Hi,
This list - Announce-l - was the list used by Wikizine. But Wikizine
is gone and this is an WMF list, so I will transfer this list back so
it can be possibly used for something else.
If you wish to unsubscribe you can do that on the page linked here;
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/options/announce-l
Or send me an email; wvermeir AT gmail DOT com
... and I will do it manually for you.
If you have not objections to stay on the lists and see what, if ever,
will come, you do not need to do anything.
Greetings,
Walter
--
GNU/Linux: Because a PC is a terrible thing to waste.
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.org
Year: 2012 Week: 53 Number: 133
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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
=== Technical news ===
[Wikidata] - the new sister-project Wikidata is growing fast. By year's
end the will get up to 2 million records. In the works is now the
interwiki language information, later on infoboxes and lists will follow.
At present the data of Wikidata is not yet used on any of the projects.
The plans are to switch over the Hungarian language Wikipedia over to
Wikidata for the use of there interwiki language links on January 14th
2013.
What will that actually mean in practice? - When this function is enabled
on a wiki the interwiki language links will be augmented with sitelinks
injected in the Wikipedia article. It is unclear what happen in the
future for sitelinks in non-wikipedia articles. At least if there are
sitelinks available at Wikidata about that topic. The current local
language links must be removed otherwise they will override the Wikidata
sitelinks. You will be able to edit these sitelinks on the local wiki with
JavaScript. Changes made on the Wikidata sitelinks that effect a local
Wikipedia will propagate to them, and also show up in the recent changes
of that wiki. If for some reason a local wiki does not want that the
injected interwiki language links show up on a specific page the parser
function {{noexternallanglinks}} can be used. When this function is active
the net result is that the interwiki links will show up as usual if set,
but the maintenance of sitelinks in the Wikipedia-projects will go away.
http://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Introduction -- overview of Wikidata
[Visual Editor (Alpha!)] The wikisoftware that the projects are using
MediaWiki has come far from the basic wiki it started with. But when you
click on the "edit" button is still looks very the same, at least on not
to complicated pages. Since very long there is talk about getting on the
Wiki a so called WYSIWYG editor, like MS Word. Maybe not a function for
everybody but it could get the less technical minded people on the wiki.
At he English language Wikipedia and only there an early version of a
Visual Editor that does that can be switched on in the users preferences.
If you go to your "Preferences" screen and click into the Editing"
section, it will have an option labeled "Enable Visual Editor". Please be
careful, it is still buggy and you are not allowed to use it on the
sandbox page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor
[Mobile WP] the version of the website for use on phones is getting more
functionality. As a logged in user you can edit pages if you enable the
"beta" options. And if you enable the "Here be dragons mode" you can
upload an image if you use a "webkit browser" like Google Chrome.
http://en.m.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit
[Translate] Translation of MediaWiki and documentation, policies,
newsletters and any sort of page on our multilingual wikis is powered and
made easy for thousands of translators by the Translate extension, born on
translatewiki.net. A translation memory feature was recently enabled on
all Wikimedia wikis after a long work. The translation interface is now
being rebuilt to meet translators' needs: test it and give feedback!
http://laxstrom.name/blag/2012/09/07/translation-memory-all-wikimedia-wikis/https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Translation_UXhttp://translatewiki.net
=== Offer ===
[Wikizine.org] this domain name is available to be used for a new
project. If you have an idea for what this domain name can be useful for
contact [[user:Walter]]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Walter
=== Proposals ===
[Wikimania 2013] The already 9th Wikimania will be in Hong Kong next
year. It will be from 7 to 11 August 2013. The call for participation is
open now! So, if you an idea for doing some sort of presentation at
Wikimania then it is now the time to enter you proposal.
http://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions
=== Policy ===
[Uploads] It is proposed to start a new RfC to approve a new Local uploads
policy. Local uploads need a big policy and template infrastructure; most
wikis don't and can't have it, and at least a hundred wikis are currently
breaking the WMF licensing policy. Additionally, only Commons has the
UploadWizard. It's proposed to make uploads more effective and legal by
switching them to Commons-only by default, so that only the wikis which
have an EDP will keep or get local uploads.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Local_uploads_policy
=== Foundation ===
[WikiVoyage] "the free, worldwide travel guide that anyone can edit."
will be joining the Wikimedia Foundation family officially on Wikipedia
Day, January 15th 2013. The have there origin at Wikitravel.org, also a
project with the same mission. The German language Wikitravel split off in
2006 and became Wikivoyage. The Wikimedia Foundation Wikivoyage will be
the "fork" Wikivoyage in German and Italian and the content and most of
the userbase of Wikitravel's remaining language editions. This results in
the following languages that are supported in the new WMF-project;
English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Russian and Swedish. The
interwiki link to link to Wikivoyage is "voy:". Example; the link for the
page about "Bolivia" on the Dutch language Wikivoyage is
[[voy:nl:Bolivia]]
http://www.wikivoyage.org/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikivoyage
[WMF annual audit 2011-2012] The annual audit of the Wikimedia
Foundation, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012 and the corresponding
FAQ have been posted on the financial reports page of the Wikimedia
Foundation web site. The report shows that from a financial POV it goes
very well with the WMF. Cash increased from $12 million to $21.8 million.
Investment in technology has gone up by $2.6 million and net assets
increased by $10.7 million. Expenses for the fiscal year increased from
$17.9 million to $29.3 million. The total assets of the WMF are now over
$ 37 million.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reports
[Chapters comm. vacancy] The "Affiliations Committee" formerly known
as Chapters Committee is searching for 6 new members. Deadline for
candidacies is January 12th. Inform yourself very well in advance; there
is actual work involved with it.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committeehttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Call_for_Candidates_2…
[Fundraiser] The last fundraiser already the 9th was once again a
great success. The Wikimedia Foundation received 25 million US-dollar in
donations from 1,2 million individuals. 25 million dollar is exactly the
goal the WMF did set at the start of the campaign. This campaign did only
run on the flagship wiki, the English language Wikipedia. The other
languages and projects will get a fund drive presented on there wiki in
April 2013.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/27/wikimedia-foundation-raises-25-million…
[WMF annual plan 2012-2013] is published. It is fairly extensive and
summarizing it in 3 sentences does not does it justice. Anyhow; focus will
be in getting more people to edit and to keep the current editors. This by
making it more easy for potential editors to do it, like the VisalEditor.
The WMF also will continue to push to get access to Wikpedia by means of
mobile data networks in developing country's free of charge. That is the
"Wikipedia Zero" program.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reportshttp://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero
=== Community ===
[Commons contest] Commons will start again with there yearly "Picture
of the Year" contest, the 7th edition. Round one will start the day
after Wikipedia Day.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2012/Introduc…
[Wikipedia almost 12-years old] Currently we are in the middle of the
Christmas & new-year holidays. But once again the most important holiday
of the calender is coming up; Wikipedia Day. On January 15th 2012
Wikipedia turned eleven years old. So it comes at no surprise that
Wikipedia will now turn twelve. And do not forget, at January 25th there
is also of course "Magnus Manske Day". Wikipedia day is the day the first
Wikipedia the English one started. Magnus Manske Day celebrates the
launch of the Phase II wikisoftware; a Wikipedia specific wiki, a very
early version of MediaWiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Dayhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Magnus_Manske_Day
[Project proposal] Wikifocus; "to describe everything related to Wiki
technology (wikis and their members, wiki softwares and their
capabilities)." The proposal to add this project to the WMF family is open
for discussion at Meta. Interesting about this is that there is already a
small active Russian group of 20 users running a Russian independent
Wikifocus wiki. Communication between these Russian speakers and English
language users at Meta seems to be problematic.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiFocus -- join in and maybe help out
with the Babel problems
http://wikifocus.org/ -- active wiki in Russian
[Wikizine] At the end of 2005 a news newsletter was started. The
intention with it was to inform the community of all the projects across
all languages about what was going on. To break the language barriers. For
this a network of volunteers across the projects and languages was
envisioned to make of Wikizine an information exchange hub. The years up
to 2008 where the most successful years of Wikizine. There was a weekly
publication rate and frequently extra editions. Wikizine existed also in
German, Spanish and Indonesian.
But it could not truly deliver the universal projects news as was
intended. Wikizine was not able to attract and maintain the necessary
people to make that happen. Due to the staff shortage quality could not be
guaranteed. And from 2009 on also not the publication rate. It became more
monthly then weekly. The other language editions where closed. The
publication of Wikizine became an exception. Since 2010 Wikizine is
virtually a dead newsletter. In August-September 2011 it suddenly came
back to life under the direction of a new editor-in-chief with many
different Wikizine versions. The new editor disappeared and so also the
revival.
And Wikizine continued in zombie mode until now. Wikizine 133, this
edition, will be the final Wikizine. Thank you. [[User:Walter|Walter]]
http://wikizine.blogspot.com -- Notice; new location for the blog, the
domain name "wikizine.org" will not longer be supported
[Wiktionary] is one of these projects of our WMF family that gets less
space in the sun then others, the dictionary project. But it is more then
a dictionary. It is a community building the absolute, the final
dictionary. Offering translations from all languages to all languages is
only a small part of its mission. There are around 150 active Wiktionary
languages editions but the contain words in many more languages.
Wiktionary has at least some words in 1029 different languages out of the
over 6900 that exist.
And Wiktionary has just celebrated its 10th anniversary as a project on
December 12th. The full report and scope of the celebrations can be found
at the link below. Media coverage of these celebrations could not be
found unfortunately.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Wiktionary_Day
[Wiktionary logos] 56 Wiktionaries who never had one got a localised
logo enabled, thanks to the work by Casey Brown, Odder and many
translators. More work is coming for dozens of Wikipedias and other
projects without a localised logo; everyone can help.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/translators-l/2012-December/002193.html
=== Media ===
[Jimmy Wales & Kazahkstan] In August the WMF awarded by means of Jimmy
Wales the first ever "Global Wikipedian of the Year" award to Rauan
Kenzhekhanuly, a Wikipedian from Kazakhstan who founded a non-profit
organization WikiBilim. With help of this organization the Kazakh
Wikipedia grew from 7000 articles to 70,000 in 3 months time. (currently
the are over 200,000 articles). Concerns are now raised that this
Wikipedia of year is actually a government puppet of the dictatorial
government of Kazakhstan. This because of the previous functions in the
government service, especially in the propaganda department. And because
the WikiBilim organization is funded with the money of state oil.
Jimmy Wales responded with; "The Wikimedia Foundation has zero
collaboration with the government of Kazakhstan. Wikibilim is a totally
independent organization. And it is absolutely wrong to say that I am
"helping the Kazakh regime whitewash its image." I am a firm and strong
critic. At the same time, I'm excited by the work of volunteers, and I
believevery stronglythat an open and independent Wikipedia will be the
death knell for tyranny in places like Kazakhstan."
