Dear all,
Wikimedia UK is very pleased to announce that after a very thorough
recruitment process we have appointed Jon Davies as our first Chief
Executive, starting next Monday. Jon has extensive experience in the
non-profit sector in the UK, and this will be his first Wikimedia role. Many
people in the UK community met Jon at the most recent London wikimeet, and
the whole Wikimedia UK board is very pleased that he is joining us. I am
sure Jon will be along to introduce himself in the next few days.
More details from Andrew Turvey at;
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2011/09/welcoming-our-new-chief-executive/
Regards,
Chris Keating
(User:The Land)
Wikimedia UK
Hi all,
Our fellowships
program<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships>is
growing, and I'm pleased to announce Jon
Harald Søby <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jon_Harald_S%C3%B8by> as
our newest Community Fellow. Jon brings 6 years of experience in the
Wikimedia community to his fellowship: he is an active editor, translator
and vandal fighter for several Wikimedia projects, an admin and bureaucrat
for Norwegian Wikipedia, and in the past has also been a steward, board
member for Wikimedia Norge, member of the election committee for Wikimedia
Norge and Wikimedia Sverige, and OTRS volunteer.
Language and localization are a major area of interest for Jon. Not only
does he help translate the MediaWiki interface and extensions, he's also a
founding member of the Language Committee and is finishing up a BA degree in
Linguistics from Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has
traveled widely is always thinking from a global perspective. All of this
makes Jon a great fit for his fellowship project, which is focused on
piloting a new model for volunteer translations in the 2011 Fundraiser.
(Full disclosure: Jon started working with WMF earlier this summer as a
Fundraiser Production Coordinator, but we just had to make him a Community
Fellow when we saw how much potential there was for this project!).
Jon's fellowship will run until February 2012. His project priorities
include recruiting and coordinating more translators for more languages,
building pages and processes that make it easier for new volunteers to get
started, and improving systems for producing high-quality translations. To
learn more about the project or volunteer to help, please visit the 2011
Fundraiser Translations
page<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2011/Translation>and
sign
up<https://sugar.corp.wikimedia.org/translators/translators.php?referrer=JonAn…>to
be a translator.
Welcome, Jon!
--
Siko Bouterse
Head of Community Fellowships
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
sbouterse(a)wikimedia.org
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Opinion essay: The global mission, the image filter and the "German question"
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-09-26/Opinion_essay
Recent research: Top female Wikipedians, reverted newbies, link spam, social influence on admin votes, Wikipedians' weekends, WikiSym previews
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-09-26/Recent_research
News and notes: WMF strikes down enwiki consensus, academic journal partnerships, and eyebrows raised over minors editing porn-related content
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-09-26/News_and_notes
In the news: Sockpuppeting journalist recants, search dominance threatened, new novels replete with Wikipedia references
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-09-26/In_the_news
WikiProject report: A project in overdrive: WikiProject Automobiles
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-09-26/WikiProject_report
Featured content: The best of the week
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-09-26/Featured_content
Arbitration report: "Broadly construed" explained, voting beings on Senkaku Islands case, invitation to comment on CU/OS candidates
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-09-26/Arbitration_report
Technology report: 1.18 deployment on track, "mythical" Git migration scheduled, editor decline statistics improved
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-09-26/Technology_report
Single page view
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signpost/Single
PDF version
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-09-26http://identi.ca/wikisignpost / https://twitter.com/wikisignpost
--
Wikipedia Signpost Staff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost
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Hi Phil,
Re your comment "nobody seems to be committed to clearing backlogs of
articles that actually provide legal, if not journalistic, risk for WP and
its parent".
You might want to have a look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Unreferenced_BLP_Rescue
Since Dashbot's run in January 2009 to the authors of unreferenced BLPs,
there has been a 21 month effort by hundreds, perhaps thousands of editors
involving hundreds of wiki projects. As a result our backlog of known
unreferenced BLPs has dropped by over 99% and the only month available to
the "random month of random unreferenced BLPs" squad is September 2011.
While the Death anomalies project has now been rolled out to 14 different
language versions of Wikipedia, and resolved thousands of anomalies.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Death_anomalies_table
OK one of the things we found fairly early in the unreferenced BLP cleanup
was that these are far from being the highest risk articles in the pedia.
But the initial focus on that backlog was because many thought it was one of
our highest risk areas (and at the time we didn't have many other higher
risk areas easily identified).
Yes we also have WikiProject Bacon and several other aspects of the pedia
that are less seriously focussed. Some things are as much about motivating
volunteers as anything else. If we hired a bunch of professional editors you
could probably dispense with some of that. But even with ten times the WMF
budget I'm not convinced that we could get as much edited, or as well. The
wonder of barnstars, wikilove, secret pages, userboxen and the like is that
so many volunteers have been motivated to do so much for so little reward.
BTW I was sorry to hear about your problems on EN wiki, I don't know the
details, but hope that in your case indef does not turn out to be permanent.
As far as I'm concerned discussion as to whether we are or are not
successfully improving the pedia are or at least should be well within the
scope of this list. I may not agree with your comment that "nobody seems to
be committed to clearing backlogs of articles" but I'm happy to defend your
right to say it.
