At some point of time, the best you could do is to reach for a
superstition and hope it will work. It doesn't matter how it will be
explained after, but at this point of time, it's only that
superstition which matters.
My particular superstition is that Brane would be able to see his
eulogy and that we'll be able to laugh together. You know, it's a rare
opportunity to see how your eulogy would look like, so I hope I am
giving it to him.
An hour ago I heard that he is in critical condition. At first, I was
thinking what should I write after he dies. Then, I realized that I
should write it now and post it after. Then, it's come into my mind
that I should send it immediately as, at least, I could think about
reading with him this eulogy and your comments after he recovers.
Since August 2014 he is struggling with bone cancer. His curse is that
his body is so strong, that chemotherapy is not working yet.
Paradoxically, we hope that his body is weak enough now that it will
finally accept chemotherapy. Monday would be crucial day for him.
He is one of those "invisible" Wikimedians who actually contributed
significantly to our movement. Some of you, mostly those who visited
Belgrade, know him.
He is one of the founders of Wikimedia Serbia. It's a pity that he is
in this condition while WMRS is preparing to celebrate its 10th
anniversary. Here is our photo from the founding assembly [1].
Presently, he is a board member of Wikimedia Serbia.
His epic fight for copyright correctness on Serbian Wikipedia created
the foundations of the present day strict copyright rules. It's a
great achievement for a project of such size and it was possible just
because of him.
While he was active editor, he was highly trusted Wikipedian and he
was administrator, bureaucrat and checkuser on Serbian Wikipedia, as
well as on a number of of other projects in Serbian language.
Alpha software for transliteration between Cyrillic and Latin scripts
of Serbian language in MediaWiki was his work. That was the basis for
the future implementation. It was the first software of that kind
implemented in one web engine.
He is my close friend. Besides a lot of things which he did, which
will be mentioned at appropriate time, I want to say that many things
which I did wouldn't be possible without his contribution.
He is now very exhausted and he won't be able to read this today or
tomorrow. However, I am sure he will be able to read it on Monday,
after he recovers a bit. So, your support matters, no matter of my
superstitious reasons for sending this email.
[1] https://www.facebook.com/wikimedia.rs/photos/a.826279217387658.1073741828.2…
Hoi,
Bassel, a fellow Wikipedian has been sentenced to death. That was the news
in one of the press releases of Amnesty International. Many Wikipedians are
confused about what they can do to make a difference. Arguably the biggest
difference we make is in what we do. We write in an encyclopaedia style in
Wikipedia, we collect data in Wikidata and we collect images in Commons. It
makes such a difference that we received the Erasmus Award for this.
At the award ceremony in a conversation with the first GLAM partner, the
Tropenmuseum, the idea was launched to ask GLAM's for their images about
Syria so that we can at least cover Syria properly. I learned from Richard
from what is now called "Wereldculturen" that they have a batch of 356
images waiting for upload.
The idea is to replicate this effort and we would like any and all GLAM
institution to check their collection and help us out. We can make a
difference for Syria, for Bassel and that is by what we do best. Make
information available, NPOV information because that is where Wikipedia can
make a difference.
Thanks,
GerardM
http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.nl/2015/12/missingbassel-what-to-do-for-him…
Hello Everyone,
Hope you have nice vacation plans for the end of the year. I am writing to
share a different kind of plan, though :) -- In the last 3 months the
reading team has worked on a process for open strategy planning [0], in
order to define priorities, and align tests and products that the team
works on, with broader movement goals.
Given the strategy work, planning for Q3 (the next quarter: Jan - March) is
different; the team is sharing its roadmap for Q3 and Q4 [1], as well as
the actions planned for Q3 [2] early on. Despite all of the strategy work
and planning, these documents are still work in progress; adaptations and
changes are likely to take place, given the time frame and tests included.
However, the team is sharing early in order to accommodate feedback. You
can also add suggestions for Q4 (Apr - Jun), as long as they align with the
roadmap.[3]
The team is sharing its plans early and openly, looking forward to broader
participation, whether by feedack and suggestions in future planning. We
trust that the open process will help with better engagement and more
lessons to learn on best practices.
Enjoy December and excuse the cross posting.
All the best,
M
[0] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Strategy/Strategy_Process/Testing
[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Roadmap
[2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Quarterly_Planning/Q3
[3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Reading/Quarterly_planning/Q4
Hi there,
The WMF has scheduled an office hour with Wes Moran, VP of Product, for
Thursday 10 December, at 20:00 UTC. We can use the time as an informal meet
and greet, or ask questions about product process, strategy, and planning.
You can participate in #wikimedia-office on Freenode, and logs will be
posted afterwards.
