Hello, all.
I've just posted an announcement by legal on Meta (
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikivoyage/Logo_announcement) about the
Wikivoyage logo - unfortunately, we are going to have to choose a new one.
To save you all from having to click on the link, I'll reproduce the
announcement at the bottom of my email.
Sometime in the next couple of weeks, we will need to launch a contest for
the new Wikivoyage logo, but first I'm hoping to get feedback and
assistance in making the best process for that possible. We had been
considering ways to optimize logo selection by the community, with the idea
that we would have plenty of time to talk about the process before needing
it. Unfortunately, we now need something quite quickly. Accordingly, I'd be
really grateful for feedback on the process, which has been posted here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Logo_contest_procedure
You can read a little more about it here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Logo_contest_procedure
I hope you will share your questions, comments and suggestions there.
Thanks.
Maggie
****
As many of you know, the community held a contest to design and decide upon
the new logo that would come to represent Wikivoyage, the latest open and
collaborative project to be hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. After
review of quite a few fantastic entries and much debate, the logo below was
decided upon by community consensus: [omitted; see linked discussion]
Unfortunately, both the Foundation and several members of the community
discovered that the eventually chosen logo bore a striking resemblance to
the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) logo: [omitted; see linked discussion]
At that time, the Foundation reviewed the two logos and believed that,
while some risk existed, there were significant enough differences between
the designs and the markets the two organizations occupied for both logos
to co-exist.
Since then, the Foundation has received a cease-and-desist letter from the
WTO, requesting that we change the logo. While we wish that the WTO agreed
with our assessment that the two logos contain substantial differences and
could co-exist, we understand their concern. We still believe that there
are some significant differences between the Wikivoyage logo and the WTO,
however, such arguments are not guaranteed to win if we were to legally
oppose this request because there are also some substantial similarities.
With this in mind, as well as the fact that the Wikivoyage logo is still
relatively new and has not had a chance to build significant brand
recognition yet, we believe the better solution is to hold a new community
contest for a new logo.
We believe that the community is the best body to decide what logo should
represent their hard work and hope that interested community members will
take this opportunity to once again showcase their creativity and talent by
submitting designs. The WTO has been very understanding of the Wikimedia
movement’s values and need for community consensus and has agreed to grant
us ample time to develop a new logo through community processes. (Please
see the proposed Logo contest
procedure<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Logo_contest_procedure>.)
That said, we hope to begin the process of community consultation and input
in the next few days so that the new logo can be in place by the end of
July. With that, we look forward to seeing new designs!
Michelle Paulson <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mpaulson_(WMF)>
Legal and Community Advocacy
Wikimedia Foundation
--
Maggie Dennis
Senior Community Advocate
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Hi everyone,
Per our blog post last month,[1] we've been testing redesigns for account
creation and login across the projects. We've been doing so on an opt-in
basis, but we've dealt with any major bugs and translations are complete
for quite a few languages.
Starting tomorrow and barring any last minute hiccups, we're going to start
rolling out the new designs. Right now we're limiting it to about 30
projects, including the following...
- Wikipedia in 21 languages, including English, German, French, Italian,
Polish, Dutch, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, Korean, Czech, Swedish, and others.
- In English: Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikinews, Wiktionary,
and Wikiquote.
- Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata
- Meta
- MediaWiki .org
There are still local customizations that will need to be made in many of
these, but they are the kind of thing that doesn't require a developer to
do, just edits to the wiki. Look for announcements soon on your local
Village Pump equivalent for more info, or check out our
testing documentation.[2] I'll be around to help any of these wikis that
don't have an admin handy to make requested changes.
The remaining projects we have held off on because there are localizations
still to be completed (on translatewiki) or there are problems with
localizations already finished. Since the work of localizations is never
100% complete however, we are putting out a hard *deadline of June 5th*,
after which we'll be turning on the forms for all projects, in all
languages. If you're interested in learning more about which wikis in
particular need help, please email me off-list or get in touch via my user
talk page anywhere.
Please speak up if you have any questions. You can still try these new
forms on any Wikimedia project via the method mentioned in the two links
below...
1. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/04/25/try-new-login-accountcreation/
2. mediawiki.org/wiki/Account_creation_user_experience/Testing
--
Steven Walling
https://wikimediafoundation.org/
P.S. Sorry if there are odd linebreaks in this message. Has anyone figured
out how to avoid this in Gmail?
Dear members of the Wikimedia community,
You will have seen an email recently from Patricio Lorente and Jan-Bart de
Vreede, the Board Reps to the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), about
the FDC's new Letter of Intent process. The Letter of Intent (LOI) is the
first step in applying for funds from the FDC, as outlined in the FDC
Framework. [1] This upcoming year (2013-2014) will be the first time we
institute the LOI process. As you heard from them, we anticipate the LOI
will be a helpful planning tool for the FDC as well as offering us a chance
to begin working with entities in advance of the FDC proposal deadline. We
hope it will allow us to work closely with applying entities and to address
questions and concerns (and clear up any misunderstandings) significantly
before the proposal deadline.
Interested entities must submit an Letter of Intent in order to apply for
FDC funding. For Round 1 of 2013-2014, the LOI is due on June 8. The LOI
asks potential FDC applicants to state their intentions to apply and to
include a notional dollar figure (or local currency figure). The
Letter of Intent
can be created on the FDC portal [2], and a sample is here for your
reference [3]. The LOI is non-binding, but it is required in order to be
able to submit a proposal for Round 1.
In anticipation of the LOI's June 8 deadline, the FDC staff is holding
office hours twice to respond to questions. We welcome entities considering
applying for Round 1 funding to join us. Our two office hours will be held
on #wikimedia-office on:
* Tuesday, May 28 at 0:00 UTC
* Wednesday, May 29 at 15:00 UTC
These two sessions will have the following agenda:
1. Introductions
2. Brief explanation of the FDC
3. Explanation of the purpose of the Letter of Intent and general FDC
proposal process
4. Q&A on the LOI
And finally, for your reference, here is the 2013-2014 Round 1 proposal
process [4] schedule:
- *Letter of Intent deadline for Round 1: 8 June 2013*
- Deadline for WMF Staff to post eligibility: 15 July 2013
- Deadline for entities to meet eligibility requirements: 15 September 2013
- Proposal submission deadline: 1 October 2013
- Community review period: 1 October - 31 October 2013
- Staff assessment deadline: 8 November 2013
- FDC recommendation due: 1 December 2013
- Board decision due: 1 January 2014
As always, contact us questions or requests for support:
FDCsupport(a)wikimedia.org.
Warm regards,
Katy and the FDC support team
[1]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Funds_Dissemination_Committee/Framework_for_…
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Sample_letter_of_intent
[4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposal_process
Cynics, skip this message!
http://www.sassafrassmusic.com/songs/sci-fi-fantasy-fandom/somebody-will/
I came across this sentimental song about "a world of encouragement and
productivity, in which everyone is encouraged to create, support and
work toward ideals" and it reminded me of our shared mission, so I
wanted to share it with you.
-Sumana
Peter Southwood, 04/06/2013 11:31:
> I am not an expert on copyright of logos, which is why I ask the question.
> Howevr, I would have thought that a logo is described by the image, not
> by words.
The premise is wrong; it's rather the opposite. (Personally I've only
registered one trademark, but I encourage you to read the how-tos and
forms to do so.)
> Images are recognised differently to words.
> If you put the two logos in question together they are not easy to
> confuse, except possibly that they use the same set of colors. What are
> the criteria for infringement claim? use of the same set of colours? a
> similar circular overall shape? Curved lines forming pointy wedge
> shapes? How does one prove difference? subjective? by testing on
> unbiased viewers? More expensive lawyers? Bribing the judge? I don't
> know, so I ask.
> If we have to choose a new logo it would help to know what might be
> acceptable, as I think I have made it clear that I don't consider the
> existing logo easily confused with the WTO logo, and I think they are
> just pushing their luck to get precedent on a whole range of
> possibilities that might be confused by a shortsighted person in a dark
> room on drugs.
> WTF, I no longer expect a useful relevant answer.
For practical purposes, I suggest you to adopt this definition: two
trademarks are too similar if a trademark owner considers the similarity
worth fighting legally.
Similarly, going into details of how our logo could be defended is
tricky and needs experts, so your question assumes that our logo is
worth defending. That's why you got replies on your premise rather than
to your question... the answer is, "they're similar because it would be
too hard to prove otherwise and it's not worth it". Ok?
Nemo
My dear colleagues,
Recently on May 21 the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office has announced
that they will amend the Copyright Act to demand local ISPs to block
illegal contents on foreign websites, just like the SOPA bill in USA last
year. For more information, you can read the following news reports:
Focus Taiwan:
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aall/201305210035.aspx
ZDNet:
http://www.zdnet.com/cn/taiwans-copyright-act-amendment-proposal-comes-unde…
Now there are many Taiwan netizens protesting the bill:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/05/26/netizens-fear-copyright-amendment-…
But today we just see an news that TIPO just ignored these protests and
insist that this bill will not harm the net freedom and rights of general
users:
http://newtalk.tw/news/2013/05/28/36854.html (it's in Chinese, you may use
Google translate to read the news.)