TTFN
WereSpielChequers
On 22 September 2011 01:31, Phil Nash <phnash(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Carcharoth wrote:
> > On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 1:13 AM, Phil Nash <phnash(a)blueyonder.co.uk>
> > wrote:
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> >> [[User:Rodhullandemu]] - "still flying the flag for Wikipedia, for
> >> some inexplicable reason".
> >
> > Does this refer to this?
> >
> >
> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Rodhullandemu&diff=431917947…
> >
> > I'm not going to comment further, but I think others who respond to
> > your posts should be aware of this.
>
> Actually, you did comment further, and on a personal level; see below. And
> the lack of response in nearly nine hours to your post amply demonstrates,
> to me at least, how you seems to have missed the point.
>
> > What the scope of this mailing list should be (given your recent posts
> > on BLP matters, all copied to Jimmy Wales), is something I'd like to
> > see discussed by the list moderators and those posting here. If there
> > is a reason or rationale behind the posts, attempting to demonstrate
> > something, then fine, but it would be courteous to state that rather
> > then just post randomly like this.
>
> Starting at the back, and working forward, my posts are not random. They
> are
> carefully selected examples based on my experience as (currently) a reader
> of Wikipedia and my responses to what I found. I take it as obvious that if
> I can read these articles, so can their subjects, and if they don't like
> what they see, making appropriate noises, or (in extreme cases) litigating
> against the Foundation.
>
> We have BLP policies for that reason, and while I see editors on Wikipedia
> competing to provide articles about bacon(!), fiddling about with templates
> that are ostensibly fit for purpose as they are[1], and still arguing about
> trivial issues, nobody seems to be committed to clearing backlogs of
> articles that actually provide legal, if not journalistic, risk for WP and
> its parent. And there are myriad similar examples.
>
> My personal reasons are less important than making sure that this project
> does, and can, continue without unnecessary diversions into legalities-
> perhaps I've been spending too much time reading up Commons policies of
> late, one of which (to paraphrase) says that "just because nobody will
> notice a copyright violation is no reason to ignore policy"- and so it
> should be with any policy on any WMF project that may have consequences for
> the Foundation. I am available to discuss any non-apparent personal
> motivations PRIVATELY by email rather than on a public list. But don't
> assume that I don't have our project's viability at heart.
>
> As a lawyer by training, qualifications, experience, and observation, I've
> seen many operations thought to be acting blithely within the law crumble
> to
> the ground when the courts have upheld unexpected, but valid challenges.
> I'm
> not suggesting this is likely in our case; but neither is it beyond the
> bounds of possibility, and at least if I bring risks to the attention of
> others, my hands are clean.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> [1] and consuming unnecessary resources in TfDs
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> WikiEN-l mailing list
> WikiEN-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit:
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
>
And now for something completely different. :-)
Who here has already had their 10th wikibirthday, and who will have it soon?
Seems like an excuse for a party :-)
sincerely,
Kim 'TINC' Bruning
--
************************************************************
Wikizine.org's
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/___\ _ __ (_) _ __ (_) ___ _ __
// //| '_ \ | || '_ \ | | / _ \ | '_ \
/ \_// | |_) || || | | || || (_) || | | |
\___/ | .__/ |_||_| |_||_| \___/ |_| |_|
|_| EDITION
Year: 2011 Week: 39 Number: 129 BIS
************************************************************
An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
=== Wikizine needs YOU! ===
Wikipedia has already changed the world. Wikimedia movement is at the
beginning of that task. To push the movement into that direction,
Wikizine needs your '''bold''' ideas and personal perspectives! Send
your ideas to us or simply add them into the appropriate section. What
YOU think can change the world!
Send us email, give us feedback, write it on foundation-l, on Meta!
http://report.wikizine.orghttp://meta.wikizine.org
=== Contents ===
*Editorial
** Wikizine
** In the mean time on foundation-l...
** Wikinews: Criticism and fork
** Song of the week
*Personal perspective: The cows of Jimmy Walker
*In the news
Time machine
** 10 years ago
** 5 years ago
*From Wikipedia
=== Editorial by Milos ===
==== Wikizine ====
As you can see, there are two regular and one irregular editions of
Wikizine. Wikizine News should stay more or less like Wikizine always
was: plain news for Wikimedia community. Breaking News or Tech Flash
are for irregular editions for important news and they existed before,
as well.
Wikizine Opinion or Talk Edition or Weekend Edition (we still want to
get your input about the name of this edition!) should be for longer
reading, over weekends.
You can see that there are five main parts of this edition:
"Editorial", "Personal perspective", "In the news", "Time machine" and
"From Wikipedia".
Of those, "Time machine" debuts in this edition. It's about events in
and around the Wikimedia community ten and five years ago. We should
remind ourselves of past events and still modern ideas.
Thanks to Walter, Wikizine got its gopher [1] site [2]. Gopher existed
before the web and it was a non-graphical hypertext protocol. Just
~150 gopher sites left on the Internet by now. I was very happy when I
realized that. My only objection is that we have to find a way to have
the whole site in pure gopher menus and text, as some of the pages are
in HTML, which is a shame! You know, we are geeks, at last :)
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_%28protocol%29
[2] gopher://gopher.wikizine.org/
==== In the meantime on foundation-l... ====
Like with any good soap opera, after years of discussions about nudity
on Wikimedia projects and filtering it, you didn't miss anything! If
you join now, you would see the same people, the same relations
between them, the same intrigues, but in brand new packaging. But,
most importantly, something which you can't do with soap operas, YOU
can raise a pro or contra argument a year old and people would discuss
it seriously and with the same passion as it was at the beginning!
