Hey,
Don't worry, we indeed have a lot of time till the next elections, but as
this issue had been raised during the last elections - and we decided that
we can't change the rules few weeks before the elections, now I want to
raise the discussion enough time before.
According to the current rules [1], in order to influence and vote in the
elections, you need to be active editor, developer or WMF staff/contractor.
Last year this issue concern some of us. The foundation is not small
organizations as it been before, and by comparison, the number of people
participating in the elections every year is not high.
For example, last elections there were 1809 valid votes. By comparison, the
number of WMF staff this days is 218, what makes there voting power 12% of
the total voters last year. This consider to be a great amount of power
when we are talking about elections (In the last election you would have
around 650 votes in order to be elected...)
Wikimedia thematic organizations staff and contractors for example don't
have the same privilege to vote only because they are employees of the
movement, only if they are editors as well. The question - what make the
WMF staff different, and if this is not a little bit problematic that the
staff have such power to decide on their direct board, but in general - the
board of the whole movement.
Do we need to give the same privilege also to all the staff in our
movement?
Should we limited the elections to staff (both WMF and chapters) that are
active editors or developers as additional to their work in the movement?
I'll be happy to hear yours input.
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2013/Vote_Qu…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_2013/Results
*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!
Re: http://twkozlowski.net/the-pot-and-the-kettle-the-wikimedia-way/
Two questions:
1. Where can I find a response from either the WMF board or WMF
funding/finance to the criticisms of a lack of transparency or the
apparent failure of the project to deliver value for the donor's money
as raised in this blog post?
2. Where can I read an officially recognized report for the outcomes
of this project in terms of value for Wikimedia projects? Obviously we
do not want to rely on second-hand analysis when reports to the WMF
are a requirement for such projects.
Thanks,
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Really. Who thought it was a good idea to MAKE THE BANNER FOLLOW YOU
DOWN THE PAGE?
There must be an identifiable person who actually said "yes, this is a
good decision, I shall make this decision."
- d.
We know NSA wants Wikipedia data, as Wikipedia is listed in one of the
NSA slides:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KS8-001.jpg
That slide is about HTTP, and the tech staff are moving the
user/reader base to HTTPS.
As we learn more about the NSA programs, we need to consider vectors
other than HTTP for the NSA to obtain the data they want. And the
userbase needs to be aware of the current risks.
One question from the "Dells are backdored"[sic] thread that is worth
separate consideration is:
Are the Wikimedia transit links encrypted, especially for database replication?
MySQL has replication over SSL, so I assume the answer is Yes.
If not, is this necessary or useful, and feasible ?
However we also need to consider that SSL and other encryption may be
useless against NSA/etc, which means replicating non-public data
should be avoided wherever possible, as it becomes a single point of
failure.
Given how public our system is, we don't have a lot of non-public
data, so we might be able to design the architecture so that
information isnt replicated, and also ensure it isnt accessed over
insecure links. I think the only parts of the dataset that are
private & valuable are
* passwords/login cookies,
* checkuser info - IPs and useragents,
* WMF analytics, which includes readers iirc, and
* hidden/deleted edits
* private wikis and mailing lists
Have I missed any?
Are passwords and/or checkuser info replicated?
Is there a data policy on WMF analytics data which prevents it flowing
over insecure links, and limits what is collected and ensures
destruction of the data within reasonable timeframes? i.e. how about
not using cookies to track analytics of readers who are on HTTP
instead of HTTPS?
The private wikis can be restricted to https, depending on the value
of the data on those wikis in the wrong hands. The private mailing
lists will be harder to secure, and at least the English Wikipedia
arbcom list contain a lot of valuable data about contributors.
Regarding hidden/deleted edits, the replication isnt the only source
of this data. All edits are also exposed via Recent Changes
(https/api/etc) as they occur, and the value of these edits is
determined by the fact they are hidden afterwards (e.g. don't appear
in dumps). Is there any way to control who is effectively capturing
all edits via Recent Changes?
--
John Vandenberg
Dear all,
The next WMF metrics and activities will take place on Thursday, March 5,
2015 at 7:00 PM UTC (11 AM PST). The IRC channel is #wikimedia-office on
irc.freenode.net and the meeting will be broadcast as a live YouTube stream.
