Dear Wikimedians,
Join us for this months' education office hours on 23rd March at 12:00 UTC
<https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1616500849>! The office hours is a
dedicated online space to have conversations and discussions related to
Wikimedia and education activities, listen and learn from each other's
projects and experiences.
This month we are looking forward to sharing updates from the education
team. and also to learn from your work. You can find more details and the
agenda of the meeting here:
https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/About/Office_Hours/March_23_2…
Looking forward to seeing you then, Please let me know if you have any
questions.
Do you want to reach out to the education team for a 1:1 consultation?
Request for a slot for consultation for your education work (
ttps://outreach.wikimedia.
org/wiki/Education/About/Office_Space
<https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/About/Office_Space> ) by
filling this google form ( http://bit.ly/EduOfficeSpace )
Dhanyabaad!
--
Sailesh Patnaik (He/Him)
Program Associate, Education
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear all,
Do you care about safety, inclusivity, and friendliness in the Wikimedia
movement? Are you interested in the guidelines and policies that guide it?
Do you have any experience with how they are applied? Do you have ideas
about well-functioning enforcement pathways in general? This is your chance
to get involved!
We are looking for volunteers to join the Drafting Committee for the
guidelines of enforcement for the Universal Code of Conduct. If you are
interested, please read the following important information for candidates
and our essay on an ideal committee
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Drafting_committe…>
[1].
-
Who will be on the committee? - eight or nine volunteers, two or three
affiliate staff members, and three or four Foundation staff members
(depending on how many candidates apply)
-
When will the committee be active? - April 26 - November 30, 2021.
Please be aware that we will prioritize a comprehensive community review
over a hard deadline, so the active period for the committee might get
extended. There will be a break in Committee duties for a rest period while
community discussions are active. For a more detailed timeline see here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Drafting_committe…>
[2].
-
What will they do? Understand the current Universal Code of Conduct
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct> [3].
Read background material and draft the enforcement strategies for the
Universal Code of Conduct that will outline pathways of implementation. See
more information here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct> [4].
-
How will they work? They will meet online and work on shared documents.
A facilitation team will help them to organize the work, and experts in
different areas will be available to provide support. Sessions will include
a combination of teamwork and asynchronous work and will have elements of
multimedia, facilitated activities, discussion and collaborative work.
-
How much time should I plan to spend per week? There will be online
meetings (1-2 hours per week), as well as background reading in the early
phases resulting in up to 5-8 hours each week. There will be a full break
and a period of reduced activity over the summer. For more details see the
timeline here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Drafting_committe…>
[2].
-
What skills should I bring to the process? Ideally you would have
experience in policy drafting as well as in the application of policies and
enforcement of rules, experience in cooperating online and in writing in
English. We would also love our candidates to have empathy; for example,
experience in mentoring, resolving difficult disputes, and communicating
with compassion are valuable. Experience applying a trauma-informed lens
and working within anti-racist and anti-oppresisve frameworks would be
highly valued.
-
How will the committee members be selected? The Trust and Safety Team
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety> [5] together
with the Legal
Team <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal> [6] of the Wikimedia
Foundation will vet all candidates. Then, the Vice president of Community
Resilience and Sustainability, Maggie Dennis
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mdennis_(WMF)> [7], will choose
committee members based on the level of skills and experience of candidates
in combination with diversity factors.
If you are interested in applying, please let us know before April 19 by
signing up below or mail to Christel Steigenberger
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:EmailUser/CSteigenberger_(WMF)> [8].
Please include your username and link to your userpage of your home wiki
and provide links demonstrating your experience. Let us know about the
roles you hold or held in Wikimedia or similar organizations. Feel free to
add any additional information that will help us make an informed choice.
Please forward this message to any volunteers or affiliate staff members
you think might be interested, and encourage them to apply and help us
spread the word. We also welcome your help translating this message on meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Drafting_committe…>
[9].
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Christel Steigenberger
Senior Trust and Safety Specialist
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Drafting_committe…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Drafting_committe…
[3] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct
[5] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety
[6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal
[7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mdennis_(WMF)
[8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:EmailUser/CSteigenberger_(WMF)
[9]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct/Drafting_committe…
Christel Steigenberger (she/her)
Senior Trust and Safety Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
In this showcase, Prof. Danielle Bassett will present recent work studying
individual and collective curiosity as network building processes using
Wikipedia.
