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Year: 2012 Week: 4 Number: 132
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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
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=== The EN Wikipedia goes offline for 24 hours ===
The community of the English language Wikipedia has decided to
"blackout" the English Wikipedia for 24 hours. A sort of strike thus.
The blackout goes in to effect from 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January
18. The blackout is a protest against the proposed law of the United
States of America "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA).
The protest is there because the proposed law is could harm the
operation of community driven website like Wikipedia.
The decision of the Community of the English language Wikipedia is
supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. This in the first time the
English Wikipedia - the oldest and most popular of all Wikipedias -
does something like this. The Italian language Wikipedia did this a
couple of months ago.
Other language Wikipedias have indicated to show support by displaying
a banner but not also go "dark". Also non-Wikimedia websites will take
part but not all by going dark. Google will put a link on there
homepage about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOPAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiativehttp://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-so…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-01-16/Specia…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-01-16/News_a…http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/58755https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/how-pipa-and-sopa-violate-white-house…http://www.sopastrike.com/ -- websites that join the strike
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Editor(s): Walter
Contact: http://report.wikizine.org
Website: http://www.wikizine.org
Gophersite: gopher://gopher.wikizine.org
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Wikizine.org makes no guarantee of accuracy, validity and
especially but not limited to, correct grammar and spelling.
Satisfaction is not guaranteed. Some content can be highly
inspired or directly copied from other sources.
Those sources are listed above at "Sources-Attributions".
Wikizine.org is published by [[meta:user:Walter]].
Content is available under Creative Commons
Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0
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.org
Anno Domini MMXII Week II Number CXXXI
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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
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=== Foundation ===
[Terms Of Use] - On websites the "Terms of Use" are what most of us
frequently indicate to agree with but never reed. Also Wikipedia has a
"Terms of Use". A "Terms of use" for Wikipedia came only to existence
years after its founding and remained very basic. Until now. In
original Wikimedia style a new Terms Of use have been written by the
community at Meta. It is more extensive then the current but it
remains, for a "Terms of Use", relative short and very readable. The
WMF board still needs to approve it before it can replaces the current
"Terms of Use". http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/31/terms-of-use/http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use -- New "Terms of Use"
(final community draft)
[The Annual Fundraiser] - Despite the economic problems of the world -
the Wikimedia Foundation did it again. The goal is every year higher
but the donations follow. The WMF has raised the new record amount of
20 million US dollar in the fundraiser that just now ended. The
miracle of the WMF business model to just ask for money keeps working.
But even a miracle needs some help. Last year the WMF spend 1,8 USD $
on fundraising. The operating budget of the WMF will increase in
spending in 2011-12 compared with 2010-11 with $9.8 million. 28.3
million USD will be the current budget. The gap between the raised
amount and the budget is closed by several grants and continuous
donations. 44% of the budget will go to running the actual
web-infrastructure. 24% will go to management, finance and
administration. A tiny fraction smaller, 23% of the budget, is under
the label "Other programs". The Community department and the Global
Development department falls under that slice. The rest are
fundraising costs. Best read the annual plan if you wish to know more.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/02/wikimedia-fundraiser-concludes-with-re…http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2011-2012_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Ans…
[Grant of $3.6 Million] - The Stanton Foundation -, a long term funder
of the WMF, donated $3.6 million USD (2,61 Million EUR) to the
Wikimedia Foundation. This is the largest grant ever received by the
WMF.
http://tinyurl.com/3qv5grb
=== Technical news ===
[https] - It was already possible to login to the projects by means of
a secure connection but that was by means of a
"https://secure.wikimedia.org" -type of link. Now the usable links
work. Just add the "s" to the protocol. This works on all Wikimedia
wikis. Using https is not yet the default option when you login. If
you wish to use it you need to enter it manually.
https://en.wikipedia.org
[Article Feedback] - A new article feedback system is in testing at EN
Wikipedia. A previous version used a star-system the the reader could
give to articles. The new one uses a different approach. It does not
asks to give points but the give real textual reader feedback. More
like a very easy comment function like on blogs and news sites. Only
are the comments not posted. Currently the collected data is only for
testing and not public. The idea is that editors will be able to
assess the feedback in the future. The test runs on limited number of
articles on EN Wikipedia.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/20/a-new-way-to-contribute-to-wikipedia/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_system%29 --
example article with the new feedback function
=== Movement ===
[Al Jazeera] - The media company Al Jazeera, mostly know for its
television stations, is releasing a large part of the pictures and
video's the make under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0). This is
very, very great news. Wikinews and Wikipedia now have access to
recent quality material for there articles about topics that would be
nearly impossible otherwise.