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/05/class-assignment-inspired-wikipedian-o…
-- Wikipedian of the Year
http://www.dailydot.com/politics/wikipedia-kazakhstan-dictatorship/ --
WikiBilm, the WP of the year and the Kazakh dictatorship
http://tinyurl.com/cm5pdwm --- talk page of Jimmy Wales about this , it
contains an extensive responds of Jimmy about this
[Why did you donate] the question is raised "Are People Who Donate to
Wikipedia Just Better People in General?"
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/wikipedia-donors-better-people…
[Wikitube] no, there is not (yet) a project Wikitube. But the WMF does
have an account at Youtube. You can find some video's about how to edit.
And also videos of users who explain what Wikipedia mean form them in
there live. Those are interesting to watch because it gives a face behind
the recent changes.
http://www.youtube.com/user/WikimediaFoundation
=== Stats ===
* Wikimedia Commons has reached 15,000,000 files, 73 days after reaching
14,000,000.
* The Low German/Low Saxon Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles.
* The Turkish Wikipedia has reached 200,000 articles
* The Tamil Wikipedia has reached 50,000 articles.
* The Romanian Wikibooks has reached 500 book modules.
[Wikiquote books and booklovers] - The Italian Wikiquote continues its
expansion on the main booklovers social network of Italy: its group on
aNobii has 1300+ members (one of the biggest groups). ISBNs of quoted
books were extracted from it, en, fr.quote and experimentally added. The
Italian has about 4500 ISBNs and 10 thousands books identified in total,
English and French about 2500 ISBNs. Italian seems to quote all the books
that English does, plus many more; a third of fr.quote's books are quoted
also on en and it.
http://www.anobii.com/groups/0105f4f6d9a205e8a9/ -- IT Wikiquote at a
social network for booklovers
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikiquote-l/2012-December/000146.html
=== Other news ===
[New Gopher server] At this new Gopher-hole you can find a list of
Wikipedia articles created last month/week/day with most users
contributing to article within the same period. Updated hourly.
gopher://gopher.conus.info/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/overbiteff/ -- add support
for Gopher to FireFox
[WMF shop] since a while there is WMF webshop. You can buy a T-shirt and
other clothing, stickers and pins and quality bags. Shipment is from the
US but the are offering a flat fee of $10 for the shipping costs to all
destinations. Nevertheless if you only wanted to buy a key-chain it gets
very expensive. When a local wikimeet is coming up you could do a group
order and divide the costs that way.
http://shop.wikimedia.org/
=== Did you know ... ===
... that the edits of experts make an article harder to read?
"The reason is clear, they say: articles on difficult topics are written
by experts who sacrifice readability for accuracy and that is compounded
as other experts weigh in with further accuracy-obsessed edits that remove
simplifications, generalisations or intuitive explanations that might
have served to aid readability."
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/12/study-the-expert-editors-of-wikipedia-make…
=== Quote ===
"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish"
-- Last message of the dolphins to the people of Earth before leaving it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_and_Thanks_for_All_the_Fish
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Editor(s): Walter, Nemo
Corrector(s):
Thanks to: Amgine, Jeblad, hoo
Sources-Attributions:Jeblad,Lydia Pintscher
Support:
Website: http://wikizine.blogspot.com
Gopher: is down and probably will not come back
Contact: [[meta:user:Walter]]
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//// ///
//// Happy new-year, good fortune and health in MMXIII ///
//// ///
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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/
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.org
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
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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.org
Anno Domini MMXII Week II Number CXXXI
************************************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
=== 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
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EDITION
Year: 2011 Week: 40 Techflash
************************************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Re-post:
Hi again folks,
We want to run another set of banners to recruit translators for the
fundraiser this week, in some areas overlapping with the WLM banners.
If it is alright with you we would like to do it the same way we did
previously, namely with a rough 25-75 split with the WLM banners, so
they are still shown. The banners will only run for logged-in users,
so anonymous users will not be affected.
The countries that will be affected are these:
* Tuesday 27th
** 17:00–21:00 UTC: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands
** 15:00–21:00 UTC: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Andorra
* Wednesday 28th
** 17:00–22:00 UTC: Portugal, Spain
* Thursday 29th
** 12:00–23:59 UTC: Poland
* Friday 30th
** 12:00–23:59 UTC: Russia, Hungary, Estonia, Romania
Please let me know if there is a problem – and sorry about the late
notice for the ones tomorrow.
--
Jon Harald Søby
Community Fellow
Wikimedia Foundation
=== Request for help ===
[Sign-up for translation] - Frequently there are messages that need to
be translated in, if possible, all the languages of the projects. If
you like to volunteer to be a translator you can register yourself
(see link) so when you are needed you can be contacted.
https://sugar.corp.wikimedia.org/translators/translators.php?referrer=wikiz…
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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/
************************************************************
Wikizine.org's
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|_| EDITION
Year: 2011 Week: 39 Number: 129 BIS
************************************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
=== Wikizine needs YOU! ===
Wikipedia has already changed the world. Wikimedia movement is at the
beginning of that task. To push the movement into that direction,
Wikizine needs your '''bold''' ideas and personal perspectives! Send
your ideas to us or simply add them into the appropriate section. What
YOU think can change the world!
Send us email, give us feedback, write it on foundation-l, on Meta!
http://report.wikizine.orghttp://meta.wikizine.org
=== Contents ===
*Editorial
** Wikizine
** In the mean time on foundation-l...
** Wikinews: Criticism and fork
** Song of the week
*Personal perspective: The cows of Jimmy Walker
*In the news
Time machine
** 10 years ago
** 5 years ago
*From Wikipedia
=== Editorial by Milos ===
==== Wikizine ====
As you can see, there are two regular and one irregular editions of
Wikizine. Wikizine News should stay more or less like Wikizine always
was: plain news for Wikimedia community. Breaking News or Tech Flash
are for irregular editions for important news and they existed before,
as well.
Wikizine Opinion or Talk Edition or Weekend Edition (we still want to
get your input about the name of this edition!) should be for longer
reading, over weekends.
You can see that there are five main parts of this edition:
"Editorial", "Personal perspective", "In the news", "Time machine" and
"From Wikipedia".
Of those, "Time machine" debuts in this edition. It's about events in
and around the Wikimedia community ten and five years ago. We should
remind ourselves of past events and still modern ideas.
Thanks to Walter, Wikizine got its gopher [1] site [2]. Gopher existed
before the web and it was a non-graphical hypertext protocol. Just
~150 gopher sites left on the Internet by now. I was very happy when I
realized that. My only objection is that we have to find a way to have
the whole site in pure gopher menus and text, as some of the pages are
in HTML, which is a shame! You know, we are geeks, at last :)
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_%28protocol%29
[2] gopher://gopher.wikizine.org/
==== In the meantime on foundation-l... ====
Like with any good soap opera, after years of discussions about nudity
on Wikimedia projects and filtering it, you didn't miss anything! If
you join now, you would see the same people, the same relations
between them, the same intrigues, but in brand new packaging. But,
most importantly, something which you can't do with soap operas, YOU
can raise a pro or contra argument a year old and people would discuss
it seriously and with the same passion as it was at the beginning!
Once again, Wikimedia community proved that it's as vital as it was
years ago.
On my Gmail account I have 43 foundation-l threads for the period of
17-23 September. Of those:
21 about image filter and similar, including another of Larry Sanger's
self-promotional tweets
3 about forking Wikinews
3 about friendly organizations
4 chapter-related
3 WMF and tech related
2 related to languages
3 posts by internal bulletins (Wikipedia Signpost and Wikizine)
4 miscellaneous
==== Wikinews: criticism and fork ====
Wikinews was featured on foundation-l for the first time this month
when it was complained that the English Wikinews project has a
"codified bias toward non-Western articles" [1].
From a personal perspective, I can say that the English Wikinews,
unlike the English Wikipedia, has a significant number of native
English speakers who are not willing to accept non-English sources for
anything: news source or proof that a Wikinewsie is good enough editor
to become accredited journalist. A couple of years ago, I had a hard
time trying to convince them to give accreditation to one Serbian and
one Polish Wikinewsie. But, fortunately, the core of editors are sane
enough.
Last week The Open Globe [2][3], a Wikinews fork, was created. That
triggered long discussions about Wikipedia's sister projects and their
ability to be self-sustainable.
----
In 2007 I made a deal with Beta News Agency [4], the main
privately-owned news agency from Serbia, to give to Wikinews short
news for free. The deal is, actually, that we've got everything from
Beta's site under CC-BY 2.5 license. As you can see, besides Serbian,
there are news services in English [5], Hungarian [6], Romani [7] and
Albanian [8]. Four existing and one non-existing edition are able to
get high quality news, mostly from Serbia.
A bot is running on Serbian Wikinews and adding news from Beta.
Because of that, Serbian Wikinews has almost as many articles as all
other Wikinews editions [9].
However, the bot on Serbian Wikinews is not running presently,
actually. For about two weeks there has been a problem with harvesting
and I have to fix it. I'll do that, but the problem is the fact that
one substantial part of one project depends only on the free time and
willingness of one volunteer.
For four years I was trying to find just ''one'' more person
interested in developing and maintaining the bot, but I didn't find
anyone. With two persons, we could maintain not just Serbian Wikinews,
but other Wikinews editions, as well.
----
News is not news two days after it has been published. Only those who
research a specific event read old news. Thus, one task is to "fix"
encyclopedic article, the other is to do that with news.
Because of that Wikinews is not attractive to trolls, but it isn’t
attractive to regular editors of Wikipedia, either.
The main problem with Wikinews is the lack of the fulfillment which
Wikipedia offers: What did I do? Wrote an article which was popular
for two days, one week?
Writing news requires another kind of motivation. Relevant
encyclopedias shape cultures. Relevant news outlets shape public
opinion. As our contemporary society is based on short-term goals,
there is much more competition in writing news than in writing
encyclopedias. The threshold for making a news outlet relevant is
insanely high.
But, it is possible to change things!
While waiting for ''one'' WMF programmer devoted to Wikinews (there
are a lot of programmers devoted to Wikipedia), if one volunteer
programmer would be interested in programming bots for Wikinews, we
could use the bot not just for the English Wikinews additionally, but
for other Wikinews editions as well.
WMF should employ at least one person to deal with Wikinews. Many
persons are employed to deal with Wikipedia.
WMF should promote Wikinews and the other sister projects. There are
other projects beside Wikipedia and Commons in the Wikimedia family.
[1]
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2011-September/067943.html
[2] http://theopenglobe.org/
[3]
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2011-September/068277.html
[4] http://www.beta.rs/
[5] http://www.beta.rs/default.asp?lan=en
[6] http://www.beta.rs/default.asp?lan=hu
[7] http://www.beta.rs/default.asp?lan=rm
[8] http://www.beta.rs/default.asp?lan=al
[9] http://www.wikinews.org/
==== Song of the week ====
The song of the week is [1]. Lyrics could be found, for example, here [2].
