Input would be appreciated on-wiki at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Flagged_revisio….
There are still a few issues to resolve, undecided points and various work
to be done. It's certainly not enough to delay the implementation, but we
need some more help, for example in finalizing documentation pages. Thanks
to all for making this possible.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/07/james-murdoch-british-library
James Murdoch criticises the British Library's plans to digitise old
newspapers. And I quote: "public sector interest is to distribute
content for near zero cost – harming the market in so doing ..."
I think the WMF should be getting a hearing in this debate. Every page
of free content we post does clearly remove someone else's chance to
profit from selling that content. I want to hear the argument that the
Murdoch line is nothing better than an attempt to justify "enclosing the
commons" simply because someone can then profit. You have to look at
whose land it was in the first place, not whether the result can be
monetised.
Charles
The page for them makes it fairly clear that this is, in fact, the
free travel shirt.
pb
On Jun 7, 2010, at 5:22 AM, wikien-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
> I think this is the "Free Travel-Shirt"
> <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Free_Travel-Shirt>, but I'm not
> completely sure.
>
> --
At 05:06 PM 6/3/2010, AGK wrote:
>On 3 June 2010 22:01, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>Not saying this to try to prod him into stop posting here, but as a
>genuine statement: I happen to enjoy Abd's commentary /when I have the
>time to read it/. I'd happily read his blog regularly (especially if,
>as I suggested, he linked to it in his WikiEN-l posts where relevant).
Okay, alright already, now I have to do it. Thanks. Busy right now,
but coming soon.... I've been asked to do this for something like
fifteen years.... (not necessarily a blog, at first, but perhaps a
mailing list.)
Folks,
The LA Times health blog Booster Shots reports:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/06/three-cheers-for-wiki…
As it turns out, information on Wikipedia can largely be trusted, at least
as it pertains to cancer. That should be a relief both to patients and to
the doctors who care for them. The entries in the user-edited online
encyclopedia often show up high atop search-engine results, and many users
likely have taken their content at face value.
But that content's reliability has been in doubt. After all, it's created by
users, not traditional "experts." ("Don't use Wikipedia," earnest
eighth-graders in search of homework help are told.)
Now researchers at Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in
Philadelphia have done their own analysis of that content, comparing
Wikipedia information on 10 types of cancer to information found in the
National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query.
The entries were solid, the researchers found, at least in terms of key
points. Way to go, online writers and editors! But they were also quite
dense. Tsk -- points subtracted due to lack of clarity, online writers and
editors.
The researchers write in their study's abstract, to be presented at the
current annual meeting of theAmerican Society of Clinical
Oncology<http://chicago2010.asco.org/>:
"Although the Wiki resource had similar accuracy and depth to the
professionally edited database, it was significantly less readable. Further
research is required to assess how this influences patients' understanding
and retention."
Here's the abstract of the Wikipedia
analysis<http://abstract.asco.org/AbstView_74_41625.html>;
one of the researcher's
comments<http://www.jeffersonhospital.org/News/2010-june-cancer-information.aspx>,
as presented in the university's news release; and the aforementioned Physician
Data Query <http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq>, a peer-reviewed cancer
database.
Surely, no one needs help finding Wikipedia. But here's how it's
created<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About>,
worth reading now more than ever.
http://abstract.asco.org/AbstView_74_41625.html
The abstract of the analysis is here:
Regards
*Keith*
--
Keith Old
62050121 (w)
62825360 (h)
0429478376 (m)
As requested, here's the weekly Pending Changes update.
The big news is that we have picked a date for releasing the new version
of Flagged Revisions and launching the trial of Pending Changes on the
English Wikipedia: June 14.
I'd like to stress that this will be a trial. The goal is to learn,
which means that things will not be perfect at launch. There are many
areas where we hope to verify our current work and see what improvements
can be made:
* the technical underpinnings
* the interface and language as experienced by
* our readers
* casual editors
* serious editors
* reviewers
* admins
* which articles should be covered
* how best to use Pending Changes
We think we have something that is workable as is, and have notions for
possible improvements down the road. To know what improvements are the
right ones, we'll need real use and community feedback. We intend to
respond speedily to community concerns and lessons learned from actual
use. To that end we aim to keep to the same weekly release schedule that
we've been using on labs these last few months.
More mundanely, the work completed this week includes ops documentation,
the completion of the terminology work, and some interface improvements.
We've also had some vigorous testing done by the folks at Calcey, who
discovered a few bugs for us.
If you'd like to see the current condition of things, you can try it out
here:
http://flaggedrevs.labs.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
To see the upcoming work, it's listed in our tracker, under Current and
Backlog:
http://www.pivotaltracker.com/projects/46157
We expect to release to labs again next week, after which we intend to
go live on the English Wikipedia.
William
On 3 June 2010 16:48, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <abd(a)lomaxdesign.com> wrote:
> Underneath all this is a presumption that I have time to write more
> condensed material. I don't, generally. When I do have the time, and
> have a point to make, i.e., some message I consider necessary to
> communicate effectively to a broad audience, I do it.
So you'd rather waste lots of other people's time than spend your own
on your presumably important messages?
Suggestion (not directive): If you're really not writing stuff to be
read right now, a blog would be a better place for it. Also, more
people would take the time to read it - Wikimedia-focused opinion
blogs get a lot of attention. A precis here and a link would be fine.
- d.
If everyone spent all day at their computers, and read each email
individually as they came in, that would be fine - each one is okay by
itself.
But people work, and people eat, sleep, and do many other things that
prevent them from waiting for a mailing list. I may care about the
issue, but reading emails on just one topic (a topic that, in spite of
all of its merit, really can't compare to whether or not I put
mozzarella or cheddar on my burger) becomes a lot less likely when it
requires a lot of work to read them.
~A
On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 11:48, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <abd(a)lomaxdesign.com> wrote:
> At 11:28 AM 6/3/2010, Steve Summit wrote:
>>It doesn't matter how you justify a too-long screed; if its
>>length prevents people from reading it (and it will), your
>>message is lost. It's as simple as that.
>
> Problems with this concept:
>
> Length will not prevent all from reading it. Rather, those will read
> it who are interested. Others won't. The message is not lost, it's in
> the archive, and, in any case, I know for a fact that some read the
> long posts, and appreciate them. Some comment on list, a few. Others
> take the trouble of thanking me by email. So, you can blame them!
>
> "Screed" implies an emotional state on the part of the writer. It's a
> snap judgment, if you don't read the piece. And this is one of the
> "assumptions" I wrote about that can interfere with understanding.
>
> Basically, length will indeed prevent some from reading, but these
> are not my target audience, except for a few. (I.e., there are some
> who don't read simply because they don't have time.)
>
> Underneath all this is a presumption that I have time to write more
> condensed material. I don't, generally. When I do have the time, and
> have a point to make, i.e., some message I consider necessary to
> communicate effectively to a broad audience, I do it.
>
> So, practically speaking, the choice is between writing what I write,
> or not writing at all, not between writing longer or shorter pieces.
>
>
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>
Abd wrote:
> [400+ words that I didn't read all of and so won't bother to quote]
As a grave sufferer of logorrhea myself, it's tempting to write
several hundred words here myself, but I'll settle for fifty.
It doesn't matter how you justify a too-long screed; if its
length prevents people from reading it (and it will), your
message is lost. It's as simple as that.