Dear fellow Wikimedians,
Below you will find Wikimedia Deutschland’s 2018 report to the Wikimedia
Movement. Since 2017, Wikimedia Deutschland no longer receives movement
funds through the Annual Plan Grant program (via the Funds Dissemination
Committee, FDC). However, as an organization of this movement, we are
committed to sharing annually what we do and what we learn, being
accountable for our financial resources, and checking progress and impact
based on goals and objectives in Wikimedia Deutschland’s Annual Plan.
In this report you will find overviews, stories and descriptions of our
work in 2018 in three fields of action: Volunteers, Technology/ Software
Development and Conditions for Free Knowledge, as well as about our general
support for the Wikimedia movement. You will also find the financial
information for fiscal year 2018. This report for the movement goes out to
all people and affiliates who are interested in learning more about the
work of our chapter. A broader, less detailed view will be provided in our
Annual Report, to be published in the upcoming weeks.
Start page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/Movement_Report_2018
Short URL: w.wiki/35Z
Enjoy reading! If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know.
Best regards
Cornelius
--
Cornelius Kibelka
Internationale Beziehungen | International Relations
Vorstandsteam | Office of the ED
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
http://wikimedia.de
Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch an der Menge allen
Wissens frei teilhaben kann. Helfen Sie uns dabei!
http://spenden.wikimedia.de/
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207
Hello,
A few days ago the Wikimedia affiliate I belong to was officially informed,
by a WMF source, that I'm being subject to a until now unknown sanction,
with an accusation from AffCom I can only describe as baseless and
fraudulent, relating to a a situation between two affiliates, dealt with by
AffCom more than one year ago, of which I was never part of, occurred more
than one year ago. I was never informed of this.
This is not the first time AffCom engages in this sort of appalling
behavior. As far as I know, WMPT is still waiting for the accusations made
by AffCom last year, which led to its suspension, to be substantiated.
AffCom never substantiated anything related to that, with the excuse of a
need for secrecy.
How, I ask you all as members of the Movement, how come the Wikimedia
Movement allowed for such a secretive, arbitrary, apparently unchecked and
very much powerful institution to grow and thrive like this in its middle,
overseeing and effectively controlling the relation of all of us (both
affiliates and individuals) and the WMF?
More important than that, what can be done about this? Where one can appeal
to, when presented with such fraudulent, baseless, secretive,
unsubstantiated accusations by a body which was supposed to be above all
suspicion?
Can an internal inquiry be demanded somewhere at the Wikimedia Foundation
over the activities and decisions of AffCom, in the same way we do with
suspicious activity by checkusers and supervisors, with the Ombudsman
Commission?
Looking forward for any help and insight on this,
Paulo - DarwIn
Wikimedia Portugal
I am trying to restart the "What's making you happy this week?" threads.
I am grateful for the volunteers who are facilitating significant portions
of the selection process
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Affiliate-selected_Board…>
for two WMF Board seats.
Also, I was happy to see a new issue of *The Signpost*. In addition to the
many interesting pieces of information in this issue, I appreciated the
Wikipedia humor of renaming this visual depiction to *Simplified Guide to
Categories*
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vassily_Kandinsky,_1913_-_Compositi…>.
Preparations for Wikimania 2019 sound like they are going well. I am very
interested in the conference’s highlighting
<https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2019:Theme> of the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals.
Finally, I join with others in congratulating Wikimedia Korea for its promotion
to chapter
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019/04/23/wikimedia-korea-new-chapter-affi…>
.
What's making you happy this week? You are welcome to comment in any
language.
Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
P.S. Sometimes I try to translate "What's making you happy this week?" into
an additional language that is related to the content of the email, but
this week I had significant doubts regarding the the automated translations
that I received for Korean and Swedish, and I was unable to create a manual
translation that was likely to be accurate. I enjoy seeing diverse
languages on Wikimedia mailing lists. If I continue to start these threads
then I will continue to try to translate the titles. Anyone else who would
like to start one of these threads in a future week is welcome to take the
initiative!
Hello colleagues,
In the Wikiverse one of my continuing struggles is with the topic of how we
can be vibrantly diverse, and accepting of strong debates and open
disagreement, while also not intimidating good faith contributors who may
be less willing to comment in a public space due to fear of criticism. I am
also mindful that people who would be good contributors may leave the
Wikiverse completely because they find that the Wikiverse is too stressful
for them.
I am currently thinking along four tracks.
First, the nature of Wikiverse topics probably make us be a relatively
stressful and relatively high conflict environment. We have a public
service mission to educate, and although I think that many of us love the
mission, we deal with many high conflict topics within the scope of that
mission. I think that this will remain a constant.
Second, I want to encourage quieter people to be brave in speaking up, but
in my personal initiatives I haven't succeeded at that in any way that I
can see. Does anyone have suggestions about how we can encourage quieter
people to participate more often in public discussions, and to feel more
courageous?
