Wikimedia-l February 2011

wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

124 participants
112 discussions

Re: [Foundation-l] Missing Wikipedians: An Essay
by WJhonson＠aol.com 20 Feb '11

20 Feb '11

Ral I know you'd like to give the benefit of good faith to all admins. However, if we actually have admins who are deleting articles so quickly that they fat-finger the *reasons* then we have a serious problem. No thinkee is quite close to admin abuse. As a community we should be bending over backward to *at any cost* (any, any, at any) avoid the creation of more vandals. At.. Any... Cost. We want more productive editors. We do not want to create more people feeling wounded ego. If we have to put up with stubs, nonsense, and similar things for a tiny bit, it's well worth the effort of inclusiveness. The net is not paper. W In a message dated 2/20/2011 1:22:07 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, WJhonson(a)aol.com writes: In a message dated 2/19/2011 4:18:52 PM Pacific Standard Time, thewub.wiki(a)googlemail.com writes: > Deletion log for Makmende: > * 00:37, 24 March 2010 Flyguy649 (talk | contribs) deleted “Makmende” > ? (CSD G3: Pure Vandalism) > * 22:53, 23 March 2010 Malik Shabazz (talk | contribs) deleted > “Makmende” ? (G12: Unambiguous copyright infringement (CSDH)) > * 18:30, 23 March 2010 JoJan (talk | contribs) deleted “Makmende” ? > (G1: Patent nonsense, meaningless, or incomprehensible) > > The entire content of the first version to be deleted? > "Makmende. Kenyan Superhero. Spawned. Not born. Amphibious. Breaths > underwater." >

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Re: [Foundation-l] Missing Wikipedians: An Essay
by WJhonson＠aol.com 20 Feb '11

20 Feb '11

In a message dated 2/19/2011 4:18:52 PM Pacific Standard Time, thewub.wiki(a)googlemail.com writes: > Deletion log for Makmende: > * 00:37, 24 March 2010 Flyguy649 (talk | contribs) deleted “Makmende” > ? (CSD G3: Pure Vandalism) > * 22:53, 23 March 2010 Malik Shabazz (talk | contribs) deleted > “Makmende” ? (G12: Unambiguous copyright infringement (CSDH)) > * 18:30, 23 March 2010 JoJan (talk | contribs) deleted “Makmende” ? > (G1: Patent nonsense, meaningless, or incomprehensible) > > The entire content of the first version to be deleted? > "Makmende. Kenyan Superhero. Spawned. Not born. Amphibious. Breaths > underwater." > I have a problem with this admin comprehending what exactly "Vandalism" means. In what way is the initial version "vandalism". If I cared enough I would suggest that re-training might be appropriate here. W

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[Foundation-l] Missing Wikipedians: An Essay
by aude 20 Feb '11

20 Feb '11

Heather Ford, a former Wikimedia advisory board member and researcher/writer in South Africa has written an essay, "The Missing Wikipedians" about systematic bias on English Wikipedia (especially) against new users and topics pertinent to Africa and other diverse places/people. As an example, she cites the English Wikipedia article [[Makmende]] and the deletion request made, biting the newbie. http://hblog.org/2011/02/16/the-missing-wikipedians/ Please read and discuss. What might we do to help make Wikipedia a more welcoming place for newbies and for such diverse topics? Cheers, Katie (@aude)

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[Foundation-l] Document Foundation fundraising
by Milos Rancic 18 Feb '11

18 Feb '11

While it is likely that they will achieve $50.000 somehow [1], it would be good that WMF (1) donate them some sum of money and (2) to cover the remainder, if they would have any. [1] http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/18/0021207/The-Document-Foundation-Lau…

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[Foundation-l] The matrix, reloaded (movement roles, or who does what in Wikimedia?)
by Delphine Ménard 18 Feb '11

