Wikimedia-l March 2012

wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

145 participants
130 discussions

Re: [Foundation-l] Image filter
by Neil Babbage 10 Mar '12

10 Mar '12

I was using "useful" in its most basic sense - to mean "capable of being used at all". That is, in the context of this discussion, avoids the current situation where there is a risk that the whole encyclopedia (or any other project) is off limits to certain groups or individuals because they can't satisfy the basic need of being able to find what they want to read or see easily and safely. I'm not an advocate of anything more than a mechanism that allows users to express preferences and use search tools that accurately follow those preferences regardless of what they are. Personally I'd love to be able to filter fancruft out of searches. My point is that providing this capability is not censorship and the screams of protest that it would strike at the core of Wikimedia's mission are ludicrous. It is not censorship to help a consumer of information find what they want quickly and to avoid what they don't want. Not providing this capability is censoring the whole of Wikipedia for people who don't want to risk being exposed to inappropriate material. Refusing to help meet the needs of these people has an "ivory tower" smell about it; we don't care if nobody uses Wikipedia as long as it is perfect. This attitude strikes across the core principle of the movement to make knowledge available to all. ------Original Message------ From: Ray Saintonge To: neil(a)thebabbages.com To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Image filter Sent: 10 Mar 2012 00:57 On 03/09/12 6:06 AM, Neil Babbage wrote: > Wikimedia is not supposed to be some kind of exercise in perfection for perfection's sake. It's supposed to be open, accessible and useful. > > "Useful", like "notable" is another of those words that cannot be easily defined. In many otherwise non-controversial articles we have pictures that do not further the contents of the articles. They may have a loose connection with the article's topic, but they don't add any information to the topic. They do, however, break up solid blocks of text, and make it more readable. Ray Neil / QuiteUnusual@Wikibooks

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[Foundation-l] introduction (community communications for Wikidata)
by Lydia Pintscher 09 Mar '12

09 Mar '12

Hi everyone! I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I'm Lydia and just started working for Wikimedia Germany. Some of you might know me from my work in Free Software projects. I'll be a part of the team working on Wikidata (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidata) - the goal of the project is to create something similar to Wiki Commons for data). It's a huge undertaking for the German and global community. Wikidata is a project I am passionate about and I am even more passionate about doing it right. Doing it right in this case obviously means making sure everyone's input is heard and taken into consideration. My responsibility will be exactly that - working with all of you to make it a successful project. A lot of things concerning how, when and where this will be used in Wikipedia are still up for discussion and decisions need to be found in the community. I will be here to facilitate this. I assume many of you have not heard from me before so let me tell you a bit about myself. I studied computer science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. There I worked on a program to plan robot-assisted laser surgeries on human skulls and wrote my diploma thesis on collaborative and transparent Free Software development. I'm passionate about enabling people to make awesome happen around Free Culture. I've spent most of my spare time in the last 7 years on community work in KDE (http://kde.org). This includes running its mentoring programs, co-founding its community working group, serving on the board of the non-profit behind it and generally making sure everything is running smoothly. I've also helped out other projects occasionally like Kubuntu, VLC/VideoLan and openSUSE in that position. Not long ago I released a free book called Open Advice (http://open-advice.org) that is a collaborative effort to make it easier for people to start contributing to Free Software. You probably know 4 of the authors from around Wikipedia. When it comes to MediaWiki I have done developer engagement for Semantic MediaWiki Plus for the last two years and am on the steering committee of the non-profit behind Semantic MediaWiki. Due to my day only having 24 hours (even if some people claim otherwise) I have not had a chance to get into contributing to Wikipedia. Thankfully that's going to change now. (As a very regular user: Thank you!) For the next days/weeks my focus will be: * collecting ideas/doubts/other input for Wikidata that you already have for me now (I'll work through any existing discussions I can find - if you want to make sure I see something please do send me a link.) * creating some resources to explain the project better * setting up some infrastructure to keep everyone updated on the status and able to contribute * work on collecting input in a structured manner and addressing it together If you have any questions please let me know. I'll be around on the English and German Wikipedia, IRC, XMPP, Skype or whatever else you prefer ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lydia_Pintscher_(WMDE) ). You can subscribe to the Wikidata mailing list at https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata-l and join the IRC channel #wikimedia-wikidata on freenode. Cheers Lydia, who is really looking forward to working with you -- Lydia Pintscher - http://about.me/lydia.pintscher Community Communications for Wikidata Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. Eisenacher Straße 2 10777 Berlin www.wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.

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[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Report, February 2012
by Tilman Bayer 09 Mar '12

