Yes, indeed. Our other information channels are extremely limited to Wikimedians, we ourselves often don't remark that. Think about your uncle, your teacher, your elderly neighbour. A newsletter for non-Wikimedians should be reread by at least two other Wikimedians than the author, maybe even checked for difficultuies by non-Wikimedians. Several ways are possible: * Everytime there is something to report, WMF sends a newsletter. * Every week, WMF sends a newsletter with a couple of collected, relevant news * Every fortnight or month, WMF sends a newsletter that is more similar to a magazine or paper, with sections and stuff you would suppose to find in a journal for the members of an association. This thing should get a name that is more inviting for non-Wikimedians (or "normal people"), like "Wikimedia News", "Informations for friends of Wikipedia", not a cryptic "Wikizine" (WIKIpedia MagaZINE). As Jerry says, be conscious about your readership. Ziko -- Ziko van Dijk NL-Silvolde

Well, it is hard to provide and maintain a newsletter that suits everyone (donors, Wikipedians, non-wikipedians and others). More problem arise when it comes to providing materials. The idea sounds great and it is worth to be pursue. Regards, KS. Lim You can help Wikimedia change the world! Visit http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising for more details. ________________________________ From: Brian McNeil &lt;brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org&gt; To: Discussion list for the Communication Projects Group &lt;comproj(a)lists.wikimedia.org&gt; Sent: Thursday, 29 January 2009 6:27:52 Subject: Re: [ComProj] Newsletter There is probably scope to take material from Wikizine and things like it and kill off the insider jargon. A lot of people who are actively involved take some of the jargon for granted (I probably do sometimes) and while all the discussions take place in public, to a lot of people – including some of the journalists who cover issues – they remain opaque. So, yes, an irregular jargon-free newsletter might be a good idea. Brian. -----Original Message----- From: comproj-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:comproj-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Ziko van Dijk Sent: 28 January 2009 20:50 To: Discussion list for the Communication Projects Group Subject: Re: [ComProj] Newsletter That is an excellent idea! Like a Wikizine, only written for non-wikimedians? Cary Yes, indeed. Our other information channels are extremely limited to Wikimedians, we ourselves often don't remark that. Think about your uncle, your teacher, your elderly neighbour. A newsletter for non-Wikimedians should be reread by at least two other Wikimedians than the author, maybe even checked for difficultuies by non-Wikimedians. Several ways are possible: * Everytime there is something to report, WMF sends a newsletter. * Every week, WMF sends a newsletter with a couple of collected, relevant news * Every fortnight or month, WMF sends a newsletter that is more similar to a magazine or paper, with sections and stuff you would suppose to find in a journal for the members of an association. This thing should get a name that is more inviting for non-Wikimedians (or "normal people"), like "Wikimedia News", "Informations for friends of Wikipedia", not a cryptic "Wikizine" (WIKIpedia MagaZINE). As Jerry says, be conscious about your readership. Ziko Ziko van Dijk wrote: Maximilian Chan Jerry~èè User:Yuyu http://jeromyu.info _______________________________________________ ComProj mailing list ComProj(a)lists.wikimedia.org <mailto:ComProj@lists.wikimedia.org> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/comproj -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFJgK6ayQg4JSymDYkRAj/YAKDd+lLuHHWBEBcLRztHcV2pc/c9jQCgmkMm /bKXlMQAkkcrOH+FBNuxo9w= =k05e -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ ComProj mailing list ComProj(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/comproj -- Ziko van Dijk NL-Silvolde Get your preferred Email name! Now you can @ymail.com and @rocketmail.com http://mail.promotions.yahoo.com/newdomains/sg/

Exactly, Walter, it is not about creating concurrence to Wikizine, WikiKurier, Signpost etc. (those will be valous sources of information), but something suitable for the general public, or those people our public outreachers often have to deal with. I prefer plain text, easy to layout, easy to print. Ziko -- Ziko van Dijk NL-Silvolde

I also suspect that those most likely to complain and express preference for a plain text publication are not part of the target demographic. Brian. -----Original Message----- From: comproj-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:comproj-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Walter Vermeir Sent: 03 February 2009 22:47 To: Discussion list for the Communication Projects Group Subject: Re: [ComProj] Newsletter Ziko van Dijk schreef: I am personally also a plain text enthusiast. But regarding about easy layout; also with plain text you can easy break the layout with incorrect line breaks and to much or to few blank lines. When I send out the DE or ES edition of Wikizine that is not made by me I almost always need to fix that type of mistakes. And at least in gmail plain text newsletters do not look good. But if the target audience is the wider population I think there is no other choice then to go html. For ID Wikizine is that version published on the wiki; http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikizine and then copy&pasted in an email and send to the mailing list. And I find the result surpizingly good looking. Walter -- Contact: walter AT wikizine DOT org Wikizine.org - news for and about the Wikimedia community _______________________________________________ ComProj mailing list ComProj(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/comproj

Sean Whitton schreef: Regarding Wikizine is the bad news that despite the significant contributions of some people in some editions I am still Wikizine. I mean without me, no Wikizine. And the other languages editions of wikizine are once more more dead then active. The good news is that I have the feeling there are more people jumping in to help out with writing some items I probably would not have found myself. I also have found the fun back in doing Wikizine. Wikizine will certainly continue for some time. I am even considering to start again a promotion round on the wikis for wikizine. To inform that it exist, to ask to put a wikizine banner/notice on a public page on there wiki, to request to send news to me about there community. I am stuck at a bit above 700 readers by email at I would like to get that up. Walter -- Contact: walter AT wikizine DOT org Wikizine.org - news for and about the Wikimedia community