Sorry to be late to the party, but I'm wondering if
Erik (or Sue) were aware of this (very long and drawn
out) discussion on Wikiversity:
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Colloquium#Wikiversity_is_dead._…
That would be my only concern about holding advisory
positions in other related projects, since it can (at
least potentially) create conflicts of interest
between promoting or otherwise bolstering foundation
projects vs. non-foundation projects.
-johnny.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
Here's to free content and free culture! *champagne*
This is a big win for the world, and another thing to help make proper
yes-really-let-loose-of-control free content seem normal and expected.
- d.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Larry Sanger <sanger-lists(a)citizendium.org>
Date: 21 Dec 2007 19:58
Subject: [Citizendium-l] License announced: CC-by-sa
To: Citizendium general project announcement list
<citizendium-l(a)lists.purdue.edu>
Dear all,
It's CC-by-sa.
Press release:
The Citizendium encyclopedia project picks a Creative Commons license
"Our gift to the world: CC-by-sa"
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Citizendium_Press_Releases/Dec212007
Monster essay:
"An explanation of the Citizendium license"
http://www.citizendium.org/czlicense.html
My thanks to the many people who helped bring us to this moment.
If there is anything else I need to do, to make the new license
"official," I trust all license pedants will let me know. :-)
--Larry
For immediate release
The Citizendium encyclopedia project picks a Creative Commons license
"Our gift to the world: CC-by-sa"
December 21, 2007 – In a much-awaited move, the non-profit Citizendium
(http://www.citizendium.org/) encyclopedia project announced that it
has adopted the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
License (CC-by-sa) as the license for its own original collaborative
content. The license permits anyone to copy and redevelop the
thousands of articles that the Citizendium has created within its
successful first year.
The license allows the Citizendium to join the large
informal club of free resources associated especially with Creative
Commons and the Free Software Foundation. Wikipedia uses the FSF's GNU
Free Documentation License (GFDL), which is expected to be made fully
compatible with CC-by-sa in coming months. Therefore, Wikipedia and
the Citizendium will be able to exchange content easily. A minority of
Citizendium articles started life on Wikipedia and so have been
available under the GFDL.
But the Citizendium, started by a co-founder of Wikipedia,
Dr. Larry Sanger, is quite unusual as Web 2.0 projects go. "We are
focused on quality and responsibility as well as quantity," Sanger
said. The project combines an open, dynamic wiki with a role for
expert editors, a requirement of real names, and constitutional
non-profit self-governance, rather than anarchy or Silicon Valley
for-profit control. With a pilot project launched in November 2006 and
public access launched last March, the project has created about 4,300
articles and more words (about five million) in its first year than
Wikipedia created in its first year. The project reported accelerating
growth throughout 2007 and anticipates even more vigorous growth in
2008.
To explain the choice of license to present and future
contributors, Sanger released a 22,000-word essay: "An explanation of
the Citizendium license." The project underwent a very lengthy
deliberation process in multiple groups and venues, beginning last
spring, and culminating in the essay. "The essay is written for our
'Citizens,' it's not really for public consumption," said Sanger. "We
were very thorough. There are people who get quite passionate about
free licenses, and so I felt I had to get it exactly right. It is as
much the work of all the Citizens I am privileged to been able to
interact with it is as my own work--and we said a lot as we went
through the issues."
The decision and the arguments for it are summarized in two
relatively brief sections of the essay (links below). In short, Sanger
argues that adopting the CC-by-sa license is most in line with the
project's top goal, of "giving the broadest access to vast amounts of
high-quality reference content," as well as the main mean to this end,
of motivating participants. The project rejected a license
(CC-by-nc-sa) that would forbid commercial reuse, an issue on which
"Citizens" were evenly divided.
The project will in coming months turn to recruitment and
expanding its governance processes. The changes are anticipated to
greatly increase the rate at which articles are approved by
Citizendium expert editors.
LINKS:
"An explanation of the Citizendium license" (essay) Section: the
license decision summarized Section: the grounds for the decision
Citizendium website: http://www.citizendium.org/
Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/
CC-by-sa (the new license): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
This press release:
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Citizendium_Press_Releases/Dec212007
Press page: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Press
CONTACT INFORMATION: Larry Sanger, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief; co-founder
of Wikipedia sanger(a)citizendium.org http://www.larrysanger.org/
_______________________________________________
Citizendium-l mailing list
Citizendium-l(a)lists.purdue.edu
https://lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/citizendium-l
Thomas Dalton wrote:
>> Also, I'd bet good money that the "Thanksgiving bump" came primarily
from
>> launching the Fundraising blog on the 23rd and not from that holiday.