18 Feb '11

Hi all, The Movement Roles Project (which you've probably heard about but are not really sure what it is about [1]) continues to go forward. After an in-person meeting two or so weeks ago, which produced a whole lot of (interesting) notes [2], we're breaking down the main outcomes of the meeting for you (yes, you, and you, and you over there) to comment, twist, change, add to, substract from, develop and {{insert new collaboration-related word here}}. The first part of those notes put up for scrutiny is known as "the roles matrix." To make a long story short, this matrix was put together after a brainstorming session at our last meeting to try and define what roles and responsibilities exist on the organisational level in Wikimedia, and who fulfills those roles. It sounds daunting, but really, it is a lot more fun that one may think. So. The roles matrix is here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_project/Roles_Matrix for your perusal. If you're interested in some background about the matrix, read the whole page. It's not too long. If you're not, please just hack away in the matrix here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_project/Roles_Matrix#The_Role… or share your ideas on the talk page here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Movement_roles_project/Roles_Matrix Bottom line is: we need you. Really, we do. We need you to bring new perspectives, fresh ideas, insight and hindsight, crazy and thoughtful proposals, and most of all, constructive criticism. So please, follow the links and tell us a piece of your mind. Thanks, Best, Delphine [1] If I had to summarize it, I'd probably start by calling it "the organisational development project". The next level of summarizing would be "Trying to put together a comprehensive charter which captures the roles and responsibilities of different people and organisations in the Wikimedia movement, as well as defines a frame for their interactions". For the next level, you might want to read the meta page about it here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_project/Proposal [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_roles_project/2011-01-29 -- @notafish NB. This gmail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails will get lost. Intercultural musings: Ceci n'est pas une endive - http://blog.notanendive.org Photos with simple eyes: notaphoto - http://photo.notafish.org

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[Foundation-l] Do WMF want enwp.org?
by Thomas Wang 18 Feb '11

18 Feb '11

Hi! If WMF want enwp.org I will gladly hand it over. -Thomas

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[Foundation-l] Khan Academy
by Lodewijk 17 Feb '11

17 Feb '11

Hi, probably a lot of people know http://www.khanacademy.org . Really cool stuff, that could potentially be a great base for Wikibooks etc, and Wikimedia could possibly be a great help in getting stuff translated, subtitled etc. However, it is NC-licensed. Did anyone ever have contact with Salman Khan about licensing under CCBYSA? Lodewijk

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[Foundation-l] Announcing Hisham Mundol as WMF consultant for National Programs, India
by Barry Newstead 17 Feb '11

