please find below the WMF report for October 2012, in plain text.
>
> As always, the editable and formatted version has been published on Meta:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_October_2012
>
> and the reports are being posted on the Wikimedia blog, too:
> https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/
>
> As usual, we are also publishing a separate "Highlights" summary.
> Please consider helping non-English-language communities to stay
> updated, by providing a translation:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_October_2012
> Many thanks those who have translated the September "Highlights" into
> Arabic, Breton, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Piedmontese, Russian,
> Ukrainian, Chinese and Telugu!
>
> While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a
> small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement.
> Suggestions for the soon to be published November issue are welcome
> until Wednesday (December 5) at
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Highlights
>
> Regards, Tilman
>
> --
>
Hi all,
I just wanted to give you a short update on Wikimedia Hungary.
Yesterday we held an AGM followed by an open wikimeetup in Budapest.
At the AGM a new board was elected:
* Péter Gervai, (User:grin), president (reelected)
* Mrs. Tamás Harza (User:Replicarter), vicepresident-treasurer (reelected)
* Balázs Viczián (User:Vince), executive vice president ("promoted")
* Dávid Rózsa (User:Vungadu), board member (newly elected, possibly taking
on the additional role of spokesman)
* Máté Forgács (User:Matteo55), board member (newly elected)
We also approved the 2013 programme plan[1] in its current form that had
been recommended for funding by the FDC. In addition the AGM approved a
further 250 000 HUF to be spent on creating an award to honour those who
have furthered the movement in Hungary.
The important elements of the plan are that we will try to continue our
successful programmes, build our capacity by opening an office with a
full-time employee and celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Hungarian
Wikipedia.
At the meetup that traditionally follows our AGMs, we gave out the prizes
of our successful literature themed contest (with 47 participants, 25% of
whom were new editors, and 127 new articles created) and celebrated the 4th
birthday of Wikimedia Hungary with a cake.
Best regards,
Bence Damokos
Former VP
Wikimedia Hungary
[1]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_Magyarorsz%C3%A1g/2013_Progra…
Tim Starling wrote:
> According to ru.wp Arbcom member DR, the danger to Wikipedia was
> overstated, and the text of the proposed law was misrepresented.
I think that the interpretation to the bill given by DR is incorrect. In fact the proposed bill was not only about child pornography and extremism, but also about drugs and, about “information, prompting children to commit actions, making threat to their life and health”. That was a very loose clause, that could ban virtually anything. After the blackout this clause was removed from the bill and it is a clear achievement of the strike. On the other hand the final version of the bill contains another clause, that is even more hazardous to us. It is about “information of methods of producing and use of narcotic substances, … of methods and places of cultivation of narcotic plants”. We do have information of drug synthesis on Wikipedia, ways of its use (e.g. marijuana) and we do have thorough instructions of marijuana cultivation on wikibooks. That is why our achievements are ambiguous. On the one hand we have a removal of a loose clause about information harmful to children, but on the otherwe now have another clause that is even more dangerous. That is why we are still trying to do what we can via our contacts within the authorities to revise the passed bill.
But that is not all. The most important issue is extremism. According to the bill, the materials, that are banned for distribution in Russia should be included to the register of banned information on the ground of the court decision, banning the distribution of that information in Russia. We already have such court decisions and a list of extremist materials, distribution of which is prohibited in Russia. That list contains some really nasty materials, as e.g. nazi propaganda, but also Islamic texts (including those of famous non-terrorist Islamic authors e.g. Said Nursî), Saentologist, Jehova’s witnesses , Falun Gong, letters and materials of opposition in Russia, works of contemporary art, etc.
We *do have* banned extremist materials in Wikipedia. E.g. this image:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Файл:Александр_Савко_Путешествия_Микки_Мауса_п… искусства.jpeg
is considered extremist and is banned for distribution in Russia. (Hopefully it was uploaded two years before it was regulated as banned by the court).
This letter in wikisource is also considered extremist:
http://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/Всем,_кто_сочувствует_жертвам_бесланского_тер…!
This is enough for banning the IPs of Wikimedia projects in Russia. And I am really afraid of this.
I guess DR is aware of discussion on this list, but anyway I will inform him of it. Maybe he has something to add.
> According to Levg in his Arbcom application, again via Google
> Translate, "It should be noted that there are no objective reasons for
> such a 'sprint survey' did not exist, to discuss the bill on second
> reading has been known since at least last Friday."
That is our fault that we could not manage to get the information in time. The first hearing was on Friday, but the community and myself got to know about the problem only on Monday, 9th. What for me personally I haven’t read the news on the weekend (yes, it is bad, that I relaxed on the weekend and haven’t read the news), and I failed to get to know about the problem in time. I guess it is also true for others. If we start to organize on Friday, the result would be better. It is a fault, but anyway it was not a deliberate fault, as nobody has informed the community earlier.