Once again, Wikimedia community proved that it's as vital as it was
years ago.
On my Gmail account I have 43 foundation-l threads for the period of
17-23 September. Of those:
21 about image filter and similar, including another of Larry Sanger's
self-promotional tweets
3 about forking Wikinews
3 about friendly organizations
4 chapter-related
3 WMF and tech related
2 related to languages
3 posts by internal bulletins (Wikipedia Signpost and Wikizine)
4 miscellaneous
==== Wikinews: criticism and fork ====
Wikinews was featured on foundation-l for the first time this month
when it was complained that the English Wikinews project has a
"codified bias toward non-Western articles" [1].
From a personal perspective, I can say that the English Wikinews,
unlike the English Wikipedia, has a significant number of native
English speakers who are not willing to accept non-English sources for
anything: news source or proof that a Wikinewsie is good enough editor
to become accredited journalist. A couple of years ago, I had a hard
time trying to convince them to give accreditation to one Serbian and
one Polish Wikinewsie. But, fortunately, the core of editors are sane
enough.
Last week The Open Globe [2][3], a Wikinews fork, was created. That
triggered long discussions about Wikipedia's sister projects and their
ability to be self-sustainable.
----
In 2007 I made a deal with Beta News Agency [4], the main
privately-owned news agency from Serbia, to give to Wikinews short
news for free. The deal is, actually, that we've got everything from
Beta's site under CC-BY 2.5 license. As you can see, besides Serbian,
there are news services in English [5], Hungarian [6], Romani [7] and
Albanian [8]. Four existing and one non-existing edition are able to
get high quality news, mostly from Serbia.
A bot is running on Serbian Wikinews and adding news from Beta.
Because of that, Serbian Wikinews has almost as many articles as all
other Wikinews editions [9].
However, the bot on Serbian Wikinews is not running presently,
actually. For about two weeks there has been a problem with harvesting
and I have to fix it. I'll do that, but the problem is the fact that
one substantial part of one project depends only on the free time and
willingness of one volunteer.
For four years I was trying to find just ''one'' more person
interested in developing and maintaining the bot, but I didn't find
anyone. With two persons, we could maintain not just Serbian Wikinews,
but other Wikinews editions, as well.
----
News is not news two days after it has been published. Only those who
research a specific event read old news. Thus, one task is to "fix"
encyclopedic article, the other is to do that with news.
Because of that Wikinews is not attractive to trolls, but it isn’t
attractive to regular editors of Wikipedia, either.
The main problem with Wikinews is the lack of the fulfillment which
Wikipedia offers: What did I do? Wrote an article which was popular
for two days, one week?
Writing news requires another kind of motivation. Relevant
encyclopedias shape cultures. Relevant news outlets shape public
opinion. As our contemporary society is based on short-term goals,
there is much more competition in writing news than in writing
encyclopedias. The threshold for making a news outlet relevant is
insanely high.
But, it is possible to change things!
While waiting for ''one'' WMF programmer devoted to Wikinews (there
are a lot of programmers devoted to Wikipedia), if one volunteer
programmer would be interested in programming bots for Wikinews, we
could use the bot not just for the English Wikinews additionally, but
for other Wikinews editions as well.
WMF should employ at least one person to deal with Wikinews. Many
persons are employed to deal with Wikipedia.
WMF should promote Wikinews and the other sister projects. There are
other projects beside Wikipedia and Commons in the Wikimedia family.
[1]
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2011-September/067943.html
[2] http://theopenglobe.org/
[3]
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2011-September/068277.html
[4] http://www.beta.rs/
[5] http://www.beta.rs/default.asp?lan=en
[6] http://www.beta.rs/default.asp?lan=hu
[7] http://www.beta.rs/default.asp?lan=rm
[8] http://www.beta.rs/default.asp?lan=al
[9] http://www.wikinews.org/
==== Song of the week ====
The song of the week is [1]. Lyrics could be found, for example, here [2].
[1] http://tinyurl.com/66ctj3g
[2] http://tinyurl.com/6cdgnvm
=== Personal perspective ===
Joan Goma [1] wrote the text for this edition of Wikizine's Personal
opinion. Joan Goma is the president of Associació Amical Viquipèdia
[2][3], an organization which wants to be recognizes as the Wikimedia
chapter for Catalonia [4].
[1] http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuari:Gom%C3%A0
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Associaci%C3%B3_Amical_Viquip%C3%A8dia
[3] http://www.viquimedia.cat/
[4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CAT
==== The cows of Jimmy Walker ====
In a far away country there was a town known as English where people
engaged in the milk business. This is a very tricky business because
you have to care for the cows, giving them food, milking them and sell
the milk. The amount of milk that the cows gave never matched
completely with the one needed by the population and this generated
problems. To solve them they had tried all kinds of organizational
systems. In a quarter of the town, if you had two cows then the
district council took up the cows and they manage them taking in mind
the needs of the population and not the selfishness of the owner. But
then nobody had much interest on looking after them and they died. In
another quarter they let you have the cows but they took away the milk
from you, this way the cows were cared of because there was that one
who was interested on maintaining them and then the council decided
how the milk was distributed according to the needs of the population
and not based on who was richer. Then the owners of the cows had
almost no income die of hunger or boredom, then no one will take care
of the cows and the cows died. In another quarter they allow you to
kept the cows and milk then you sell a cow and buy a bull have more
and more cows and more and more milk then the price of milk falls so
that you could neither feed the cows nor pay the salaries of the
employees who looked after the cows and the cows eventually also died.
