Wikimedia-l September 2007

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125 participants
84 discussions

[Foundation-l] For Wikimania 2008 bidders
by Titan Deng 15 Sep '07

15 Sep '07

Hi, Wikimania 2008 bidders, I was informed by an Alexandria bidder that it is necessary for bidders to take a look of the WM07 budget, for your better imagination and calculation. I would love to share these information with you, and I have already started to write a summary report in detail for better organization of Wikimania. (Though it is still in Chinese currently) As a member of the Wikimania 2008 bidding jury, I hope every bidding team are on the same ground. So, there's nothing I have already told to Alexandria. The budget is in my Google docs and spreadsheets. I think it will be good that every bidding team could let one person to read the WM07 budget. However, we had signed some agreements with confidential obligations, so I hope that the person who I share the budget with could help me on this. Don't show it to people not related to your bidding. If it is not hard for you to follow, then please inform me the person's email. :) Titan Deng | Theodoranian Wikimania 2007 Coordinator

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[Foundation-l] use of wikipedia's globe on non wikimedia's wikis?
by Pedro Sanchez 15 Sep '07

15 Sep '07

I just ran into http://www.mips.pd2h.net/index.php/Mipsicismo whose logo is a derivative work of wikipedia's. I bet that's not appoved by foundation. What is to be done now? is this the right channel to notify?

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[Foundation-l] Release of squid log data
by Dedalus 14 Sep '07

14 Sep '07

Do these university offer to make a significant monetary donation to the WMF? Dedalus

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[Foundation-l] PanImages: cross-lingual image search created using 'Wiktionaries'
by Brianna Laugher 14 Sep '07

14 Sep '07

PanImages Image Search Tool Speaks Hundreds Of Languages http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/news/2007/09/12/panimages-image-search-too… quote: PanImages' powerful brains were created by scanning more than 350 machine-readable online dictionaries. Some of these were "wiktionaries," online multilingual dictionaries written by volunteers. The PanImages software scans these dictionaries and uses an algorithm to check the accuracy of the results. It then assembles the results in a matrix that allows translation in combinations that may never have been attempted — for instance, from Gujarati to Lithuanian. The actual search engine is here: http://www.panimages.org/index.jsp?displang=eng And the research paper detailing the algorithm and method is here: http://turing.cs.washington.edu/papers/EtzioniMTSummit07.pdf An idea to use Wiktionary or interwiki links to improve image search for Commons has long been kicked around. Maybe we could collaborate with them to improve the Mayflower search engine for Commons? (Or else ask them to index upload.wikimedia.org and pay attention to license metadata :)) After all, we supplied them with all this useful data for free. cheers, Brianna -- They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment: http://modernthings.org/

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[Foundation-l] WikiLove campaign - pictures
by Sabine Cretella 13 Sep '07

13 Sep '07

Hi, again a crosspost :-) Today I am here to ask you for your help with photos. We prepared two example messages you can forward to friends and family below. Of course we would like to see photos from all of you and you can see examples here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/wikilove What I myself experienced is that it is much easier to take the camera, take some white paper and something to write when you meet people and ask them if they love Wikipedia, Wikinews or whichever project - then ask them to write it down and take a picture. When it comes to uploading them to flickr and you don't want to do it yourself, I suppose we will be able to organise it asking the community for help. Please use the various wiki-meetings around to take pictures and to ask others to do the same. If you are at university or school things should be quite easy, if you have a mobile phone that can take pictures or you simply take your camera with you for one day and "do". I hope we will be able to see your photo online soon then :-) Cheers, Sabine p.s. don't forget to ask others to do the same. ***** Proposed texts (please adapt them according to your community and the country where you live - we know that things can differ a lot from one place to the other): *Version 1* Are you a Wikipedian fanatic? Do you ever wonder how you operated without Wikipedia. Then show your wiki love! Post your picture depicting why you love Wikipedia to the Wikilove Flickr group. Pictures can be funny, creative, emotional, deep, or anything you want them to be! Additionally, forward this email to your family and friends, and ask them to do the same :) http://www.flickr.com/groups/wikilove/ *Version 2* Are you a Wikipedian fanatic? Do you ever wonder how you operated without Wikipedia? Then show your love by posting your pictures to the official Wikipedia Flickr group! Pics can be funny, creative, or anything you want them to be. If you are camera shy, then simply check out the cool pics that have already been posted. http://www.flickr.com/groups/wikilove/

