There is a new request for comment on Meta about X!'s edit counter's
opt-in for detailed information.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/X!%27s_Edit_Counter
This will not apply to the Toolserver version.
I was asked to "advertise" it. Please feel free to comment either way.
Maybe also relevant for this list.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Cuenca <dacuetu(a)gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 12:47 AM
Subject: Impressions from LODLAM 2013
To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list <
mediawiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, "Discussion list for the Wikidata
project." <wikidata-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, "discussion list for
Wikisource, the free library" <wikisource-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
I'm just back from the LODLAM summit in Montreal, Canada and here there is
a short report.
==About LODLAM and why I was there==
LODLAM (http://lodlam.net) is a gathering of people interested in LOD
(linked open data) and LAM (Libraries, Archives, and Museums), so I thought
it would be interesting to find partners and raise awareness about the
Wikisource revitalization effort, all this thanks to the Grants:IEG
support. The audience was very diverse, not only from cultural
institutions, but also from some research centers and private companies.
OKFN, Europeana, DPLA, and other big players had representatives there.
AFIK, I was the only person from the Wikimedia movement, so I ended up
representing "all things wiki", specially Wikidata. These spontaneous
activities are briefly described here [1].
The format of the event was that of an [[open-space technology]] gathering,
similar to unconferences.
Some information and reflexions to share:
== Rewards & contributor retention ==
During a talk about licenses (which dealt about the difficulties of having
content with different licenses), there were some mention about Datahub
[2], a recently launched project to share datasets, formerly known as ckan.
The discussion revolved around the reward that contributors get for
releasing their datasets. There was some consensus that "the use of the
released data is the reward", which lead to another debate about how to
convey data use to contributors. It can be complicated or simplified to
just leave a gratitude comment by the person using the dataset.
All this led me to think about the emotional vs rational rewards that users
(or institutions) obtain from contributing content to Wikipedia, Commons,
Wikisource, etc. Are really "active thanks", as currently implemented,
suistainable and scalable? Will all the contributors who deserve it get a
thanks some day? Could personalized view counts/ratings reports about
uploaded pictures, major contributions to WP articles, etc. have some
impact on contributor satisfaction/retention? Would "automated personal
impact reports" free collaborators from the duty of thanking one another,
or would that mean less personal interactions?
These are some questions that I leave open here.
==Semantic annotations ==
As you might know there is a GSoC [3] which aims to convert the OKFN
Annotator [4] into a Mediawiki extension. That is a great project that will
enable inline comments in mediawiki projects, but it shouldn't be seen as
the end, but only an step in the direction of semantic annotations.
What could semantic annotations mean for Wikipedia? More precise answers to
questions. Instead of just having "millions of articles" there would be the
possibility of answering "trillions of questions" (or at least pointing to
the text fragment(s) that has/have the answer). This kind of paradigm shift
might need some pondering and broad community discussion.
What could semantic annotations mean for Wikisource? Text
interconectedness. Be able to relate concepts, authors, fragments... and
then be able to query those relationships.
==Input interfaces for linked data==
The best linked data it is the one that is invisible to the user, but then,
how to enable end users to "write" linked data? From the several
approaches, the most convincing seemed to use a text symbol (#, +, !, or
others) to indicate that the text following it represents a linked entity.
In the case of the VisualEditor in Wikipedia, one could write
"#article_name", and right after entering the "#" and the first letters, a
list of options (from Wikidata) would show up to autocomplete/disambiguate.
After selecting the right item, one could continue writing or type a dot to
select a property (like in some object-oriented programming languages do).
This approach simplifies the interlinking and also the data inclusion.
==Other news==
- The Getty vocabularies will be published as linked open data (late 2013,
ODC_BY 1.0 license) [6]
- Pund.it [5] - open source semantic annotation project that won the lodlam
challenge award
- Karma, tools for mapping data to ontologies [7]
Cheers,
Micru
[1] http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikidata-l/2013-June/002388.html
[2] http://datahub.io/
[3]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Rjain/Proposal-Prototyping-inline-comme…
[4] http://okfnlabs.org/annotator/
[5] http://www.thepund.it/
[6] http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/index.html
[7]
http://summit2013.lodlam.net/2013/06/20/karma-tools-for-mapping-data-to-ont…
--
Etiamsi omnes, ego non
Announcement now in français, español, and Deutsch* below:
*Apologies in advance for any errors or suboptimal phrasing in the
translations!