Each month at the metrics meeting, we will:
* Welcome recent hires
* Present reports/updates that are focused on a key theme or topic. For
March, we will do a combined update of VisualEditor & Mobile.
* Engage in questions/discussions
Please review https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_
meetings for further information about how to participate.
We'll post the video recording publicly after the meeting.
Thank you,
Praveena
--
Praveena Maharaj
Executive Assistant to the VP of Product & Strategy and the VP of
Engineering
Wikimedia Foundation \\ www.wikimediafoundation.org
Hi,
Julia Reda, a MEP (Member of the European Parliament) for the German
Pirate Party has released a report[1] regarding copyright in the EU
and demanding "an ambitious reform agenda for the overhaul of EU
copyright"[2].
A shorter version with the most important points is the press release:
[2] https://juliareda.eu/2015/01/press-release-eu-copyright-report/
This work has followed the public consultation on copyright that many
people (and also associations, including some Wikimedia chapters) have
answered[3] in the past months.
>From [1] you can also see the work of Dimitar Dimitrov and the Free
Knowledge Advocacy Group EU[4], and of other free knowledge
organisations in Europe as the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
and "La Quadrature du Net" from France.
Well done, Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU!
Cristian
[1]https://juliareda.eu/2015/01/report-eu-copyright-rules-maladapted-to-the-web/
[2] https://juliareda.eu/2015/01/press-release-eu-copyright-report/
[3] https://juliareda.eu/2014/08/the-european-copyright-divide/
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Statement_of_Intent
Hi everyone,
it is my pleasure to announce the release of the 2014 annual report on
Wikimedia's OTRS and specifically the Volunteer Response Team's
activities. Please find it at
https://tools.wmflabs.org/otrsreports/annual/2014
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them at
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:OTRS/Reports/2014>.
About OTRS/the Volunteer Response Team: The Volunteer Response Team is
the group of volunteers that handles email traffic related to the
Wikimedia projects, from general inquiries to file permission emails.
The software they use is called OTRS, and our installation of OTRS is
also used by several other users within our movement, including
chapters, WMF staff, oversighters, Wikimania organizers etc. For more
information, see <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS>.
On behalf of the OTRS administrators,
Patrik (User:Pajz)
For some months, Twitter have been blocking most URLs in their direct
messages (DMs), supposedly as an anti-spam measure.
Do we have someone who has a contact there, who could ask them to
whitelist Wikimedia project URLs in DMs?
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
Dear all,
I was wondering if anyone, in the Wikimedia movement,
has done editathons and wiki-events with *journalists*.
In April, Wikimedia Italia will host a workshop at the International
Journalism Festival, and we'd welcome tips and suggestions.
Cheers
Aubrey
Dear All,
We're happy to share with you that Bengali Wikipedia has completed it's 10
year journey a few months back. To celebrate this historic milestone We the
poeple from Bengali Wikimedia Community and Wikimedia Bangladesh is going
to arrange a Gala event on February 26, 2015 at Radisson Blu Water Garden
Hotel in Dhaka. The event is supported by Grameenphone (It is a joint
venture between Telenor and Grameen Telecom Corporation), is the leading
telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh.
We are so happy that *Jimmy Wales* is going to join with us as a chief
guest. We are excited to have him with us and hope to share the program
details with you soon. BTW, This visit is the first visit of Jimbo in
Bangladesh.
Note: This event is a part of the series program, we'll arrange another two
days conference probably the last week of March.
Cheers.
--
*Hasive *
Global User: Hasive <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Hasive>
Administrator | Bengali Wikipedia <http://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/user:Hasive>
Member | GAC Committee, Wikimedia Foundation
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Grant_Advisory_Committee>
Member | IEG Committee, Wikimedia Foundation
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/People>
Director | Wikimedia Bangladesh Operations Committee
<http://www.wikimedia.org.bd>
fb.com/nhasive | @nhasive <http://www.twitter.com/nhasive> | Skype: nhasive
| www.nhasive.com
