Wikimedia-l September 2012

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116 participants
89 discussions

Travel Project - Next Steps
by Erik Moeller 19 Sep '12

19 Sep '12

Hello all, As recently announced [1], WMF will move forward in creating a Wikimedia travel project based on community request and support. We’re currently in discussions with the Wikivoyage community, who’ve expressed interest in joining Wikimedia’s project family as part of this launch. We’re coordinating certain practical issues, such as content migration, account reconciliation, and attribution, with them directly. Please note that the new project will be subject to Wikimedia’s terms of use, privacy policy, and licensing policy. Like with any of our projects, the bulk of content-related policies and practices will be designed and managed by the community. Launch discussions are continuing here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Travel_Guide An additional open question is the project name. Wikivoyage has offered to contribute its name. So, we could stick with Wikivoyage, which is already established, and has a non-profit organization supporting it. We have also obtained a number of alternative domain names, as have individual community members. We’ll initially straw poll the "Wikivoyage yes/no" question as this seems like the simplest path forward if there’s wide agreement in favor; more on that in a separate note by Philippe. For the Wikivoyage content import and project launch, our current plan is to do an in-person sprint in San Francisco in late October to support the project launch (we may defer this based on everyone’s availability). There’s also plenty of work ahead of time. If you’d like to be part of the technical launch team, please sign up here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Travel_Guide/Technical_coordination We’ll also continue to monitor comments on https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Travel_Guide and will engage there as the process continues. For the time being, I am coordinating the overall project launch, supported by Philippe. Questions/comments welcome. I look forward to getting this project off the ground. :-) As we’ve said before, we don’t view ourselves in competition with other providers of free knowledge, nor do we encourage anybody to leave any other site. The beautiful thing about free culture is that anyone who wishes to contribute to the corpus of freely available information about travel (or indeed any subject) can do so anywhere, and both information and people can flow freely between projects. All best, Erik [1] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2012-September/121897.html -- Erik Möller VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

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the hidden toolbox
by Amir E. Aharoni 19 Sep '12

19 Sep '12

Hello, Time after time I run into new users of Wikimedia projects who don't know that they can use the functions that are available in the Toolbox on the sidebar, such as "What links here", "Upload file", "User contributions" and "E-mail this user". I pointed these people to the toolbox, because they were looking for these functions and couldn't find them. I also heard numerous complaints from users who use a [[screen reader]] and don't know that they need to click the Toolbox link to get access to these functions. Here we have two reasons to have the Toolbox expanded by default. Is there a reason to have the toolbox collapsed by default? -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com ‪“We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬

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IRC office hours with the Localisation team 2012-09-19 16:30 UTC
by Srikanth Lakshmanan (WMF) 19 Sep '12

19 Sep '12

Hello everyone, You're invited to the IRC office hours with the Localisation team[1] at the Wikimedia Foundation. Date: 2012-09-19 Time: 16.30 UTC Venue: #wikimedia-office Agenda: 1. Project Milkshake update. 2. Language teams and tracking i18n metrics. 3. Q & A For more logistical info and time conversion links check the page on Meta.[2] To know what the localisation team has been up to recently, check out * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project_Milkshake * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Localisation_team_Sprint_… * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Localisation_team_Sprint_… Thanks, and we hope to talk to you soon! [1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Localisation_team [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours -- Srikanth L Wikimedia Localisation Team

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Fwd: [Wikimediauk-l] Paid editing by Roger Bamkin
by David Gerard 19 Sep '12