Third, I am also thinking about our struggles to define civility, and to
make a distinction between justified personal criticisms and unjustified
personal attacks. I don't think that relatively authoritarian central
control of public discussion (by WMF or anyone else) is a good idea, for
three reasons: 1. a comment that may be insulting in culture A may be
normal and acceptable in culture B, 2. I don't want to decrease public
accountability for problems like governance failures or incompetence, and
3. I don't want to give powerful people easy access to wikilegal
justifications for suppressing personal criticism of themselves or their
allies. (I oppose, for example, saying that “deliberate intimidation” is
off limits, because in some circumstances I think that it is very
reasonable to threaten people with demotions, blocks, or termination of
employment.) At the same time, I don't want Wikimedia sites to host and to
publicize groundless personal attacks or trolling. In many cases I think
that distinguishing justified criticism from garbage can be done easily,
but sometimes making the distinction is more challenging.
A fourth track seems to me to have significant potential for good. We can
increase the quality and quantity of positive feedback, and we can place
more emphasis on cultivating certain spaces where we mutually agree to
leave the conflicts outside. (The Wikiverse as a whole is not a "safe
space", but we cultivate some exceptions within that. Maybe an analogy for
these places would be public gardens.) Hopefully these initiatives would
decrease stress, improve retention, and improve morale. These can be done
while simultaneously being supportive of candid discussions in the broader
Wikiverse.
I am interested in hearing your comments, if you would like to share.
Yours in service,
Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
Hello!
The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking community members to join a new
“Organization communications translators" group.
We are looking for 3–5 translators in each of the target languages (Arabic,
Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Spanish) to join an experiment for
paid translations which we project will last for the remainder of 2019.
This is an experimental translation model we are testing for Wikimedia
Foundation materials primarily used in external communications (such as the
Foundation's website, transparency report, and organizational policies).
These tend to be much longer than materials we generally seek translations
for, and with more stringent requirements on languages, quality, and
timeline. We have heard that for translations of this nature, fair paid
compensation is often necessary, so we have designed this trial around
lengthy organizational-message oriented materials. We are asking
translators to be responsible for the translations in a way that we simply
can not ask of volunteers.
This model was developed based on experiences with past translation efforts
and feedback from community translators, affiliates, and staff within the
Foundation. It is not a replacement for any existing translation work, and
will not be utilized for things like project content, newsletters, or
fundraising materials (as those have existing translation models in place).
We will be testing this model out over the coming months, and will make
changes based on feedback and what we learn. We may also be making changes
to things like the pay model and process before the model is implemented as
we collect additional feedback from applicants and others within the
movement.
For more information, please visit this Meta-Wiki page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Organization_communications_…
Individuals interested in participating should contact Gregory Varnum (
gvarnum(a)wikimedia.org) in the Wikimedia Foundation Communications
department by 16 May 2019 and provide:
1. On-wiki username
2. Languages which you have high proficiency in and are interested in doing
translations for (must include at least one of the target languages)
3. Examples of past translation activities (can be links to wiki pages you
have translated)
4. A brief statement on how you manage quality when translating
5. A brief statement sharing why you are interested in participating in
this experiment
6. Acknowledgement that this model is an experiment, subject to change,
does not apply to all content produced by the Foundation, and requires
translators to assume responsibility for the accuracy and quality of their
translations
Thank you!
-greg
--
Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hola everyone!
Sorry in advance for cross-posting. As many of you are aware, last April
5th the Education team at the Wikimedia Foundation announced the launch of
the Wikimedia & Education Greenhouse (w.wiki/385). The W&E Greenhouse is a
fully immersive co-learning experience that lasts 9 months and is designed
for emerging education leaders in our movement who believe in the value of
Wikimedia projects in education. It will equip participants with the
skills, knowledge, and support to bring their ideas to life and scale them
into high-impact education initiatives in their community.
The W&E Greenhouse has two modalities of participation: as a team (
w.wiki/3A$) and as an individual(w.wiki/3NY). Applying as a team means that
you present an idea for an education project you want to develop in your
local community. One team will be selected to receive seed funding for
their project, on-site mentoring from WMF staff, and access to a free
project management online course. Applying as an individual means
completing a short form expressing your interest and motivation, and this
will give you access to the free online course.
So far we have received 1 team application and over 60 individual
applications from all over the world. Additionally, we have a great team of
experienced Wikimedia education leaders collaborating in the development of
this initiative. There are still two weeks left to apply (deadline is May
12) and we are very excited to keep reading about the amazing education
projects you want to develop! We have prepared some additional resources to
support applications during these final weeks and we have compiled them
into this slideshow (w.wiki/3NZ), including a short video guide for team
applications.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Melissa
Guadalupe Huertas via email: mguadalupe(a)wikimedia.org. We appreciate you
sharing this among your networks and we look forward to reading more
applications.
Cheers!
--
*Melissa Guadalupe Huertas*
Wikimedia Foundation | Education Program Officer
mguadalupe(a)wikimedia.org
user: MGuadalupe (WMF)
Check out our newsletter: This Month in Education
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/News>
