Hi folks,
Pete Forsyth wrote a new essay on the ambiguities of the NonCommercial
("non-commercial use only") provision in Creative Commons licenses,
which I wanted to share in case it's helpful for folks making the case
against using NC to cultural institutions or others (or in the
occasionally resurgent debate to permit NC within Wikimedia):
https://freedomdefined.org/The_non-commercial_provision_obfuscates_intent
It argues that NC is so ambiguous in its defining restriction that it
almost defeats the point of attaching a CC license at all. I feel this
complements the longer (dated!) essay at
https://freedomdefined.org/Licenses/NC nicely.
Warmly,
Erik
Hello everyone,
Hope everyone is safe and sound in the light of the ongoing Pandemic. I
would like to share an update regarding the progress of the Movement
Strategy and the design of the transition events.
The Transition Design Group [1] has been meeting over the past month to
discuss the design of the virtual events that will aim to facilitate
the inclusive
Transition process for the movement to start implementing the Movement
Strategy recommendations [2]. The Design Group discussions have been largely
centred around people and their ease of participation, processes for the
Transition events, and the legitimacy of the process, needed resources, and
communications [3]. Transition will be a turning point for our movement to
create a 18-month collaborative implementation work plan that will empower
our community and affiliates.
The virtual Transition events are being planned from the month of September
to December, 2020. We invite your feedback on the draft outline for the
transition events to ensure the events can be as inclusive, participative,
and engaging as possible [4]. The draft outline offers both light and
detailed information regarding the events. The Transition events aim to be
easy to join only once or for multiple events. They are for everyone,
whether a newcomer or a seasoned strategy enthusiast. They are being
designed for diverse participation across time zones and regions in order
to create a movement-wide implementation plan. The review period for the
draft outline is till August 20. After receiving your feedback, the Design
Group will finalize the plan and the Wikimedia Foundation will ensure the
delivery of the events according to the design.
Please comment on the Meta talk page [4] and feel free to use the questions
below as an orientation:
1. How can the plan be improved? In your opinion, what are some barriers
to entry that must be lowered so everyone can take part in Transition?
2. How can we make sure that you and your community have what you need
to participate in the Transition events?
3. If you have attended other virtual events, what has your experience
been like and what lessons can be applied in this case?
You are also encouraged to share your individual feedback directly via
email strategy2030(a)wikimedia.org for any suggestions or ideas.
On behalf of the Design Team,
Rupika
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transit…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transit…
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transit…
We've published a new post
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2020/08/05/lessons-to-learn-from-wiki-loves-dubb…>
in Diff, the new community blog for Wikimedia Movement. It talks about the
new project in Catalan Wikipedia, named «Wiki Loves Dubbing». We explain
how it was born, which difficulties were found and how it can evolve in the
future.
With the initiative, born and focused in the Land of Valencia, we plan to
integrate voice acting into Wikipedia articles, and maybe to set a first
step into the path that the 9th recommendation of our 2030 Strategy states:
We should innovate in Fre Knowledge.
Although I'm happy with the response, the current campaign is just a summer
experiment. Let's see how it evolves, if so.
I invite all of you to read the post
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2020/08/05/lessons-to-learn-from-wiki-loves-dubb…>
and share your thoughts, if any.
Happy Summer to Everyone!
Francesc Fort
ca.wikipedia
Hi all,
If this were a more predictable year, Wikimedians from around the world
would be together this weekend at Wikimania Bangkok 2020, in the warm
hospitality of our remarkable Wikimedia ESEAP hosts. We’d be preparing for
a weekend of inspiring presentations, serendipitous meetings, and
fascinating conversations with Wikimedians from dozens of projects,
languages, and communities.
I miss these moments of togetherness, and seeing people in person. Even
though we’re mostly known as an online community, in-person events have
always been part of the fabric of the Wikimedia movement. They are how we
have built working partnerships, friendships, and the skills that support
these remarkable projects over the years.
In March, I sent messages out to the movement, asking grantees to postpone
or cancel their in-person events until the World Health Organization
declares the COVID-19 pandemic over. Today, that seems wistfully optimistic
-- that we’d have this all wrapped up in six months! As we enter August the
COVID-19 pandemic is still with us and seems likely to be part of our lives
for some time to come.
