An English Wikipedia gender neutral policy, similar to the one
developed for Commons, is now under "lively" discussion in a Requests
for Comment started this afternoon. You can read the proposed policy
and join in by adding your viewpoint at:
Shortcut: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fae/RFC_GNL
Full link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/RfC_to_adopt_a…
Some of the comments may be upsetting for some readers. I've actually
been a bit surprised. If it's too much drama for you, go focus on
something more fun.
Thanks,
Fae
Wikimedia LGBT+ https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_LGBT+
On 5 April 2017 at 11:44, Fæ <faewik(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#Defaulting_to_gende…
>
> Hi,
>
> One of the outcomes from my weekend at the Wikimedia Conference in
> Berlin, was that the various discussions over /feeling/ more welcoming
> in our language presumptions for non-male contributors made me think
> about taking some practical steps on my home project. Commons is lucky
> that having a standard policy language of English makes it easier to
> use neutral gender in policy statements. I'm taking that further by
> proposing that we stick to a neutral gender for all our policies and
> help pages. In practice this means that policies avoid using "he or
> she" and stick to "they" or avoid using a pronoun at all. I'm hoping
> that the outcome will feel like a much more natural space for people
> like me that prefer to stay gender neutral, possibly give a slightly
> safer feeling to the project by the very act of making the effort, as
> well as avoiding an over-emphasis on binary gender when it's pretty
> easy to simply avoid it.
>
> Comments are welcome on the specific proposal, or you may have ideas
> for other local projects to do something similar. I'm aware that this
> is much more difficult to make progress on in languages such as German
> or Spanish that have a presumption of male/female gender within their
> vocabulary, so any cases of on-project initiatives in non-English
> would be especially interesting. Solving these challenges is an
> opportunity to make our projects a leader on gender neutrality...
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Hey,
FYI - sad news from Turkish.
*Regards,Itzik Edri*
Chairperson, Wikimedia Israel
+972-54-5878078 | 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!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Itzik - Wikimedia Israel <itzik(a)wikimedia.org.il>
Date: Sat, Apr 29, 2017 at 11:42 AM
Subject: [PRESS] Turkish authorities block Wikipedia
To: Communications Committee <wmfcc-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39754909
Reuters just published that a 15 minutes ago, so it will be soon all over
the news.
---
*Turkey has blocked all access inside the country to the online
encyclopaedia Wikipedia, one of the world's most popular websites.*
It was not initially clear why the ban had been imposed.
The Turkey Blocks group said the site was inaccessible from 08:00 (05:00
GMT) by order of the Turkish authorities.
People in the capital Istanbul were unable to access any Wikipedia pages
without using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
"After technical analysis and legal consideration based on the Law Nr.
5651, an administrative measure has been taken for this website," Turkey's
Information and Communication Technologies Authority was quoted as saying.
No reason was given.
Turkey Blocks and Turkish media, including the Hurriyet Daily News, said
the provisional order would need to be backed by a full court ruling in the
next few days.
Social media was in uproar as news of the ban emerged, with some users
speculating that it might be a bid to suppress criticism on President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan's Wikipedia page.
Mr Erdogan narrowly won a controversial 16 April referendum on increasing
his powers, but the issue has deeply divided the country.
Turkey has temporarily blocked popular social media sites including
Facebook and Twitter in the past, especially in the wake of mass protests
or terror attacks.
The government has previously denied censoring the internet, blaming
outages on spikes in usage after major events.
*Regards,Itzik Edri*
Chairperson, Wikimedia Israel
+972-54-5878078 <+972%2054-587-8078> | 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!
Forwarding.
Pine
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: zppix e <megadev44s.mail(a)gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 11:08 AM
Subject: [Wikitech-l] Data centre switchover to Eqiad
To: Wikipedia mailing list <wikipedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia
developers <wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Coordination of technology
deployments across languages/projects <wikitech-ambassadors@lists.
wikimedia.org>
Hello, as you may or may not already know there will be a datacentre
switch back to Eqiad, WMF's main data centre, on May 3rd at approximately
14:00 UTC. For approximately 20-30 minutes you will NOT be able to save
edits to any WMF project. If you have any questions feel free to reply back
to this email, or ask on IRC on freenode channel #wikimedia-tech. If there
any major issues that occur during this time please report them to
#wikimedia-tech on freenode!
