Hello,
this week’s email is coming from a new sender, since Pine always says
we’re also allowed to start the thread :)
I am thankful that the software migration from HHVM to PHP7 in
production is mostly completed. Many people participated in this work,
but some especially prominent (Phabricator) names seem to be
Jdforrester-WMF, Krinkle, jijiki, Joe, and Reedy – apologies to the
people that I inevitably missed. This migration also unlocks many code
style improvements that were previously blocked on HHVM compatibility
requirements, and Daimona has been very active here, modernizing code
and configuration across lots of source code repositories: thank you!
The Commons Picture of the Day for 15 October 2019
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Erftstadt_10-2017_img07_Schloss_Gra…>
was taken in Germany. The English description is "Gracht castle in
Erftstadt, Rhein-Erft-Kreis (Germany)"; there are no other descriptions
or captions yet. The photo was taken by User:A.Savin
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:A.Savin>.
Additional translations of the subject line of this email would be
appreciated on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine/WMYHTW_translations>.
What’s making you happy this week? You are welcome to write in any
language. You are also welcome to start a WMYHTW thread next week.
Lucas
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Lucas_Werkmeister )
PS: Did you know? In Germany, the week starts on Monday, not Sunday! I
kept the email subject aligned to Sunday, though, in case referring to
the “week of 14 October” would confuse anybody :)
In the discussion about the report from the WMF relating to
sustainability, mention was made of the potential use of carbon
offset. As part of planning a conference for next year, we could ask
or require participants to factor in payments for carbon offset. With
no experience in examining carbon offset projects, we are cautious
about making any policy to do this, in particular it would be a bad
blunder if we start paying in to a carbon offset project that turns
out to be a bad or controversial choice later on.
Has the WMF or Affiliates made any prior choices for carbon offset
projects, or could the community work out which of the many projects
might be the most ethically responsible and well governed to choose
from?
An a bonus to tack on, we have used phrases like ''encouraging greener
travel options'', which one might interpret as doing things like
preferring train travel rather than using flights within the same
country. However if, say, a participant can fly within the country at
half the cost and get to an event in a couple of hours rather than
spending several times longer travelling, is it a reasonable/ethical
approach to just fly for convenience and buy some carbon offset
"points" (and so flying may well still be significantly cheaper than
going by train).
Thanks,
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Hello all,
Please accept my apologies if you are receiving this a number of times
today. We have sent it out to multiple mailing lists in order to reach as
many community members as possible. Please feel free to forward this to any
other community mailing lists you believe are relevant.
It's coming close to time for annual appointments of community members to
serve on the Ombudsman Commission (OC). This commission works on all
Wikimedia projects to investigate complaints about violations of the
privacy policy, especially in use of CheckUser and Oversight tools, and to
mediate between the complaining party and the individual whose work is
being investigated. They may also assist the General Counsel, the Executive
Director or the Board of Trustees in investigations of these issues. For
more on their duties and roles, see
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman_commission
This is a call for community members interested in volunteering for
appointment to this commission. Volunteers serving in this role should be
experienced Wikimedians, active on any project, who have previously used
the CheckUser tool OR who have the technical ability to understand the
CheckUser tool and the willingness to learn it. They are expected to be
able to engage neutrally in investigating these concerns and to know when
to recuse when other roles and relationships may cause conflict.
Commissioners are required to identify to the Wikimedia Foundation and must
be willing to comply with the appropriate Wikimedia Foundation board
policies (such as the access to non-public data policy[1] and the privacy
policy[2]). This is a position that requires a high degree of discretion
and trust.
If you are interested in serving on this commission, please write me (
kbrown(a)wikimedia.org) an email off-list to detail your experience on the
projects, your thoughts on the commission and what you hope to bring to the
role. The commission typically consists of ten members; all applications
are appreciated and will be carefully considered. The deadline for
applications is the end of day on 31 December, 2019.
Please feel free to pass this invitation along to any users who you think
may be qualified and interested.
Thank you!
-Karen Brown
On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Trust & Safety team
1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_to_nonpublic_information_policy
2. https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_policy
--
Karen Brown
Trust & Safety Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation
kbrown(a)wikimedia.org
Plans for a Wikimedia LGBT+ conference and workshops in 2020 are
moving forward. We would very much like to learn and borrow successful
experiences from other conferences. This conference is expected to be
relatively modest in size, around 50 attendees, and is to be hosted in
Linz, Austria.
