Hello,
You are invited to our the Wikimedia monthly activities meeting, taking
place tomorrow (August 29) starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight
Time). Please note this will be the last Wikimedia monthly activities
meeting planned by the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department.
After speaking with our colleagues and reviewing engagement metrics from
the past few years, we concluded that there are other efforts in place that
are better suited to achieve the goals of this meeting.
You can join tomorrow’s final meeting via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhoJb6rwkfc
And also in IRC: #wikimedia-office
The agenda will include:
- Wikimedia movement strategy update
- Wikipedia’s role in Teenagers lives
- Wikimedia Space
More information on Meta-Wiki:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings
When this meeting first began, it provided insights into data that was
otherwise unavailable or hard to access. Thanks to the amazing efforts of
staff and volunteers, those metrics are now available and updated regularly
online. The purpose of the meeting thus shifted to focus on sharing
progress updates and information from across the movement. We have realized
however that this approach limits our ability to connect across languages
and provide the level of detail necessary to create impact. In addition,
interest in the meeting has remained steady, but is has not grown, and
there has been a decrease of interest in presenting.
Fortunately, we have new methods of outreach that allow us to connect with
wider audiences.. The new Wikimedia Foundation website, discussed at last
month's meeting, has a greater ability to communicate across languages and
is already helping us reach more people.[1] We are discussing ways to
further expand this support. The new Wikimedia Space project that will be
discussed at this month's meeting provides a central, real-time space to
have discussions and share information on activities across the movement.[2]
We appreciate all of the feedback people have provided over the years, and
will continue to reflect on any additional input you may have. I also want
to personally thank the dozens of people that presented over the years and
the evolving core team that worked every month to put the meeting on. They
often made it look easy, and I know that is not always the case.
Thank you, and I will have more on this topic during tomorrow's meeting.
-greg
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/
[2] https://space.wmflabs.org/
--
Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)
Communications Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear all,
More than 7 years ago we started the development of Wikidata. We started
out with the main goal of building a central data store for Wikipedia.
Very quickly we expanded to also covering the other Wikimedia projects.
Then came the interest from people outside Wikimedia to use Wikidata’s
data to build their own apps, websites, visualisations and more. And
last year we witnessed a significant interest in Wikibase, the software
behind Wikidata.
This means our structured data work has expanded very significantly from
what we started out with. At the same time, over these past few years,
both WMDE [1] and the WMF [2] have spent significant time and invested
in supporting the movement strategy work and aligning our organizational
plans with the movement strategy.
Given all this interest, and this moment of opportunity and positive
change, we felt it was time to sit together and get clarity on the next
steps for our structured data work. It is important that we know what we
want to achieve in the next few years, what our long-term hopes are for
Wikidata and Wikibase, how these align with organisational and movement
strategy, and what support and resources are required for their success.
The result of these conversations include one product vision paper and
three product strategy papers that we are publishing today:
*
Vision: This paper gives a high-level overview of where we’d like to
see Wikidata and Wikibase evolve and grow, based on the work of the
past 7 years and many conversations with community members, movement
partners, and other stakeholders.
*
Wikidata for Wikimedia projects: This paper dives deeper into how we
see Wikidata developing in the context of the Wikimedia projects and
how it can better support the projects.
*
Wikidata as a platform: This paper explores the value of Wikidata as
a source of data for others outside Wikimedia to build upon.
*
Wikibase Ecosystem: This paper goes deeper into the idea of the
Wikibase Ecosystem, a network of Wikibase instances which could
share data and other capacities.
We are now inviting you to read the vision and strategy papers and give
us your feedback. We are collecting this feedback until the end of
October and will then integrate it as appropriate into a second
iteration of the papers.
The papers are published at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikidata/Strategy/2019. Please leave
your feedback and questions on the associated talk page.
We are looking forward to reading your input.
Since this is my first mail to this list, a short introduction about
myself: I joined Wikimedia Deutschland 2 years ago as the Head of
Software & Development. I have been working with the Product, UX,
Engineering and Community Communication people in my department to move
this amazing project forward.
Regards
Franziska
Head of Software & Development, Wikimedia Deutschland
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/Planning_2019/enandhttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/Zukunftsprozess/EN
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Direction
This meeting will be starting in 20 minutes. Please join us!