09 Mar '12

Hi all, please find below the WMF report for February 2012, in plain text. As always, the editable and formatted version is on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Report,_February_2012 and the reports are posted on the Wikimedia blog, too: https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/corporate/wmf-monthly-reports/ Since a few months, we have been publishing a separate "Highlights" summary. Please consider helping non-English-language communities to stay updated, by providing a translation: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights,_February_2012 Many thanks to those who translated last month's "Highlights" into Arabic, Danish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Dutch and Vietnamese. While still focussing on WMF activities, the "Highlights" include a small selection of the most noteworthy events from the whole movement. Suggestions for the upcoming Febuary issue are welcome at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Highlights (until April 4). As last time, the monthly Metrics & Activities meeting at the WMF office has been recorded on video. The recording should become available on Commons within a few days. Regards, Tilman -- Wikimedia Foundation Report, February 2012 * 1 Data and Trends * 2 Financials * 3 Highlights o 3.1 Legal and Community Advocacy department launched o 3.2 Teahouse project kicks off o 3.3 MediaWiki 1.19 deployed * 4 Technology o 4.1 Events o 4.2 Operations o 4.3 Features Engineering o 4.4 Mobile o 4.5 Platform Engineering * 5 Research * 6 Community o 6.1 Community Organizing Projects o 6.2 Fundraising o 6.3 Fellowship Program o 6.4 Community Relations * 7 Global Development o 7.1 Grants Program + 7.1.1 Grants Awarded and Executed o 7.2 Brazil Catalyst o 7.3 Arabic Language Initiative o 7.4 US Cultural Partnerships o 7.5 Mobile and Business Development o 7.6 Global development research o 7.7 Wikipedia Education Program o 7.8 India Programs + 7.8.1 Indic Languages + 7.8.2 India Outreach o 7.9 Communications + 7.9.1 Major announcements + 7.9.2 Major Storylines through February + 7.9.3 Other worthwhile reads + 7.9.4 Wikipedia Signpost + 7.9.5 WMF Blog posts + 7.9.6 Media Contact * 8 Human Resources o 8.1 Staff Changes o 8.2 Statistics o 8.3 Department Updates * 9 Finance and Administration * 10 Legal and Community Advocacy * 11 Visitors and Guests == Data and Trends == Global unique visitors for January: *482 million* (+5.5% compared with December; +16.5% compared with the previous year) (comScore data for all Wikimedia Foundation projects; comScore will release February data later in March) Page requests for February: *18.1 billion* (+0.5% compared with January; +16.2% compared with the previous year) (Server log data <http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyAllProjects.htm>, all Wikimedia Foundation projects including mobile access) Active Registered Editors for January 2012 (>= 5 edits/month): *88,548* (+6.7% compared with December / -3.2% compared with the previous year) (Database data, all Wikimedia Foundation projects except for Wikimedia Commons) Report Card for January 2012: http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/RC_2012_01_detailed.html The report card is currently undergoing a redesign as a more fully-featured dashboard (integrating various statistical data and trends about WMF projects). == Financials == (Financial information is only available for January 2012 at the time of this report.) All financial information presented is for the period of July 1, 2011 - January 31, 2012. Revenue: $29.4 million Expenses: * Technology Group: $5,720,105 * Community/Fundraiser Group: $2,828,009 * Global Development Group: $2,459,774 * Governance Group: $535,925 * Finance/Legal/HR/Admin Group: $3,375,754 Total Expenses: $14,919,567 Total surplus/(loss): $14,455,334 Revenue for the month is $3.8MM vs plan of $1.3MM, approximately 178% over plan. Year-to-date is $29.4MM vs plan of $24.4MM, approximately 21% over plan. Expenses for the month is $2.1MM vs plan of $2.5MM, approximately 16% lower than plan. Year-to-date is $14.9MM vs plan of $16.7MM, approximately 11% lower than plan. Underspending MTD is due to timing of capital expenditures ($160K - budget was spread evenly over 12 months), personnel expenses ($170K), recruiting fees resulted from timing of staff hiring ($176K), cash awards and grants ($45K – budget was spread evenly over 12 months), and volunteer development ($28K) offset by higher bank fees ($42K) and higher professional services ($168K). Underspending YTD is due to timing of capital expenditures ($1.1MM - budget was spread evenly over 12 months), internet hosting ($50K), volunteer development ($169K), travel and conference expenses ($251K), personnel expenses ($754K), recruiting expenses ($300K), and IT desk equipment ($89K) offset by higher awards and grants ($217K – budget was spread evenly over 12 months), legal and accounting fees ($58K), professional services ($458K), and bank fees ($290K). Cash of $32.6 million, which is fifteen months of cash reserves at current spending levels and fourteen months of cash per the annual plan. == Highlights == === Legal and Community Advocacy department launched === We announced <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/LCA_Announceme…> the formation of the new Legal and Community Advocacy group. Community consultation is ongoing <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Community_Advo…>, and everything is up for discussion, even the name of the new department. Help us brainstorm about how it can support the community, such as helping administrators and functionaries, and facilitating non-English participation in WMF initiatives (like policies and key projects). === Teahouse project kicks off === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WP_teahouse_logo.png Logo of the "Teahouse"> On February 27th we launched the Teahouse <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse>, a peer support space designed specifically for new editors on the English Wikipedia. This pilot project is testing various social approaches to new editor support, to see if these methods improve our ability to retain more new editors and more female editors in particular. The project organizes a group of Wikipedians called “hosts” to reach out to new good-faith editors and invite them to a place where they can meet other new editors and experienced Wikipedians, build community relationships, find projects to participate in, and ask questions about Wikipedia. The pilot is scheduled to run with 25 trained hosts for 3 months. During this time we'll be working with the community and new editors to refine the experience and measure the project's impact. === MediaWiki 1.19 deployed === Version 1.19 of the MediaWiki software <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.19> was gradually deployed to Wikimedia sites in February. It brings many new features and bug fixes. Some are back-end, behind-the-scenes changes, for example infrastructure work to support our ongoing move to Swift as our media storage platform. There are also more visible improvements, like better diff readability for colorblind people, and better support of the user's gender and language (internationalization) in the interface. == Technology == A detailed report of the Tech Department's activities for February 2012 can be found at: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_engineering_report/2012/February Department Highlights Major news in February include: * The deployment of our Swift infrastructure to serve image thumbnails; * Continued success for our Wikipedia Android app; * The deployment of MediaWiki 1.19 <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.19/Deployment_announcement> to all Wikimedia sites except for most Wikipedia languages; * Continued preparation for our move from Subversion to git <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/15/wikimedia-engineering-moving-from-sub…>. === Events === * *Pune hackathon* (10–12 February 2012, Pune, India) — A few dozen participants came to this three-day developer outreach event cohosted with GNUnify. Participants focused on language support (internationalization and localization) and mobile applications. Some new translations were created and the Wikimedia Mobile team received improvements to the Android app for Wikipedia. === Operations === * *Media Storage* — February saw Swift deployed to production to serve thumbnail requests. A few bugs were fixed, but one was serious enough to revert the deployment and fall back to the legacy thumbnail infrastructure. Once the issue is fixed and Swift serves thumbnails again, the next steps will involve documentation and maintenance procedures, creating a mirror cluster in Ashburn, setting up Swift in Wikimedia Labs, and handling original media (not just thumbnails) with Swift. === Features Engineering === * *Visual editor* — Trevor Parscal did research on cursor interaction and selection rendering for RTL (right-to-left) and support for line breaks in PRE elements. Gabriel Wicke improved template expansion and parser function support, investigated Microdata and RDFa for WikiText-in-HTML-DOM embedding and added rough support for images and other files. Rob Moen committed a working Editable Surface IME prototype (bidirectional text not fully supported). Audrey Tang joined the team and worked on the sanitizer and the testing process. * *Article feedback* — This month, the team created a new feedback page, with special features to be tested with oversighters and rollbackers in early March. Roan Kattouw has completed code review for compatibility with 1.19 and will deploy a new release on March 8, as well as a new working test environment in coming weeks. Final reports for phase 1 of this project will be published in early March. === Mobile === * *Wikipedia Mobile App* — In February, the Wikipedia Android app crossed over 1.8 million device installs. This is incredible growth as the app has been in the Android Market for just under two months. Yuvaraj Pandian announced a new beta version of both the Android app and the newly re-written iOS app. The re-written iOS version builds on our PhoneGap code base, and will allow us to deprecate our old objective C code. New features include: OSM integration, quick search integration, URL intents, search enhancements, bug fixes, and better developer attribution. * *Mobile Designs* — Philip Chang and Heather Walls worked on new design mockups for full screen search, contact us, navigation (ongoing), and references. Philip Chang also started the definition of Photo Upload as two workflows, Basic and Advanced. Basic is modeled after the current Upload Wizard as the basis of a mobile-friendly workflow, and Advanced uses a Wikipedia article (or other site content) as the starting point and incorporates game dynamics. === Platform Engineering === * *MediaWiki 1.19* — In February, MediaWiki 1.19 was gradually deployed to Wikimedia sites (see general "Highlights" section). Stages 1 through 4 of the deployment schedule have been completed; all sister projects, and a few Wikipedia wikis, are now running MediaWiki 1.19. * *Git conversion* — The migration of MediaWiki core and of extensions used on WMF sites is now tentatively scheduled for 21 March 2012. Sumana Harihareswara and Chad Horohoe wrote a blog entry to answer some common questions about the migration. WMF Engineering is making strong efforts to train the development community in using Git and Gerrit, including documentation and trainings via screensharing. We will be moving Gerrit infrastructure to Ashburn, as the Tampa server we're using can't handle the load. * *Volunteer coordination and outreach* — Sumana Harihareswara continued to follow up on contacts and recruit new contributors to the Wikimedia tech community (especially for commit and patch review), and mentor new contributors. Sumana also prepared for the June Berlin hackathon and the Wikimania hackathon in July and recruited participants for upcoming events. 