Wikimedia-l May 2017

wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

116 participants
77 discussions

Draft Wiki Ed Annual Plan 2017-18
by LiAnna Davis 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

(Standard apologies for the cross-post!) The Wiki Education Foundation's draft annual report for 2016–17 and draft annual plan for 2017–18 is now available on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Education_Foundation/Annual_Plan_2017-… This marks the first time that Wiki Ed staff have solicited Wikimedia community comments and questions on our draft. We're doing so this year based on conversations with members of the Simple APG Committee. As you can see in our plan, Wiki Ed intends to enter the FDC process this fall. During the review process from the Simple APG committee this spring, committee members raised concerns about a lack of opportunity for comments on Wiki Ed's draft annual plans. While we always publish our board-approved annual plan on our website, we haven't offered a draft for comments in the past. In an effort to be more transparent and respond to the Simple APG committee's feedback, I've posted the draft of the annual plan on Meta and invite comments and questions from the broader Wikimedia community on the draft talk page. Comments made prior to May 28 will be taken into account when Wiki Ed staff prepare a final version of the plan for the board to vote upon. As with all nonprofits, our board is the final decision-maker on our annual plan. LiAnna -- LiAnna Davis Director of Programs; Deputy Director Wiki Education Foundation www.wikiedu.org

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Tech Talk: A Gentle Introduction to Wikidata for Absolute Beginners [including non-techies!]
by Rachel Farrand 25 Jun '17

25 Jun '17

Please join for the following talk: *Tech Talk**:* A Gentle Introduction to Wikidata for Absolute Beginners [including non-techies!] *Presenter:* Asaf Bartov *Date:* February 09, 2017 *Time: *19:00 UTC <https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Tech+Talk%3A+A+Ge…> Link to live YouTube stream <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVrAx3AmUvA> *IRC channel for questions/discussion:* #wikimedia-office *Summary: *This talk will introduce you to the Wikimedia Movement's latest major wiki project: Wikidata. We will cover what Wikidata is, how to contribute, how to embed Wikidata into articles on other wikis, tools like the Wikidata Game, and how to query Wikidata (including SPARQL examples).

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Join my Reddit AMA about Wikipedia and ethical, transparent AI
by Aaron Halfaker 01 Jun '17

01 Jun '17

Hey everybody, TL;DR: I wanted to let you know about an upcoming experimental Reddit AMA ("ask me anything") chat we have planned. It will focus on artificial intelligence on Wikipedia and how we're working to counteract vandalism while also making life better for newcomers. We plan to hold this chat on June 1st at 21:00 UTC/14:00 PST in the /r/iAMA subreddit[1]. I'd love to answer any questions you have about these topics questions, and I'll send a follow-up email to this thread shortly before the AMA begins. ---- For those who don't know who I am, I create artificial intelligences[2] that support the volunteers who edit Wikipedia[3]. I've been fascinated by the ways that crowds of volunteers build massive, high quality information resources like Wikipedia for over ten years. For more background, I research and then design technologies that make it easier to spot vandalism in Wikipedia—which helps support the hundreds of thousands of editors who make productive contributions. I also think a lot about the dynamics between communities and new users—and ways to make communities inviting and welcoming to both long-time community members and newcomers who may not be aware of community norms. For a quick sampling of my work, check out my most impactful research paper about Wikipedia[3], some recent coverage of my work from *Wired*[4], or check out the master list of my projects on my WMF staff user page[5], the documentation for the technology team I run[9], or the home page for Wikimedia Research[8]. This AMA, which I'm doing with with the Foundation's Communications department, is somewhat of an experiment. The intended audience for this chat is people who might not currently be a part of our community but have questions about the way we work—as well as potential research collaborators who might want to work with our data or tools. Many may be familiar with Wikipedia but not the work we do as a community behind the scenes. I'll be talking about the work I'm doing with the ethics of AI and how we think about artificial intelligence on Wikipedia, and ways we’re working to counteract vandalism on the world’s largest crowdsourced source of knowledge—like the ORES extension[6], which you may have seen highlighting possibly problematic edits on your watchlist and in RecentChanges. I’d love for you to join this chat and ask questions. If you do not or prefer not to use Reddit, we will also be taking questions on ORES' MediaWiki talk page[7] and posting answers to both threads. 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/ 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence 2. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ORES 3. http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~halfak/publications/The_Rise_and_Decline/halfa… 4. https://www.wired.com/2015/12/wikipedia-is-using-ai-to-expand-the-ranks-of-… 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Halfak_(WMF) 6. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ORES 7. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:ORES 8. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research 9. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Scoring_Platform_team -Aaron Principal Research Scientist @ WMF User:EpochFail / User:Halfak (WMF)

