The new editorial team has produced a new issue of Wikimedia Italia's
bulletin, shortened for the sake of clarity to the public at large.
English version follows and is available on the wiki
http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Wikimedia_news/numero_33/en
Please let us know if you find this format useful or send us any feedback.
___________________
WikimediaNews - no. 33 - June 20, 2012
Official bulletin from Wikimedia Italia Association.
==Adotta una parola goes to school==
Students from the high schools participating to Adotta una parola in
Sala Borsa, Bologna, during award distribution
In late February, teachers and students from various schools of Emilia
Romagna attended an introductory course on Wikipedia. The course –
taught by members of WMI – was the start of a project carried on with
schools, managed by Emilia Romagna APTServizi (the body promoting
tourism in the region), Wikimedia Italia and the Regional Office of
Education.
During the course they have found that yes, they too can write Wikipedia
articles; and no, there is nobody double-checking the contributions
before publication. After the shock for a very different approach than
that of the world of education was over, the classes just jumped into
the project with enthusiasm, working for three months on the items they
adopted. ("Adotta una parola" in Italian means "adopt a word", indeed).
To describe the experience, let's quote the words of Giovanna Morini,
teacher involved in the project: «Really, the guys played a pretty
active role, [...] a role as students 2.0, not just as users who believe
passively in everything they find in the web, as if it was a television!
We hope that this kernel will be left to the kids as an active way to
approach the study and the environment around them, and to the school
and the teachers as a "rich" educational methodology to be exploited
again».
http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Adotta_una_parola_va_a_scuola
==Wikiguide on Wikiquote==
Wikimedia Italia published the fourth WikiGuida, a quick and direct
video which explains everybody what Wikiquote is: a rich anthology of
quotations, added one by one to the users themselves, together with
their sources...
http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/WikiGuida_Wikiquote
==News from Wikimedia world==
Iberoconf 2012 has been a conference held from 31/5 to 3/6 in Santiago
(Chile) within Iberocoop, international collaborative initiative. For
Wikimedia Italia Aubrey and Cristian attended. Iberocoop
http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Iberocoop
==News from WLM==
Wiki Loves Monuments is looking for new public and private monuments to
insert in the list of what can be photographed for the contest. If you
know a nice monument and you want to help us, consult the site:
http://www.wikilovesmonuments.it/2012/06/la-lista-dei-monumenti/
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Techdirt is a rather *hopeful* source, but ...
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120703/12112119569/ustrs-surprise-turnar…
"Given the USTR's general lack of transparency and intellectually
insulting attitude towards anyone who questions TPP and ACTA
transparency, I don't trust the USTR on its commitment to this... but
I have been hearing from multiple sources that the protests against
SOPA and ACTA have had a big impact on the administration's thinking
on intellectual property issues... and that the MPAA/RIAA folks are
not at all happy about the latest version of the USTR's IP chapter.
There have also been multiple assurances that the USTR will fight
strongly to make sure that this language on exceptions remains in the
agreement, even if some of its "advisers" from the legacy content
industry don't like it. That suggests that maybe, just maybe, some
voices of reason have gotten through to the USTR."
Well done, all. The SOPA protest would have gone nowhere without Wikipedia.
- d.
Hi
I would like to bring up an issue with office actions that was brought up
elsewhere. There has been an issue on commons with User:Saibo tagging
images from WMF staff. He disagreed with a particular office action taken
by WMF staff. He gives an explanation with relevant diffs here[1]. The
issue is rather complicated, and the specifics of it seem to be in secret.
And that is mostly the problem here. He asked for an explanation is several
places, but so far, the response from Philippe, and the rest of the staff
has been that office actions are not explained - that is the crux of the
entire offered explanation.
Office actions have historically been used to blank or delete pages, the
current listed policy on Meta and commons[3][4] make no mention of Global
bans or blocking a user locally, or even globally. I have not known for
office actions to extend to users and global bans, the last I know was a
discussion going on with Steven on Meta about this. This might be its first
usage. The proposed policy[5] and open RfC[6], have not concluded yet. The
RfC received comments just today. Is that proposed policy already being
used on commons?
Office actions, have been limited to blanking pages, though sometimes
contentious, they have been exercised with caution. It is a different
ball-game when it goes from just blanking a page, to instantly blocking a
user globally, and giving no explanation to community members who have
known that user for years. if it is stretched to banning a 2 year old user
with no explanation beyond, "OFFICE ACTION" it is going to do more than
just raise eyebrows. I understand the specifics of the issue here, but
banning users with absolutely no explanation can not be this widely
accepted.
Regards
Theo
[1]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Saibo/WMF
[2]
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Philippe_(WMF)#Why_did_you_bloc…
[3]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Office_actions
[4]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Office_actions
[5]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_bans
[6]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Global_bans
Hi all,
as many of you are aware, the Wikimedia Board of Trustees recently initiated
substantial changes in the way that money is being distributed within the
Wikimedia movement. As part of this, a new community-led Funds
Dissemination Committee (FDC[1]) is currently being established. Already in
2012-13, its recommendations will guide the decisions on *how over 10
million dollars of movement funds will be **distributed* to the Foundation,
chapters and other movement groups. Much preparation work has been done in
the last months, aided by an advisory group[2], and on Friday the
"Framework for the Creation and Initial Operation of the FDC"[3] was sent
to the Board of Trustees for consideration.