13 contributors got commit access. == Research == * Research Committee member Mayo Fuster visited WMF and met with Dario Taraborelli to discuss how to streamline RCom activity, plans for an RCom session at Wikimania 2012 and a pilot project to apply systematization of experiences methodology to Wikipedia participation though the Digital Commons process <http://www.digital-commons.info>. * RCom members John Riedl and Dario Taraborelli and former member Luca de Alfaro participated in the Hypothes.is Reputation Workshop <http://hypothes.is/repworkshop.html> (22-24 February) to contribute to the design of Hypothes.is – an open source collaborative annotation tool – from Wikimedia's perspective. A report from the workshop is available <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:DarTar/Hypothes.is_Reputation_Workshop>. * We published the February issue of the Wikimedia Research Newsletter <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter/2012-02-27> covering 22 recently published Wikipedia studies. * We continued experimenting with CKAN <http://ckan.org/> and the DataHub <http://thedatahub.org/group/wikimedia> as a solution for open data hosting and worked with the OKFN to prioritize Wikimedia's requirements. * We continued reviewing and supporting new research proposals <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Projects>. * Former RCom member Milos Rancic announced <http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/rcom-l/2012-February/000540.html> his departure from the committee. == Community == Department Highlights * *Teahouse Project* - Fellows Sarah Stierch and Jonathan Morgan, with the help of the Head of Community Fellowships Program Siko Bouterse, launched the Teahouse project on the English Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse> on February 27th (see general "Highlights" section). <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_Wikipedia_Meetup_Febr… San Francisco Wikimedia Meetup February 2012> * *SF Meetup* - On February 4th, 2012, the Community Department hosted the first San Francisco meetup of 2012. There were a record 40 participants, including the Board of Trustees. (Blog post <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/07/first-san-francisco-meetup-of-2012/>) === Community Organizing Projects === * *Brazil Community Engagement* - In preparation for their tour of Brazil in March, Steven Walling and Maryana Pinchuk outlined a plan for working with the Portuguese Wikipedia community on pilot projects to improve editor retention.[2] * *Template Testing* - With Ryan Faulkner, the new Community Department Data Analyst, Steven and Maryana began a deeper exploration of template testing data. Results are encouraging in many cases: in a test of the first level English warning templates, increasing personalization and decreasing the number of links led to a 20% increase in edits to articles by Wikipedians who had passed the 10-edit threshold.[3] Our plans for the future include a report including more qualitative feedback from Wikimedians (see below), as well as working with the community to make more permanent changes based on test results. * New template A/B tests were started in collaboration with the Wikimedia Incubator.[4] * Over 40 English Wikipedians joined Maryana and Steven in a discussion about the effectiveness of deletion notifications on English Wikipedia.[5] This qualitative feedback has been distilled into a report on how our largest project communicates about article deletion.[6] * *SF Meetup* (see above) 1. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/07/first-san-francisco-meetup-of-2012/ 2. http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Wikipedia_community_pilot 3. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template_A/B_testing#English_Wikipedia_Hugg… 4. https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Incubator:Template_testing 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_user_warnings/Testing/T… 6. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Deletion_notice_effectiveness === Fundraising === Fundraiser * As we said goodbye to the majority of our fundraiser contractors (Charles Barr, Joseph Seddon, Peter Coombe, and Alex Zariv), we said hello to three permanent additions to the team. Josh VanDavier, previously Development Associate, moved to Fundraising QA Associate, and will be optimizing donor experience through customer service and constant QA'ing of donor landing pages. Victor Grigas transferred into a permanent Storytelling position and will continue working closely with the fundraiser team and sharing the story of Wikipedia with the world. Peter Gehres, previously a Production Coordinator contractor, moved to Fundraiser Production Manager and will be providing strategic technical leadership for the fundraiser. * Though not new to the Fundraiser, Katie Horn has taken the mantle of Fundraiser Tech Lead from outgoing lead Arthur Richards. * Megan Hernandez and Victor Grigas are currently in Brazil for the first of four Portuguese language Donor Focus groups and one Argentine Donor Focus group aimed at optimizing the localized donor experience. Victor is also capturing imagery and Wikipedian stories for use in the Fundraiser. They are joined by Oona Castro, the new Brazil program consultant. * The Fundraising team completed the first A/B testing of banners for the 2012 Fundraising year with the new team in place.[1] * The fundraising team worked on a full report from the 2011 fundraiser to be posted publicly in March. 1. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2012 Major Gifts and Foundations * We received a $1.25 million five-year grant from Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. * We hired consultant Sara Lasner to assist with major donor outreach. === Fellowship Program === * *Recruitment* - The fellowship program has wrapped up an open call for community fellowship applicants and project ideas, resulting in applications from prospective fellows in 21 different countries, and 28 project ideas. Applicants are being interviewed and the community is being engaged to help evaluate project ideas on meta-wiki.[1] * *Teahouse Project* - Fellows Sarah Stierch and Jonathan Morgan launched the Teahouse project on English Wikipedia on February 27th (cf. general "Highlights" section). 23 volunteer hosts have been trained to provide outreach and support to new editors. 180 new editors have been invited to the Teahouse during the first 48 hours of the pilot, and new invitations are going out each day. We have also partnered with the Global Education Program to provide online support to students in 6 classrooms.[2] * *WikiWomen's History Month* - Wikipedians interested in encouraging women's participation have been invited to organize local meetups and edit-a-thons during March in honor of International Women's Day and Women's History Month. 10 offline events are currently being planned.[3] * *Gender Gap Panel at CSCW* - Sarah Stierch participated in a panel on Gender and Participation in Peer Production at the 2012 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work.[4] * *Translation Project* - Fellow Jon Harald Søby traveled to Brussels to meet with the i18n team and plan usability improvements to the translate extension.[5] A simplified process for requesting translations and assistance loading texts into the extension is in progress.[6] 1. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships/Endorsements 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiWomen%27s_History_Month 4.http://cscw2012.org/program/panels.php#2 5.https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate 6. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jsoby/Request_translation === Community Relations === Philippe Beaudette (previously Head of Reader Relations) was promoted to Director of Community Advocacy. Philippe is working with Maggie Dennis, Community Liaison, to build the newly formed Legal and Community Advocacy Department. Please see the Legal Department section for additional information. == Global Development == Department highlights * Telenor makes Wikipedia available to 135 million customers in Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Serbia, Montenegro and India (press release: "Telenor and WMF partner on Wikipedia mobile <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Telenor_and_WMF_partner…>") * Hiring and announcement of Brazil Program Consultant, Oona Castro [1] <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Program/National_Program_Consultant_A…> and joint community outreach efforts at Brazil Campus Party [2] <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/20/brazil-campus-party/> * *GLAMcamp DC* (WMF blog summary <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/16/glamcamp-dc-kicks-off-us-coordination…>) took place February 10-12 at the National Archives and Records Administration <http://www.nara.gov>. GLAMcamp was supported by a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation and by the Foundation's US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator. See details under *US Cultural Partnerships* below. * The Global Development department built out a hub page on Meta to make it easier to follow and connect into the work of the various teams within the department: Global Development <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Development> === Grants Program === ==== Grants Awarded and Executed ==== * Wikimedia Grants <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Index> o Grants:SarahStierch/GLAM_WIKI_Santiago_attendance <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:SarahStierch/GLAM_WIKI_Santiago_atte…> === Brazil Catalyst <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Brazil_Catalyst_Project> === In February, Kul, Jessie and Pats spent time in Sao Paulo at the annual Campus Party conference. See the blog post <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/20/brazil-campus-party/> for more detailed information. Highlights included a keynote speech by Kul Wadhwa and a brief editing competition hosted by Wikimedia Brasil. The Brazil Education Pilot is ready to start for the first semester of the university system in March! February included a lot of prep work for this project, primarily conducted by Brazilian contractor Everton Alverenga. Five professors in Sao Paulo and Rio are going to be incorporating the editing of Portuguese Wikipedia into their classroom models. * Information about the classes <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikimedia_Brasil_Educa%C3%A…> (in Portuguese) * Background of Brazil Education Program <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_Brazil_programs/Educ…> (English and Portuguese) In March, we are working with the Community team to do more research into editor retention and community health within the Portuguese Wikipeida. === Arabic Language Initiative <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Arabic_Language_Initiative> === * Currently in discussion with the National Library of Tunisia in order to release their historic content of digitized books, postcards, journals, etc. to Commons or Wikisource * Planned outreach events this March in Morocco, Lebanon and Jordan include Wikipedia training for TechWomen and joint events with Mozilla in Amman. * Working on a project with twitter Arabization group (taghreedat) to promote Arabic Wikipedia to their community === US Cultural Partnerships === * *GLAMcamp DC* (WMF blog summary <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/16/glamcamp-dc-kicks-off-us-coordination…>) took place February 10-12 at the National Archives and Records Administration <http://www.nara.gov>. GLAMcamp was supported by a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation and by the Foundation's US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator. (Images <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:GLAMcamp_DC>) <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glamwikimergegroups.JPG A group discusses deliverables for the GLAMcamp DC weekend.