[1] http://tinyurl.com/66ctj3g
[2] http://tinyurl.com/6cdgnvm
=== Personal perspective ===
Joan Goma [1] wrote the text for this edition of Wikizine's Personal
opinion. Joan Goma is the president of Associació Amical Viquipèdia
[2][3], an organization which wants to be recognizes as the Wikimedia
chapter for Catalonia [4].
[1] http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuari:Gom%C3%A0
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Associaci%C3%B3_Amical_Viquip%C3%A8dia
[3] http://www.viquimedia.cat/
[4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CAT
==== The cows of Jimmy Walker ====
In a far away country there was a town known as English where people
engaged in the milk business. This is a very tricky business because
you have to care for the cows, giving them food, milking them and sell
the milk. The amount of milk that the cows gave never matched
completely with the one needed by the population and this generated
problems. To solve them they had tried all kinds of organizational
systems. In a quarter of the town, if you had two cows then the
district council took up the cows and they manage them taking in mind
the needs of the population and not the selfishness of the owner. But
then nobody had much interest on looking after them and they died. In
another quarter they let you have the cows but they took away the milk
from you, this way the cows were cared of because there was that one
who was interested on maintaining them and then the council decided
how the milk was distributed according to the needs of the population
and not based on who was richer. Then the owners of the cows had
almost no income die of hunger or boredom, then no one will take care
of the cows and the cows died. In another quarter they allow you to
kept the cows and milk then you sell a cow and buy a bull have more
and more cows and more and more milk then the price of milk falls so
that you could neither feed the cows nor pay the salaries of the
employees who looked after the cows and the cows eventually also died.
[1]
One day a farmer named Jimmy Walker, with several crosses and genetic
experiments, he obtained a new race of cattle. They were cows that
give an infinite amount of milk and that did not eat any fodder. Those
cows were very nice and many people liked to look after them, liked
them so much that they were willing to do it for free.
Jimmy started his farm with a new business model. He distributed the
milk for free. At first nobody believed that this may work. Some said
some cattle cared for by unpaid volunteers may not give good milk in
any way. To take care of cows should be well prepared and very
responsible. Others said that carers are volunteers, that cares for
one day that they presented by his nickname instead of their real name
and we do not know if they are really responsible for taking care of
the cows. Others said that what costs nothing is worth nothing.
But Jimmy went ahead and the milk turned out to be better every day to
the extent that many farmers folded because they could not compete
with the milk of high quality and for free delivered by Jimmy. The
business expanded. First milk was distributed only to the English
town, and then he opened farms in other villages, opened in a town
known as German, and in another known as Catalan. The people from
Catalan town were quick to raise cows and started right away, [2]
others did take a couple of months but the business also did well and
soon was extended to more and more towns to virtually all world. [3]
On growing the first problem arose. Although the cows did not eat and
caregivers did it for free, distribute milk cost money. At first Jimmy
did not mind paying it out of his pocket but there was a moment that
could not. Then he decided to set up a non-profit foundation. To find
a way the foundation have income to pay the costs of transporting milk
at the beginning he thought that maybe he could put ads on milk
bottles. But then those that looked after the cows told him that they
did not agree with this that, if he made this, they no longer wanted
to continue caring for the cows for free.
Then he remembered a day walking around Prague had seen that some
musicians played for free and the people who wanted giving them money.
He thought that, as it was only necessary to pay the transport of the
milk, perhaps there would be enough of maintaining the milk for free
and without advertisements and asking those drinking the milk that
give what they want. Said and done and the system worked.
The system worked so well that the foundation, with the money raised
not only paid transport costs but also hired people to make technical
improvements in the stables and to manage the storage and transport of
milk, donations and legal requirements of handling money.
Some of those that looked after the cows were not very happy that
others get paid while they worked for free. So Jimmy set up elections
so that a few members of the Board of Directors of the foundation were
chosen by carers of the cows. Thus, as the work of the foundation was
necessary for delivering of the milk and improve the cow stables
caregivers agreed to continue caring for them for free.
To encourage carers of cows foundation began to organize annual
meetings called cow-mania and began to create local chapters of
caregivers of cows. Encouraging carers to create associations and
allowing them to use the brand of milk to promote its drink and to
encourage more people to look after the cows.
Seeing that everything worked so well a new economic theory appeared.
It was named cow-economics. The cow-economics consisted in obtaining a
race of animals that they grew up without eating, like Jimmy's cows,
and they should be very friendly then encouraging a community to take
care of the animals for free. At the beginning of each business a
small company paid the expenses of distributing the products obtained
from animals and of organizing festivals and competitions to keep
happy the community of caregivers. The products were given away for
private consumption but they put advertising on packaging, they asked
for donations and charged fees for uses for profit.
The cow-economic companies began to populate the economic system.
Companies spent a lot of resources to studying the psychology of the
caretakers of animals and build very user-friendly stables. Emerged a
lot of companies like cow-how (engaged in the wool obtained from
sheep), face-cow (who worked in chicken eggs) and so on, all of them
with many benefits.
Suddenly the business of Jimmy began to see signs of crisis. The
number of cattle keepers had stopped growing and began to fall. The
amount of milk consumed also began to stop growing and it seems that
also began to fall.
Faced with these threats Jimmy Walker tried to strengthen the chapters
letting them raise the money from donations. The chapters were
organized not by town but they were organized by race. There were many
races on the basis of skin colour. There were races of people with
different shades ranging from white to black. In the case of the
English people they did not have a single chapter, but they were
divided into several chapters according to the colour of the skin of
the caregivers. In the case of the Catalan town they asked to have a
chapter for all the people of the town because they were a small town
and they feel comfortable working altogether. The Catalan people was a
very strange people who didn’t liked to discriminate people by skin
colour and therefore they do not see anything good in being separated
on the basis of skin colour. But their request was denied. They told
them that they had to join the people of their same race, although
they were of different towns because at the time of collecting
donations and distributing the milk it was done according to race and
not according to the town where the people lived and the laws on taxes
and tax deductions were based on race and not the town ... The truth
is that there were cases where town agreed with a single race. Then
they could have a chapter. There were also cases of very large
villages where the village had many races that only lived in this
place then those villages could have several chapters. The problems
were in the small towns where people was of the same races than people
living in neighbour villages that were much larger. They could not
have a chapter. But since these were small towns that do not matter to
anyone (except to themselves) the problem stayed unsolved.
Several problems arose. Some chapters raise the money but not paid to
the foundation what had agreed to contribute to the maintenance of the
common expenses of distribution of milk. Others had the money in the
bank and did not use them for anything. Others used it but not
explained where they spent or what results they obtain. Although the
primary law of this country was "presuppose good faith", seeing that
there was always a very bad caretaker of cows non-compliant with the
law that might thought that there were some kind of incompetence in
handling of money or even corruption.
Moreover, sometimes there were problems among caregivers of cows and
the chapters and or the foundation. The chapters were associations of
people where not all partners were cattle keepers neither all of
cattle keepers were associated. The foundation, although carers of
cows appointed a few members of its governing body, had gone ahead
with several initiatives which had upset carers of cows.
Another problem arose because not all races had the same economic
level. The white races were very wealthy and were used to give money
to non-profit activities. But the black was very poor and did not
have the habit of making donations. The money collected was going
mainly to the chapters of the white races and almost none to the
chapters of the black races. In some cases such as in the Spanish town
most of the caregivers, were quite dark but recently had created a
chapter of white people that would raise the most of the money.
From here the story takes three finals. Choose what you like.
===== Final 1=====
(Centralization and decline)
Seeing all this chaos Jimmy turned to his leadership in establishing a
system where money collected by the bodies of different races had to
pledge for transparently managing the money and for transferring a
large extent to the foundation and chapters in need in accordance with
established rules. The Foundation will control and monitor the entire
system.
The chapters fiercely opposed to it but as the foundation had the
upper hand in controlling the distribution of milk, they had to accept
it.
Then the foundation was tried to copy what the cow-economic companies
did: Manage the community of caregivers making activities to attract
more and redesign the stalls of cows so that they were more user
friendly.
But the milk business is not as fun as wool or eggs. In addition, the
foundation did not have as much money as companies engaged in this
business because it could not place ads. Neither could count on much
help from the chapters that were quite annoying. With a centralized
structure with few resources could not encompass the diversity of
races and towns with as much efficiency as other companies did.
Gradually caregivers were leaving the business. Some because they were
bored, others because they sympathized with the chapters that were
annoying for the affair of the money, others were simply move on to
other business more fun without such problems, others assembled their
own farms of cows aside. Of course there was a small core remained of
irreducible who continued for a long time. They included the Catalan
town; their only interest was providing their town a great deal of
high quality milk.
As the cows gave infinite milk, the foundation could continue
distributing milk for a long time. But nothing was ever as before again.
===== Final 2 =====
(The chapters assault the foundation. General rush)
Seeing that Jimmy was proposed that the foundation overseeing the
management of the money by the chapters, that not all chapters will be
allowed to collect directly, and even proposed that the foundation
appoint members in Chapters Board.
The chapters were quick to react against this approach. They set up a
council of chapters to join forces with to face the foundation. With
this organization they planned the assault of the foundation.
There were two members of the Board of the foundation that were
traditionally chosen by the chapters. On the first occasion of
renewing these charges ensured that the two new members of the Board
agreed with its approach.
There were three more chosen by the community of caregivers of cows.
The community of caregivers of cows was totally disorganized, most had
no idea what was going on. The only keepers of cattle that were
organized and were informed they were the affiliated to chapters. Only
10% followed somehow what was discussed and they where basically the
people's from the English town. The other towns were far away and were
not aware of these discussions.
In the next election, the council of chapters orchestrated a good
campaign. They promoted the presentation of three good candidates
related to their postulates and asked the chapters to put all their
influence to promote the vote for these candidates.
The result was a success. The 3 new members were those who promoted
the chapters. With 5 members of the Board they had majority and were
able to change the rules of the game to their taste.
The first thing that they did was change the way of appointing members
of the Board. They increased the number of members appointed by
chapters and lower the appointment of experts in various fields and
those named by the community of caregivers of cows. This will ensure
that they could continue controlling the foundation for ever more.
Then they left the foundation limited to the activities of
distribution of milk and improvement of stalls. All that was raising
money, promoting the consumption of milk and attract new carers of
cows was in the hands of the chapters.
In each town the outcome was very different.
There were towns with only one race that had a good understanding
between the chapter and the community of caregivers of cows, in these
cases, besides if they were white and could raise a lot of money had
very good cards in the game. For the German town things went very well.
Other towns had people of many races.
In the case of the English town the majority they were of white race.
