Hey all,
During Wikimania's Q&A panel, the Board lamented that, as always, they did
not have enough time to answer all the questions from the audience and
posted beforehand on-wiki. They did say they were accessible to follow up
with on unanswered questions though, so I am taking this opportunity to
start an open thread.
The question I am personally interested in, I posted on the Wikimania wiki
page,[1] and it's...
"The 2013-14 Annual Plan allocates 40% of the Wikimedia Foundation budget
and 59% of the staffing to engineering and product development. However, it
seems that few of Board members have professional expertise in theses areas
(compared to previous years and in general). Does the Board feel it has the
necessary expertise to lead the Foundation in this area? Would the Board
consider recruiting expert seats with more experience in engineering and
product development?"
There are several other excellent questions posted on-wiki as well. I know
people are still traveling and likely jet-lagged even if they're home, so I
am in no huge hurry to get an answer. Thanks to the Board in advance. :-)
--
Steven Walling
https://wikimediafoundation.org/
1. https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMF_Board_Q%26A
It is possible to have one location where everything is organized and arranged, but WMF is an international organisation to support the world wide Wikimedia movement. I think it would be good to have WMF deeper inside the world wide community, both digital and physical. I think it is healthy not to focus on one location, but to have an office more inside the Wikimedia movement, at least one on each (largely populated) continent.
For local communities WMF is far far far away, while localizing WMF would bring WMF and communities more together.
Romaine
Mobile image upload is a huge plus thus thanks to all who made it
happen. It is allowing those who might not otherwise have be able to
get involved to do so. Just saw this image come in through the mobile
site http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dirty_white_pseudomembrane_classical…
I have never seen diphtheria as it is exceedingly rare in my area of
the world. And technically this image is very hard to take. Look
forwards to mobile editing arriving.
--
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
www.opentextbookofmedicine.com
Hi, folks.
Due to some last-minute interest, I've extended the deadline to Aug 27th.
So you are still welcome to join the Wikimedia Foundation's Grant Advisory
Committee, and help review and advise on all grant proposals in the Project
and Event Grants program[1].
Take a look and sign up!
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grant_Advisory_Committee/Candidates
(please also relay to your local/language lists.)
Cheers,
Asaf
[1] the new name of the artist formerly known as the Wikimedia Grants
Program.
--
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org
Google is throwing the Wikipedia layer out of Google Maps under the guise of "improvement", while it actually sets several steps back in time. It is like going to the Middle Ages instead of the future. It shows that commercial companies do not make decisions by looking what people like, need and want, but let the end users down. In the past such changes in software always was a moment for me to consider if there are alternatives and if possible to switch over to them.
Considering this for finding a Wikipedia layer on maps, I do not know any. But I do know there is an open source alternative, just like Wikipedia, but then for maps, OpenStreetMap.
We already work together in some way, we use the maps of OpenStreetMap in our Toolserver maps when we click on the coordinates on articles.
Unfortunately I couldn't find any layer for Wikipedia on http://openstreetmap.org
I think it would be good if we as Wikimedia would broaden our use of and connections with OpenStreetMap and let both communities work together more.
(It is unlikely to happen I think, but OpenStreetMap would be perfectly under the wing of WMF, just as Wikivoyage.)
We should strive on working together with OpenStreetMap, we supplement each other.
Romaine
I'm sensitive to concerns about the Library's location. It is partly a
legacy issue: The Wikipedia Library partnerships started on English
Wikipedia, and that's where the Credo, HighBeam, Questia, JSTOR, and
Cochrane account donations were coordinated. This made some sense at the
time because these were English language source being donated (although the
donations were promoted to and open to all global editors and projects). That
will remain--global notifications about account donations and organizing
will be sent using Global Message Delivery, Wikimedia Foundation blog posts
and Signpost mentions will make other announcements.
