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.org
Year: 2009 Week: 31 Number: 113
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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
//////////////////////////////////////////
=== Technical news ===
[arwp: New namespace] - the Arabic Wikipedia Community has agreed to
create a new namespace called "Supplement". It will contain most of
date pages (days, months, years, decades, etc.), disambiguation pages
and lists to give the exactly number of encyclopedic articles. There
are about 6000 pages that will be moved to the new namespace. It may
be possible that your community would like to apply the same idea.
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19357 -- bug report
http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project:Supplement -- guideline of namespace
[Commons: Off-site archive] - A off site archive for Commons and the
XML snapshots will be added. Thanks are due to eBart consulting and
User:Milosh for proving a backup server and storage array at their
colocation facility in Europe. This server will store archives of our
publicly available data of Wikimedia Commons and the XML snapshots.
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/07/were-adding-an-off-site-archive-for-c… -- techblog
post
[Passwords plz] - Watchlistr.com was an outside site that asked for
Wikimedia passwords in order aggregate user watchlists across all
projects for them. Although in this case it did not have a malicious
intent, use of external sites asking for passwords place in risk the
accounts used. Users are asked not to share their user password with
any external site. Not even toolserver tools are allowed to request
your password for any service. The site has now been shut down, and
further analysis revealed that it had important vulnerabilities.
Magnus Manske has created an alternative tool for people to use if
they liked this feature.
http://www.watchlistr.com/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2009-July/044238.html
-- initial thread
http://magnusmanske.de/MetaWatchlist/ -- alternative proposed by Magnus
[TS: Multi-maintainer tools] - the toolserver is pushing
multi-maintainer tools and will be actively discouraging single
maintainer ones. They want to encourage collaboration amongst
toolserver users and make tools last even when one of the users
disappears.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.toolserver/1515
[SVN account requests] - there's a new process for requesting SVN
accounts to the MediaWiki source code. Brion announced that he'll be
going through the queue every week, so if you have request throw them
up on MediaWiki wiki. ;-)
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/44683 --
mailing list post
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Commit_access_requests -- requests
=== Proposals ===
[Geonotice + Wikinews/Commons?] - Sage Ross recently proposed
something interesting: using an opt-in geonotice (notice that displays
based on the location of your IP) to show local reporting or
photographing opportunities. Hopefully this will help with one of the
great frustrations that inhibit original reporting.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2009-July/044367.html
=== Foundation ===
[Board elections: Voting] - the Foundation's Board elections has
finally entered into the voting phase (voting is open until August 10)
and translation is continuing. Visit the Meta pages for election
information (including a "Questions" page), the Wikipedia Signpost
also has interviews with the candidates.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2009#voters -- voter
requirements
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2009/Translation --
translation page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-07-27/Board_… -- signpost
interviews
[More donation buttons] - the second round of donation button designs
has been posted, feedback is appreciated to determine which designs
we'll end up using!
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Donation_buttons_upgrade
[Audit Committee] - the new members of the 2009-2010 Audit Committee
have been announced.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-July/053280.html --
foundation-l post
[wm2009: Registration] - Media Registration for Wikimania 2009 has
opened. For regular registration, there is a new update: it is also
possible to extend your stay past the Wikimania dates, but you need to
contact the hotel directly.
http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration#Accommodations --
extending stay options
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimania_2009_Media_Reg… -- media
registration
[Strategy: "Office Hours" & Wiki] - the Strategic Planning team has
announced their "office hours" which are teams that they will be on
the channel to answer questions and participate in discussions,
everyone's invited! The team has also "soft-launched" their wiki
(most of its content is also available for translation).