Date/Time: March 17, 16:30 UTC (9:30am PT/12:30pm ET/17:30pm CET)
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw2s_Y4J2tI
Speaker: Danielle Bassett (University of Pennsylvania)
Title: The curious human
Abstract: The human mind is curious. It is strange, remarkable, and
mystifying; it is eager, probing, questioning. Despite its pervasiveness
and its relevance for our well-being, scientific studies of human curiosity
that bridge both the organ of curiosity and the object of curiosity remain
in their infancy. In this talk, I will integrate historical, philosophical,
and psychological perspectives with techniques from applied mathematics and
statistical physics to study individual and collective curiosity. In the
former, I will evaluate how humans walk on the knowledge network of
Wikipedia during unconstrained browsing. In doing so, we will capture
idiosyncratic forms of curiosity that span multiple millennia, cultures,
languages, and timescales. In the latter, I will consider the fruition of
collective curiosity in the building of scientific knowledge as encoded in
Wikipedia. Throughout, I will make a case for the position that individual
and collective curiosity are both network building processes, providing a
connective counterpoint to the common acquisitional account of curiosity in
humans.
Related papers:
Hunters, busybodies, and the knowledge network building associated with
curiosity. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/undy4
The network structure of scientific revolutions.
http://arxiv.org/abs/2010.08381https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase#March_2021
--
Janna Layton (she/her)
Administrative Associate - Product & Technology
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hello everyone!
The Wikimedia Foundation Community Events Team
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Events_team> will
continue hosting monthly office hours for any community members who are
interested. This is a place where movement event organizers can join and
share ideas and lessons with each other for upcoming and past events.
This iteration of the office hours will take place on Thursday March 18,
2021 at 14:00 UTC <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1616076055>and will last
for an hour. Find the link to join on meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Events_team/OfficeHour…>.
*This month is open with no pre-set topic. You are welcome to bring any
questions or discussion points related to community events that you like
and we will keep the hour informal. *
You can find more information about upcoming officer hours and add your
comments and questions here and on the talk page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Events_team/OfficeHours
Please pass this invite to others who may be interested in joining! We hope
to see you there! If you would like to host a specific topic or event
debrief at a future office hours please let me know!
--
Rachel Farrand
Senior Program Officer
Community Events Team
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi all,
Join the Research Team at the Wikimedia Foundation [1] for their monthly
Office hours on 2021-03-16 at 16:00-17:00 UTC (9am PT/5pm CET).
To participate, join the video-call via this link [2]. There is no set
agenda - feel free to add your item to the list of topics in the etherpad
[3] (You can do this after you join the meeting, too.), otherwise you are
welcome to also just hang out. More detailed information (e.g. about how to
attend) can be found here [4].
Through these office hours, we aim to make ourselves more available to
answer some of the research related questions that you as Wikimedia
volunteer editors, organizers, affiliates, staff, and researchers face in
your projects and initiatives. Some example cases we hope to be able to
support you in:
-
You have a specific research related question that you suspect you
should be able to answer with the publicly available data and you don’t
know how to find an answer for it, or you just need some more help with it.
For example, how can I compute the ratio of anonymous to registered editors
in my wiki?
-
You run into repetitive or very manual work as part of your Wikimedia
contributions and you wish to find out if there are ways to use machines to
improve your workflows. These types of conversations can sometimes be
harder to find an answer for during an office hour, however, discussing
them can help us understand your challenges better and we may find ways to
work with each other to support you in addressing it in the future.
-
You want to learn what the Research team at the Wikimedia Foundation
does and how we can potentially support you. Specifically for affiliates:
if you are interested in building relationships with the academic
institutions in your country, we would love to talk with you and learn
more. We have a series of programs that aim to expand the network of
Wikimedia researchers globally and we would love to collaborate with those
of you interested more closely in this space.
-
You want to talk with us about one of our existing programs [5].
Hope to see many of you,
Martin (WMF Research Team)
[1] https://research.wikimedia.org/team.html
[2] https://meet.jit.si/WMF-Research-Office-Hours
[3] https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Research-Analytics-Office-hours
[4] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Office_hours
[5] https://research.wikimedia.org/projects.html
--
Martin Gerlach
Research Scientist
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi,
These changes are not arbitrary, they are a necessity to keep the replicas
functioning. With the growth experienced in the last years (commons,
wikidata) the current technology used by Wikireplicas is not feasible. I’ve
outlined more technical details in a cloud mailing list response: [1]
We have been keeping track of all the code posted that uses cross-wiki
joins, and are planning to analyze more from logs. [2] was made to figure
out common use cases and possibilities to enable them.