*== Safer events guidance ==*
As we all learn to adapt and live with this new reality, we at the
Foundation want to offer more adaptable support for Wikimedia convenings.
We're already improving support for online events, but as different
countries and regions start to offer more flexible guidance for in-person
gatherings and travel, we expect to see more community interest for
resuming in-person meetings (with appropriate precautions). We want to
respond to this interest with tools and resources to help you assess your
options, including whether your community can more safely host an in-person
Wikimedia event.
We are developing some tools to support your decision-making process,
including a risk assessment calculator, to help you evaluate your own
situation. *Importantly, this will also include guidance on when not to
hold an event.* This tool is developed in a way that should be flexible to
use for all community members, regardless of your country and the size of
your event.
We’re also creating a checklist of precautions, including resources with
tips and suggestions for how to prepare, evaluate, and follow up on any
event. Finally, we’re working to create a list of suggested types of
events, such as walking tours, photo hunts, and community picnics, all of
which can help meet the demand for safer in-person gatherings.
*== Your feedback ==*
Living through a global pandemic of this scale is new for all of us -- and
the best way to navigate this change is with the support of your community.
In that spirit, the events team will start reaching out to affiliate
leaders and potential grantees next week for their feedback and advice on
these proposed resources. We’re asking for your help shaping these tools to
make them as useful as possible for our diverse global community, with all
the varied contexts our movement works in.
I look forward to sharing more about these tools, as well as additional
information about event support and grants toward the end of August.
Until then, please stay safe and take care -- I look forward to the next
time we see each other again.
Katherine
--
Katherine Maher (she/her)
CEO
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear Wikimedians,
I have posted the digest for Wikimedia Clinic #007. [1]
The topics discussed were:
* Statistics tools demonstrations (+Bonus demonstration of stylometric
analysis to uncover sock puppets)
* What is "Wikimedia research"
* In person events
* Wikimedia in Mainland China
* Technical feedback on Jitsi
I encourage those of you interested in any of the above topics to read the
digest. [1]
In a couple of hours, at 18:00 (6pm) UTC, we will be having Wikimedia
Clinic #008, at this link[2]. The call today would feature a short talk by
Leila Zia, director of the Research team at the Wikimedia Foundation,
offering an overview of what the team does as well as some recent research
examples, but the call will as always also welcome whatever
Wikimedia-related topics attendees want to bring on.
PLEASE NOTE: experimentally, this call will take place using the free
software Jitsi-based Wikimedia Meet. Desktop/laptop computers can connect
directly via the link[2] but if you want to connect using a mobile device
(phone or tablet) you will need to download the Jitsi app[3] first and use
that to connect via the link[2].
A.
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Clinics/007
[2] https://meet.wmcloud.org/WikimediaClinic008
[3] https://jitsi.org/downloads/https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Clinic/007
Asaf Bartov (he/him/his)
Senior Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org
Dear all,
I hope you are fine and healthy amid the difficult times.
After the Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2020
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Meeting_2020> was cancelled
and postponed for 2021 due the COVID-19 pandemic, we came up with the idea
of organising an online conference in order to keep continuity and discuss
the major ongoings in the Wikimedia movement. The online event is planned
to take place as the Wikimedia CEE Online Meeting 2020
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Online_Meeting_2020> from
2-4 October and it will be labelled with the slogan "Stay Stronger Online!".
The programme for the event will be modest compared to the in-person
conferences because of the technical difficulties and the different
participants' environment. About a half of the time slots will be reserved
for sessions on pre-selected topics covering major ongoings in the
movement, while the other half will be filled with session proposals
received through a call for submissions with three tracks in the submission
process: COVID-19, Basic capacity development and Advanced capacity
development. *The deadline for submitting session proposals
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Online_Meeting_2020/Submissio…>
is
23:59 (CEST) on 31 August 2020.*
Considering that this is planned to be an online event, we decided to *extend
the eligibility for participation beyond the CEE communities and allow
every interested individual contributor from the Wikimedia movement to take
part (see list of interested participants
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Online_Meeting_2020/Participa…>)*.
That said, we hope that this online event will be enriched and diversified
with the participation of people outside the CEE region.
Stay safe and healthy!