There were not many problems between the chapters and the community of
caregivers. They saw many discussions and many caregivers left the
business. But as its farm was very big it continued giving milk.
In the case of the Spanish town there are many races but the skin
colour of the majority was rather dark. Only whites they have good
funding. In the community of caregivers, there were many critics of
the chapters and the foundation. They were devoted to discuss among
themselves. They fill pages and pages of discussion and were becoming
less dedicated to caring for cows.
Worst of all was for small towns. In small towns there were not enough
people in any race to have its own chapter. All chapters were in
bigger towns. They were left without money to promote that the people
take care of their cows. Many towns were abandoned and are now ghost
towns where nobody lives there. In some cases such as the Catalan
people were riding back to the chapter of the Foundation and the
Council of Chapters and they raise funds on their own to promote the
business of milk for his people.
===== Final 3 =====
(The French Revolution. Communities in power)
The keepers of cattle were beginning to see those tings were going
wrong. They were not organized. Each town was living without much
contact to the other and few people where involved in the tasks of
organizing the farm. Most limited their activity to care a little cow
and nothing more. Only when something happened that attracted much
attention a few of them went out and make hear their voice.
But Jimmy remembered that the original spirit of the project included
the caregivers of the cows that had to decide how best to organize the
farm, therefore suggested to organize the keepers of cattle so that
they could help to fix the problem.
The first step was to go for new blood. Those that is usually limited
to caring for the cows and not saying anything more. Off course, there
were many and not all were constant carers. Many were limited to go to
the farm care for a cow during one day and never return. He thought
that a reasonable approach would be bringing together all keepers of
cattle that had the right to vote to choose the members of the board
of the foundation. These were the ones that had helped to look after
the cows for a long period and still continued doing it recently.
To go up to meet and talk to each other had to organize them by town.
No matter the skin colour of each one. Said and done. In each town
created a Council composed of all caregivers eligible to vote. The
Council appointed representatives who took care of the relations with
other towns. The representatives of the town stayed alert of the
affairs of the various farms and the distribution of milk and made a
summary report to the Council. Every 3 months they sent this report to
each member of the Council to keep them up to date. Also organized
discussions among Council members when there were important issues and
collected the outcome. The representatives of each town were gathered
together to form a General Council of Cattle Carers.
The Council of each town allocated trusted caretakers of cows the task
of supervising the chapters that were in the town, also ensured that
the chapters of the richest races handed the money to the poorer
chapters to get the best for the whole of the town.
The General Council ensured that all chapters handed the money to the
foundation for the distribution of milk, to improve the stable, and to
support activities to attract carers in the towns where there was no
chapter .
Once organized caregivers, and once checked that everyone was involved
(not just the same as always that in many cases had already been
organized into chapters) then Jimmy changed the status of the
foundation increasing the number of members of board elected by the
communities so that caregivers so that they were majority. In this way
the system was stabilized. The case of small towns that previously
could not have a chapter they discuss the matter with the Council of
its town. Some decided to agree with chapters of neighbouring
villages, others like the case of the Catalan town, decided to create
its own chapter and were able to promote the business of milk in her
town as everyone else. In the end most people were having a chapter
that promoted the business of milk, either own or a neighbouring
village who had come to an agreement.
With the house tidy, take care of cows was more fun than ever. In
addition, the foundation could concentrate on making a much better
stable. This gave a whole new air. The global milk market grew slowly
and sooner or later they would cover all the demand.
In order to grow since they were enthusiastic about the subject, on
the one hand they revived some businesses that had already begun and
that they had not succeeded. Business of cheese, yoghurt etc. that did
not work because they needed different facilities that the business of
milk. They were focused on research and develop these infrastructures.
They also began to start new business ideas as the business of honey.
At first this business was small but gradually grew and reached beyond
the milk business.
===== References =====
[1] This is a summary. In fact they tried many more systems of
organization. You can find a more expansive collection here:
http://coffeehouse-economics.blogspot.com/2008/02/different-ways-of-market-…
[2] Although it has nothing to do and it is a pure coincidence,
something similar happened with Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Multilingual_monthly_st…
[3] Jimmy Walker became famous. Even the diplomatic cables of the
United States made some a follow-up of its movements. As can be seen
thanks to Wikileaks. By mistake they attribute him the foundation of
Wikipedia but obviously should say cow-pedia:
http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2008/11/08SANTIAGO1015.html
=== In the news ===
[In defense of Wikipedia] - Bryn Neuenschwander aka Marie Brennan, an
American fantasy author, wrote on the Science Fiction & Fantasy
Novelists site an article called "Research for Writers #2: In Defense
of Wikipedia". A good sum of the arguments in favor of Wikipedia. The
Guardian and Arabian Business have stories about her, as well.
http://www.sfnovelists.com/2011/09/16/research-for-writers-2-in-defense-of-…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Brennanhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/18/hari-fake-quotes-training-peter…http://www.arabianbusiness.com/dubai-bashing-journo-hari-admits-plagiarism-…
[Unethically abusing Wikipedia] - The Economist published a story
about Independent journalist Johann Hari, who used a pseudonym to
harass rival journalists and edit the Wikipedia article about himself.
He made a personal apology in the Independent. Wikizine reported about
this incident in the previous Opinion Edition.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/09/unethical-journalismhttp://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-a…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Harihttp://en.wikizine.org/2011/09/wikizine-opinion-year-2011-week-38.htmlhttp://blog.tommorris.org/post/10400620996/hari-gate-behind-the-scenes-at-w…
[Wikipedia accurate on cancer facts, but...] - DoctorsLounge published
an article about the study "Wikipedia Accurate on Cancer Facts, But
Hard to Read". That story has been republished by a number of news
outlets.
http://www.doctorslounge.com/index.php/news/hd/23109http://www.rocketnews.com/2011/09/wikipedia-accurate-on-cancer-facts-but-ha…http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/09/16/wikipedia-cancer.htmlhttp://machineslikeus.com/news/cancer-information-wikipedia-shown-be-accura…http://news.yahoo.com/wikipedia-accurate-cancer-facts-hard-read-study-23141…http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/15478525/wikipedia-accurate-on-cancer-fact…http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2011/9/19/wikipedia-content-on-cancer-i…http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_116511.html
[Poor readability] - In related news, instead of transferring the
whole news about cancer facts, French Tribune extracted in a
sensationalist way just "Wikipedia Offers Poor Readability!" Anyway,
what should be expected from an organization which keeps default
Drupal favicon on their site!
http://frenchtribune.com/teneur/117221-wikipedia-offers-poor-readabilityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faviconhttp://tinyurl.com/6c22ff7http://drupal.org/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupal
[Jimmy Wales travels] - Jimmy Wales meets with Carlos Slim, the
richest person in the world; discusses (on the beach) carbon emissions
with Tony Blair.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-20/scene-last-night-carlos-slim-jimmy…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Slimhttp://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/of-beach-sand-war-and-carbon/
[Book on Obama plagiarized Wikipedia] - White House attacks author of
book on Obama, author responds.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/white-house-officials-attack-b…http://www.mediaite.com/tv/white-house-refutes-confidence-men-book-suggests…http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63991.html
=== Time machine ===
==== 10 years ago ====
[19 September] - English Wikipedia User:The Cunctator proposed the
creation of a 9/11 wiki.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-September/000478.html
[20 September] - Larry Sanger announced an article in The New York
Times about Wikipedia.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-September/000475.html
[23 September] - Larry Sanger reported that Richard Stallman had
called Wikipedia "exciting news".
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-September/000486.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-September/000489.html
==== 5 years ago ====
[16 September] - Jimmy Wales announced Board elections and supported
Oscar van Dillen and Kat Walsh.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023349.htmlhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2006
[16 September] - Delpine Menard published a shortlist of Wikimania
2007 candidates: Alexandria, London, Taipei, Torino.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023358.html
[16 September] - Citizendium announced.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023373.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizendiumhttp://en.citizendium.org/
[16 September] - Rob Levin, aka lilo, President of the Peer-Directer
Projects Center which operates irc.freenode.net, died in an accident.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023396.html
[17 September] - Florence Devouard made a report from her visit to
Abuja and posted her ideas about the development of Wikimedia projects
related to Africa.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023408.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023409.html
[18 September] - Larry Sanger published his first post on
citizendium-l, Kat Walsh reposted it on foundation-l.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023452.html
[18 September] - Jeffrey V. Merkey wrote about events related to
Cherokee and Navajo languages.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023456.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023457.html
[18 September] - Angela Beasley informed us that Tim Starling had
surgery, but everything went well.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023487.html
[18 September] - KDE wanted to use Wikiversity to train developers.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023518.html
[19 September] - Discussion about methods to elect ArbCom started.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027672.html
[21 September] - David Gerard wrote the essay "Wikipedia:100,000
feature-quality articles". Discussion about it started on wikipedia-l.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:100Khttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027683.html
[21 September] - Samuel Klein on Board elections.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027698.html
[22 September] - Samuel Klein's essays "Wikipedia and the networked
society", "Dreams, goals, and milestones", "Reflection and research:
User surveys", "Parallels with other volunteer efforts & foundations"
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027699.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023641.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027700.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023642.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027701.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027702.html
[22 September] - Erik Zachte created galleries of Main Pages of a
couple of different Wikipedias.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027710.htmlhttp://infodisiac.com/Wikipedia/Gallery/Gallery.htmhttp://infodisiac.com/Wikipedia/Gallery/GalleryWayBack.htm
=== From Wikipedia ===
[WikiProject Cannabis] - WikiProject Cannabis is dedicated to
improving Wikipedia's coverage of cannabis, including articles
relating to hemp and marijuana legislation, effects, policies, trends,
activists, organizations, culture, and other aspects of the plant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Cannabis
[Caral] - Caral was a large settlement in the Supe Valley, near Supe,
Barranca province, Peru, some 200 km north of Lima. Caral is the most
ancient city of the Americas, and is a well-studied site of the Caral
civilization or Norte Chico civilization. Caral was inhabited between
roughly 2600 BC and 2000 BC, enclosing an area of more than 60
hectares. Caral was described by its excavators as the oldest urban
center in the Americas, a claim that was later challenged as other
ancient sites were found nearby. Accommodating more than 3,000
inhabitants, it is the best studied and one of the largest Norte Chico
sites known.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caralhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norte_Chico_civilization
[Loveland frog] - The Loveland Frog (otherwise known as the Loveland
Lizard) is said to be a humanoid creature with the face of a frog and
is described as standing roughly 4 feet (1.2 m) tall with green
leathery skin. It walks upright and has webbed hands and feet, and was
allegedly first spotted in Loveland, Ohio. It is generally considered
a cryptid—a creature rumored or reported to be living, but with no
confirmable proof.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loveland_frog
[Argan oil] - Argan oil is an oil produced from the kernels of the
argan tree, endemic to Morocco, that is valued for its nutritive,
cosmetic and numerous medicinal properties. The tree, a relic species
from the Tertiary age, is extremely well adapted to drought and other
environmentally difficult conditions of southwestern Morocco.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argan_oil
[Clathrate gun hypothesis] - The clathrate gun hypothesis is the
popular name given to the hypothesis that rises in sea temperatures
(and/or falls in sea level) can trigger the sudden release of methane
from methane clathrate compounds buried in seabeds and permafrost
which, because the methane itself is a powerful greenhouse gas, leads
to further temperature rise and further methane clathrate
destabilization – in effect initiating a runaway process as
irreversible, once started, as the firing of a gun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis
[Fan death] - Fan death is a widely held belief prevailing in South
Korea that an electric fan left running overnight in a closed room can
cause the death of those inside. Fans sold in Korea are equipped with
a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes,
which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan
on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death
[Turritopsis nutricula] - Turritopsis nutricula, the potentially
immortal jellyfish, is a hydrozoan whose medusa, or jellyfish, form
can revert to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is
the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to a
sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity
as a solitary stage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula
[Prora] - Prora is a beach resort on the island of Rügen, Germany,
known especially for its colossal Nazi-planned touristic structures.
