Wikimedia-l April 2011

wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

113 participants
109 discussions

[Foundation-l] nth largest site on the Internet, and what we should measure ourselves by instead
by WereSpielChequers 12 Apr '11

12 Apr '11

Re the argument that we should trumpet ourselves as, or even be be concerned as to whether we are the 5th largest site on the Internet. Our remit is to make the world's knowledge freely available to all, and the Internet is by far the most important medium we use to do that. If fewer people were using the Internet, or fewer Internet users were visiting our sites, then yes that should worry us. At present we seem to be growing at the same rate as the Internet, if that changed it would be interesting to know why. If it was just 100 million people watching two hours a week less terrestrial TV and two hours a week more web TV and BBC Iplayer, and as a result our share of Internet time going down, then that would be interesting, though not very relevant. Our position in the league table of largest sites does not matter, is out of our control and does not reflect our success as an organisation. If a grand merger of various porn sites meant that a porn site replaced us as the fifth site on the internet, but Wikimedia, Wikipedia, and porn all had the same share of the Internet as before, it would neither compromise our mission nor be a problem to us. Equally if some UN based anti trust measure forced Google to break into three equal sized chunks, would we care that we dropped into 7th place with the three babyGoogles in positions 2, 3 and 4? There are plenty of metrics that would measure our success, our size relative to an assortment of search engines and social media networks tells us more about google and Facebook's success vis a vis their competitors than it tells us anything about us. What is damaging about the "fifth largest website" claim is that people pay more attention to the things that they measure success by. I'd be more interested in: 1 Of the literate (or potentially literate) members of the Human race, what percentage visited one or more of our sites in the last 30, and 90 days (I hope we can all agree that the under 5s are outside our remit, though I suspect it would be difficult to agree whether our target audience is 80 or 90% of humanity). 2 If we commissioned an outside body to check 1,000 random facts on Wikipedia every month. How accurate would we be? And after a few months, what would the trend be? If we remain a top ten site, or frankly a top fifty site, other people will notice and comment on that. We don't need to, instead we should measure and define ourselves in ways that more closely reflect our mission. WereSpielChequers > Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:29:49 +0200 > From: "Federico Leva (Nemo)" <nemowiki(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Outdated manual > To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List > <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Message-ID: <4DA4299D.1040500(a)gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > MZMcBride, 12/04/2011 02:32: >>> If WMF websites happened to be overtaken by Ask.com or some other >>> website, it would be good to be forced to change the habit of how we >>> describe them. >> >> If you use more generic language, the likelihood of needing to update that >> language later decreases. > > Yes, and my point is that it would be a bad thing: it's better if you're > forced to consider it a problem (as it would be). > > Nemo > >

1 0

[Foundation-l] Outdated manual
by Milos Rancic 12 Apr '11

12 Apr '11

May someone update manual in which it is written that Wikipedia is the fifth site by traffic? For the most of 2010 and whole 2011 it has varied between 6th and 8th place [1]. Repeating that it's on the 5th place says about us one or both of the next two things: * We are out of reality. * We are using false information in our PR. I would say that it is about repeating an information written somewhere again and again. However, it is not so obvious to outsiders. [1] http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org

12 19

[Foundation-l] The Signpost – Volume 7, Issue 15 – 11 April 2011
by Wikipedia Signpost 12 Apr '11

12 Apr '11

1 0

[Foundation-l] IRC office hours with Sue Gardner, Thursday April 14th
by Steven Walling 12 Apr '11

12 Apr '11

Hi everyone, Just a notice that on Thursday the 14th at 23:00 UTC, we'll have IRC office hours with Sue Gardner in #wikimedia-office. The loose topic is new editor retention, in light of the recent resolution passed by the Board. We'd especially love to chat with people on the front lines of activities like New Page Patrol etc. As usual, instructions for when and how to participate are on Meta.[1] Thank you! -- Steven Walling Fellow at Wikimedia Foundation wikimediafoundation.org 1. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours

1 0

[Foundation-l] university of innsbruck, institute of zoology, combines teaching, science and wikipedia
by THURNER rupert 11 Apr '11

11 Apr '11

hi, thorsten schwerte and stefan stolz from the institute for zoology, university of innsbruck, austria, launchsted an interesting program to combine teaching, e-learning, science and wikipedia during the biology course by preparing articles in an internal wiki and then transferring it to wikipedia [1][2]. kr, rupert [1] - http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:UIBK-Bio [2] - http://www.uibk.ac.at/public-relations/presse/archiv/2011/041101/index.html…

1 0

[Foundation-l] [Fwd: [i-announce@ischool] Design Futures talk, April 13: Parul Vora (Wikimedia Foundation) - Participation, Collaboration, and Engagement]
by Fred Bauder 11 Apr '11

