Hello everyone,
The next Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting will take
place on Thursday, September 28, 2017 at 6:00 PM UTC (11 AM PDT). The IRC
channel is #wikimedia-office on https://webchat.freenode.net, and the
meeting will be broadcast as a live YouTube stream.[1]
During the September metrics meeting, we'll hear from different community
members about how the Wikimedia movement works within the broader ecosystem
of free and open knowledge in the world today. Speakers will present and
discuss collaborations with outside institutions in the knowledge
ecosystem, including in the area of public policy as well as collaborations
with librarians.
Meeting agenda:
* Welcomes, theme introduction
* Movement update
* Wikimedia and public policy
* Wikipedia and (US Public) Libraries: Connecting Communities of Knowledge
* Executive update
* Questions and discussion
* Wikilove
Please review
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_metrics_and_activities…
for further information about the meeting and how to participate.
We’ll post the video recording publicly after the meeting.
Thank you,
Lena
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6xxlUmxKM8
Lena Traer
Project Assistant // Communications // Advancement
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi Everyone,
The next Research Showcase will be live-streamed this Wednesday, September
20, 2017 at 11:30 AM (PST) 18:30 UTC.
YouTube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR5JwqyVGSk
As usual, you can join the conversation on IRC at #wikimedia-research. And,
you can watch our past research showcases here
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase#September_2017>.
This month's presentation:
A Glimpse into BabelAn Analysis of Multilinguality in WikidataBy *Lucie-Aimée
Kaffee*Multilinguality is an important topic for knowledge bases,
especially Wikidata, that was build to serve the multilingual requirements
of an international community. Its labels are the way for humans to
interact with the data. In this talk, we explore the state of languages in
Wikidata as of now, especially in regard to its ontology, and the
relationship to Wikipedia. Furthermore, we set the multilinguality of
Wikidata in the context of the real world by comparing it to the
distribution of native speakers. We find an existing language
maldistribution, which is less urgent in the ontology, and promising
results for future improvements. An outlook on how users interact with
languages on Wikidata will be given.
Science is Shaped by WikipediaEvidence from a Randomized Control TrialBy *Neil
C. Thompson and Douglas Hanley*As the largest encyclopedia in the world, it
is not surprising that Wikipedia reflects the state of scientific
knowledge. However, Wikipedia is also one of the most accessed websites in
the world, including by scientists, which suggests that it also has the
potential to shape science. This paper shows that it does. Incorporating
ideas into a Wikipedia article leads to those ideas being used more in the
scientific literature. This paper documents this in two ways:
correlationally across thousands of articles in Wikipedia and causally
through a randomized experiment where we added new scientific content to
Wikipedia. We find that fully a third of the correlational relationship is
causal, implying that Wikipedia has a strong shaping effect on science. Our
findings speak not only to the influence of Wikipedia, but more broadly to
the influence of repositories of scientific knowledge. The results suggest
that increased provision of information in accessible repositories is a
very cost-effective way to advance science. We also find that such gains
are equity-improving, disproportionately benefitting those without
traditional access to scientific information.
Many kind regards,
Sarah R. Rodlund
Senior Project Coordinator-Product & Technology, Wikimedia Foundation
srodlund(a)wikimedia.org
Hello everyone!
In May and June of this year, a team of researchers from the Wikimedia
Foundation and Reboot [1] traveled to the South Korea and the Czech
Republic to learn more about the experiences new editors have on the Czech
and Korean Wikipedias.
We interviewed 47 new editors and 17 experienced editors and (with an
intermediate stop on several thousand sticky notes) summarized what we
learned in 11 findings. You can learn more about the project and see our
full report on our wiki page, mw:New Editor Experiences [2].
Of the 11 findings we identified, some may be surprising to you, while
others may reinforce what you already knew. Either way, we'd love to know
what you think. We're holding two public discussion sessions next week to
talk briefly about our findings and then take questions and comments.
We hope you'll come! The two sessions will be at:
1. Wednesday, October 4, 09:30–11:00 PDT (16:30–18:00 UTC)
2. Thursday, October 5, 21:00–22:30 PDT (Friday, October 6, 04:00–05:30 UTC)
Full details and instructions on how to join are at mw:New Editor
Experiences/October 2017 discussions [3].
[1]: https://reboot.org/
[2]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_Editor_Experiences
[3]:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_Editor_Experiences/October_2017_discussi…
--
Neil Patel Quinn <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Neil_P._Quinn-WMF>,
product analyst
Wikimedia Foundation
Hoi,
There is a lot to do about the current absence of a BLP policy at Wikidata.
Many people, particularly those involved in Wikipedia, insist on one and a
policy that is a mirror image of their policy.
I am opposed to such an approach because it will be detrimental to the best
practices in Wikidata and it will stifle the inclusion of data.
Nevertheless there is a need for better quality particularly where it
concerns BLP.
Only being against is a bad position so I have laid out the arguments for a
more inclusive BLP and quality approach [1]. It does bring many of the
relevant questions together.