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What's making you happy this week? (Week of 28 May 2017)
by Pine W 31 May '17

31 May '17

I'm perceiving an increase in the number of mentions of Wikidata in ways that make me think that Wikidata may eventually become an equal of Wikipedia in terms of impact on the Internet in general, and perhaps even surpass Wikipedia. Also, I'm looking forward to the improvements for RC patrol. What's making you happy this week? Pine

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Fwd: Wikimedia Foundation Partnerships Reflections [Announcement]
by Jake Orlowitz 31 May '17

31 May '17

Hello Wikimedia community, To help better understand how teams at the Wikimedia Foundation work on partnerships, staff from multiple departments have been regularly meeting over the last year to exchange ideas and reflect on this important area of our work. In these discussions we realized that the Foundation had not laid out the common practices that we developed for managing partnerships. It wasn’t clear why, how, or with whom we partnered, what worked best, and what was best to avoid. If it wasn’t clear to us, then it couldn’t be clear to the community either. Inspired by Wikimedia France’s Démarche partenariale <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France/D%C3%A9marche_partena…>, we recognized the value of sharing our own best practices with the community. After much drafting and revising, we are happy to announce the publication of what we have learned in our *Wikimedia Foundation partnership reflections* <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia%20Foundation%20partnership%20refl…>, now live on Meta-Wiki. The page will be an evolving document, and we encourage feedback from the community: please join us in the conversation <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia%20Foundation%20partnership%2…> . **What we hope this can be used for** We hope that the reflections document offers an expression of what we do as Wikimedia Foundation employees and also helps the volunteer community and Wikimedia movement Affiliates think about how they define the scope and measure the impact of their work on partnerships. We also want this document to help facilitate better interaction between the Foundation the global community. Take for example, the Partnerships & Global Reach team’s recent collaboration with the Iraqi Wikimedian User Group <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Wikimedians>. They were able to work closely with the local community over the course of a year to develop a partnership with one of the leading mobile organizations in Iraq <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/02/28/wikipedia-zero-iraq/>, providing data-free Wikipedia access over mobile phones through the Wikipedia Zero program. Departments at the Foundation including Legal, Communications, and Community Engagement frequently work with volunteers and organizations to find the right combination of tools and support for their partnerships. We look forward to doing more with you. **Doing even more in collaboration with Affiliates** The Wikimedia Foundation is certainly not the only organization within the Wikimedia movement with expertise and experience creating partnerships with external organizations. With the lead of Wikimedia Sverige, Wikimedia France, and Wikimedia Deutschland, an informal working group has been meeting to bring together Wikimedians working on developing and maintaining partnerships. This ‘Affiliate Partnerships Group’ helps support activities and has collected the public learning and resources from their experience doing partnerships in a Partnerships and Resource Development portal on Meta-Wiki <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Partnerships_%26_Resource_Development/Team> that includes support materials, lessons learned, frequently asked questions, and other resources. After meeting at the Wikimedia Conference 2017 <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017> in April, the Affiliate Partnerships working group have launched a Facebook group: the *Wikimedia & Partnerships Learning Circle* <https://www.facebook.com/groups/313443389072903/>. If you participate in Wikimedia Partnerships for your local volunteer community, we encourage you to join the group, and ask questions of various teams that work on partnership activities. **Join the conversation** This effort has involved contributions from multiple individuals and team at the Wikimedia Foundation, including Strategic Partnerships, Legal, Communications, Community Programs, Community Resources, Language Engineering, and more. We want to hear what you think! Please join us in conversation at the Partnership Reflections page and in the Wikimedia & Partnership Learning Circle: we want to learn from and with you on how to best benefit the community with partnerships. *Wikimedia Foundation partnership reflections on Meta:* <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia%20Foundation% 20partnership%20reflections <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia%20Foundation%20partnership%20refle…> > *Partnerships learning circle on Facebook:* <https://www.facebook.com/groups/313443389072903/> Thank you! Jake Orlowitz User:Ocaasi (WMF) jorlowitz(a)wikimedia.org Head of the Wikipedia Library Wikimedia Foundation [1] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim%C3%A9dia_France/D% C3%A9marche_partenariale/en > [2] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia%20Foundation% 20partnership%20reflections <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia%20Foundation%20partnership%20refle…> > [3] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia Foundation partnership reflections <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia>> [4] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Wikimedians> [5] <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/02/28/wikipedia-zero-iraq/> [6] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Partnerships_%26_ Resource_Development/Team> [7] <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2017> [8] <https://www.facebook.com/groups/313443389072903/>

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EU mandatory filter/safe harbour proposals - what's the status?
by David Gerard 31 May '17

31 May '17

Wikimedia has put in a submission against this - but the entertainment industry is still lobbying as absolutely hard as possible. (Their goal is to remove safe harbour protection from YouTube so they can demand money that presently doesn't exist, and that they know doesn't exist.) Do we have any status updates on what's going on with this? - d.

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Videos of sessions at Vienna Hackathon and WikiCite
by Leila Zia 30 May '17

30 May '17

Hi all, I could not make it to Vienna for the Hackathon [1] and WikiCite [2] and I was happy to see that Andrew Lih has been doing some serious recordings [3] of the sessions. I watched the Showcase Talks [4] from the third day of the Hackathon which gave a nice overview of everything that had happened there. Sharing the links here in case some of you are interested to watch them as well. Thanks, Andrew! :) Best, Leila -- Leila Zia Senior Research Scientist Wikimedia Foundation [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2017 [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCite_2017 [3] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN4mEhpy3b8RsYfokuzsBGnw-_KVDSfX_ [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQDSd9ewjSw&index=3&list=PLN4mEhpy3b8RsYfok…

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Video demos of upcoming changes to edit review / RC patrol
by Pine W 28 May '17

28 May '17

I'd like to highlight two videos (some people may have already seen these) that demo upcoming changes to edit review / RC patrol that take advantage of ORES. I feel that that the changes look promising, and I hope that RC patrollers, Teahouse hosts, newbie adopters, and others will find that the changes make their work easier. I also hope for improved retention of good-faith contributors. 0. A succinct overview by Joe Matazzoni (WMF): https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ANew-feature_demo%E2%… 1. A more extensive overview, also by Joe, including valuable context, from the WMF Metrics Meeting for May 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAGwQdLyFb4 between 15:00 and 28:15. Pine

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Chief Communications Officer search & job description
by Joady Lohr 28 May '17

28 May '17

We are please to announce the upcoming launch of the recruiting process for the Chief Communications Officer. As part of the process, we wanted to share the job description (below). A big thank you to the Communications team for their collaboration, support and guidance in creating it. We also wanted to out put a call, if you have any nominations or recommendations, we'd love to hear from you. Just email me directly over the next few days. Thanks! Joady Job Title: Chief Communications Officer Summary The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a creative, collaborative, forward-thinking Chief Communications Officer to join our executive team in San Francisco, California. We’re looking for a leader who is mission-driven, transparent by default, has a truly global worldview, and can champion our values and voice in the world. You will lead a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary team of eleven storytellers, media strategists, marketers, and designers. Together, you will share our story and vision with the world, with the purpose of raising awareness of and increasing engagement in our work. The Wikimedia Foundation is an open and transparent organization operating within a decentralized global network of volunteers. We tend to speak openly rather than aiming to control or restrict access to information about us. We seek to inspire, engage, and bring people along in our free knowledge vision. As CCO, we’d like you to do these things: - Work with the executive team to think and act in service of the future of our projects (e.g. How does our story and message advance our strategic objectives? What kind of communications, marketing, or engagement strategy will we need to grow our work in the world? How will we better define and position our brand? Which stories do we want told about us? To what end?). - Lead the collaborative definition of long-term strategies to increase awareness and relevance of our brand, meeting priorities in audience growth and development (including contributors, readers, and donors), international language growth, open culture advocacy, and media relations. - Develop and lead messaging campaigns that achieve global impact in support of the Wikimedia movement’s strategic needs. - Lead a strong, diverse communications team guided by a clear vision. - Co-create the vision and direction for the team - Clarify and / or delegate the planning to work toward that vision: the roles, the responsibilities, the tools, the budget - Counsel and mentor the team across a broad range of disciplines (e.g., brand, identity, digital and social media, PR, messaging, marketing, audience growth and development) - Build a sustainable system and culture for team members’ continued professional growth and advancement - Create clear workflows for Foundation staff and Wikimedia volunteers to collaborate with the Communications team - Develop succession planning. - Serve the Wikimedia vision by working collaboratively with and empowering people to tell our story and narrate the movement. - Support the Foundation, Executive Director, and leadership in public messaging, issue management, and internal communications. - Be a compelling advocate for the Wikimedia movement and Foundation. - Oversee and guide the work of staff and volunteers in the continued development of communications systems that utilize contemporary publishing practices and reach diverse audiences with engaging content. We’d like you to have this experience and these skills: - 10+ years in strategic-level communications and marketing (or marcom) roles - Proven track-record of leading high-impact global marketing and communications initiatives with measurable results - Experience leading multi-disciplinary teams, developing talent, and creating systems for creative and sustainable workflows - A clear, effective communications style, including experience guiding messaging for major organizations, political candidates, or movements - Significant experience navigating complex international organizations, movements, or networks - Experience and comfort in a highly collaborative, transparent environment - A track record of building consensus among large, dispersed stakeholder groups. Must have informed cultural sensitivities, intellectual curiosity, and a deep passion for the Wikimedia mission And it would be even more awesome if you had the following: - Experience with the internet industry including comfort with concepts and vocabulary related to product development and engineering - Familiarity with internet-related issues: laws limiting freedom of expression, open culture/free culture, the free and open source software movement, and online surveillance, privacy and security - Significant skilled personal use of communications, creative, and social technologies - The ability to work in a fast-moving, highly-diverse grassroots environment, while effectively prioritizing and leading a variety of activities - Experience working with nonprofit organizations is a plus - Fluency or familiarity with languages in addition to English are a plus. - Having lived or worked outside your country of origin is a plus - Experience as a member of a volunteer community is a plus About the Wikimedia Foundation: The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that supports and hosts Wikipedia and several other Wikimedia free knowledge sites. Every month, the Wikimedia sites are accessed by more than a billion unique devices. Wikipedia consists of more than 40 million articles across hundreds of languages. Every month, more than 70,000 volunteer editors contribute to Wikipedia. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) non-profit that is funded primarily through donations and grants. It currently employs over 240 staff members. At the Foundation, we build technology to help people everywhere access Wikipedia, across devices and in nearly 300 languages. We engineer privacy for our readers and editors so they can safely and securely explore Wikipedia. We create programs <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero> and initiatives to make Wikipedia freely available to more people in more parts of the world. We build new tools <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Content_translation> for the community of editors so they can continue to improve and grow Wikipedia. Roughly a quarter of our budget goes to supporting the community that make the site possible, including through grantmaking programs <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Start> that enable volunteers and enrich the information on the sites. The Wikimedia Foundation is an equal opportunity employer, and we encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. Benefits & Perks*: - Fully paid medical, dental and vision coverage for employees and their eligible families (yes, fully paid premiums!) - The Wellness Program provides reimbursement for mind, body and soul activities such as fitness memberships, massages, cooking classes and much more - The 401(k) retirement plan offers matched contributions at 4% of annual salary - Flexible and generous time off - vacation, sick and volunteer days, plus 19 paid holidays - including the last week of the year. - Family friendly! 100% paid new parent leave for seven weeks plus an additional five weeks for pregnancy, flexible options to phase back in after leave, fully equipped lactation room - For those emergency moments - long and short term disability, life insurance (2x salary) and an employee assistance program - Pre-tax savings plans for health care, child care, elder care, public transportation and parking expenses - Telecommuting and flexible work schedules available - Appropriate fuel for thinking and coding (aka, a pantry full of treats) and monthly massages to help staff relax - Great colleagues - diverse staff and contractors speaking dozens of languages from around the world, fantastic intellectual discourse, mission-driven and intensely passionate people * for benefits eligible staff, benefits may vary by location More Information: http://wikimediafoundation.org http://blog.wikimedia.org <http://wikimediafoundation.org/> -- Joady Lohr Chief Talent & Culture Officer Wikimedia Foundation p. 415.839.6885 x6824 www.wikimediafoundation.org Please Note: If I am emailing after hours or on the weekend, I am naughty. Please do not respond until reasonable business hours in your timezone, unless of course I am shouting for help ;-) *Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment.* https://donate.wikimedia.org/ *Want to work with us? <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:This_is_the_Wikimedia_Foundation.we…>*

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Update on Wikimania '17 - Scholarships, Registration, Submissions
by Ellie Young 27 May '17

27 May '17

Here's an update on various activities pertaining to our the upcoming Wikimania '17 which is being held August 9-13 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. WMF Scholarship Program: 110 people were offered and subsequently accepted a full or partial scholarship to attend. The awardees are listed by user names and the list is posted here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Wikimania_scholars Submissions: The program committee has just finished it's review and deliberations. Rejections and acceptance emails are going out this week and next. We expect to post the program by the end of this month. Registration and accommodation information is now up for everyone at: https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Accommodation If you are a scholarship or other WMF funded attendee (staff, contractor, board, etc), please wait until you hear from the WMF with your registration and accommodation instructions. If you have any questions about the conference, please email wikimania-info(a)wikimedia.org Please spread the word!!!! Thanks, Ellie -- Ellie Young Events Manager Wikimedia Foundation eyoung(a)wikimedia.org

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Wikimedia-l May 2017