Wikimedia-l October 2014

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150 participants
96 discussions

First Wikipedia Article has been Formally Peer Reviewed and Published
by James Heilman 07 Oct '14

07 Oct '14

Article published by the journal Open Medicine http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/viewFile/562/564 Will soon be pubmed indexed. Editorial regarding the efforts are here http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/view/652/565 Hope these sorts of efforts will improve the reputation of Wikipedia and the number of contributors. I guess we will see. -- James Heilman MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine www.opentextbookofmedicine.com

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[Wikimedia Announcements] Announcing Guillaume Paumier as Senior Analyst / SF relo
by Erik Moeller 07 Oct '14

07 Oct '14

FYI - belatedly forwarding after internal announcement: - - - Hi folks, Guillaume Paumier has been Technical Communications Manager in the Engineering Community Team since early 2011. In this role, he's been instrumental in developing the monthly engineering reports (including all the underlying infrastructure on mediawiki.org), vetting and writing technical blog posts and social media updates, and most recently, co-launching the weekly tech newsletter and keeping it running. Guillaume's role is changing, and he will shift to my department as part of the Engineering/Product department division. He will report directly to me as Senior Analyst, and I will deploy him to projects of strategic importance that require his expertise (any Guillaume deployments will not be noted on the deployments calendar). Guillaume will continue to put some of his time towards the tech newsletters and reports for the time being (though we're considering to merge the two), but other communications responsibilities will be handled by Katherine's team. What does it mean to be a Senior Analyst? As a long-time Wikimedian (since 2005), Guillaume understands many of Wikimedia's workflows deeply. As a self-confessed OCD introvert, he loves documenting, analyzing; breaking apart things and putting them back together in novel ways. He's awesome at information architecture, and at really thinking through all the options to solve a complex product problem. In other words, when I see a product that benefits from deep community expertise, I can throw Guillaume at it and he'll help. :) The first project Guillaume is taking on in this new role is the file metadata cleanup drive, preparatory to the Structured Data work the multimedia team will focus on in coming months. You can read more about it here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File_metadata_cleanup_drive Finally, it's my pleasure to announce that Guillaume is also relocating (back!) to the San Francisco Bay Area. Please join me in congratulating Guillaume in this new role and wishing him a stress-free move to San Francisco. Warmly, Erik -- Erik Möller VP of Product & Strategy, Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ 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

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2016 - Jury Announcement and Start of Bidding
by Itzik - Wikimedia Israel 07 Oct '14

07 Oct '14

Hey Manuel, Thank you for the response. Transparency is always good - and this case really shows why. While Ellie didn't respond and answered the question how people been elected, and summarize her answer to: "We have a system that works for jury selection." Your side and answer shows a whole different point of view. The system seem far away from working correctly. The fact that above the movement biggest *community* event there is a jury who most his members are paid staff, who been selected by a WMF staffer. This is not a decision by a committee, as the committee, as you describe is only been asked for feedback - and that should be clear. I hope next year process will be much more community and much more transparent. Itzik *Regards,Itzik Edri* Chairperson, Wikimedia Israel +972-(0)-54-5878078 | http://www.wikimedia.org.il Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment! On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 12:46 PM, Manuel Schneider < manuel.schneider(a)wikimedia.ch> wrote: > Hi Itzik et al, > > I think I should weigh in, having been part of this selection. I am just > currently travelling, so I don't follow the mailinglists at the moment. > > > In the past the jury was selected by a moderator - we had Joseph Seddon, > James Forrester and others sending out the invitations and reminders, > collecting the applications, making a selection and announcing it. From > that point on the jury took on the work. > > Now we have a Wikimania Committee which so far has not yet found its > mode to work - it only took one decision so far, and that was > re-defining the bidding schedule to give more time to organise - Ellie > and me were looking to move forward with the coming bidding process. The > only process we actually had was said reviewed and rescheduled timeline. > > As we were actually already approaching the approved deadlines without > anyone acting up, I took initiative to put the new timeline together on > Meta, send out and invitation and had all applications going to Ellie. > I also sent out reminders before the deadline, so everyone should have > been informed and was invited to participate. > > Ellie made a pre-selection which I reviewed and discussed with her, > after some slight adjustments I brought the selection forward the > Wikimania Committee, asking for feedback. We received one response from > someone who wanted to be included which Ellie denied with good arguments > as we need this person take responsibility in other areas (eg. > strengthen the Committee). > > After all selected persons agreed to become the new Jury I sent out the > announcement. > > I agree that we need a better process but I do not see that this year's > process was any worse than before, in the opposite - there have been > more people involved and able to voice their opinions. > > What we actually need is a Wikimania Committee which lives up to its > expectations, actually have meetings (and minutes), which can define > such processes. There have been several changes, also with Ellie coming > in, and everything is done on a volunteer basis. Things are slow. What I > do not accept are critisms on processes from people who didn't actually > participate in the same, even though they were invited to do so. > > Regards, > > > Manuel > -- > Manuel Schneider - Chief Information Officer > Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens > Lausanne, +41 (21) 340 66 22 - www.wikimedia.ch > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l >