======
Bonjour à tous,
Je voudrais attirer votre attention sur la présence d’un nouveau billet sur
notre blog (disponible sur
Meta<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%29>et
sur le blog
Wikimedia<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/18/input-on-wikimedia-foundation-privacy…>)
relatif à la mise à jour de notre politique de confidentialité actuelle.
Notre politique de confidentialité n’a plus été mise à jour depuis l’année
2008 et nous pensons qu’il est temps de revoir cette politique afin de nous
assurer qu’elle reflète la situation des Projets aujourd’hui et leur
évolution future potentielle.
Il est important pour nous que la nouvelle politique reflète les valeurs de
la communauté. C’est pourquoi nous sollicitons l’intervention de la
communauté Wikimedia tout au long de ce processus. Nous aimerions que vous
nous fassiezpart<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Call_for_input_on_WMF_privacy_policy>,
au cours du prochain mois, des problèmes liés à la confidentialité qui
comptent pour vous. Une fois que nous aurons rédigé une version préalable
de la nouvelle politique de confidentialité (en tenant compte des
commentaires que vous nous aurez adressés au cours du mois), nous lancerons
une période prolongée de consultation de la communauté pour vous donner
l’occasion de réviser la version préalable et de nous faire part de vos
commentaires plus précis.
Nous vous invitons à lire le billet sur le blog pour obtenir plus de
détails et nous vous encourageons à participer à ce processus important.
Nous vous demandons de ne laisser vos commentaires que sur la page de
discussion Meta<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%…>afin
que chacun prenne connaissance de la même façon des sujets faisant
l’objet d’une discussion et dispose de l’occasion de participer pleinement
à la discussion qui l’intéresse.
Avec tous mes remerciements,
Michelle Paulson
Conseiller juridique
Remarque : Cette annonce devrait être traduite dans les quelques jours à
venir. Nous demandons à la communauté Wikimedia internationale de
contribuer à la traduction des billets publiés sur le blog et de la page de
commentaires (qui sont pratiquement identiques) ainsi qu’à celle des
commentaires fournis par les internautes tout au long de cette période de
consultation.
======
Hola a todos:
Me gustaría que echarais un vistazo a la nueva entrada del blog (disponible
en Meta<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%29>y
en el blog
de Wikimedia<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/18/input-on-wikimedia-foundation-privacy…>)
sobre la actualización de nuestra actual política de privacidad. No la
hemos actualizado desde 2008 y creemos que ha llegado la hora de hacerlo,
para asegurarnos de que refleja el punto en el que se encuentran los
proyectos en este momento y cuál es la posible dirección hacia la que se
encaminarán en un futuro.
Para nosotros, es importante que la nueva política refleje los valores de
la comunidad; por eso, estamos pidiendo a toda la comunidad de Wikimedia
que aporte sus ideas durante el proceso. A lo largo del próximo mes, nos
encantaría escuchar<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Call_for_input_on_WMF_privacy_policy>lo
que tenéis que decir sobre las cuestiones de privacidad que os atañen.
Una vez que hayamos completado un borrador de la nueva política de
privacidad (con los comentarios que nos enviaréis durante el próximo mes),
abriremos una amplia consulta a la comunidad para que tengáis la
oportunidad de revisar el borrador y proporcionar más comentarios en
detalle.
Os animamos a que leáis la entrada del blog para conocer más información y
a que participéis en este proceso tan importante. Dejad vuestros
comentarios únicamente en la página Meta para el
debate<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%…>para
que todos, por igual, estéis enterados de los temas que van a tratarse
y podáis participar en los debates que os interesen.