19 Sep '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Roger Bamkin <victuallers(a)gmail.com> Date: 19 September 2012 12:27 Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Paid editing by Roger Bamkin To: Doug Weller <dougweller(a)gmail.com> Cc: UK Wikimedia mailing list <wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Name change of my user account? That is an odd request. I did look at the policy and it says Talk to the user If you see a username that is problematic but was not obviously created in bad faith, politely draw the user's attention to this policy, and try to encourage them to create a new account with a different username. If you want, you can use the {{subst:uw-username}} or {{subst:uw-coi-username}} template for this. I'm sorry if I'm not replying to all the inquiries here, but there are a lot. I chose Victuallers Ltd as its the name I am associated with and I wasn't aware that it had a promotional value. Changing my user name is not an issue if it causes hassle. (I would in retrospect have chosen my own name to edit under.) Can some send me the link of where this user name debate is in progress? I realise that this is a very interesting debate but do try and remember that these facts that are being discovered are public knowledge. The project was announced at Wikimania, no less, with a video that set out the projects plans and expectations. The video made it clear that the minister for tourism was involved and that this was not a WMUK project. The project does not involve me in being paid to create articles. I am creating plaques based on QRpedia, I am supplying training and I am encouraging people to use and edit wikipedia (and open street map et al). The ownership of the QRpedia domains has been documented in WMUK minutes and it was obvious when I made a presentation at the Wikiconference in 2011 (before I was elected as a director). As Chris has noted the transfer of the intellectual property to WMUK has run on for months. There is no conspiracy. The rights to QRpedia are intended as a gift and cannot be just demanded. Those who voted for me and/or attended the last wiki AGM/conference are aware that I was (and am) offering my expertise as a consutant. These are the same skills as I was paid for at the end of the Monmouthpedia project. All of this was overseen by the board. The COI conflict meant that I gladly stepped down as Chair but I was asked to stay on as a board member. The board agreed to manage the COI conflict, which I am obviously pleased to comply with. I'm hoping that a lleast clears up some of the debate. regards Roger Bamkin (prev. known as Victuallers?) On 19 September 2012 07:59, Doug Weller <dougweller(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > I see a request to block Roger's User:Victuallers account as it is in > contravention of our Username policy on promotional names - > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Username_policy#Promotional_names > > Normally for an account this old (2007) we might not ask for a change > of name, but given the circumstances I think a name change might be a > good idea. > > Doug Weller > > > On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 2:51 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > I've located some more information about Geovation now by myself: > > > > https://challenge.geovation.org.uk/a/dtd/119163-16422 > > > > Wales Coast Path only: What theme of the challenge does your idea address?: > > 3. Community engagement What problem are you trying to solve? : Green > > tourism: what's around me? What makes it different? > > > > How will your idea work? : There are two parts, fist we meet local groups > > and show them how to add information onto a Wikipedia page: and that's > > really simple! Secondly we show them how their articles can be geotagged. > > The best part is enjoying a walk down the path with a smart phone, with any > > AR tagged articles shown through the camera, informing the User (tourist or > > local) about what's around them: history of that unusual building or where's > > the nearest Young Farmers Club? What's the name of that mountain, and > > where's the nearest toilet! Take a look at MonmouthpediA on Wikipedia and > > multiply it by 10! > > > > How will it provide a solution to the Challenge? : It's the best answer > > possible! The local WI (or Merched y Wawr) will bring along old photographs, > > which would be scanned in and uploaded, and their locations geotagged. They > > would learn new skills on how to edit existing articles and how to create > > new ones. The local chapel could write about the history of their chapel, > > and so could the local cafe - including the opening times! Schools could > > show off their latest Brochure for Parents and even nature clubs could write > > about the local habitats. This is about: bringing people together in order > > to inform walkers, cyclists and joggers what's around them. > > > > What is the stage of development? What help and investment you need to build > > it?: Because Wikipedia is so simple, it's ideal for this project. > > Communities know about the geography and history, and culture of their area > > MUCH better than an app writer or web-author sitting in his office in > > Manchester! Wikimedia UK would be asked to run the scheme, employing > > Wikipedians, just as the National Library does in London... and the National > > Museum etc. Their help would be crucial. Welsh Wicipedians have also shown > > their enthusiasm and would filter out any unwanted vandalism. Wikipedia has > > a proven track record: why re-create the wheel all the time? It's an