> Outcomes: 1. The GLAM/US portal <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/US> was updated, with many new pages such as GLAM: Connect <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/US/Connect> and GLAM: Bookshelf <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLAM/US/Bookshelf>. An abundance of new documentation was added to these pages, including state-based resource pages <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/US/Colorado> for GLAMs and a new GLAM:Contribute <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/US/Contribute> page. 2. The GLAM One-Pager <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GLAM_One-Pager.pdf> was created as a sample handout for cultural institutions, and includes an overview of GLAM-Wiki information, case stories on current partnerships, pull quotes from GLAM professionals, and contact information. 3. Tech-related outcomes included the OPAC Wikipedia citation tool <https://github.com/jdickie/GLAMCamp> browser extension for MARC <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARC_standards> records and new Bulk Upload Documentation <http://notes.wikimediadc.org/p/upload-project> that came out of close collaboration with Walters Art Museum staff in attendance. Blogging summaries from attendees: 1. Reports from GLAM camp <http://mith.umd.edu/reports-from-glam-camp/>, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities blog, Grant Dickie 2. Planning GLAMcamp <http://wikistrategies.net/glamcamp-dc-plan/>, Wiki Strategies blog, Pete Forsyth 3. GLAMcamp DC summary <http://theglamwikiexperience.blogspot.com/2012/02/glamcamp-dc-2012.html>, The GLAM-Wiki Experience blog, Alex Hinojo * Blog posts about Wikipedia in the cultural sector and the GLAM-Wiki movement: 1. Wikipedians in Residence: Two Years of Open Culture <http://blog.okfn.org/2012/01/27/wikipedian-in-residence-two-years-of-open-c…>, Open Knowledge Foundation. 2. GLAMcamp DC adds sparkle to museum-Wikipedia partnerships <http://midea.nmc.org/2012/02/glamcamp-dc-adds-sparkle-to-museum-wikipedia-p…>, New Media Consortium. 3. NARA plays host for Wikipedians at GLAMcamp DC <http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/?p=7409>, NARAtions blog. 4. Open Authority and the Future of Museum Ethics <http://futureofmuseums.blogspot.com/2012/02/open-authority-future-of-museum…>, Center for the Future of Museums. * There has been ongoing follow-up on leads and expressions of interest from GLAM institutions. A consolidated master list of GLAM contacts was further compiled at GLAMcamp DC, which is now maintained by a small “GLAM Contacts Committee” that is made up of volunteers representing regions across the US. * There have been ongoing coordination talks between local museum technology contacts and Europeana, who will be collaborating on GLAM tools over the coming year. * In March, GLAM-Wiki will be shared via the Library of Congress blog <http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/> and the Technology in the Arts <http://www.technologyinthearts.org/> blog. Coordination will continue for upcoming conferences in May, June, and July. === Mobile and Business Development === * Telenor Partnership (see also Mobile_Projects/Partnerships/Q_and_A#Telenor_Partnership <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/Partnerships/Q_and_A#Teleno…>): o We just entered into a partnership with Telenor to provide Wikipedia Zero to 135 Million customers in Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Serbia, Montenegro and India. o Malaysia beta-launch is scheduled to happen by the end of Q1. * Orange Partnership o We are starting the implementation work to launch no-data charge access to Wikipedia on mobile in the first territory in Orange’s footprint: Tunisia. * While Kul Wadhwa was at Campus Party for the Brazil Catalyst Project, we met with various development groups (with the help of Pats Pena from the community department and Wikimedia Brasil) to plan for our first Hackathon in Brasil, focused on mobile, for later in the year for Sao Paulo and/or Nordeste. === Global development research === * Finished series of blog posts <https://blog.wikimedia.org/tag/readers-survey/> from the readers study. The last blog post <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/24/thank-you-to-all-who-have-contributed…> was well received with about 14 comments on the blog and many more on social media channels. * Created a tool for evaluating outreach events (i.e. whether attendees edit Wikipedia after the event). Tested the prototype of the tool with actual outreach data from India. * Wrapped up the mobile study with the mobile survey: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/19/wikipedia-at-no-data-cost-is-appealing… * Working on a plan to evaluate the Cairo pilot of the Global Education program: it would be a combination of pre and post test surveys of different sample populations and analytics around key indicators. === Wikipedia Education Program === <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikipediaEducationProgramLogo.svg Wikipedia Education Program logo, part of the new visual identity> * As part of the Cairo Pilot, Online Ambassadors have been trained by local Wikipedians. The orientation of the Online Ambassadors concludes the training of all Ambassadors for the pilot project on the Arabic Wikipedia. A total of 17 Campus Ambassadors and 11 Online Ambassadors are now ready to support student work during the spring 2012 term. * Classes started at Cairo University and at Ain Shams University. Among the first articles being improved on the Arabic Wikipedia was the article on civil disobedience: Students of Dalia Al-Tokhy's class from Ain Shams University added a section about civil disobedience in Egypt after being trained by Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors. * Essam Sharaf, a Wikipedian from Cairo, was hired as a part-time contractor for the on-campus outreach. In the first half of February, Essam visited the Wikimedia Foundation's office in San Francisco and started to work on a project plan for outreach events that will be conducted in Cairo between March and June 2012 <https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Pilot_on-campus_outreach>. * Visual Identity launched: Participants in the Wikipedia Education Program are now able to create logos and other designs for country, city, university, or other regional groups through a do-it-yourself manual and logo assets. The new visual identity for the program, designed by David Peters, allows a theme to permeate the entire program, while allowing individual regions to create their own logos with colors or symbols that have meaning for that region. The concept is based on the highly successful Wikipedia 10th Anniversary party designs. (https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program_visual_iden… ) * On February 15, the British newspaper /The Guardian/ published a long article about the various facets of the Wikipedia Education Program in operation around the world. The reporter talked to Wikimedia Foundation staff and professors who had used Wikipedia as a teaching tool in their classes in the past. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/15/wikipedia-cairo-educationa… ) * Volunteers around the world who are running their own programs and Education Program staff worked collaboratively on a post for the Wikimedia Foundation's blog on the current status of education initiatives in different countries. (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/22/wikipedia-education-program-kicks-off-… ) * Contractor Jeroen De Dauw is working on a new MediaWiki extension for the Wikipedia Education Program. The new extension will provide a framework for courses, instructors and students and increase transparency for on-wiki activities related to the Wikipedia Education Program. Community members are invited to participate in betatesting the extension: http://education.wmflabs.org/index.php/MW_1.18:Community_portal * Wikipedians from 9 different countries worked collaboratively on a submission for this year's Wikimania. The planned session intends to bring together those who want to share their experiences with Wikipedia in higher education and those who would like to hear what others have done in this field: http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/The_Teaching-with-Wikip… === India Programs === * Made offer for the last member of the India Programs team - Noopur Raval for Communications. * Initiated effort to align all India Program work around formal Program Design methods, including detailed design, learning criteria as well as performance measures. ==== Indic Languages ==== * Ongoing efforts to build communities beginning to show results - especially in Assamese, Kannada and Telugu. * Outreach sessions conducted in Assam and capacity built in the community to do independent outreach (including preparing outreach presentations and FAQs as well as hands-on training on outreach design and execution). Please see http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-as/2012-February/000037.html * Series of community collaboration initiatives encouraged, which are beginning to show results in a WikiProject for Physics in Assamese as well as a WikiProject to do Google Translate Clean-Up in Kannada. * Interesting potential in the Medical Translation project with participants from Assamese and Malayalam already translating articles (http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2012-February/007054.… ) * Challenges remain with mobilising the Hindi community - which will continue to be worked on. * Published annual analysis of Indic language Wikipedias: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Indic_Languages/Statistics/201… ==== India Outreach ==== * Effort to improve impact and increase the scale of outreach. o A handbook including best practices to conduct an effective outreach session: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs/Handbook o Standardised documents which may be adapted and adopted o Collating tips and advice for conducting an effective outreach event o Evaluating effective ways of capturing participants data with the help of Ayush, Nimish & Mani: building username & collection form o Evaluating how to stay in touch with outreach sessions attendees using a CRM system (with help from Philippe) * Evaluating how to measure outreach impact with the help of Ayush, Nimish & Mani: getting participants' edit counts over the course of 3 months after an event * Mail sent on the India mailing list on improving outreach efforts in India: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2012-February/006934.