>
> Easy way to check that - if the extra money was mainly in USD (does
> anywhere else celebrate Thanksgiving? if so, add their currencies to
> the list), it was likely from Thanksgiving, if it was spread evenly
> among the currencies, it was probably the blog.
Nope.
You may have missed two important factors in the analysis
1) the blog was exclusively in english, which means a rather significant
part of our readership was not able to read its content
2) the blog is only advertized at the top of all english-speaking projects.
So, if the money was mostly in US dollars, it may have been
thanksgiving, or the blog.
Ant
Hi folks,
As week one draws to a close, I just wanted to say thanks for all the very
kind welcomes I've gotten from you all, both here & off this list. Many
people have jumped in to help me get acclimated, which I really appreciate
(as you all know, there's a truly dizzying amount of stuff to soak up :-)
So please consider this a collective thanks to everyone I haven't gotten
back to individually.
And - I want to offer my apologies in advance to anyone or any issue I'm
going to overlook in this first little while. A) I'm still getting my head
around many of the internal systems (e.g., the wikis, mailing lists, etc.),
and B) I'm wanting to focus on making first connections with a few people,
particularly the office staff. Those are my modest goals for this past week
and next; then, I've got a prior commitment that will take me completely
offline from July 7-25. That means my work won't really begin until
post-Wikimania.
I think you probably all have an idea of what I'm here to do. But to recap -
I'm a big fan of the projects, and I'm delighted to be able to come and work
with you all. And I am hoping and expecting I can help. In general: it's
clear to me, and also to the Board, that the Foundation is at a pretty
significant transition point. The bad news is, it's got some problems (lack
of administrative policies, some communications issues, some skills gaps,
etc.). The good news is, the problems are unsurprising, and for the most
part typical of young organizations, and completely fixable. Upshot: I've
seen -and grappled with- this kind of thing elsewhere, and I have a pretty
good general grasp of the kinds of things that need to happen in order for
the Foundation to get through this phase, and come out the other side
stronger and better. (The other good news, by the way, is that the projects
are -obviously- remarkably, phenomenally successful. So the core work of the
organization is in good shape.)
Of course there's an added wrinkle here, which is that Wikimedia is truly
culturally unique; it is not a 'typical' organization. Trust me - I
recognize that, and I'll respect it :-)
So again - I just wanted to thank you all for your early support. If anyone
needs to reach me over the next week or so, I'd suggest using
susanpgardner[at]gmail.com - I'm a Blackberry person, and that's the account
that travels with me.
Thanks,
Sue
On 30/06/07, foundation-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org <
foundation-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> Send foundation-l mailing list submissions to
> foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> foundation-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> foundation-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of foundation-l digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Sue (todos) (Florence Devouard)
> 2. Re: Sue (todos) (Aphaia)
> 3. Cloaks backlog (Sean Whitton)
> 4. Re: Welcome Sue ! (THD)
> 5. Re: Meta-l (Azdiyy)
> 6. Re: Meta-l (GerardM)
> 7. Re: Meta-l (Azdiyy)
> 8. Re: Meta-l (GerardM)
> 9. Re: Meta-l (Michael Bimmler)
> 10. Re: Meta-l (Azdiyy)
> 11. just an idea: add motivation commentary line, anonymized?
> (oscar van dillen)
> 12. Re: just an idea: add motivation commentary line, anonymized?
> (Aphaia)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:47:46 +0200
> From: Florence Devouard <anthere(a)anthere.org>
> Subject: [Foundation-l] Sue (todos)
> To: foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Message-ID: <4684FF72.5090503(a)anthere.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Erik Moeller wrote:
> > On 6/28/07, Stephen Bain
> <stephen.bain-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w(a)public.gmane.org> wrote:
> >> Secondly, and this is directed more at the Board, I understand that
> >> Sue has been hired as a "consultant and special advisor" and not as
> >> Executive Director at least partly because of immigration-related
> >> restrictions on the work she is presently entitled to perform in the
> >> United States. Will the Board be providing the community with a
> >> description of the position "consultant and special advisor"? Are
> >> there any substantive differences between this position and that of
> >> Executive Director?
> >
> > I see no particular reason not to post Sue's job description, but I'll
> > ask the Chair to confirm that.