[1]
One day a farmer named Jimmy Walker, with several crosses and genetic
experiments, he obtained a new race of cattle. They were cows that
give an infinite amount of milk and that did not eat any fodder. Those
cows were very nice and many people liked to look after them, liked
them so much that they were willing to do it for free.
Jimmy started his farm with a new business model. He distributed the
milk for free. At first nobody believed that this may work. Some said
some cattle cared for by unpaid volunteers may not give good milk in
any way. To take care of cows should be well prepared and very
responsible. Others said that carers are volunteers, that cares for
one day that they presented by his nickname instead of their real name
and we do not know if they are really responsible for taking care of
the cows. Others said that what costs nothing is worth nothing.
But Jimmy went ahead and the milk turned out to be better every day to
the extent that many farmers folded because they could not compete
with the milk of high quality and for free delivered by Jimmy. The
business expanded. First milk was distributed only to the English
town, and then he opened farms in other villages, opened in a town
known as German, and in another known as Catalan. The people from
Catalan town were quick to raise cows and started right away, [2]
others did take a couple of months but the business also did well and
soon was extended to more and more towns to virtually all world. [3]
On growing the first problem arose. Although the cows did not eat and
caregivers did it for free, distribute milk cost money. At first Jimmy
did not mind paying it out of his pocket but there was a moment that
could not. Then he decided to set up a non-profit foundation. To find
a way the foundation have income to pay the costs of transporting milk
at the beginning he thought that maybe he could put ads on milk
bottles. But then those that looked after the cows told him that they
did not agree with this that, if he made this, they no longer wanted
to continue caring for the cows for free.
Then he remembered a day walking around Prague had seen that some
musicians played for free and the people who wanted giving them money.
He thought that, as it was only necessary to pay the transport of the
milk, perhaps there would be enough of maintaining the milk for free
and without advertisements and asking those drinking the milk that
give what they want. Said and done and the system worked.
The system worked so well that the foundation, with the money raised
not only paid transport costs but also hired people to make technical
improvements in the stables and to manage the storage and transport of
milk, donations and legal requirements of handling money.
Some of those that looked after the cows were not very happy that
others get paid while they worked for free. So Jimmy set up elections
so that a few members of the Board of Directors of the foundation were
chosen by carers of the cows. Thus, as the work of the foundation was
necessary for delivering of the milk and improve the cow stables
caregivers agreed to continue caring for them for free.
To encourage carers of cows foundation began to organize annual
meetings called cow-mania and began to create local chapters of
caregivers of cows. Encouraging carers to create associations and
allowing them to use the brand of milk to promote its drink and to
encourage more people to look after the cows.
Seeing that everything worked so well a new economic theory appeared.
It was named cow-economics. The cow-economics consisted in obtaining a
race of animals that they grew up without eating, like Jimmy's cows,
and they should be very friendly then encouraging a community to take
care of the animals for free. At the beginning of each business a
small company paid the expenses of distributing the products obtained
from animals and of organizing festivals and competitions to keep
happy the community of caregivers. The products were given away for
private consumption but they put advertising on packaging, they asked
for donations and charged fees for uses for profit.
The cow-economic companies began to populate the economic system.
Companies spent a lot of resources to studying the psychology of the
caretakers of animals and build very user-friendly stables. Emerged a
lot of companies like cow-how (engaged in the wool obtained from
sheep), face-cow (who worked in chicken eggs) and so on, all of them
with many benefits.
Suddenly the business of Jimmy began to see signs of crisis. The
number of cattle keepers had stopped growing and began to fall. The
amount of milk consumed also began to stop growing and it seems that
also began to fall.
Faced with these threats Jimmy Walker tried to strengthen the chapters
letting them raise the money from donations. The chapters were
organized not by town but they were organized by race. There were many
races on the basis of skin colour. There were races of people with
different shades ranging from white to black. In the case of the
English people they did not have a single chapter, but they were
divided into several chapters according to the colour of the skin of
the caregivers. In the case of the Catalan town they asked to have a
chapter for all the people of the town because they were a small town
and they feel comfortable working altogether. The Catalan people was a
very strange people who didn’t liked to discriminate people by skin
colour and therefore they do not see anything good in being separated
on the basis of skin colour. But their request was denied. They told
them that they had to join the people of their same race, although
they were of different towns because at the time of collecting
donations and distributing the milk it was done according to race and
not according to the town where the people lived and the laws on taxes
and tax deductions were based on race and not the town ... The truth
is that there were cases where town agreed with a single race. Then
they could have a chapter. There were also cases of very large
villages where the village had many races that only lived in this
place then those villages could have several chapters. The problems
were in the small towns where people was of the same races than people
living in neighbour villages that were much larger. They could not
have a chapter. But since these were small towns that do not matter to
anyone (except to themselves) the problem stayed unsolved.