The massive building complex was built between 1936 and 1939 as a
Kraft durch Freude (KdF) project. The eight buildings are identical,
and while they were planned as a holiday locale, they were never used
for this purpose. The complex has a formal heritage listing as a
particularly striking example of Third Reich architecture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prora
[Victoria Woodhull] - Victoria Claflin Woodhull (September 23, 1838 –
June 9, 1927) was a 19th century American who was described by Gilded
Age newspapers as a leader of the American woman's suffrage movement.
She is most famous for her sensational 1872 campaign to run as the
first female candidate for the Presidency of the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Woodhull
[Marsupial reproductive system] - Marsupials' reproductive systems
differ markedly from those of placental mammals (Placentalia). Females
have two lateral vaginas, which lead to separate uteri but both open
externally through the same orifice. A third canal, the median vagina,
is used for birth. This canal can be transitory or permanent. The
males generally have a two-pronged penis, which corresponds to the
females' two vaginas. The penis is used only for discharging semen
into females, and there is instead a urogenital sac used to store
waste before expulsion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsupial#Reproductive_system
[Misophonia] - Misophonia, literally “hatred of sound,” is a form of
decreased sound tolerance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia
[Literaturwurst] - Literaturwurst (Literature Sausage) is an Artist's
book, made by the Swiss-German artist Dieter Roth between 1961 and
1974. Each book was made using traditional sausage recipes, but
replacing the sausage meat with a book or magazine. The cover of the
edition was then pasted onto the skin of the sausage and signed and
dated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literaturwurst
[1% rule] - In Internet culture, the 1% rule or the 90–9–1 principle
(sometimes also presented as 89:10:1 ratio) reflects a theory that
more people will lurk in a virtual community than will participate.
This term is often used to refer to participation inequality in the
context of the Internet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_%28Internet_culture%29
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Support: Walter
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Satisfaction is not guaranteed. Some content can be highly
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EDITION
Year: 2011 Week: 39 Number: 129
************************************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
=== Technical news ===
[Babel on all Wikis] - There are a great deal of templates and signs
that one can put on there user page. One of the most useful are the
Babel-templates that indicate the knowledge of different languages.
Now is there an extension active on all wikis for that. No need to
manually setup all those templates on all wikis. The structure is
easy; see the excellent blog posting of Mister Internationalisation
himself - Gerard Meijssen.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/09/21/babel-extension-live-on-the-wmf-projec…
[New mobile gateway] - There is a new mobile gateway active for the
Wikipedias. The the other projects will follow. This is provided by
new extension of MediaWiki 1.17, the software our wikis are using.
This replaces the old mobile gateway.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/09/14/new-mobile-site-launched-on-wikipedia-…http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MobileFrontend
[MediaWiki 1.8] - As announced in the TechFlash upgrade of the wikis
is in progress. New functions in MediaWiki 1.8 include;
- Support for gender-specific user pages: languages that have
different words for User whether the user is male or female will be
able to show the male or the female version, if the user has specified
their gender in their preferences.
- MediaWiki 1.18 will make it easier for left-to-right and
right-to-left text to coexist on the same page.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/09/16/mediawiki118iscomin/
[Fundraiser-time?] - You could encounter the well known gigantic
donation banner "personal appeal by ...". But no, it is not again the
big fundraiser event. But only a banner test. If you see it then you
where lucky. It is only at EN Wikipedia for anonymous users and
generally only in certain countries. The tests are currently being
conducted for 1 hour once a week. The real fundraiser will proably be
in November. But, test or not, donations are welcome.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011
[Techs share knowledge] - Running a massive infrastructure like the
WMF is using also mean that collect knowledge how to do that. In line
with the mission of the WMF detailed information about the
configuration of the system has been released so that others can learn
from it.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/09/19/ever-wondered-how-the-wikimedia-server…
[Operations Engineer goals] - In another post, Ryan Lane gives a
longer story about his goals for the past year.
http://ryandlane.com/blog/2011/09/19/ive-been-with-the-wikimedia-foundation…
=== Request for help ===
[Petition to UNSECO] - Wikimedia Foundation, with full support of
founder Jimmy Wales, is asking to support the request to the UNESCO to
recognize Wikipedia as the first "digital World Cultural Heritage
Site". Over 51,000 people have signed the petition already. Your are
suggested to spread the word of this petition (after you signed) by
all the communication channels of the modern day. If you sign the
petition need to confirm by a link send by e-mail
http://wikipedia.de/wke/Main_Page
[Sign-up for translation] - Frequently there are messages that need to
be translated in, if possible, all the languages of the projects. If
you like to volunteer to be a translator you can register yourself
(see link) so when you are needed you can be contacted.
https://sugar.corp.wikimedia.org/translators/translators.php?referrer=wikiz…
=== Bureaucracy ===
[Stewards election] - You can vote in the election for new stewards
until 6 October. According to the present situation, 9 Wikimedians
have a good chance to become stewards: Axpde, Bencmq, Bennylin,
Quadell, Quentinv57, Teles, Trijnstel, Vituzzu and Wikitanvir.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/elections_2011-2http://toolserver.org/~stewardbots/elections.php
=== Movement ===
[German Wikipedia] - On 15 September a poll on the German Wikipedia
questioning participants about the proposed image filter was closed.
German Wikipedians rejected implementation of an image filter on the
German Wikipedia by a 86.23% majority (430 votes, 357 against, 57 in
favour, 16 neutral).
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2011-September/068502.htmlhttp://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meinungsbilder/Einf%C3%BChrung_pers%… (proposal, arguments and
votes)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meinungsbilder/Einf%C3%BChrung_pers%… (proposal and arguments translation to
English)
[Germanophone WikiConvention] - Wikimedians from the three major
German speaking countries gathered to share their knowledge about
Wikipedia, Wikimedia and other wikis at the first ?WikiConvention?.
More than 170 participants attended.
http://zikoblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/germanophone-wikiconvention-establ…http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiConvention (in German)
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2011/09/06/treffpunkt-fur-freies-wissen/ (in German)
[Deletionism] - "Wikipedia needs to return to simplicity" is a blog
post by Urpo Lankinen in which the author explains why deletionism is
bad.
http://www.beastwithin.org/users/wwwwolf/blog/2011/09/wikipedia-needs-to-re…
[European Year of Volunteering 2011] - On September 12, 2011 a group
of Polish Wikimedians took part in an open public event of the
European Year of Volunteering in Warsaw.
*:http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=pl&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.pl&sl=pl&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://wyborcza.pl/1,91446,10276273,W_Pawilonie_ERW_dzien_e_wolontariatu.html&usg=ALkJrhjmnsC5XwCIo-fZsSmYuiR8RmFKCA
*:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:ERW-2011
*:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_volunteering
=== Foundation ===
[WMF; no test] - The Wikimedia Foundation declined to allow developers
to make a trial for restricting non-autoconfirmed users from creating
articles on English Wikipedia. The rejection comes despite the support
of around 2/3 of involved participants (~500 editors took a part).
Discussion about the proposal on English Wikipedia started on 3 April
2011 and concluded on 27 May. Discussion about the implementation
started on 11 July and concluded on 18 August. A bugzilla bug request
was filled on 3 August, but developers refused to implement it. On 14
September Erik Moeller said that "[WMF] believe that creating a
restriction of this type is a strong a statement of exclusion, not
inclusion, and that it will confuse and deter good faith editors" and
rejected the proposal, which sparked long discussion and resignation
by community.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Autoconfirmed_article_creation_trialhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28proposals%29/Proposa…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28proposals%29/Proposa…https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30208https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30208#c43http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2011-September/068494.html
[Board minutes] - The Board has published minutes from Wikimania
meeting of 3 August.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2011-08-03
=== Chapters ===
[WM UK grants] - Wikimedia UK gives scholarships for traveling to the
Wikimedia India conference for Wikimedians from UK. Deadline for
applications is 27 September, 19:30 BST (UTC+1).
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2011/09/wikiconference-india-travel-grants/http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_Scholarships
[Wikipedia promo] - Wikimedia Sverige will be present at the
Gothenburg Book Fair, around 100,000 visitors are expected to come by
so it will be busy. WM Sverige has made 3 short silent movies to play
at there stand. Because the are silent the can be used easily also by
other Chapters, Wikimedia events. Wikimedia Sverige is even willing to
localize it for you on request.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/55785
==== Chapters reports ====
[Wikimedia UK] - Wikimedia UK has published August 2011 report.
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports/2011/August
[Wikimedia Philippines] - Wikimedia Philippines published annual
report for 2010.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMPH_2010_Annual_Report.pdf
=== Science ===
[Wikimedia Ambassador survey] - Results from first Wikipedia
Ambassador survey released by WMF.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/09/14/results-from-first-wikipedia-ambassado…
[Wikipedia on WikiSym 2011] - The technical session during WikiSym
2011 "Understanding Wikipedia" will feature four presentations:
"WP:Clubhouse? An Exploration of Wikipedia?s Gender Imbalance",
"Gender Differences in Wikipedia Editing", "Finding Patterns in
Behavioral Observations by Automatically Labeling Forms of Wikiwork in
Barnstars" and "What Wikipedia Deletes: Characterizing Dangerous
Collaborative Content".
http://www.wikisym.org/2011/09/14/session-preview-understanding-wikipedia/http://www.wikisym.org/category/wikisym-2011/
[Wikipedia's gender imbalance] - Paper "Clubhouse? An Exploration of
Wikipedia?s Gender Imbalance" from Wikisym 2011 has been published.