> >
> > The differences between a Board-level consultant and a freshly minted
> > ED aren't that great, as the Board needs to build a trust relationship
> > with this new staff member in either case. Beyond 3-6 months in the
> > future, should the professional relationship develop as expected, this
> > status will become too limiting, and I hope the remaining constraints
> > can be removed within that timeframe.
>
>
> Hello
>
> I am sorry, but I was not able to find an internet connection in the
> past 36 hours, and will probably be off for the week end. That was my
> last move of june (*relief*).
>
> So, yeah, things to be done
>
> * publish Sue job description on Foundation wiki (not done yet)
> * remove the reference for ED position being searched (apparently done)
> on foundation
> * create her asap a sgardner at wikimedia.org
> * add Sue to foundation-l, internal-l and internal wiki, office wiki,
> wmfcc-l, juriwiki-l, private-l, wikimania-l, wikimania-planning-l,
> fundcom-l.
> * add her on staff page on foundation wiki
> * add her biography on foundation wiki
> * add the press release on foundation wiki
> * add announcement on foundation wiki (news) with links to pages "press
> release" and biography
> * then breath and wait till monday :-)
>
> Ant
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:57:10 +0900
> From: Aphaia <aphaia(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Sue (todos)
> To: anthere(a)wikimedia.org, "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <35be2a710706290557u63129c5ar78d59f02c4966e49(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> On 6/29/07, Florence Devouard <anthere(a)anthere.org> wrote:
> > So, yeah, things to be done
> >
> > * publish Sue job description on Foundation wiki (not done yet)
> > * remove the reference for ED position being searched (apparently done)
> > on foundation
> Done
> > * create her asap a sgardner at wikimedia.org
> Done and sent
> > * add Sue to foundation-l, internal-l and internal wiki, office wiki,
> > wmfcc-l, juriwiki-l, private-l, wikimania-l, wikimania-planning-l,
> > fundcom-l.
> > * add her on staff page on foundation wiki
> > * add her biography on foundation wiki
> > * add the press release on foundation wiki
> > * add announcement on foundation wiki (news) with links to pages "press
> > release" and biography
> > * then breath and wait till monday :-)
>
> * cough * vote, * cough* vote
>
> --
> KIZU Naoko
> Wikiquote: http://wikiquote.org
> * habent enim emolumentum in labore suo *
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:02:53 +0100
> From: "Sean Whitton" <sean(a)silentflame.com>
> Subject: [Foundation-l] Cloaks backlog
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <c13e6b500706290602r5f5cb3deke33e08e1ce1610a3(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed
>
> Just a quick note to let you all know that your cloak requests have
> not been forgotten.
>
> There is a problem with the toolserver that means I can't access the
> list of submissions and also that new ones are not being accepted.
> They are however, I believe, all in there and so it is just a matter
> of getting at them when the toolserver admins fix things.
>
> Please spread this knowledge if people ask, and thank you for your
> patience.
>
> --
> Regards,
> ?Sean Whitton (seanw)
> http://seanwhitton.com/
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:39:38 +0800
> From: THD <theodoranian(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Welcome Sue !
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <63075c310706290639u4c07a52dr9ec7356fe61cef0f(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Welcome aboard, Sue.
>
>
> :)
>
> Theodoranian
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:24:03 +0100
> From: Azdiyy <azdiyy(a)googlemail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Meta-l
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <6af34c650706290724y45753752n85f736081fc5c67e(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
> can issues relating to multiple projects, chapters, board,
> and governance be discusses in the meta list
> azdiyy
>
> On 28/06/07, Stephen Bain <stephen.bain(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 6/28/07, GerardM <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Hoi,
> > > What is meant by MetaWiki ?
> >
> > http://meta.wikimedia.org
> >
> > --
> > Stephen Bain
> > stephen.bain(a)gmail.com
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:29:33 +0200
> From: GerardM <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Meta-l
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <41a006820706290729t3218e605u4ecf12bf130c8181(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
> Hoi,
> That is exactly what the foundation-l is for I would say.
> Thanks,
> GerardM
>
> On 6/29/07, Azdiyy <azdiyy(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
> >
> > can issues relating to multiple projects, chapters, board,
> > and governance be discusses in the meta list?
> >
> > azdiyy
> >
> > On 28/06/07, Stephen Bain <stephen.bain(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On 6/28/07, GerardM <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > Hoi,
> > > > What is meant by MetaWiki ?
