Wikimedia-l March 2006

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78 participants
92 discussions

[Foundation-l] Meta:MetaProject to Overhaul Meta
by David Gerard 30 Mar '06

30 Mar '06

:If you don't want to make more people angry at you than you :already have, then I suggest you take a break from this discussion :right about now. Certainly. Have meta and enjoy it as a separate community increasingly unusable by any other, as is working so well for Commons, rather than the service project it purports to be; just stop representing it as such, because it simply isn't. - d.

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[Foundation-l] Meta:MetaProject to Overhaul Meta
by Alex Schenck 30 Mar '06

30 Mar '06

I was afraid this was going to happen. Apparently, what we have here is a serious lack of understanding towards each other's goals and now we're lowering ourselves to screaming at each other. I'm going to second David's proposal that we start a Meta2 or something similiar. Assume that we suddenly cause time to stop and Meta to be placed in stasis. What is it that people like David and I want? 1.) A usable work-wiki that included things that aren't necessarily appropriate for storage on Wikipedia (such as essays) but should be allowed to be placed somewhere. 2.) No historical content about Wikimedia whatsoever. That'll be the original Meta's baby and not Meta2. 3.) Faster process and community than Meta; keep Meta the way it is, but give us our own Meta2 to play around with. 4.) It doesn't *need* to be named Meta2. 5.) Encourage Wikipedia users to start using it after the basic policies and infrastructure are written; don't worry, we can handle it. 6.) Strict[er than Meta] image policies. If we can just have that, then I (and others) will probably forget about the current Meta, and everyone can keep Meta just the way it is and some other person can go ahead and try to make heads and tails out of it. So... can we please have this project? --Alex On 3/30/06, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com <http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l>> wrote: >* :If you don't want to make more people angry at you than you *>* :already have, then I suggest you take a break from this discussion *>* :right about now. *>* *>* *>* Certainly. Have meta and enjoy it as a separate community increasingly *>* unusable by any other, as is working so well for Commons, rather than *>* the service project it purports to be; just stop representing it as *>* such, because it simply isn't. *>* *>* *>* - d. * David, You can continue doing work on making Meta *more* usable. Nobody is suggesting that Meta become less usable. But: *Stop making unwarranted accusations about what Meta is or isn't (ie., again, point me to a page etc. that's stopping people adding content to Meta) *Stop being a [[m:DICK]] - it's doing us no good whatsoever Cormac >* _______________________________________________ *>* foundation-l mailing list *>* foundation-l at wikimedia.org <http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l> *>* http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l *>

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[Foundation-l] Proposal:Consumer Wiki?
by Guruprasad Baskaran 30 Mar '06

30 Mar '06

Hi All! This is my first post on the mailing list and I am not sure if this is the right mailing for this topic. Actually I had two ideas 1)I have found that people tend to use the internet a lot to research about about various products/services that they wish to buy.And as far as I know most of the sites that offer information on the products or services are commericial sites either hosted by the creator of the product or service or by some other commercial site which would probably also be selling the product, so there is no guarantee how unbiased the information is.So I was wondering if we can create a web site which will have unbiased information about all the products/services in the world, where users will create the pages with product/service information , how good , how bad it is, what are the alternatives, what price the user paid etc etc.Something similar to the wikipedia site for knowledge where users can log in and edit.I have not thought about the design of the web site, its just a rough idea so far, but what do you people think?wouldnt it be great to have just one web site where you can look up all the unbiased information of whatever product/service you want to buy? 2)I was reading that wikimedia projects need lot of donations to support hardware and software requirements for the staggering growth its having.Iwas wondering if wikimedia could earn this money by itself for example by just showing some small non intrusive adds(like google adds) which are selected in a fair fashion by a search algorithm(again its a rough idea not sure how to do it yet), wouldnt that be good?Obviously all this money can be pushed back into the primary goal of wikimediafoundation 'Imagine a world in which every single person is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing." wouldnt that make the wikimediafoundation much more stronger to achieve its goal?Just a thought what do you people think? Thank you! Regards GP

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Re: [Foundation-l] Meta:MetaProject to Overhaul Meta (fwd)
by Samuel Klein 29 Mar '06

29 Mar '06

Whoops, sent from the wrong address. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- On Wed, 29 Mar 2006, David Gerard wrote: > legally affiliated with the Foundation. I note that Aurevilly just > blanked his en: Wikipedia user page, coinciding with expressing his > contempt for en:wp openly. Just the thing for a Foundation person to > show their high regard for cross project issues. David, this comment is totally out of line. Villy has nothing to do with the metaproject thread. Blanking one's user page, while a pity, happens all the time. And he is one of the last people I would expect to be disrespectful to another wiki project. If you're talking about a conversation I was part of (and I'm guessing you are), Villy did *not* express contempt for en:wp (though you misunderstood him at first), and he clarified what he meant respectfully. If you want to discuss that further, this really isn't the way to do it. SJ