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[Foundation-l] Rethinking fundraising (1): SWOT & more
by Erik Moeller 12 Sep '07

12 Sep '07

Past fundraisers have, in essence, followed a rather simple pattern: Use a certain amount of screen real estate on WMF websites to hammer in a very basic message: "We need more money for servers or the sites will go down." While there have been some first attempts at more emotional personal appeals, the core of our message has remained dry, rational, basic. We haven't involved our volunteer community as effectively as we could. We haven't networked with like-minded organizations as much as we should. We haven't always followed through on existing donor relations, even when we promised to ourselves that we would. This series of posts will try to bring into a public forum some ideas for future fundraisers. Please note that the organizer of the upcoming year-end fundraiser is Sabine Cretella, not me, and these posts aren't practical in nature; they are intended to produce useful debates and to inspire future fundraisers, not necessarily the one that is around the corner. The first post in the series is an attempt at a "Strengths / Opportunities / Weaknesses / Threats" (SWOT) analysis specifically with regard to fundraising. I use this analysis as a foundation for some proposed criteria and methods, which I will comment on in more detail in future posts. === Strengths and opportunities === The collective of websites operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receives more than 30,000 hits per second at peak times. [1] Wikimedia's flagship (Wikipedia) is among the 10 most trafficked websites world-wide. It is the largest general reference work in human history, referred to and accessed more frequently than any other. The "Wikipedia" brand is a global household name like Google, MySpace, and YouTube. In the United States, 36% of adult Internet users use it. [2] With the exception of the Mozilla Foundation, no other non-profit organization shares our level of Internet exposure to a global audience. Most non-profits struggle to be perceived online at all, whereas the Wikimedia Foundation is an Internet giant. Our message is entirely uncontroversial and beautiful in its simplicity: ''free knowledge for the planet.'' We do not need to convince people of a complex moral position, or raise awareness of an underreported problem; we only need to appeal to the fundamental human desire, shared across ideological boundaries, to collect and disseminate knowledge. Our message is socially anchored because education is the driving force of progress in any society. Our Neutral Point of View policy, low administrative overhead and unquestionable integrity further broaden the spectrum of likely donors. Our community of volunteers is global, diverse, and intelligent. It can be motivated to participate in fundraising campaigns on all levels, from grassroots events over storytelling to long term strategy. In addition to the Foundation, it is supported by a network of chapter organizations which can strengthen bonds between volunteers, provide local fundraising infrastructure, add to the corpus of success stories told in campaigns, establish a lasting media presence, and generally increase sustainability. Our Board of Trustees is unusually diverse and committed and, with the help of an eclectic Advisory Board, can help with networking, targeting, and messaging. Our founder, Jimmy Wales, has become an international celebrity with a large number of useful contacts in businesses, media, and culture. == Weaknesses and threats == The reputation of the WMF is constantly in danger: as a provider of volunteer written reference materials, it is often identified with the quality of website content as well as the general actions of its community of editors. What if a frequent contributor to one of its websites is revealed to be a serial killer or rapist? What if highly libelous information remains undetected for months, or is even reproduced by other websites or print publications? What if a user turns out to have plagiarized many of his or her contributions from copyrighted scholarly sources? Due to the Foundation's exposure as one of the most established global brands, these and other scenarios, when played out, tend to lead to sustained negative media campaigns. Once a negative story makes it into the "echo chamber" of global media, it becomes difficult even for the most proficient communications director to bring the message back on track. Any fundraising campaign is at risk if it happens in the eye of a storm of controversy. As of September 2007, the organization is in a transitional stage. It has had to weather disruptive changes in its small staff, and the rapid growth of its online properties has often exceeded its operational capacities. As a consequence, ambitious fundraising goals may be met with harsh daily realities of overworked staff, legal threats, and technical difficulties. There are many other known risks as we go forward: Volunteers may have to prioritize their professional or family life over organizational matters and can become unavailable unexpectedly, even in the middle of a campaign. At any given time, many of the theoretically available volunteers are not yet sufficiently trusted or known to be tasked with issues of confidentiality or financial responsibility. As a value-driven community, Wikimedians can react strongly and unpredictably to fundraising strategies that are commonly accepted within the wider non-profit sector, especially if the use of Wikimedia website properties is involved. Any strategy, however well-intended, can backfire and even lead to uncontrolled communications by community members to the outside world or to fundraising partners. Controversial Foundation actions may become catalysts for power struggles in project communities. The free content license used in the projects and the availability of database copies makes it possible for angered community members to campaign for the creation of a separate project ("fork"). Such a scenario is especially likely if the value systems of the organizational leadership and that of a large subset of the community do not align. The intentionally heightened attention to organizational activities caused by fundraising campaigns increases the likelihood of a worst case scenario to occur. The fiercely independent community, combined with a significant number of external individuals who wish to harm the Foundation and its projects in every possible way (banned editors, crackpots, vandals, and so on), leave little room for mistakes: Every public action by the WMF is scrutinized in detail. == Core elements of a successful fundraising strategy == Any successful strategy must fulfill these three key requirements: # '''sustainable''': the strategy ensures a high frequency, volume, and recurrence of donations. # '''minimally disruptive''': the strategy is in line with the established values and principles of the community. # '''implementable''': the strategy matches the organization's operational preparedness and capacities. In order to leverage the aforementioned strengths and address weaknesses, we propose that our strategies should additionally incorporate the following elements: * '''Storytelling.''' Messaging structured in narratives is more likely to evoke a positive response. * '''Volunteer management.''' Wikimedia is a small organization with a vast supply of potential helpers. * '''Networking.''' We are part of a broader free culture movement and benefit from identifying commonalities with other groups. * '''Technological innovation.''' Given the nature of Internet communities, implementations have a highly significant impact on the ability and willingness of supporters to donate. * '''Reducing vulnerability.''' Every fundraising campaign should increase the overall resilience of the organization. * '''Multi-phase deployment.''' Rolling out a new strategy in stages allows us to adapt as we learn and collect data. These elements will be explored in more detail in future posts. [1] http://tools.wikimedia.de/~leon/stats/reqstats/reqstats-weekly.png [2] http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/212/report_display.asp -- Toward Peace, Love & Progress: Erik DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.

