Announce-l July 2006

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[Announce-l] Wikizine - number: 36

by Wikizine

17 years, 8 months

[Announce-l] Wikizine - number: 35

by Wikizine

17 years, 9 months

[Announce-l] Wikizine - number: 34

by Wikizine

****************************************** __ __ _ _ _ _ / / /\ \ (_) | _(_)___(_)_ __ ___ \ \/ \/ / | |/ / |_ / | '_ \ / _ \ \ /\ /| | <| |/ /| | | | | __/ \/ \/ |_|_|\_\_/___|_|_| |_|\___| .org Year: 2006 Week: 29 Number: 34 ****************************************** An independent internal news bulletin for the members of the Wikimedia community ////////////////////////////////////////// === Technical news === [550] The new blocking policy has now been implemented by Tim Starling, resolving bug 550. You can control the type of block by means of two tick boxes. The default settings result in the same behavior as before the change. These default settings are; [ ] Block anonymous users only [X] Prevent account creation (To localize these options, edit [[MediaWiki:Ipbanononly]] and [[MediaWiki:Ipbcreateaccount]]) So if you do not change those setting registered users will still have no access from the school or from their ISP proxy, not have the option to make an account. The default settings give the most total block possible. Thanks to user [[w:en:User:Lupin]] there is a small Javascript that you can include in your monobook.js so that the default settings are for the "softest" block: only blocking anonymous users, account creation allowed. Or if there is local community approval for it you can include it in the [[MediaWiki:Monobook.js]]-page so it is active for all users. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikizine/2006-29-javascript-Special-Blockip - Here is the code === Request for help === [Update] - The translations of the "Board of Trustees" page need to be updated http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/translators-l/2006-July/000173.html http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees [Awareness Project] This is a WikiProject that aims to spread awareness of Wikipedia and the ability to edit it freely around real-life communities in order to try and attract more contributors from a variety of ages. We hope to gather and catalogue promotional material for members to make use of, and to provide a central point for meetings of this type. The are looking for people to help. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Awareness === New project proposals === [Wikiversity] A new push to launch a separate wikiversity project is underway. See the discussion at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity/Modified_project_proposal === Community === [rm Angela Beesly] - The wp-article of board member Angela is listed for deletion on here request. The article in some other languages is already deleted. And also the the article of Anthere, the well known french wikipedian is removed from the french language Wikipedia. Jimbo's article is still there. http://wikiangela.com/blog/delete-me/ [Sitenotice] It was brought to the attention of the Wikimedia Foundation on Foundation-l that the Urdu language Wikipedia was using the site notice function to display a verse from the Koran above every page to each visitor. This is considered a breach of the NPOV principle of Wikipedia and an incorrect use of the Sitenotice function. The Koran verse is reluctantly removed by the local community. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/8556/focus=8556 - Tread on Foundation-l http://tinyurl.com/qkuj6 - Discussion about the sitenotice on the Urdu Wikipedia http://article.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/8627 - the POV of the Urdu wikipedia about Israel === Awards === [Wikimania Awards] Media and Writing awards will be handed out at Wikimania in August; nominations for great writing and media are requested on the conference site. http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_Awards === Media === [Essay] "Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past" by professor of history and new Media Roy Rosenzweig. This article was originally published in the Journal of American History (Volume 93, Number 1 (June, 2006): 117-46), and was reprinted on the web at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. This is a long but very interesting article. It also includes a comparison of historical articles from the English language Wikipedia with other encyclopedias. http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/d/42 === Stats === [ERRATUM] The report of last week that Wiktionary has reached the 1,000,000 definitions milestone is not confirmed. It is likely that Wiktionary is close to the one million mark but not yet there. [fur.wiki] The Friulian Wikipedia have reached 1000 articles. Friulian is a language spoken by about 600.000 people mainly in North-East Italy http://fur.wikipedia.org [ja.wikinews] now exist for one year. Aphaia made an overview of one year ja.wikinews http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikinews-l/2006-July/000497.html === Other news === [Wikia] has taken over the Uncyclopedia domain name and trademark. Uncyclopedia is a parody of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Wikia has been hosting Uncyclopedia since May 2005. Now the Wikimedia projects and the parody Uncyclopedia fall under the wings of Jimbo and Angela. Wikia/Uncyclopedia and Wikipedia/Wikimedia are legally totally separate. The news of the transfer is not well received by some of the Uncyclopedia community. http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Forum:Announcement:_Wikia_%26_Uncyclopedia http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/UnNews:Uncyclopedia_bought_by_Wikia_for_2_Wood… - This source is not very trustworthy [Torrent] a CD-ROM containing a selection of articles from the English language is available for download via bittorrent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team/Torrent_P… === Did you know ... === ... that you can use a telephone for calling people? VoIP, Skype, OpenWengo, GoogleTalk, etc. With all those systems you can call from PC to PC for free. And most have also the option to call to fixt phones or mobile phones, normally not for free. But you still need to mess arround with software, a microphone, a headset, audio settings, allocate bandwidth. And the audio quality is not always very good and also you need to buy credit in advance. An alternative is the service of JaJah.com The make only use of the traditional phones for the connection. No special software needed, no VOIP, no need to buy credit in advance; you pay later. Prices can be similar or even cheaper than SkypeOut. For many western country's it possible to call totally free of charge (possibly only temporary now). You can test there service for free without registration for a free call of 5 minutes from anyware to anyware. So if you are working on an article and you like to consult with someone who lives in a far away place, maybe it is not even so expensive to give him a call. http://www.jajah.com/ === Quote === "By contrast, when journalists make blunders, and weve been provided many an example in recent years, it requires a day or two to make the correction. And, unlike a wiki, the article itself can never be corrected, because its printed and on its way to the birdcage." - Larry Sanger >From http://www.dufoundation.org/blog/?p=68 ////////////////////////////////////////// Number of subscribers: 456 Editor(s): Walter, 18.85.46.138, Gary Kirk Corrector(s): Gary Kirk, Hector Corerro Thanks to: Klenje E-mail: ihavenews AT wikizine DOT org ////////////////////////////////////////// Wikizine.org makes no guarantee of accuracy, validity and especially but not limited to, correct grammar and spelling. Wikizine.org is not a publication of the Wikimedia Foundation. Content is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. Publisher:[[meta:user:Walter]]