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Fwd: [Wikitech-l] Wikimedia Phabricator is now open for everyone
by Pine W 07 Oct '14

07 Oct '14

Forwarding good news. Pine ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Quim Gil" <qgil(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Oct 6, 2014 2:35 PM Subject: [Wikitech-l] Wikimedia Phabricator is now open for everyone To: "Wikimedia developers" <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Cc: Today we celebrate an important milestone in the Phabricator project: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org is now open to all Wikimedia users! Special thanks go to @chasemp and @mmodell, who lead us to this milestone with their Phabricator expertise. Please get your account and let us know if you find any problems. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Phabricator/Help#Creating_your_account explains how to register and how to claim your fab activity today (and your RT and Bugzilla activity in the future). You are invited to participate in existing projects. Creation of new projects is closed until the completion of the Bugzilla migration -- see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Phabricator/Help#Requesting_a_new_project NEXT STEPS We will set up a separate Phabricator instance containing a sample of Bugzilla reports imported automatically, for your delight and criticism. After this instance is announced, we will leave at least one week for community feedback before deciding the next steps. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Phabricator#Migration_timeline -- Quim Gil Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

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Call to Action
by Tim Davenport 07 Oct '14

07 Oct '14

Here's hoping that the problem of bureaucratic degeneration is addressed by our comrades in San Francisco. Che Guevarra is most illuminating on this matter in his Feb. 1963 article "Against Bureaucratism," published in translation by Ocean Press in The Che Reader in 2005. ( https://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1963/02/against-bureaucratism.htm) Tim Davenport Corvallis, OR "Bureaucratism, obviously, is not the offspring of socialist society, nor is it a necessary component of it. The state bureaucracy existed in the period of bourgeois governments with its retinue of hangers-on and lackeys, as a great number of opportunists — who made up the “court” of the politicians in power — flourished in the shade of the government budget. In a capitalist society, where the entire state apparatus is at the service of the bourgeoisie, the state bureaucracy's importance as a leading body is very small. The main thing is that it be permeable enough to allow opportunists to pass through, yet impenetrable enough to keep the people trapped in its nets. Given the weight of the “original sins” in the old administrative apparatus and the situations created after the triumph of the revolution, the evil of bureaucratism began to develop strongly. If we were to search for its roots today, we would have to add new motives to the old causes, coming up with three fundamental reasons. "One is the lack of inner motivation. By this we mean the individual's lack of interest in rendering a service to the state and in overcoming a given situation. It is based on a lack of revolutionary consciousness or, at any rate, on acquiescence in things that are wrong. We can establish a direct and obvious relationship between the lack of inner motivation and the lack of interest in resolving problems. In this case, whether the weakness in ideological motivation is due to an absolute lack of conviction or to a certain dose of desperation in the face of repeated insoluble problems, the individual or group of individuals take refuge in bureaucratism, filling out papers, shirking their responsibility, and establishing a written defense in order to continue vegetating or to protect themselves from the irresponsibility of others. "Another cause is the lack of organization. Attempting to destroy “guerrillaism” without sufficient administrative experience has produced dislocations and bottlenecks that unnecessarily curb the flow of information from below, as well as the instructions or orders emanating from the central apparatus. Sometimes, the former or the latter take the wrong course; other times, they are translated into poorly formulated, absurd instructions that contribute even more to the distortion. "The lack of organization is fundamentally characterized by the weakness of the methods used to deal with a given situation. We can see examples in the ministries, when attempts are made to solve problems at an inappropriate level or when problems are dealt with through the wrong channels and get lost in the labyrinth of paperwork. Bureaucratism is like a ball and chain weighing down the type of official who is trying as best he can to solve his problem but keeps crashing time and again into the established way of doing things, without finding a solution.... "The third cause, a very important one, is the lack of sufficiently developed technical knowledge to be able to make correct decisions on short notice. Not being able to do this meant we had to gather many experiences of little value and try to draw some conclusion from them. Discussions became endless and no-one had sufficient authority to settle things. After one, two, or more meetings, the problem remained until it resolved itself or until a decision had to be made willy-nilly, no matter how bad it might be. The almost total lack of knowledge, which as I mentioned earlier was made up for by a long series of meetings, led to “meetingitis” — basically a lack of perspective for solving problems. In these cases bureaucratism — the brake that endless paper shuffling and indecision place on society's development — becomes the fate of the bodies affected. "These three fundamental causes, one by one or acting together in various combinations, affect the country's entire institutional life to a greater or lesser degree. The time has come to break away from these malignant influences....."