The CBC interviewed Sue Gardner and published a story about it.
http://www.grouplens.org/node/466http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2011/09/sue-gardner-on-wikipedias-gender-gap/
=== Media ===
[Wikipedia Signpost] - A new edition of the Wikipedia Signpost has
been published. Harry Burt (User:Jarry1250), the Signpost's
editor-in-chief, leaves the Signpost to User:SMasters and
User:Skomorokh, as his studies are going to begin soon. In this
edition you can read the following stories and more: On the Wikinews
fork, Back to school, ArbCom narrowly rejects application to open new
case and so on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2011-09-…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jarry1250http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SMastershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Skomorokhhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-09-19/From_t…
=== Anniversaries ===
[Slovak Wikipedia] - 23 September 2003 is the best possible
approximation of the date when the Slovak Wikipedia was created
[1][2]. Slovak is a West Slavic language [3][4] spoken by 7 million
people, mostly in Slovakia. Slovak Wikipedia has more than 127,000
articles [5] and more than 550 active users. Statistics [6] shows that
Slovak Wikipedia is among the stable projects, which have a more or
less constant number of new, active and very active Wikipedians.
:[1] http://sk.wikipedia.org/
:[2] http://web.archive.org/web/20030923070746/http://sk.wikipedia.org/
:[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_language
:[4] http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=slk
:[5] http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=slk
[Waray-Waray Wikipedia] - On 25 September the Waray-Waray
Wikipedia[1][2] will be six years old. Waray-Waray[3] is an
Austronesian language[3][4] spoken by 3.1 million inhabitants of
Visayas[5] and Masbate[6] provinces of Philippines. It is used as a
trade language, too. The Waray-Waray Wikipedia has more than 102,000
articles. Counting the number of speakers and considering the economic
situation in Philippines, Waray-Waray Wikipedia is quite an active and
successful project [7][8] (note the increase of new editors in 2010 in
comparison to the number of new articles added to Wikipedia). Here is
a short story about the beginnings of the Waray-Waray Wikipedia by
war:User:Harvzs [9], the initiator of the Waray-Waray Wikipedia.
''The proposal for the Waray-Waray Wikipedia was made on or about June
23, 2005. The native speakers who volunteered to help edit was myself
(User:Harvzsf in Meta) and User:v.oyzon. User:Katimawan2005 and
User:Bentong from the Kapampangan and Cebuano Wikipedias were also
among those who lent their support. The test-wikipedia was set up in
Meta shortly after although test wikipedias weren't mandatory at that
time and Incubator hadn't been in existence. The reason for the test
Wikipedia was for the double purpose of creating content in the event
that the request to create the wiki was granted and also to get some
practice on how to create and edit the wiki. The Waray Wikipedia was
created on or about September 24, 2005 along with the Neapolitan and
Judeo-Spanish/Ladino Wikipedias. By a coincidence, the ISO codes for
the 3 wikipedias coincided with actual one-syllable words in the
English language war, nap and lad respectively :) ) Shortly after, I
obtained administrator rights on the Waray-Waray Wikipedia. Ten days
after the Waray-Waray Wikipedia was created, it reached 100 articles
(the 100th article was [[war:Guiuan, Eastern Samar]]).''
:[1] http://war.wikipedia.org/
:[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waray-Waray_Wikipedia
:[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waray-Waray_language
:[4] http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=war
:[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visayas
:[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masbate
:[7] http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/ChartsWikipediaWAR.htm
:[8] http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/ChartsWikipediaWAR.htm
:[9] http://war.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Harvzs
[Polish Wikipedia] - On 26 September the Polish Wikipedia [1][2] Will
be 10 years old. Polish is a West Slavic language spoken by more than
40 million speakers [3][4], mostly from Poland. With more than 831,000
articles [5], the Polish Wikipedia is the fifth largest Wikipedia by
number of articles. During its first years of existence, the Polish
Wikipedia was filled with a lot of bot-generated articles, which
created significant positive feedback from Polish speakers and made
the Polish Wikipedian community one of the most vital ones [6].
Wikimedia Poland [7][8] was created on 15 August 2005 thanks to the
work of Polish Wikipedians. Wikimedia Poland recognizes its 10th
anniversary of the project by organizing a conference to be held on
September 24-25, in Poznan, Poland [9][10].
:[1] http://pl.wikipedia.org/
:[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Wikipedia
:[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_language
:[4] http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pol
:[5] http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specjalna:Statystyka
:[6] http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/ChartsWikipediaPL.htm (cf. new
articles per day and new editors)
:[7] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Polska
:[8] http://pl.wikimedia.org/
:[9] http://10lat.wikipedia.pl
:[10] http://tinyurl.com/42tkjub (Google translate)
Press release of Wikimedia Poland is below:
:''The Polish Wikipedia was founded on September 26, 2001, being the
eighth eldest Wikipedia to be established. Over the years, Polish
Wikipedians have created over 830,000 articles, of which almost 500
have received a "Featured Article" status and additional 1,000 being
categorised as "Good Articles".''
:''In a continuation of the year-long celebration of the 10th
anniversary of Wikipedia, the Polish Wikipedia community is going to
celebrate the 10th birthday of the project, with a conference being
held on September 24?25 in Pozna?, Poland. Two weeks earlier, on
September 10, the public exhibition of the winning POTY (Picture of
the Year) pictures has been opened in one of the most prestigious
shopping and art centres in Poland, the Stary Browar (Old Brewery). 16
pictures, chosen by Wikimedians from all over the world in an annual
POTY contest, are shown at the exhibition, with descriptions provided
in Polish, English and German.''
:''The conference will take place in the heart of the very best
location in Pozna?. It will be open to the public, as one of the main
goals of the organisers is to involve people from outside the
Wikimedia movement; therefore, the conference is heavily advertised in
the local media, with increasing daily press coverage.''
:''The event will consist of about 15 presentations and talks about
Wikipedia. They will discuss Wikipedia's place in court judgements;
Wikipedia's role as a source of information; the now-hot topic of
women in the Wikipedia community, and many more topics. They will take
an outside look at Wikipedia with a public screening of the
documentary film ''Truth in Numbers?'', which will be followed by a
discussion, a short surprise from the organising team, and the real
celebration: a massive Wikipedia birthday cake.''
:''The Polish chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation has generously
decided to refund the costs of coming to the conference for
Wikimedians from Central and Eastern Europe; as of September 20, 13
Wikipedians from Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Russia, Ukraine and even Philippines have signed up for the
conference. If you can't join us and you understand some Polish, don't
worry ? all talks from the conference will be streamed live on a
special Internet radio. After the event, all talks ? audio and video ?
will be released under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 licence and made available
on-line.''
:''Polish Wikipedians hope to have a great event, and even if you
can't join them, please keep your fingers crossed!''
=== Stats ===
*[RU WP] Russia Wikipedia has overtaken Japanese Wikipedia by the
articles' count on 21 September 2011.
:http://tinyurl.com/3cv7tlk -- RU Wikipedia
:http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Wikipedias%2FTable&action=historysubmit&diff=2916894&oldid=2913733
=== Events and meetups ===
[24 September] - Wiki Takes de Zaan (Netherlands) will be held on
September 24th.
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ontmoeten#Zaanstreek_24_september
[24 September] - Wikipedia Takes Göteborg, Sweden
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikitr%C3%A4ffar#Fotosafari.2C_G.C3.…
[24 September] - Wikipedia Takes Porto, Portugal
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_Toma_o_Porto
[24-25 September] - Polish Wikipedia community, supported by Wikimedia
Polska, is going to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the project
(founded on September 26, 2001) with a conference to be held on
September 24-25, in Poznan, Poland.
http://10lat.wikipedia.plhttp://tinyurl.com/42tkjub (Google translate)
[25 September] - Wikipedia Takes Cologne, Germany
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_K%C3%B6ln
[25 September] - Wikipedia Takes Lisbon, Portugal
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikip%C3%A9dia_Toma_Lisboa
[3-5 October] - WikiSym - The International Symposium on Wikis and
Open collaboration -2011 with the session "Understanding Wikipedia".
http://www.wikisym.org/category/wikisym-2011/http://www.wikisym.org/2011/09/14/session-preview-understanding-wikipedia/
=== Wikizine ===
[Your reports] - Post your news for the next edition of Wikizine on
Meta or in our Google form.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikizine/EN2011-130http://tinyurl.com/wikizine-feedback
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Breaking news
[Wikimedia servers upgrade] - Wikimedia servers are in the process of
upgrading. You may experience difficulties in reading and/or editing
Wikimedia sites.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/09/16/mediawiki118iscomin/
o Upgrade timeline:
+ [19 September] - Monday, September 19, 23:00-01:00
UTC -- Production test: test2.wikipedia.org – this stage will ensure
that 1.18 is compatible with the rest of our production
infrastructure. There’s a small chance that changes here could affect
all wikis.
+ [21 September] - Wednesday, September 21,
23:00-03:00 UTC -- Stage 1: simple.wikipedia.org,
simple.wiktionary.org, usability.wikimedia.org,
strategy.wikimedia.org, mediawiki.org, he.wikisource.org
+ [26 September] - Monday, September 26, 23:00-03:00
UTC -- Stage 2: meta.wikimedia.org, en.wikiquote.org,
en.wikibooks.org, beta.wikiversity.org, eo.wikipedia.org,
nl.wikipedia.org
+ [4 October] - Tuesday, October 4, 23:00-03:00 UTC --
Stage 3: remaining wikis.
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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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=== Wikizine needs YOU! ===
Wikipedia has already changed the world. Wikimedia movement is at the
beginning of that task. To push the movement into that direction,
Wikizine needs your '''bold''' ideas and personal perspectives! Send
your ideas to us or simply add them into the appropriate section. What
YOU think can change the world!
[Name] - Working title of this edition is "Wikizine Talk Edition"
because we didn't have better idea. Send us suggestions for the name!
=== Contents ===
Editorial
Personal perspective
In the news
From Wikipedia
=== Editorial by Milos ===
As you could read in Wikizine 127 [1], I took initiative and began a
Wikizine revival. You may notice some changes and I can say that there
will be more changes, as such changes keep all of us alive.
Editorial is one of those changes and it will have two main parts: (1)
presentation of one of the Wikizine feature and (2) analysis of the
most important event from the previous week or two. Opinion or Talk
Edition of Wikizine will be published on Friday and ?previous week?
means approximately Friday-Thursday time frame.
Last week had begun with such intensity, I thought I could close this
edition by Monday.
[1] http://en.wikizine.org/2011/09/year-2011-week-36-number-126.html
==== (Un)acceptible Foundation influence on chapters ====
On August 27th, almost 20 days before the conclusion of this edition,
CasteloBranco, a member of the initiative for Wikimedia Brazil, sent
an email to foundation-l [1] with the description of agreement inside
of Brazilian Wikimedian community about chapter creation. That was the
main obstacle toward formalizing the chapter, as Brazilian Wikimedians
didn?t feel comfortable with the idea of having a formal organization.
