Semantic Web languages allow to express ontologies and knowledge bases in a
way meant to be particularly amenable to the Web. Ontologies formalize the
shared understanding of a domain. But the most expressive and widespread
languages that we know of are human natural languages, and the largest
knowledge base we have is the wealth of text written in human languages.
We looks for a path to bridge the gap between knowledge representation
languages such as OWL and human natural languages such as English. We
propose a project to simultaneously expose that gap, allow to collaborate
on closing it, make progress widely visible, and is highly attractive and
valuable in its own right: a Wikipedia written in an abstract language to
be rendered into any natural language on request. This would make current
Wikipedia editors about 100x more productive, and increase the content of
Wikipedia by 10x. For billions of users this will unlock knowledge they
currently do not have access to.
My first talk on this topic will be on October 10, 2018, 16:45-17:00, at
the Asilomar in Monterey, CA during the Blue Sky track of ISWC. My second,
longer talk on the topic will be at the DL workshop in Tempe, AZ, October
27-29. Comments are very welcome as I prepare the slides and the talk.
Link to the paper: http://simia.net/download/abstractwikipedia.pdf
Cheers,
Denny
Dear all,
Basque Wikimedians User Group is happy to announce the celebration of the first Wikimedia+Education Conference, next April 2019 in Donostia. It will be a full-weekend Conference to talk about the relation between Wikimedia and our education projects, and the way Education is being shaped by Wikimedia.
Call for programme submissions and scholarships is now open, so we hope to have your input in this exciting event. All the information can be found here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia%2BEducation_Conference_2019
Thanks for your interest
Galder
Dear Wikimedians,
At our seventh general assembly on November 24, the members of Wikimedia
Venezuela elected its new board, whose members are the following:
* Oscar Costero (re-elected)
* Ybsen Lucero (re-elected)
* Marianny Contreras
* Lourdes Herrera
* Samuel Cirilo
Ybsen and Samuel have been in previous boards, while Marianny and Lourdes
are new to our board, please join me in welcoming them. I also would like
to thank Kevin Dels, Jin Kadaba and Tomas Guardia for their work as now
former board members.
During our assembly we proposed a new set bylaws to tackle the current
outflow of volunteers and members that migrated the country in past years.
We decided to have a new volunteer role in communication with the board
that oversight our activities and engage with members, volunteers and
expats in wiki activities around the globe. Jin Kadaba (Perú) and Santiago
de Viana (Spain) were elected to this new post.
I am delighted to be able to work with these people in favor of the mission
and vision of our movement.
Kind regards,
Oscar Costero
Presidente | Wikimedia Venezuela
J-40129321-2
http://wikimedia.org.ve
Hi all,
>From Monday 10 December to Friday 21 December we (community/Wikimedia
Belgium) organise the writing weeks about the German-speaking Community of
Belgium.
The German-speaking Community is one of the three communities in Belgium,
located near the border with Germany and comprises nine municipalities:
Amel, Büllingen, Burg-Reuland, Bütgenbach, Eupen, Kelmis, Lontzen, Raeren
and Sankt Vith. The area stretches from the 3-country point near Vaals
(Netherlands) in the north to the 3-country point near Ouren and Luxembourg
in the south.
This area is unfortunately only very limited described on Wikipedia. That
is why we invite you to write on Wikipedia about this area and help to fill
this gap bit by bit.
Please add the articles you write or translate to the project page. In this
way we know what has been done and it can stimulate other writers to write
and translate.
Project page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Writing_week/German-speaking_Community_of_B…
If you would like to stay informed about future writing weeks, please add
yourself to the mass message list and receive a message when a new writing
week starts:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/WritingWeek
For those who are in the area, on Saturday 15 December we also organise and
edit-a-thon in Eupen, the capital of this area.
Greetings from Belgium!
Romaine
Hey Everyone,
I wanted to send a quick reminder that on Tuesday, 27th November, at 16:00
UTC, we will launch our mobile and banner campaigns. We expect to run the
fundraising campaign on English Wikipedia in 6 countries: USA, Canada, UK,
Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. You may notice some final systems
tests running between now and then.
---Banners and Ideas---
You can see all of our current most effective fundraising banners on our
Fundraising Ideas page where you can also contribute any specific ideas or
stories we should tell via social media, banners, emails etc. (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/2018-19_Fundraising_ideas )
Like last year, we will come to you for ideas and suggestions to test. In
addition to bringing in donations, we aim to use the campaign to educate
all readers about Wikipedia and the community who creates it. The
fundraising team’s A/B testing strategy works in iterative steps, so look
at our banners and have a think about what one element you would change or
add and how would you make it different. Think of sentences we can use to
tell our story that would make you proud. Look at other non-profit websites
and see if there are ideas that you think we should try.
To get people thinking, here is a list of things of what works and what
does not:
WHAT WORKS
* Localisation - We refer to which country the reader is from, what day it
is and the general type of device they use (mobile or desktop).
* Reverse Social Proof/Exceptionalism - Unlike other commercial or
non-profits, our donors like to feel special. (They should. They are.)
* A personal, frank tone - Words like humbly or sincerely are important in
asks
* Anchoring the donation amount - We refer to the $3 small amount, we refer
to the average donation amount and in email we refer to past donation
amounts.
* Coffee and Ubiquity - It works, mainly because it is something that is
common in many people’s lives. Coffee, metro lines, libraries, public parks
etc.
WHAT DOESN'T
* Social proof (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof) - It’s a well
known concept that individuals will align their actions to others in order
to acquire acceptance from a wider group. It is a concept used very broadly
in both commercial and non-profit worlds. We've been told by people from
all industries, academics and from our communities that this works. For
Wikipedia it doesn't. We've tried and tested and re-tested again and again.