> > >
> > > http://meta.wikimedia.org
> > >
> > > --
> > > Stephen Bain
> > > stephen.bain(a)gmail.com
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > foundation-l mailing list
> > > foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:48:47 +0100
> From: Azdiyy <azdiyy(a)googlemail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Meta-l
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <6af34c650706290748n4726a975h5fc142e00fe1dfeb(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
> i will start with the warning-less indef ban by one of meta
> [[en:Category:Rouge admins]] who blocked my ip with no warning and
> protected my talkpage.
> time for [[m:association of rouge stewards]]?
>
> thanks,
> azdiyy
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 8
> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:51:51 +0200
> From: GerardM <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Meta-l
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <41a006820706290751r4bd38203m86e5b5795b27dd86(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
> Hoi,
> It is a great start that will ensure that nobody will subscribe to this
> list.
> Thanks,
> GerardM
>
> On 6/29/07, Azdiyy <azdiyy(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
> >
> > i will start with the warning-less indef ban by one of meta
> > [[en:Category:Rouge admins]] who blocked my ip with no warning and
> > protected my talkpage.
> > time for [[m:association of rouge stewards]]?
> >
> > thanks,
> > azdiyy
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 9
> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:39:13 +0200
> From: "Michael Bimmler" <mbimmler(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Meta-l
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <353e9f360706290839u12db29d4qc6b1f4c397be187(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> You've lost me here... First you talk of "chapters, board and
> governance" and then of your meta block. Sure you recognise that these
> two things are not really the same?
> Michael
>
> On 6/29/07, Azdiyy <azdiyy(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
> > i will start with the warning-less indef ban by one of meta
> > [[en:Category:Rouge admins]] who blocked my ip with no warning and
> > protected my talkpage.
> > time for [[m:association of rouge stewards]]?
> >
> > thanks,
> > azdiyy
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 10
> Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:52:14 +0100
> From: Azdiyy <azdiyy(a)googlemail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Meta-l
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <6af34c650706290852i23b5110bwbd7daa9f80edb7ac(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-May/030517.html
> http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10098
>
> what do you suggest if admins on irc do not want to get involved,
> foundation list is no the place, and friends of teh blocking admin
> dont want to upset him?
> an azdiyy list that no one reads? bug=?
>
> azdiyy
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 11
> Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2007 10:18:28 +0200
> From: "oscar van dillen" <oscarvandillen(a)wikimedia.org>
> Subject: [Foundation-l] just an idea: add motivation commentary line,
> anonymized?
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <d3f9d3df0706300118u5df749d7n7147506986d736a(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> just a thought that spontaneously came to me this morning which i would
> like
> to share:
> (i know logs are not to be published but i am just quoting myself from
> #wikimedia)
>
> [09:50]<oscar>please allow me to prompt an open question: would it not be
> interesting to read the answers to an imaginary questionnaire about the
> final motivation of the voters (answers as to the "why" they voted
> such-and-so) [[Elections 2007/Questions to voters]] if it existed?[09:51]<
> oscar>like a commentary line as we have in edits, but anonymized[09:52]<
> oscar>alphabetically ordered in one big dump :-)
> (...)
> [09:59]<oscar>it was just a thought, like last year i suggested a debate
> [09:59]<oscar>which now did take place more or less[10:00]<oscar>who knows
> what happens next year?[10:02]<oscar>there could be several reasons for
> doing this however, hints for the wmf or the board, for online elections
> in
> general and perhaps reading each other's comments is useful as
> well?[10:03]<
> oscar>afterwards of course[10:03]<oscar>not *during* an election
> (end of quote)
>
> curious about your opinions!
>
> best regards,
> oscar
>
> --
> *edito ergo sum*
>
> DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of the
> Wikimedia Foundation nor of its Board of Trustees.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 12
> Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:31:39 +0900
> From: Aphaia <aphaia(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] just an idea: add motivation commentary
> line, anonymized?
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List"
> <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <35be2a710706300131l2bb6e583xe6be7256b2c1afcf(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> I had a similar - but opponent in its appearance inquiry last year.
> "Why did you not vote". It helps me to organize this year Election. At
> least PR for this community I asked their opinion.
>
> But I'd love to consider such after the election. Now seeing
> non-English communities hesitation for involvement (in Day 1, among
> 1100 votes, over 500 have come from enwiki alone, and there are only
> two other community over 100 votes were casted).
