Hi, everyone.
It is being recently reported on Portuguese Wikipedia and Commons (at
least) the increasing ammount of improper editing coming from IP addresses
located in Angola. Some users believe that this may be related with
Wikipedia Zero and a partnership between WMF and a cellphone company [1]
that allows reading and editing at free cost.
One of the first reactions to that is a large range block that was just set
on Commons in order to prevent these edits [2], as they are being done in a
way that volunteers can't handle.
That seems to be some kind of "second wave" as the first that hit Commons
[3] had been already reported months ago [4] and seemed to be controled or
just paused for a while. On Portuguese Wikipedia, one thing that seemss to
be clear is that edits are done in good faith. However, they end by being
undone as they are incorrect for some reason, whether being pages of files
about themselves or just test edits. One of the users identified actually
confirm [5] that he is editing through Wikipedia Zero.
Concerning that more partnerships may occur in future, I think it is time
for us to start talking about ways of dealing with that, other than
blocking. Sadly, I don't have an answer to that problem, but I tend to
believe that some way of mass reaching these potential users should be made
out.
The current process is that editors will be the ones to notice that (as I
am not aware of any kind of follow up by WMF on that) and they will try to
solve their way, which may cause too many collateral damage.
I wonder if there is any kind of way to diminish the problem, by using any
off-wiki strategy.
Kind regards.
Teles
[1] -
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/movicel-offers-free-access-to-wikipedia--1…
[2] -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Steinsplitter&old…
[3] - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Teles/Angola_Facebook_Case
[4] -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Forum&oldid=12835750…
[5] -
https://pt.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Usu%C3%A1rio_Discuss%C3%A3o:Darw…
*Lucas Teles*
*+55 (71) 98290 7553Steward at Wikimedia Foundation. Administrator *
*at Portuguese Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.*- wikipedista.com
Dear all
I would like to invite you to watch a talk by Kevin Schawinski, an
astrophysicist from ETH Zurich and co-founder of citizen science platform
Galaxy Zoo, on April 14 at 1pm PDT (20mins from now).
In his talk “From the Galaxy Zoo to Citizen Science Cyborgs", Kevin will
talk about astronomic research, in which volunteers can participate and
contribute to identify galaxies, and new developments in citizen science.
These phenomena are very much aligned with Wikimedia values and showcase
the power of collaboration for knowledge. Kevin is an amazing scientist
with a deep understanding of collaborative systems as well as a great
interest in online participation. After his talk, he will answer questions
- mostly about citizen science but maybe also about supermassive black
holes. :)
Here are the remote options:
YouTube stream: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX5-kI2XvWE
Jacob Rogers will be relaying questions from IRC in #wikimedia-office
Sorry about the late notice. The recording will be publicly available.
Jan
==
Jan Gerlach
Public Policy Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
jgerlach(a)wikimedia.org
Congrats, WMIT.
Buon lavoro,
Elitre (WMF)
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2016 16:58:46 +0200
From: Ginevra Sanvitale <ginevra.esse(a)gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>,
chapters(a)wikimedia.ch
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] New Wikimedia Italy Board
Message-ID: <570E5EA6.70901(a)gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-15
Dear all,
I'm glad to announce the new composition of Wikimedia Italy board:
Board of Directors
*President: Lorenzo Losa [[User:Laurentius]]
*Vice-President: Cristian Consonni [[User:CristianCantoro]]
*Secretary: Ginevra Sanvitale [[User:Atropine]]
*Treasurer: Simone Cortesi [[User:Cortesi]]
*Programme Coordinator: Luca Martinelli [[User:Sannita]]
Ombudspersons:
*Maurizio Codogno [[User:.mau.]]
*Roberto Corda [[User:DracoRoboter]]
*Iolanda Pensa [[User:Iopensa]]
*Francesco Carbonara [[User:Fcarbonara]] (stand-in)
*Giovanni Augulino [[User:Triquetra]] (stand-in)
We would also like to thank the former ombudspersons Marina Milella and
Federico Cantoni, as well as Saverio Giulio Malatesta for his candidacy.
Best,
(and sorry for the double posting!)
Ginevra
------------------------------
Dear all,
I'm glad to announce the new composition of Wikimedia Italy board:
Board of Directors
*President: Lorenzo Losa [[User:Laurentius]]
*Vice-President: Cristian Consonni [[User:CristianCantoro]]
*Secretary: Ginevra Sanvitale [[User:Atropine]]
*Treasurer: Simone Cortesi [[User:Cortesi]]
*Programme Coordinator: Luca Martinelli [[User:Sannita]]
Ombudspersons:
*Maurizio Codogno [[User:.mau.]]
