I'm really sorry to hear this news. Rand has done a huge amount to help the mission and his fundraising has allowed all of us to pursue the mission in ways we wouldn't have dreamed of a few years ago when he joined. We'll miss him and his commitment.
On Jul 2, 2010, at 11:21 AM, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I regret to inform you that Rand Montoya will be leaving the Wikimedia
> Foundation. His last day with us will be September 30, 2010.
>
> Rand has generously agreed to support and advise us for the next three
> months as we're gearing up for the 2010 fundraiser while he looks for
> opportunities outside Wikimedia.
>
> Rand will especially help us close the loop on our discussions in
> Bristol: finalizing the next version of the chapters fundraising
> agreement, and coordinating a self-assessment process of the chapters
> fundraising work to-date.
>
> Since Rand joined us two years ago, he has been tremendously
> successful in his work for the Wikimedia Foundation. The 2008 and 2009
> fundraisers set new record revenue numbers for the organization, and
> have enabled us to expand our mission activities and grow our impact
> world-wide. Rand also helped us to establish good fundraising
> practices, including improved donor communication and cultivation, and
> led efforts to help the international Wikimedia chapters fundraise.
>
> Please join me in thanking Rand for all he has done for Wikimedia, and
> wishing him the best for his future.
>
> All best,
> Erik
> --
> Erik Möller
> Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
> _______________________________________________
> Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Foundation-L, the public mailing list about the Wikimedia Foundation and its projects. For more information about Foundation-L:
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> _______________________________________________
> WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list
> WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l
Hello,
Recently there has been a controversy on Wikipedia in German about
extra articles in simple language. Authors of its medical group wanted
to create sub pages suitable for children, believing in an urgent
need. [1]
In the discussion, the question of creating a Wikipedia in simple
German came up.
As we know, to-day Wikimedia language committee policies prohibit a
new Wikipedia in a language that already has a Wikipedia. The
existence of a Wikipedia in simple English refers to the fact that it
had been created before that policy of 2006.
There are a number of ideas and initiatives to create online
encyclopedias in "simple language", in and outside the Wikimedia
world. Wouldn't it be suitable to reconsider and try to give those
initiatives a place? Who else is more capable to create and support
such encyclopedias than we are?
Kind regards
Ziko van Dijk
[1] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/wiki/Wikipedia:Redaktion_Medizin/…
--
Ziko van Dijk
Niederlande
ΣXD＜Nice idea for disscuss saved.And user block framing Jadge.
'''[NEW!!]The rule of seven elevens.'''(or eleven seven)
Discuttion to seven article writed one disscuss.
One day to max 11 disscuss.(one disscuss to communication or write)
(USER block and framed block)
And UDER BLOCK vote user blocked to 22hour One suggestion,Apear to 22hour.
Do it later.Or your think to Ideas.
MOTOI Kenkichi
--
m┌───────────────────────────────┐
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iiii│━━━━━━━━''┣━━━━━━━━━━━━┫....│
iiii│〒５２９−１４４４ ...""┃To get your persona,let be.┃....│
iiii│滋賀県東近江市五個荘石塚町１９２−２−２−２０５Ｗ....│
iiii│基 建吉（もとい けんきち）.............................................""│
iiii│０７４８−２６−１９６６ ０９０−９８７１−９８０１................''''│
W└───────────────────────────────┘
Hello,
I posted this yesterday at wikitech-l and was told to ask this
question here at foundation-l.
I'm a member of the German language Wikipedia community and have a
question that no-one could give me a definite answer to so far. I hope
someone here can answer it, or point me to where I should go to get a
definite answer.
The question is, what level of self-determination do the 260 language
versions of Wikipedia have as to the design of their user interfaces
(skins)? Can individual wikis choose independently modifications of
their skins, and which of the available skins to use as the default
for unregistered users, or is this controlled centrally by the
Foundation?
For backgrund, this question arose after the German language Wikipedia
(de.wikipedia.org) was switched from Monobook to Vector as the default
skin on the 10th of June 2010, resulting in considerable criticism
from the community. On the more sober side of the debate, it was asked
whether it would be theoretically possible to return to Monobook as
the default skin, at least for some time until the biggest known
issues with Vector have been fixed. Under the theoretical scenario
that a majority voted for a return to Monobook as the default skin,
would it be possible at all to switch it back? Or would the Foundation
not permit that?
The question seems to be a very fundamental one and I would also
appreciate insights into the big picture. How independent are the
language versions? To what degree can they govern themselves and to
what degree are they bound by decisions made centrally by the
Foundation?
Thanks,
Martin
In a message dated 6/30/2010 5:36:14 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
wiki-list(a)phizz.demon.co.uk writes:
> If a way of halting the gross infringements can't be done. Then go back
> to hitting the seeders with $22,000 fines per infringed work. The
> economic costs of simply walking away and not stopping the piracy are
> too much.>>
The seeders.... you mean the people who actually load the material to the
net?