This is always a tricky issue for our movement but the intent is very much
to benefit all projects and conduct outreach to all regions. For
neutrality, META is obviously best, but for overall convenience, English
Wikipedia remains the largest and most active project, with the highest
concentration of English language speakers. So in that sense it's a
question of maximizing convenience versus equalizing inconvenience. If
hosted on Meta, everyone has to switch wikis to get there. If hosted on
ENWP, all non-ENWP still editors have to switch wikis to get there, but the
huge chunk of ENWP editors do not.
This will hopefully become much less of an issue with interface changes
like Flow and Global Watchlists. Meta did just get notifications, so
that's helpful, but I still feel collaboration is somewhat limited by our
current infrastrcutre.
There are other concerns such as turning Meta into a true hub for all of
our editors, and representing our global nature by hosting global projects
there. These are important, and I want to give it more thought.
So, in the meantime going to look into hosting this on Meta, and I will
definitely at least mirror a portal there. It may take some time while we
continue to organize and get set up
I'd like to continue talking more about this. Cheers,
Jake Orlowitz (Ocaasi)
jorlowitz(a)gmail.com
'''The Wikipedia Library''' is an open research hub, a place for organizing
our amazing community of research and reference experts to collaborate and
help improve the encyclopedia.
We are working together towards 5 big goals:
*Connect editors with their local library and freely accessible resources
*Partner to provide free '''access to paywalled publications''', databases,
universities, and libraries
*Build relationships among our community of editors, libraries, and
librarians
*Facilitate research for Wikipedians, helping editors to find and use
sources
*Promote broader open access in publishing and research
Sign up to receive announcements and news about resource donations and
partnerships: '
http://enwp.org/WP::The_Wikipedia_Library/Newsletter/Recipients
Come and create a profile, and see how we can leverage your talent,
expertise, and dedication:
http://enwp.org/WP:The_Wikipedia_Library#Participants
There are numerous ways to get involved--project management, institutional
outreach, research assistance, community organizing, library help,
tool-building, graphic design--we'll find a path that best uses your
strengths.
Hope to see you there, [[User:Ocaasi|Ocaasi]]<sup> [[User talk:Ocaasi|t
]]|[[Special:Contributions/Ocaasi| c]]</sup> 14:59, 23 August 2013
(UTC)
--
Jake Orlowitz
Wikipedia: Ocaasi <http://enwp.org/User:Ocaasi>
"The new Google Maps simplified navigation and removed many useful features... Layers like Wikipedia, weather, webcams, photos, videos, previous searches are no longer available, while transit, traffic and bicycling can be found in the "getting around" box."
http://googlesystem.blogspot.nl/2013/05/the-new-google-maps-now-available.h…
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 23:45:12 +0100
From: Andy Mabbett <andy(a)pigsonthewing.org.uk>
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] The failure of
Google, looking for open
source alternatives
On 25 August 2013 23:33, Andy Mabbett <andy(a)pigsonthewing.org.uk>
wrote:
>> this is one point where WMF _may_ be able to help,
>
> We already have Special:Nearby
I've started a discussion on en.Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Nearby_.26_…
Please feel free to point to it from a suitable page on
Meta, or elsewhere
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
At Wikimania there was (not for the first time) discussion that not much
support and advice there is available to Chapter board members. On Sunday
afternoon a small group of us (myself, Markus Glaser, Michał Buczyński,
Claudia Garad) met to work out how we could actually provide some training
to help improve this situation.
I am pleased to say we have a definite proposal for a 2-day workshop to be
organised in the early part of 2014:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Boards_training_workshop_proposal
This is open to all Chapter (or indeed Thematic Organisation) boards, but
is particularly focused on board members in those organisations that have,
or will soon have, staff. And while this is being organised by "chapter
people", we hope to engage with Foundation, FDC and Affcom wherever this
will be relevant.
If you are on a Wikimedia movement Board and are interested in attending,
please sign up on the Meta page!
Also, if you are reading the page and feel you could lead a session, please
also sign up on Meta!
If there is enough interest, we will define the programme more closely and
work out exactly where and when.
Regards,
Chris