As you can imagine, *it is now of vital importance to find capable,
**knowledgeable
and trustworthy community members who volunteer to serve **on the initial
Fund Dissemination Committee*, which is expected to take up its work in
September.
If you are interested in serving on the future FDC, please read our *call
for volunteers*[4] and add your name to the *nominations* page[5]. You
will be contacted shortly and asked to make a statement. Also, if you know
of other community members that you would trust to serve on this committee,
encourage them to apply. Nominations are planned to close on August 15.
You can read the *proposal*[3] to get an idea of what the FDC will be
tasked with, and what kind of work and background are expected of its
volunteer members.
Please help echo this message throughout our movement, on local language
lists, community lists, and special-interest lists, as appropriate.
I am happy to answer any questions, by e-mail or (preferably) via the talk
pages of these pages, so others can benefit from the answers.
Thanks in advance,
Asaf
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee
[2]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/FDC_Advisory_G…
[3]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Draft_FDC_Prop…
[4]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Call_for_Volun…
[5] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Nominations
--
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org
Dear all,
Wikimedia Deutschland's monthly report for June 2012 is online now! Find
out about the work of our first Wikipedian in
Residence<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedian_in_Residence>,
who won the Zedler Prize for Free
Knowledge<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Zedler-Preis_2012>and
how some of our international events went.
Here's the report for June:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Deutsch…
.
You can also visit http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reports for WMDE's other
monthly reports.
Best wishes,
Katja
--
Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
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Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Obentrautstraße 72 | 10963 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 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.
Hi folks!
We've gotten a lot of great proposals for the Wikidata logo and now
it's time to chose. All the details about the vote are here:
http://blog.wikimedia.de/2012/07/03/wikidata-logo-its-time-to-pick-a-winner/
I'd be delighted if you all took part in the vote and we decide on a
great logo for Wikidata.
Cheers
Lydia
--
Lydia Pintscher - http://about.me/lydia.pintscher
Community Communications for Wikidata
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Obentrautstr. 72
10963 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.
Further to Jimbo's championing O'Dwyer, here is the court document from
O'Dwyer's January extradition trial:
http://www.europeanrights.eu/public/sentenze/WMC13gen2012.pdf
Some quotes:
---o0o---
O’Dwyer did not charge users of TVShack.net to download or stream content.
Instead he earned money from hosting advertisements on various portions of
the TVShack.net website.
[...]
According to Alexa.com, an organisation that ranks website popularity based
on frequency of visits, as of on or about June 28, 2010, TVShack.net was
the 1779th most popular website in the world and the 1419th in the United
States”. Following seizure of the original domain name on 29th June 2010
“within one day O’Dwyer and one of his co conspirators… registered a new
domain name, TVShack.net to TVShack.cc which was hosted on a server located
at an ISP either in Germany or the Netherlands.
[...]
TVShack.cc continued to offer copyrighted movies and television programs
under the new domain name without authorisation from the copyright
holders… Also posted on the homepage of this new website was the photograph
of a rap music group and the title of one of their songs “F*ck the Police”.
In interview, relied on in the U.S. Request, he is said to have accepted
owning TVShack.net and TVShack.cc “earning approximately £15,000 per month”
from online advertisements hosted on those sites.
[...]
[The US prosecutor argued] there was no attempt to protect copyright, he,
Richard O’Dwyer, knew materials were subject to copyright and actively
taunted already cited efforts in June 2010 to seize TVShack.net.
---o0o---
So Jimbo is saying that a chap who, according to statements in this court
document, made well over 20,000 advertising dollars a month from copyright
infringement (under the motto "fuck the police") reminds him "of many great
Internet entrepreneurs".
It looks like these – rather than NPOV – are the values that Wikipedia has
been co-opted to support.
After ten minute and three unsuccessful attempts to categorise an image via
Hotcat I've now got the following error message:
Request: GET
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_the_Geograph_British…,
from 91.198.174.56 via amssq33.esams.wikimedia.org (squid/2.7.STABLE9) to ()
Error: ERR_CANNOT_FORWARD, errno (11) Resource temporarily unavailable at
Mon, 02 Jul 2012 21:45:48 GMT
Normally Commons only goes down for a minute or so at a time, any one know
what the problem is this evening?
WSC
Wow, thank goodness we never had advertising. The TV-Tropes wiki has been forced to censor a
number of pages due to advertiser pressure.
http://www.themarysue.com/tv-tropes-rape-articles/
In the mean time, the discussed tropes *do* exist in our culture and in our movies. It
somehow feels soviet. :-/
sincerely,
Kim Bruning
--