What this approach accomplishes is:
* better quality in both Wikipedia and Wikidata
* an opt in change in the Wikipedia environment that links blue and red
links to Wikidata items
* it allows for the Wikidata best practices
* it invites any Wikimedia collaborator to make a positive difference for
our overall BLP.
What it does not provide is an instant BLP solution for Wikidata, this is
not realistic given the huge number of items involved, people often
specific to one or no Wikipedia. It will not convince everyone and that too
is to be expected. After all the proof of the pudding is in the eating and
not so much in the endless bickering.
Thanks,
GerardM
[1]
https://ultimategerardm.blogspot.nl/2017/09/wikimedia-and-its-blp-approach.…
Hi all,
One of the members from Wikimedia Chile, independently from the chapter and
before he became a member, was directly involved in the development of the
following article, that adress the gender inequality (or gender bias), and
which gives the title to the email:
*https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0066-4
<https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0…>*
It was published almost a year and half ago (March 1, 2016), and from an
internal and informal conversation that occurred yesterday in the Chapter,
he shared the link to the complete study
<https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0…>
(in English). Worth to mention is that he presented preliminary results
<https://www.slideshare.net/carnby/wmcl2015-investigando-usando-wikipedia>
(in Spanish) about it in the Wikimedia Chile Conference
<https://wikimedia.cl/Conferencia_Wikimedia_Chile_2015> from 2015.
I read the complete article yesterday, and found it extremely interesting,
so I took the liberty to share it here, in case you haven’t had the chance
to read it yet.
Also, the article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License :)
Cheers!
--
Eduardo Testart
Hi all,
I’m excited to share with you our new interactive tool *teaching
encyclopedic writing*[1]. Encyclopedic writing differs from other kinds of
writing, such as academic, journalistic, or creative writing. In order to
learn how to contribute substantial content to Wikipedia, it is not enough
to learn the technicalities of using Wikipedia's interface, as taught by
the interactive educational software[2]. The Encyclopedic Writing Guide was
born of a need to instruct participants in our Educational projects, as
well as the general public, on the principles of encyclopedic writing, and
specifically those of Wikipedia. The guide is aimed at teaching the rules
and "best practices" that apply at various stages of contributing content
to Wikipedia: from choosing a topic for an article, to finding sources, to
structuring the article, and finally, the required writing style. The guide
thus teaches how to asses the encyclopedic importance of a topic, how to
find independent and reliable sources on that topic, how to structure the
information according to Wikipedia's article format, and how to produce
neutral and succinct writing.
The guide is built as a website. Users are invited to choose between two
tracks: a track for expanding existing articles and a track for writing new
ones. In both tracks, each of the four stages is presented on a different
page, where the related information, tips, examples and practical tools are
concentrated. The information is presented in a basic concise form, and the
users are invited to open links and pop-ups to obtain more information and
practical examples.
Editing Wikipedia is not just a technical skill. While learning how to use
Wikipedia's interface is necessary, it is not sufficient in order to learn
how to contribute substantial content to the platform. The Encyclopedic
Writing Guide is the first tool of its kind teaching how to create
encyclopedic content.
Best,
*Michal Lester,*
*Executive DirectorWikimedia Israel*
[1] https://guide.wikimedia.org.il/
[2] http://www.wikimedia.org.il/%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%93%D7%94/
A crosspost to wp-l would be fine.
The guide is of wide interest, not only to wikipedians, but to anyone
assessing reliable sources, writing neutrally and concisely and for a
general audience.
W💜, SJ
On Sep 26, 2017 9:35 AM, "Jean-Philippe Béland" <jpbeland(a)wikimedia.ca>
wrote:
So what is Wikipedia-l
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l> for? It is
describe "for issues specific to Wikipedia (and not sister projects such as
Wiktionary) but affecting editions of Wikipedia in more than one language".
Exactly what you are talking about "content about Wikipedia,
*particularly* when not specific to any one language"...
JP
On Mon, Sep 25, 2017 at 5:05 PM, Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> On Sep 25, 2017 18:57, "Jean-Philippe Béland" <jpbeland(a)wikimedia.ca>
> wrote:
>
> This should have been posted to the Wikipedia mailing list since it
doesn't
> have anything to do with the other projects or the movement in general.
>
>
> Um, no. This list is a general list, and content about Wikipedia,
> *particularly* when not specific to any one language, is welcome here.
>
> There is no active Wikipedia-only alternative to this list that would
reach
> this international audience.
>
> A.
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> wiki/Wikimedia-l
> New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
>
--
Jean-Philippe Béland
[image: Wikimedia Canada] Vice-président — Wikimédia Canada
<https://ca.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?uselang=fr>, chapitre national
soutenant Wikipédia
Vice president — Wikimedia Canada
<https://ca.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?uselang=en>, national chapter
supporting Wikipedia
535 avenue Viger Est, Montréal (Québec) H2L 2P3,jpbeland(a)wikimedia.ca
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/
wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
Hi all,
Here is a brief presentation of the six new Board members elected on
September 9, plus one appointment decided by the previous Board and
ratified during this same Exceptional General Assembly called on
request of Wikimédia
France members.
