As some of you know, I have been working on the idea of a multilingual
Wikipedia for a few years now. Two other publications on this are here, I
have bothered you with mails about it here previously too:
https://research.google/pubs/pub48057/https://wikipedia20.pubpub.org/pub/vyf7ksah
I've also been giving talks about the topic in several places about this
idea, some of them have also been recorded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzVA7YLwhTEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLiJ6E9sG6U&list=PLQVG_tuf3Q2fji-CwqEDRJpZu…
I gathered some awesome feedback in those few years (also from some members
of this list, thank you!), and I also implemented a few prototypes trying
out the idea, learning a lot from that.
All of this has helped to sharpen the idea and come up with a more concrete
proposal. In short, the proposal is that we do a two-step approach: first,
allow for capturing Wikipedia content in an abstract notation, and second,
allow for creating functions that translate this abstract notation into
natural language (For simplicity, I gave this two steps names, Abstract
Wikipedia for step 1, and Wikilambda for step 2. I realize that both names
are not perfect, but that is just one of the many things that we can figure
out together on the way).
I wrote up this proposal in a paper, which I uploaded to my Website almost
two weeks ago, and I also submitted it to Arxiv. And as soon as it was
published on Arxiv, I wanted to share it with you and see what you folks
think (I wanted to wait for it as Arxiv would allow the URLs to remains
table - my Website has gone down before and might so again).
https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.04733
The new proposal is much more concrete than the previous proposals (and
therefore there is much more to criticize). Also, obviously, nothing of
this is set in stone, and just like the names, I am very much looking
forward to hear suggestions for how to improve the whole thing, and I will
blatantly steal every good idea and proposal. I am not even sure what a
good venue for this discussion is, I guess, eventually it should be on
Meta?, but also about that I would like to hear proposals.
Abstract Wikipedia is a proposed extension to Wikidata that would capture
the content next to the Wikidata items. Think of it as a new namespace,
where we could create, maintain, and collaborate on the abstract content.
Similar to the Wikidata-bridge, there should be a way to allow
contributions from the Wikipedias to flow back without too much friction.
The individual Wikipedias - and I cannot stress this enough - have the
choice to use some or any or all or none of the content from Abstract
Wikipedia, but I most definitely do not expect the content of the current
Wikipedias to be replaced by this. In fact, I have no doubt that any decent
article in any language Wikipedia will remain superior to the outcome of
the proposed new architecture by far. This is a proposal for the places
where the current system left us with gaps, not a proposal to turn the
parts that are already brilliant today dull and terrible tomorrow.
Wikilambda is a proposed new Wikimedia project that allows us to share in a
new form of knowledge assets, functions. You can think of it as similar to
Modules or Templates, but a bit extended, with places for tests, different
languages, evaluation, and also for all kind of functions, not only those
that are immediately useful for one of the Wikimedia projects, and most
importantly, shared among the projects. So one of the first goals would be
to increasingly allow fo a place to have global templates, another idea
that has been discussed and asked for for a very long time. Wikilambda,
just as Wikidata, is expected to start as a project supporting the
immediate needs of the sister projects, and over time to grow to a project
that stands on its own merits as well.
We don't really have an effective process for starting new projects, so I
am trying to follow a similar path that we took for Wikidata back then. And
back then it all started with Markus Krötzsch, me and others talking about
the idea to anyone who would listen until everyone was bored of hearing it,
trying out prototypes, and then talking about it even more, and improving
all of it constantly based on your feedback. And then making increasingly
concrete proposals until we managed to show some kind of consensus from the
communities, you, and the Foundation to actually do it. And then, well, do
it.
So, I've done some of the talking, with researchers, with the public, with
some of you, and also with folks at the Foundation, to figure out what next
steps could be, and how this can be made to work. Here's a more concrete
proposal. Now I am here to see whether we can find consensus and be bold. I
want to hear from you. I want to hear what you think what the right place
is to discuss this (here, this list? Another mailing list? Meta? Wikidata?
Some Telegram or Facebook group? (OK, I was joking about the latter)).