If you need help evaluating how you will be affected or migrating your code
please reach out in the #wikimedia-cloud IRC channel,
cloud(a)lists.wikimedia.org mailing list or make a task in Phabricator
#Data-Services [3].
[1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/cloud/2021-March/001436.html
[2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T215858
[3] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/2874/
On Sun, Mar 14, 2021 at 12:15 AM Daniel Schwen <lists(a)schwen.de> wrote:
> This is the next step after disallowing user databases on replicas. It
> broke some of my tools but I recently rewrote them to move joining logic
> into my application. I also replicate small amounts of data (e.g. page
> titles for a subset of pages) into my user db for joins.
> I found it quite off-putting at first. Volunteers are effectively forced
> to do substantial amounts of extra work after creating tools that "work
> perfectly fine".
> But I can understand the need to provide more scalable infrastructure with
> the ever growing projects.
>
> On Sat, Mar 13, 2021, 3:46 PM Yetkin Sakal via Cloud <
> cloud(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
>> I completely agree with Maarten. It would be a step backward to stop
>> supporting cross-database joins on wiki replicas. This is a breaking change
>> and should not be applied unless a feasible solution to the problem is
>> found.
>> On Saturday, March 13, 2021, 8:17:39 PM GMT+3, Maarten Dammers <
>> maarten(a)mdammers.nl> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi Joaquin,
>>
>> Completely nothing was done with the community input about not being able
>> to do cross wiki joins anymore [1]. In the past the WMF would do something
>> with community input. I guess the new strategy is to just give the
>> appearance of community input to legitimize a decision. Nice way to
>> alienate the volunteers.
>>
>> Maarten
>>
>> [1]
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/cloud/2020-November/thread.html#1309
>> On 12-03-2021 19:16, Joaquin Oltra Hernandez wrote:
>>
>> TLDR:
>> - Instead of `*.db.svc.eqiad.wmflabs` use `*.db.svc.wikimedia.cloud` to
>> use the new replicas
>> - Quarry will migrate March 23 to use the new cluster
>> - In a ~month (April 15) the old cluster will start retiring. See
>> https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/News/Wiki_Replicas_2020_Redesign#Timeli…
>> for more details
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I'm happy to announce that the new replicas cluster is available for use
>> after a few weeks open for testing.
>>
>> To use the new cluster, you will only need to change the hostname when
>> connecting to the databases. Instead of `*.db.svc.eqiad.wmflabs` you can
>> use `*.db.svc.wikimedia.cloud`. See:
>>
>> -
>> https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/News/Wiki_Replicas_2020_Redesign#New_ho…
>> -
>> https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/News/Wiki_Replicas_2020_Redesign#How_ca…
>> - https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Toolforge/Database
>>
>>
>> This brings us to the timeline updates:
>>
>> https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/News/Wiki_Replicas_2020_Redesign#Timeli…
>>
>> - March 2021
>> - Announce new cluster domains for all users - March 12
>> - Migrate Quarry to use the new cluster - March 23
>> - April 2021
>> - PAWS migration - Estimated first week of April
>> - Migrate the old cluster to utilize new replication hosts. Replication
>> may stop. - April 15
>> - Redirect old hostnames to the new cluster - April 28
>>
>> Quarry is ready so it will transition first to use the new replicas. This
>> will happen on March 23, at which point we will deploy the changes and
>> update the docs. We are publishing a note on Tech news but if there are
>> other venues where this information would be useful please help us spread
>> the word.
>>
>> PAWS is in the process of being migrated. We estimate it could be ready
>> to use the new cluster at the beginning of April, and will publish more
>> details as soon as we know.
>>
>> On April 15 the old cluster will be moved under the new replication
>> hosts, at which point there may be side effects and replication may stop.
>> We recommend you update your code earlier to use the new hostnames to
>> verify things are working normally.
>>
>> Not long after, the old hostnames (`*.db.svc.eqiad.wmflabs`) will be
>> redirected to the new ones (`*.db.svc.wikimedia.cloud`), at which point the
>> old cluster will effectively be inaccessible.