Muchas gracias,
Michelle Paulson
Asesora jurídica
Nota: Las traducciones de este anuncio estarán disponibles en los próximos
días. Nos encantaría que la comunidad internacional de Wikimedia nos
ayudara a traducir la entrada del blog y la página con los comentarios (que
son prácticamente idénticas), así como todas las aportaciones de la gente
que se produzcan en el transcurso de este periodo de consulta.
======
Hallo zusammen,
ich möchte Sie gern auf einen neuen Blog-Eintrag (auf
Meta<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%29>und
dem
Wikimedia-Blog<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/18/input-on-wikimedia-foundation-privacy…>verfügbar)
bezüglich der Aktualisierung unserer Datenschutzrichtlinie
aufmerksam machen. Unsere Datenschutzrichtlinie wurde seit 2008 nicht mehr
aktualisiert und wir sind der Meinung, dass es Zeit ist, die Richtlinie
erneut zu betrachten, um sicherzustellen, dass sie widerspiegelt, wo sich
Projekte heute befinden und wohin sie sich in Zukunft möglicherweise
entwickeln werden.
Es ist uns wichtig, dass die neue Richtlinie die Werte der Community
widerspiegelt. Daher bitten wir die Wikimedia-Community während dieses
gesamten Prozesses um ihre Meinung. Wir würden
gern<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Call_for_input_on_WMF_privacy_policy>im
Laufe des kommenden Monats hören, welche Datenschutzangelegenheiten
Ihnen wichtig sind. Wenn wir einen Entwurf der neuen Datenschutzrichtlinie
fertiggestellt haben (unter Berücksichtigung der Meinungen, die wir im
Laufe des kommenden Monats von Ihnen erhalten), werden wir einen längeren
Beratungszeitraum für die Community einleiten, sodass Sie die Möglichkeit
haben, den Entwurf zu prüfen und detaillierteres Feedback bereitzustellen.
Wir möchten Sie bitten, weitere Einzelheiten dem Blog-Eintrag zu entnehmen
und möchten Sie auffordern, an diesem wichtigen Prozess teilzunehmen. Bitte
hinterlegen Sie Ihre Meinungen ausschließlich auf der
Meta-Diskussionsseite<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%…>,
sodass sich alle gleichermaßen der Themen bewusst sind, die diskutiert
werden, und die Möglichkeit haben, sich vollständig an Diskussionen zu
beteiligen, die sie interessieren.
Vielen Dank!
Michelle Paulson
Rechtsberaterin
Hinweis: Wir erwarten, im Laufe der kommenden Tage Übersetzungen dieser
Mitteilung vorliegen zu haben. Wir möchten die internationale
Wikimedia-Community bitten, bei der Übersetzung des Blog-Eintrags und der
Feedback-Seite (die beinahe identisch sind) sowie des Feedbacks, das
Personen im Laufe dieses Beratungszeitraums bereitstellen, zu helfen.
======
On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 12:40 PM, Michelle Paulson
<mpaulson(a)wikimedia.org>wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I would like to direct your attention to a new blog post (available on
> Meta<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%29>and the Wikimedia
> blog<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/18/input-on-wikimedia-foundation-privacy…>)
> about updating our current privacy policy. Our privacy policy has not been
> updated since 2008, and we believe it is time to revisit the policy to
> ensure that it reflects where the Projects are today and where they have
> the potential to go in the future.
>
> It is important to us that the new policy reflects community values, so we
> are asking for Wikimedia community input throughout this process. We
> would like to hear from you<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Call_for_input_on_WMF_privacy_policy>over the next month about the privacy issues that matter to you. Once we
> have completed a draft of the new privacy policy (with the input we receive
> from you over the next month in mind), we will then open a lengthier
> community consultation period so that you have the opportunity to review
> the draft and provide more detailed feedback.
>
> We ask you to read the blog post for more details and encourage you to
> participate in this important process. We request that you leave your
> input on the Meta discussion page<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%…>only, so that everyone is equally aware of the topics being discussed and
> has the opportunity to participate fully in the discussions that interest
> them.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Michelle Paulson
> Legal Counsel
>
> Note: We expect to have translations of this announcement in the next
> couple of days. We would like to ask the international Wikimedia community
> to help translate the blog posting and feedback page (which are almost the
> same) as well as people’s feedback given throughout the course of this
> consultation period.
