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.org
Year: 2008 Week: 52 Number: 103
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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
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=== Technical news ===
[Hosting move] - the servers located in Amsterdam, Europe, are on the
move to a new data center. At the old data center where around 40
servers located mostly for caching pages and images requested by
European users. According to an unconfirmed source has Kennisnet ended
its sponsoring of this cluster. Since May 2005 has Kennisnet paid all
expenses for the cluster in Amsterdam.
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/35389
[404] -If you follow a link to a page that doesn't exist (to the
actual page, not including the edit pages), the servers now give a 404
(not found error code) where before they gave the 200 (ok) error code.
This may help some automated programs, is
more inline with what you are "supposed" to do, but most people will
not notice as the page returned is still the same.
http://leuksman.com/log/2008/12/22/fixing-404-for-wiki-pages/
[MediaWiki messages] - revision-info, revision-info-current,
cannotdelete, redirectedfrom, historywarning and difference messages
now use Wiki text rather than raw HTML markup. Some wikis will need to
fix their customized messages.
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16026http://leuksman.com/log/2008/12/23/wikimedia-sites-updated-to-r44990/
=== Proposals ===
[Licence discussion] - the new version of the GNU Free Documentation
License contains a section that gives the projects now using the GNU
Free Documentation License the option to change the licence of those
projects. The option to migrate to an other license expires on August
1, 2009. Discussion about this is requested.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update
=== Foundation ===
[Jimbo's appeal] - The post of a message from Jimmy Wales to ask for
money that is announced exceptionally prominent at the sites has
resulted in a temporary increase of donations of 892%.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/12/24/a-great-day-for-our-fundraiser/
=== Legal ===
[Wikimedia NL wins] - Wikimedia Nederland wins a preliminary
injunction. Not a big surprise because the wrong Wikimedia was sued,
but nevertheless good news.
http://tinyurl.com/7l4zc2
=== Community ===
[Photo-print service] - a partnership has been established between the
French language Wikipedia community and a photo printer service. it is
now possible to order a print of an image on the wiki with the menu
"Get a poster of this image". For every order is 1,5 EUR donated to
Wikimedia. At present a 1000 EUR is donated this way. You see only the
option if the site language is French. So logout or change your setting.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet:Impression/enhttp://www.wikiposter.fr/
[Everyone Bureaucrat] - the community of the Italian Wikiquote has
decided that all sysops also will be a bureaucrat. On IT Wikiquote are
only 6 sysops, so now also 6 bureaucrats. That have found inspiration
from the Spanish language Wikipedia. There are nearly all sysops also
bureaucrats, all 126.
How to become a bureaucrat differs strongly from wiki to wiki. For
example; on the English language Wikipedia you need to be elected in a
extremely difficult bureaucratic process. And on the Dutch language
Wikipedia all sysops active for at least one year can become
bureaucrat by simple request.
[EN Wikinews] - the main page is decorated for the holidays. It has a
tree , menorah, Kwanzaas and snowman. This unusual. Normally the do
not do this, but (strangely) no one complained.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/http://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Main_page_header&oldid=74…
[New planet] - At the location "planet.wikimedia.org" are several
language based websites who collect the posts of many different blogs
with postings who are supposed to be related to WMF-projects. For
example Wikizine is also listed there on the English language version.
There is now a new planet; the "North Germanic languages". Normally it
is for one language only but because the amount of posts would be to
few the languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese
form one planet.
http://gmq.planet.wikimedia.org/
=== Awards ===
[Picture of the year&Co] - Wikinews is gearing up for end of year. The
2008 picture of the year will be voted on shortly . You must be active
somewhere in wikimedia to vote, but that does not necessarily have to
be wikinews.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Picture_of_the_Year_2008
=== Media ===
[Wiki first] - A scientific journal "RNA Biology" has requested their
contributors create wikipedia articles on their research subject
before publishing a paper. Although some people have expressed
concerns that a research paper is not that same as a good article.
http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Info/Press/2008/081217.shtmlhttp://en.wikinews.org/wiki/RNA_journal_submits_articles_to_Wikipedia
=== Stats ===
[SV wp] - Swedish Wikipedia passed 300 000 articles and have send out
a press release.
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipediadiskussion:300K
=== Other news ===
[Betawiki bounty] - If you translate 500 mediawiki messages before the
end of the year, you can get a 1000 euro prize!