Which parts of the proposal are good and which need improvement? Where is
more detail or clarification needed to allow for a meaningful discussion?
Just as with Wikipedia and Wikidata and our other projects, this is a crazy
idea at first. Maybe even more crazy than our other projects. And the only
way there is a chance of us being successful is, if, eventually, thousands
of us work together on it. The only way this worked in the past is by being
open, start out collaboratively, discuss the path forward, and work towards
creating the project together.
Stay safe,
Denny
¡Hola a todos!
I'm inviting everyone who wishes to participate in World Tapir Day on April 27.
In the past few years the organization https://www.tapirday.org has carried out various live activities. But due to the current situation, they didn't this year. I wrote to them and they were happy to help spread and share the information of this year online editathon on their social networks.
I have already created a page for Wikipedia in Spanish: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Encuentros/Editat%C3%B3n_en_l%C3%AD…
Shortened link: https://bit.ly/tapir_2020
I invite you to celebrate this day by creating more online editathon in other languages :)
Best,
Rocío Mantis
Hi.
I happened to pull up a wiki article on my phone this morning and I got
hit with multi-page advertising begging for money from Wikimedia
Foundation Inc. It's mid-April, what is going on? This spam is typically
confined to late November and December.
I don't see any relevant campaign listed at
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CentralNotice/Calendar>.
MZMcBride
* Preface *
Hello,
I regret that I need to start this email by communicating that
Clovermoss is on an unplanned absence. [1] I hoped that she would
return by now and that she would send this email.
I think that one WMYHTW thread is enough for one week, so I will not
start a thread for the week of 12 April.
The main content for this email is adapted from Clovermoss, and the
text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
Unported License. [2]
* Main content *
I realize that this week has been difficult for many around the world.
I have mentioned this in previous weeks, but I think it's vital to
express my sympathies each and every time. A pandemic like this has
global ramifications, and I think it's important to recognize that for
a lot of people, this week could have been one filled with hardship.
There are people who have been laid off from their jobs, parents who
are doing their best to take care of their children, students who have
had to start taking classes online, and an endless amount of other
unique situations.
This week, some important milestones have been reached across the
Wikimedia Movement. The Ukrainian Wikipedia [3] has reached the 1
million article milestone. That's a huge milestone to reach, so I wish
to congratulate everyone who contributes there! I asked Ата, an active
contributor to the Ukrainian Wikipedia, about how this milestone
affects the project. [4] I found her response insightful, and I am
thankful for it.
In addition, the The Wikimedia Community of the Kazakh language User
Group has officially been recognized by the Affiliations Commitee. For
more information, see [5] and [6].
I have also discovered inspiring off-wiki initiatives, such as the
Mozilla Open Source Support Team (abbreviated as MOSS) launching a
COVID-19 Solutions Fund. Awards of up to $50,000 are being offered to
open source technology projects. [7]
* Closing comments *
Translations of the subject line of this email would be appreciated on
Meta. [8] Thanks to User:Ата [9] for the Ukranian translation.
What’s making you happy this week? You are welcome to write in any
language. You are also welcome to start a WMYHTW thread next week.
Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Clovermoss
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attributio…
[3] https://uk.wikipedia.org/
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:%D0%90%D1%82%D0%B0&d…
[5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Recognit…
[6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_of_Kazakh_language_User…
[7] https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2020/03/31/moss-launches-covid-19-solutions-f…
[8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine/WMYHTW_translations
[9] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:%D0%90%D1%82%D0%B0
Librarians and library lovers,
We hope that you and your loved ones are taking care during this
challenging time for the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected
countless aspects of our personal and professional lives, and the Wikimedia
Foundation is sending our very best wishes to all of you.
Equitable access to reliable, unbiased information has never been more
important. From *May 15th to June 5th*, we will be running the global
#1Lib1Ref campaign (virtually), with a focus on improving and increasing
the quality of content for the billions of people staying at home during
the public health crisis. As you may know, Wikipedia and other Wikimedia
projects have seen record-breaking pageviews in the last few weeks,
reflecting that people around the world are turning to us for trustworthy
information.[1]
With that in mind, this is a critical time to bring librarians and
Wikimedia together: more people are reading and learning from the web, and
we need to strengthen trust in our content through citations. Join us as we
do that, by helping us organize to encourage library communities to add one
more citation to Wikipedia.