That day five more Wikimedians discussed the outlines of this
agreement on foundation-l, including a note from Ray Saintonge that
it?s not the best idea to have a Wikimedia Foundation appointee in
chapter?s Board (as suggested by WM Brazil?s agreement).
For five days discussion was dead, when Jimmy Wales said that having a
WMF appointee is, actually, a good idea. That sparked long discussions
on both foundation-l and internal-l (the latter one is a non-public
list of the core of Wikimedia movement). A number of chapters
representatives felt offended by the idea of having a WMF appointee on
their boards.
[1] http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/wiki/foundation/246958
==== Image filter retrospective (from spring 2008 to early 2011) ====
For those who have forgotten what?s behind the image filter
?referendum?, here is a retrospective.
The initial point of the drama started on 7 May 2008 [4]. Because of
religion, of course. US-based ?social conservative? site WorldNetDaily
reported Wikipedia [5] because of the cover art for the Scorpions?
album Virgin Killer [6]. According to Concerned Women of America,
another ?social conservative? group, ?Wikipedia is helping to further
facilitate perversion and pedophilia.?
On 5 December 2008, in the moment of madness, worthy of the best of
surreal poetry, Internet Watch Foundaiton (IWF) [7], the association
of UK internet providers, listed Wikipedia as a child pornography site
[8] because of the same album cover [6]. It seems that IWF needed just
four days to find someone who knows what Wikipedia is. IWF reversed
their blacklisting on 9 December.
In a moment of desperate need for self-promotion, Larry Sanger [9],
known because he didn?t believe that his project (Wikipedia, for which
has sometimes been described as a co-founder), would succeed and not
so known because of a number of failed projects, reported Wikipedia to
the FBI [10] on 10 April 2010 because, of course, ?child pornography?.
Just a short 17 days later, Fox News discovered the hot news and
published it [11] in a well known form of spreading FUD to everything
which doesn?t fit to their retarded worldview.
The action of the IWF prompted discussions on Wikimedia Commons in
2008. However, just after the Commons community declined to change
well defined policy toward images, which are handled based on their
quality, not the biased opinion on content, on May 6th, 2010 Jimmy
Wales started to delete not just poor quality Second Life animated
pornography, but artworks, as well. That sparked a huge revolt among
editors [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. At the other side, the
action was praised by Fox News, of course [21].
Between May 6th and May 9th, the most striking event was the fact that
smart people from the Board were talking nonsense just to stand behind
Jimmy?s irrational behavior.
The Board?s statement from May 7th [22] was actually quite good. Note
that part of the statement says ?In saying this, we don't intend to
create new policy, but rather to reaffirm and support policy that
already exists.? Yet as it could be seen, in around one month the same
Board changed their mind and pushed development with the aim to
implement new policy.
After that the Kafkaesque parody started. Jan-Bart de Vreede, a Board
member, interpreted Board?s statement as supporting Jimmy?s deletion
of artworks [23]. Ting Chen, Board chair, also supported deletion of
artworks [24]. Stuart West thinks that some deleted artworks are
?hardcore pornography?, as well [25].
Digression about artworks for the complete picture. Jimmy deleted
[28], among others, the next images:
Painting [27] by Édouard-Henri Avril, a 19th and early 20th century
French painter [28].
Graphics [29] by Franz von Bayros, a late 19th and early 20th century
Austrian illustrator [30].
Graphics [31] by Félicien Rops, a 19th century Belgian artist [32].
What is interesting with all of those artists is that they belong to
the Decadent movement in art [33]. Which, by the way, says that you
can create the most important educational resource in the history, but
not be able to make distinction between pornography and art. And no
matter of your ignorance, you would be supported by your fellow Board
members,.
On May 9th, 2010, by concluding his regular behavioral iteration --
first makes a problem, then does the right thing to fix it --, Jimmy
abandoned his permissions [34].
But, of course, that wasn?t the end of the drama. On June 24th, 2010
Board commissioned the Executive Director to find a way to satisfy Fox
News and those who take Fox News seriously. [35]
I had personal conversation with Robert Harris, the person employed by
the WMF to ?solve? the problem. It was a very surprising discussion.
During the first iteration of our communication, at the time when he
presented some facts, including a perspective of one Canadian
librarian [36], which clearly stated that libraries do not mark
?objectionable? content in any particular way, it was a real pleasure
to hear his insights.
But a month or two later it was clear that he wasn?t employed to make
a decent suggestion, based on our values. He was employed to make a
decision which would satisfy Fox News adherents. Instead of mentioning
anywhere that it is not usual to mark sexually explicit content,
instead of giving a multicultural perspective by adding at least
Muhammad depictions to the list, he just produced a conclusion to
please those to whom it is much more problematic that their daughter
educate herself in sexual hygiene and contraception, then to see her
pregnant at the age of 15. Of course, by mentioning ?multiculturalism?
just when it is in favor of those, exclusively American right-wing
views [37].
Then the Censorship workgroup [not able to find public link; it was
likely announced on internal-l] was created. The task of the group was
to articulate what the censorship would look like. I offered,
hesitantly, to participate in it, as a part of the responsibility
which I had as one of the most vocal opponents of that task. Not
unexpectedly, all of us were happy without me on the workgroup.
After a period of workgroup work, it presented the design of
censorship software [38]. To be honest, it is not bad at all. People
are able to click on ?show image?, nothing is cemented. In an ideal
world, such an image filter would be a very good option. However, we
don?t live in an ideal world.
I?ll describe current events (the second part of 2011) after enough
time passes and some distance from the current events would be created.
Milos
:[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image_filter_referendum
:[2] http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Controversial_content
:[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image_filter_referendum/Results/en
:[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Killer#Internet_censorship
:[5] http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=63722
:[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Killer
:[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation
:[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation_and_Wikipedia
:[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger
:[10]
http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/04/11/018255/Larry-Sanger-Tells-FBI-Wikip…
:[11]
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/27/wikipedia-child-porn-larry-sanger…
:[12] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Sexual_content/Archive_1
:[13] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Sexual_content/Archive_3
:[14]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Sexual_content/Village_pump/…
:[15]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Sexual_content/Village_pump/…
:[16] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-May/057789.html
:[17] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-May/057791.html
:[18] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Remove_Founder_flag
:[19] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Petition_to_Jimbo
:[20]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Undeletion_requests/Archive/2010-…
:[21] http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/05/07/wikipedia-purges-porn/
:[22]
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaannounce-l/2010-May/000008.ht…
:[23] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-May/057795.html
:[24] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-May/057827.html
:[25] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-May/058026.html
:[26]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=delete&us…
:[27]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%89douard-Henri_Avril_%2827%29.jpg
:[28] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard-Henri_Avril
:[29] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franz_von_Bayros_016.jpg
:[30] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Bayros
:[31]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F%C3%A9licien_Rops_-_Sainte-Th%C3%A9…
:[32] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9licien_Rops
:[33] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decadent_movement
:[34] http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/wiki/foundation/195612
:[35]
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Commissioning_Recommendation…
:[36]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:2010_Wikimedia_Study_of_Co…
:[37]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2010_Wikimedia_Study_of_Controversial_Conten…
:[38]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image_filter_referendum/en#What_will_the_ima…
==== Song of the week ====
For the end of the editorial, here is the song of the week:
http://tinyurl.com/6vaxls
Milos
=== Personal perspective ===
This week we have personal perspective from Salmaan Haroon,
User:Theo10011 [1].
Theo is from India. He is originally from English Wikipedia but mostly
active on Meta these days. He worked extensively on the WMF strategic
plan on Strategy Wiki [2] a couple of years ago. He has been involved
in Movement roles since early this year. He wrote for the Signpost
briefly.
He worked for WMF for 3 months last year during the fundraiser, and
got the chance to interact with chapters and see the fundraising issue
from different perspectives.
Wikimedia chapters council [3] is his proposal.
:[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Theo10011
:[2] http://strategy.wikimedia.org/
:[3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters_council
----
I was invited to write about my perspective on the recent chapter and
fundraising issues that have been doing the rounds. Let me first start
out by making this disclosure- I am not affiliated with any chapter
beyond a regular membership acquired a few weeks ago, I never sat on a
chapter board, attended a general meeting, and neither do I plan on
starting any time soon. Given a different set of circumstance, I am
not sure if my perspective would be deemed completely neutral in the
following matter.
Previously, as an outsider to the internal working of Wikimedia and
chapter relations, I viewed the idea of chapters as a regular
unaffiliated community member would i.e. with a mix of ignorance and
skepticism. Chapters are viewed in some circles as legal organizations
formed in different countries by a handful of people who then use
Wikimedia trademarks and fundraising to raise funds to just exist and
occasionally serve as a local outreach point. Somewhere during the
last year, I actually started meeting some of these people. I began to
see the other side, how chapters perceive themselves and each other.
True, there is an entire spectrum where each chapter falls and how
close they actually are to what they want to be. Some of these people
became my friends, I started seeing things from their perspective.
Over the last year, I saw chapters organize and take on activities
like Wiki Loves Monuments, something the foundation never tried to do.
I saw them do local GLAM outreach and activities in Germany and
France, again, something that the foundation could not take on
directly. They all do their own thing individually in their part of
the world whether it be some open-license lobbying to their local
institutions or outreach to a local exhibition. I can not in good
conscience accept that our movement would be any better off without
them being independent. They are completely decentralized, and do
their own thing independently, I love that model. A few dozen
organizations doing their own things in tandem in different parts of
the world is an unmatched model when it comes to productivity.
Lately however, there have been overtures that this model might be
under threat. The distance and the relation between the foundation and
the chapters has been getting more and more strained. The fundraising
issue and the board letter that started the recent debate at the core
placed concerns, that really no one disagreed with. I am yet to talk
to a single person who thinks that most of those concerns aren't
legitimate or there isn't a need for a sustained model of
accountability. Almost every chapter in private and public, agrees
that the issues are serious and require some action on everyones part.
The biggest issue is however how these concerns are being addressed.
Some of the foundation's recent actions are being perceived as a
heavy-handed towards chapters and the community at large. The
conceptual directives have been coming from the board, perceptually
overlooking an important distinction someone else made earlier- the
board is the Wikimedia Foundation's board, not the chapter's,
certainly not the movement's, the larger community is even less
inclined to agree.
When the questions about the fundraising issue started, there were 2
large concerns that took over after the board's announcement. One, if
the chapters that already agreed to participate in the fundraiser
being allowed to continue, and second, if new half-a-dozen chapters
that wanted to participate would be able to do so. The timing as
others pointed out was less than ideal, having the staff and the board
in person at Wikimania didn't help and instead compounded the
problems. The cross-talk between the board and staff at that stage
seemed minimal. Sue gave a lengthy explanation about the issues and
the board's concern, as did several board members who offered their
perspective, staff members however seemed to be on a different page.