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_Office_Hourshttp://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/40527 --
soft-launch post
[TS donation] - the Wikimedia Foundation has awarded a US$40,000 grant
to the Toolserver toward improving the toolserver's reliability. With
that money they will buy three database servers, so they can keep two
copies of each wiki database instead of just one. This should greatly
improve the availability of up to date data in the wiki databases.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/toolserver-l/2009-July/002278.html --
announcement
http://journal.toolserver.org/entry/2009/07/29/wikimedia-foundation-grants-… -- blog
post
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/WMF_grants/WM_DE/Improve_… -- original grant
application
[Active ombudsmen?] - there was a discussion on the DE Wikipedia (and
then foundation-l) about whether or not the Ombudsmen commission (the
group that hears privacy violations) is actually fulfilling its
mission actively.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/40241
=== Community ===
[NY Wiki-Conference] - the first New York City Wiki-Conference was a
success with more than 100 people attending. The Signpost has a
write-up about the event and there was also a twitter "report" with
the tag #nywikiconference.
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23nywikiconference -- twitter feed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-07-27/Wiki-C… -- signpost
update
[Institutions editing] - the Tropenmuseum, a Dutch museum, was
preparing to upload images to the Dutch Wikipedia until it's account
was blocked due to its name. Erik Möller (User:Eloquence, Deputy
Director WMF) suggested on Commons-l that this is something we want to
avoid -- "these institutions are helping expand our content, we should
Assume Good Faith and let our first impressions be friendly and
professional".
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2009/07/tropenmuseum-is-blocked.html --
Gerard's blog post on the museum
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.commons/5006 -- Erik's
commons-l post
[WMUK: Schools project ML] - Wikimedia UK has started a new mailing
list for its schools project, dedicated to creating a Wikipedia
version with selected articles for schools. Interested parties are
welcome to subscribe.
http://wikimedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/schools-project-l_wikimedia.org.uk
=== Media ===
[Wikipedia flawed, but that's okay] - Wikipedia is a flawed and
incomplete testament to the essential fallibility of human nature. An
interesting blog post from the BBC about Wikipedia being okay. ;-)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/digitalrevolution/2009/07/wikipedia.shtml
[Mobile Wikipedia tips] - Wikipedia Expert Tips: How to Keep the Facts
at Your Fingertips. The article talks about different ways to serve
Wikipedia content, from tweaking the skin to a random article
screensaver to mobile phone versions.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/168655/wikipedia_expert_tips_how_to_keep_the…
[NIH] - a few more media outlets have covered the National Institutes
of Health Academy with article titles ranging from "Should you trust
health advice from the web?" to "NIH Gets Schooled on Wikipedia".
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327185.500-should-you-trust-health-…http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2009/07/nih_gets_schooled_on_wikipedia.phphttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR200907270…
[CK-12 Foundation] - Jimmy Wales joined the Advisory Board of the
CK-12 Foundation, a Silicon Valley non-profit organization with a
mission to provide online up-to-date and standards-aligned textbook
content to K-12 students around the world.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/jimmy-wales-joins-advisory-board-of…
[NPG] - the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies has
sided with the National Portrait Gallery *against* Wikipedia, as the
NPG incident continues.
http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=866109http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/40549
[Jimmy on CNN Money] - Jimbo did a piece on "CNN Money" where he
talked about Wikipedia's non-profit status and it's usability and
stategic planning projects.
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2009/07/28/n_co_wikipedia_wales.cnnmoney/
[Rorschach censors] - the New York Times covers the Rorschach
controversy: whether or not we should include the ink blot tests in
our articles (for "ethical reasons").
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/technology/internet/29inkblot.html
[WP has poor photos?] - the NY Times ran an article a few weeks ago
called: "Wikipedia May Be a Font of Facts, but It?s a Desert for
Photos" which pointed out that Wikipedia has some trouble with good
quality pictures in its articles (especially ones of celebrities).