app > > which is already installed on most iPads and iPhones! Pure and simple. > > > > Neighbourhood Challenge only: How would you use Ordnance Survey data in your > > solution? : See below. > > > > Wales Coast Path only: How will you use geographic information in your > > solution? : Yes! Geotagging on Wikipedia is so easy! One line and the whole > > article pops up! Through Layar (invisible to the User), we would view > > through the camera's phone what's around us, and automatically a number of > > Wikipedian "W"s pop up wherever the article's location is. For example, an > > User takes a look at a cluster of mountains, and immediately the "W" shows > > that there is an article written, so the user chooses a mountain with his or > > her finger and they're straight into the article! And not just Cymraeg and > > English: there are over 250 languages on Wikipedia. All articles would be > > geographically and traditionally (OS) tagged. > > > > http://www.geovation.org.uk/teams-win-innovation-funding-wales-coast-path-c… > > > > Living Paths – Roger Bamkin and Robin Owain of Monmouthpedia were the pair > > behind this idea which will allow communities along the path to create a > > Wikipedia page and post stories about their communities allowing diverse > > local information to become accessible. Awarded: £17,500. > > > > As I see it, this is a programme whereby Wikimedia UK pays Wikipedians to > > get members of the public to become volunteer editors. You can see it as an > > editor recruitment programme, and as a programme to secure unemployed > > Wikipedian friends paid employment. There has been practically no discussion > > of this on wiki to date. > > > > > > Andreas > > > > > > On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 11:38 AM, Thomas Morton > > <morton.thomas(a)googlemail.com> wrote: > >> > >> Hmm, well this is getting Murkier still. Have people violated these > >> principles. > >> > >> Someone on Jimbo's talk linked to this article: > >> http://www.chronicle.gi/headlines_details.php?id=25440 > >> > >> Which: > >> > >> a) Identifies Roger as WMUK director with implication he is acting in > >> official capacity > >> b) Says that Gibraltar approached WMUK > >> > >> I appreciated this is the media, so inaccuracey is likely. But I suggest > >> we quickly resolve the following issues: > >> > >> * Did Gibraltar approach WMUK, or is this incorrect & they approached the > >> Monmouthpedia orgnaisers? > >> * If they did not approach WMUK, did they think, or were they led to think > >> they were approaching WMUK by whoever they did approach? > >> * Has Roger used his position as WMUK director to obtain this Gibraltar > >> contract? > >> > >> I'm AGF that nothing untoward has happened here, but I suggest a statement > >> be issued with some urgency to clear these matters up. Or it may well > >> backfire on the charity. > >> > >> Tom > >> > >> On 18 September 2012 08:55, Jon Davies <jon.davies(a)wikimedia.org.uk> > >> wrote: > >>> > >>> Indeed - I think it is even mentioned in one of our many governance > >>> documents. > >>> > >>> > >>> On 18 September 2012 08:52, Gordon Joly <gordon.joly(a)pobox.com> wrote: > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> Whilst there may be no precise misdemeanor, can we assume that our > >>>> charity (Wikimedia UK) follows and applies the Nolan Principles to all > >>>> Trustees? > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/parlment/nolan/nolan.h… > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> Gordo > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>> Wikimedia UK mailing list > >>>> wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org > >>>> http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > >>>> WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> -- > >>> Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK. Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169 > >>> tweet @jonatreesdavies > >>> > >>> Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and > >>> Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered > >>> Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. > >>> United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia > >>> movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who > >>> operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). > >>> > >>> Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990. > >>> > >>> Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Wikimedia UK mailing list > >>> wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org > >>> http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > >>> WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org > >>> > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Wikimedia UK mailing list > >> wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org > >> http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > >> WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org > >> > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia UK mailing list > > wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org > > http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > > WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org > > > > > > -- > Doug Weller > http://www.ramtops.co.uk > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia UK mailing list > wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org > http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org -- Roger Bamkin Victuallers Ltd 01332 702993 0758 2020815 Google+:Victuallers Skype:Victuallers1 Flickr:Victuallers2 _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org