On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 11:02 AM Gregory Varnum <gvarnum(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
> Hello,
>
> You are invited to our the Wikimedia monthly activities meeting, taking
> place tomorrow (August 29) starting at 18:00 UTC (11:00 Pacific Daylight
> Time). Please note this will be the last Wikimedia monthly activities
> meeting planned by the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department.
> After speaking with our colleagues and reviewing engagement metrics from
> the past few years, we concluded that there are other efforts in place that
> are better suited to achieve the goals of this meeting.
>
> You can join tomorrow’s final meeting via YouTube:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhoJb6rwkfc
>
> And also in IRC: #wikimedia-office
>
> The agenda will include:
> - Wikimedia movement strategy update
> - Wikipedia’s role in Teenagers lives
> - Wikimedia Space
>
> More information on Meta-Wiki:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_monthly_activities_meetings
>
> When this meeting first began, it provided insights into data that was
> otherwise unavailable or hard to access. Thanks to the amazing efforts of
> staff and volunteers, those metrics are now available and updated regularly
> online. The purpose of the meeting thus shifted to focus on sharing
> progress updates and information from across the movement. We have realized
> however that this approach limits our ability to connect across languages
> and provide the level of detail necessary to create impact. In addition,
> interest in the meeting has remained steady, but is has not grown, and
> there has been a decrease of interest in presenting.
>
> Fortunately, we have new methods of outreach that allow us to connect with
> wider audiences.. The new Wikimedia Foundation website
> <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>, discussed at last month's meeting,
> has a greater ability to communicate across languages and is already
> helping us reach more people. We are discussing ways to further expand this
> support. The new Wikimedia Space project <https://space.wmflabs.org/>
> that will be discussed at this month's meeting provides a central,
> real-time space to have discussions and share information on activities
> across the movement.
>
> We appreciate all of the feedback people have provided over the years, and
> will continue to reflect on any additional input you may have. I also want
> to personally thank the dozens of people that presented over the years and
> the evolving core team that worked every month to put the meeting on. They
> often made it look easy, and I know that is not always the case.
>
> Thank you, and I will have more on this topic during tomorrow's meeting.
>
> -greg
>
> --
>
> Gregory Varnum (pronouns - he/his/him)
>
> Communications Strategist
>
> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Foundation Optional" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to foundation-optional+unsubscribe(a)wikimedia.org.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/d/msgid/foundation-optional/CALEn…
> <https://groups.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/d/msgid/foundation-optional/CALEn…>
> .
>
I'm sure many have heard about this:
https://thehackernews.com/2019/07/kazakhstan-https-security-certificate.html
Essentially, the government in Kazakhstan started forcing citizens into
installing a root TLS certificate on their devices that would allow the
government to intercept, decrypt and manipulate all HTTPS traffic.
Without the centificate, it seems, citizens can't access HTTPS pages (at
least on some ISPs).
I think this has serious implications for Wikipedia & Wikimedia, as not
only they would be easily able to see which articles people read, but
also steal login credentials, depseudonymize people and even hijack
admin accounts.
Another danger is that if this effort by Kazakhstan will succeed, other
governments may start doing the same.
I wonder if WMF has any position on this yet?
Best,
Yury.
Amir, you rock! Thanks so much.
This came up as somehing that could be helpful during the Wiktionary &
Wikisource panel at the Education space. Some panelists mentioned tgey are
wasting a lot time curating lists, so thought it coukd be helpful.
Forwarding to Wikimedia-l as many Wikrionary and Wikisource people ate
there.
Cheers,
Shani
On Fri, 23 Aug 2019, 16:27 Amir Sarabadani <ladsgroup(a)gmail.com wrote:
> Hey,
> During Wikimania, Shani told me the famous "Not in the other language"
> tool [1] doesn't work for Wiktionary (because the tool is based on Wikidata
> but Wiktionary uses something called Cognate). On my way to the airport, I
> wrote a hacky small thing to make things easier for Wiktionary users that
> you can find in [2]. Here's an example, list of French nouns that exist in
> German Wiktionary but not in English [3]. The code can be found in [4] and
> needs lots of love if anyone is interested.