This caused a bit of controversy on the mailing lists, with image
contributors complaining that the Foundation didn't steer the article
in the right direction -- highlighting good works instead of bad ones.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/arts/20funny.html -- article
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-July/053282.html --
mailing list thread
=== Stats ===
[50k] - the Galician and Nynorsk (Norwegian) Wikipedias have both
reached 50,000 articles.
http://gl.wikipedia.org/http://nn.wikipedia.org/
[mhr.wp] - the Meadow Mari Wikipedia is less than a month old and
already has over 500 articles (almost 600)!
http://mhr.wikipedia.org/
=== Other news ===
[Facebook] - the Wikipedia fan page on Facebook, managed by Cary Bass
(Bastique) Volunteer Coordinator WMF, now has a URL. If you use
Facebook, make sure to add yourself as a fan.
http://www.facebook.com/wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#Privacy
[Wikipedia Art] - some awesome posters/t-shirts from last year have
resurfaced, they display people with a common theme: "I [edit]
Wikipedia". They show ordinary people surrounded by words that
display their editing interest depending upon their personality.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeeperez/sets/72157604803121347/
[Attracting newbies?] - David Gerard pointed out an interesting
article with tips about attracting newbies and making them effective.
Although the author is talking about software development, it
definitely could relate to our projects.
http://denise.dreamwidth.org/23600.html
=== Did you know ... ===
... parody is the highest form of flattery?
[Bigipedia] - BBC Radio launched a "broadwebcasting" show parodying
the internet by mocking pop-ups, search boxes and other aspects of
online activity. Produced and directed by Pozzitive, the four-part
series is called 'Bigipedia' and has taken its inspiration from
Wikipedia. If you can appreciate British humor, check it out.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lpr29/Bigipedia_Episode_1/ --
first episode (30 min)
//////////////////////////////////////////
Editor(s): Casey, Alex, Platonides
Thanks to: OsamaK, Rand, Stu, Sage, Daniel Kinzler, Skenmy, Frederic,
Brion, Jay, Philippe, David, River, Roan, Galio, Cary, Signpost, Gerard
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]].
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
and also the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
******************************************
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.org
Year: 2009 Week: 30 Number: 112
******************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
//////////////////////////////////////////
=== Technical news ===
[Media server problems] - there were some media load problems on all
the sites, which caused "extreme slowness or temporary
inaccessibility". The sysadmins took advantage of this downtime to
redo the way we access media files internally which will help reduce
the impact on the rest of the site when load problems on the file
servers occur, and also spreads out the load among multiple servers to
improve things even more. They had to shut off all uploads for a
while to get this done!
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/07/intermittent-media-server-load-proble…http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/07/uploads-temporarily-offline-for-site-…
[Wikipedia Weekly interviews the Usability Team] - Wikipedia Weekly, a
podcast for and by Wikimedians, interviewed the Usability team.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikipediaWeekly/Episode76http://wikipediaweekly.org/2009/07/09/episode-76-usability/
[MediaWiki:Sharedupload change] - MediaWiki:Sharedupload became
MediaWiki:Sharedupload-desc-here. Admins in other projects should
rename the first one to the second in order to customize messages for
images from Commons. (That's the text shown when a Commons image is
shown on another project:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Doorknob_buddhist_temple_detail_amk.jpg
)
=== Request for help ===
[Translation of the week] -- the Translation of the Week needs help!
If you speak another language and would like to translate "History of
pizza" into your language, TOTW is for you. ;-)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Translation_of_the_week
=== Foundation ===
[Board elections] - the candidate deadline for the elections to the
Board of Trustees has been extended to July 27 due to some technical
issues for which the CentralNotice had to be turned off. The
questioning of the candidates has also begun and translation is ongoing.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2009/Candidates -- candidates
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2009/Candidates/Questions --
questions
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2009/Translation -- translation
[New "Strategic Planning" Staff] - the Foundation announced that they
filled two positions for their Strategic Planning project.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-July/053165.html --
project manager
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-July/053168.html --
facilitator
[National Portrait Gallery] - the English National Portrait Gallery
(NPG) in London (UK) has threatened to sue a U.S. citizen, Derrick
Coetzee. The legal letter followed claims that he had breached the
Gallery's copyright in several thousand photographs of works of art
uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons, a free online media repository.
More information in the extremely detailed Wikinews article.
