Wikimedia-l February 2013

wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

148 participants
116 discussions

Announcement: community review period for FDC proposals increased by two weeks
by Patricio Lorente 02 Feb '13

02 Feb '13

(Sorry for crossposting) Dear friends, As you know, the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) [1] comprising seven community members, was established last year to make recommendations to the Board about how to allocate movement funds to eligible entities and help achieve Wikimedia’s vision, mission, and strategies. The first round of FDC funding, of $8.51 million, supporting the annual plans of eleven entities, was successfully completed in December 2012.[2] All thanks to the hard work of the members of the community, the FDC, and FDC staff for helping making this happen! We are writing to you today to announce that we are increasing the community review period for FDC proposals by two weeks. We are doing this in response to feedback from community members including applicants, FDC and FDC staff. In consultation with the FDC and the Board, we (as Board representatives on the FDC) approved this change to the FDC schedule, in order to allow enough time for the community to review the proposals, and for the applicants to respond. As a result, Round 2's schedule (and hereafter all FDC rounds), will have four weeks of review. This also means that the deadlines for the FDC recommendations and the Board approval get pushed out by two weeks. For the FDC Round 2 of 2012-13, the schedule is therefore as follows: proposals from eligible entities are due on March 1,[3] on the FDC portal. Any eligibility gaps that are pending need to be closed by February 15.[4] The community review period will be from March 1 to March 31. On April 8, the FDC staff will post the staff assessments of the proposals. The FDC will meet from April 22-24 and make its recommendation to the Board on May 1. Please do not hesitate to reach out to the FDC staff (FDCsupport(a)wikimedia.org) for any clarifications. They will be sharing more details with you shortly. Thanks, Jan Bart and Patricio - Board observers FDC [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2012-2013_rou… [3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposal_process [4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Eligibility_status/Current_round#… -- Patricio Lorente Blog: http://www.patriciolorente.com.ar Identi.ca // Twitter: @patriciolorente

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[Wikimedia Announcements] Announcement: community review period for FDC proposals increased by two weeks
by Patricio Lorente 02 Feb '13

02 Feb '13

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Fwd: [Wikitech-l] Audio derivatives, turning on MP3/AAC & mobile app feature request.
by David Gerard 02 Feb '13

02 Feb '13

So when and who authorised non-free formats? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michael Dale <mdale(a)wikimedia.org> Date: 2 February 2013 16:25 Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Audio derivatives, turning on MP3/AAC & mobile app feature request. To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Cc: Jan Gerber <j(a)thing.net> +correct content-type this time ;) Note this has already been merged, but still worth mention for visibility. On 2/1/13 12:10 PM, Michael Dale wrote: > > We are about to merge in support for audio derivatives to Timed Media Handler (TMH). The big value here, I think is encoding to AAC or MP3 and adding a /listen to this article/ feature to the mobile app. > https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/39363/ > > This can really help with improving accessibility of Wiktionary pronunciation media files as well. > > Also AAC / m4v ingestion, could make audio recordings a lot easier to import into the site, i.e a "record a reading of this article" mobile app feature #2 ;) > > There are already thousands of spoken articles, with some promotion their could probably be a lot be more: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Spoken_articles > > The software patent situation for mp3 is sad, considering how long the mp3 format has been around: > http://www.tunequest.org/a-big-list-of-mp3-patents/20070226/ > > I think AAC is a similar situation, encoder wise: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding#Licensing_and_patents > > But fundamentally Wikimedia is not "distributing" these encoders and there are no royalties for media distribution. Likewise we are not shipping decoders ( the decoders are in browser or the mobile OS ) > > I don't know why Wikimedia's commitment to being accessible in royalty free formats, somehow also precludes making content accessible for folks on platforms that ~don't~ decode royalty free formats. But hopefully we can change that over time. > > Not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I hope we could come out of this thread with rough consensus to enable these formats to help increase the reach of audio works. > > peace, > --michael _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

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Call for OTRS volunteers
by Casey Brown 02 Feb '13

02 Feb '13

The Wikimedia OTRS team[1] is receiving an increasing number of emails, with almost 55,000 general information and permissions tickets responded to in 2012 alone.[2] We are greatly in need of more volunteers to catch up and help prevent continued backlog. OTRS volunteers have the benefit of choosing how much time they'd like to commit and share a wide variety of tools to help when responding to inquires. Your private information would not be exposed to the public; replies are issued from a shared Wikimedia email address. We are looking especially for people who are strong in any or all of the following areas: * Familiar with processes on any Wikimedia project and able to answer routine questions about them (some common responses include reference desk referrals; explanations of deletion processes or how to edit. The kind of thing you might run into at the Teahouse or Help desks); * Familiar with acceptable licenses for images and text and willing to handle correspondence related to permissions (many routine, but some issues include unclear statements of permission or permissions issued by people who can't be clearly connected to the source); * Familiar with policies regarding living people and organizations and able to assist article subjects with lightweight needs (updating logos, correcting small information) or serious concerns (allegations of gross inaccuracy; bias). For more information about volunteering, please see the recruiting page[3] on Meta. Being a member of the OTRS team is a great chance to be part of the public face of Wikimedia. We can't always help people, but we do our best to leave them impressed with our professionalism and responsiveness. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, we encourage you to consider applying[4]. While the English queues are the busiest, the info queues for all languages could use help, and we are always looking for new volunteers. Please translate this message and pass the word along to those in your local communities who may wish to apply. We look forward to seeing your applications on Meta-Wiki. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact myself or any other administrator of the system.[5] For the OTRS admins, Casey Brown [1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS [2]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/Reports/2012 [3]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/Recruiting [4]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/Volunteering [5]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS#OTRS_administrators -- Casey Brown (Cbrown1023) caseybrown.org