17 years, 9 months

[Announce-l] Wikizine - number: 33

by Wikizine

****************************************** __ __ _ _ _ _ / / /\ \ (_) | _(_)___(_)_ __ ___ \ \/ \/ / | |/ / |_ / | '_ \ / _ \ \ /\ /| | <| |/ /| | | | | __/ \/ \/ |_|_|\_\_/___|_|_| |_|\___| .org Year: 2006 Week: 28 Number: 33 ****************************************** An independent internal news bulletin for the members of the Wikimedia community ////////////////////////////////////////// === Technical news === [<poem>] On the Wikisource project a new tag is now live especially for poems. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/24563… [Bug550] will be fixed soon, block options will change http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/27667/focu… [localization] - BetaWiki is a project to centralize the translations and updates for the MediaWiki system messages. This way all MediaWiki installations can have a recent and nearly complete translation. When implementing the new translation care must be taken not to insult projects that are using their own translation version by overwriting those with the new version without consulting them first about it. Like was done on the Dutch language Wikipedia. http://nike.users.idler.fi/betawiki/Etusivu - BetaWiki http://article.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/27664 - explanation by GerardM about BetaWiki http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/27644/focu… - Protest [PLURAL] there is a magic word "plural" that can be used to change the spelling of the user interface depending of the number of items involved. For some languages there are multiple conjugations depending on the number, PLURAL allows for that One example of the syntax for English is: {{PLURAL:$1|one article|are $1 articles}} This can be used on MediaWiki-pages the contain text used on dynamic changing pages. Example: [[MediaWiki:Categoryarticlecount]] contains the text used on category-pages to say how many items there are in that category. But a category can contain one item and then the correct description would be that there is "one article". If there are more then the phrase should use "articles", the plural form. You can see this in practice on the Afrikaanse Wikipedia; There you see how the magic word it used; http://af.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Categoryarticlecount&ac… And the results on a category with only one item reads "een artikel", what is the singular form. http://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorie:Amerika Here you see a category with more than one article and it reads "artikelen", the plural form. http://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorie:Kaapstad This construction can be used on those MediaWiki messages where the software is aware of the potential of a plural form; the English message should have the PLURAL construct as well. More about this at; http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Magic_words#Project-dependent_word_conv… http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5805 === Foundation === [Wikibooks] project is 3 years old now on the 10th of July 2006. Congratulations! This page gives an overview of the "State of the Project"; http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:State_of_the_Project/2006 [Staff] The Wikimedia Foundation has hired a new full-time staff member. She will be working in the function of administrative assistant in the Florida office. This person will be answering the phones for the WMF office and emails send to Wikimedia and the English language Wikipedia queue. The WMF has now 5 people in service and 1 contractor. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Current_staff [Angela] posted an explanation about her resignation from the Board. The Board accepts her resignation and confirms that there will be a election for a new Board member starting on 1 September 2006. Until that time Angela stays on the Board. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/8337/focus=8337 http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution_Board_election === Community === [Incubator] A vote is proceeding about a logo for the "incubator". This is a wiki where new projects can start and maybe move later to their own wiki if they succeed. There is now a vote about a logo for this wiki and about maybe a new name for it. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Incubator/logo#Voting http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Incubator/name === Media === [interview] with Angela Beesley, Elisabeth Bauer, and Kizu Naoko about "How and Why Wikipedia Works" http://www.riehle.org/computer-science/research/2006/wikisym-2006-interview… http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/10/0353220 [No News] - When someone dies it is always a rush to change their article as fast as possible on Wikipedia. So also with the article about [[w:en:Kenneth Lay]]. Reuters has published an article about the short time from when the article was changed from alive to dead, and about the initial confusion about the cause of death in some versions in the first hour after the announcement of the death of Kenneth Lay. Funny is that Reuters has slightly changed their own article about the Wikipedia article because that had made a mistake. Because it came from Reuters many others have covered it like CNN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Lay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komkommertijd http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/2006/07/05/wikipedias-ken-lay-problem/ http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&story… http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/07/05/lay.wikipedia.reut/index.html === Stats === [Wiktionary], the dictionary project of the WMF has reached the 1,000,000 definitions milestone. Wiktionary, started on 12 December 2002, is the oldest WMF project after Wikipedia. The number of people actively working on the Wiktionaries is, compared with Wikipedia, very few. This means that one person can make a difference - a big difference. [[User:GerardM]] has managed to make an astonishing 13,000 pronunciation audio recordings for Wiktionary, with his bot 200,000 edits on the English Wiktionary and 600,000 on all Wiktionaries. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_press_releases/Wiktionary_reaches_… http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2006/07/dubious-record.html [Edits] - the total number of edits in all Wikimedia projects surpassed 150 million. [ko.wiki] The Korean Wikipedia has reached 25,000 articles. http://ko.wikipedia.org === Other news === [Campaigns] - On Wikia a new Wiki is created: "Campaigns". It launched on the American Independence Day the 4th of July. It is a new non-Wikimedia project strongly supported by Jimbo. It is a project about increasing the intelligence of politics in the USA. This new project has received a lot of attention by the media. http://campaigns.wikia.com/wiki/Mission_Statement - Open letter by Jimbo about this project http://wikiangela.com/blog/wanted-structure-and-ideas-for-the-campaigns-wik… http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6091839.html http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6091151.html === Did you know ... === ... that Skype can be useful for your Wikimedia-work? On our projects many people work together. And there are many ways of communication to makes the work. But talking to someone can makes things a lot easier in some situations. You can use Skype for this. It is free to use between PC to PC. It exists for Windows. And also for Mac OS X and Linux. Those are crappy versions compared to the Windows versions but the work good enough to be useful. You can also talk with up to 5 people in a conference call. And if like to host a virtual Wikimeet or a open meeting for you chapter maybe the Skypecast-function can be useful. With you can talk to up to 100 people. http://www.skype.com/ http://skypecasts.skype.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Instant_Messaging_Wikipedians Remark; this was not an ad. Wikizine does not get paid for this. Wikizine does get paid for the Firefox and Picasa button on http://www.wikizine.org if the software is installed on a windows pc and for the fist time. Total benefits currently $0,0. The theoretical benefits will be used for expenses related to Wikizine. If ads where to be included in Wikizine it will be clearly labeled as such. There are no plans to include ads in Wikzine. === Quote === "People talk a lot as if the most important thing in life is to always see things for what they really are. But everything we do, every plan we make, is kind of a lie. We're closing our eyes and pretending that the day won't ever come when we won't need to make any more plans. Hope is the biggest lie there is, and it is the best. We have to keep going as if it all mattered, or else we wouldn't keep going at all." -- Character Allie Keys / science fiction miniserie "Taken" ////////////////////////////////////////// Number of subscribers: 451 Editor(s): Walter Corrector(s): Gary Kirk, Oscar Special thanks to: Alias E-mail: ihavenews AT wikizine DOT org ////////////////////////////////////////// Wikizine.org makes no guarantee of accuracy, validity and especially but not limited to, correct grammar and spelling. Wikizine.org is not a publication of the Wikimedia Foundation. Content is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. Publisher:[[meta:user:Walter]]

17 years, 9 months

[Announce-l] Wikizine - nr.:33 - Tech flash

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17 years, 9 months

[Announce-l] Wikizine - number: 32

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17 years, 9 months

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Announce-l July 2006