*Update*: The WMF and NPG have entered into good-faith negotiations,
according to Erik Moeller.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/U.K._National_Portrait_Gallery_threatens_U.S._c…http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/07/16/protecting-the-public-domain-and-shari… -- WMF blog
post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-07-13/Copyri… -- summary by the
signpost
[Academy: NIH] - the Wikimedia Foundation announced and had its first
Wikipedia Academy (outreach event to teach people to become
contributors) in the United States this week.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/NIH_and_WMF_announce_fir… -- press
release
http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23nihwiki -- twitter coverage from the event
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Academy/NIH_2009 -- project writeup
[Advisory Board changes] - Angela, chair of the Advisory Board, has
updated the "Advisory Board" page to show that 8 members have left,
bringing the current total to 15 advisory board members.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/?diff=39660
[Fundraising 2008: Post-Mortem] - Rand Montoya, the Foundation's Head
of Community Giving, has posed a post-mortem (basically "what went
wrong, what went right and what can we do better?") on the 2008
Fundraising Drive.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2008#Post_Mortem_for_the_2008_An…
=== Community ===
[Board elections: Inspiration] - some Wikimedians suggested that it
might be better if prospective candidates knew *why* they should run
for board member; what's it really like to be one? Stu West
(appointed member, treasurer) responded and explained why serving on
the Board is rewarding.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-July/053211.html
[wm2009: schedule & flu] - the Wikimania 2009 team posted two updates
this week where they created a draft schedule for the conference on
their wiki and posted a message about swine flu concerns to a few
mailing lists.
http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Schedule -- schedule on wiki
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimania-l/2009-July/001433.html
-- mailing list post (swine flu)
[Open Source Schools] - Wikimedia UK's secretary is presenting a piece
on the subject of "using Wikipedia in schools" at the Open Source
Schools "un"conference in Nottingham (UK) next Monday 20th July. If
you're in the area, it sounds like it'll be interesting! (Conference
admission is 55 pounds.)
http://opensourceschools.org.uk/node/11659 -- presentation
http://www.ncsl.org.uk/lcc-map.pdf -- venue
[Spotlight] - Many projects must have there projects to improve the
quality if an article. The English Wikipedia has there project
"Spotlight". It not a new thing, the started end of 2006. But the
news is that it has lost it {{historical}} - label. The spot is again
on!
http://en.wikipedia.orgwiki/Wikipedia:Spotlight
=== Media ===
[Rorschach Test Censorship] - English Wikipedians had an interesting
argument about whether or not to include the Rorschach ink blot tests
in the article on the subject. No, it's not because of licensing, the
files are in the public domain. It's actually about ethics, people
are worried it will ruin the validity of the tests. The Wikipedia
discussion was picked up by blogs/news outlets.
http://blog.heebie.co.uk/interesting-rorschach-test-censorshiphttp://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/07/14/1829231/Wikipedia-Debates-Rorschach-…
[WikiWars Conference] - the first conference to be held in Bangalore
(India), called WikiWars, invites participation from users, scholars,
academics, practitioners, artists and other cultural workers, to share
their experiences, ideas, experiments, innovations, applications and
stories about Wikipedia.
http://cis-india.org/research/conferences/wikiwars
[NPG Coverage] - the user who was threatened with legal action by the
National Portrait Gallery is keeping a list of media coverage.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Dcoetzee/NPG_legal_threat/Coverage
[WLA/NL] - The Dutch Wiki loves art initiative by Wikimedia Nederland
ended and gained a total of 5447 photos of art objects from 45 museums
photographed by no less than 292 enthusiastic volunteers. In a few
weeks the pictures will become available on Commons, but the pictures
can already be viewed on flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/wikilovesart/
=== Stats ===
[en.wp] - Erik Zachte, Wikimedia status guru and owner of
infodisiac.com, has published new wikistats data for the English
Wikipedia for the first time since October 2006. This also allows
publication of much wanted totals for all wikipedias combined, and
trend forecasts.
http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/07/new-statistics-for-the-english-wikipedia/
-- blog post #1
http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/07/new-statistics-for-the-english-wikipedia…
-- blog post #2 (in-depth technical post)
http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm -- new tables
(click "charts" on the upper right to see pictures too)
[sv.wp biographies] - LA2 posted some research on the breakdown of
articles on the Swedish Wikipedia. The Wikipedians found out that
26.6% of articles are biographies and that the overall ratio of
biographies is 1 woman to 4 men (but that ratio gets worse as you go
back in time).