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[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2008 - Jury criteria clarification
by James Forrester 12 Sep '07

12 Sep '07

All, Following some queries and speculation, the Moderators of the Wikimania 2008 selection Jury would like to clarify that the different factors that the Jury will use to judge each of the Bids will be weighted by the Jury in a cardinal (sometimes called "range") vote as a part of the overall selection process, as has been informed on [[m:Wikimania 2008/Judging process]]. The selection criteria will include the consideration of geographical/cultural diversity (including "continental rotation"), and the weighting between them will vary, but no particular criteria should be considered to have a veto over the process. The current draft of the criteria is held at [[m:Wikimania 2008/Judging criteria]], and input is still welcome. On behalf of the Jury. Yours, -- James D. Forrester jdforrester(a)wikimedia.org | jdforrester(a)gmail.com [[Wikipedia:User:Jdforrester|James F.]]

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[Foundation-l] [Fwd: Sardininan - Sassarese languages or language and dialect?]
by Sabine Cretella 11 Sep '07

11 Sep '07

Forwarding the post on my blog. Cheers, Sabine -------- Original-Nachricht -------- Well, there is a nice website that can help us with that question ... and that is from the institution that cares about this officially - the Region of Sardinia. When it comes to the Limba Sarda Comuna used on the actual Sardinian wikipedia <http://sc.wikipedia.org> there is no doubt that the language exists, but we must appreciate that it is an artificial language that was created out of the living languages of Sardinia. The website of the Region of Sardinia <http://www.sardegnacultura.it/linguasarda/limbasardacomuna/> states: Limba sarda comuna: una lingua realmente esistente: Sa Limba sarda comuna è naturale per il 92,8 per cento, è in posizione mediana rispetto a tutti i dialetti del sardo e può ancora essere migliorata per farla diventare la lingua ufficiale dei sardi. Limba sarda comuna: a language that in fact exists: Sa Limba sarda comuna is natural be 92,8 per cent, it is in an intermediate position compared to all Sardinian dialects and can still be improved to have it become the official language of the Sardinian people So they still want to improve the language ... nice ... 92,8 per cent of it is natural that means 7,2 percent is not natural. If I consider these percentages to what translators work with every day, that is the "matches" we get in our CAT tools, then 92,8 percent is a low percentage of being "natural". It seems to be high, but in fact it is not ... Let's say I translate any kind of text (a sentence for example) and my analysis software tells me that the text is up to 93% percent equal to another sentence I translated before, this means that I cannot leave the sentence as is, because I will need to change at least one word in the sentence to make it a proper translation of what is there. Just to give you an example: The house on the hill is green - that is what was translated before. Now I get such a 92,8 per cent match with a sentence like: the tree on the hill is green. If I left it as is: it would state something completely different. You can also look at it like this: The house on the hill is nice and green. - that is 100% English The house on the hill is nice and vert. - that is approx. 89 % English + 11% French (it is just a matter of playing with the amount of words to get the 92,8%) So what these 92,8% tell us: even if a huge part of it is considered to be built out of the "natural language part" it is still an artificial language. But what is a language and what is a dialect? Well: that very much depends from which POV you look at things. But ISO determined some rules to understand what a language is and what not. That is, before you can get an ISO 639 code for a language you need to prove that this languabe complies to the standard. Of course there are living languages that don't have an ISO code, because up to now nobody cared for them - I am just thinking about Griko Salentino, a language spoken and written in Italy - but if people care about that language, they will ask for it. What is a dialect ... a) a language without an army b) a way of expressing orally that developed out of a language and that has some differences , for example in pronunciation, some expressions etc, even having the same basics when it comes to grammar (just to mention one