What can you do?
We are advising everyone to follow WHO health guidelines
<https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019> and not
conduct in-person events. Instead, we will organize virtually, and we have
created recommendations for online meetings! Please share your digital
events so #1Lib1Ref contributors can join you
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/1Lib1Ref/Virtual_Coff…>
!
You can visit our resource page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/1Lib1Ref/Resources>
for guides on how to virtually participate in the campaign. Ensure your
contribution is recorded by using the #1Lib1Ref hashtag in your edit summary.
This is very important for us to monitor the reach and success of the
initiative.
Let us know if you need new kinds of support
We know that with the COVID-19 pandemic, it's not as easy to participate in
volunteer activities or organizing online activities. Many of us are
focusing on our families, figuring our homeschooling and working remotely,
and responding to the demands of the crisis in other ways. We also know
that certain parts of the library sector are facing difficult challenges,
such as layoffs, increased work, or extreme changes in work.
We want to know how the pandemic may affect your ability to participate in
#1Lib1Ref, as well as how we can support you better in this unprecedented
situation. Please fill out this short survey
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:The_Wikipedia_Library/1Lib1Ref/Virtual…>
to help us better understand how to support you during this round!
Join our communications!
You can join the 1Lib1Ref community via the Libraries (
libraries(a)lists.wikimedia.org), and 1Lib1Ref (1lib1ref(a)lists.wikimedia.org)
mailing lists, or by joining the Wikimedia + Libraries User Group:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_and_Libraries_User_Group
As we get closer to the launch of the campaign next month, we will update
our social media toolkit, which you can use to spread the word about
#1Lib1Ref. Stay tuned for updates on this page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/1Lib1Ref/Share>.
Looking forward to #1Lib1Ref!
You can learn about last year's campaign and what we learned in our
recently-released blog post at Medium
<https://medium.com/@wikipedialibrary/recap-1lib1ref-january-2020-campaign-k…>
Lastly, to learn more about the Wikimedia Foundation’s response to
COVID-19, please visit wikimediafoundation.org/covid19.
Sincerely,
[1] -
https://tools.wmflabs.org/siteviews/?platform=all-access&source=pageviews&a…
--
*Felix Nartey*
*Library Outreach Coordinator*
*Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home>*
*fnartey(a)wikimedia.org <fnartey(a)wikimedia.org>*
*+233242844987 <+233%2024%20284%204987> | **+447452508504*
*Skype:Flixtey*
Hi all,
Wikimedia Norge held its general assembly on Saturday, March 14th, for the
first time as a video conference due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The results of the board election were:
* Sigrun Espe (User:Sigrunespe) elected as board chair for the 2020–2022
term
* Tore Sætre (User:Toresetre) elected for the 2020–2021 term
* Trond Trosterud (User:Trondtr) elected for the 2020–2021 term
* Hilde Blix (User:Hildeblix) elected for the 2020–2022 term
* Hogne Neteland (User:Hogne) elected as deputy board member for the
2020–2021 term
In addition, there is Andrea Hegdahl Tiltnes (User:AndreaHT) who is the
vice chair, who was not up for election this year. Wikimedia Norge has
staggered board elections to ensure board continuity, where half of the
members are up for election every second year. Because there was an
imbalance in who was up for election when (only one board member, the vice
chair, was not up for election this year), two of the board members (Tore
Sætre and Trond Trosterud) agreed to stand for 1-year terms instead of the
normal 2-year terms, in order to restore the balance.
Thank you very much to all the volunteer board members, and a special
thanks to Hogne Neteland, who has now stepped down as board chair, a
position he served in since 2015!
The minutes from the general assembly can be read here
<https://no.wikimedia.org/wiki/%C3%85rsm%C3%B8te_2020/Protokoll> (in
Norwegian).