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2009-July/044149.html
-- mailing list post
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LA2-gender-age.png -- gender
vs. age graph
=== Other news ===
[New Book] - a new freely licensed book has been launched about wikis
in the workplace.
http://WikiWhileYouWork.com
[LSS: foundation-l] - two new list summaries for the foundation-l
posts have been posted, covering the second half of June and the first
half of July.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/LSS/foundation-l-archives/2009_June_15-30http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/LSS/foundation-l-archives/2009_July_1-15
=== Did you know ... ===
... that there is an easy solution to Wikipedia's vandalism problems?
According to one humorous website, "ALL WE NEED TO DO is direct our
vandalism entirely to the article about chickens. Imagine a Wikipedia
free of vandalism!"
http://www.everytopicintheuniverseexceptchickens.com/
Note: that is a humorous website. It does not mean you are allowed to
... with Wikipdia's chickens.
=== Quote ===
"Try to learn something about everything and everything about
something." - Thomas H. Huxley
//////////////////////////////////////////
Editor(s): Casey, Alex, Walter
Thanks to: Sue, Anoop, Patricio, Galio, Effe, Brianmc, Signpost,
Andrew Turvey, Angela, Sage Ross, Philippe, Phoebe, Chzz, MarkW
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: 2009 Week: 28 Number: 111
******************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
//////////////////////////////////////////
=== Proposals ===
[Logo Wiktionary] - End of 2006 a winner of a new logo selection
process was declared for Wiktionary. Some Wiktionary accepted and
used the new logo, others did not. (like the English Wiktionary). In
any case once more a new logo selection process is in motion on Meta
for Wiktionary.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiktionary/logo -- "we have a winner (2006)"
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiktionary/logo/refresh -- new logo
Wiktionary 2009
=== Foundation ===
[Board elections] - the Wikimedia Foundation Board is holding its
community elections again, this time for 3 board seats (the next
regular election will be in two years). Candidates are being accepted
until July 20. Help is needed with translating many pages for the
election. (including the CentralNotice displayed all over Wikimedia's
sites)!
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2009/Candidates/en --
candidates
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2009/Translation -- translation
[Annual Plan] - the Foundation has published its 2009-2010 Annual Plan
and a set of Questions & Answers to go along with it.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/a/a3/2009-10_Wikimedia_Fou… -- annual plan
(pdf)
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2009-2010_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Ans… --
Q&A
[wm2009: Registration] - registration for Wikimania 2009 in Buenos
Aires is now open! If you register before July 30, it's US$15
cheaper. (= US$45)
http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration
[Orange] - In April the Wikimedia Foundation announced a partnership
with the telecommunications company "Orange". The Spanish Wikipedia is
now being showcased on the Spanish Orange site.
http://wikipedia.orange.eshttp://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Orange_and_Wikimedia_ann… -- original press
release
[New chapters] - the Board recently approved three new Wikimedia
chapters: Wikimedia Danmark (Denmark), Wikimedia Portugal, and
Wikimedia Ukraine. This brings the total number of chapters to 24.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-July/052936.htmlhttp://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolutions#July_2009
=== Agenda ===
[fossevents] - a new site (run by the same people who run IRC network
Wikimedia uses, Freenode) just opened up that showcases FOSS (Free and
Open Source Software) Events around the world, big and small. Be sure
to add your upcoming Wikimedia events and look for others that
interest you!
http://fossevents.org
=== Community ===
[New Wikipedia] - The founding of "Wikipedia", the large Western
language Wikipedias, may seem to lay in the distant past, new
Wikipedia's are still founded. The Mari Wikipedia is the newest family
member.
http://mhr.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_language
[GLAM] - in the lead up to GLAM-WIKI (August 6-7), Wikimedia Australia
is holding an editors' challenge (like a friendly competition) with
the overall theme of "Australian GLAM" (GLAM stands for "Galleries,
Libraries, Archives & Museums"). The idea is to pick your own editing
theme and submit it, along with the edits you make related to it.