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[Foundation-l] Semi-protection on April Fools
by Erik Moeller 29 Mar '06

29 Mar '06

I'd like to put in the open the notion of semi-protecting all Wikimedia projects [*] during April Fool's Day, that is, making them editable only to registered users with accounts more than a few days old. I have little hope that such an option will be seriously considered for this year (at least not without an emergency decree from above right about, well, now), but I think in a few days, after you will all see the damage we'll have to deal with again this year, you might be more inclined to agree with me. We could phrase it positively by declaring April 1 "Wikimedia Spring Cleaning Day" (and it would not preclude us from having a few jokes on each project). The site notice could be used to highlight maintenance pages like Cleanup or the Wikiwork Brigade (sorry for being en.wp-centric). I'd also like to highlight a policy draft I worked on last year: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Rules_for_Fools&oldid=1… Yes, I know, it's all awfully unfunny, but when everyone tries to be funny, it starts becoming a problem. Wikis are built on the model of assuming good faith; the wiki model breaks down when everyone starts acting like a jerk. April 1 is really unique in this way. The problem is mostly with users who will insert nonsense into articles as a joke, but have no idea (and will not care enough) to remove it later. I'm also quite sure that many people will find things funny which we would normally consider to be cases of aggressive vandalism. People have very different senses of humor. For some, April 1 is the one day of the year where they feel they have an obligation to do something funny, while they really aren't. Funny. At all. I think not descending into complete anarchy once a year is a desirable outcome. A yearly 24 hour timeout might also be a good idea for entirely different reasons. And no, this is not a joke. :) Erik [*] At least in those languages which are predominantly accessed from countries where April Fool's Day is a recognized cultural concept.

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[Foundation-l] Problems on block ip user in Chinese Wikipedia
by mingli yuan 29 Mar '06

29 Mar '06

> Agreed. We must do our best so that inland users really succeed to > access the projects. I am not sure I understood the method you plan to > use to ensure CNBlog proxy users will have access. Can you clarify ? I > will read the wikitech as well... Thanks Ant. We have post the same message to wikitech-l ( http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2006-March/034563.html ), and get feedback there that XFF project ( http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/XFF_project ) could be a solution for our problems. With help from Tim Starling, Wikimedia had already added CNBlog.org to the trusted XFF list. Now any vandalism from CNBlog.org can be blocked without interrupting normal contributions. Also the real IP will be revealed for any edit from CNBlog.org. The XFF really works, thanks for our developers.

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[Foundation-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Foundation: invitation to the iCommons Summit - 23-25 June, Rio
by Anthere 29 Mar '06

29 Mar '06

> Dear members of the Wikimedia Foundation, > > I'm very pleased to extend a very warm invitation to > you all to attend > the annual iCommons Summit taking place this year in > the heart of free > culture - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - from the 23rd to > the 25th of June. > We're hoping to have very strong participation by > the Wikimedia > Foundation in the event - along with communities > from Creative > Commons, Science Commons, Ubuntu, open access and > others. > > This year's Summit is set to be one of the most > exciting events for > creative and knowledge commons pioneers from around > the world and is > structured around three major themes: > > 1. Tools. Developing effective, relevant tools to > assist other > creators, authors, scientists and researchers to > develop and showcase > their creativity and innovation. > > 2. Policy. Strategies to ensure international, > regional and local > policy fora that are conducive to the development > and nurturing of the > commons. > > 3. Practice. Learning from the experience of others > to develop > effective models for the development of open content > in societies > around the world. > > The goals of iCommons are to build the Summit into a > launch-pad for > global cooperation around commons projects and to > provide an open, > creative space for practitioners to learn from best > case practices and > to showcase new ideas. With iCommons' strong > institutional > partnerships, we will continue to nurture these > alliances throughout > the year, providing the tools and spaces for > commoners to build on the > friendships and shared experience of the event, and > building a united > global commons community. > > The three-day program will have a mix of formal > presentations, > roundtable working groups, practical workshops and > community-driven > program slots that enable participants to gain > strategic insights and > practical techniques as well as play a critical role > in shaping the > emerging global commons movement. > > With keynote speakers including Larry Lessig, Jimmy > Wales, Joi Ito and > James Boyle who will inspire participants with a > vision of a living, > thriving commons, to members of the expanding > iCommons community > showcasing their ideas and inviting participation in > key projects, > this year's Summit is proving to be a must-attend > for anyone engaged > in the growth and development of the digital commons > of the future. > > We sincerely hope that as many Wikimedia Foundation > members can attend > as possible - and I look forward to receiving your > suggestions for > presenting the work of the Foundation at the event. > > I will send more details when we launch the website > later this week, > but please diarise in the meantime :) > > Best wishes, > > Heather. > > -- > Heather Ford > Acting Executive Director: iCommons __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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[Foundation-l] Fwd: Wikimedia Foundation: invitation to the iCommons Summit - 23-25 June, Rio
by Angela 29 Mar '06