>
> Thanks,
>
> On 6/30/07, oscar van dillen <oscarvandillen(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> > just a thought that spontaneously came to me this morning which i would
> like
> > to share:
> > (i know logs are not to be published but i am just quoting myself from
> > #wikimedia)
> >
> > [09:50]<oscar>please allow me to prompt an open question: would it not
> be
> > interesting to read the answers to an imaginary questionnaire about the
> > final motivation of the voters (answers as to the "why" they voted
> > such-and-so) [[Elections 2007/Questions to voters]] if it
> existed?[09:51]<
> > oscar>like a commentary line as we have in edits, but anonymized[09:52]<
> > oscar>alphabetically ordered in one big dump :-)
> > (...)
> > [09:59]<oscar>it was just a thought, like last year i suggested a debate
> > [09:59]<oscar>which now did take place more or less[10:00]<oscar>who
> knows
> > what happens next year?[10:02]<oscar>there could be several reasons for
> > doing this however, hints for the wmf or the board, for online elections
> in
> > general and perhaps reading each other's comments is useful as
> well?[10:03]<
> > oscar>afterwards of course[10:03]<oscar>not *during* an election
> > (end of quote)
> >
> > curious about your opinions!
> >
> > best regards,
> > oscar
> >
> > --
> > *edito ergo sum*
> >
> > DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of the
> > Wikimedia Foundation nor of its Board of Trustees.
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
>
>
> --
> KIZU Naoko
> Wikiquote: http://wikiquote.org
> * habent enim emolumentum in labore suo *
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>
>
> End of foundation-l Digest, Vol 39, Issue 67
> ********************************************
>
David Shankbone's first report from Israel
(http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Israel_Journal:_The_Holy_Land_has_an_image_prob
lem) has provoked a bit of controversy. One reaction I got was "why the
segue into the COO issue?" It annoys me to see that the MSM are now picking
this up (the COO issue) and whilst The Register broke the story I don't
think they did anything beyond fact-check what their source told them.
Details from Wikinews' investigation have been lifted and written into
recent coverage of the issue, we did check the Reg. story and we found more
- including bankruptcy proceedings (PACER will give you a list of the
creditors).
Anyway, back to David in Israel, and I assume a fair number of people are
aware this is an expenses-paid trip where the Israeli government and friends
are footing the bill. David's first piece seeks to say "here is the
stereotype, but that's not what I'm here for". If you read the talk you'll
see we have some people think you can't do any story about Israel without
going "OMG! Israel-Palestine! Car bombs! Terrorists! Human rights
violations! Israeli oppression!". I agree with David's argument that this is
like saying every coverage of the U.S. should have an aside about Camp Delta
in Guantanamo - and I *know* people who'd do that too - we've had to ban
idiots like that from Wikinews in the past.
I'd like people on the list to read this with a critical eye and see what
they think about Wikinews developing policies and structure to allow this
sort of reporting. Keep any eye out for David's forthcoming reports. The
indications I have from private email are that they're keeping their
journalist guests busy about 12-14 hours a day and if they don't have
breakfast with Israeli technologists it's probably the only meal of the day
they're getting off the job. Not a holiday by any means.
Brian McNeil
This year, within the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia community,
we achieved a lot. More than we could have ever expected, for sure, and
I think that we should look back and reflect on some of the more significant
events that happened this year.
In March, the German Wikipedia reached 1,000 featured articles, a very
significant milestone for the wiki. The Foundation also introduced it's new
licensing policy, which affected all of the projects, and caused some noticable
controversy among several sites. We also launched the Planet Wikimedia blog
aggregator, which currently has over 50 blogs being aggregated into it.
In July, Wikimedia Taiwan was approved by the Board. On the 12th, the tally for the Board of Trustees was completed, and Erik, Kat re-joined the Board, with Frieda joining for the first time.
In August, Wikimania took place, attracting over 1000 participants from over
92 countries. Wikimania took place in Taipei, Taiwan.
In September, the English Wikipedia reached 2 million articles, which was a very
significant milestone for the English community.
In October, Alexandria was chosen as the location for Wikimania 2009, and Paris
held it's first Colloque Wikipedia event. Amsterdam hosted the second Wikimedia
Netherlands Conference, and Saint Petersburg (Russia) hosted the first Wiki-Conference
in Russia. It was also announced that the Wikimedia Foundation would be moving
to San Fransisco, California.
Last month, the 2007 Steward Elections began. On the 24th, the new Ombudsman commission was approved.
Looking back, Wikimedia has had a great year, a great community, and a surge
of events, growth, content, and quality, with several projects (including Wikipedia,
Wikinews, Wikibooks, and many of our projects). If we can acomplish this much
this year, we can acomplish even more in the next year, and I personally look
forward to working with all of you to continue to create, maintain, and develop the world's largest repository and community of free information. Happy holidays
to everyone, and a very happy new year.