Several problems arose. Some chapters raise the money but not paid to
the foundation what had agreed to contribute to the maintenance of the
common expenses of distribution of milk. Others had the money in the
bank and did not use them for anything. Others used it but not
explained where they spent or what results they obtain. Although the
primary law of this country was "presuppose good faith", seeing that
there was always a very bad caretaker of cows non-compliant with the
law that might thought that there were some kind of incompetence in
handling of money or even corruption.
Moreover, sometimes there were problems among caregivers of cows and
the chapters and or the foundation. The chapters were associations of
people where not all partners were cattle keepers neither all of
cattle keepers were associated. The foundation, although carers of
cows appointed a few members of its governing body, had gone ahead
with several initiatives which had upset carers of cows.
Another problem arose because not all races had the same economic
level. The white races were very wealthy and were used to give money
to non-profit activities. But the black was very poor and did not
have the habit of making donations. The money collected was going
mainly to the chapters of the white races and almost none to the
chapters of the black races. In some cases such as in the Spanish town
most of the caregivers, were quite dark but recently had created a
chapter of white people that would raise the most of the money.
From here the story takes three finals. Choose what you like.
===== Final 1=====
(Centralization and decline)
Seeing all this chaos Jimmy turned to his leadership in establishing a
system where money collected by the bodies of different races had to
pledge for transparently managing the money and for transferring a
large extent to the foundation and chapters in need in accordance with
established rules. The Foundation will control and monitor the entire
system.
The chapters fiercely opposed to it but as the foundation had the
upper hand in controlling the distribution of milk, they had to accept
it.
Then the foundation was tried to copy what the cow-economic companies
did: Manage the community of caregivers making activities to attract
more and redesign the stalls of cows so that they were more user
friendly.
But the milk business is not as fun as wool or eggs. In addition, the
foundation did not have as much money as companies engaged in this
business because it could not place ads. Neither could count on much
help from the chapters that were quite annoying. With a centralized
structure with few resources could not encompass the diversity of
races and towns with as much efficiency as other companies did.
Gradually caregivers were leaving the business. Some because they were
bored, others because they sympathized with the chapters that were
annoying for the affair of the money, others were simply move on to
other business more fun without such problems, others assembled their
own farms of cows aside. Of course there was a small core remained of
irreducible who continued for a long time. They included the Catalan
town; their only interest was providing their town a great deal of
high quality milk.
As the cows gave infinite milk, the foundation could continue
distributing milk for a long time. But nothing was ever as before again.
===== Final 2 =====
(The chapters assault the foundation. General rush)
Seeing that Jimmy was proposed that the foundation overseeing the
management of the money by the chapters, that not all chapters will be
allowed to collect directly, and even proposed that the foundation
appoint members in Chapters Board.
The chapters were quick to react against this approach. They set up a
council of chapters to join forces with to face the foundation. With
this organization they planned the assault of the foundation.
There were two members of the Board of the foundation that were
traditionally chosen by the chapters. On the first occasion of
renewing these charges ensured that the two new members of the Board
agreed with its approach.
There were three more chosen by the community of caregivers of cows.
The community of caregivers of cows was totally disorganized, most had
no idea what was going on. The only keepers of cattle that were
organized and were informed they were the affiliated to chapters. Only
10% followed somehow what was discussed and they where basically the
people's from the English town. The other towns were far away and were
not aware of these discussions.
In the next election, the council of chapters orchestrated a good
campaign. They promoted the presentation of three good candidates
related to their postulates and asked the chapters to put all their
influence to promote the vote for these candidates.
The result was a success. The 3 new members were those who promoted
the chapters. With 5 members of the Board they had majority and were
able to change the rules of the game to their taste.
The first thing that they did was change the way of appointing members
of the Board. They increased the number of members appointed by
chapters and lower the appointment of experts in various fields and
those named by the community of caregivers of cows. This will ensure
that they could continue controlling the foundation for ever more.
Then they left the foundation limited to the activities of
distribution of milk and improvement of stalls. All that was raising
money, promoting the consumption of milk and attract new carers of
cows was in the hands of the chapters.
In each town the outcome was very different.
There were towns with only one race that had a good understanding
between the chapter and the community of caregivers of cows, in these
cases, besides if they were white and could raise a lot of money had
very good cards in the game. For the German town things went very well.
Other towns had people of many races.
In the case of the English town the majority they were of white race.
There were not many problems between the chapters and the community of
caregivers. They saw many discussions and many caregivers left the
business. But as its farm was very big it continued giving milk.
In the case of the Spanish town there are many races but the skin
colour of the majority was rather dark. Only whites they have good
funding. In the community of caregivers, there were many critics of
the chapters and the foundation. They were devoted to discuss among
themselves. They fill pages and pages of discussion and were becoming
less dedicated to caring for cows.
Worst of all was for small towns. In small towns there were not enough
people in any race to have its own chapter. All chapters were in
bigger towns. They were left without money to promote that the people
take care of their cows. Many towns were abandoned and are now ghost
towns where nobody lives there. In some cases such as the Catalan
people were riding back to the chapter of the Foundation and the
Council of Chapters and they raise funds on their own to promote the
business of milk for his people.