29 Mar '06

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Heather Ford <hfordsa(a)gmail.com> Date: Mar 29, 2006 4:05 PM Subject: Wikimedia Foundation: invitation to the iCommons Summit - 23-25 June, Rio To: foundation-l-owner(a)wikimedia.org Cc: Jimmy Wales <jwales(a)wikia.com> Please forward to the list - thank you! __________________________________ Dear members of the Wikimedia Foundation, I'm very pleased to extend a very warm invitation to you all to attend the annual iCommons Summit taking place this year in the heart of free culture - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - from the 23rd to the 25th of June. We're hoping to have very strong participation by the Wikimedia Foundation in the event - along with communities from Creative Commons, Science Commons, Ubuntu, open access and others. This year's Summit is set to be one of the most exciting events for creative and knowledge commons pioneers from around the world and is structured around three major themes: 1. Tools. Developing effective, relevant tools to assist other creators, authors, scientists and researchers to develop and showcase their creativity and innovation. 2. Policy. Strategies to ensure international, regional and local policy fora that are conducive to the development and nurturing of the commons. 3. Practice. Learning from the experience of others to develop effective models for the development of open content in societies around the world. The goals of iCommons are to build the Summit into a launch-pad for global cooperation around commons projects and to provide an open, creative space for practitioners to learn from best case practices and to showcase new ideas. With iCommons' strong institutional partnerships, we will continue to nurture these alliances throughout the year, providing the tools and spaces for commoners to build on the friendships and shared experience of the event, and building a united global commons community. The three-day program will have a mix of formal presentations, roundtable working groups, practical workshops and community-driven program slots that enable participants to gain strategic insights and practical techniques as well as play a critical role in shaping the emerging global commons movement. With keynote speakers including Larry Lessig, Jimmy Wales, Joi Ito and James Boyle who will inspire participants with a vision of a living, thriving commons, to members of the expanding iCommons community showcasing their ideas and inviting participation in key projects, this year's Summit is proving to be a must-attend for anyone engaged in the growth and development of the digital commons of the future. We sincerely hope that as many Wikimedia Foundation members can attend as possible - and I look forward to receiving your suggestions for presenting the work of the Foundation at the event. I will send more details when we launch the website later this week, but please diarise in the meantime :) Best wishes, Heather. -- Heather Ford Acting Executive Director: iCommons Phone: +27 11 717 3914 Cell: +27 82 872 7374 IM: queenbea878: AOL 243161375: ICQ heatherford: skype

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[Foundation-l] Violations of Wikimedia copyright
by Robert Scott Horning 29 Mar '06

29 Mar '06

I would like to know what the current policy is (if any) for people who are strongly suspected of violating copyright of content that was produced on Wikimedia projects. I'm not talking about people dumping copyrighted content onto a Wikimedia project, but somebody thinking that the content is free and therefore is in the public domain and they are free to use it in any way they want. I guess we should feel flattered that this is happening, and I'm going to give a specific example: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies This Wikibook has been slightly modified and copied onto a number of websites, including some very commercial sites that are actually charging even for access to this content. See: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22During+an+unnamed+time+of+war%2… This was marked as a copyright violation, and I think it is... of Wikibooks material. What is interesting here is that it is not a wholesale mirror of Wikibooks (there are some of those), but rather a slight modification to the content and trying to pass it off as original compositions. These websites are quite sleazy as well anyway, because they are selling term papers for lazy students, but it is still interesting that they would pick content that originated on a Wikimedia website. As this Wikibook has been around for a couple of years and the full edit history is available to show each edit and change, I think it is obvious that the content was created at en.wikibooks originally, at least to veteran Wikimedia users. I suspect this is going to be a larger problem in the future. -- Robert Scott Horning

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Re: [Foundation-l] Semi-protection on April Fools
by Michael Snow 29 Mar '06

29 Mar '06

Erik Moeller wrote: >The problem >is mostly with users who will insert nonsense into articles as a joke, >but have no idea (and will not care enough) to remove it later. I'm >also quite sure that many people will find things funny which we would >normally consider to be cases of aggressive vandalism. People have >very different senses of humor. For some, April 1 is the one day of >the year where they feel they have an obligation to do something >funny, while they really aren't. Funny. At all. > > Part of the reason they're not funny is that most of the time, they're also not very original. As Wikipedia has now been through a few April Fool's Days, I've seen quite a variety of jokes, pranks, and hoaxes, and I'm sure those with more experience and longer memories know of even more. I would be hard-pressed to come up with something truly original and funny, but if someone could I'd enjoy it and have no objection. Perhaps simply declaring off-limits the stuff that's been done already would go a long ways toward cutting down on unfunny April Fools. --Michael Snow

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Wikimedia-l March 2006