… * 15 outreach session conducted in 6 weeks: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs/Outreach_Ses… o >550 participants attended these sessions and we are tracking 100 of their progress. o Initial figures indicate relatively low "conversion" rates, but we are working how to improve this. === Communications === Communications work through February focussed on a large amount of media follow-up regarding the international reaction to SOPA/PIPA in the US, development of communications products for the WMF/Telenor announcement, streamlining of the Wikimedia store operation, and supporting internal communications efforts around HR and recruiting. ==== Major announcements ==== Telenor makes Wikipedia available to 135 million customers in Asia and Europe (Feb 28, 2012) http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Telenor_and_WMF_partner_… ==== Major Storylines through February ==== Wikipedia and SOPA carry steam through February By far the major storyline for Wikimedia in February continued to focus on the impact of the defeat of SOPA in the US. Global media continue to inquire about the details of the efforts, including speculation about how the decision will affect future SOPA-like initiatives. Related op-ed from Jimmy Wales and Kat Walsh: "We are the media, and so are you" Jimmy Wales/Kat Walsh Op-ed in Washington Post, Feb 9, 2012 http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-are-the-media-and-so-are-you/2012… ==== Other worthwhile reads ==== The 'Undue Weight' of Truth on Wikipedia, Chronicle of Higher Ed, Feb 12, 2012 http://chronicle.com/article/The-Undue-Weight-of-Truth-on/130704/ How Wikimedia Uses Nimsoft to Keep Track of Uptime, Feb 21, 2012 https://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/02/how-wikimedia-uses-nimsoft-… Does Wikipedia have an accuracy problem? The Atlantic, Feb 16, 2012 http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/does-wikipedia-have-a… Wikipedia donors most likely to be from India, study says, Huffington Post, Feb 7, 2012 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/06/wikipedia-most-likely-donate_n_125… One of the Nation's Top Historians Decides It's Time to Embrace Wikipedia, The Atlantic, Feb 4, 2012 http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/one-of-the-nations-to… ==== Wikipedia Signpost ==== * Volume 7, Issue 6, 6 February 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-02…> * Volume 7, Issue 7, 13 February 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-02…> * Volume 7, Issue 8, 20 February 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-02…> * Volume 7, Issue 9, 27 February 2012 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Archives/2012-02…> ==== WMF Blog posts ==== http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/02/ ==== Media Contact ==== https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_room/Media_Contact#February_2012 == Human Resources == === Staff Changes === New Hires * Christine Bocknek, Senior Accountant (Finance) * Terry Chay, Director of Features Engineering (Engineering) * Nathan D'Annibale, Staff Accountant (Finance) * Charles Deubner, Office IT Support Specialist (Office IT) New Other Roles Filled * James Alexander, Wikimedia Merchandise Manager (Communications) * Victor Grigas, Storyteller: Content and Video Producer (Community) Conversions * Maggie Dennis, Community Liaison (Community) * Peter Gehres, Fundraiser Production Manager (Community) * Ryan Faulkner, Research Analyst (Community) * Roan Kattouw, SW Developer, Back-end (Engineering) New Contractors * Mariel Bird (Administration) * Mark Holmquist (Engineering) * Sara Lasner (Community) * Essam Sharaf (Global Development) * Lindsey Smith (Engineering) * Audrey Tang (Engineering) Contract Extended * Michael Beattie (Community) * Karen Chelini (HR) * Farhan Choudhury (Global Development) * Jeroen DeDauw (Engineering) * Rodney Dunican (Global Development) * Moushira Elamrawy (Global Development) * Emmanuel Engelhart (Engineering) * Rayne MacGeorge (Office IT) * Stacey Merrick (HR) * Sam Reed (Engineering) * Angela Robeson (HR) * Jon Harald Soby (Community) * Santhosh Thottingal (Engineering) * Heather Walls (Engineering) * Daniel Zahn (Engineering) Exit * Parul Vora Contract Ended * Peter Coombe (Community) * Aaron Muszalski (Community) * Joseph Seddon (Community) * Alex Zariv (Community) New Postings * Technical Product Analyst * Development Associate * Data Analytics Manager * Counsel RFPs * Production Support, Fundraiser * Lucene Search Operations Engineer === Statistics === Total Employee Count: Actual: 99 February Plan: 110, February Filled: 6, February Attrition: 2 YTD Filled: 38, YTD Attrition: 13 Remaining open positions to fiscal year end: 19 === Department Updates === It's our second month working as a fully staffed HR team and we've identified three core changes in the way we work. We need to get clearer in our processes and our work prioritization. We need our outward facing communications to be more consistent and better. We also need to have some boundaries in how we respond to requests, so that our overall service quality is higher. On the recruiting front, we have Stacey Merrick supporting us in doing social media outreach about jobs and other opportunities to work with WMF. She will also be doing some redesign work on the HR corner of the office wiki to make information more easily accessible. We also welcome Michelle Collins, who is helping us with recruiting on a part-time basis in a coordination role. Real-time feed for HR updates: http://identi.ca/wikimediaatwork or http://twitter.com/wikimediaatwork == Finance and Administration == We welcome Christine as our new Senior Accountant who will also work with chapters on reporting for both chapter agreements and fundraising agreements. Office improvements for this month were a new tile floor in the 6th floor kitchen. Volunteers who travel on behalf of the Foundation now have limited travel accident insurance when traveling outside of their home countries. Please contact Garfield <gbyrd at wikimedia dot org> to get additional information. == Legal and Community Advocacy == * We announced <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/LCA_Announcement> the new Legal and Community Advocacy group. Community consultation is ongoing, and everything is up for discussion, even the name of the group. Some initial community responses suggested that the key purpose of this department might be for legislative activities, but, in fact, we are thinking more about ways that we can support the community, such as helping administrators and functionaries and facilitating non-English participation in WMF initiatives (like policies and key projects). Help us brainstorm <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy/Community_Advoc…> this new department. We are thrilled to have Philippe and Maggie with us! * Legal and Global Development worked together to get the Telenor contract done on a tight deadline to allow for an announcement during a large telecommunications conference. * Attendance at Paris finance meeting while taking input on and finalizing a note to the Board: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_and_Funds_Dissemination/Staff_me… (Many thanks to Philippe and Maggie for managing the process) * Our legal interns have been answering a lot of community questions via memos and white papers. While the team may only represent the Wikimedia Foundation on legal matters and is not able to give legal advice to the volunteer communities, it does offer generalized informational resources so that volunteers can craft their own approaches to these complicated issues. For example, the Commons community was exploring questions related to the public display of art and its impact on copyright in the United States; the document that our legal intern produced is displayed on its own page there <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Public_art_and_copyrights_in_the…>. Both Commons and the English Wikipedia have also been struggling with questions related to international copyright. In January, Commons approached us about a recent US court decision which may impact thousands of images hosted on Commons. The research produced by the legal interns is published in the community deletion discussion <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/All_files_copy…>. The English Wikipedia is attempting to reach a consensus for handling content that is public domain in the United States because the United States does not have copyright relations with the country in which it was published. Our intern's work is published as part of that discussion <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Copyrights&oldid=4…>. Many thanks to them for their hard work. * Our team has been working on building a centralized "legal corner" for internal & external use. We hope to create and compile useful resources for both staff and community members. * We are looking for a junior legal counsel who is an active Wikimedian. Here is the job posting: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Counsel * Stats o Number of contracts signed - 12 o Number of trademark requests - 10 + approved - 6 + denied - 2 + approval not needed - 1 + pending - 1 == Visitors and Guests == <Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Members_of_the_German_Bundestag_vis… Six members of the German parliament's sub-committee on new media visiting the Wikimedia Foundation's Office on February 13> 1. Christian (Wikia) 2. Andrew Lih (Wikipedian/Author/Journalist/Professor) 3. Stan van de Burgt (founder of Watchmouse) 4. Jeroen Borgsteede (Manager of products & Services, Kennisnet) 5. Renee Blodgett 6. Mayo Fuster Morell (Amical, RCom member, User:Lilaroja <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Lilaroja>) 7. Sebastian Blumenthal (Bundestag) 8. Dr. Reinhard Brandl <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Brandl> (Bundestag) 9. Thomas Jarzombek (Bundestag) 10. Lars Klingbeil (Bundestag) 11. Herbert Behrens (Bundestag) 12. Dr. Konstantin von Notz (Bundestag) 13. Dr. Franca Wolff (Bundestag) 14. Consul General Peter Rothen 15. Michael Ahrens, Consul Cultural and Press Affairs at the German Consulate General 16. Brigitta Richman, a translator 17. Dwight Wilson (WorldCorp Interns) 18. Mike Hegazy (Crunch Gym representative) 19. Grant Joung (ThoughtWorks) 20. Latoya Peterson (http://latoyapeterson.com/about/) 21. Sarah Stierch (WMF Community Fellow) 22. Jonathan Morgan (WMF Research Fellow) 23. Grant & Marie Claire (Thoughtworks) 24. Otavio Good (Wikipedian) 25. James Cullen Heaphy III (Wikipedian) 26. Essam Sharaf (Wikipedian) 27. David Munir 28. Terry Brodt (CWT travel) 29. Tilman Bayer 30. Andrew Garrett 31. Linda Chang (Design MBA program at California College of the Arts) 32. Rana Cho (Design MBA program at California College of the Arts) 33. Ali Musleh (Design MBA program at California College of the Arts) 34. Arash Shirinbab (Design MBA program at California College of the Arts) 35. Max Klein (Wikipedian) 36. Valerie Ball (KPMG) 37. Stu West (WMF Board of Trustees member) 38. Ting Chen (Chair of WMF Board of Trustees) 39. Jimmy Wales (WMF Board of Trustees member) 40. Jan-Bart de Vreede (Vice Chair of WMF Board of Trustees) 41. Kat Walsh (WMF Board of Trustees member) 42. Arne Klempert (WMF Board of Trustees member) 43. Matt Halprin (WMF Board of Trustees member) 44. Bishakha Datta (WMF Board of Trustees member) 45. Phoebe Ayers (WMF Board of Trustees member) 46. Deborah Bezona (D. Bezona & Company) 47. Juan Carlos Guaqueta (Chile) 48. 20 community members (English Wikipedians, editors of Wiktionary, Wikisource, as well as Portuguese and German Wikipedia) -- Tilman Bayer Movement Communications Wikimedia Foundation IRC (Freenode): HaeB _______________________________________________ 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

