Hi everyone,
We are two weeks into the English fundraising campaign. We've had
incredible support from our community of readers these past two weeks and
we are thankful to everyone who has contributed so far.
We have raised roughly $18 million from 1.6 million readers since we
launched the campaign on December 2nd. This number is preliminary as
donations are still coming in and settling in our accounts. The team is on
track to reach the $20 million campaign goal this month.
Banners have been showing to all readers these past two weeks. At this
point, we are starting to limit the number of banners each reader sees. We
will run the campaign at a higher traffic level again at the end of
December for a final year-end push.
Thank you again for your support. I also want to thank everyone on the
fundraising team as well as staff and community members who have worked on
the campaign. We work incredibly hard throughout the entire year, but
there has been exceptional effort the last month. Thank you.
One of my favorite parts about the campaign is reading the notes from our
readers. Please take a moment to read through some of these comments. And
thank you for making Wikipedia a treasured resource that people are happy
to support :)
Quotes from Wikipedia readers:
--I consider Wikipedia one of the few (the only?) big internet company who
are actually trustworthy. I value Wikipedia and I want to support it
--Wikipedia is too valuable to be taken for granted. Donating is for me an
act of fairness, responsibility, and gratitude.
--I read a comic about a Wikipedia-Comcast merger. It was terrifying.
--Keep doing what you are doing. I love Wikipedia. My most visited site by
a mile. Any time I watch a new documentary, nature show, or read a book
about a topic I find fascinating, I always Wikipedia the information.
Irreplaceable!
--It's so convenient to pop onto the computer (Wikipedia) and find out
almost anything I want to know. Sure beats the old encyclopedias I grew up
with. It's helpful with medical advice and also, at my age, when you can't
think of a name of somebody famous, etc. It makes life easier to find out
RIGHT NOW instead of waiting for your brain to compute the answer 3 days
later.
--Very helpful! As a nursing student I frequently use Wikipedia to
reference science and engineering topics so I can get a deeper
understanding concepts and extra learning. Ilove it. As a young child in
the early 1960s I thought that computers were going to be giant machines
you could ask any question and get answers, Wikipedia is that machine! It's
wonderful! Just sharing.
--It's 10pm and I have to write a history essay. I'd love to sit and tell
you about all the times Wikipedia saved my ass by giving me quick start
points on projects. I simply love Wikipedia, keep it up guys! :)
--It can finish a debate in a couple of clicks
--Reduces intellectual irritation: Whenever, I encounter a word I don't
know or am fuzzy about, I look it up on Wiki; whenever I need facts to
resolve a political, religious, scientific or technical question, Wiki is
there.
--Once upon a time far far away I wanted a set of encyclopedias, but, alas
I could not afford them. Wikipedia now fills that void.
--I visit and utilize Wikipedia multiple times every week, sometimes daily.
Going to Wikipedia has become second nature to me. It is synonymous with
knowledge - there's nothing more profound. I support it with the small
donations I can afford in the hope of setting an example, and so that
others may have the same opportunities I've had.
--There have been so many ways that the internet has disappointed me in my
hopes that it would improve the human condition. However, there is this one
shining exception, and from my least expected source. Wikipedia is that
best thing that humanity has done with the internet, contributing to both a
common knowledge set and re-learning how to find areas of agreement with
others, instead of just shouting and not listening.
--i use Wikipedia for 'fact checking" & naming space ships, realizing that
it still a secondary source... but trust the communal effort to gravitate
towards a mostly accurate "centerpoint". The Encyclopedia Galactica of
Trantor in the making......
--You've killed the "bar-gument" but that's okay, I'd prefer to be informed
rather than simply louder than the next guy. ;)
--Most often I turn to Wiki in order to answer a question that my grandson
has asked about life, the universe and everything...in the old days we had
a kids' encyclopedia on the bookshelf, but it became outdated and Wiki has
taken its place.
--I frequently look things up while watching TV or movies. For example,
while watching Mad Men, I have frequently looked up specific dates or
locations to learn more about what was happening as it was portrayed on the
show. I learned more about the Bay of Pigs, the Kennedy assassination, Viet
Nam, riots, music, movies and general culture of the period. I always know
I can count on Wikipedia to provide a thorough synopsis of whatever it is
I'm looking for.
--Knowledge is the key to so many locks. Thank you
--Wikipedia is kinda like having my mom sitting next to me when I was a
kid. She knew everything :)
--
Megan Hernandez
Director of Online Fundraising
Wikimedia Foundation
Dear movement fellows,
tl;dr
Please find on Meta the Wikimédia France board handbook (in French)
<
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimédia_France/Guide_du_conseil_d%27admin…
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France/Guide_du_conseil_d%27…>
>
== Long story ==
Wikimédia France is moving forward with its continuous improvement process
and wishes for an adapted governance. After revising our organizational
structure [0], and putting in place the systematic evaluation of our
programs [1], we do not want that governance becomes the limiting factor of
our improvement.
Since the hiring of our Executive Director who leads all staff, we were
aware that the board tasks and processes had to evolve. That meant no more
micro-management or "operational" stuff (except for certain board roles)
and focus on strategy.
To that effect, at the occasion of our previous General Assembly, the board
drafted a board handbook [2], heavily inspired by the Wikimedia Foundation
one (thanks for sharing!)
The goal was to make sure every current member of the Board had the same
vision of our governance, and to ensure that applicants for the Board have
a good vision of what it means to be on the Board (expectations, posture,
do's & don'ts, ...) - like a shareholders' agreement.
This shared version is our first iteration as we anticipate to complete, or
adapt, this document according to our governance's evolution. It is
relatively specific to our self-identified strengths and weaknesses. We
also think that it is closely linked to our structure, our background and
local context (relation with our ED, local labour law...).
But despite all these specificities, we have (or will have) similar stages
of development and governance issues: that's why we share with you this
"Handbook", with the hope that the initiative or the contents can be useful
for you - even if it's in French.
== Process ==
The handbook writing was led by Émeric Vallespi, supported by the rest of
the board. It was then shared with a restricted circle where we gathered
input from 6 former board members, with almost 100 comments. We then
communicated the document to our members before the General Assembly, and
finally published it on Meta where it joined the Austrian Kodex in
[[Category:Governance]]. Sharing is caring :)
[0] <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikim…
>
[1] <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014_round2/Wikim…
>
[2] <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimédia_France/Guide_du_conseil_d%27admin…
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France/Guide_du_conseil_d%27…>
>
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France/Guide_du_conseil_d%27…>
If you have any questions, feel free to shoot them to Émeric ;-)
Cheers,
--
Jean-Frédéric
Hi
As an uploader of a deleted IAC logo to Commons for this organisation IAC for the en.wp article, and after carefully reviewing the continuous edit wars / blocks over the article, what emerges is nobody has appreciated that Bruentrup's client's organisation's name is "India Against Corruption" which exactly matches our article's name, whereas the name of the popular Hazare movement which is the subject of the article is actually "Indians Against Corruption" from their official history.
http://www.amazon.com/Uprising-2011-Kiran-Bedi/dp/9380710445/ref=sr_1_1?s=b…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uprising_2011:_Indians_Against_Corruptionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v5d2XS74h0
(Where the book was publicly released at Hazare's rally)
This block and these links are being actively discussed on an important tech list, so thought I'd share this here.
Paul ("cutestpenguin)
I assert that you're absolutely disrupting this mailing list. I have banned this address, and will ban any others that surface from you or your tens of thousands of bot—sorry, "members," intent on disrupting the list to pursue whatever agenda it is you're trying to shove in everyone's faces. Austin On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 2:30 PM, Bruentrup <claus.bruentrup at gmail.com> wrote: > And you assert that I personally did all those things ? > > And you do not acknowledge then IAC is an actual public movement / > organisation, with tens of thousands of subscribers all connected by > internet and with similar ideologies, all upset with Wikipedia. eg. > like Eastern European mailing list, Church of Scientology etc. > > Unlike them, my client is only concerned with a single article "India > Against Corruption" from which the chief author, "Sitush", backed out > during the agreed mediation and could not defend his malicious edits, > leading to this surge of indignation being expressed against Wikipedia > and off it. > > We await a reply from OTRS or Ms.Tretikov's office to our client's > emails reporting the IP infringements. > > BRUENTRUP > > On 12/14/14, Yaroslav M. Blanter <putevod at mccme.ru> wrote: >> On 2014-12-14 14:05, Bruentrup wrote: >>> And that will magically make all the infringements of IAC's IP at >>> Commons somehow acceptable and usable ? >>> >>> If you have reliable hard evidence of disruption and "socking" by / >>> against IAC, carried out from India, please share it with us so that >>> my clients can report it to the law enforcement agencies, as they >>> regularly do, to identify and prosecute the culprits. >> >> Please report yourself to the law enforcement agency first for spooling >> this mailing list last week and adding people to a google group without >> their consent (and for acting so using the name of a different list >> contributor). >> >> In the English Wikipedia, I personally blocked from editing several >> accounts from your sockfarm. >> >> I do not see why I should be wasting more time for IAC. >> >> Thank you for your attention. >> >> Cheers >> Yaroslav >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
I just noticed a disturbing trend on Commons that highlights a general
issue with its use as the media repository for our projects.
I recently had an image nominated for deletion under Commons policy against
photos of packaging: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:PACKAGING.
It was of some Japanese candy that someone brought back.
The first issue here is one of demotivating contributors. I took a photo of
an object I owned, and gave it away to be used in Wikipedia. The only
interaction I ever get on Commons about my photos is a notification of when
some fussy neckbeard wants to delete them. No thanks for thousands of
uploads. No notification of how many views they produce for our projects.
No message about downloads for free reuse.
The second issue is what this policy implicates for the scope of Commons. A
huge part of modern life includes things that have logos, artwork, jingles,
etc. This policy seems to imply to me that not just food packaging, but any
photo of a physical or digital product cannot be freely licensed even if
you own it. This covers a huge swath of knowledge to share which by
definition can't be on Commons anymore because we decided to take a very
conservative position on licensing. We are taking away useful photos from
our readers, which basically every other media repository that allows
CC/public domain licensing would allow.
We currently push users to upload to Commons when they want to give photos
to Wikipedia, and I have long done the same. I also used to be a Commons
admin. But this makes me think twice about ever uploading anything to
Commons, since even what seems like photos I own get subjected to an
extremely hardline copyright regime that no other site (say like Flickr)
would ever reasonably enforce on contributors. I'm also not going to bother
uploading to Wikipedia a simple photo of food products if I have to fill
out a form for fair use rationales.
In the long run, I think this kind of thing is yet more evidence that it
was a huge mistake to create a sub-community within Wikimedia that cares
more about strict free licensing than it does about utility to people who
need knowledge. Commons should really just have stayed a database shared
among projects, not been made into a wiki where all our more important
projects are subject to the rules mongering of a tiny broken community.
Dear Wikimedia community,
As the two Board Representatives on the Funds Dissemination Committee
(FDC), we want to publicly acknowledge the appeal that was submitted by
Wikimedia CH. [1] We appreciate the effort that Wikimedia CH’s Board and
staff put into their appeal, which outlines their concerns with the FDC’s
recent round (Round 1 2014-2015) of Annual Plan Grants recommendations. [2]
We are now carefully reviewing the inputs to and the notes from the
deliberations with the Board and the decision on the appeal will be
announced at the same time as the recommendations.
In the past, the Board’s deadline for decisions about the FDC’s
recommendations for Round 1, including appeals, has been the first of the
new year. This year, we will do our best to share the Board’s decision
before then, if possible, and certainly by the end of 2014. We do wish for
you all to have restful and peaceful holidays!
With thanks,
Frieda and Bishakha, on behalf of the WMF Board of Trustees
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Appeals_to_the_Board_on_the_reco…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2…
___________________________________________
Frieda Brioschi
mail: ubifrieda(a)gmail.com - skype: ubifrieda
cell: 328 0731320
http://it.linkedin.com/in/frieda
>>I'd take the pragmatic justification for being copyright-sticklers on
Commons to be: so we can provide a free-media repository that our
reusers can use, even commercially and world-wide, in the reasonably
secure belief that their reuse is legal, because this is truly freely
licensed media.
Compare and contrast to the goal of illustrating an encyclopedia with the
best images available, making use of American fair use law to which such
illustrations are legally entitled.
Tim Davenport
"Carrite" on WP
Corvallis, OR
The International Conference on Semantic Web Business and Innovation
(SWBI2015)
The University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO
Valais-Wallis)
October 7-9, 2015
http://sdiwc.net/conferences/swbi2015/
All registered papers will be included in SDIWC Digital Library
================================================================
The proposed conference on the above theme will be held at he University
of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais-Wallis)
on October 7-9, 2015 which aims to enable researchers build connections
between different digital applications.
The conference welcomes papers on the following (but not limited to)
research topics:
*Semantic Web and Linked Data
- Database, IR, NLP and AI technologies for the Semantic Web
- Geospatial Semantic Web
- Information Extraction from unstructured data
- Information visualization of Semantic Web data and Linked Data
- Internet of things
- Languages, tools, and methodologies for representing and managing
Semantic Web data
- Linked open data
- Management of Semantic Web data and Linked Data
- Ontology engineering and ontology patterns for the Semantic Web
- Ontology modularity, mapping, merging, and alignment
- Ontology-based data access
- Privacy and Security
- Query and inference over data streams
- Search, query, integration, and analysis on the Semantic Web
- Semantic business process management
- Semantic Sensor networks
- Semantic technologies for mobile platforms
- Semantic Web and Linked Data for Cloud Environments
- Semantic Web, Ontologies
- Social networks and processes on the Semantic Web
- Supporting multi-linguality in the Semantic Web
- User Interfaces and interacting with Semantic Web data and Linked Data
*Business and Innovation in Semantic Web
- Business Model Innovation
- Business Models and E-Commerce
- Business Technology Intelligence
- Challenges for change in semantic services
- Collaborative improvement and innovation
- E-Business Applications and Software
- E-commerce Technology Adoption
- E-commerce, E-Business Strategies
- E-tailing and Multi-Channel selling
- Evolution of Business model for Semantic Web Applications
- High-tech marketing
- Implementation strategies for responsible innovation
- Innovation for E-Business
- Innovative methods and tools for products and services
- Practices and Cases in E-Commerce
- Production of Knowledge Economy
- Technology and Business Transformation
- Technology strategies
- The Latest Trends in Linked Data
- Web Advertising and Web Publishing
- Web and Mobile Applications
Researchers are encouraged to submit their work electronically. All
papers will be fully refereed by a minimum of two specialized referees.
Before final acceptance, all referees comments must be considered.
Important Dates
==============
Submission Date: Open from now until Sept. 1, 2015
Notification of Acceptance: 6 weeks from the submission date
Camera Ready Submission: September 14, 2015
Registration Deadline: September 14, 2015
Conference Dates: October 7-9, 2015