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commons promotion
by Jan-Bart de Vreede 19 Sep '12

19 Sep '12

Hey So I had a great time handing out flyers for the Wiki takes Gouda promotion last weekend. We quickly learned to look for people with camera's or camera bags and target them with flyers. Since then I have been walking around and have noticed how many people walk around with a semi professional camera taking pictures of whatever. How about having a business card size promotion leaflet which we can hand out to photographers, tourists or whatever in our countries. It would briefly explain that Wikimedia needs useable (and what usable means for us) pictures and that they can contribute with photographs. It would explain the free license and contain a link to a special URL helping them upload. Not only could this result in a lot of new material (although we might want to add that we do not need the umpteenth picture of the white house or eiffel tower) but it would also create awareness amongst a group we have not typically targeted before… (or has this already been done?) Jan-Bart de Vreede (obviously representing just his own point of view here)

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BBC: Gibraltar targets tourists with Wikipedia QR codes
by Mono 18 Sep '12

18 Sep '12

Gibraltar is embracing Wikipedia and QR codes. More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19544299

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[Wikimedia Announcements] The Signpost -- Volume 8, Issue 38 -- 17 September 2012
by Wikipedia Signpost 18 Sep '12

18 Sep '12

>From the editor: ''Signpost'' expands to Facebook http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-09-17/From_t… News and notes: Tens of thousands of monuments loved; members of new funding body announced http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-09-17/News_a… WikiProject report: Action! — The Indian Cinema Task Force http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-09-17/WikiPr… Featured content: Go into the light http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-09-17/Featur… Technology report: Future-proofing: HTML5 and IPv6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-09-17/Techno… Single page view http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signpost/Single PDF version http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-09-17 http://identi.ca/wikisignpost / https://twitter.com/wikisignpost -- Wikipedia Signpost Staff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost _______________________________________________ Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l

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Wikimedia Travel Guide: Board statement
by Alice Wiegand 18 Sep '12

18 Sep '12

Hi all, on behalf of the Board of Trustees I'm glad to announce the following statement about the travel guide RfC http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Travel_Guide : Through the RfC, it is clear our community has reached consensus in favor of the creation of a travel guide. The Board supports the community decision to create a dedicated project for the collection of free multilingual travel resources. We believe there is an enormous amount of space for multiple wiki-based projects with travel content and welcome the contributions of community members from around the world. We look forward to having a project that can provide additional content for other travel sites to reuse and benefit from, which we believe this site will do. As a project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, it will be subject to the movement vision, mission, and values, as well as the Foundation Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. However, like all other Wikimedia projects, the community of contributors is responsible for the management and creation of the content, policies, rules, and governance of the new project. The community will be responsible for organizing the travel guide project, and once they have put all of the necessary pieces together and provided them to the Foundation staff, the Wikimedia Foundation will make the necessary technical adjustments to support the site. We look forward to a new project and appreciate the community taking the initiative to make this possible. As we have reported in a blogpost [1], Internet Brands has filed a lawsuit against community members, and, in response, Wikimedia Foundation has filed a complaint against Internet Brands [2]. This lawsuit by Internet Brands is not going to intimidate the Foundation or stop the process. [1] http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/09/05/wikimedia-foundation-seeks-declaratory… [2] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:WMF_complaint_for_declaratory_jud… Regards, Alice.

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: Copyright of deep space objects (DSOs) outside of the solar system
by とある白い猫 17 Sep '12

17 Sep '12

Hi, I am not seeking legal advice. I am asking the pursuit of the issue. I am not a US citizen so I do not have a congress person to contact. The laws governing copyright can be amended to address the issue of deep space objects (DSO). I do not expect a result next week, I merely want the issue to enter into an agenda of some sort. If the Foundation is going to take the lead, this probably would only be possible through a board decision. In such a case I want to work with people to come up with such a draft proposal to the board. I realize this is an unusual request but there seems to be a lack of clarity on this issue[1]. Argument is that copyright can be an issue since not every organization observing or assisting NASA's observations are PD-USgov compatible. We may be forced to permanently delete all deep space objects as a result. I'd like to provide a short technical explanation why copyright of deep space objects or DSOs (objects outside of the solar system) are meaningless. For ordinary photographs copyright is determined by factors such as lighting, perspective, exposure and other such settings that creates a different image of the same object. You can distinguish the difference between a daylight photo and an evening photo. With deep space objects however, even the stellar parallax[2] has a very small value. The closest object outside of the solar system is 4.24 light years (268,136 AU's) away. The semi-major axis of earth is about 1AUs. The difference in perspective is like looking at a 2cm (width of a nickel) wide object 5.3km (3.29 miles) away and the perspective difference is switching left eye to the right eye. We lack scientific instruments to even detect a stellar parallax for objects much further. In other words our perspective of the nearest star and beyond is more or less constant and the objects themselves look the same for hundreds of years. So any photo of a deep space object I or someone else takes from the solar system will look identical regardless of when and where on earth I take it within multiple lifetimes. I think this can bring legal precedent for us to either disregard any copyright claim or at least pursue lawmakers in congress to amend the copyright law to make an exception in the law. People who worked with congress such as Neil Degrasse Tyson could be consulted to this end. Also international treaties[3] can be consulted to this end as copyrighting photos of deep space objects could be interpreted as an unfair exploitation of resources. I realize this reads like something out of Star Trek but this is growing to be quite a problem as we see more and more weird copyright claims even when dealing with NASA which traditionally had a PD-USgov mentality. NASA regularly contracts its more recent projects and to be fair we do not know how NASA contracts these projects which could potentially lead to legitimate copyright claims in the future. [1]: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#Potential_deletion_o… [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_parallax [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law#International_treaties -- とある白い猫 (To Aru Shiroi Neko)

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Could someone please fix this article?
by Phil Nash 17 Sep '12

17 Sep '12

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_and_television_shows_set_in_Live…

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Wikimedia-l September 2012