Thanks,
Zppix
Volunteer Developer for WMF
www.enwp.org/User:Zppix
_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
On Apr 29, 2017 3:16 PM, "Lodewijk" <lodewijk(a)effeietsanders.org> wrote:
Thanks Juliet.
All: maybe it's good to wait with 'community statements' until the official
WMF statement comes with some more facts? That would probably help with
reducing mixed messaging. Especially in a volatile situation like this,
where pushing the wrong buttons could potentially make things... more
complicated.
^^ this.
A.
The recent Wikitribune initiative seems to be based on the premise that the
antidote to fake news is a collaborative news outlet. According to this
premise, readers would confer authority to Wikitribune since they would be
able to participate in the reviewing/reporting process. As a result fake
news would be debunked. The end. Or is it?
In my opinion the problem runs deeper than that. In the Wikipedias there is
a tight control on which sources are given credibility. This
consensus-building is possible because the active community represents a
very particular subset of the general population, and as such it is
possible to create a cultural hegemony (cf. Gramsci). When smaller groups
have not been able to fit into that cultural hegemony they have created
their own projects where that is possible for them (for instance,
Conservapedia).
Rational beings tend to agree that it is in one's interest to follow the
same principles as the scientific thought (systematic observation,
measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification
of hypotheses). But what if a person chooses to step out of that framework?
What if a person chooses to believe a lie, or to believe another one
(person, newspaper) who tells a lie? This pattern of thought that seems so
alien to rational beings actually shouldn't come as a surprise when looking
at how lies (or "alternative facts/realities") have been used through all
human history to shape or challenge the distribution of power.
I think there is a deep philosophical issue that the Wikitribune initiative
failed to capture. And it is not just about fake news, it is also about
other topics like irrational anti-vax fears, climate change denial, etc.
If we want freedom of thought (and, as such, cannot be (en)forced), how
could we attract people "out of the cave into the light"? That the issue is
so old, suggests that there is no easy answer.
In general people tend to believe what benefits their perceived existential
image. If, for instance, that image is based on maintaining an
unsustainable lifestyle, that is problematic in the long run, specially
when reaching physical constraints (resource depletion, biosphere
destruction, etc). It is under those circumstances that anger is created
and directed to potential enemies of that self-created existential image.
"It must be the immigrants, or bad politicians, or stupid citizens, or a
previous generation". But few people would be ready to stop that train of
thought and ponder about it. In a way fake news are just a symptom of a
more serious disease.
Wikitribune is the right step in the direction of becoming more frustrated
with our fellow citizens. And even that might be a victory. Sometimes you
just need to fail in order to be able to go much deeper in understanding
the issue, and then change radically of approach.
I wish the initiative to be as successful as it can. And I also hope that
its participants do not lose sight of the end goal. It might be less about
the news themselves, and more about creating a better understanding between
human beings and how to enable them to make do without lies.
Cheers,
Micru
Hi all!
*Summary: The first cycle of strategy conversations has concluded, and
the second cycle will begin by May 5. Thanks!*
Thank you(!) to everyone that took the time to contribute your answer to
this question: "What do we want to build or achieve together over the next
15 years?"
Over the past month, we have collected more than 1,800 statements in more
than 20 languages from dozens of discussions across the movement.[1] This
includes the previously promised report from Wikimedia Conference, which
Wikimedia Deutschland has completed and published on Meta-Wiki.[2] I am
thrilled by reports from around the movement about groups coming together,
sometimes for the first time ever, to discuss our future. For example, we
heard this from our friends in Wikimedia Indonesia, "Thank you for
arranging these wonderful experiences, allowing us to get in touch with
several Wikipedians that we haven't met before, too."