>
> HTH
>
> [1]: https://tools.wmflabs.org/not-in-the-other-language/
> [2]: https://tools.wmflabs.org/dexbot/tools/nitolw
> [3]:
> https://tools.wmflabs.org/dexbot/tools/nitolw/index.php?fromLang=de&toLang=…
> [4]:https://github.com/Ladsgroup/NITOLW
>
> Best
> --
> Amir (he/him)
>
>
*Meta issues*
* Updates regarding the GlobalFactSync project were provided in an email
sent to Wikitech-l
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2019-August/092403.html>,
and in a Wikimania presentation
<https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2019:Technology_outreach_%26_innovatio…>
with slides
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimania_2019_Global_Fact_Sync_Tal…>
.
* Wikimedia Indonesia published a video (Youtube link)
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSULY1eMMn8&lang=en> that highlights
Wikipedia's uses for preservation and transmission of languages and
cultures. The languages spoken in the video are Sudanese
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundanese_language> and Minangkabau
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minangkabau_language>.
*Content highlights*
* The "Selected anniversaries" section of English Wikipedia for 16 August
noted that the day was the anniversary of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usain_Bolt> setting the world record for the
100 meter sprint in 2009.
* This is a photo of one of two a 17 meter (56 foot) high sculptures named
*Skyhooks* at the east end of Trafford Park, Greater Manchester, England
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trafford_park_hook_and_chain.jpg>.
Trafford Park was the English Wikipedia Article of the Day for 18 August.
The photo is a featured picture on Commons. I feel that the sculpture is
thought provoking.
* The English Wiktionary Word of the Day for 16 August was neroli
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/neroli>, which Wiktionary defines as "More
fully *neroli oil *or *oil of neroli*: an essential oil distilled from the
blossoms of the bitter orange or Seville orange (*Citrus* × *aurantium*
subsp. *amara*) used to make perfumes." The etymology is interesting: "
Borrowed from French *néroli
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/n%C3%A9roli#French>* (“neroli”), from
Nerola, a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy. Marie
Anne de La Trémoille, princesse des Ursins
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Anne_de_La_Tr%C3%A9moille,_princesse_de…>
(1642–1722), Princess of Nerola but originally from France, is thought to
have made neroli popular as a fragrance in her country of birth around
1670. The word is cognate with Italian *nerola* (obsolete), *neroli*."
* I appreciated this English Wikiquote of the Day for 13 August from
German-American philosopher Felix Adler
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Felix_Adler>: "The condition of all progress
is experience. We go wrong a thousand times before we find the right path.
We struggle, and grope, and hurt ourselves until we learn the use of
things, and this is true of things spiritual as well as of material things.
Pain is unavoidable, but it acquires a new and higher meaning when we
perceive that it is the price humanity must pay for an invaluable good."
*Off wiki*
*The New York Times* published an opinion piece by Agnes Callard, who is an
associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, titled "Why
Philosophers Shouldn't Sign Petitions
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/opinion/philosophers-petitions.html>".
In the context of reflecting on how we make decisions in the Wikiverse, I
feel that the distinction between petitioning and arguing is a good topic
for reflection. Hopefully in the wikiverse we make collective decisions
that are largely based on rational consensus.
*Closing comments*
Translations of the subject line of this email would be appreciated on Meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine/WMYHTW_translations>. Thanks to
User:Veracious <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Veracious> for the
Indonesian translation.
What’s making you happy this week? You are welcome to comment in any
language. You are also welcome to start a WMYHTW thread next week.
Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
Hi all,
In preparation for the next Wikimedia Summit 2020 – which will take place
from April 3 to 5 in Berlin, Germany[1] – we again launch a call for a “
Visiting Wikimedian”. This initiative aims to transfer practical knowledge
from the German chapter to other Wikimedia movement affiliates and provides
us with an outside view.
The scope of a “Visiting Wikimedian” is mainly to support the organization
of the Wikimedia Summit in terms of logistics and program. The “Visiting
Wikimedian” will be involved in all essential steps of the planning and
organizing process and will be able to contribute in multiple ways. We are
open to designing the tasks together, according to the Visiting Wikimedian’s
skills and experiences and her or his affiliate’s needs. We are especially
looking for a person who can apply the knowledge to an upcoming event, for
example if the affiliate is hosting a regional or international conference.
You can find more information about the initiative and all application
details on Meta.[2] We had four Visiting Wikimedians over the last years,
check also their blost posts on the linked on the Meta page.
If you are interested in becoming a Visiting Wikimedian, please check the
conditions and details on Meta and apply to wmsummit(a)wikimedia.de until
September 15, 2019 (incl).
Best regards,
Cornelius
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Summit_2020
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Visiting_Wikimedian
--
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