--
*Jon Harald Søby*
Prosjektleder / Prosjektleiar / Prošeaktajođiheaddji / Project Manager
Wikimedia Norge / Wikimedia Noreg / Wikimedia Norga
+47 977 67 510
jhsoby(a)wikimedia.no
Dear colleagues,
This is a request for your input and possible ideas (if any) regarding my management of the fallout from Jimmy's announcing myself as a 2018 Wikimedian of the Year.
Emails below are a copy of my ongoing consultations with Wikimedia Foundation staff and other Wikimedians I personally know, as well as a report on what's already brewing in my region of Russia after this unexpected outcome.
I would be grateful, if you can advise me on how to properly steer the enthusiasm of behalf of regional government, mass-media, NGOs, etc. which have just discovered about the possibility of participation in Wikimedia movement (think anything from U.S. is not getting much in-depth coverage in Russian by sources that regional public figures, NGOs, teachers or general regional journalists read) & are now placing great hopes on teaching whole of Tatarstan about how to Wiki & also engaging all Tatars globally (3/4 outside of Tatarstan, 1/5 outside of Russia).
regards,
farhad
Updates:
* Selet WikiSchool got presented to wider public @ the press-conference for Tatar-speaking journalists (July 31), at the poster session in the framework of the World Congress of Tatars Youth Forum (Aug.3), and later at a Tatar projects fair in the Downtown park of Kazan (Aug.5)
* Contribution of those writing into Wikipedia in Tatar was recognized by choosing myself as one of the current year's "For the great service to Tatar nation" medal recipients. (Aug.3)
* We recorded a 40 min interview in Turkish (Aug.4, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK3tFBWMWcs )
* We didn't yet meet the President of the Republic (his schedule changed once again), but I got another firm request to meet with the Minister for Youth Affairs (another good acquaintance of mine, ex-member of local Comedy Club type activity), as well as with the Head of World Congress of Tatars' Executive Bureau, and more TV & written press interviews are lining up.
* I am trying to manage these guys' optimism & desire to move quickly, keeping in mind they are not really familiar with the Wiki-way or our communities' policies & practices
* Bashkir (ba) & Sakha (sah) communities have shared advice about how to assure that local Wikimedia community stays clearly independent in a cultural environment where neither Education, nor GLAM programs will attract local partners unless those have a strong support of the regional or federal government entities.
* Looking forward to meet with my Wikimania-2017 roommate from the Philippines in Singapore on Aug.16 to collect some more input from Asia
-------- Пересылаемое сообщение--------
03.08.2018, 19:35, "Фархад Фаткуллин / Farkhad Fatkullin" <frhd(a)yandex.com>:
Thursday, 2 August 2018
Republic of Tatarstan Ministry for Informatization & Communication @ IT-park, Kazan
18:00-20:50
Meeting with Tatarstan Deputy Prime Minister - Minister for Informatization & Communications Roman Shaykhutdinov
http://mic.tatarstan.ru/eng/minister.htm
on opportunities Wikimedia projects & popularization thereof among the population of the Republic can bring for Tatarstan
In attendance:
* Almaz A. Valiullin, Director General of Tatarstan Center for Information Technologies http://mic.tatarstan.ru/eng/valiullin.htm
* Tatyana S. Kamaletdinova, CEO of Tatarstan Center for Information Technologies http://mic.tatarstan.ru/eng/kamaletdinova.htm
* Anna V. Yakovleva, Head of Ministry's Press-Service http://mic.tatarstan.ru/rus/about/structure_new?department_id=80576
* Farkhad N. Fatkullin, 2018 Wikimedian of the Year, Wikimedia Russia member https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Frhdkazan
Agenda:
1. Content creation contests
2. Education projects
3. How can these be organized in a systemic way, engaging students throughout all municipal districts of Tatarstan & Tatar diaspora globally, and assessing effectiveness of measures
4. Larger Tatar language internet development, promoting content creation in the language
5. .tatar domain
6. ContentTranslation
7. Generating lists for content creation
8. Free licenses
9. Wikidata
10. Regional educational Wiki-seminar for beginners, introduction & orientation
11. Smartphone oriented educational projects around Tatar & Tatar Wikipedia (beginning with Tatar version of www.kakprav.com & on to WOK Master type )
