Dear colleagues,
Since November 2012, Wikivoyage is a part of the Wikimedia movement. I
have come to some thoughts about this old/new project, both from the
perspective of a collaborator and from the perspective of the
movement.
Chance:
Wikivoyage has a huge potential; it may open the movement for new
collaborators who were not attracted enough by Wikipedia. There is
still low hanging fruit, and there are working chapters - and the WMF
- to support the new family member. Integrating Wikivoyage is also a
challenge for the movement, it has to prove that it is capable to do
so. (And recommend itself for other wikis to join.)
Bore:
But, if Wikivoyage fails to make use of its potential, it will be one
more Wikimedia wiki rather small and limited in range, such as
Wikiquote or Wikinews. A community grown over the years may be good in
binding (linking the existing members to each other), but less in
bridging (being open for new members and contacting others). We see
the same phenomenon (that new people find it difficult their way, or
are even expelled more or less explicitly) also with Wikipedia, but on
a much higher level. Also Wikipedia loses community members slowly,
with difficulties acquiring new ones.
Hazard:
Wikipedia developed a lot of rules over the years, often after heavy
debates and scandals. For example, the Seigenthaler incident and other
cases of calumny led to the policy about Biographies of Living People.
Wikivoyage has still a rather limited set of rules, and wishes to
remain so. Wikipedia is neutral, Wikipedia uses references, while
Wikivoyage allows to criticize e.g. a restaurant and does not require
a source. But where is the limit between exercising one's freedom of
speech and libel? Scandals can backfire to the whole movement.
In my humble opinion, this is a good moment for Wikivoyagers (old and
new ones alike) to engage in discussions about style, limitations,
good practices, and improve the site to make it newbies easier to
join. With the good will from all sides, Wikivoyage should become a
chance for the movement rather than anything else.
Kind regards
Ziko
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland
dr. Ziko van Dijk, voorzitter
http://wmnederland.nl/
Wikimedia Nederland
Postbus 167
3500 AD Utrecht
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What a dreadful loss. I never knew Aaron except through his work and his
writings, but he always came across as a confident person who was truly
passionate about the work that he did. We're all the poorer for his
passing. My condolences to everyone on this list who knew him.
Regards,
Craig Franklin
Dear Colleagues
Let me start off by pointing out the fact that I am never sure about
exactly what issues are handled on this list and secondly when are the
issues of a specific language Wikipedia handled among that community and
when are they (these issues) - if ever - handled at a higher level
(Wikipedia top level).
There are a number of rogue elements that everybody has given up crossing
swords with, and wherever these elements go, everybody stays away. One
specific member has a track record a mile long of complaints against him,
has been blocked many times, but does not learn and has in fact
demonstrated that he has no intention to learn.
Ask the more involved members about these rogue elements and ask also about
the top-notch editors that have been abandoning the project in recent
times.
It is no use leaving this to be addressed by the Portuguese WP, as they
have so far not been able to deal with these elements.
Do a search for the word "panelinha" (the "clique"/ "coterie" among the
discussion archives ad you will see how often RESPECTED editors complain
about this inner circle/ clique of repeat abusers who thrive on power and
discord, spending their days undoing what others do.
Until there are firm rules in place to ban these rogues, WP Portuguese will
keep on bleeding its best.
I have collected a number of links with countless discussions/ warning
about the editor I referred to above - all in Portuguese, naturally - which
I can pass on to anyone who wants to look into this. I do hope someone
does.
Best regards,
Rui
--
_________________________
Rui Correia
Advocacy, Human Rights, Media and Language Work Consultant
Bridge to Angola - Angola Liaison Consultant
Mobile Number in South Africa +27 74 425 4186
Número de Telemóvel na África do Sul +27 74 425 4186
_______________
Hello,
in the last few months and years the Uzbek Wikipedia has shown promising
growth, and it is turning into a potentially relevant source of knowledge
for the Uzbek people.
But due to a technical 'glitch', access to the Uzbek Wikipedia in
Uzbekistan via the HTTP protocol is for some reason redirected to msn.com.
The same is not true for the HTTPS protocol, and also for all other
language editions.
The glitch is not with the WMF infrastructure, but with providers in
Uzbekistan.
Requests by community members to the providers and official agencies have
been met only with silence, there is no official statement or recognition
about this.
We discussed both with search engine providers and Wikimedia developers if
there is a way to resolve this issue, and there is: by making the HTTPS
version of the Uzbek Wikipedia canonical the search engines would list the
HTTPS version in the search results, thus circumventing the glitch. As far
as I understood the technical folks at Wikimedia this can be done with a
small amount of effort.
Using HTTPS would have the additional advantage of a higher level of
anonymity and privacy of Wikipedia editors from inside Uzbekistan.
There is a risk with that, though: it could be that the glitch will
suddenly extend to HTTPS too, and this would cover all language editions of
Wikipedia, not only the Uzbek one. This would raise the issue to more
visibility too, and one could hope that it would get resolved then. But
just to make it obvious: the action proposed here could escalate the issue.
It could resolve it, but this is not necessarily the case.
There have been some discussions within the Uzbek Wikipedia community, and
as far as I can tell there is consensus that the step suggested here should
be taken, but there is no visible account of this consensus that I can link
to, and that is probably to the better for those involved. The Foundation
asked to have this discussion on this mailing list, and to reach a decision
here about this step.
The question this list would need to find agreement on is: should the Uzbek
Wikipedia be set up in a way that makes access via the HTTPS protocol the
canonical one?
For Uzbeks at home it is not possible to access Wikipedia in their native
language. Whereas in the big cities that is not so much of an issue, as
most people speak Russian, this is decreasingly true for the towns and
villages of the country. I think it is fair to say that it is part of our
mission as the Wikimedia movement to provide these people with access to
the sum of human knowledge too.
Warmest regards.
P.S.: Yes, this is a sock puppet mail account, as I prefer my name not be
widely visibly associated with this measure due to private reasons. For the
same reasons I might have slipped in an euphemism or two in this mail.
sad. :(
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alex Leavitt <alexleavitt(a)gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 9:05 AM
Subject: [FC-discuss] Very Sad News
To: Discussion of Free Culture in general and this organization in
particular <discuss(a)freeculture.org>
http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N61/swartz.html
Sent from phone. - Alex Leavitt
_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss(a)freeculture.org
http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss
--
@wikimediadc / @wikidata
Hi there,
everybody speaks here about editor retention and how we dont know the
reasons for editing decline. What about highlighting the the edit tab some
special color (maybe red) like this:
http://postimage.org/image/u7060y3bf/
Kozuch
Hello everyone,
I hope you're having an enjoyable Friday.
I wanted to drop you a line to let you know about a blog that Wikimedia UK
published today at
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/01/virtual-learning-environment-making-go…
It's about our Virtual Learning Environment, providing an update on how the
work is progressing and detailing some next steps.
I hope you find it interested and do let me know if you have any comments
or suggestions.
Thanks and regards,
Stevie
--
Stevie Benton
Communications Organiser
Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173
@StevieBenton
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).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal
control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*