17 Feb '11

Dear colleagues, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Hisham Mundol as a consultant to the Wikimedia Foundation to support us in our program initiatives in India. As you know, the Wikimedia Foundation declared India to be a strategic priority during the strategic planning process [1]. I announced our plans for the formation of an office in August 2010 and the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees approved the creation of the Wikimedia India chapter in June 2010. India is a priority for the Wikimedia movement as it has a strong and growing community of Wikimedians building the Indic and English language projects. It is a country where the Wikimedia movement can achieve our mission and learn important lessons for achieving impact elsewhere. The engagement of Hisham will enable the Wikimedia Foundation to pilot new initiatives aimed at accelerating the growth of the community in India. I am very happy we’ve now reached this point. As I have mentioned in the past, we have a lot of momentum in India but we have a long way to go to achieve our full potential as a movement. Indians represent 4% of the world’s Internet users today (and this share is growing), yet they only represent 1.5% of page edits on Wikipedia. We should be able to rapidly increase this share - across all projects - and expand readership in a corresponding fashion. Hisham’s title will be Consultant, India National Programs. He will report to me. His role will be to design and implement specific pilot programs that encourage many more Indians to become contributors to our projects in Indic languages as well as English. The National Programs initiative will focus on the following areas in the first year: - Design and implement an India-wide program to increase Wikimedia’s footprint on university and college campuses with students and faculty with the aim of encouraging contributions to Wikimedia projects - Support the launch and implementation of community-initiated programs that seek to increase the editor base for Wikimedia projects - Engage with the community and chapter to build a strong relationship among these stakeholder groups and create communications forums that allow for effective partnerships As a newcomer to the Wikimedia movement, Hisham’s first task will be to deepen his understanding of us: our history, goals, values, culture and mission. To that end, he will be spending the coming weeks (not months!) in learning mode: Hisham and I will be meeting with community members in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore on Feb 23-25 and then Hisham will join community meetings across the country as they occur. Hisham will also spend time in San Francisco with the staff of the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as with other like-minded individuals and organizations and he will attend the chapter conference in Berlin. Hisham will be creating a workspace on strategy wiki where he will share what he is learning and develop the core elements of the action plan going forward. We encourage active community engagement on this wiki. We aim to move to action quickly and welcome input and guidance from across the community. Hisham was most recently a consultant with the Public Health Foundation of India (in a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). He designed and implemented large-scale national programs on HIV/AIDS prevention. He worked to understand the dynamics of hard-to-reach communities by conducting in-depth, on-the-ground analysis (ask him to tell you about his experience talking to drivers while sitting under their trucks). The programs he designed and implemented sought to convince people in large numbers - 400 million young people across the nation - to change very personal behaviours. While we are not tackling issues of such an intimate nature, we do aim to convince large numbers of people across the country to contribute their personal time to Wikimedia projects. During this assignment, Hisham worked closely with public, private and community groups (local and international) to work through the details of the programs and build partnerships for implementing them at scale. He did so in a manner that used persuasion rather than power to build support to move things forward. We think his experience navigating these varied groups position him well to work in the Wikimedia community. His earlier career was in marketing and business development with a number of well-known businesses: Infosys, Accenture, Cadbury and Unilever. This experience positions him well to engage with a movement and organization that is global in nature, in particular to work with a team that is based halfway around the world. We have scheduled an IRC chat with Hisham and myself for Thursday, February 17 at 22:00 India Standard Time (16:30 UTC). I want to thank everyone who helped in the selection process that identified Hisham. It was a five month process in which we made an open call for consultants (using my visit in September to drum up interest via conversations with the community and the media) in India and around the world. We had 197 applicants from a wide range of professional backgrounds. Egon Zehnder’s India office, part of a leading global executive search firm, helped screen candidates and manage the process. Egon Zehnder conducted indepth interviews with 25 candidates based on the inputs from Bishakha and I who helped shortlist. I interviewed 12 candidates via Skype in the first round and then I had the help of Bishakha Datta and Achal Prabhala to interview the top seven in person in Bangalore. Our top two candidates met with Sue and Erik in Delhi and then Hisham met with the entire WMF leadership team and a broad group of staff members in San Francisco. We are very happy with the selection of Hisham. We recognize that we did not manage to hire someone from inside the Wikimedia community or the open source community. We did look for people with this background and one of our finalists was a long time open source advocate. We also engaged with a long time Wikimedian for a role, though he ultimately decided to withdraw for personal reasons. We are committed to seeing Hisham integrate himself into the community quickly and to seeing him add people to his team from the community. We hope that the community will engage actively with him to bring him into the fold. Hisham will most definitely bring fresh perspectives to the movement that will help us grow and change for the better. Please join me in welcoming Hisham to the Wikimedia movement. Note: An FAQ will be posted shortly. Best, Barry [1] *http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan/Role_of_the_WMF*<http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Plan/Role_of_the_WMF> [2] * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2010-August/000850.ht… *<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2010-August/000850.ht…> -- Barry Newstead Chief Global Development Officer Wikimedia Foundation

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[Foundation-l] BBC: An 'English goddess' for India's down-trodden
by David Gerard 16 Feb '11

16 Feb '11

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12355740 The Dalits (Untouchables) see English as utterly necessary to breaking out of their current sociocultural trap, and never mind the local languages. That said, education is good. What can we do that might help people along? - d.

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[Foundation-l] Wikipedia lesson in Maharashtra class 7 textbook ( India)
by CherianTinu Abraham 15 Feb '11

15 Feb '11

Maharashtra State SSC syllabus , 7th standard ( Class) has a chapter on Wikipedia. http://twitpic.com/40b7oj ( See below for more details) The text book is called Balbarathi and in English. Note that state syllabus is applicable for most schools in state of Maharashtra in India. Some time back I heard Kerala state syllabus also had plans ( already incorporated ? ) a chapter on Wikipedia in Malayalam... Regards Tinu Cherian On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 10:25 AM, Pradeep Mohandas < pradeep.mohandas(a)gmail.com> wrote: > hi, > > Was very surprised to see a lesson on Wikipedia in my brother's 7th std > text book today. > > Picture - http://twitpic.com/40b7oj > > The content is concerning Wikipedia - compares it with an encyclopedia, > details about volunteers contributing to Wikipedia, talks about the presence > of Indic language Wikipedia, talks about vandalism. > > It has the following sub-topics: > 1. Introduction > 2. What is an encyclopedia? > 3. What is Wikipedia? > 4. How is Wikipedia created? > 5. sidebar: general info on Wikipedia wef September 2009 > 6. sidebar: How is Wikipedia different from an encyclopedia printed on > paper? > 7. vandalism > 8. Wikipedia policy > 9. Request an article > > warm regards, > Pradeep > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimediaindia-l mailing list > Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l > >

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Wikimedia-l February 2011