*Roberto Corda [[User:DracoRoboter]]
*Iolanda Pensa [[User:Iopensa]]
*Francesco Carbonara [[User:Fcarbonara]] (stand-in)
*Giovanni Augulino [[User:Triquetra]] (stand-in)
We would also like to thank the former ombudspersons Marina Milella and
Federico Cantoni, as well as Saverio Giulio Malatesta for his candidacy.
Best,
(and sorry for the double posting!)
Ginevra
TLDR:
What: IRC chat with members of Wikimedia Foundation legal
Topic: Freedom of panorama
When: Tuesday, April 19 at 11:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time / 18:00 UTC
Reminder: We can’t do legal advice.
Hi all,
We’re happy to announce the return of Legal Team IRC office hours, starting
tomorrow, April 19 at 11:00 AM PDT / 18:00 UTC! We’re planning to host
these once every 3 months or so going forward.
IRC office hours provide an opportunity for members of the Wikimedia
communities to chat directly with members of the Wikimedia Foundation legal
team on topics of interest including public policy, legal issues facing the
Wikimedia movement, and what you can do to get involved. Please keep in
mind that under California law we can’t give out legal advice, so rather
than giving out legal advice, we will talk about the Wikimedia Foundation’s
stance on issues.
For this format, we’ll begin at 11:00 by doing a brief introduction and
then start taking questions from everyone that’s present. We’ll aim to have
a few people on at the same time to be able to respond faster and to
discuss different aspects of the issues.
For our first office hour, we’re planning to discuss the freedom of
panorama (FoP). With the recent decision in Sweden
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/04/04/strike-against-freedom-panorama/>,
holding that Wikimedia Sweden's website/database was in violation of
Swedish copyright law for making available on the internet photographs of
artwork permanently situated in public areas, FoP has become more pressing
than ever. We believe that the ability for members of the public to
photograph public monuments and landscapes is a fundamental part of free
expression. We plan to raise this issue to the European Commission this
summer, and need your help to let them know that it’s important. This first
one of a series of IRC office hours will be a great opportunity to exchange
thoughts about it.
If you have questions that you would like to discuss during the office
hour, you can add them on Meta Wiki here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_Team_IRC_Office_Hours>.
--
Jacob Rogers
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
NOTICE: This message might have confidential or legally privileged
information in it. If you have received this message by accident, please
delete it and let us know about the mistake. As an attorney for the
Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical reasons I cannot give legal advice
to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff
members in their personal capacity. For more on what this means, please see
our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.
I, as all others, has full sympathy for Danny and find that he in his
mail made an excellent explanation on how the situation made the option
to resign the only reasonable way forward
BUT this is the second community selected that has left the Board within
a year after being appointed, and before any future election (either a
snap byelection soon, or the ordinary in a years time) I believe we
should look into if anything can be learnt. And if there are things,
primary in the election process, that can be done to ensure the
appointed community selected members of the Board staying on the whole
term.
For Danny my interpretation is that he is very operational role in
ordinary work leads to many interaction with WMF etc and where COI
consideration hampers his day-to-days activities. And that his major
strength, "Wikidata", is hard to make use of in the Board as any
influencing of decision re this also puts him in a COI situation, and
that he outside this competence finds he has limited "value" for the
board work.
But all of these facts was known before the election (but not necessary
the ramification). Would a more elaborate (tedious long?) description of
requirements of serving in the Board helped Danny to understand the
challenge before he entered his candidacy? Would some type of
(lightweight) "vetting" by the Election committee by all candidates have
identified this risk (which then could have been feedbacked to the
candidate)? Should for future election the election committee not only
be facilitator of the election, but also help he voters in complementing
the data given by each candidate by some type of comments? For example
last time the requirement from the board was non western (non English
natives) persons and priority for nonmale. but 2 out of 3 was just his.
Could some mark on the candidate statement made by the EC (he/she is/is
not fulfilling the Board criteria) had helped?
The setup up of a Standing Election Committee is under formation but it
will probably still be some month before it is established. Any changes
in the election process has to await this formation, but I believe a
discussion of learnings can start independently.
Anders