The extended strategy team is compiling those statements and clustering the
common themes we will discuss in the next cycle of our conversation. We
have actually moved the start of cycle 2 from April 25th to allow more time
to go over everything and now plan to start it by May 5th.
Our efforts to collect feedback from partners and experts around the world
are on track! In fact, I was in Brussels this week, and had a dinner with
EU and internet policy experts who shared their ideas for our future. We
were able to organize this dinner thanks to help from community members
involved in the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU[3] and Wikimedia Belgium.
This meeting with people from around the European Union was an opportunity
to discuss the impact of Internet policy on the future of the free
knowledge and Wikimedia movements.
The feedback collected at events like these will be shared for us to
consider and integrate into future discussions around our movement
strategy. If you’re interested in interviewing potential partners yourself,
or organizing similar small-group discussions with experts, we encourage
it! The Foundation may be able to provide financial support for such
efforts. Please contact us on Meta-Wiki if you are interested.[4]
We have a lot of preparation work to do before the next discussion cycle,
so that’s all for now!
But while I have you, I want to remind people that this is the last week to
provide input on the annual plan grants submitted to the Funds
Dissemination Committee, including next year's annual plan for the
Wikimedia Foundation. Your input is helpful not only to the Funds
Dissemination Committee, but also the organizations who submitted plans.
Please consider taking a look and providing constructive feedback if you
have time before the April 30 deadline.[5]
À plus (French translation: “Until later”),
Katherine
PS. A version of this message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki.[6]
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Sources
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017/Documentation/Mov…
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017
[5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2016-2017_round_2
[6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Updates/28…
--
Katherine Maher
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
+1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635
+1 (415) 712 4873
kmaher(a)wikimedia.org
Today I announced a new initiative, outside of my Wikimedia activities,
to combat fake news. It is important to me that I share directly with
all of you information about this new initiative early on.
The new project will use a wiki-style setup and experiment with
bringing together professional journalists and community contributors to
produce fact-checked, global news stories. At launch, we'll be using a
hacked version of wordpress and we'll be evaluating whether that's the
right tool moving forward. Wordpress has a lot to
commend it (free software, mature platform, used by lots of newsrooms,
active developer ecosystem) but also has some philosophy that's quite
"top down" in a way.
(Not many people would think in a wiki way when setting up a newsroom!)
This new initiative, Wikitribune, will be a learning experience - my
vision is one that I've had a hard time explaining... except to
Wikimedians who tend to immediately
get it.
While I am launching this project independent from Wikipedia and the
Wikimedia Foundation, it is my plan that this new project will work
alongside Wikimedia in the free knowledge movement. For example, I hope
that the numerous Wikinews/Wikinoticias/Wikinotizie/etc. communities can
collaborate with the Wikitribune community in way that allows both to
learn and benefit from each other. Additionally, Wikitribune will
utilize the same Creative Commons license (CC-BY) as other free content
projects in
the news space - so they can take the stories written by our
professional journalists and communities and make use of them.
You can find out more information about Wikitribune at:
https://www.wikitribune.com
Thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer questions! (But I'm
quite swamped with everything at the moment so please forgive me if I
answer in bursts!)
--Jimbo
FYI: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2017/04/04/new-nonprofit-consortium-will-foc…
Involved parties include some names that will be familiar to Wikimedians and WMFers: "AppNexus, Betaworks, Craig Newmark Philanthropic Fund, Democracy Fund, Ford Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Mozilla, and the Tow Foundation."
Pine
REMINDER: This meeting starts in 30 minutes.
*Update/change to Movement update:* As noted in the March meeting invite,
we are changing the movement update section of the metrics meeting. For the
April meeting, we will be having a lightning talk-inspired movement update
where Wikimedia community member(s) will share a brief summary of a recent
community project, story, or other activity. More details about other
community stories, projects, and initiatives in the movement will be
available in the appendix of the metrics meeting deck.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 3:12 PM, Lena Traer <ltraer(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> The next Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting will take
> place on Thursday, April 27, 2017 at 6:00 PM UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC
> channel is #wikimedia-office on irc.freenode.net, and the meeting will be
> broadcast as a live YouTube stream.
