Textbook-l February 2009

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10 participants
8 discussions

Wikimania 2009: Call for Participation
by Casey Brown 22 Feb '09

22 Feb '09

Apologies in advanced for the cross-posting. :-) Please circulate this call among Wikimedia communities, researchers and other people that may be interested! This call is also online at http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_Participation == Call for Participation == Wikimania is an annual global event devoted to Wikimedia projects around the globe (including Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikinews, Wiktionary, Wikiversity, Wikiquote, Wikispecies, and Wikimedia Commons). The conference is a community gathering, giving the editors and users of Wikimedia projects an opportunity to meet each other, exchange ideas, report on research and projects, and collaborate on the future of the projects. The conference is open to the public, and is a chance for educators, researchers, programmers and free culture activists who are interested in the Wikimedia projects to learn more and share ideas about the Wikimedia projects. This year's conference will be held from '''August 26-28''' in Buenos Aires, Argentina at '''San Martín Cultural Center'''. For more information, please visit the official Wikimania 2009 site at http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org. We are accepting submissions for presentations, workshops, panels, posters, open space discussions, and artistic works related to the Wikimedia projects or free content topics in general. Please carefully follow the submission guidelines below. === Important dates === * '''Submissions will open on:''' March 1 * '''Deadline for submitting workshop, panel, and presentation submissions:''' April 15 * '''Deadline for submitting posters, open space discussions, and artistic works:''' April 30 * '''Notification of acceptance of workshops, panels, presentations:''' May 15 * '''Notification of acceptance of posters, discussions, and artistic works:''' May 31 * '''Conference dates:''' August 26-28 === Themes and tracks === There are two tracks for submission: the '''Casual Track''', for members of wiki communities and interested observers to share their own experiences and thoughts and to present new ideas; and the '''Academic Track''', for research based on the methods of scientific studies exploring the social, content or technical aspects of Wikipedia, the other Wikimedia projects, or other massively collaborative works, as well as open and free content creation and community dynamics more generally. Submissions to either track should address one or more of the following themes: * '''"Wikimedia Communities,"''' including the topics of conflict resolution and community dynamics; reputation and identity; multi-lingualism and languages and cultures. * '''"Free Knowledge,"''' including open access to information; ways to gather and distribute free knowledge, use of the Wikimedia projects in education, journalism, research; ways to improve content quality and usability. * '''"Latin American challenges,"''' centering on efforts and limitations for expanding the reach of Wikimedia projects in Latin America; promotion of projects in Native American languages; specific problems of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Wikimedia communities. * '''"Technical infrastructure,"''' including issues related to MediaWiki development and extensions; Wikimedia's technical infrastructure; and new ideas for development. Papers should be of interest to members of the Wikimedia communities, and fit within one of the themes above. === Types of Submissions === We are seeking submissions for: * '''Presentations''' (10–30 minute talks with discussion afterwards) :* This type of submission is appropriate for presenting substantial research or community projects * '''Workshops''' (60–120 minute session with a discussion leader and more audience involvement) :* This type of submission is appropriate for sessions designed to teach a specific subject or explore it in depth * '''Panels''' (group of 2-5 speakers to discuss aspects of a topic with audience questions, 45-90 minute sessions) :* This type of submission is appropriate for discussions on a topic of wide interest among community members, with several participants who may be presenting their work. For less formal discussions of limited interest, consider an open space discussion instead. * '''Open space discussions''' (informal discussion on a specific topic; the discussion leader helps moderate the conversation but the session is open to anyone interested to join in) :* This type of submission is good for a topic that several participants want to discuss or brainstorm about in an informal setting * '''Posters''' (printed visual displays that can stand on their own, with no associated presentation) :* This type of submission is good for presenting research in progress, or smaller community projects * '''Artistic works''' (plays, competitions, comedy, visualizations, displays or other representations of some aspect of the projects) :* This type of submission is good for showing creativity or showcasing beautiful work about the projects. In addition there will be the chance to give lightning talks, which are 5-minute short presentations. Lightning talk sessions will be organized on the Wikimania 2009 wiki shortly before the conference begins, without any need to submit them via the submission system. These talks are best for those who want to quickly present an idea or project without giving a formal presentation. These are informal talks that are open to everyone to participate in. === Submission Guidelines === Wikimania is organized by volunteers, so please help us minimize wasted effort by submitting via the submission system and following these guidelines. All submissions MUST include the following: # '''Event title:''' an English or Spanish title. # '''Abstract:''' a short English or Spanish abstract of your event in 50 to 100 words. The abstract will be used for the public schedule. # '''Themes and track:''' list the track you wish to submit to (Casual or Academic) and the single theme you think your submission fits in best (Wikimedia Communities, Free Knowledge, Latin American challenges, Technical infrastructure). Note that posters and artistic works have their own track in the submission system. # '''Information about the speaker:''' full name, email, and a short biography. # '''Submission file:''' A plain text, PDF or OpenDocument file, in English or Spanish, containing: #* '''A long description of the submission''', in English or Spanish that can be used for reviewing, not to exceed 1000 words. Please give an overview of the areas to be covered or taught. State clearly the relevance to the Wikimedia projects and whether submission concerns a specific wiki project. You can also include links, Include graphics an diagrams if they do not exceed one page. #* '''Event type:''' please state if the event is a presentation, workshop, panel, open space discussion, poster, or artistic work; if a presentation or panel, whether the presentation is expected to be a certain length. #* '''For panel submissions only:''' name of a suggested moderator and short biographies of each suggested panelist #* '''Language:''' list the language you plan to present in. The conference will be bilingual in English and Spanish. #* '''Special requirements:''' list any special requirements, including any equipment. In the "Comments for conference director" field you should tell us whether you will attend to Wikimania (a) surely, (b) probably, (c) only if your submission is accepted, or (d) only if we provide travel and/or accommodation. You can also add yourself to the public list of attendees at the Wikimania 2009 wiki: http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Attendees Please note that all submissions must be dual licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2 or later ''and'' the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 3.0! By submitting for Wikimania 2009 you agree to this condition. ===Submissions=== Once you are sure you have included all of the required information, please send your submission before the respective deadline through our '''submission system''': http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission If you have further questions, email wikimania-program(a)wikimedia.org (in English or Spanish).

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PediaPress error with multiple pages with the same name
by Brianna Laugher 18 Feb '09

18 Feb '09

Hi, I'm not sure where to post this, but I'm pretty sure if I put it here someone from PediaPress will probably read it. I just found out about the PediaPress bookmarklet "create a collection from any MediaWiki" thing and I thought I would try it. I added the "Melbourne" article from en.wikipedia, wikitravel and Wikimedia Commons, as well as an article called "Street press" from somewhere else. When I downloaded the PDF, it contained 3 copies of the en.wikipedia "Melbourne" article and the "Street press" article. So I guess there is some bug with multiple articles from different sources that happen to have the same name. Secondly, this is not a bug but a feature request: en.wikipedia in particular produces an awful amount of crud that is not that useful for printing: references, external links etc. For the [[Melbourne]] article, there are 22 pages of beautiful text and images, and no less than 11 1/2 pages of crud, mostly consisting of 184 references. Would it be possible to have an option to exclude references? Maybe replace them all with a note like "To see original references, please visit [url]." thanks, Brianna -- They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment: http://modernthings.org/

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Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) 2009: London, 28th March 2009
by Jonathan Gray 18 Feb '09

18 Feb '09

~~ Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) 2009 ~~ * where: Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, UCL, London, UK * when: 28th March 2009, 1030-1830 * home: <http://www.okfn.org/okcon/> * programme: <http://www.okfn.org/okcon/programme> * register: <http://www.okfn.org/okcon/register/> * call for proposals: <http://www.okfn.org/okcon/cfp/> * last year: <http://www.okfn.org/okcon/2008/> The Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) is back for its fourth installment bringing together individuals and groups from across the open knowledge spectrum for a day of talks, discussions and workshops. This year the event will feature dedicated sessions on 'open knowledge and development' and 'open data and the semantic web'. In addition we are reserving a substantial part of the event for the 'Open Space'- sessions, workshops and discussions proposed either via the call for proposals or on the day. Interested in giving a paper? Have a project to talk about? Want to run a workshop or session? Please see the call for proposals: <http://www.okfn.org/okcon/cfp/> Want to get involved in putting the event together or otherwise helping out? Contact us at info [at] okfn [dot] org or add your name to the OKCon wiki page: <http://okfn.org/wiki/okcon/2009/> Last but not least: we encourage early registration as space is limited: <http://www.okfn.org/okcon/register/>

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Australian Wikibookian?
by Amal Hanna 17 Feb '09

17 Feb '09

Are you Australian and is your native language English? Dear Wikibooks.org Subscriber, You are invited to participate in a research study that aims to explore what motivates Wikibookians to write to Wiki textbook projects. Your responses will help us identify shared motivations among contributors. You will be required to use the following username and password in order to access further details about the project and the consent form should you agree to participant in this research study. Username: motivations Password: wikiproject Interested enough to take this * 15 min. online Survey? ( http://easstudents.cw.unisa.edu.au/com/survey/wikisurveyen_interface/Result…) I appreciated your time in helping me to do this research If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me: Amal Maher PhD Student School of Communication University of South Australia Email: Amal.Maher(a)unisa.edu.au<mailto:Amal.Maher@unisa.edu.au>

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Egyptian Wikibookian?
by Amal Hanna 17 Feb '09

17 Feb '09

هل انت مصري ولغتك الأم هي العربية عزيزي المشترك في موقع ويكي الكتب انت مدعو للمشاركة في الدراسة التي تهدف إلى إكتشاف الحوافز التي تلعب دورا في نفوس الأفراد وتدفعهم للمشاركة في موقع Wikibooks.org . إن إجاباتك سوف تساعدنا على تحديد ماهية الدوافع المشتركة بين المساهمين في البيئة الثقافية التي نشأوا فيها. مطلوب منك حتى تستطيع المشاركة في هذا الإستبيان أن تسجل الدخول أولا مستعملا إسم الدخول وكلمة السر التاليتين، بعدها سوف يكون متاحا لك التعرف بشكل أكثر على المشروع البحثي وايضا يستدعي لمشاركتكم في هذا الإستبيان موافقتك على نموذج معد لذلك الغرض يتضمن موافقتك على أجراء البحث إسم الدخول: motivations كلمة السر: wikiproject لماذا لا تستقطع من وقتك 15 دقيقة فقط¹ وتجيب على هذا الإستقصاء؟ (http://easstudents.cw.unisa.edu.au/com/survey/wikisurveyen_interface/Result…) وأنا أقدر وقتك الثمين للمساهمة في هذا الإستطلاع وإذا كان دليك أي إستفسار، فيمكنك الإتصال بي على العنوان التالي أمال ماهر جامعة جنوب أستراليا كلية الإتصالات وبريدي الإلكتروني هو Amal.Maher(a)unisa.edu.au<mailto:Amal.Maher@unisa.edu.au>

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Australian Wikibookian?
by Amal Hanna 17 Feb '09

17 Feb '09

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Wikibooks community-building meeting
by Mike.lifeguard 16 Feb '09

16 Feb '09

I've been thinking some about community-building in Wikibooks - I think it's among one of the more important tasks we need to face. To get the ball rolling somewhat, Whiteknight and I were tossing around some ideas earlier - one that we agreed on was that having a meeting to get wider input and brainstorming on issues of community-building would be beneficial for Wikibooks. I had suggested either setting up a Skype conference, or we could just organize a time to get people together in #wikibooks on irc.freenode.net. We'd set up a roster of topics to cover and just fire around ideas for a while. I'd like to invite anyone interested in particpating to do so - including people from outside Wikibooks: if you're involved with a like-minded organization, or if you're involved with community-building within Wikimedia or related projects, or if you're just interested in listening, it'd be great to have you join us. If you're interested, please reply with any comments, but in particular include: * Whether you'd prefer to have the meeting via Skype or in IRC * What timezone & availability you have (I'm thinking next Friday or Saturday, probably) * Any further ideas you have for community-building in Wikibooks To get us started, Whiteknight and I were discussing reaching out to universities and other charities for book donations on specific topics (such as a book on cancer from an organization which deals with breast cancer) as well as recruiting editors from their volunteer pools. Suggestions for similar topics to discuss would of course be welcome. I hope to hear back from some Wikibooks regulars, but also people from the wider Wikimedia community. I've sent this to both textbook-l and foundation-l and (I hope) I've set reply-to to textbook-l. Thanks, -Mike.lifeguard ---- Mike.lifeguard mikelifeguard(a)fastmail.fm

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Collections extension - updating system messages
by Mike.lifeguard 04 Feb '09

04 Feb '09

In the hopes that someone beyond English Wikibooks is reading this: I noticed that some system messages in the Collections extension were updated to say "book" instead of "collection" etc. I didn't realize how many system messages were affected until hejko notified me in IRC. I've changed the English ones back to "book" where it makes sense to do so - other language editions of Wikibooks will probably want to update the localizations at Betawiki and/or change their local messages. Thanks, -Mike ---- Mike.lifeguard mikelifeguard(a)fastmail.fm

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Textbook-l February 2009