> --
> Michelle Paulson
> Legal Counsel
> Wikimedia Foundation
> 149 New Montgomery Street, 3rd Floor
> San Francisco, CA 94105
> mpaulson(a)wikimedia.org
> 415.839.6885 ext. 6608 (Office)
> 415.882.0495 (Fax)
>
>
>
>
> NOTICE: *This message might have confidential or legally privileged
> information in it. If you have received this message by accident, please
> delete it and let us know about the mistake. 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.*
>
--
Michelle Paulson
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
mpaulson(a)wikimedia.org
415.839.6885 ext. 6608 (Office)
415.882.0495 (Fax)
NOTICE: *This message might have confidential or legally privileged
information in it. If you have received this message by accident, please
delete it and let us know about the mistake. 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.*
I was just writing about file formats, thinking about the discussion
on Commons of its scope (and the many free formats that we still do
not support)...
And what should pop up in my mailbox but a discussion about the next
free video codec the Xiph Foundation is working on. This looks pretty
amazing, and is worth a read:
http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/daala/demo1.shtml
Sam.
--
Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266
Dear friends,
I have the awesome pleasure of notifying everyone today of a special
anniversary. Ten years ago today, Jimmy Wales announced the creation
of the Wikimedia Foundation on the still pretty new Wikipedia-l
mailing list.
Today you'll find a blog post (also posted below) that looks back on
an extraordinary 10 years of growth for the Foundation, our projects,
our movement organizations, and our volunteer community.
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/20/ten-years-of-supporting-free-knowledge
Birthdays are often one-day-focused things, but like our recent ten
year anniversary of Wikipedia, I know we'll be thinking about this
incredible milestone over the entire coming year. We look forward to
hearing your reflections and thoughts about the Foundation - whether
your contact with the org started ten days ago or ten years.
Thank you for being a part of the Foundation and part of the Wikimedia
movement. Here's to another huge ten years!
---
Ten years of supporting free knowledge
Posted by Jay Walsh on June 20, 2013
Ten years ago today, on June 20, 2003, Jimmy Wales announced the
founding of the Wikimedia Foundation. He entrusted the new nonprofit
with the operation of Wikipedia, launched two and a half years prior.
Wales recalled the early days of Wikipedia and marveled that it has
grown to be such an important and ubiquitous source of free
information for the world. “It is hard to imagine that in 2003,
Wikipedia was still running on just two servers – which I used to
administer myself in the beginning,” said Wales, who noted that he
founded the Wikimedia Foundation because he believed Wikipedia would
need the support of a stable and trusted institutional base for years
to come.
The Wikimedia Foundation’s second Board of Trustees (photo taken at
Wikimania 2006). From left to right: Tim Shell, Florence
Nibart-Devouard, Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, Michael Davis, Angela Beesley
“Ten years later, the Foundation continues to fulfill that role,
thanks to the trust of our millions of donors, the hard work of its
staff, the thoughtful oversight enacted by my fellow Board of Trustees
members and last but not least the many thousands of volunteers who
not only manage and build our projects, but also take an active part
in the governance of the Foundation,” Wales said.
Those two early servers, which belonged to Jimmy Wales’ company at the
time, have now grown to more than 800 servers operated by the
Wikimedia Foundation. They are the backbone of the free knowledge
projects that serve over half a billion readers each month, with 21
billion monthly pageviews. The Foundation also provides the legal
basis for projects, defending them against legal threats and
protecting the trademarks that have come to represent the global
community’s work.
The name “Wikimedia” had been suggested earlier in 2003 by Wikipedia
editor Sheldon Rampton for an endeavour that would “use Wiki-style
rules to enable public participation in the creation and editing of
all kinds of media: encyclopedias and other reference works, current
news, books, fiction, music, video etc.”
