First of all yes travel content is educational. Some of the best education
I have received in fact. Travel content however is in a form distinct from
an encyclopedia and thus needs its own project.
The editors from Wikitravel already have the content in a form that can be
easily uploaded into a wiki. They plan to start their own Wiki if we are
not interested.
@Juergen Yes discussions are occurring with WikiVoyage and it is hoped that
they would be interested in joining a combined Wikimedia project as
described. There is reasons why the English community does not simply
rejoin the German community at WikiVoyage. It is my hope that moving to
the WMF will allow the rejoining of these two communities on equal footing.
--
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
Typically policies and guidelines are decided by the community of editors
that make up a specific site. With respect to referencing and research
these will be somewhat different from an encyclopdia which is why
attempting to combine this content into Wikipedia is not really
appropriate. Also travel information is more in a "how to tone" rather than
an encyclopedic one.
--
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
Yes WikiTravel has some poorly sourced pages that ramble on. However so
does Wikipedia. The solution is to increase the size of the community and
quality will increase with time. We did not always have
strike referencing guidelines. To get this project to grow we need to get
it based in an environment where it can grow.
The Spanish Wikipedia, if I remember correctly, threatened to split off in
2004 due to Wikipedia having no solid non profit foundation. Those are WT
have the same concerns. They do not want all their volunteers efforts going
to the bottom line of a for profit (Internet Brands). And would anyone
blame them. If we within the Wikimedia Movement want to see this content
improved we should welcome them into the WMF. We have 20 editors supporting
this proposal as of April 10th, 2012.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Travel_Guide
--
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
Hello,
I want to share with you a very great work made on several Wikimedia
projects in the previous weeks in collaboration between Wikim=C3=A9dia Fran=
ce
and the General Delegation for French Languages and Languages of France (
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9l%C3%A9gation_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale_%C3%A0=
_la_langue_fran%C3%A7aise_et_
aux_langues_de_France-
DGLFLF), a department dedicated to the Languages in the French
Ministry
of Culture.
This collaboration is (imho) an example of what we can do with an
administration, and a source for contributors.
In may 2011 Wikim=C3=A9dia France was asked by the DGLFLF to write a report
about french language on the wikimedia projects. Some volunteers of the
chapter have doing this report, which was well received, up to be shared
with all the deputies of the French Parliament (in a general report about
the state of the french language) and frequently cited by the french
ministry of culture to show the importance of being present on the
internets to sustain a language.
After that, we were contacted again by the DGLFLF about the regional and
native languages of France (called "Langues de France" --> Languages of
France). We were invited in a big conference in Cayenne (french Guyana) on
december 2011. I was with Guillaume G., a volunteer, at this conference
called "General estates of the mulilinguism in the overseas" to explain
Wikimedia projects, with conferences and workshops.
The DGLFLF was very interested by our way of work and the philosophy of the
Wikimedia movement. After the conference we have discussed together and
decided to publish the acts of the conference by collaborative work on a
Wikimedia project : Wikibooks. You can see the result here (not totally
finished) :
http://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/%C3%89tats_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9raux_du_multilinguism=
e_dans_les_outre-mer(and<http://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/%C3%89tats_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9raux_du_multilinguism…>
the linked pages)
We trained to contribute for 10 people from the DGLFLF and other
departments of the Ministry of Culture. They have now more than 500
contributions on Wikibooks, and they contribute on Wikipedia now. The idea
was to publish on Wikibooks to make a lot of links to Wikipedia,
illustrations from Commons etc, to promote the contribution for people
interested for the languages issues : linking to Wikipedia is a good way to
promote the contributions. Content about French overseas territories and
native languages is not so good and we (DGLFLF and WMFR) do a real effort
to promote better contributions.
Since one year, the DGLFLF has decided to publish its content with a free
license, especially made for open-data and open-content for the french
administration, the Etalab license (it is like au CC-BY license). After
they have published the content about the General Estates with this
license, we have uploaded the content on Wikim=C3=A9dia Commons. It is good=
to
illustrate the Wikibooks, but now it is free for you too, to reuse and
share on the different Wikimedia projects, especially Wikipedia (to enrich
the articles about languages of France).
* We have all the videos of the Conference : more than 12 hours of
scientifical content about multilinguism and french languages :
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Videos_from_the_%C3%89tats_g%C3%=
A9n%C3%A9raux_du_multilinguisme_dans_les_outre-mer
* We have content produced by the DGLFLF about the different languages :
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Linguistic_card_from_the_%C3%89t=
ats_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9raux_du_multilinguisme_dans_les_outre-mer
* We also have a great kind of content : 18 audio files with languages of
the overseas (
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:%C3%89tats_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9raux_du=
_multilinguisme_dans_les_outre-mer<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:%C3%89tats_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9raux_du…>
).