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2008/12/betawiki-end-of-year-price.htmlhttp://translatewiki.net/wiki/Betawiki:News/Newsletter_2008-12-2
=== Donation comments ===
"Find a clean way to make profitable enough to survive for we count on
you but you can't really count on us, we don't have money!..." --
Anonymous
"When I first started working with computers in the '70s, I dreamed of
an electronic library with all the information anyone needed on a
portable device. You're making that happen. Thank you." -- Harvey
Platter
"Une modeste contribution ainsi qu'un grand MERCI... continuez..." --
Mathieu TARTARE
"DONATION, BUT I DISLIKE JIMBO"
//////////////////////////////////////////
Number of subscribers: 725
Unique Visitors website last week: 103
Editor(s): Bawolff, Walter, Casey
Corrector(s): none
Thanks to: Plyd, Nemo_bis, Ainali
Contact: reply or http://report.wikizine.org
Website: http://www.wikizine.org
//////////////////////////////////////////
Wikizine.org makes no guarantee of accuracy,
validity and especially but not limited to,
correct grammar and spelling. Satisfaction is not guaranteed.
Wikizine.org is published by [[meta:user:Walter]],
and is not a publication of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Wikizine is a irregular publication as long as there is noteworthy
news (and time)
Content is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
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__ __ _ _ _ _
/ / /\ \ (_) | _(_)___(_)_ __ ___
\ \/ \/ / | |/ / |_ / | '_ \ / _ \
\ /\ /| | <| |/ /| | | | | __/
\/ \/ |_|_|\_\_/___|_|_| |_|\___|
.org
Year: 2008 Week: 50 Number: 102
******************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
//////////////////////////////////////////
=== Technical news ===
[Wiki rename] - the first letters of the url of our projects indicate the
language of that project. For some of them those will change to other
ones. Effected languages are; Aromanian, Low German, Moldovan and
Belarusian. Redirects will be created.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/34563
[WikimediaNotifier] - A system has setup to create a message on Meta that
then is copied automatically to all the wikis. The purpose is to improve
the internal distribution of important news to the community. The messages
are posted in namespace of the bot [[user:WikimediaNotifier]] but wikis
can request to post them somewhere else like in there village pump if the
wish it so.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_notificationshttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_notifications/how-to
[MediaWiki extension Testing] - Many of the extensions written for
MediaWiki are used outside of the Wikimedia Foundation. Installing is not
always easy because they do not come with a guarantee that they will work.
ExtentionTesting provides a testing environment where these extensions
can be tested against the stable releases of MediaWiki. This way it is
easier and more predictable to use extensions with the MediaWiki software.
http://extensiontesting.wikiation.nl/Main_Page
[Interwiki map] - the interwiki map is updated. The means that the many
changes done to it are now live. For example you can now link to an
OTRS-ticket with the interwiki [[Ticket:]]. The old prefix [[OTRS:]] was
broken and no support was found to repair it.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interwiki_map
[Turnkey MediaWiki] - A Ubuntu-based distro created for one purpose;
running MediaWiki. Ideal to try out MediaWiki on your own computer.
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/TurnKey_MediaWiki
=== Request for help ===
[Web Designer/geek] - Wikizine.org seeks the help of a volunteer who can
realize an idea the involves building a website that is intended to
besides being useful also create revenue to support Wikizine.org Contact
[[user:Walter]]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Walter
=== Foundation ===
[Wikimedia Foundation] - The Stanton Foundation donates US$ 890,000 to the
Wikimedia Foundation to develop an easier way to write and change
articles. The goal is to increase usability so that more people can edit
articels, which have less technical knowledge.
http://tinyurl.com/64zmen -- WMF press release
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/StantonGrantQA
[WMF Audited financial statements] - the new ones for the period 2007-2008
are published. If you like the know the official financial numbers then
this is what you need to read.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/34390
=== Legal ===
[Wikimedia Deutschland] - The German chapter Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
are hosting a website (www.wikipedia.de), where the German wikipedia can
be searched. A German court enacted a temporary restraining order that
this website must not link to the German wikipedia (de.wikipedia.org). The
reason is a lawsuit between Wikimedia Deutschland and Lutz Heilmann, a
member of the German Parliament (Bundestag), about some statements in the
article about him. He also sued three Wikipedia users because of their
work on this article. The restraining order was abolished after 2.5 days.