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[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Chapters Committee update
by Bence Damokos 08 Mar '12

08 Mar '12

Hi, It is with great pleasure that I can announce that following the public call for candidates, the Chapters Committee has selected five new members to serve in approving chapters and pending further discussion on movement roles, possibly other types of organisations. The new members are: - Galileo Vidoni - Lodewijk Gelauff (reelected) - Maria Sefidari - Bengt Oberger - Tomasz Kozłowski They are joined by: - Damian Finol, - Ray Saintonge, - Sebastian Moleski - Jeromy-Yu Chan - Bence Damokos (chair) We would like to express our gratitude to Austin Hair, Vladimir Medeyko and Nathan Carter who have helped scores of chapters on their way to approval in their long and dedicated service in the Committee, and their service has now ended. Delphine Ménard, one of the original members of the Chapters Committee has applied to serve on in an advisory capacity. (Read full resolution here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_Committee/Resolutions/Resolutions/… ) We look forward to the renewed energy the new members will bring to the Committee as we take on new challenges and try to make our work as a Committee more efficient and transparent. Chapcom will hold an internal meeting in Berlin on 29th March, and members of the Committee will attend the following Chapters Meeting – please seek us out with any questions, queries, ideas or concerns during the conference. Best regards, Bence Damokos Chair, Chapters Committee _______________________________________________ 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