During the following decade, Wikipedia was joined by several sister
projects to realize parts of the vision of a world in which every
single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. The
Foundation continues to work on creating a richer Wikimedia experience
beyond text, making use of the web’s expanding possibilities. It has
also taken on the challenge of sustaining and increasing editor
participation, with projects such as the VisualEditor, the most
complex software development project undertaken by the Foundation so
far, which is already being live-tested on numerous language versions
of Wikipedia, and slated for a full rollout next month.
As part of its commitment to increase access to free knowledge, the
Wikimedia Foundation has launched Wikipedia Zero, a program to
convince telecommunications operators to waive data charges to
Wikipedia for the billions of people around the world whose primary
opportunity to access the internet is via a mobile device. Keeping up
with the mobile revolution on the internet, the Foundation has
upgraded Wikipedia’s interface for mobile users, including introducing
a “Nearby” feature and starting to enable contributions from mobile
devices.
Wikimedia Foundation staff (September 2012)
Erik Möller, a volunteer Wikipedian in Germany in 2003, and today the
Deputy Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, highlighted the
importance of this programmatic work. “Today, the Wikimedia Foundation
is well positioned to modernize the user experience and the
infrastructure supporting our projects, while dedicating all its
efforts to the public, working transparently, and releasing code as
open source,” said Möller. “This wouldn’t be possible if Jimmy hadn’t
laid the foundation 10 years ago to dedicate the operation of
Wikipedia and our other projects to a non-profit organization,
supported by a community of donors.”
The Foundation works with a global network of chapters, affiliates and
volunteers in achieving its mission. Several grants programs exist to
support smaller projects by individuals and groups. Last year saw the
launch of the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), entrusted with
reviewing larger funding requests from movement organizations and
giving recommendations on the most effective use of donation money to
achieve the movement’s goals. The FDC is volunteer-driven, and two of
its seats are currently up for election by the community, as are three
seats of the Board of Trustees. If you are an eligible Wikimedian,
don’t forget to cast your vote until June 22!
As for Wales, who could have made Wikipedia a commercial venture and
monetized the site’s content with advertising, the decision to
safeguard the future of the Wikimedia projects with a non-profit
couldn’t have been a wiser. “Wikipedia is something special. I like to
compare it to a temple for the mind: A place we can all go to think,
to learn, to share our knowledge with others,” he said.
“The Wikimedia Foundation is here to preserve and nurture that place,
and make sure that Wikipedia remains a shining example of openness and
freedom, a public good that is part of many people’s daily life around
the globe.”
Jay Walsh
Senior Director, Communications
--
Jay Walsh
Senior Director, Communications
WikimediaFoundation.orgblog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 6609, @jansonw
_______________________________________________
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
Hi everyone,
Howie and I are pleased to announce the onboarding of four new community
liaisons for the product team. Howie has generously allowed me to send
this email, since their initial tasking will be to VisualEditor and the
Change Management team, working with me. At the conclusion of the
deployment of VisualEditor, they will be assigned as community liaisons to
other groups within the product team.
Please welcome four new contractors: Erica Litrenta, Sherry Snyder,
Patrick Earley, and (a returning face) Keegan Peterzell.
These positions are temporary, contract-based positions, each with an
initial term of roughly 90 days. Below, I've pasted below a brief summary
of each of the four so that you can get to know them. I know you'll join
me in wishing them the best with their new work!
pb
___________________
Philippe Beaudette
Director, Community Advocacy
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
*Erica / Elitre*
Erica will be initially primarily tasked with supporting the deployment on
Italian Wikipedia, but will also be helping out with other wikis as well.
She edits as User:Elitre <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utente:Elitre> on
the Italian Wikipedia. Born and raised in Cosenza, Italy, she graduated
from Università della Calabria (with a Master's degree in Foreign Languages
and Literature), and now lives in Bologna. Her favorite work experience so
far was last year with lettera27 Foundation, where she wrote case studies
for the WikiAfrica/Share Your Knowledge projects (go GLAMs!) and hunted for
more free contents and institutions to involve (She's been involved with
the Wikimedia Movement and has evangelized about our projects since 2005).
