A blog post by Benjamin Mako Hill
http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/the-institute-for-cultural-diplomacy-and-wikip…
alerted me to some COI editing that has been going on, rather
blatantly. The deletion debate associated with the [[Institute for
Cultural Diplomacy]] speaks for itself, and I see some cleanup going
on now. But how far does the issue stretch?
For example [[Colin Evans]] links to [[Freelance Diplomacy]], which is
questionably referenced; and itself is questionably referenced, with
links that look to me as if they are gaming our notability criteria.
(Easy to do with enough money ...)
Looking around at some of the accounts involved suggested to me that
some problem editors may be active in this whole area. I think we
should be concerned.
Charles
Trying to spread the word about this new conference. I hope some
Wikipedians from near Louisville can have a presence there. It's not
too late to send in a quick proposal for speaker/presentation (but
hurry), and exhibit space is very reasonable:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Preparations are in full swing for the very first Midwest Open Source
Software Conference (MOSSCon), to be held in Louisville on May 18-19.
This is an "All-Things-Open" conference, including open knowledge, open,
data, open source hardware, as well as open source software. Your help
in spreading the word and helping us fill out our schedule of
presentations and workshops would be appreciated.
This is going to be a great networking event for the whole east-central
region! (Louisville lies almost equidistant from from Atlanta,
Pittsburgh, Chicago/Milwaukee, and St. Louis.)
We have a great venue: the University of Louisville's Student Activities
Center, with several large halls, a number of smaller meeting rooms, and
plenty of exhibit space available for groups and businesses to make
their presence known.
We are working on a broadly based "Open" theme, that can include open
source hardware, open data, etc., as well as the full gamut of open
source software.
We already have some super presentations lined up. But there are still
plenty of pieces that need to come together. Right now we are
concentrating on filling out our schedule with more presentations and
workshops. And soliciting sponsors.
If you're involved with Open Source (or open anything) you definitely
want to be a part of this. I encourage you to consider speaking or doing
a presentation or workshop on a subject in your area of interest and/or
expertise.
Check out the conference website at http://mosscon.org/. Click on "Be a
Speaker" for details on submitting your proposal. (Just a paragraph or
two is all that's necessary right now.)
But get to it! The deadline for submitting your preliminary proposal is
this Friday, March 29!
http://mosscon.org/
Spread the word and submit your proposal!
Thanks,
John Hicks
Forwarding for community information.
Risker
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sue Gardner <sgardner(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: 27 March 2013 18:00
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcement *please read*
To: Wikimedia Announce Mailing List <WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
Hello Wikimedia community members,
This is not an easy e-mail to write, and it’s been a very hard
decision to make. But I’m writing to tell you that I’m planning to
leave my position as the Executive Director of the Wikimedia
Foundation.
My departure isn’t imminent -- the Board and I anticipate it’ll take
at least six months to recruit my successor, and I’ll be fully engaged
as Executive Director all through the recruitment process and until we
have a new person in place. We’re expecting that’ll take about six
months or so, and so this note is not goodbye -- not yet.
Making the decision to leave hasn’t been easy, but it comes down to two
things.
First, the movement and the Wikimedia Foundation are in a strong place
now. When I joined, the Foundation was tiny and not yet able to
reliably support the projects. Today it's healthy, thriving, and a
competent partner to the global network of Wikimedia volunteers. If
that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t feel okay to leave. In that sense, my
leaving is a vote of confidence in our Board and executive team and
staff --- I know they will ably steer the Foundation through the years
ahead, and I’m confident the Board will appoint a strong successor to
me.
And I feel that although we’re in good shape, with a promising future,
the same isn’t true for the internet itself. (This is thing number
two.) Increasingly, I’m finding myself uncomfortable about how the
internet’s developing, who’s influencing its development, and who is
not. Last year we at Wikimedia raised an alarm about SOPA/PIPA, and
now CISPA is back. Wikipedia has experienced censorship at the hands
of industry groups and governments, and we’re --increasingly, I
think-- seeing important decisions made by unaccountable
non-transparent corporate players, a shift from the open web to mobile
walled gardens, and a shift from the production-based internet to one
that’s consumption-based. There are many organizations and individuals
advocating for the public interest online -- what’s good for ordinary
people -- but other interests are more numerous and powerful than they
are. I want that to change. And that’s what I want to do next.
I’ve always aimed to make the biggest contribution I can to the
general public good. Today, this is pulling me towards a new and
different role, one very much aligned with Wikimedia values and
informed by my experiences here, and with the purpose of amplifying
the voices of people advocating for the free and open internet. I
don’t know exactly what this will look like -- I might write a book,
or start a non-profit, or work in partnership with something that
already exists. Either way, I feel strongly that this is what I need
to do.
I feel an increasing sense of urgency around this. That said, I also
feel a strong sense of responsibility (and love!) for the Wikimedia
movement, and so I’ve agreed with the Board that I’ll stay on as
Executive Director until we have my successor in place. That’ll take
some time -- likely, at least six months.
Until then, nothing changes. The Wikimedia Foundation has lots of work
to do, and you can expect me to focus fully on it until we have a new
Executive Director in place.
I have many people to thank, but I’m not going to do it now --
there’ll be time for that later. For now, I’ll just say I love working
with you all, I’m proud of everything the Wikimedia movement is
accomplishing, and I’m looking forward to our next six months
together.
Jan-Bart’s going to write a note in a couple of minutes with
information about the transition process. We’ll be hosting office
hours this weekend as well, so anybody with questions can ask them
here or turn up to talk with us on IRC.
Thanks,
Sue
--
Sue Gardner
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation
415 839 6885 office
415 816 9967 cell
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org/
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I've unsubscribed my old Yahoo account from that mailing list. (I hadn't
sent anything from that account since 2007.)
I now return you to your regularly scheduled mailing list.
Nick