>>
>>
>> If you have questions or need help please reply to
>> cloud(a)lists.wikimedia.org, join the #wikimedia-cloud IRC channel, or
>> open a ticket in Phabricator with the Data-Services tag.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia Cloud Services announce mailing listCloud-announce(a)lists.wikimedia.org (formerly labs-announce@lists.wikimedia.org)https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/cloud-announce
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia Cloud Services mailing listCloud(a)lists.wikimedia.org (formerly labs-l@lists.wikimedia.org)https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/cloud
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia Cloud Services mailing list
>> Cloud(a)lists.wikimedia.org (formerly labs-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org)
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/cloud
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia Cloud Services mailing list
>> Cloud(a)lists.wikimedia.org (formerly labs-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org)
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/cloud
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia Cloud Services mailing list
> Cloud(a)lists.wikimedia.org (formerly labs-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org)
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/cloud
>
--
Joaquin Oltra Hernandez
Developer Advocate - Wikimedia Foundation
Hello,
We are happy to announce that the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group [1]
will run a proofread contest [2] from 15 March 2021 to 14 April 2021 on
Bengali Wikisource in collaboration with Two Centuries of Indian Print
project (TCIP) [3] of British Library.
The TCIP project officials are uploading the public domain books under
their collection on Wikimedia Commons [4]. From the user group, we are
working on the next steps like renaming files, indexing, metadata related
work on Wikidata etc. and will be organizing the event.
The top five winners will receive T-shirts and/or books from the user group
and digital certificates from British Library.
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
On behalf of West Bengal Wikimedians User Group
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/West_Bengal_Wikimedians
[2] https://bn.wikisource.org/s/gpia
[3] https://www.bl.uk/projects/two-centuries-of-indian-print
[4]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Two_Centuries_of_Indian_Print
BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Qiuwen) - NetBlocks, the internet freedom advocacy group,
says Wikipedia was blocked in Myanmar by the authorities.
NetBlocks confirms "all language editions of Wikipedia" were down in Myanmar
starting Thursday morning local time. In a tweet [1], Netblocks said, this is
"part of a widening post-coup internet censorship regime imposed by the
military junta."
Netblocks provided additional information in a picture attached to the tweet,
suggests that they have tested the connectivity of Wikipedia in English and
French, Wikidata, and wikimedia.org, with none of them accessible. This may
intimate that it is highly that the Burmese authorities not only blocked "all
language editions of Wikipedia," but all Wikimedia projects, as a whole. The
picture also suggests that Wikipedia remains inaccessible across four different
internet service providers in Myanmar.
It is likely that the Burmese authorities are blocking Wikimedia projects
using the same tactic seen in China and some other countries, which is by
blocking the main IP address Wikipedia and its sister projects uses. All
Wikimedia projects share the same IP address, which makes it an easy target by
censors to implement a block.
Qiuwen noticed that starting from February 19th, there was a noticeable
increase of edits made from IP addresses that were likely to be used for VPNs
on Burmese Wikipedia, signaling locals may have to use VPNs to get onto
Wikipedia already. On Friday evening local time, an administrator posted a
message on the Village Pump of Burmese Wikipedia, explaining the use of "IP
block exemption," a special MediaWiki flag, similar to rollback and patrol,
allowing users with the flag to edit from VPNs. A similar banner was also set
up, visible on every page of Burmese Wikipedia. The "IP block exemption" flag
is widely issued to users of Chinese Wikipedia, and previously, users of
Turkish Wikipedia, who needed VPNs to access.
Internet blackouts are increasingly common in Myanmar and across the world.
The military shut down the internet before they attempted the coup on February
\1st, and the military authority has blocked or temporarily blocked Facebook
and other social media platforms starting February 3rd. Usages of VPNs
reportedly skyrocketed for locals eager to access blocked websites. NetBlocks
says the authorities have been implementing an "internet curfew," as the
internet shut down during the nights.
This also means Myanmar has joined an increasingly bigger club of countries
that had blocked Wikipedia. Its recent members include Iran, which blocked
Wikipedia for around 24 hours in March 2020, and Venezuela in January 2019.
In countries such as Iran, Internet blackouts also interfered with the
Wikimedia movement, such as Iran's week-long blackout in November 2019 had
delayed the Wikipedia Asian Month edit-a-thon. China, the "permanent member"
of the club, blocked Wikipedia since 2015. It is not clear whether or not the
block on Wikimedia projects will be lifted in the future, similar to what the
Iranian and Turkish authorities had done.
The Wikimedia Foundation has yet to comment on the block. Myanmar Wikimedia
Community User Group, the Wikimedia user group representing Myanmar, has also
yet to comment. Their Facebook page was last updated on January 16th, two
weeks before the military coup.
----
Qiuwen is a news service operated by the Wikimedians of Mainland China user group[2].
Follow us for the latest Wikimedia news in greater China.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Follow us on Telegram: https://t.me/Qiuwen
[1]: https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1362814793502097409
[2]: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_of_Mainland_China