===== Final 3 =====
(The French Revolution. Communities in power)
The keepers of cattle were beginning to see those tings were going
wrong. They were not organized. Each town was living without much
contact to the other and few people where involved in the tasks of
organizing the farm. Most limited their activity to care a little cow
and nothing more. Only when something happened that attracted much
attention a few of them went out and make hear their voice.
But Jimmy remembered that the original spirit of the project included
the caregivers of the cows that had to decide how best to organize the
farm, therefore suggested to organize the keepers of cattle so that
they could help to fix the problem.
The first step was to go for new blood. Those that is usually limited
to caring for the cows and not saying anything more. Off course, there
were many and not all were constant carers. Many were limited to go to
the farm care for a cow during one day and never return. He thought
that a reasonable approach would be bringing together all keepers of
cattle that had the right to vote to choose the members of the board
of the foundation. These were the ones that had helped to look after
the cows for a long period and still continued doing it recently.
To go up to meet and talk to each other had to organize them by town.
No matter the skin colour of each one. Said and done. In each town
created a Council composed of all caregivers eligible to vote. The
Council appointed representatives who took care of the relations with
other towns. The representatives of the town stayed alert of the
affairs of the various farms and the distribution of milk and made a
summary report to the Council. Every 3 months they sent this report to
each member of the Council to keep them up to date. Also organized
discussions among Council members when there were important issues and
collected the outcome. The representatives of each town were gathered
together to form a General Council of Cattle Carers.
The Council of each town allocated trusted caretakers of cows the task
of supervising the chapters that were in the town, also ensured that
the chapters of the richest races handed the money to the poorer
chapters to get the best for the whole of the town.
The General Council ensured that all chapters handed the money to the
foundation for the distribution of milk, to improve the stable, and to
support activities to attract carers in the towns where there was no
chapter .
Once organized caregivers, and once checked that everyone was involved
(not just the same as always that in many cases had already been
organized into chapters) then Jimmy changed the status of the
foundation increasing the number of members of board elected by the
communities so that caregivers so that they were majority. In this way
the system was stabilized. The case of small towns that previously
could not have a chapter they discuss the matter with the Council of
its town. Some decided to agree with chapters of neighbouring
villages, others like the case of the Catalan town, decided to create
its own chapter and were able to promote the business of milk in her
town as everyone else. In the end most people were having a chapter
that promoted the business of milk, either own or a neighbouring
village who had come to an agreement.
With the house tidy, take care of cows was more fun than ever. In
addition, the foundation could concentrate on making a much better
stable. This gave a whole new air. The global milk market grew slowly
and sooner or later they would cover all the demand.
In order to grow since they were enthusiastic about the subject, on
the one hand they revived some businesses that had already begun and
that they had not succeeded. Business of cheese, yoghurt etc. that did
not work because they needed different facilities that the business of
milk. They were focused on research and develop these infrastructures.
They also began to start new business ideas as the business of honey.
At first this business was small but gradually grew and reached beyond
the milk business.
===== References =====
[1] This is a summary. In fact they tried many more systems of
organization. You can find a more expansive collection here:
http://coffeehouse-economics.blogspot.com/2008/02/different-ways-of-market-…
[2] Although it has nothing to do and it is a pure coincidence,
something similar happened with Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Multilingual_monthly_st…
[3] Jimmy Walker became famous. Even the diplomatic cables of the
United States made some a follow-up of its movements. As can be seen
thanks to Wikileaks. By mistake they attribute him the foundation of
Wikipedia but obviously should say cow-pedia:
http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2008/11/08SANTIAGO1015.html
=== In the news ===
[In defense of Wikipedia] - Bryn Neuenschwander aka Marie Brennan, an
American fantasy author, wrote on the Science Fiction & Fantasy
Novelists site an article called "Research for Writers #2: In Defense
of Wikipedia". A good sum of the arguments in favor of Wikipedia. The
Guardian and Arabian Business have stories about her, as well.
http://www.sfnovelists.com/2011/09/16/research-for-writers-2-in-defense-of-…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Brennanhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/18/hari-fake-quotes-training-peter…http://www.arabianbusiness.com/dubai-bashing-journo-hari-admits-plagiarism-…
[Unethically abusing Wikipedia] - The Economist published a story
about Independent journalist Johann Hari, who used a pseudonym to
harass rival journalists and edit the Wikipedia article about himself.
He made a personal apology in the Independent. Wikizine reported about
this incident in the previous Opinion Edition.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/09/unethical-journalismhttp://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-a…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Harihttp://en.wikizine.org/2011/09/wikizine-opinion-year-2011-week-38.htmlhttp://blog.tommorris.org/post/10400620996/hari-gate-behind-the-scenes-at-w…
[Wikipedia accurate on cancer facts, but...] - DoctorsLounge published
an article about the study "Wikipedia Accurate on Cancer Facts, But
Hard to Read". That story has been republished by a number of news
outlets.
http://www.doctorslounge.com/index.php/news/hd/23109http://www.rocketnews.com/2011/09/wikipedia-accurate-on-cancer-facts-but-ha…http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/09/16/wikipedia-cancer.htmlhttp://machineslikeus.com/news/cancer-information-wikipedia-shown-be-accura…http://news.yahoo.com/wikipedia-accurate-cancer-facts-hard-read-study-23141…http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/15478525/wikipedia-accurate-on-cancer-fact…http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2011/9/19/wikipedia-content-on-cancer-i…http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_116511.html
[Poor readability] - In related news, instead of transferring the
whole news about cancer facts, French Tribune extracted in a
sensationalist way just "Wikipedia Offers Poor Readability!" Anyway,
what should be expected from an organization which keeps default
Drupal favicon on their site!
http://frenchtribune.com/teneur/117221-wikipedia-offers-poor-readabilityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faviconhttp://tinyurl.com/6c22ff7http://drupal.org/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupal
[Jimmy Wales travels] - Jimmy Wales meets with Carlos Slim, the
richest person in the world; discusses (on the beach) carbon emissions
with Tony Blair.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-20/scene-last-night-carlos-slim-jimmy…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Slimhttp://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/of-beach-sand-war-and-carbon/
[Book on Obama plagiarized Wikipedia] - White House attacks author of
book on Obama, author responds.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/white-house-officials-attack-b…http://www.mediaite.com/tv/white-house-refutes-confidence-men-book-suggests…http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63991.html
=== Time machine ===
==== 10 years ago ====
[19 September] - English Wikipedia User:The Cunctator proposed the
creation of a 9/11 wiki.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-September/000478.html
[20 September] - Larry Sanger announced an article in The New York
Times about Wikipedia.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-September/000475.html
[23 September] - Larry Sanger reported that Richard Stallman had
called Wikipedia "exciting news".
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-September/000486.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-September/000489.html
==== 5 years ago ====
[16 September] - Jimmy Wales announced Board elections and supported
Oscar van Dillen and Kat Walsh.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023349.htmlhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2006
[16 September] - Delpine Menard published a shortlist of Wikimania
2007 candidates: Alexandria, London, Taipei, Torino.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023358.html
[16 September] - Citizendium announced.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023373.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizendiumhttp://en.citizendium.org/
[16 September] - Rob Levin, aka lilo, President of the Peer-Directer
Projects Center which operates irc.freenode.net, died in an accident.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023396.html
[17 September] - Florence Devouard made a report from her visit to
Abuja and posted her ideas about the development of Wikimedia projects
related to Africa.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023408.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023409.html
[18 September] - Larry Sanger published his first post on
citizendium-l, Kat Walsh reposted it on foundation-l.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023452.html
[18 September] - Jeffrey V. Merkey wrote about events related to
Cherokee and Navajo languages.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023456.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023457.html
[18 September] - Angela Beasley informed us that Tim Starling had
surgery, but everything went well.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023487.html
[18 September] - KDE wanted to use Wikiversity to train developers.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023518.html
[19 September] - Discussion about methods to elect ArbCom started.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027672.html
[21 September] - David Gerard wrote the essay "Wikipedia:100,000
feature-quality articles". Discussion about it started on wikipedia-l.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:100Khttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027683.html
[21 September] - Samuel Klein on Board elections.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027698.html
[22 September] - Samuel Klein's essays "Wikipedia and the networked
society", "Dreams, goals, and milestones", "Reflection and research:
User surveys", "Parallels with other volunteer efforts & foundations"
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027699.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023641.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027700.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-September/023642.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027701.htmlhttp://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027702.html
[22 September] - Erik Zachte created galleries of Main Pages of a
couple of different Wikipedias.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-September/027710.htmlhttp://infodisiac.com/Wikipedia/Gallery/Gallery.htmhttp://infodisiac.com/Wikipedia/Gallery/GalleryWayBack.htm
=== From Wikipedia ===
[WikiProject Cannabis] - WikiProject Cannabis is dedicated to
improving Wikipedia's coverage of cannabis, including articles
relating to hemp and marijuana legislation, effects, policies, trends,
activists, organizations, culture, and other aspects of the plant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Cannabis
[Caral] - Caral was a large settlement in the Supe Valley, near Supe,
Barranca province, Peru, some 200 km north of Lima. Caral is the most
ancient city of the Americas, and is a well-studied site of the Caral
civilization or Norte Chico civilization. Caral was inhabited between
roughly 2600 BC and 2000 BC, enclosing an area of more than 60
hectares. Caral was described by its excavators as the oldest urban
center in the Americas, a claim that was later challenged as other
ancient sites were found nearby. Accommodating more than 3,000
inhabitants, it is the best studied and one of the largest Norte Chico
sites known.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caralhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norte_Chico_civilization
[Loveland frog] - The Loveland Frog (otherwise known as the Loveland
Lizard) is said to be a humanoid creature with the face of a frog and
is described as standing roughly 4 feet (1.2 m) tall with green
leathery skin. It walks upright and has webbed hands and feet, and was
allegedly first spotted in Loveland, Ohio. It is generally considered
a cryptid—a creature rumored or reported to be living, but with no
confirmable proof.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loveland_frog
[Argan oil] - Argan oil is an oil produced from the kernels of the
argan tree, endemic to Morocco, that is valued for its nutritive,
cosmetic and numerous medicinal properties. The tree, a relic species
from the Tertiary age, is extremely well adapted to drought and other
environmentally difficult conditions of southwestern Morocco.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argan_oil
[Clathrate gun hypothesis] - The clathrate gun hypothesis is the
popular name given to the hypothesis that rises in sea temperatures
(and/or falls in sea level) can trigger the sudden release of methane
from methane clathrate compounds buried in seabeds and permafrost
which, because the methane itself is a powerful greenhouse gas, leads
to further temperature rise and further methane clathrate
destabilization – in effect initiating a runaway process as
irreversible, once started, as the firing of a gun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis
[Fan death] - Fan death is a widely held belief prevailing in South
Korea that an electric fan left running overnight in a closed room can
cause the death of those inside. Fans sold in Korea are equipped with
a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes,
which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan
on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death
[Turritopsis nutricula] - Turritopsis nutricula, the potentially
immortal jellyfish, is a hydrozoan whose medusa, or jellyfish, form
can revert to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is
the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to a
sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity
as a solitary stage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula
[Prora] - Prora is a beach resort on the island of Rügen, Germany,
known especially for its colossal Nazi-planned touristic structures.
The massive building complex was built between 1936 and 1939 as a
Kraft durch Freude (KdF) project. The eight buildings are identical,
and while they were planned as a holiday locale, they were never used
for this purpose. The complex has a formal heritage listing as a
particularly striking example of Third Reich architecture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prora
[Victoria Woodhull] - Victoria Claflin Woodhull (September 23, 1838 –
June 9, 1927) was a 19th century American who was described by Gilded
Age newspapers as a leader of the American woman's suffrage movement.
She is most famous for her sensational 1872 campaign to run as the
first female candidate for the Presidency of the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Woodhull
[Marsupial reproductive system] - Marsupials' reproductive systems
differ markedly from those of placental mammals (Placentalia). Females
have two lateral vaginas, which lead to separate uteri but both open
externally through the same orifice. A third canal, the median vagina,
is used for birth. This canal can be transitory or permanent. The
males generally have a two-pronged penis, which corresponds to the
females' two vaginas. The penis is used only for discharging semen
into females, and there is instead a urogenital sac used to store
waste before expulsion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsupial#Reproductive_system
[Misophonia] - Misophonia, literally “hatred of sound,” is a form of
decreased sound tolerance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia
[Literaturwurst] - Literaturwurst (Literature Sausage) is an Artist's
book, made by the Swiss-German artist Dieter Roth between 1961 and
1974. Each book was made using traditional sausage recipes, but
replacing the sausage meat with a book or magazine. The cover of the
edition was then pasted onto the skin of the sausage and signed and
dated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literaturwurst
[1% rule] - In Internet culture, the 1% rule or the 90–9–1 principle
(sometimes also presented as 89:10:1 ratio) reflects a theory that
more people will lurk in a virtual community than will participate.
This term is often used to refer to participation inequality in the
context of the Internet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_%28Internet_culture%29
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Satisfaction is not guaranteed. Some content can be highly
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Could people on this list please refrain from spamming this email with
requests to join LinkIn (and that includes Mike Godwin), as I have no
interest in joining.
Thank you.
After some thinking I come to the conclusion that this whole
discussion is a social phenomenon.
You probably know how some topics when mentioned in newspaper articles
or blogs spur wild arguments in the comments sections. When the
article mentions climate change commentators contest the validity of
the collected data, if it mentions religions commentators argue that
religion is the root of all evil in the world, if it is about
immigration commentators start to rant how immigrants cause trouble in
society, if it is about renewable energies commentators tell us how
blind society is to believe in its ecologicalness.
It's always the same pattern: the topic is perceived well in the
general society (most sane people think that climate change is real,
that renewable energies are the way to go, that religious freedom is
good and that most immigrants are people as everybody else who do no
harm), but a small or not so small minority experiences these
attitudes as a problem and tries to raise awareness to the problems of
the trend (usually exaggerating them). The scepticists give their
arguments and the non-scepticists answer them.
The non-scepticists usually have not much motivation to present their
arguments (because their position is already the mainstream, so not
much incentive to convince more people, just trying to not let the
scepticists' opinions stand unwithspoken) while the scepticists have
much motivation to present their arguments (if they don't society will
presumedly face perdition). This difference in the motivation leads to
a situation where both groups produce a similar content output leading
to the semblence that both groups represent equal shares of society.
I think the same is happening here. The majority of people probably
think that an optional opt-in filter is a thing that does no harm to
non-users and has advantages for those who choose to use it. (Ask your
gramma whether "You can hide pictures if you don't want to see them"
sounds like a threatening thing to her.) But the scepticists voice
their opinions loudly and point out every single imaginable problem.
I just want to point out that an idea like a free community-driven
everybody-can-edit-it encyclopedia with no editorial or peer-review
process would never have been created if a long discussion would have
preceded its creation. The scepticists would have raised so many
seemingly valid concerns that they'd buried the idea deep. I'm feeling
that a group of worst-case scenarioists are leading the discussion to
a point where the image filter is buried just because everybody is
bored about the discussion.
Marcus Buck
User:Slomox
PS: Please don't understand this as a longish version of "You guys
opposing my opinion are trolls!". I don't think that the points raised
by scepticists should be neglected. But I think that many people
reject the image filter because of very theoretical concerns for the
sake of it completely removed from pragmatical reasons and that the
length of the discussion is in no way indicative of the real
problematicness of the topic.