If so, no one is stopping the copyright *owners* from filing lawsuits
against Jane Doe.
So exactly what damage are you trying to contain here?
They know perfectly well how to do it, they've been doing it.
If you can't actually get 85 million dollars out of a 13-year-old girl,
well then that's your tough luck, welcome to jurisprudence U.S. style.
And if after you keep attacking housewives and children, your image is
horrible, well that's your tough luck as well.
If people hate you because you're trying to protect a work on which you
haven't *actually* made any income in thirty-five years.... that's your tough
luck.
I shouldn't use the work "luck" however in this case, since it implies you
didn't bring it upon yourself.
How about this counter-offensive. Threaten to repeal copyright to the
point, where any holder *only* gets ten years. That's it.
Ten years to make your money then it's public domain. We can call it the
"Knock it off or else" proposal.
Will "Tough Love" Johnson
In a message dated 7/1/2010 9:49:21 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
yannfo(a)gmail.com writes:
> The point is that the publishing industry _has_ to review its economic
> model
> with the new technical situation which is the Internet, and whether it
> publishes music, video or text. >>
----------------------------
Yann has hit it right on the head.
You can't plug every hole in the dam, while a guy down the row is busy
opening up a few new holes.
However what you can do, is realize that people are willing to use your
site only (cbs.com) to view old episodes of shows where you can exert full
control over what advertisements they see, and whether they have to make a
micropayment and so on.
What doesn't work in today's environment, is stating that the sole way of
obtaining the content is through an exorbitantly priced single hard-to-access
channel. The channel of choice today is the online channel and publishers
need to figure out how to work with it, to both protect their copyright AND
provide access.
Some publishers have figured it out, some are idiots and deserve what they
get.
The simplest way to stop bootlegging, is to provide access at a reasonable
cost.
Hello all,
I regret to inform you that Rand Montoya will be leaving the Wikimedia
Foundation. His last day with us will be September 30, 2010.
Rand has generously agreed to support and advise us for the next three
months as we're gearing up for the 2010 fundraiser while he looks for
opportunities outside Wikimedia.
Rand will especially help us close the loop on our discussions in
Bristol: finalizing the next version of the chapters fundraising
agreement, and coordinating a self-assessment process of the chapters
fundraising work to-date.
Since Rand joined us two years ago, he has been tremendously
successful in his work for the Wikimedia Foundation. The 2008 and 2009
fundraisers set new record revenue numbers for the organization, and
have enabled us to expand our mission activities and grow our impact
world-wide. Rand also helped us to establish good fundraising
practices, including improved donor communication and cultivation, and
led efforts to help the international Wikimedia chapters fundraise.
Please join me in thanking Rand for all he has done for Wikimedia, and
wishing him the best for his future.
All best,
Erik
--
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Possibly I may have missed a discussion (being a rather irregular reader of this list); but is the WMF
currently self-certifying under the International_Safe_Harbor_Privacy_Principles ?[1]
As an EU citizen, I would naturally like for my rights to be protected as thoroughly as possible. :-)
sincerely,
Kim Bruning
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Safe_Harbor_Privacy_Principles
--
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A couple of months ago, we was approached by an artist group which
idea is to raise cultural awareness by putting at billboards stylized
photos of (not so) famous [1] cultural and scientific persons from the
history of Serbia. They wanted to incorporate their art project into
Wikimedia Serbia projects and we've found that it is a great idea. The
project's site is likilink.org [2][3][4].
The project has been done without money. The main company which deals
with billboards in Serbia, Alma Quatro [5] is giving to us not used
billboards for free. "Not used" means, for example, if some billboard
campaign is lasting up to 15th of some month -- as they are renting
space on monthly basis -- the rest of the month is our. So, it is not
about bad locations; contrary, locations are top.
But, it was their initial idea, they will work on that, but, it is up
to Wikimedians to choose who will be the next persons on billboards
all over Serbia.
So, after the first couple of writers, the rest is up to them.
The first person on billboards is Radoje Domanovic [5], Serbian
satirist with Orwellian motives. Those billboards are presently at ~20
places in Belgrade, including large billboards at the highway entrance
to Belgrade.
The second group will be 5 persons with 30 billboards each:
* Two will be Serbian writers.
* One will be a female inventor from our previous, but not yet
finished project ("Female inventors") in cooperation with another
organization.
* One will be Richard Stallman.
* One will be Jimmy Wales.
Yes, Jimmy will get 30 billboards in Belgrade for one month :)
[1] - Famous, but not so as Nikola Tesla or Vuk Karadzic are.
[2] - "Lik i link" means "face/figure and link".
[3] - The billboards are designed as the image from the site, but with
link to the project's site and
[4] - Please, don't ask my why I've put just a JPEG with <map> >:| It
will be fixed today or tomorrow.
[5] - http://www.aqyu.com/
[6] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radoje_Domanovic