--
Thunderhead
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/User:Thunderheadhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thunderhead
_______________________________________________
DISCLAIMER: I hold no official position in the Wikimedia
Foundation. This message expresses the views of a single
Wikimedia user and not necessarily the community at large.
pfctdayelise is talking pure nonsense (as she often does in legal
issues at Commons). The sense of the policy is to allow small
exceptions from the "all must be free" doctrine. The exceptions must
be legal according the national law and according the US "fair use".
Each European country has exceptions similar to "fair use": e.g.
German "Zitatrecht". If
http://www.ivir.nl/dossier/implementatie_2001_29_EG/wetten/tsjechie.pdf
is the actual Czech Copyright Act article 31 is relevant allowing
"quotations" of works for teaching purposes. But I think the case is
that rights owners give permission for Wikipedia only (which isn't
allowed at Commons which only accepts works under free licenses). One
can then conclude a fortiori that these uses are also according the
WMF policy.
Please remember that whole WMF projects are dealing with unfree
content: Wikiquote has lots of quotations which are copyright
protected. These should be deleted before any Czech picture.
Klaus Graf
Dear community,
As chair of the board of trustees of Wikimedia Foundation, I would like
to announce that Erik Moeller has decided to resign from the board two
days ago. Erik decided to reorient his activities in other directions,
and I hope we'll continue to be able to work together constructively
from here on.
A few days ago, Lodewijk pointed out to me that I forgot to announce
clearly to this list that Michael Davis was no more board member, as
planned at last october board meeting. As a reminder, Michael Davis had
expressed the wish to move on and leave his seat for a while already. He
officially quit the seat end of november. Michael has helped greatly in
the first years of existence of the Foundation, so I hope you will have
a thank you thought for him. You hardly ever heard of him, but he was
really helpful a several critical moments in the life of the Foundation.
The board is consequently now back at 5 members, Kat Welsh, Frieda
Brioschi, Jan-Bart de Vreede, Jimmy Wales and myself.
Michael seat is more or less reserved to our future treasurer, or if we
can not find the treasurer as board member, at least to a
skilled-financial oriented person.
Erik's seat is open again. The board agreed to propose the seat to a
community member, and agreed on a person. The person has been approached
and has not given any answer yet. There is no real urgency anyway.
The seat will be an appointed one, up for new elections in a few months.
In a situation where we will welcome many more staff members not from
the community, I think it is doubly important that the board membership
be from the community. I will personally support an increase of the
membership, with a focus on members coming from the community. I'd love
as well having a seat or more being a representant from the chapters.
Recently, there has been discussions over the limited professional
skills of board members. At the same time, we are developing a staff
mostly made of highly skilled professionals.
I feel there are two paths for the future. Either we keep a board mostly
made of community members (elected or appointed), who may not be
top-notch professionals, who can do mistakes, such as forgetting to do a
background check, such as not being able to do an audit in 1 week, such
as not signing the killer-deal with Google, but who can breath and pee
wikimedia projects, dedicate their full energy to a project they love,
without trying to put their own interest in front. A decentralized
organization where chapters will have more room, authority and leadership.
Or we get a board mostly made of big shots, famous, rich, or very
skilled (all things potentially beneficial), but who just *do not get
it*. A centralized organization, very powerful, but also very top-down.
My heart leans toward the first position of course. But at the same
time, I am aware we are now playing in the big room and current board
members may not be of sufficient strength to resist the huge wave.
I do not share the same optimism than Jimbo with regards to Knol. I
think Knol is probably our biggest threat since the creation of
Wikipedia. I really mean the biggest. Maybe not so much the project
itself, but the competition it will create, the PR consequences, the
financial tsunami, the confusion in people minds (free as in free speech
or as in free of charge). Many parties are trying to influence us, to
buy us, and conflicts of interest are becoming the rule rather than the
exception. There are power struggles on the path.
Rather than spending time bugging the board about whether we did a
background check on Carolyn 18 months ago (we did not, period), I'd like
the current community to realize that we are currently at a crossroad.
The staff will hopefully stabilize and be successful under the
leadership of Sue. I trust her to have this strength. But the
organization in its whole is currently oscillating. We can try the path
of the community, at the risk of being engulfed by the big ones. We can
try the path of letting our future in the hands of the big shots, at the
risk of loosing what is making us unique.
Best
Florence