You can find the relevant information, including your timezone, here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours#Upcoming_office_hours
Hope to see you there :)
rachel
--
Rachel diCerbo
Director of Community Engagement (Product)
Wikimedia Foundation
Rdicerb (WMF) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Rdicerb_%28WMF%29>
@a_rachel <https://twitter.com/a_rachel>
Well....Iberocoopians always have fun ;-)
Sent from my HTC
----- Reply message -----
From: "Milos Rancic" <millosh(a)gmail.com>
To: "Wikimedia Mailing List" <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Why are we so boring?
Date: Tue, Dec 8, 2015 3:36 PM
We are. It's not about particular thread on this list, it's about our
existence. Initially I thought it's because the level of our
responsibility, but eventually I've realized we are simply boring and
nobody bothers about that.
Our meetings and conferences look like the meetings of a regional branch of
German Social Democratic Party at the best. In regular occasions they are
more like the meetings of a village cell of a communist party from an East
European country during the 80s.
This enormous distance between the value of our work and ideals and
presenting ourselves to *us* in the range between shiny snake oil merchants
and demagogues nobody trusts is quite striking. (OK, there is one more end,
thus making a triangle: highly specialized topics which require highly
specialized knowledge to participate.)
The distance is also quite striking because the most witty people I ever
met are from the Wikimedia movement itself.
It's endemic. From local Wikimedian meetings to Wikimania. The most
interesting part of such events is talking with other Wikimedians.
Listening talks, lectures and ceremonies is the worst option. Workshops and
collective decision making are like gambling: it could be constructive, but
it could also be not just wasting time but occult session with the only one
goal: to drain the energy from the participants.
On average, I would rather spend two times more time talking with a
Wikimedian than listening her or his lecture or talk.
There are some straight forward techniques. For example, we could work on
making our talks much better. We could also ask HR professionals how to
make our live interaction better.
However, being boring is somehow quite deeply rooted inside of our culture.
While trying to become "serious", we lost our ability to be playful.
Creativity is something we treat as the least important of our activities.
This is not something which could be fixed quickly. There is no a pill to
magically cure it. But we could start thinking about this as a problem and
start implementing various ideas to tackle it.
I wouldn't say that our revolution forbids us to dance. (Whenever somebody
from Bay Area is DJ-ing, we dance and it's beautiful, no matter how trashy
the music is.) But I am sure we can do better.
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Markus,
On Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 10:32 AM, Markus Krötzsch <
markus(a)semantic-mediawiki.org> wrote:
What this page suggested was that that Freebase being shutdown means that
> Google will use Wikidata as a source. Note that the short intro text on the
> page did not say anything else about the subject, so I am surprised that
> this sufficed to convince you about the truth of that claim (it seems that
> other things I write with more support don't have this effect). Anyway, I
> am really sorry to hear that this quickly-written intro on the web has
> misled you. When I wrote this after Google had made their Freebase
> announcement last year, I really believed that this was the obvious
> implication. However, I was jumping to conclusions there without having
> first-hand evidence. I guess many people did the same. I fixed the
> statement now.
>
> To be clear: I am not saying that Google is not using Wikidata. I just
> don't know. However, if you make a little effort, there is a lot of
> evidence that Google is not using Wikidata as a source, even when it could.
> For example, population numbers are off, even in cases where they refer to
> the same source and time, and Google also shows many statements and sources
> that are not in Wikidata at all (and not even in Primary Sources).
>
> I still don't see any problem if Google would be using Wikidata, but
> that's another discussion.
>
> You mention "multiple sources".
> {{Which}}?
>
> Markus
>
For the record, here is what your university webpage used to say.[1]
---o0o---
Wikidata is the free, collaborative knowledge base behind Wikipedia and
many other Wikimedia projects. The Web site has been online since late 2012
and has since become an important data provider for Wikipedias in all
languages. Ten thousands of users have contributed statements about
millions of entities. In December 2013, Google announced that their own
collaboratively edited knowledge base, Freebase, is to be discontinued in
favour of Wikidata*, which gives Wikidata a prominent role as an inut for
Google Knowledge Graph*. The research group Knowledge Systems is working in
close cooperation with the development team behind Wikidata, and provides,
e.g., the regular Wikidata RDF-Exports.
Development of Wikidata started in April 2012 with a team of developers
based on the Berlin offices of Wikimedia Germany. The project was heavily
inspired by Semantic MediaWiki and Markus Krötzsch has been acting as an
architectural advisor to the project since its inception.
---o0o---
You were well placed to know. The source I quoted in the op-ed was a
different one though, a snippet from an IRC chat[2].