— Pierre-Yves Beaudouin (Pyb), 37, is a communication consultant,
WikiCheese evangelist, taphophile and member of the Association for 10
years. His appointment runs until October 2018.
— Kropotkine_113 is 40 years old and is a teacher. Wikimedian for more than
10 years, he has already been a Board member of Wikimedia France in
2011-2012, during the first phase of professionalization of the
association. His appointment runs until October 2018.
— Charlotte Matoussowsky, 26, is a translator and a lecturer. She joined
WMFr in 2011 and mostly edits Wikipedia. Her appointment runs until October
2018.
— Nadine Le Lirzin lives in Paris and translates works of philology and
literary criticism, as well as political, ethical and moral philosophy. She
has been a Wikipedian for almost ten years and joined the Association in
2009. Her appointment runs until October 2018.
— Kvardek du, 22, has been contributing to Wikimedia projects for 7 years
and organizes events like Art+Feminism editathons in Paris. Their PhD
research focuses on operational management in transportation. Their
appointment runs until October 2017.
— Lucas Lévêque, 29, a librarian and a passionate wiktionarist, arrived in
the association in 2014. He co-founded Lingua Libre and he registers
regional languages for the Wiktionary. His appointment runs until October
2017.
— Florence Raymond, 37, is an assistant curator, at the initiative of
Wikimuseum Project since 2016. She works for a better place of common goods
(photos and contents) in cultural structures. Her ratified appointement
runs until October 2017.
The remaining members of the previous Board announced their intention to
accompany the transition before leaving.
The first Board meeting took place this week-end, September 23-24, the new
executive bureau is composed of:
President: Pierre-Yves Beaudouin (Pyb)
Vice-President: Charlotte Matoussowsky
Treasurer: Kvardec du
Secretary: Nadine Le Lirzin
Nadine Le Lirzin
*Board member*
*Wikimédia France*
Hello all,
Where can I request experienced user's help with CentralNotice banner for Wikimedia Conference Russia in Moscow, Oct.14-15?
At Montreal meeting with WMF staff (James Baldwin, Jaime Villagomez, Winifred Olliff, Stephen LaPorte & Charles M. Roslof), it was said Mr. Joseph Seddon would be the person to ask for help, but I got no reply to my Sept.19 email.
I understand there might be more than just placing a request for the banner & adding it into the calendar, but I need help with it. I limited the scope to WP only, cut down the number of languages & shortened to one week only.
Thank you in advance.
Regards,
farhad
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CentralNotice/Request/2017_Wiki_Conference_…https://ru.wikimedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8-%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D…
--
Farkhad Fatkullin - Фархад Фаткуллин http://sikzn.ru/ Тел.+79274158066 / skype:frhdkazan / Wikipedia:frhdkazan
Dear all,
I am forwarding below an e-mail about a campaign by Free Software
Foundation Europe (FSFE) advocating for making software produced with
public resources available with a free and open license.
I would recommend that everybody, especially people and organizations
based in Europe, support this campaign, which I think is very close to
our movement's values.
The excellent video at https://publiccode.eu/ explains well the many
implications of using proprietary software as digital infrastructure.
Wikimedia Deutschland and Wikimedia Italia already support this campaign
(and I do, as well, personally).
In particular there is this open letter, signed by over 10,000 people
and 78 organizations (including Open Knowledge International, Creative
Commons, Debian, KDE, GNOME, La Quadrature du Net, OSI and many others):
https://publiccode.eu/openletter/
Thanks for you time.
Cristian
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Thanks to You, we're now 10,000 people strong!
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2017 13:38:38 +0000
From: FSFE <info(a)my.fsfe.org>
To: Cristian Consonni
Dear Cristian Consonni,
first of all, thank you for signing the open letter "Public Money?
Public Code!". Please find a quick update about the campaign within this
email.
We are amazed to see that we already have more than 10,000 signatures
since we launched last week. We have received international support from
organisations like Creative Commons, Debian, Open Knowledge
International. Thanks to many volunteers who have come forth to help
bring the message to others in their native language: The website and
the open letter are now available in Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, French,
German, Greek, Italian, and Turkish. We already uploaded a German
version of the video and will soon start translating and recording it
into French, Italian and Spanish.
For the German elections, we have already used your support, sending the
open letter with names and comments to over 1000 promising candidates.
In the coming months, we will file and evaluate freedom of information
requests about public spending and create material for political
decision-makers to help them in making the right choice for Free and
Open Source Software.
The feedback from you was enormously positive: We have heard from some
of you the video helped you convince family members, friends and
colleagues, to sign the open letter.
Imagine how many signatures we can have if each one of us convince three
more people to support the open letter!
So please help us to spread the word further!
https://publiccode.eu/#spread
Best Regards,
Matthias Kirschner, President, Free Software Foundation Europe