She's fond of: playing life/construction and management videogames, taking
pictures, making cheesecakes, studying and writing about Italian folklore -
notably the Palio di Siena, listening to symphonic metal/rock.
She's in a romantic relationship with OTRS (yes, you read that right - she
was once dubbed "romantic and dreadful" because of this) since 2006 which,
she points out, is longer than her relationship with her boyfriend: she met
him later.
*Sherry / WhatamIdoing*
Some of you know her well, if nothing else, for her descriptive username ("
WhatamIdoing <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:WhatamIdoing>"). She
writes:
*My name is Sherry Snyder, better known as "WhatamIdoing" on several
English-speaking projects. My culinary quest for the summer is a low-sugar
chocolate peanut butter, which those of you with European tendencies should
interpret as "like Nutella, only better." (In response to this, my husband
says, "POV-inline, dubious - discuss?") I've been a Wikipedian since
2007. I am a metapedian by nature and a typo fixer by compulsion. I'm
still a little amazed that the WMF hired me for this project and happy to
be joining the team that is trying to make the transition to VisualEditor
be more successful and less surprising.
*
Sherry will be supporting the deployment on the English Wikipedia and
non-English speaking projects to be assigned still. She was a huge help
during the development of the Terms of Use, and I'm looking forward to
working with her.
*Patrick / The Interior*
Patrick is from Kamloops, British Columbia (yes, another Canadian!), a
logging and cattle town in the Interior of the province. He edits enwiki
as "The Interior <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:The_Interior>". He
has studied library science and film, and has worked a variety of
interesting jobs so far, including wildland firefighting, documentary
filmmaking, treeplanting, sorting books at a second hand store,
cataloguing, screenwriting, teaching English in Taiwan and, now, liaising
for the WMF! He currently lives in Vancouver in the aptly named Mount
Pleasant neighbourhood. He wishes to point out that he uses Canadian
spelling. :P
Patrick has been a Wikipedia editor since 2008. He loves working on
geography and both natural and human history. He has worked with the
Education Program, hopes to be more involved in GLAM projects in the
future, and is very interested in the Wikipedia/library interface. Patrick
will be focused on non-English speaking wikis.
*Keegan*
Some of you will remember that
Keegan<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan> previously
worked with us on the 2010 Fundraiser. He has been editing since 2005,
and has a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of
Tennessee-Chattanooga. An English Wikipedia administrator, oversighter,
and CheckUser, he served a year-long appointment to the audit subcommittee
for 2011-2012.
Globally he is a volunteer response team leader (OTRS admin) and member of
the Communications committee.
He says that he's not an article writer, so he tries to give back in other
ways. Keegan will be reprising his role from the 2010 fundraiser, where he
was a workhorse in communicating with non-English wikis.
___________________
Philippe Beaudette
Director, Community Advocacy
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
415-839-6885, x 6643
philippe(a)wikimedia.org
Open
Letter Regarding Mobbing and Abuses in the Wikis
I
have during the last several months been the victim of several kinds
of abuses and mobbing in the German
Wiktionary.
There
has for some time been an unfortunate development in the Internet,
with an increasing number of Internet users being subjected to abuses, harassmentsand mobbing.
Especially serious are those cases when children and youths have been
the victims, which have even led to suicide.
There seems to be a spread belief among, probably relatively young
Internet users, that Internet is an arena where you can do things,
not allowed in the society in general. That Internet is an arena outside the law.
However the authorities in care of the administration of justice have
lately become more and more aware of this problematic situation.
I
have to my sorrow seen that these kind of problems are also
present in the Wikis. I will here mainly talk about the
Wiktionaries, since I have worked there myself, but I believe that it
is present also in other types of Wikis. My own experiences
orginates largely from the German Wiktionary.
Many Wiktionaries are very small, i.e. there are very few
regular participants. That also means that a small group of people,
say 5-10 persons, can very easily "take control"
over a Wiktionary. This group can then control, who gets elected as
adminstrator and bureacrat. They can also to a large extent control
decisions over the dictionary, since they, in contrast to other
users, coordinate their voting and act as a group and thus often
overpower other users.
This
may be lamentable, and not good for the development of the
dictionary, but could still not be considered really serious, since
there is always the possibility that these kind of effects will grow
away as the dictionaries get more active users. I must also stress
that there are naturally also Wiktionaries with a few regular users,
who does an incredible job and who does not try to misuse their
positions.
The
Wiki-organization has however a responsibilty since it provide
these platforms that the Wikis constitute. The Wiki-platforms also provide a brand and a goodwill that these groups
can use. However, as it is today, there is nothing that will stop a
small group of users to use these platforms for their own purposes.
These groups can belong to extreme political (extreme right or
extreme left), or religious movements, with goals quite opposite
to the goals of the Wiki-movement. In the German Wiktionary a
group like this has openly expressed their contemp for democratic
values * (see below).
These
groups can on one hand influence the content in a way, that is not in
accordance with current knowledge, but what is perhaps even more
important, they can also through the harassment and bullying of
other users, make sure that only users that obey their rules will be allowed to participate. I have several times observed that
these kind of groups are much more interested in controlling other
users, than to recruit new participants or work with the dictionary.
Rather a few obedient users than many contributors. In the German
Wiktionary this policy has been expressed openly.
The Wiki-organization also has a responsibilty to protect the Wiki
users from being the victims of harassments, insults and mobbing
in the Wiki-community and to guarantee that the wikis really are open
to all people, not only in theory, but also in practise.
I
will below list some weaknesses in the Wiki-organization and
administration that allow certain groups to harass and mob other
users without risking any consequences neither within in
Wiki-community nor through legal means.
To
protect the users and the dictionaries the following reforms are
necessary:
User
names
Since
the Wiktionaries are a humanistic endeavour, every user should
actually be able to use their real
namewithout having to fear harassment. That is unfortunatelynot possible today, so for the time being we might have to accept
that the use of aliases is allowed. This leads however also to that a
perpetrator can hide behind his/hers alias.
However
to stop those groups and individuals from abusing other users one
should introduce the following
1.
That a user most log in to the Wiktionary, before writing
anything on that forum. That is a minimum requirement to be able to
stop abuse and being able to identify a perpetrator. The log in
procedure is also so simple that it will not stop anyone from
participating. Similar Internet sites have this policy.
2.
That the user must state his/hers real name when creating an
account. The user shall then be able to use an alias when
contributing to the dictionary. The real name should only be visible
to people supervising the Wiktionaries ( i.e. the stewards or other
type of similar supervising function).
3.
The real name is only revealed to people outside of the supervising
function when e.g. a serious offense is investigated.
4.
The real name will also simplify for the supervising function to prevent the use of multiple accounts. Today there is no
practical way to ensure that groups, that have as goal to harass
other users, are not using multiple identities. By using multiple
identities these groups can seem much larger to the victim than they
actually are, and in that way even more intimidating.
The
weak role of the stewards
The
problem that I have tried to describe above becomes really serious
when it involves a number of administrators at the Wiktionary in
question.
The
solitary user has today no way to defend himself/herself against
these abusing administrators and bureaucrats.
I
have in connection with the abuses against me in the German
Wiktionary, investigated the role of the stewards, and found that it
is very weak function when it comes to upholding the rights and the
protection of the ordinary user.
There
must therefore exist a possibilty for the ordinary user to appeal against a decision. There must also exist a possibility for the
ordinary user to call in an independent investigation when
serious offenses against users are perpetrated.
The role of the stewards thus has to be strengthen or
alternatively another kind of supervising function has to be
established.
Communication
channels
The
Wiktionaries offer three types of communication between users, the talk pages, through chat fora and through E-mail.
The
communication through the talk pages is transparent, every user can
follow this communication, and it is also traceable afterwards,
through the history file. This communication channel fulfills all the
needs for the dictionary work.
The
other two communication channels are very problematic. I can through
own experiences testify that for example the chat is used by
people for plotting and coordinating attacks on other
users. The chat is not transparent, it is not supervised by
anybody in Wiki-organization, it is not possible even for the
stewards to investigate what has been said on this channel, according
to the information I have received from the stewards.
The
same criticism can be launched at the E-Mail communication channel.
If users want to communicate privately through E-Mails they can do
so without the help from the Wiki.
I
can see no need or use for neither the chat nor the E-Mail
communication channel in a Wiktionary that is open to all.
The
Wiki-organization has a responisbility when it provide these
channels, at least to supervise and log the information
transferred, to ensure that they are not used to abuse users, and so
that in the case of an investigation, these channels can be
scrutinized. The Wiki-organization shall also be able to ensure that
these channels are not used, as they are today, to harass and abuse
other users.
Summary
I am strong believer in
the Wiktionary idea, especially since I see the future for the
printed dictionaries as being very precarious.
If the Wiktionaries shall
however be able to prosper, the growing problem of abuses, and groups
acting in their own interest only, must be met with forceful actions.
I believe that the
Wiki-brand today enjoys respect in the society, but if nothing is
done the brand and goodwill of the Wikis will be damaged. When these
problems will be noticed by the media and people not themselves
actively working with the Wikis it will create a problem in
recruiting new members as well as raising money for the Wiki-projects
This letter will be
distributed to a large number of people within the Wiki-organization
as well as to some people outside it.
Lars Gardenius
Physicist and
Entrepreneur
Sweden
* Example of statement
from administrator in German Wiktionary on democracy:
Dann werde ich jetzt ausnahmsweise mal
sehr deutlich:
Wikipedia ist keine
Demokratie. Gleiches gilt auch für Wiktionary. Wir befinden uns
hier in einem Projekt zum Aufbau eines Online-Wörterbuches.
Demokratiespiele bitte woanders spielen. Das Ziel von Wiktionary wird
leider hin und wieder aus den Augen verloren: Es geht hier nicht um
persönliche Eitelkeiten, nicht um ein soziales Netzwerk, nicht
um psychologische Betreuung, nicht um Integration aller Nutzer um
jeden Preis. Es geht hier einzig und allein um den Aufbau eines
Online-Wörterbuches. Wer das nicht akzeptiert und dabei massiv
stört (vor allem, wenn es sich um rechtliche Drohungen wie
Anzeigen bei der Polizei handelt, die direkte Auswirkungen ins
Real-Life haben), hat in diesem Projekt nichts zu suchen. Punkt.
--[[Benutzer:Stepro|Stepro]] <small>([[User
talk:Stepro|Diskussion]])</small> 20:22, 15. Jun 2013 (MESZ)
Hi All,
I would like to direct your attention to a new blog post (available on
Meta<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%29>and
the Wikimedia
blog<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/06/18/input-on-wikimedia-foundation-privacy…>)
about updating our current privacy policy. Our privacy policy has not been
updated since 2008, and we believe it is time to revisit the policy to
ensure that it reflects where the Projects are today and where they have
the potential to go in the future.
It is important to us that the new policy reflects community values, so we
are asking for Wikimedia community input throughout this process. We would
like to hear from
you<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Call_for_input_on_WMF_privacy_policy>over
the next month about the privacy issues that matter to you. Once we
have completed a draft of the new privacy policy (with the input we receive
from you over the next month in mind), we will then open a lengthier
community consultation period so that you have the opportunity to review
the draft and provide more detailed feedback.
We ask you to read the blog post for more details and encourage you to
participate in this important process. We request that you leave your
input on the Meta discussion
page<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy/Call_for_input_%282013%…>only,
so that everyone is equally aware of the topics being discussed and
has the opportunity to participate fully in the discussions that interest
them.
Many thanks,
Michelle Paulson
Legal Counsel
Note: We expect to have translations of this announcement in the next
couple of days. We would like to ask the international Wikimedia community
to help translate the blog posting and feedback page (which are almost the
same) as well as people’s feedback given throughout the course of this
consultation period.
--
Michelle Paulson
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
mpaulson(a)wikimedia.org
415.839.6885 ext. 6608 (Office)
415.882.0495 (Fax)
NOTICE: *This message might have confidential or legally privileged
information in it. If you have received this message by accident, please
delete it and let us know about the mistake. 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.*