FYI - we need to talk to these people.
http://globaltext.org/
Global Text Project
* The goal is to create a free library of 1,000 electronic
textbooks for students in the developing world
* The library will cover the range of topics typically encountered
in the first two years of a university's undergraduate programs
* The global academic community and global corporations will be
engaged in creating and sponsoring this library
The project will create open content electronic textbooks that will be
freely available from a Web site. Distribution will also be possible
via paper, CD, or DVD. Our goal initially is to focus on content
development and Web distribution, and we will work with relevant
authorities to facilitate dissemination by other means when bandwidth
is unavailable or inadequate. Thus, while the goal, educating the
disadvantaged, is the same as that of the $100 laptop project, we are
not tied to a particular device or medium.
We have experience with developing a free textbook, XML: Managing Data
Exchange. This project started in January 2004 when a graduate class
at the University of Georgia wrote the first version of the book.
Subsequent graduate and undergraduate classes at the University of
Georgia and elsewhere have improved and extended the book. It has been
used as the XML text in a variety of classes, and in each case the
class has been required to leave the book in better shape that they
received it at the beginning of the term.
Experience with this project and the success of WikiBooks has
convinced us that we can further develop the idea of free and open
content books to increase the value of these books to students,
particularly those who cannot afford paper-based textbooks. We want to
add several innovations to improve the quality of the books.
--
Peace & Love,
Erik
Since tommorow the voting ends, I wanted to remind everyone to cast
your vote, if you still haven't done so. I hope we'll be able to
announce the final results next week.
--
Regards,
Dariusz Siedlecki
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Wmfcc-l] Citizendium, a new venture, will "fork" off from
online encyclopedia Wikipedia
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 16:14:39 +0200
From: Mathias Schindler <mathias.schindler(a)gmail.com>
Reply-To: Communications Committee <wmfcc-l(a)mail.wikimedia.org>
To: Communications Committee <wmfcc-l(a)mail.wikimedia.org>
WASHINGTON INTERNET DAILY
September 18, 2006 Monday
INTERNATIONAL
SECTION: INTERNATIONAL
LENGTH: 187 words
Citizendium, a new venture, will "fork" off from online encyclopedia
Wikipedia, said Larry Sanger, one of Wikipedia's founders. Sanger,
dir.-collaborative projects for the Digital University Foundation,
spoke last week at the Wizard of OS (Open Source) Conference in
Berlin. Wikipedia is committed to anonymity; Citizendium will stress
personal responsibility for content, pushing for higher quality, he
said, noting that Wikipedia's anonymity draws troublemakers. On
Citizendium, content will be reviewed by editors who, while
self-selecting, will have to substantiate their expertise. If
Wikipedia had been admitting its problems, Sanger said, "I would have
been much less motivated to go on with Citizendium." Martin Haase, a
Wikipedia board member in Germany, said Wikipedia is working on
quality. Soon, the encyclopedia will have its own means of validation
and some editorial control, he said. Citizendium and Wikipedia can
coexist, Sanger said. His role in Wikipedia was called into question
years ago by fellow Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, spurring Sanger to
quit his position as "chief organizer" of Wikipedia. -- ME
LOAD-DATE: September 15, 2006
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newsletter
Copyright 2006 Warren Publishing, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
_______________________________________________
Wmfcc-l mailing list
Wmfcc-l(a)mail.wikimedia.org
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wmfcc-l
We sold most of Solera to Canopy and I will be focused on this company
heavily still, but we are now putting enhanced focus on
the WikiAppliance company and Native Programs for translations and this
will free me up to be more heavily focused on
the opportunity with Wikipedia long term.
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4365356http://www.canopy.com/press/20060920_solera_networks.php
Jeff
Kelly Martin wrote:
> On 9/19/06, Jon Harald Søby <jhsoby(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Anyways, my point was that indirect elections _might_ turn out to have
>> inaccurate results (though that is a rather rare situation), and that
>> it would be especially hard to arrange this on Wikimedia projects.
>
> Indirect election of officials in voluntary organizations with large,
> geographically diverse membership is common and may actually be the
> norm. Comparisons with election of geopolitical leaders ("involuntary
> organizations") are simply inapposite; there are so many functional
> differences between electing a head of government and electing the
> officers of a voluntary organization.
>
> Rejecting the idea simply because it superficially resembles the
> American college of electors (which, by the way, is a very strange
> form of indirect election) is, frankly, silly. Rejecting it because
> it seems too difficult to implement today is shortsighted.
>
> Let's also not forget that direct democracy elected Hitler, and yet we
> still use it as well.
I'm not sure how "direct" a concept of democracy you have in mind, but
Hitler was *appointed* Chancellor. After Hindenburg's death, he declared
himself Führer. Thereafter, he rushed through a vote to ratify this
action, but if that's democracy, so was Saddam Hussein's last election.
If you mean that he personally was democratically elected, I don't see
it. If you simply mean that he became politically powerful enough to
turn a parliamentary republic into a totalitarian state, that too is a
cautionary tale, but this is an odd way of expressing that.