example) So could Campidanese (ISO 639-3: sro) Gallurese (ISO 639-3: sdn) Logudorese (ISO 639-3: src) Sassarese (ISO 639-3: sdc) be dialects of the Common Sardinian Language? Well ... only from a logical POV this is not possible, because they were there long before the Common Sardinian Language was created ... By having their ISO 639 code, when they requested that code, they complied to the requests of the International Standardisation Organisation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO> and therefore, on an international level they are considered to be languages even with an ISO code. Please let me repeat: there are languages that don't have one, but these can request a code ... When it comes to the language committee we had to draw a line somewhere and this line should not come from us, that is: it is NOT up to the members of the language committee to decide what a language is or not. We needed some kind of standard to apply and the clearest one was and still is the ISO standard. So if somebody wants to complain and say that the four languages above are in fact dialects of Sardinian and not languages, we should kindly invite them to create their papers and contact ISO directly to have the ISO 639-3 language code taken away ... it is NOT up to the language committee to take such decisions. Another thing people should then also consider to do: also UNESCO states that these four languages are languages and they are in the red book of endangered languages - so if whoever states that they are not languages and he/she is so sure about it: they should also contact UNESCO. It is NOT up to the language committee to take such decisions as to delete four languages out of the endangered languages list ... Sorry for me being so ironical, but: when such discussions about what is and what is not a language come up ... well: before you come to us, please go to the INTERNATIONAL bodies that deal with the question. We are only normal people that base their decisions on standards and can tell people where to go to request their code, but we can nor create that code, nor influence what is recognised on an international level. (Nor do we want to do that). Now to the question of sc.wikipedia ... I remember that, at the beginning, sc.wikipedia tried to host all of the Sardinian languages, then someone came up and decided to make sc.wikipedia a Limba Sarda Comune wikipedia only. Well: the Limba Sarda Comune is being used by Sardinian Authorities to facilitate their work. In any case the code "sc" stands for the macro language Sardinian and not for the Limba Sarda Comune, so there is no reason why it should have the right to claim that code for the language. That is the Limba Sarda Comune, like any other language in the world that wants recognition by ISO must request an own ISO 639 code. It is not an option to simply say: now let's take that one since it is there ... well the one that is there stands for something else. The question of the actual sc.wikipedia came up because of people telling us that Sassarese is not a language, but a dialect of Sardinian and that the Limba Sarda Comune (Common Sardinian Language) is the only "right language" of Sardinia. Well again: it is not us who is going to decide on Sassarese and the other three being or not being a language - we rely on ISO 639-3 codes since we had to draw a line and avoid to simply assert things. It is not us who is going to decide if the Limba Sarda Comune is going to get an ISO 639 code. If you, who read this, are interested in this matter, it is up to you to get things on their way. See: the decision to base whatever we do on ISO 639-3 was one of the wisest decisions ever taken within the language committee ... imagine which fights (almost all political based) we would have if we did not do this. Just to make things clear - I repeat it again: a) we do NOT decide if something is a language or not b) we base our decisions on ISO 639-3 c) we actually need a solution for various scripts used for one language d) we would love to see Multilingual Mediawiki there since it could be used to create easily sustainable communities e) we are not going to go ahead on discussing if Sassarese is a language or not (it has a code) f) we will need to find a solution for Limba Sarda Comune which does NOT have an ISO 639 code and is using the sc code in an improper way. Thank you for your patience and understanding. -- Posted By Sabine Cretella to words & more <http://sabinecretella.blogspot.com/2007/09/sardininan-sassarese-languages-o…> at 9/11/2007 08:53:00 AM