Prizes will be awarded for the most extensive, creative, impressive,
novel, broad, deep, etc. edits.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Australia/GLAM_challenge --
GLAM challenge
http://glam.wikimedia.org.au/ -- GLAM wiki
[WMDE: ED/Vision] - we previously noted that Wikimedia Deutschland was
looking for a new Executive Director; they've finally found one after
a year! The new director is Pavel Richter (w:de:User:Schreibvieh) and
he was the unanimous choice of both the search committee and the
board. Sebastian, chair of WMDE's board and the current director, also
published a blog post describing the newly defined vision for
Wikimedia's first and largest chapter.
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2009/07/02/neuer-geschaftsfuhrer/ -- blog
announcing ED (German)
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2009/07/06/eine-vision-fur-wikimedia-deutschland/ --
blog discussing vision (German)
[ENWP: 3 million?] - What will the 3 millionth article on the English
Wikipedia be? A few community members are making guesses on what
article that will be, be sure to add your guess too!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Three-millionth_topic_pool
[India: Meetup] - everyone seems to be linking to a report on the
third Bangalore, India meetup. The meetup seems like it was pretty
successful and the agenda included a large number of topics, these are
discussed in the meetup report.
http://tinucherian.blogspot.com/2009/07/indian-wikipedians-meet-in-bangalor…
[Wikinews] - the English Wikinews is doing good. It has an active
community, does exclusive interviews, is indexed by Google News and
now the have almost 15000 news story's written. But not all Wikinews
editions are so. On Meta is there now a proposal to close down the
dutch language Wikinews due to a structural lack of activity.
http://en.wikinews.org/http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_closing_projects/Closure_of_Du…
=== Media ===
[WP: Accurate enough] - everyone always has something to say about us,
at least this time it's a favorable article from the Kansas City
Examiner.
http://www.examiner.com/x-13637-Kansas-City-Social-Media-Examiner~y2009m7d7…
[Wiki Goes to War] - the U.S. Army is creating MediaWiki-based sites
for seven of their 550 manuals. There will be a 90 day experiment,
where troops can edit manuals, and leave comments.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htcbtsp/articles/20090702.aspx
[Egocentric introverts] - a study by Israeli psychology researchers
say that their study shows Wikipedians are egocentric, disagreeable,
socially awkward and closed to new ideas. Australian Wikipedia have
"hit out" at this report.
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/wikipedians-are-a-bunch-of…
[Sued Over Wikipedia] - a county commissioner and political consultant
have filed a defamation lawsuit in Ingham County Circuit Court against
three men for allegedly editing false and defamatory information into
a biographical entry on Wikipedia.
http://michiganmessenger.com/22336/grebner-files-libel-suit-over-wikipedia-…
=== Stats ===
[MJ] - another analysis of the Michael Jackson+Wikipedia problems was
made by Erik Zachte, Wikimedia's statistics analyst, with graphs and
comparisons between different Wikipedia language versions.
http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/07/michael-jackson/
[Commons Uploads] - Ilmari Karonen has been collecting image
statistics for a while now (how many bytes we have per file type) and
now he has graphs illustrating the changes too.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:MIME_type_statistics -- raw stats
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Commons_MIME_statistics_bytes_2008-1… --
graph
[Going for he 8th place] - the Spanish and Portugees Wikipedia are
very, very close in the number of articles and are so competing for
the honour of being the 8th largest Wikipedia..
http://pt.wikipedia.org -- 491 671 artigos
http://es.wikipedia.org -- 491.663 artículos
=== Other news ===
[Image Search] - this should make searching for images to upload to
Commons a lot easier: Google adds Creative Commons Selection to
Advanced Options.