Instead of giving any time to discuss and coordinate on how to address
these issues, the entire fundraising model was taken away in what some
perceive as a knee-jerk reaction and being replaced quietly by a
grants-only model.
In hindsight, effective planning, and better timing might have avoided
the initial confusion. But springing such an important change on
chapters so close to the fundraiser, even after chapters attended an
entire 'fundraising summit' just a few weeks prior could not have gone
well. Chapters were told how to participate in the fundraiser by WMF
staff that attended the aforementioned 'summit'. They were now being
told to re-evaluate it all, and forget about fundraising and focus on
a grants-based model. With all the arguments and the questions that
ensued, the staff hasn't addressed most of the issues publicly.
Delphine pointed out facts about WMDE, how the ideal independent
chapter, the only one who would be allowed to fundraise came to be.
How its independence, and the ability to stand on its own two feet
made WMDE an example to follow for others. The notion that independent
fundraising by chapters wouldn't affect the money needed by the
movement is a fallacy. The movement as a whole would lose millions
every year, if the chapters are not allowed to do this locally. At
some point, we have to realize - a one size fits all, global solution
doesn't work. Our movement is decentralized, I think it's only logical
that the fundraising be decentralized as well.
There is also a general sense of questioning the ownership of the
fundraiser among the larger community. There are people who believe
that it is the foundation's prerogative to only allow anyone it wants
to fundraise or not, since it is the sole entity in charge of
everything related to the movement. This would inevitably lead to more
questions about ownership of the projects, and who is entitled to
raise money in the name of Wikipedia?
Non-profits around the world use a decentralized model similar to the
one we might have. The current structure looks identical to theirs. if
someone were to visit Oxfam.com, they would be directed to the nearest
office in their region where they can donate to the cause. In our
case, the biggest identity would be our projects, a banner could serve
the same purpose locally. Why do we then question the same model that
already exist and work elsewhere?
Around the time these discussions were going on, I recalled something
that we talked about during the Chapters conference in Berlin. An idea
about a Chapters council, composed of all individual chapters to say
"We, the chapters...." - The community itself is large enough that it
can never completely agree on any point together, an important
distinctions that chapters might not suffer from. The number of
chapters are not large, and some of the issues are so central that a
single unanimous voice is not hard to form. There are and have been
several iterations of this body, over the years and there is a clear
need for it now than ever before. I have no idea if it can bridge the
gap and address some of the concerns everyone has, but I do believe,
it is worth trying, now more than ever.
Chapters, should ideally be the face of the movement- young,
hard-working, active and mostly unpaid volunteers that take the
good-nature and ethos of our movement, offline. Be it some small
project in their backyard, outreach to a local library or museum or a
small exhibition in their city, they should be given freedom to decide
what works for them locally and then the ability to do so. The
foundation should ideally, do its best to support and decentralize
this model as much as possible. When chapters work, they work
excellently.
Salmaan Haroon, User:Theo10011
=== In the news ===
[Jimmy Wales and Sue Gardner in US diplomatic cable] - Jimmy Wales was
mentioned in a leaked US diplomatic cable under the name Jimmy Walker.
Among many people with that name, one Jimmy Walker was the mayor of
New York City from 1926 to 1932. Another one is Jimmie Walker,
comedian. Sue Gardner has been presented as "Wikipedia's leading
editor".
http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2008/11/08SANTIAGO1015.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Walkerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Walkerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Walkerhttp://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/05/09TELAVIV982.html
[Inventor of eBook died] - Michael Stern Hart, inventor of the eBook
concept and Project Gutenberg, has died at the age of 64.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Michael_S._Hart
[Celebrities? Autographs] - Crushable reports (not quite) news that
Wikipedia has started including celebrities' autographs in articles
about them. In a related event, User:Hindustanilanguage uploaded ~300
autographs on Wikimedia Commons in mid-August.
http://crushable.com/entertainment/wikipedia-has-started-including-celebrit…http://tinyurl.com/4xxmepz
["How do i edit a page on wikipedia without it gettin removed?"] - A
classic high school question about editing Wikipedia appeared on Yahoo
Answers.
http://malaysia.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110902133937AAVW9a8
[Positive critique in Washington Post] - The Washington Post
journalist Valerie Strauss published article on "Wikipedia is not
wicked!" by The Daring Librarian, otherwise known as Gwyneth Anne
Jones, on her blog.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-daring-librarian-…http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/
[Branding company plays with Wikipedia] - Branding company Moving
Brands, invited by Viewpoint magazine to showcase their process,
created a proposal for a new Wikimedia identity. While the value of
the final product could be debated, it is interesting that the company
has a clear understanding of Wikipedia, Wikimedia and Wikipedia's core
Five Pillars, which they included in their creative process.
http://www.movingbrands.com/http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/wikipedia_concept.phphttp://www.movingbrands.com/?category_name=wikipedia-work
[Wikipedia editors motivation] - Business life has published the
article "Why do people contribute to Wikipedia for free?"
http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Economics/Why-do-people-contribute-to-W…
[New York Times on Wikipedia and 9/11] - New York Times published an
article "On Wikipedia, Echoes of 9/11 ?Edit Wars?".
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/business/media/on-wikipedia-911-dissent-i…
[Jimmy Wales guest of Cambridge Network] - Jimmy Wales gave a lecture
to the Cambridge Network members. The Cambridge Network is a
commercial business networking organization for business people and
academics working in technology fields in the Cambridge area of the
UK. In response to his lecture, Cambridge Business Media published the
article "Running Wikipedia, possibly not as easy as Jimmy Wales makes
it look".
http://www.pr.com/press-release/352263http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Networkhttp://www.cabume.co.uk/blog/running-wikipedia-possibly-not-as-easy-as-jimm…
[The worst Kindle eBooks] - "The worst Kindle eBooks ever written" is
a compilation of Wikipedia articles.
http://www.beyond-black-friday.com/2011/08/30/the-worst-kindle-ebooks-ever-…
[Copyright in EU] - Copyright on musical recordings extended by twenty
years in EU.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Copyright_on_musical_recordings_extended_by_twe…
[WikiSweeper] - Ushahidi and Wikimedia Foundation joint initiative to
create a hot news tool for Wiki editors
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/wikipedia_to_add_research_mega-tool_fo…http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2011/09/13/announcing-the-wikisweeper-pr…
[Jimmy Wales in Indianapolis] - Jimmy Wales was talking to 3,000
marketing experts in Indianapolis.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110913/BUSINESS06/109130390/Wikipedia-fou…
[Columnist for Independent and Wikipedia] - The award-winning
Independent columnist Johann Hari has apologized for editing the
Wikipedia entries of people he had clashed with, using the pseudonym
David Rose.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/14/johann-hari-apologises-orwell-p…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Hari
[Campus paper The Bell Ringer on Wikipedia] - Columnist of The Bell
Ringer, the campus paper of the Augusta State University, published
text "In the Defense of Wikipedia".
http://www.asubellringer.com/2011/09/14/in-the-defense-of-wikipedia/
=== From Wikipedia ===
[Hungry ghost] - Hungry ghost is a Western translation of an Eastern
phrase representing beings who are driven by intense emotional needs
in an animalistic way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_ghost
[Fenian raids] - The Fenian raids of the Fenian Brotherhood based in
the United States on British army forts, customs posts and other
targets in Canada were fought in order to bring pressure on Britain to
withdraw from Ireland, between 1866 and 1871.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids
[Monte Cristo, Washington] - Monte Cristo is a ghost town northwest of
Monte Cristo Peak, in eastern Snohomish County in western Washington.
Prospecting in the region began in the Skykomish River drainage with
the Old Cady Trail used for access. In 1882 Elisha Hubbard improved
the trail up the North Fork Skykomish, from Index to Galena, then
north up the tributary Silver Creek. A boom shortly followed at
Mineral City. The mineral belt was traced in various directions,
including north over the divide between the Skykomish and Sauk River
drainages. ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Cristo,_Washington
[Persin] - Persin is a fungicidal toxin present in the avocado. It is
generally harmless to humans, but when consumed by domestic animals in
large quantities it is dangerous. It has been suggested as a treatment
for breast cancer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persin
[Progress trap] - A progress trap is the condition human societies
experience when, in pursuing progress through human ingenuity, they
inadvertently introduce problems they do not have the resources or
political will to solve, for fear of short-term losses in status,
stability or quality of life. This prevents further progress and
sometimes leads to collapse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_trap
[Phosphene] - A phosphene is an entoptic phenomenon characterized by
the experience of seeing light without light actually entering the
eye. The word phosphene comes from the Greek words phos (light) and
phainein (to show). Phosphenes are flashes of light, often associated
with optic neuritis, induced by movement or sound.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene
[HD 85512 b] - HD 85512 b is an extrasolar planet orbiting the star HD
85512 approximately 36 light-years away in the constellation of Vela.
The planet was discovered by the scientists at University of Geneva,
Switzerland, led by the Swiss astronomer Stéphane Udry of the GTO
program of High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), a
high-precision echelle spectrograph installed on ESO's 3.6 m telescope
at La Silla Observatory in Chile. HD 85512 b is one of the smallest
exo-planets discovered to be in the habitable zone. HD 85512 b is
considered to be the best candidate for habitability as of August 25,
2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_85512_b
[Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin] - Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (May 10, 1900 ?
December 7, 1979) was an English-American astronomer who in 1925 was
first to show that the Sun is mainly composed of hydrogen,
contradicting accepted wisdom at the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Payne-Gaposchkin
[List of people claimed to be Jesus] - John Nichols Thom (1799?1838),
Cornish tax rebel who claimed to be the "saviour of the world" and the
reincarnation of Jesus Christ and his body temple of the Holy
Ghost[citation needed] in 1834. He was killed by British soldiers at
the Battle of Bossenden Wood, on May 31, 1838 in Kent, England. Arnold
Potter (1804?1872), Schismatic Latter Day Saint leader; he claimed the
spirit of Jesus Christ entered into his body and he became "Potter
Christ" Son of the living God, he died in an attempt to "ascend into
heaven" by jumping off a cliff.[citation needed] His body was later
retrieved and buried by his followers. Bahá'u'lláh (1817?1892), born
Shiite, adopted Bábism later in 1844, he claimed to be the prophesized
fulfilment and Promised One of all the major religions. He founded the
Bahá'í Faith in 1866. Followers of the Bahá'í Faith believe that the
fulfillment of the prophecies of the second coming of Jesus, as well
as the prophecies of the 5th Buddha Maitreya and many other religious
prophecies, were begun by the Báb in 1844 and then by Bahá'u'lláh.
They commonly compare the fulfillment of Christian prophecies to
Jesus' fulfillment of Jewish prophecies, where in both cases people
were expecting the literal fulfillment of apocalyptic statements. ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_be_Jesus
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