Because of the news coverage the donations for the Wikimedia Deutschland
was increasing signifcant.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutz_Heilmannhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutz_Heilmannhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Wikimedia_deutschland_website_16_no…
[European Copyright] - A working group of the Dutch Wikimedia, German
Wikimedia, Hungarian and Italian Wikimedia Chapter has issued a reaction
on the EU Green paper Copyright in the Knowledge Economy.
http://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Groep_Groenboek/enhttp://tinyurl.com/6djgwy -- The text of the green paper
[WM Netherlands] - a request for an preliminary injunction is issued by
Bob Sijthoff against the Dutch Chapter to obtain the identity of
particular user and the removal a specific article. The position of WM
Netherlands is that the are not legally or technical capable of doing
that. Ruling is expected by the 10th of December.
=== Agenda ===
[WM Serbia Conference] - The Regional Conference of Wikimedia Serbia will
be held at 19th, 20th and 21st December in Belgrade, in the Belgrade Youth
Home.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/34612http://tinyurl.com/6hx9vo -- WM Serbia conference
=== Community ===
[Commons: Bundesarchiv Project] - The German Federal Archive has about
170.000 digital photos since 2007. Using this photos was not free of
charge. After long discussions with the Wikimedia Deutschland almost
100.000 photos are now licenced by the cc-by-sa 3.0 DE. Currently the
photos are uploaded to Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Bundesarchivhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_the_German_Federal_A…
[New Wikibooks logo] - The selection process of new logo for the Wikibooks
project is coming to a close. Only the colors of the new logo still need
to be decided.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikibooks/Logo
=== Media ===
[Censor] - British internet service providers have been blocking a
Wikipedia article and so also causing problems for there users to edit
Wikipedia. The blocked article was flagged as child-pornographic in
nature. Interestedly also Chinese media are reporting the blocking of
Wikipedia in the UK.
http://tinyurl.com/5eo9s7 -- Wikinews article about it
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Censorship_of_WP_in_the_…
[Winkler Prins] - in the Dutch language is the Winkler Prins, founded in
1870, the last surviving encyclopedia. Winkler Prins announced that there
10th edition will no longer be published in paper from. Reasons are lack
of interest in a encyclopedia on paper and huge work to get the
information that can fill 50 book down to 26 books. The 10th edition be
published online subscription based.
http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie/cultuur%2Ben%2Bmedia/1.419229
=== Stats ===
[EN wp] - out of frustration of lack of good statistics on the number of
active editors on the EN wp [[User:Dragons flight]] has made some.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.english/96575http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editing_frequency
[NL Wikipedia] - the Dutch language Wikipedia passed the 500,000 article mark
[Fundraiser] - while the funding is coming in some stats are available
about the success rate of the different banners.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/34559http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/11/25/wikimedias-fundraiser-which-banners-cl…http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/11/14/2008-fundraiser-update/
=== Other news ===
[Wikipedia Loves Art] - is a free content photography contest coordinated
with the Brooklyn Museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and possibly other
museums worldwide, and aimed at illustrating Wikipedia articles. The event
is planned to run for the whole month of February 2009, and the name is a
play off of Valentine's Day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Loves_Arthttp://www.flickr.com/groups/wikipedia_loves_art/
[WikiVoices] - The podcast "Not The Wikipedia Weekly" changes its name to
WikiVoices.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiVoices
=== Quote ===
"Fair use is not a right. [..] Fair use is only a... ...legal defensible
position" ~ A Fair(y) Use Tale!
http://dotsub.com/view/4918f3c8-8f04-4aa1-b300-39048dca6822
//////////////////////////////////////////
Number of subscribers: 725
Unique Visitors website last week: 110
Editor(s): Walter, Anonymous
Thanks to: Angela, Ellywa, GerardM
Especially thanks to: Sannse
Contact: reply or http://report.wikizine.org
Website: http://www.wikizine.org
//////////////////////////////////////////
Wikizine.org makes no guarantee of accuracy,
validity and especially but not limited to,
correct grammar and spelling. Satisfaction is not guaranteed.
Wikizine.org is published by [[meta:user:Walter]],
and is not a publication of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Wikizine is a irregular publication as long as there is noteworthy news
(and time)
Content is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