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[Foundation-l] Sassarese and Sardinian
by GerardM 11 Sep '07

11 Sep '07

There is a Wikipedia in the Sardinian language<http://sc.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A0gina_printzipale>. It uses the sc ISO-639-1 code. What was known as Sardinian became srd in the ISO-639-2. In the ISO-639-3 it was recognised as a macrolanguage<http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/scope.asp#M>; practically what was called Sardinian was split into four languages<http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=srd> . The Italian government has officially recognised the Sardinian language or the "Limba Sarda Comune". This is in essence a constructed language as it tries to make one language out of the four "dialects". One of the effects has been that some people prevent others from writing in one of the four languages on the sc.wikpedia. The language committee of the Wikimedia Foundation has a request to approve a new language; one of the Sardinian languages, Sassarese with ISO code sdc. There are two problems to deal with: - The "Limba Sarda Comune" is not recognised as a language - The proponents of the "Limba Sarda Comune" reserve the sc.wikipediafor their language This issue is political. The first thing that I understand when you go to the official website <http://www.sardegnacultura.it/linguasarda/> is the notion of identity and indeed, to create one Sardinian identity it would be instrumental to have a unifying language. However, the map of the Sardinian languages <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lingue_di_Sardegna_mod.gif> is clear, the island is divided in four. Given that the language committee has as one of its rules that political arguments are not accepted, there are a few conclusions that we should make. 1. Sassarese can have a conditional approval 2. We urge the proponents of the Limba Sarda Comune to ask for the recognition of this newly constructed language from ISO. I have had a chat with Debbie Garside<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Advisory_board#Debbie_Garside>about all this, and I understand that it is necessary to apply for an ISO-639-3 code before an IANA language code is likely to be approved. At least fifty published works in the Limba Sarda Comune will be required. Thanks, GerardM

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Re: [Foundation-l] Sassarese and Sardinian
by rfrangi＠libero.it 11 Sep '07

11 Sep '07

>Mark Williamson wrote: > Then why don't we have a Romanesco WP? Because no one requested it? Roberto (Snowdog) ------------------------------------------------------ Leggi GRATIS le tue mail con il telefonino i-mode di Wind http://i-mode.wind.it/

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Wikimedia-l September 2007