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2009-07-09-n80.htmlhttp://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/15691
[Serious reading] - a doctoral thesis, by Jos ? Felipe Ortega Soto,
that analize quantitatively the evolution of the top ten Wikipedias.
An their problems (in English, 228 pages).
http://libresoft.es/Members/jfelipe/thesis-wkp-quantanalysis -- pdf download
=== Did you know ... ===
... what a "sock puppet" is?
No??? - Strange, are you sure that you are a Wikimedian? - In any
case, you can look it up now. No, not (only) in "the dictionary the
anyone can edit", but also in the more traditional "Merriam Webster's
2009 dictionary of English". It says it is "a word to describe a false
account used for deceptive purposes".
http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/newwords09.htmhttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sock_puppet
=== Quote ===
There is a world market for maybe five computers ? Thomas Watson, IBM, 1943
//////////////////////////////////////////
Editor(s): Casey, Walter
Corrector(s): Alex
Thanks to: Veronique, Sebastian, Kul, DarkoNeko, Ziko, Mathias, David,
Gnangarra, the Wikipedia Signpost (Erik Zachte), Steve Bennett, Brion,
Peter, Cary, Crazy Lover
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]].
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
and also the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
******************************************
__ __ _ _ _ _
/ / /\ \ (_) | _(_)___(_)_ __ ___
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\ /\ /| | <| |/ /| | | | | __/
\/ \/ |_|_|\_\_/___|_|_| |_|\___|
.org
Year: 2009 Week: 27 Number: 110
******************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
//////////////////////////////////////////
=== Technical news ===
[Michael Jackson Kills WP] - Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop", died
this week and nearly took Wikipedia down with him (as well as many
other websites). Wikimedia sites were unresponsive for a whole due to
the large number of page hits. The Michael Jackson article got nearly
6 *million* hits on June 26, more than the Main Page.
In the evening of the 2th July (UTC) Wikipedia&Co was virtually down
because of power outage of the European servers. The remaining servers
choked on the additional traffic routed to them.
http://stats.grok.se/en/200906/Michael_Jackson -- page hit statistics
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/current-events/ -- techblog
explanation of issues
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/News_of_Michael_Jackson's_death_overloads_Internet_sites_and_sparks_hoaxes -- wikinews
article
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/07/power-outage-in-wikimedias-european-s… -- wiki
down
[Usability] - the Usability team has released its first set of
usability improvement (the "acai" release) for testing. As of press
time, the new "vector" skin has been made available on all wikis for
users who select it from their preferences, please help test the new
features!
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/first-usability-release-is-coming-up-… -- blog
post
http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Releases#Acai -- "acai" release
description
[Usability BIS] - one aspect is already live by default; the new
design of the search results. Just use the internal search and see.
http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Designs#Search_Results
=== Request for help ===
[Fundraising 2009] - the Wikimedia Foundation is preparing for its
next fundraiser and would like feedback from the community on some of
the pages it has developed so far. In addition to the creation of a
new survey that they would like comments on, the Foundation is also
trying to enhance the visibility of the donate button. The new buttons
will be placed on the skin and will be viewable on every page. There
are also several design proposals that need community input!
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/25/would-you-press-this-button/ --
blog post about it
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Donation_buttons_upgrade --
buttons
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Survey -- survey
=== Foundation ===
[Licensing] - The "licensing update" changes have now been rolled out
to all languages and projects, with the new license being featured in
the footer and new interface items to translate for your wiki.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/30/licensing-update-rolled-out-in-all-wik… -- blog
post
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/translators-l/2009-June/000959.html --
translation steps
http://tinyurl.com/LU-interface-trans -- betawiki trans interface
[Board election] - Once again an election for the board of trustees of
the Wikimedia Foundation is coming up. It is for 3 seats this time.