>
> The theme of the April meeting is: “Wikimedia for the world” (part 2) –
> understanding how we can better serve and include people around the world
> in the Wikimedia movement. Because we had so many timely and relevant
> stories from around the movement related to this theme, we chose to use
> this theme for the April meeting as well.
>
> Meeting agenda:
>
> * Welcomes, theme introduction
> * Movement update
> * New Readers update
> * Exploring the world of Wikipedia in indigenous languages of Latin America
> * Movement strategy update
> * Questions and discussion
> * Wikilove
>
> Please review
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_
> metrics_and_activities_meetings
> for further information about the meeting and how to participate.
>
> We’ll post the video recording publicly after the meeting.
>
> Thank you,
> Lena
>
> Lena Traer
> Project Assistant // Communications // Advancement
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
*April 27, 2017 metrics meeting -- Movement update Appendix *
Wikipedia for Peace
* A camp where Wikipedians come together for 10 days, share food and a
space to live, and edit Wikipedia on topics related to Pacifism.
* 3 years of trajectory, started in 2015 by Wikimedia Österreich, in
partnership with Service Civil International.
* Average of 15 participants in both camps; in 2016: 1.5x more languages,
6x more articles created, 2.5x more media added.
* In 2017, there was a training in March, and the next camps are expected
to take place in July in Berlin and Austria.
* More information: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_for_Peace
WikiFundi
* A software that provides an offline editing environment that mimics the
Wikipedia environment.
* WikiFundi allows for training and contribution when technology, access
and electricity outages fail or are not available at all.
* Launched in the second half of 2016, outreach to schools, distributing
the software, and launch of writing contest.
* Distributed via WikiPack Africa project.
* More information: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiFundi/en
Congratulations Peruvian Wikimedians :)
Pada tanggal 27 Apr 2017 07.56, "Johnattan Rupire" <jarjacha(a)riseup.net>
menulis:
> Its a very good news! let's keep doing activities, thank you all!
> :)
>
> El 26/04/17 a las 12:46, Joseph Dess Mura escribió:
>
> Thanks for the especial and constantly support, Edgar, in order to forming
> and helping the creation of this user group :)
>
> El abr 26, 2017 12:29 PM, "Edgar José Rosero Villacís" <
> ejroserov3(a)gmail.com> escribió:
>
>> We at Ecuador are happy that our neighbors finally got recognized. We're
>> grateful that our efforts in helping their community to figure out ways to
>> develop their user group have turned into this. Congratulations,
>> Wikimedistas de Perú!
>>
>> 2017-04-26 6:30 GMT-05:00 Kangah Donatien KOFFI <donatien.kanga(a)gmail.com
>> >:
>>
>>> A good news after de-recognition.
>>>
>>> Welcome,
>>>
>>> 2017-04-26 3:25 GMT+00:00 Kirill Lokshin <kirill.lokshin(a)gmail.com>:
>>>
>>>> Hi everyone!
>>>>
>>>> I'm very happy to announce that the Affiliations Committee has
>>>> recognized the Wikimedians of Peru User Group [1] as a Wikimedia User
>>>> Group. The group will work to promote the Wikimedia projects in Peru,
>>>> and plans to support events, such as edit-a-thons, in the region.
>>>>
>>>> Please join me in congratulating the members of this new user group!
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Kirill Lokshin
>>>> Chair, Affiliations Committee
>>>>
>>>> [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedistas_de_Perú
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Affiliates mailing list
>>>> Affiliates(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/affiliates
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> *Donatien Kangah*
>>> Wikimédien| Chef de Projets| Entrepreneur Social | Consultant Formateur
>>> Numérique
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Affiliates mailing list
>>> Affiliates(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/affiliates
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Edgar J. Rosero Villacís*
>> Móvil: (+593) 96 934 4829 <+593%2096%20934%204829>
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Affiliates mailing list
> Affiliates(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/affiliates
>
>