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[Foundation-l] Author "Wikimedia Foundation" at Barnes&Nobles shop on Nook
by RYU Cheol 08 Mar '12

08 Mar '12

Hi, all! I searched "Wikimedia Foundation" by chance and a lot of Wikibooks, possibly collections of Wikipedia articles. The author of the books is "Wikimedia Foundation." I don't think Wikimedia Foundation is selling the e-books for 2~3 dollars, and I think it is a fraud. Many buyer commented that they want their money back. I think the Foundation needs to find out the case and alert the bookshop. Cheol

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[Foundation-l] Wikimedia France position on fundraising
by Florence Devouard 07 Mar '12

07 Mar '12

Please find on Wikimedia France position regarding chapter fundraising in France in the coming years. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_France/Fundraising_letter_March_20… Please keep feedback and comments for meta rather than lists. Thanks Florence

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Re: [Foundation-l] Controversial content software status
by WereSpielChequers 07 Mar '12

07 Mar '12

> Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 21:30:27 -0500 > From: Kat Walsh <kat(a)mindspillage.org> > To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List > <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Controversial content software status > Message-ID: > <CAHqe4Lrnvy9QjWkUwcKG+eL8hZwA5bcoRhR5Lct+A=6115u+nw(a)mail.gmail.com > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > On Mon, Mar 5, 2012 at 8:32 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki(a)gmail.com> > wrote: > > On Mon, Mar 5, 2012 at 5:06 PM, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> On 6 March 2012 00:57, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> > > Sorry to drag this out--there are definitely more interesting things > to talk about. But as someone who basically holds Phoebe's position on > the issue I'd like to say what I am thinking also. > > I think, in fact, that I am almost exactly in agreement with Phoebe. I > voted for the resolution because I thought we had reached a consensus > that was compatible with everyone's principles and wasn't going to > compromise anything else that was critically important. And I think we > were wrong. Maybe it was foolish to think it could have been true, but > it seemed like a victory to get even that far--the controversial > content discussion has been the most divisive and difficult in my time > on the board (since 2006, if you're counting). > > We are still divided, as a board, on where to go from here; it is a > true conflict. The actual words in the statement are fine--they should > be, after all the effort poured into them. It is the implications that > we didn't properly foresee and that I think we're still not in > agreement on. > > Traditionally, the way we as a board have dealt with true conflicts is > not to release a series of resolutions that squeak by with a bare > majority, but to find some path forward that can get broad or even > unanimous support. If we cannot even get the board--a very small > group, with more time to argue issues together and less diversity of > opinion than the wider community--what hope is there to get the > broader community to come to agreement that the action we decide on is > the best decision? > > I think it's my responsibility to be open to argument, to have some > things that cannot be compromised, but to be willing to accept a > solution that doesn't violate them even if I think it's not the best > one. And to be willing to delegate the carrying-out of those decisions > to others. Sometimes I have to take a deep breath and realize > something is going completely unlike how I would have chosen to do it, > and that it might still be okay; I have to step back, let everyone do > their own jobs, and be as fair as possible in evaluating how it is > turning out even if it is not what I wanted. And sometimes that means > the most responsible thing for me to do is to shut up so I don't ruin > the chance of a positive outcome by undermining others' efforts in > progress. > > So in an ideal universe, I still think it is possible for a solution > to be developed in line with the resolution that doesn't violate the > principles of free access to information that we value. > > But in the practical universe, I think it is a poor use of resources > to keep trying along the same path; we have things that will have much > more impact that aren't already poisoned by a bad start. It was a > viable starting position at one point and now I believe that we can't > get anywhere good from it; better to scrap it entirely, perhaps later > to try something completely different. I would still love to see some > way to meet the needs of the people who don't want to be surprised by > what they will find in a search. But I don't think it's going to come > out of the current approach. > > So I supported the resolution and now I support rescinding it, at > least in part. I don't think this is inconsistent with anything on my > part, nor on Phoebe's. > > -Kat > > Hi Kat, that's very refreshing to hear, though perhaps if it had come sooner there would have been less bad blood and the issue would be less significant in the current chapter elections. I was in the minority that thought it would be good to offer some sort of image filter to our readers, I even designed one that would avoid many of the problems of the Foundation proposal http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Controversial_content/Brainstorming/personal… I'm also quite supportive both of the principle of Least Astonishment (POLA) and also of fixing our search routines so that sexual images that also involve cucumbers etc don't automatically jump to the top of searches for cucumbers because of the popularity of sexual images. But POLA itself is something that we need to carefully define. I'm aware of one recent incident where an editor got qite a bit of hassle because an image that he used to have on his webpage was subsequently replaced by an image that I would describe as Not Safe For Home, let alone Not Safe For Work. I'd consider that a POLA breach, but presumably the person who replaced a cropped image of someone's upper body with an uncropped image would just have thought they were improving an image. But even though I've been supportive of much of the controversial content resolution, I'm not sure that the way the WMF has handled this has been ideal. My preference would be that when the WMF realises that a proposal has serious problems in the community, that proposal should be wholly or partially suspended or withdrawn so that the contentious aspects can be resolved. Better still the WMF should aim to work with the grain of the community and not adopt resolutions and major changes of direction without first getting community consensus for them. I'm also intrigued by your comment "we have things that will have much more impact that aren't already poisoned by a bad start". Taking the fundraising proposal as an example, do you really think that the WMF idea of centralising fundraising and not doing it through chapters has not had a bad start? Or that the idea of running an inherently decentralised global movement in a tightly controlled centralised manner was ever going to be uncontentious, consensual or for that matter practical? I'd also suggest that the board clarify when it considers that collective responsibility applies to its members and where it doesn't. There are some things such as dealings with regulators where collective responsibility is necessary for a board such as the WMF. There are other things such as the development of internal policy, where collective responsibility on the board is risky and unhealthy for the organisation. Unhealthy because on a divisive issue you want the minority to feel that they lost in the board decision, not that the board as a whole is opposed to their ideas. WereSpielChequers

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[Foundation-l] Monthly report chapter germany
by Phillip Wilke 07 Mar '12

07 Mar '12

Hello everybody, starting from now the german chapter report february is available.You'll find it via meta wiki: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Deutsch… Sorry for bothering you to do another klick to reach the report. It's to extensive to paste it in the mailbox. Bests Phillip Wilke (WMDE) -- Phillip Wilke Projektassistent ------------------------------------- Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. Eisenacher Straße 2 10777 Berlin Telefon 030 - 219 158 26-0 www.wikimedia.de Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch an der Menge allen Wissens frei teilhaben kann. Helfen Sie uns dabei! http://spenden.wikimedia.de/ **** Helfen Sie mit, dass WIKIPEDIA von der UNESCO als erstes digitales Weltkulturerbe anerkannt wird. Unterzeichnen Sie die Online-Petition! http://wikipedia.de **** Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.