But before there can be elections there must be someone to vote for.
Submissions of candidacy are open between 6th and 20th July.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2009
[New grant: Commons] - the Wikimedia Foundation was just awarded a
US$300,000 grant that will research problems with and design new
tools/fix current tools for uploading files to the global Wikimedia
image repository, the Wikimedia Commons.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/07/02/ford-foundation-awards-300k-grant-for-… -- blog
post
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Ford_Foundatio… -- press
release
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:WMF_Ford_Multimedia_Participation_… -- full grant
proposal
[Job: "Bookshelf"] - as a further development from the "Scribus
operator" volunteer position noted in Wikizine a few months ago, a new
job opening has been posted for project manager of the "Bookshelf"
project. The "Bookshelf" project strives to develop a slate of basic
educational materials (print, online and video) to attract new authors
and editors to Wikipedia.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Project_Manager_Bookshelf --
job opening
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Public_outreach/Get_involved --
volunteer position, scribus operator
=== Community ===
[David Rohde] - it turns out that Wikipedia, along with tons of other
media outlets, kept the kidnapping of journalist David Rohde out of
its article on him. This has caused a few Wikipedians and Wikipedia
critics to note this and either scream censorship or just point out
the fact that it was unsourced information that could help save
someone's life by erring on the side of caution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/technology/internet/29wiki.html?ref=media --
nytimes article
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/06/29/was-wikipedia-correct-t… -- blog post about
censorship
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/06/29/2120257/Wikipedia-Censored-To-Protec… -- slashdot
discussion
[A reliable article?] - A new tool tries to help make scholars feel
better about using Wikipedia by telling how reliable an article seems
to be by using "wikibu-points". These points are based on statistical
criteria and represent only possibilities, the creators hope that
warnings will help people think to look at the discussion pages or
article history. Wikibu is only available on the German Wikipedia at
this time.
http://www.wikibu.ch/ -- site/tool
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wiki-research-l/2009-July/000833.html --
mailing list post
[EN Wikibooks] - is now using Meta's unified "user language" template.
It will enable greater collaboration on the textbooks that teach
foreign languages.
[enwp AFD] - An interesting AFD (deletion discussion) on the English
Wikipedia was recently closed -- it resulted in the deletion of 4077
articles, probably the most ever from a single AFD on enwp!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Anybot's_algae_articles -- deletion
discussion
=== Media ===
[No tourists] - an article by a New Zealand newspaper tells that
"references to gang violence and crime on Palmerston North's Wikipedia
page have seen overseas investors and professionals shy away from the
city"!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/2516472/Wikipedia-entries-slag-off-Palmer…
=== Stats ===
[bn.wp] - The Bengali Wikipedia (bn) has reached 20,000 articles.
http://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/???????????_???????_?_?????????_?????_???????_…
-- 20,000th article
=== Other news ===
[Who owns transit schedules?] - Only marginally related but
interesting nevertheless, the subject of a recent battle has been
pretty simple: who owns the copyright to bus arrival times? Public
transportation agencies are trying to assert that they own the times
and stop people from making iPhone apps (and similar items) off of the
content, so that they can do it themselves and charge people. Not
very FOSS of them!
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090628/1419595382.shtml
[Wikizine@Foundation-l] - Wikizine will now be featured on
foundation-l too! Thanks to Milos for proposing it and the list
members for agreeing.
http://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation
[Firefox 3.5] - ... is finally out. This main stream browser supports
natively Ogg Theora and Ogg Vorbis, the media file formats our
projects are using.
http://www.mozilla.com/
=== Quote ===
"Programming languages are like cats. It is easier to get a new cat
than to get an old cat fixed." -- Douglas Crockford
//////////////////////////////////////////
Editor(s): Casey, Walter
Corrector(s): Alex
Thanks to: Rand, Steve Bennett, Brion, Domas, Nando, Erik, Belayet,
Naoko, Chad, Kul, Jay, Signpost, Adrignola, rainman-sr
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]].
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
and also the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