12. OSM in Tatar
13. The way forward: visiting WMF to discover other opportunities, MoU with WMF?
Decided:
1. Almaz Valiullin to head the Working Group on behalf of the Ministry
2. Next meeting set for / around 20th of August
3. Minister requested his staff to draft documents regarding moving all Regional & Municipal budget funded websites to CC-BY type free licenses
4. Minister proposed every organization website place a link to a Wikipedia article about it (in Tatar, Russian or English, depending on the language used)
5. Help is requested about developing simple samples or article creation guidelines for various institutions of Tatarstan & diaspora organizations to learn what is considered appropriate by Wiki-community & how should representatives of respective entities
6. Annual Tatar Internet Awards Ceremony to include awards to leading editors of Wikimedia projects in Tatar
7. Help is requested to develop a framework of Wikipedia Article Contests for Secondary School Children of Tatastan, with article quality assessment schemes (prizes & organization to be funded by Tatarstan goverment, promotion in local mass-media, schools & etc.)
8. Help is requested to develop a framework for a sustainable functioning of a Tatarstan & Tatar language oriented Wikimedia thematic organization to be responsible for systemic work around developing & promoting Wikimedia projects in Tatar, as well as Tatarstan-oriented content creation for various Wikis
9. Readiness to consider awarding *.tatar domain names to those, who develop attractive projects in Tatar that can't be hosted on Wikimedia platform or otherwise need a Tatar digital identity
10. Help is requested regarding drafting a program proposal, necessary budget & expected results for a Tatarstan oriented introductory Wiki-seminar, open for a wide public
11. Help is requested to provide links to Wikidata educational materials, Practical Use Cases & expert responses to the Deputy Minister (in English)
12. Help is requested in organizing a learning visit to WMF Headquarters during Tatarstan Delegation annual fall visit to Silicon Valley & other places in U.S. to discover other opportunities
--
Farkhad Fatkullin - Фархад Фаткуллин http://sikzn.ru/ Тел.+79274158066 / skype:frhdkazan / Wikipedia:frhdkazan
03.08.2018, 11:42, "Фархад Фаткуллин / Farkhad Fatkullin" <frhd(a)yandex.com>:
> Hi Nochole & Kui,
>
> Thank you for your responses & readiness to help.
>
> Events on the ground are developing following predictable course - we had a very constructive 3 hour long discussion last night with Tatarstan's Deputy Prime Minister (IT minister) & his team, whilst earlier Thursday I got an invite to meet with another Deputy Prime Minister (President of the National Council of Trustees for the World Congress of Tatars Association).
>
> More TV & magazine interviews are expected, some in detail articles in Russian promoting Wikimedia projects are in the pipelines (expecting to see the texts for necessary corrections & adding links to respective WMRU, Meta, WMF & related independent media articles (thanks to ComCom).
>
> I hope to find time to prepare & email both you (in English) & IT ministry's Working Group (in Russian) my summary of yesterday late evening meeting, with attendees, topics discussed, request & proposals, etc. They want to move as fast as possible, because this will help them to meet promoting Tatar language use online task they are charged with by the region's President.
>
> Just a few to begin with:
> * Ready to move all regional and municipal government websites into CC-BY, add links to respective WP articles from all these
> * Willing to have Tatarstan & Tatar language oriented thematic organization in place to work with secondary schools & Universities, GLAMS, diaspora
> * Ready to sponsor prizes for article writing contests (either through WMRU or this new entity)
> * Requesting guidance from myself & Wikimedia community on what's the best way to make this all successful
> * Interested in supporting WMRU organized general public educational Wiki-Seminar in Tatarstan Academy of Sciences or other respected facility with a large conference hall open to all public (September-October?)
> * Willing to visit WMF headquarters in November to meet, learn more about what's there (I admit I don't read all mailing lists or Meta discussions, don't have time to see all wonderful YouTube videos available, haven't yet have time to visit a single Wikimedia Conference) & possibly sign MoUs or whatever that would help speed up Wikimedia acceptance & popularity growth among the population of the region.