---o0o---
16:33:55 <dennyvrandecic> also, Wikidata is not a free ticket into the
Knowledge Graph as Freebase was16:34:07 <dennyvrandecic> it is just
one source among many
16:34:27 <Lydia_WMDE> i think we really need to highlight this16:34:30
<dennyvrandecic> benestar: actually I think that companies editing
Wikidata might be very beneficial
...
---o0o---
As a Google employee working on Wikidata, Denny can be presumed to know
what is and isn't a source for the Knowledge Graph.
Noam Shapiro in SEJ commented on the above IRC chat, saying:[3]
---o0o---
As one of the insiders notes above, “Wikidata is not a free ticket into the
Knowledge Graph as Freebase was.” It may very well be that the direct
relationship observed between Freebase and the Knowledge Graph will not be
replicated in Wikidata’s relationship with the Knowledge Graph. That being
said, *it is still “one source among many,” and likely an important one*.
After all, the Knowledge Graph thrives on the existence of structured data,
and - especially in the absence of Freebase - that is exactly what Wikidata
provides.
---o0o---
In May of this year, Tony Edward published an article in Search Engine Land
titled *"Leveraging Wikidata to gain a Google Knowledge Graph result"*.[4]
---o0o---
Back in December 2014, Google anounced that it would be shutting down
Freebase <http://wiki.freebase.com/wiki/Main_Page>, a repository of
structured data that helps power Google’s Knowledge Graph, and working to
migrate all its data to Wikidata.
But how does Wikidata measure up? *How can marketers leverage Wikidata to
help a business become an entity and gain a Knowledge Graph result? I have
personally had success* with gaining Knowledge Graph entries for my clients
and myself. Below, I have outlined the steps you can take to both gain and
enhance a Knowledge Graph result. [...]
---o0o---
Another article in Search Engine Land, by Barry Schartz, reporting on the
closure of Freebase:[5]
---o0o---
This means that the data won’t be lost but instead will be transferred to
Wikimedia Foundation’s project Wikidata, which will have their own API to
so that developers who want to retrieve facts automatically, as they did
with Freebase, can still do so. *This would include Google also pulling
data from Wikidata, to help power its Knowledge Graph.*
---o0o---
There are more articles like that ... I actually only came across your
university web page *after* I'd written the op-ed.
One other point. Denny said today on the Kurier talk page in the German
Wikipedia that he stands by his opinion, quoted earlier in this thread,
that Wikidata, being under the CC0 licence, must not import data from
Share-Alike sources. It would be irresponsible to do so, he said.[6]
If Wikidata with its CC0 licence must not import data from Share-Alike
sources, then I don't understand why there are mass imports from Wikipedia,
which is a Share-Alike source.
Andreas
P.S. Markus, your crossposts to Wikimedia-l still don't arrive there. Are
you a registered member of Wikimedia-l?
[1] https://archive.is/O8h8K
[2] https://archive.is/LoQXX#selection-2479.0-2519.74
[3]
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/wikidata-meets-google-knowledge-graph/13…
[4]
http://searchengineland.com/leveraging-wikidata-gain-google-knowledge-graph…
[5]
http://searchengineland.com/google-close-freebase-helped-feed-knowledge-gra…
[6] https://archive.is/bu9Io#selection-12005.450-12005.662
Hi everyone, here's what the Community Tech team's been up to lately.
* Community Wishlist Survey: we've been running this survey to identify the
most important features and fixes to work on in 2016; you might have heard
about it because we've been spamming mailing lists and village pumps. If
you haven't checked it out yet -- the voting phase ends on Monday, please
come and vote for the proposals you want to support! There are a lot of
proposals, and many of them are awesome.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2015_Community_Wishlist_Survey
* Gadgets 2.0: A new Gadget Manager has been in the works for a long time,
to replace Mediawiki:Gadgets-definition as the interface for managing
gadgets on a wiki. Community Tech is helping to complete the feature -- in
November, we created new Gadget and Gadget_definition namespaces and
content models, and we're currently working on the Gadget Manager itself.
For more info: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Gadgets_2.0 and
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T31272.
* GadgetUsage: We made some improvements to the Special:GadgetUsage report,
filtering out removed gadgets and adding a recently active users count. You
can see the improved report at
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:GadgetUsage, and it'll roll out to
more projects next week.
* Citation bot: We've been working on getting Citation bot into shape;
check out https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T108412 for more.
In December, we've got more work coming up on Gadget Manager, Citation bot
and storing WikiProject article assessment metadata. Plus come and vote in
the Wishlist Survey so that we have interesting things to work on in
January. Thank you and good night.
DannyH (WMF)
Community Tech
(cross-posted to Wikimedia-l, Wikitech-l and WMF staff lists, sorry for the
duplication)