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2013 Ombudsmen Commission
by Maggie Dennis 02 Feb '13

02 Feb '13

*Hello, everyone. I'm writing with information about the Ombudsman Commission (OC), the small group of volunteers who investigate complaints about violations of the privacy policy, and in particular concerning the use of CheckUser tools, on any Wikimedia project for the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees has delegated some of the decisions about the OC (including composition and size) to the Wikimedia Foundation staff. The application period for new commissioners for 2013 has recently closed. We are extremely grateful to the many dedicated and knowledgeable volunteers who offered to assist with this work. Before announcing the composition of the 2013 commission, however, I would like to let you all know about a trial change in the OC. Although the OC is kept intentionally small due to the high level of trust required of its members, this year we are expanding the commission (on a trial basis) from five members to seven. This expansion has two primary purposes. First, the commission bears a heavy responsibility of ensuring that users are granted the privacy that is their due under the Wikimedia Foundation's privacy policy. We hope that an expansion of the commission will help them remain swiftly responsive to issues sent to them even when some of the commissioners have pressing matters beyond their volunteer work. Second, commissioners have traditionally been asked to surrender their CheckUser functions on their home wikis during their term on the commission, a request that helps to reduce the potential for conflict of interest between the roles but which may also place an undue burden on smaller projects that have fewer CheckUsers to assist. With a larger commission, we expect that commissioners will be able to continue in this also critical function, only recusing if issues are raised relating to their direct colleagues. It's important that we carefully balance the need to keep this group small against the requirements that they remain flexible and available. At the end of the year, we will explore the impact of this expansion to ensure that the benefit is sufficient to the functioning of the OC to warrant the growth. In addition, the Wikimedia Foundation is committing to more closely work with the Commission this year, in an attempt to learn how we can more fully support their work. We will also be working with them to generate more regular reporting to the community in the form of at least an annual report on case load (of course, non-specific due to privacy considerations). With that in mind, we are pleased to announce the composition of the 2013 OC. Returning to the commission are three members who have served since 2011:* * *User:FloNight, who primarily edits Wikipedia en (where she is an administrator and a former member of the Arbitration Committee) but who has also contributed to Commons.She is newly editing Wikivoyage and involved with US GLAM. She is also one of the initial members of the Funds Dissemination Committee. *User:Sir48, who primarily edits Wikipedia da (where he has been a CheckUser), but is also active on Commons and Meta (particularly in translations) along with a number of other language Wikipedias. He took part in vandalfighting initiatives a few years back. *User:Thogo, who primarily Wikipedia de (where he is currently an administrator and is a former arbitrator). but who has also contributed substantially to Wiktionary de and Meta. He is formerly a steward as well as having served as an administrator on several other projects. We appreciate their willingness to remain, to bring their familiarity with processes and experiences to the new arrivals. Joining them are* * *User:Deskana, who primarily edits Wikipedia en. There, he is an administrator, CheckUser and bureaucrat. He is also a former arbitrator. *User:Erzbischof, who primarily edits Wikipedia de, where he is currently an administrator and formerly an arbitrator. *User:Huji, who primarily edits Wikipedia fa, where he is an administrator, CheckUser and bureaucrat. He has also contributed substantially to Simple Wikipedia, Wikipedia en and Meta, and is a Wikimedia developer. *User:Levg, who primarily edits Wikipedia ru, where he is an administrator, oversighter and bureaucrat and where he has twice served as an arbitrator. Please join me in thanking the following volunteers, who have given substantially of their time to serve on the commission the past years, and who are not returning:* * * User:Mwpnl * ** User:Dweller I'd also like to say a hearty thank you to those returning and those coming aboard for a first time, as well as to all those who applied. Again, it was an extremely knowledgeable group of volunteers, and while we believe that this mix of users may best serve the need for this year, I hope that those who applied will consider applying again for future commissions. Maggie * -- Maggie Dennis Community Liaison WikimediaFoundation.org

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WMF Board Agenda (Draft)
by Geoff Brigham 01 Feb '13

01 Feb '13

Please find below the draft WMF board agenda for the upcoming meetings on January 31-February 2, 2013. *== Thursday, January 31, 2013 == '''18:00 - 19:00''' - Governance Committee Meeting == Friday, February 1, 2013 == '''9:00 - 9:10''' - Greetings and Introductions '''9:10 - 10:00''' - Housekeeping * Affiliations Committee Charter (technical correction only) * Pledge of Personal Commitment (annual signing) * Discussion on a proposed Duty of Loyalty Policy for the Board (consisting of summary of existing duty of loyalty responsibilities) '''10:15 -12:15''' - Presentation on 2012-13 Year-to-Date and Planning for 2013-14 (Part I) '''12:15-14:00''' - ''Lunch'' '''14:00 - 15:30''' - Presentation on 2012-13 Year-to-Date and Planning for 2013-14 (Part II) '''15:30 - 16:00''' - Discussion on Board Term Limits '''16:15 - 16:45''' - Legal Presentation == Saturday, February 2, 2013 == '''9:00 - 11:00''' - Presentation on 2012-13 Year-to-Date and Planning for 2013-14 (Part III) '''11:15 - 12:15''' - Discussion on Affiliations Committee and WCA (Part I) '''12:15 - 13:15''' - ''Lunch'' '''13:15 - 14:15''' - Discussion on Affiliations Committee and WCA (Part II) '''14:15 - 14:30''' - Advisory Board: Term Renewals '''14:30 - 15:15''' - 2013 Board Agenda / Extend Executive Session '''15:30 - 16:30''' - Executive Session * -- Geoff Brigham General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation

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Wikimedia-l February 2013