I don't think an argument about different electoral formats is getting
at the right issue, anyway. The concern about elections in a Wikimedia
context is primarily an extension of the difficulty that the right to
vote in our elections corresponds only rather inexactly to anything that
could constitute citizenship. It might be possible to address that with
a membership model, but as I've pointed out before, membership has its
own problems.
--Michael Snow
One idea struck me just now when I saw transcom (eeh, it is not
precise, but transsubcom is too long, not?) page on meta.
If we really would like to involve the community, not regarding
languages, into Foundation activities, may it make a sense for us not
to have multilingual website as the official one, but also
multilingual descriptions aiming to the internal information on meta
in most cases, for example, each committee's description?
Some language have their own page about Election Officials. It is a
new mode of this year. It may make a sense to have descriptions of
other Officials in those languages too?
<negative thought>
Since only English speaking people can be involved into the deepest
level at the end, such multilingualized pages may work simply as red
herrings even at best ...
</negative thought>
Thoughts?
--
Kizu Naoko
Wikiquote: http://wikiquote.org
* vox populi, vox dei *
Well, I found some statements in the English Wikipedia-version, but no
undoubted source above it. The English-speaking Wikipedia is normatively
on the same hierarchical level as the German-speaking version.
Where is the universal principle of verifiability codified and defined?
Christopher
My 2 cents... Neapolitan is a particular language, is more than a
regional language.
Neapolitan has got a strong culture: music, poetry, literature.
In some parts of the world Neapolitan music is more famous than
Italian (i.e. "O' sole mio") and some words used in whole world
derive directly from Neapolitan (i.e. Pizza).
The difference is that Neapolitan has got a string culture as
pillar.
Ilario
----Messaggio originale----
Da: gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com
Data: 19.09.06 0.15
A: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"<foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org>
Copia: <public-afrophonewikis-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw(a)ciao.gmane.
org>
Oggetto: Re: [Foundation-l] Development in Africa
> Can you explain more about what is done in Neapolitan language ?
>
The Neapolitan language is a language that is considered by many to
be
inferior. People are not educated in it, while the Neapolitans are
a
proud people many sadly do not take pride in their own language.
In
order to promote the Neapolitan language, everything is done to
stimulate the recognition of the Neapolitan language. Stubs are
created
to create a tapestry of articles that are linked. Translation tools
are
used to generate content. There is a newsletter in Neapolitan to
people
who are interested. People living as far afield as the USA and
Australia
are contacted when they show their interest in the Neapolitan
language.
There have been articles in the press about the project.
Neapolitan
traditions are covered, local interest is sought.
As the Italian chapter now has a coordinator for the regional
languages,
it will be interesting to see how the chapter will be able to
facilitate
projects like the Neapolitan wikipedia.. I know for instance that
the
Neapolitan project would love to have a Neapolitan dictionary to
scan
and OCR as well as support for scanning original Neapolitan
literature
(most of is it in the public domain).
>>> 1.3. Identification of specialized press (make a list)
Hi all,
I just thought I'd let you know that I'm meeting (informally) with a couple
of people from KDE [1] at their upcoming conference [2] in Dublin - about
Wikiversity. (Well, actually, we're meeting this Friday, the day before the
conference officially begins, but that's the only day that suits.) From
what I gather, they're thinking of using Wikiversity as a training
centre/programme for their developers - which sounds like a very practical
application for Wikiversity (and applicable to MediaWiki development also),
so we'll see what comes out of it. I'm really just there as a person to
explain to them what Wikiversity is and what it could be used for, but,
since I'm not very technically minded, any ideas or things to bear in mind
would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Cormac / Cormaggio
[1] http://www.kde.org/
[2] http://conference2006.kde.org
Since I am on it
(http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/010021.html),
I'd like us to think along what we could more or less easily do to push
our visibility and participation in African countries (may be the the
same in other parts of the world as well).
I have identified the following solutions. Are they others ?
1. Increase awareness in the project
1.1 Identification of conferences where our participation might be
relevant (focused on ICT, Education, Sustainable development, Culture)
Contact with organisers and proposal to participate and make presentations
1.2. Identification of big media group (make a list).
Contact and proposition of articles. Language focus: english, french,
arab, portuguese.
Of course, include them in the list of press release.
1.3. Identification of specialized press (make a list)
Focus: Linux fanatics :-) Contact and proposition of articles
1.4. Identification of major NGO working on education and woman groups.
Contact. Provide them with a bit of "advertisment"
1.5. Contact of all major universities.
propose them teleconference (if they are equipped) or irl presentation
(if that fit well with a formal conference or a trip)
2. Favor production of content in languages already developped
Cases such as RAFT or Wiki voices. If necessary, find money and someone
to help coordinating this to ensure success.
3. Favor production of content in local languages
* Help Beta Wiki
* Contact local NGOs for help in translation interface
* Identification (now) of major languages (according to read/write
coverage)
Here are some thougts. Are they others ?
Who feel like helping take care of some of those points ?
Anthere