http://cc.aljazeera.net/http://www.flickr.com/photos/aljazeeraenglish/sets/http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_Al_Jazeera
=== Media ===
[Wikipedia Vs. Britannica] - It is not original but always interesting
to read; compare the articles of Wikipedia with those of Britannica
and other classic sources by academics. The reaserch is published in
the peer-reviewed medical journal "Psychological Medicine". To read
the actual article you can "buy" the article for $45 or "rent" it for
$5,99. Luckily the Singpost is not so silly.
http://tinyurl.com/6mzosac -- free read
=== Events and meetups ===
[Wikipedia Day] - next week, Sunday, it will be once more Wikipedia
Day; the founding day of Wikipedia. The 15th of January Wikipedia will
be become 11-years old. Several community's will hold a wiki-meetup in
honour or Wikipedia Day in India, Mexico, United Kingdom, United
States .... see link and check your local community.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Day#Wikipedia_Day_2012
=== Other news ===
[Illustrators] - An art and design school in Barcelona and the Catalan
foundation "Friends of Wikipedia" have made a partnership in which 6
illustration students are doing their final degree creating images
that will be incorporated under free licenses to Wikimedia Commons to
illustrate some Wikipedia articles.
http://theglamwikiexperience.blogspot.com/2012/01/emerging-illustrators-int…
[Wikiriffs] - "Every week or so I go to Wikipedia, click Random
Article, and write a song about whatever comes up."
https://www.youtube.com/user/WikiRiffs
=== Wikizine ===
[?] - between mid August and the end of September there was a short
but strong burst of Wikizines in different new editions, new emerging
concepts for Wikizine. This was under the direction of the new lead
editor of Wikizine User Milos. Unfortunately it was a short candle
that burned out very fast. This Wikizine is once more a "Classic
edition". No more "News", "Talk" of "Opinion" editions. It is
constructed once more by User:Walter. Realistically speaking Wikizine
is dead since long. This edition and possible future editions are the
product just of plain stubbornness to continue more or less despite
any objective reason to do so. In that spirit I also wish to point out
that Wikizine is still also online at Gopher-space. The wikizine.org
domain is just renewed for two years so in any case that will remain
online for the near future. Happy new year! -- User:Walter
=== Request for help ===
[WikiLovesMonuments] - The photo contest. Edition 2010 was only in
the Netherlands. Edition 2011 was in many European country's and very
successful. Will the edition of 2012 be a truly global event? Would
you be interested in organizing a Wiki Loves Monuments in 2012 in your
country? Would you like to know more? See the links below and join the
mailing list.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012 --
first steps for the 2012 edition
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2011_winners -
see the winners of 2011
http://www.wikilovesmonuments.eu/ -- main website of WLM
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikilovesmonuments --
join the mailing list
[Babel] - The Babel extension is a system to indicate what languages
you speak and at what level. Your invited to check of in your language
everything is (correctly) translated.
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.com/2012/01/ask-and-it-will-be-given.html
=== Did you know ... ===
... that it very easy to get a QRcode for any Wikipedia article?
A QR code a square barcode that is used to point to online resources
that people can lookup with there mobile device. The website
QRpedia.org makes it very easy make a code for any Wikipedia article.
The code is language independent. When used it will return to the user
the Wikipedia article about that topic in the language of the user
based on the language settings of the mobile device. This system is
used in several museums to provide multi-language extra information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QRpediahttp://qrpedia.org/
=== Quote ===
"jimmy_wales; I am proud to announce that the Wikipedia domain names
will move away from GoDaddy. Their position on #sopa is unacceptable
to us. 23 Dec Twitter."
Our Chairman Emeritus takes a political standpoint against a new US
law that could threat online freedom of speech.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act#Companies_and_organizat…
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Editor(s): Walter
Contact: http://report.wikizine.org
Website: http://en.wikizine.org
Gophersite: gopher://gopher.wikizine.org
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Wikizine.org makes no guarantee of accuracy, validity and
especially but not limited to, correct grammar and spelling.
Satisfaction is not guaranteed. Some content can be highly
inspired or directly copied from other sources.
Those sources are listed above at "Sources-Attributions".
Wikizine.org is published by [[meta:user:Walter]].
Content is available under Creative Commons
Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/