We are planning on opening up applications for scholarships very soon,
to allow several months for early booking of travel tickets and visa
applications where needed. Naturally this means we have to create a
process for assessing applications to a hopefully short and
non-subjective checklist (we are all volunteers after all!).
Can anyone recommend documented good practices for assessing
applications for travel grants and expenses for similar sized events?
Some issues we have discussed that need to be addressed before
finalizing our policies are:
* Creating a fair assessment process that balances the diversity of
attendees against other metrics like on-project experience, for
example ensuring that we have a healthy gender balance and a wide
geographic representation
* Whether it may be better to prefer the simplicity of assessing for
full scholarships, or whether partial payments are a good way of
ensuring wider access
* How to draw up rules for travel and partial scholarships for folks
planning on making this part of a holiday, as often happens for those
travelling long distances
* When to recommend that specific Wikimedia Affiliates should provide
grants and expenses, which may have additional requirements for
applications and reporting
* How to build in incentives for greener travel options, even where
this may not be the cheapest option
You can read the conference proposal at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/Kawayashu/Queering_Wikipe…
and everyone is welcome to provide suggestions and feedback on the
discussion page there, if on-wiki editing works better for you than
email. :-)
Thanks
Fae
--
Wikimedia LGBT+ https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_LGBT
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Dear Wikimedians,
I am delighted to announce that Wikimania 2020 will happen from 5-9 August,
2020 in Bangkok, Thailand.
We will announce other details in the upcoming weeks.
For now, you may start planning your Asian tour iterinary. You may consider
doing a side trip in other ESEAP countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, Japan
(Olympic Games), Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Taiwan,
Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and many others.
Kind regards,
Butch Bustria
Wikimedia ESEAP
Hi everyone!
I'm very happy to announce that the Affiliations Committee has recognized
[1] the North-West Russia Wiki-Historians User Group [2] as a Wikimedia
User Group. The group aims to develop content related to the history and
cultural heritage of North-West Russia on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia
projects in multiple languages.
Please join me in congratulating the members of this new user group!
Regards,
Kirill Lokshin
Chair, Affiliations Committee
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Recognit…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/North-West_Russia_Wiki-Historians_User_Group
Dear all,
Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong has released the following
statement in response to the effect to the local community from the use of
Emergency Regulations Ordinance within the city:
***
Free speech, expression and access to uncensored web services are some of
the fundamental requirements for anyone living in Hong Kong to access
Wikipedia and its sister projects, which is also a protected right under
the Basic Law of Hong Kong.
Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong is in dire concern regarding
recent moves by the government. The usage of such ordinance can bring
negative effects to the local community and members of the public who want
to access Wikipedia:
1. Usage of the ordinance can restrict the organization of offline
meetups in Hong Kong
2. Usage of the ordinance can also restrict access to Wikipedia and its
sister projects
Such worries are not fabricated, as a member of the Executive Council of
Hong Kong expressed such possibility of removing internet access within
Hong Kong through enacting relevant provisions.
We hope all members of the public, especially the police, the government
itself, protesters, etc. to remain calm and not to initiate violence.
We also continue our stance to conference participants and organizers not
to use Hong Kong as a transit point for going to/from events.
***
William Chan (User:1233)
Board Member, Education Programme Coordinator
Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong
The Wikidata profiles is a bit of a tangent, here's another nudge that
the thread is really about best practices for managing scholarships
for volunteers.
Now indulging the tangent myself :-), care will be taken for all
attendees for this planned LGBT+ conference to feel safe and welcome
by participating. Though some participants may have public profiles
and be published, most will not, and it's likely that even some with
profiles will prefer to take part without it being an issue. The
conference will be transparently governed and the outcomes will be
public and of public benefit, but there are jolly good reasons not to
have participants feeling that they are being live streamed and any
video frame might be used out of context in trollish commentary about
them or to out them.
We regularly, and have recently seen, minority groups targeted with
harassment, threats, abuse and other unwelcoming hounding just for
being visible participants on related Wikipedia topics. It's the
reality of our public space and there is no easy fix for it, but we
can be honest about it, and do more to act on it in a timely way.
Thanks,
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
On Tue, 8 Oct 2019 at 09:53, Matej Grochal <ggrosi48(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear all
>
> interesting idea with Wikidata. However, especially in the LGBT+
> community there might be a disharmony in what is online and what is
> offline. Would we require people to out themselves? What about
> countries where it is safer to assume an identity?
>
> Matej