Indeed we should protect the copyright, but to ask ISPs to block websites
is too over-reaction.
We Wikimedia Taiwan is now against the bill and has just released an
Chinese announcement on our official website to explain why we against the
bill and ask the government to stop the act:
http://bit.ly/ZbvTX0
We also started an discussion on zh.wp to ask the community if we could put
the announcement as an global site notice, we even think about blackout
zh.wp for 24 hours (the date is still in discussion):
http://goo.gl/fXi8g
This is because according to Alexa.com (http://Alexa.com), Wikipedia is now
the top 10 website in Taiwan. To blackout Wikipedia in Taiwan should get
the attention of TIPO and has some effects.
My questions are:
* Could we ask for blackout Wikipedia (not just zh.wp) ONLY for Taiwan IP?
(Some users from China hope this blackout will not effect them)
* If we could not blackout Wikipedia only for Taiwan IP, could we ask to
blackout zh.wp? (from what we have discussed on zh.wp, the Chinese
community has agreed on such blackout, but the date is still on discussion)
* If we could implement such blackout, how soon it can be done?
* What suggestions from you that we should do as an local Chapter?
Thanks and Regards,
Ted Chien
Chairman
Wikimedia Taiwan
--
Blog: htttp://htchien.tw (http://htchien.tw/)
Facebook: http://facebook.com/htchien
Twitter: http://twitter.com/htchien
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/htchien
Hello all,
The minutes of the WMF Board Meeting on April 18-19, 2013 have been
approved and published:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Minutes/2013-04-18
The meeting's agenda included:
* Reports from the Audit Committee and Board Governance Committee
* Approving the resolution on Potential Conflicts of Interest (available
here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Guidelines_on_potential_conf…
)
* Appointing Bishakha Datta to the Board Governance Committee
* An update on the Annual Plan
* Guidance for the Funds Dissemination Committee ("FDC")
* The Wikimedia Foundation's participation in the FDC
* Discussing a Strategy Committee proposal
* Discussing guiding principles (available at:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sue_Gardner/Wikimedia_Foundation_Guidin…
)
* Discussing editor retention
* Discussing an update to the bylaws
* Approving a revised Board Governance Committee charter (available here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Approving_the_revised_Board_…
)
* Discussing the trustee candidate search
* Discussing the Executive Director transition
Additionally, minutes from the Board Governance Committee's Meeting on
April 17, 2013 are available here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Board_Governance_Committee/Minutes_04-17…
--
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
*For legal reasons, I may only serve as an attorney for the Wikimedia
Foundation. This means I may not give legal advice to or serve as a lawyer
for community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal
capacity.*
_______________________________________________
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
_______________________________________________
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Following this discussion up, I've proposed an exemption doctrine policy
for Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Exemption_doctrine_policy
On 29 May 2013 17:24, Nathan <nawrich(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Crossed to Wikimedia-l, see Deryck's e-mail below.
>
> On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 11:53 AM, Deryck Chan <deryckchan(a)gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Dear Wikimania community,
> >
> > There are currently two discussions on Meta which will have a fundamental
> > impact on the technical logistics of all future Wikimania bids.
> >
> > As many of you would know, working documents of Wikimania bids, such as
> > letters of support and venue information, are conventionally uploaded to
> > Meta locally because they don't come with a Commons-compatible free
> licence.
> > However, currently there's no explicit "exemption doctrine policy" on
> Meta,
> > so two discussions are ongoing, with the aim of deleting all
> > Wikimania-related non-free files which have been uploaded in the past
> > years[1], and to ban future uploads of non-free media to Meta including
> > Wikimedia events' working documents[2].
> >
> > [1]
> >
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Requests_for_deletion#All_files_in_Cate…
> > [2]
> >
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Babel#Restrict_or_abolish_local_file_up…
> >
> > Since this would mean future Wikimania bids may not include copies of
> > third-party working documents on Meta, these proposals will change the
> > logistics of Wikimania bids completely. I therefore urge all of you to
> > scrutinise the proposed changes and comment as appropriate.
> >
> > Deryck
> > WM2013 local team
> >
> > PS. To those of you who also run chapters: the proposed changes will mean
> > that chapter financial statements may not be uploaded to / will be
> deleted
> > from WMF-hosted wikis since they're have an implicit no-derivative
> > requirement.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimania-l mailing list
> > Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimania-l mailing list
> Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>
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