Best regards,
Kiril Simeonovski
I can see a problem in making a site that contains non free information
freely available to the public. Even if you restricted it to NC and ND
licenses, you risk getting flak from both the reusers and the uploaders
when there are disputes as to whether a particular use is commercial, or
such a poor copy of a work that it counts as derivative. And anything less
free than NC or ND licensed material would be a copyright violation to post
on the internet.
But there is I think a project sized niche that would be a good fit with
the community. A not yet free project.
-
WikiNotYetFree would hold but not make available, works that are not yet
free, list them, categorise them even build metadata for them, and every
year a new tranche of them would be migrated to WikiSource or Wikimedia
Commons as appropriate. You could even have planned uses or deferred edits
"when this image becomes public domain, use it with this caption to replace
this image on Wikidata or Wikipedia". One of the key bits of data with
each item would be the date or criteria when its copyright lapses and it
becomes public domain.
OK those who cherish the instant gratification of your edit immediately
going live to humanity will probably not be tempted to work on a project
where some of the material will be marked "migrate to Commons in 2090". But
some of us rather like the idea of leaving a digital legacy that will
persist for generations after we have been composted.
A commercial organisation could not take on such a project where most of
the benefit won't be seen for decades to come. But a charity can think long
term. Of course some of these materials will be available in decades to
come and could be loaded to Commons as and when they come out of copyright,
but just because we can get a digital copy of something now we cannot be
certain that digital copies will be available in decades to come - unless
of course we have archived them into a repository such as WikiNotYetFree
Deletion processes on Wikimedia Commons and elsewhere would be radically
changed if one of the options was now "move to WikiNotYetFree until it
comes out of copyright".
Anyone could access the metadata, but only admins and the individual
uploader would be able to access the files that someone had actually
uploaded.
It also raises the possibility of an outreach campaign to creatives such as
photographers, asking them to preserve their legacy by putting a clause in
their wills to release their intellectual property under CC-BY-SA once
they've died. "You can't take it with you, but you can make sure your work
is not forgotten"
Now that Wikipedia is almost twenty years old, and the WMF has an endowment
fund, we can start to plan and talk long term with a credibility that
younger organisations and those that lack an endowment fund lack.
I have started a project request at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiNotYetFree
WSC
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: New essay on the ambiguity of NC licenses (Erik Moeller)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2020 23:50:57 -0700
> From: Erik Moeller <eloquence(a)gmail.com>
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] New essay on the ambiguity of NC licenses
> Message-ID:
> <CABR1GJvTG0xt4s-U0vuzCD_70N-sS6gYhfXFRxKRp-7=
> zVR5XA(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> On Sun, Aug 2, 2020 at 3:52 PM Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I don't think we should mix NC with free-knowledge licenses .
> > I do absolutely think we should maintain an archive, visible to the
> public
> > with at most a simple hoop to jump through, of material that is offered
> to
> > us in any legal way but not yet free.
>
> Such an archive would _unavoidably_ "mix NC with free-knowledge
> licenses" -- because all collaborative and transformative work
> happening in the archive itself would be released under free knowledge
> licenses. Worse, any meaningful transformations of the archived works
> would result in derivative works that remain nonfree, directly
> enlisting volunteers in the creation of nonfree knowledge.
>
> In any event, why create an archive for works under borderline terms,
> while ignoring more restricted works that could be plausibly released
> under a free license tomorrow? Works that are nonfree for simple
> economic reasons (e.g., some old but useful textbook) may often be
> easier to "set free" than those which are nonfree for reasons of
> longstanding policy (e.g, the WHO example). Why amass the latter and
> ignore the former? I don't see how this would strengthen Wikimedia's
> free knowledge commitment, but I can easily see how it could weaken it
> considerably and very quickly, whether or not that's the intent.
>
> To be clear, I think creating free summaries and descriptions of
> nonfree works (from traditional textbooks and scientific papers to
> Khan Academy videos) is very much in line with the Wikimedia mission.
> I don't think it requires hosting the works. To the extent that there
> is concern about losing access to works that are currently available
> via public URLs, the use of Internet Archive enabled citation URLs
> provides a great example for how to avoid such link rot.
>
> I'm sure there are also plenty of tech and non-tech ways Wikimedia
> could support volunteers and chapters that work on outreach to set
> more educational works free, none of which require the creation of a
> nonfree archive.
>
> Warmly,
> Erik
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> End of Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 197, Issue 10
> ********************************************
>