Some languages are spoken by a lot of people, especially for the Cara=C3=AF=
b
Islands, but some other are from very little languages, without written,
and with a very little number of locutors, like the "Nemi", a language
non-written from New-Caledonia, spoken by less than 300 people. And we have
a small part of this language now on Wikim=C3=A9dia Commons ! (
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nouvelle_Cal%C3%A9donie_Gilbert_Th%C=
3%A9in_Nemi.ogg).
We work to have other files of content about native languages like that.
So the reason to share with you this very nice collaboration is double :
* First I want to share a project which is - for me - an example of what we
can do with an administration when they are open to free culture and free
share of knowledge. It is a real pleasure for me to work like that and
share this good experience with you. And I hope that it could be benefit
for you and your discussions with your administrations to have an example
of a good project, in an other sector than GLAM or education, about free
knowledge.
* Secondly I wanted to share this links with you because it is a good
content for the projects and if we reuse a lot this content, it will be an
example for other administrations, in France and maybe in other countries,
to do like the General Delegation for French Language and Languages of
France.
All the best,
Adrienne
--
Adrienne Alix
Director of programs - Wikimedia France
Twitter : @AdrienneAlix
adrienne.alix(a)wikimedia.fr | 07.62.92.42.01
http://www.wikimedia.fr
@ MZMcBride I just assumed that most would see travel content as
educational in nature but have added this clarification to the proposal in
in question. If most accept that travel is educational in nature, resources
that help with travel would thus be educational resources and within the
scope of the Wikimedia Foundation.
@ John Vandenberg A recent copy of Wikitravel have been put aside and it is
ready to be adding into a mediawiki site.
--
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
>
> Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:27:25 -0600
> From: James Heilman <jmh649(a)gmail.com>
> To: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Wiki Travel Guide
> Message-ID:
> <CAF1en7UBs8EAbNE-3L_mZxWC8tcWQ3o5SbLwmCVhO3fyixrvOA(a)mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Yes WikiTravel has some poorly sourced pages that ramble on. However so
> does Wikipedia. The solution is to increase the size of the community and
> quality will increase with time. We did not always have
> strike referencing guidelines. To get this project to grow we need to get
> it based in an environment where it can grow.
>
> The Spanish Wikipedia, if I remember correctly, threatened to split off in
> 2004 due to Wikipedia having no solid non profit foundation. Those are WT
> have the same concerns. They do not want all their volunteers efforts going
> to the bottom line of a for profit (Internet Brands). And would anyone
> blame them. If we within the Wikimedia Movement want to see this content
> improved we should welcome them into the WMF. We have 20 editors supporting
> this proposal as of April 10th, 2012.
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Travel_Guide
>
> --
> James Heilman
> MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
>
Yes, this. I call on the Foundation to move quickly on this issue and
welcome this project into the Wikimedia family without any further delay.
Cheers,
Craig
Hi everyone (and hi to the new list too...)
I just wanted to announce that Garfield Byrd, the Chief of Finance and
Administration at the Wikimedia Foundation, will be at his first IRC office
hours this Thursday, April 12th, at 23:00 UTC in #wikimedia-office.
Time conversion and other necessaries are on Meta.[1] As for the topic,
Garfield wants to hold a general Q&A about WMF finance, as well as
introduce what his department is and who works in it.
Thanks, and hopefully we'll talk to you on Thursday. :)
--
Steven Walling
https://wikimediafoundation.org/
1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours#Upcoming_office_hours>
Looks like the BBC are now starting to use goodly amounts of open
content. One that's caught my eye is a piece on the seige of Sarajevo,
part of which is CC-BY-SA licenced, at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17617775.
Richard Symonds
Office& Development Manager
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 207 065 0992
--
Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, a Charitable Company
Registered in England and Wales, No: 6741827. Charity No:1144513 Office: 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street,
London EC2A 4LT.
Wikimedia UK is the local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate
Wikipedia, amongst other projects). It is an independent non-profit
organization with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for
its contents.
Hi all,
The Sister Projects Committee is now a more formal committee, and as such,
there's a list of things to do at <
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sister_Projects_Committee#Task_list>. The
plan is to discuss all the topics on the talk page and this mailing list
when we are looking for wider community input. If you are interested in
joining the committee or helping out, please have a look at the talk page, <
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Sister_Projects_Committee>, where I've
split up each topic area into a different section so that discussions can
take place.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask on this mailing list or on the
talk page. :-)
--
Thehelpfulone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone
English Wikipedia Administrator