11 Apr '11

--------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: [i-announce@ischool] Design Futures talk, April 13: Parul Vora (Wikimedia Foundation) - Participation, Collaboration, and Engagement From: "Elizabeth Goodman" <egoodman(a)ischool.berkeley.edu> Date: Mon, April 11, 2011 1:05 pm To: design-events(a)ischool.berkeley.edu i-announce(a)ischool.berkeley.edu "Berkeley Institute of Design Lab" <bid-lab(a)lists.berkeley.edu> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> <div style="margin: 0px;">Wednesday April 13<br> </div> 6:00 - 7:30 pm <p>Parul Vora, <a href="http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home" target="_blank">Wikimedia Foundation</a> and <a href="http://www.thelaboratorium.com/index2.html" target="_blank">The Laboratorium</a><br> <i>Participation, Collaboration, and Engagement</i></p> <p>People don’t always do what’s profitable, they also do what’s fun. People don’t always do what serves their self-interests, they also do what is collectively right and good. People aren’t always rational and predictable, sometimes they are novel and creative. This talk presents studies, artworks, and projects that embrace these human motivations to be social, participatory, and collaborative, including Wikipedia, a practical and functioning example of the power of human cooperation and collective action. Wikipedia substantiates our idealism, but it’s not without issue and it’s mission demands the projects’ perpetual evolution. This talk will also present some of the challenges that Wikipedia faces to keep up in the ecosystem of online engagement it helped create. </p> <p>Parul Vora is a Designer, Researcher, Technologist, User Experience Specialist, Hacker, and Interactive Artist. She has studied at UC Berkeley, Columbia, the MIT Media Lab, the Stanford d.school, at home, in the shop, and out of doors. Her work involves the study, exploration, and creation of human participation and connectedness as mediated by technology. She is currently and researcher and design strategist at the Wikimedia Foundation and has recently worked at yhaus (the Design Innovation Team at Yahoo!), Y!RB (Yahoo Research Berkeley), and Urban Atmospheres. She also has a particular dispostion for robots, bicycles, polaroid cameras, absurdist humor, halloween, lo-fi music, michel gondry movies, and her husband Jeff. She begins most conversations with “Wouldn’t it be cool if……?” and ends them with “Why not?”<br> <br> </p> <div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-western"> <div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-western"> <div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-western"> <div style="margin: 0px;"> <p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify; line-height: 18px;" align="justify">Talks located at Berkeley Center for New Media Commons,<br> 340 Moffitt Library, near the Free Speech Cafe (<a href="http://tinyurl.com/bcnmcommons">map</a>)<br> UC Berkeley</p> <p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px; text-align: justify; line-height: 18px;" align="justify">------------------------------<br> <small><b>News</b><br> <a href="http://groups.ischool.berkeley.edu/dbox/?page_id=62">Video of Chris Hecker's talk on game design</a> uploaded. </small><br> ------------------------------</p> </div> <small>Please see <a href="http://groups.ischool.berkeley.edu/dbox/">http://groups.ischool.berkeley.edu/dbox/</a> for a full schedule of Spring 2011 events. d.box is a media and design-research workshop that supports UC Berkeley designers, scientists, and artists. It is a space for both producing and critically engaging with new media and design through discussions, hands-on workshops, and design-research projects. For questions and comments please write to us at: <a href="mailto:dbox@ischool.berkeley.edu">dbox(a)ischool.berkeley.edu</a>. </small> </div> </div> <br> </div> <br> <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- ********************************** PhD candidate School of Information University of California, Berkeley <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/~egoodman">www.ischool.berkeley.edu/~egoodman</a> ********************************** </pre> </body> </html> -- This message was sent to i-announce(a)ischool.berkeley.edu Unsubscribe or update your options: https://calmail.berkeley.edu/manage/list/options/i-announce@ischool.berkele…

1 0

Re: [Foundation-l] Board Resolution: Openness
by Virgilio A. P. Machado 11 Apr '11

11 Apr '11

Of course there are problems, some of them in plain English. Is anybody on this list able to do anything about them? I'm sure there is. That is why I have posted here so many times asking for help. Have I received any help? None whatsoever. It's kind of hard to believe that any assiduous member of this list is totally unaware of my "Request for assistance" posted Jan. 5. That's already more than three months ago. Have I seen any results? You bet. You can see by yourself looking at my Meta talk page from http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Vapmachado#Block all the way down to the declining of my request to unblock "with an expiry time of infinite", on Jan. 16. Am I nursing a grievance? You bet I am. For three months and still counting. Will I ever forgive? There's nothing to forgive. Will I ever forget? Never. I can assure you that is not in my nature. Once someone gets on my ignore mode it stays there until chickens grow teeth. Am I trying to milk it? There's nothing to milk. I'm not sure of the exact meaning in which that expression was used, but anyway I look at it, it does not seem very relevant. Nevertheless you can bet that I believe that one day the chickens will come home to roost. Except for overlooking a bunch of my previous requests for help, including the one above, it seems you were paying perfect attention and you got my tone wright: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore! I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about Meta, the Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Sincerely, Virgilio A. P. Machado (Vapmachado) At 12:57 10-04-2011, you wrote: > > What is the purpose of all those questions? I've always provided that > > information to this list and if anything ever come out of it, besides > > being scolded by the list masters for making off-list posts, was to > > gain a new following of admirers. > > > > Sincerely, > > > > Virgilio A. P. Machado > >The reason to ask is because if there is a problem we might be able to >resolve it. At this point I don't know what your problem was or is. You >seem to be nursing a grievance; trying to milk it rather than solving it. > >I'm sorry if I've not paid perfect attention, but I don't think I've got >the tone wrong. > >Fred > > > > > > > At 19:47 09-04-2011, you wrote: > > > >>Was there an arbitration case? Or other dispute resolution events? If > >> so, > >>could you share your reactions to the fairness and comprehensiveness of > >>what happened? Please give us some links... > >> > >>Fred

