******************************************
__ __ _ _ _ _
/ / /\ \ (_) | _(_)___(_)_ __ ___
\ \/ \/ / | |/ / |_ / | '_ \ / _ \
\ /\ /| | <| |/ /| | | | | __/
\/ \/ |_|_|\_\_/___|_|_| |_|\___|
.org
Year: 2008 Week: 30 Number: 97
******************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
//////////////////////////////////////////
Notice from the editor: this edition does not includes all relevant
news for the time frame between the previous Wikizine and this one. I
decided that getting something out is more important then more delays.
Walter
=== Foundation ===
[New board chair] - The board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation
has a new chair. All board members where in favour to appoint Michael
Snow for the job. Michael, who is a board member since February 2008,
is best known as the founder of the Wikipedia Signpost. The former
chair, Anthere (Florence Devouard), was Chair since October 2006 and
board member since 2004. She is now not longer a WMF board member.
Anthere has joined the WMF Advisory board.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/31723http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Advisory_Board
[Board election] - [[meta:user:Wing]] (Ting Chen) is elected as a
community board member to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
His term will expire in July 2009. 3019 valid votes where registered.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2008/Results/enhttp://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board#Ting Chen
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/31722
[New hires] - The WMF has hired 5 new staff members; Erik Zachte (Tech
stats guy), Sara Crouse (Head of Partnerships and Foundation
Relations), Rebecca Handler (Major Gifts Officer), Rand Montoya (Head
of Community Giving), and Frank Schulenburg (public outreach
coordinator). Erik Zachte starts in September as a part-time
contractor. Erik is a Wikipedian from the Dutch language Wikipedia but
is mostly know for his volunteer work in creating detailed statistics
for the Wikimedia projects. As a contractor for the WMF Erik will also
work on this.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/31508 -- Erik Zachte
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/31661 -- Sara Crouse
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/31367 --
Rebecca Handler / Rand Montoya
http://stats.wikimedia.org/ -- the stats of the WMF by Erik Zachte
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Current_staff -- overview staff
=== Technical news ===
[SUL] - Bureaucrats can now rename a user to a name that is already
migrated to the Single User Login. This at least when if the global
account and the local account have the same email address or password.
[Video on wiki] - Kaltura, Inc is sponsoring Michael Dale, lead
developer of the MetaVid project, to work in the Wikimedia Foundation
offices in San Francisco beginning in August. Michael will work on
adding support for video editing operations and other video-related
functionality to MediaWiki.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/31756
[ERATA] - the item "Restrict upload", section "Proposals", in Wikizine
96 was not correct. Restricting uploads to auto confirmed users only
is not a proposal but is live on all wikis ... except those wikis who
have requested to disable this function explicitly.
=== Request for help ===
[Wikizine] - assistance would be useful (understatement)
http://report.wikizine.org
=== Proposals ===
[Front door] - Just like most people have a very hard time to
understand that a domain of a website can end with something else then
.com have visitors the urge to put "www" before everything. The means
the url "www.wikipedia.org" is an important page and the front door
for many visitors of Wikipedia. 10 Wikipedias have currently the
honour to be listed very prominently around the wikipedia-globe, the
Wikipedias who have the most articles. When a Wikipedia breaks the
100,000 articles milestone the also like to move up and get a spot
around the globe. But space is limited. This a long standing source of
discussion.
A poll is currently opened to find a solution. Users can indicate
there support for different ways to present the Wikipedia-options to
the visitors. The poll is open until July 31, 2008 at 23:59 UTC.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Top_Ten_Wikipedias/poll
=== Community ===
[Wikimania 2008] - For this year is it over. WikipediaWeekly provides
audio reporting about Wikimania.
The 2009 Wikimania conference will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
http://wikipediaweekly.org/ -- podcasts 52 / 57
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimania_2008_Alexandria -- some
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gallery pictures from Wikimania 2008
http://www.kaltura.com/devwiki/index.php/Wikimania_Sessions -- If you
are very lucky you can find some video recordings there
http://tinyurl.com/6l4gwr -- Bibliotheca Alexandrina Webcast
http://linuxawy.org/node/28 -- how to get those streams working
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2008/07/wikimania-alexandria.html
-- Impression by GerardM, who was there
http://tinyurl.com/6fu5hy -- and also one from User:Pfctdayelise
[Most read] - The English Wikinews has a new page that displays the
top 20 of the most read articles of the last hour. This is not done by
MediaWiki but by means of the Domas's wikistats.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Template:Popular_articles
[The Other Side] - Once was it a mystery and cause to speculation how
the dark side of the Moon would look like. Now the question is raised;
how does the other side of the Wikipedia globe looks like?
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/31763
=== Other news ===
[Knol] - Google has gone live with their project to create user
written information articles. It is not like Wikipedia in the sense
that an article is owned by an author, at least as default. When you
start a new "knol" you can also allow everyone to edit if logged in.
That author can write about what he wishes to write, even when there
is already an article about that topic. Other people can give a rating
(stars) and give comments. Authors received a part of the earnings of
the advertisements displayed on there articles if the switch the
advertisements on. The default license is "Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0". It is currently not clear of the GFDL-licence that
Wikipedia is using is compatible. But you can also pick a licence that
does not allow commercial use or you can disallow all use elsewhere.
So knol be very open or very restrictive depending on what you chose
as author of a knol.
http://knol.google.comhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knolhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PYO-fN_VgU -- Jimmy Wales gives his
idea about Knol & Wikipedia
[China] - The Chinese language Wikipedia is now, months after the
unblocking of the other languages editions, also unblocked. At least
in some parts of China. It is expected the will be blocked again as
soon as the Olympic fire is extinguished.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Chinese_Wikipedia_unblocked_by_government
=== Quote ===
Mammon slept. And the beast reborn spread over the earth and its
numbers grew legion. And they proclaimed the times and sacrificed
crops unto the fire, with the cunning of foxes. And they built a new
world in their own image as promised by the sacred words, and spoke of
the beast with their children. Mammon awoke, and lo! it was naught but
a follower.
from The Book of Mozilla, 11:9
(10th Edition)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Mozilla
//////////////////////////////////////////
Number of subscribers: 710
Editor(s): Walter
Thanks to: Platonides, bawolff
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
Dear reader of Wikizine in English,
The next edition of Wikizine is delayed. At this time it is still the
intention to provide you with this edition.
If you would like to help out with the creation of EN Wikizine please
contact me at <walter(a)wikizine.org>
Greetings,
Walter
--
Contact: walter AT wikizine DOT org
Wikizine.org - news for and about the Wikimedia community