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First Wikipedia Article has been Formally Peer Reviewed and Published
by James Heilman 06 Oct '14

06 Oct '14

@ Cristian. I mean by number of "edits". Wikipedians by number of edits is listed here for the Dengue fever article. https://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools/articleinfo/index.php?article=Dengue_fever… Yes I do know number of edits is not perfect and that someone who has made a single edit could have contributed substantially. -- James Heilman MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine www.opentextbookofmedicine.com

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Office Hours with VPE Damon Sicore - 9 October 2014 20:00 UTC / 13:00 PDT
by James Alexander 06 Oct '14

06 Oct '14

Hi everyone, As our new Vice President of Engineering, Damon Sicore, just announced in his longer email to Wikimedia-l he will be having his first IRC Office hours on Thursday, October 9th, at 20:00 UTC (13:00 PDT). This hour long office hour is a chance to meet the new VPE and ask your burning questions. The office hour will be held in #Wikimedia-office on the Freenode network. You can find information on how to get online, including a link to a webchat option if you don't have an IRC client, on the meta office hours page <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours#How_to_participate>. You can also find a time converter for the start of the hour at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=20&min=00&sec=0&d… . Like most of our public office hours this one will be publicly logged and should be posted on the meta office hour page shortly after it's conclusion. If you want to know you more about Damon you can read the Wikimedia Blog announcement <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/09/29/damon-sicore-joins-wmf-as-vice-presid…> or check out his personal blog <http://damon.sicore.com>. James [[cross posted on wikitech-l and wikimedia-l]] James Alexander Legal and Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation (415) 839-6885 x6716 @jamesofur

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] First Wikipedia Article has been Formally Peer Reviewed and Published
by James Heilman 06 Oct '14

06 Oct '14

I agree all Wikipedia articles are sort of peer reviewed. When I speak about GA/FA I refer to it as Wikipedia's semi-formal peer review process. With respect to authorship, the 5th to 10th contributors by number of editors were contacted and asked if they wished to be listed as an author. All of them declined feeling that they had not contributed sufficiently to justify being listed. -- James Heilman MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine www.opentextbookofmedicine.com

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Quarterly review for Grantmaking
by Pine W 05 Oct '14

05 Oct '14

Tilman, thanks for those notes. There was discussion awhile ago about involving the community in quarterly reviews, and I have some questions and comments about this review, mostly for Lila. However, I would like to see the notes from the "group" mentioned at the end of the quarterly review before I make comments, or if there is an opportunity for community participation in the "group", I would like to participate in a community capacity, if that is ok. (: Thanks, Pine

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product roadmap
by James Salsman 05 Oct '14

05 Oct '14

Re the request for discussion about the product roadmap during the metrics meeting at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJGC9zpbJpU&t=1h06m30s Do Foundation officials intend to address supporting article accuracy review? I have asked several specific questions about https://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Develop_systems_for_accuracy_r… and I am certain that the proposal or something very similar is urgently needed for the transition from content creation to content maintenance on the largest projects. However at present there have been no response. Does the Foundation have an alternative contingency plan for article updating if active editors continue to decline? Or are all the eggs being put into the basket of hoping that someone thinks of something to reverse active editor decline, after at least a dozen such attempts have yielded zero results over the past half decade?

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Wikimedia-l October 2014