>
> I am in touch with Wikimedia RU & Wikimedia Languages of Russia Community's regarding ongoing developments, benefiting from collective wisdom of Wikimedians I know.
>
> Should you be ready to bring any ideas to the table, please shoot them my way.
>
> regards,
> farhad
>
> --
> Farkhad Fatkullin - Фархад Фаткуллин http://sikzn.ru/ Тел.+79274158066 / skype:frhdkazan / Wikipedia:frhdkazan
>
> 02.08.2018, 16:35, "Nichole Saad" <nsaad(a)wikimedia.org>:
>> Hi Farhad,
>>
>> First, congratulations on being named "Wikimedian of the Year!" We have received your letter, and are looking forward to engage with your ideas. Realistically, I'll be able to provide a more in depth response early next week.
>>
>> best regards,
>>
>> Nichole
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 1, 2018 at 2:45 PM Фархад Фаткуллин / Farkhad Fatkullin <frhd(a)yandex.com> wrote:
>>> Dear Sirs,
>>>
>>> This is from Farhad, User:frhdkazan (ComCom member, now a.k.a. 2018 Wikimedian of the Year) with some proposals about how to leverage a fleeting opportunity I got. Please read the text below this letter ASAP & think how you can help seize the moment. I'm looking forward to first ideas within 24 hours from now.
>>>
>>> Any support of yours would be greatly appreciated.
>>> Thanks a million.
>>> regards,
>>> farhad
>>>
>>> P.S. More on where I'm coming from can later be discovered @ http://frhd.narod.ru/resume-en.htm (dated, stopped my retainer contract with the Office of Tatarstan President in September 2013) & more up-to-date but in Russian @ http://sikzn.narod.ru/index/0-4 . I have previously translated & provided digital media with the link to Russian text of Wikimedia Blog post about Jess Wade https://ru.wikinews.org/wiki/?curid=176108 , & now contacted Asian colleagues to get similar content about Nahid Sultan & Wikimedia Bangladesh. Also on my agenda is to record a video-interview in Turkish for Wikimedia Turkey's communication campaign - I speak the language & we are in touch with Turkish community. I also need to get back to interpreting into Russian videos of Wikimania-2018 available on YouTube - maybe later this week, before I join my family for a few days off & then a week-long interpretation assignment in Singapore.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Farkhad Fatkullin - Фархад Фаткуллин http://sikzn.ru/ Тел.+79274158066 / skype:frhdkazan / Wikipedia:frhdkazan
>>>
>>> TRIGGER
>>> Following Jimmy's unexpected pass during Wikimania-2018 Closing Ceremony, I became an instant celebrity of sort - myself alone I've seen over 40 articles with positive PR about Wikipedia & wider body of Wikimedia projects,
>>> * one by RT in Russian collecting over 1.1 million Facebook likes in under 8 hours from publication
>>> * short positive ones from Russian Federation government's Official gazette & Russkiy Mir Foundation
>>> * first ever mention that people can donate to Wikimedia Russia volunteers organization for us to be able to fund local Wiki-seminars, conferences & contests (WMF is not funding Wikimedia Russia & can't allow us to use donate link from Russian Wikipedia or place a link to "Thank you, but we don't accept donations from Russia" page where users from Russia are being routed
>>> * about to get one with links published to various WMF & Wikimedia Russia projects, including promoting free licenses, Education & GLAM programs, etc.
>>> I'm periodically collecting these @ https://tt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Википедия:Безнең_турында_матбугатта#Ел_викиме… when time permits, but there's more in my Facebook Messenger.