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[Foundation-l] [SOPA etc.] [FSF] Fwd: Blood in the water: Brett Smith reports from the latest Trans-Pacific Partnership Stakeholder Forum
by Federico Leva (Nemo) 06 Mar '12

06 Mar '12

Seems worth a forward given that it mentions the SOPA protest as one of the main causes for a better acceptance of sensible copyright lobby (true or not?). Nemo -------- Messaggio originale -------- Oggetto: Blood in the water: Brett Smith reports from the latest Trans-Pacific Partnership Stakeholder Forum Data: Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:22:38 -0500 Mittente: Free Software Foundation <info(a)fsf.org> I'm in Melbourne to advocate for free software users and developers at the latest round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), and I'm chomping at the bit to share a little good news with you all. The tone of the discussion here has turned much more friendly to us—and *it's thanks to your activism.* Officially, the TPP negotiations are secret, but based on leaked text and what we've heard from negotiators, it looks like once again the United States will try to use this trade agreement to promote even more draconian copyright, patent, and anti-circumvention legislation internationally. In past negotiating rounds </blogs/community/fsf-speaks-against-tpp>, negotiators heard plenty of opposition to such proposals from the groups you'd expect, like the FSF, Knowledge Ecology International, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Now, that tent is expanding. TPP negotiators have seen the overwhelmingly negative response to SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA, and it worries them. They want to make sure the same fate doesn't befall TPP, and several stakeholder presentations have been framed to offer a solution to just that problem. We and our allies have the easiest job of that: we simply point out that our concerns match the protestors', and TPP can do better by heeding our suggestions. Technology industry groups are now more vocally expressing their concerns and explicitly positioning themselves opposite big copyright companies. Even our political opponents feel pressured to adopt this frame: Gina Vetere from the US Chamber of Commerce took pains to note that TPP does not include SOPA's provisions, and suggested that the lesson to learn from the SOPA debate was that “all stakeholders” support the DMCA's approach to copyright enforcement. (I made sure to set the record straight during her Q&A!) Your activism around SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA—your protests, your phone calls and letters to legislators, your Web site blackouts—have had a real positive impact on the terms of the discussion here in Melbourne. Of course, that doesn't mean our work on TPP is done. Everyone's well aware that the US trade delegation, and the companies that stand to benefit from its work, are bullheaded and persistent. But negotiators are taking our concerns more seriously than ever before. I thank you for the effort that got us to this moment, and I'll do everything I can to make the most of it during the negotiations. *Help keep the pressure up!* TPP hasn't received enough attention to date—because the negotiations are secret, many media outlets assume there's nothing to report. Spread the word however you can—through blogs, mailing lists, and social media—to let your friends and colleagues know that TPP is a threat just as serious as ACTA or SOPA. Negotiators will meet several times over the course of 2012 as they rush to finalize the text. If they're coming to your town, that's a great opportunity for activism like protests and public events. We'll have more details after negotiations conclude in Melbourne, and we're planning follow-up posts with more ideas for how you can help. We also plan to attend more TPP Stakeholder Forums so we can continue advocating for free software users and developers throughout the drafting process. Please support our efforts (and help cover the travel costs!) by joining as an Associate Member or making a donation </join>. -- Follow us on identi.ca at http://identi.ca/fsf | Subscribe to our blogs via RSS at http://fsf.org/blogs/RSS Join us as an associate member at http://fsf.org/jf

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[Foundation-l] Fwd: Announcing Noopur Raval as Consultant, Wikimedia Foundation (India Program, Communications)
by Hisham 06 Mar '12

06 Mar '12

cross-posting; apologies if you have already read this from another list. hisham Begin forwarded message: > From: Hisham <hisham(a)wikimedia.org> > Subject: Announcing Noopur Raval as Consultant, Wikimedia Foundation (India Program, Communications) > Date: March 5, 2012 7:19:05 PM GMT+05:30 > To: Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Cc: Noopur <noopur.raval(a)gmail.com> > > Dear All, > > I am pleased to announce that Noopur Raval ([User:Noopur28] has been selected as Consultant to the Wikimedia Foundation, and will support Communications for India Program. > > This position will perform 4 key functions. Firstly, it will support communications with our community. This involves a regular set of updates (such as newsletters) as well as specific communication projects such as story-telling of local community initiatives (to document experiences, celebrate successes and cross-pollinate ideas.) This is not for day-to-day program communications - which is a core part of each of our responsibilities in the India Program team. Second will be to support media & PR for local community initiatives. The single biggest challenge here will to be get more Indic language media coverage to support community building efforts. This will be done directly with community members and also in co-ordination with the India Chapter's Communications Media & PR team. The third aspect is to build and expand existing community social networks (such as WikimediaIndia on facebook) and to help with the use of social networks to support community building. Lastly, there is untapped potential of using digital outreach - to augment existing physical outreach efforts. We need to (very, very carefully) explore if we can reach out to our large and growing reader base and inform, encourage and enable them to become editors using online channels and resources. > > Noopur is a community member and has supported outreach activities (in Ahmedabad & Delhi), is a member of Delhi SIG of the Chapter, has participated in community collaborations like Collaboration of the Month and has been actively trying to start GLAM in India. > > Noopur is from Gandhinagar and is graduating from JNU with a Master's in Arts & Aesthetics. She has a triple honors Bachelor's in Media Studies, Literature and Psychology from Christ College, Bangalore. She has interned with Radio Mirchi, Times of India and the Centre for Internet & Society (amongst others) - as well as done some teaching assignments. She is an active blogger (including for the India Art Summit, 2011.) She has published a novella and co-authored an anthology of poems, plays & short stories and has co-presented a paper on "Wikiwars" with [User:Srikeit.] She is also an amateur photographer and has contributed to Commons as well as other platforms. > > The Communications position has taken a long time to fill. The initial call for selection was in September. I reported back to the community in December that I had failed to find the right candidate and hence the delay. There were a number of deserving candidates and this selection has taken time because of the need to find the most suitable profile for a complex role. This role requires the right mix of an academic foundation in communications, domain expertise as well as adequate familiarity with our community. It also requires adaptability and strong learning skills - because so much of what we are trying to do is pioneering. I am confident that she brings the right level of experience and competencies - and I'm very excited by the opportunity of making a step jump in the impact of communications for our community. > > Do join me in welcoming Noopur. She will start on March 12 and will be based in New Delhi. > > Best > > hisham >

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Wikimedia-l March 2012