1 0

[Foundation-l] "How many articles have you created?"
by Amir E. Aharoni 10 Apr '11

10 Apr '11

Being a linguist i am often asked how many languages do i speak. I don't like that question, because that's not exactly what Linguistics is about. Being a Wikipedian i am often asked how many articles did i write. I don't like that question either, because most work on Wikipedia is about improving existing articles, not about creating new ones. On the discussion about the "Proposal to require autoconfirmed status in order to create articles" in the English Wikipedia some people commented that creating articles is not so important anyway, that the growing amount of articles makes it harder to maintain them and that there should be more effort to explain people that they should join Wikipedia to improve the existing articles and now just to create new ones. This is not a strong argument to support this anti-wiki proposal to further restrict article creation in en.wp, but it is true by itself. There have been attempts to tackle it: SJ's lightning talk about The Best Page On Wikipedia (WP:BACKLOG) in the NYC meetup last August and advertising WP:BACKLOG in the en.wp watchlist are examples of that. The Hebrew Wikipedia conducts "no new articles" days every now and then, where the editors are encouraged - not enforced - to improve existing articles rather than create new ones; unfortunately, i have no data about how well it works. I would be happy to hear about such efforts in other projects. -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com "We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore

8 9

Re: [Foundation-l] Can it get any worse?
by Victor Vasiliev 10 Apr '11

10 Apr '11

On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 12:47 AM, Virgilio A. P. Machado <vam(a)fct.unl.pt> wrote: > Of course. No doubt about it. We have now reached a level beyond > personal attacks. Now my name is used as a thread. So much for "focus > on the comment, not the person making the comment." Pity you prefer to assume bad faith (I'd even say worst faith) instead of replying to the comments (discussing a tone of a messages is neighboring with personal attacks in Graham's hierarchy of disagreement). Now, following your logic, when we use Newton's laws of motion to solve a physical problem, we are focusing on Newton's personality. Nice? --vvv

2 1

[Foundation-l] Strategy wiki
by WereSpielChequers 10 Apr '11

10 Apr '11

I'm not convinced that the need to retype your password was the only or even the main reason why Strategy had relatively few participants from the community. Using Strategy as a testbed for liquid threads was also a contributory factor, I'm sure I wasn't the only person who had problems with that. I think it would have been better to ask for one of the smaller wikis to volunteer - perhaps with a promise of extra developer resource in compensation. But using Strategy as a pilot for Liquid threads meant that for most editors the Strategy wiki was less familiar than it needed to be, and when there were glitches with Liquid threads it was all too easy to stop editing on Strategy and go back to your home wiki, that's certainly what I did. I suspect that launching a completely new wiki where all banned users could come and troll was slightly too brave and open a move for some editors, and that it would have been better to have run Strategy as a project within meta. In fact if we are serious about the simplification agenda then migrating the contents of Strategy to meta would be a logical step to take, perhaps also with a rename to "new ideas" as that was what it effectively became. WereSpielChequers > Message: 8 > Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:08:31 -0500 > From: MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Board Resolution: Openness > To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List > <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Message-ID: <C9C6A57F.1083D%z(a)mzmcbride.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > > Risker wrote: >> As far as I know, since always, Casey. One must log in separately there; >> going from another WMF project, one's login doesn't follow. One of the main >> reasons for the creation of SUL was so users could go from WMF project to >> project without having to log in again; partly for ease of use, but also >> because there are an awful lot of editors who don't want to link their >> usernames to their IP addresses, even accidentally. Especially now that most >> experienced users take SUL for granted, it's a barrier to participation when >> a link to a WMF project seeking broad participation requires editors to log >> in again, and hope that someone else hasn't created an account with their >> username first. > > You're both right. In a literal sense, strategy.wikimedia.org doesn't work > with unified login. That is, when you log in through en.wikipedia.org or > elsewhere, you won't be logged in to every place where you have a Wikimedia > account of the same name. (Though I think if you log in through > strategy.wikimedia.org, you get the cookies for that site and the other > sites, but you still wouldn't get the cookies for other *.wikimedia.org > wikis.) A lot of people say "unified login" to mean you don't need to > re-register your account and that your account will be linked to a global > account of the same name, not that it will be automatically logged in, > however. That was Casey's confusion. > > This particular issue is the subject of bug 14407.[1] Whether it's a real > barrier to entry, I don't know. The people involved in content work really > don't need to be sucked into the kind of place that strategy.wikimedia.org > is, in my opinion. :-) > > MZMcBride > > [1] https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14407 >

3 2

← Newer
1
...
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Older →

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

Wikimedia-l April 2011