>>>
>>> CONTEXT
>>> This is also generating very positive attention on behalf of the Republic of Tatarstan government, as well as our regional NGO partner, Selet Youth Education Foundation, with whom yet unrecognized Tatar Wikimedians are jointly running Selet WikiSchool project. https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/News/May_2018/Selet_WikiSchool The latter want to introduce this joint initiative, as well as Wikimedia Russia executive director Stanislav Kozlovsky (Ph.D. in Psychology, Researcher & a Senior lecturer at Moscow State University) and myself to the President of Tatarstan during his visit to their Annual International Forum of Tatar-speaking High-School Age Youth on August 6th. Unrelated to that I was yesterday called up by a good acquaintance of mine (Tatarstan Vice Prime-Minister, Minister for IT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Shaykhutdinov ), who invited me to have a talk with him tomorrow about how promoting Wikimedia projects in wider Tatar-speaking world (only about 25% of Tatars live in Tatarstan) can help him get whatever current President wants him to do to develop Tatar language use online. There are some other Tatarstan Prime-Minister Office level things in the pipeline, & I am also waiting for a call from Russian Federation ex-IT Minister https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Nikiforov , whom I know from his years in Tatarstan government as well (until 2012). FYI: Wikimedia movement is still unknown in Russia, with local mass media outlets are predominantly speaking about Wikipedia in Russian when there is some lapse that can be exploited to show one's Russian patriotism & thus score some points (basically same political circus, as what we are seeing in U.S. with Russia-collusion story in the overdrive, just opposite direction), and here we get something to reverse the situation big time, explaining to the wide public that it's not only Ok, but even desirable they engage with Wikimedia projects.
>>>
>>> IDEA
>>> Keeping in mind that Tatarstan President is the head of both Russia-Islamic World Strategic Vision Group & Association of Innovative Regions of Russia, Jimmy gave me a-hell-of-an-opportunity for an elevator pitch for Wikimedia movement in Russia and some adjacent counties (think Turkey & Central Asia), and I would really hate seeing it go unused. I will do my part here (about CC-BY for regional government controlled websites, Wikipedia Education Program as an extracurricular activity in all secondary school & universities, GLAM, as well as some locally funded carrots for participants), but I also want your help in driving this to a home-run. Every fall Tatarstan President & the delegation is visiting Silicon Valley & other places of interest in U.S. & it would be great if we could set-up a physical visit to Wikimedia Foundation, with a first hand presentation of best international practices the movement if proud of & have some MoU on cooperation signed (as a bureaucratic basis for continuing the conversation) with either some department in Tatarstan government, just like the one you signed with the Mexican Ministry of Culture www.eluniversal.com.mx/cultura/secretaria-de-cultura-y-wikimedia-firman-con…. To set the context, Tatarstan has such formal documents with a number of American companies & institutions, with our private English-speaking IT Univesity @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innopolis having been developed jointly with Carnegie Mellon University (with consultancy fees paid by Tatastan), we have Russia's first publicly funded hospital certified to be meeting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Commission requirements & plenty of U.S. investors @ our https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabuga_Special_Economic_Zone . On top of this, we could benefit from having Selet Youth Educational movement http://selet.biz/en/ to embrace Wiki even further, so maybe a similar MoU on collaboration between them and Wikiedu.org signed simultaneously would be great (I met LiAnna and Jami in Montreal last year & was really impressed with what these guys are doing).
>>>
>>> REQUEST
>>> Please shoot something my way before the same time tomorrow, for me to handle the meeting with Tatarstan Deputy Prime Minister more effectively to progressively open other opportunities I've touched on. On top of what I described above & my last year's ideas @ https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Frhdkazan/Wiki4RegionalDevt (in Russian), I'll be bringing to the table topics of:
>>> * Wikidata
>>> * OSM, as well as a
>>> * WOK-like project for all things in Tatar (I was contacted by a local 9th grader who, on his own initiative with a help of a teacher, did something similar for students who want to train for Russian-language SAT/ACT type exam www.kakprav.com & now offered to develop such or bigger thing for Tatar). For more on WOK, see https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/wikipedia-wok-seek-nigerian-content-onl…
>>> * whatever else you or anybody else can help me think of until then & or later opportunities
>>
>> --
>> Nichole Saad
>> Wikimedia Foundation | Senior Program Manager, Education
>> nsaad(a)wikimedia.org
>> user: NSaad (WMF)
-------- Конец пересылаемого сообщения --------
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Farkhad Fatkullin - Фархад Фаткуллин http://sikzn.ru/ Тел.+79274158066 / skype:frhdkazan / Wikipedia:frhdkazan