It really doesn't work for us
* Idealism - Wikipedia: As long as the internet/the world exists, we pledge
that Wikipedia will strive to make it a better place. Stories of helping
farmers or children across the world.
* Breadth - Facts like: English Wikipedia just passed 5 million articles.
>From Argentina to Zimbabwe, your gift keeps the world learning.
---Reporting Issues---
If you see any technical issues with the banners or payments systems please
do report it on phabricator:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/task/create/?template=118862
If you see a donor on a talk page, OTRS, or social media with questions
about donating or having difficulties in the donation process, please refer
them to: donate {{at}} wikimedia.org.
Here is also the ever present fundraising IRC channel to raise urgent
technical issues: #wikimedia-fundraising (
http://webchat.freenode.net?channels=%23wikimedia-fundraising&uio=d4)
---Next Updates & Social Media---
Tomorrow we will be posting a blog and also releasing some updated social
media frames.
A huge thank you to everyone who works to create and support Wikipedia who
make it a resource that people love and want to donate to. Fingers crossed!
--
Seddon
*Community and Audience Engagement Associate*
*Advancement (Fundraising), Wikimedia Foundation*
Hi everyone,
>From Monday 10 December to Friday 21 December we (community/Wikimedia
Belgium) organise the writing weeks about the German-speaking Community of
Belgium.
The German-speaking Community is one of the three communities in Belgium,
located near the border with Germany and comprises nine municipalities:
Amel, Büllingen, Burg-Reuland, Bütgenbach, Eupen, Kelmis, Lontzen, Raeren
and Sankt Vith. The area stretches from the 3-country point near Vaals
(Netherlands) in the north to the 3-country point near Ouren and Luxembourg
in the south.
This area is unfortunately only very limited described on Wikipedia. That
is why we invite you to write on Wikipedia about this area and help to fill
this gap bit by bit.
Please add the articles you write or translate to the project page. In this
way we know what has been done and it can stimulate other writers to write
and translate.
Project page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Writing_week/German-speaking_Community_of_B…
If you would like to stay informed about future writing weeks, please add
yourself to the mass message list and receive a message when a new writing
week starts:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_message_delivery/Targets/WritingWeek
For those who are in the area, on Saturday 15 December we also organise and
edit-a-thon in Eupen, the capital of this area.
Greetings from Belgium!
Romaine
I'm presently in Oakland, California at the Ranked Choice Voting
Summit 2018, where FairVote California's Director Jennifer Pae has
pointed out this excellent resource from the U.S. national Alliance
for Justice designed to answer questions about what kind of advocacy
nonprofit organizations can and can not -- and should and should not
-- engage in:
https://bolderadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/The-Connection-4th-Ed…https://www.afj.org/our-work/issues/bolder-advocacy
I suggest that these recommendations -- literally designed, as the
title says, for being bold -- are useful guidance for determining
which aspects of the Foundation's Mission should be subjects of
Foundation advocacy, beyond copyright law and the like. I am well
aware that there is a vocal minority who believe that many aspects of
the Mission are not worthy of our advocacy efforts, but I continue to
believe in the results of my in-person and on-line surveys of
Wikimedians suggesting about 80% of us want to support the whole
Mission, not just a few niche and adjunct aspects of it.
I welcome debate on my pending recommendation, that movement leaders
need to advocate for policies which directly support the informed,
healthy, and abundant availability of community volunteers. E.g., that
the Executive Director resume regular periodic correspondence with
donors on other ways they can support the movement, beyond copyright
and internet law advocacy that the Foundation traditionally supports
directly and indirectly. I hope we can keep personality, nationality,
and related issues out of such debate.
Best regards,
Jim
Hello,
This email is mainly addressed to Affcom and WMF but I would like to hear
others' comments also.
Some background information regarding the context for this email: the
recently published annual reports from user groups reminded me of some
issues that I first considered a few years ago. I believe that user group
annual reports are currently not standardized, and I think that the public
and WMF might like to have standardized quantitative and comparable ways to
understand affiliates' work, including use of volunteer hours and
per-program benefits, while minimizing the burden on volunteers for
administrative tasks.
I would like to suggest that Affcom and WMF require that all affiliates'
annual reports include:
1. A list of programs which the affiliate supported in the past year. For
each program the affiliate should state the financial costs to the
affiliate including overhead costs and overhead person-hours attributable
to the program, how much time the organizers and participants spent on the
program, the Wikimetrics/Global Metrics results of each program, and
results for any custom-defined measures of success. Auditable performance
information can be made public and/or shared privately with WMF, depending
on privacy rules and the willingness of participants to share information
regarding their participation.
2. A financial summary for the year that states all sources of income and
amounts from each source, how funds were spent, funds payable, funds
receivable, debts, reserves, assets, etc.
3. Total annual organizer and participant person-hours and a summary of how
those hours were used, for both programmatic and non-programmatic
activities.
4. Total annual Wikimetrics/Global Metrics results for the year, and total
annual results for any custom-defined metrics. Again, auditable performance
information can be made public and/or shared privately with WMF, depending
on privacy rules and the willingness of participants to share information
regarding their participation.
This information is important enough that I would support reasonable staff
or contractor expenses to produce reports with these details. I am mindful
of how precious volunteer time is, and I do not want to burden already
generous volunteers with administrative work that could be done by
contractors or staff. Some cooperation and support for reporting from
volunteer organizers may be necessary, such as when gathering information
from participants at individual events. Some affiliates may have such
generous volunteers that they can do all of the reporting with volunteer
time. But for many affiliates I would support reasonable expenses for
producing standardized quantitative information in annual reports while
minimizing the administrative burden on volunteers.
Regards,
--
Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )