*You can find this message translated into additional languages on
Meta-wiki.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Boa…>
(translations
from the Movement Strategy and Governance team will be posted within the
next day) *Please help translate to your language
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Translate&group=page-W…>
Hi All,
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Call for Feedback: Board of
Trustees elections so far. The Movement Strategy and Governance team
suggested another question was still under discussion. As of today, we
announce the last key question:
How should affiliates participate in elections?
Affiliates are an important part of the Wikimedia movement. Two seats of
the Board of Trustees due to be filled this year were filled in 2019
through the Affiliate-selected Board seats process. A change in the Bylaws
removed the distinction between community and affiliate seats
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bylaws&type=revision&dif…>.
This leaves the important question: How should affiliates be involved in
the selection of new seats?
The question is broad in the sense that the answers may refer not just to
the two seats mentioned, but also to other, Community- and
Affiliate-selected seats. The Board is hoping to find an approach that will
both engage the affiliates and give them actual agency, and also optimize
the outcomes in terms of selecting people with top skills, experience,
diversity, and wide community's support.
The Board of Trustees is seeking feedback about this question especially,
although not solely, from the affiliate community. Everyone is invited to
share proposals and join the conversation in the Call for Feedback
channels. In addition to collecting online feedback, the Movement Strategy
and Governance team will organize several video calls with affiliate
members to collect feedback. These calls will be at different times and
include Trustees.
Due to the late addition of this third question, the Call will be extended
until 16 February.
Join the conversation.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Boa…>
Best,
Movement Strategy and Governance
--
Jackie Koerner (she/her) Communication Specialist, Movement Strategy and
Governance Location: Midwestern US (UTC-6)
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear Wikimedians,
The Community Development team at the Wikimedia Foundation has been
thinking about an online learning platform for several years now. The onset
of the COVID-19 pandemic has focused us more strongly on building such a
platform to support learning and knowledge sharing across the movement, and
in early 2021, the team piloted <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiLearn>[1]
hosting two online courses using the Moodle platform.
We have now published a report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiLearn/Pilot_report>[2] about that
pilot program, with a description of the rationale, design considerations,
curriculum structure, and both learners' and our own evaluations of how it
went. The report concludes with a series of recommended next steps. The
team is actively pursuing those next steps, and they are going to be
submitted by the team in the upcoming annual plan process for the
Foundation's next fiscal year.
We invite you to read the report and ask any questions on the talk page. If
you are interested in taking part in teaching using this online learning
platform, please get in touch with the team by email to
comdevteam(a)wikimedia.org and tell us a bit about your plans, your subjects,
and your expected audience.
With best wishes for a healthy and productive 2022,
Community Development team
Wikimedia Foundation
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiLearn
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiLearn/Pilot_report
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
Greetings all!
Our UG have published an annual report on 2021 here https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/North-West_Russia_Wiki-Historians_User_Grou… . It is originally published in Russian and translated to English, so, I hope it’ll be understandable for most of subscribers of this list. I know, that most of people here aren’t interested in activity in a part of Russia, but anyway, I hope that maybe someone will find something interesting for them.
--
Nikolay Bulykin (User:Красный)
Dear All,
Wiki Loves Folklore is back this year on Wikimedia commons to be held from
1st of February till the 28th of February 2022. We need your support in
participation and translation of project pages to share a word in your
native language.
Concurrently with the photo contest we will be having a writing competition
called Feminism and Folklore. It will be held from 1st of February till the
31st of March 2022. We would like various Wikimedia communities to take
part in it.
Feel free to organise both the contest locally
We look forward for your immense participation in both the projects.
Warm regards,
Tiven Gonsalves (User:Tiven2240)
Coordinator WLF & FNF
*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Folklore_2022
*
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Folklore_2022/Organize
*
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Folklore_2022/Transla…
*https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Feminism_and_Folklore_2022
*https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Feminism_and_Folklore_2022/Project_Page
Hi, fellow Wikimedians,
QW2022 (Queering Wikipedia) is a global conference focused on LGBTQ+
communities and our representation on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia
projects in all languages.
If you are a Wikimedian and LGBTQ+ or a committed ally, please help
shape the proposal by providing feedback on what the priorities should
be, and how the event should run. You can give anonymous feedback
through the survey link below, or by copying the questions and
emailing in your responses in plain text.
Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLhbygKmWiyd8aemem2TcaOZ2UmL0y9YI…
Survey questions: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/QW2022/Survey
To read the proposal, add your support, ask questions or even
volunteer to join in and help make the event a success, see:
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/QW2022/Proposal
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/QW2022/Volunteer
Visit https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/LGBT to find out more about the
Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group and the different ways of talking with
fellow LGBTQ+ volunteers.
Different words and acronyms are used for communities within the
rainbow of sexualities and gender identities/expressions (e.g.
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual, non-binary,
two-spirit, third gender, LGBT+, LGBTQ+, LGBTQQ2IA*, QUILTBAG, SOGI).
"Queer" is used by us to represent all members of these communities
and work toward solidarity for those affected by related
discrimination.
Thank you and happy holidays!
QW2022 proposal team
--
Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_LGBT
Dear Wikimedians,
This year, the 9th edition of Wiki Loves Earth — the biggest international
photo contest devoted to nature heritage — was held. The competition aims
at raising public awareness about protected areas and creating the biggest
database of free photos of them. We are happy to announce the *international
winners of WLE 2021*!
The contest lasted between May 1 — August 31, with different countries
having different submission windows and united 34 countries and
territories. Among those, United Arab Emirates and Wales joined the
competition for the first time. We received over 64,000 freely licensed
photos of natural monuments from over 4300 people.
This year, the international winners represent *two categories* —
landscapes (including individual trees if it’s a nature monument) and
macro/close-up (animals, plants, fungi). The international jury team
<http://wikilovesearth.org/jury/> had a challenging task — to select up to
20 international winners out of 390 winning photos
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2021/Winners> on
the local level. Meet the winners by category in our blog post
<https://wikilovesearth.org/meet-wiki-loves-earth-2021-international-winners/>
. The jury report can be found at the links: high resolution
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wle-jury-report-2021-hires.pdf>, low
resolution
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wle-jury-report-2021-lores.pdf>.
Thanks a lot to each participant that uploaded photos, local organizers
that worked hard to make their contests happen, as well as local and
international jury members for their contribution and dedication to the
competition and evaluation. Stay tuned and follow our news, further — more!
Best regards,
Anastasiia Petrova
Project Manager for International Wiki Loves Earth 2021
Hello everyone,
I am pleased to announce the Steward Elections 2022 [1]. We are now taking
nominations from eligible candidates. Interested candidates can check their
eligibility and the procedure to submit the nomination on the guidelines
page [2]. We are open to candidate submissions until January 30, 2022,
23:59 (UTC).
As always, the confirmation of existing stewards [3] will take place at the
same time as the election, which begins on February 7, and will finish on
February 26, 2022.
Please remember, the voting has not yet begun and will not until February
7, 2022, 14:00 (UTC). We will remind you once again when the voting starts.
If you have any questions regarding the elections, feel free to contact me
or any other member of the Election Committee. You can also ask any
question in the #wikimedia-stewards-elections-chat IRC channel, or watch
updates in #wikimedia-stewards-elections.
Best regards,
Martin Urbanec
(On behalf of the Election Committee)
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Elections_2022
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Elections_2022/Guidelines
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Confirm/2022
Hi all,
The next Research Showcase will be live-streamed next Wednesday, January
19, at 9:30 AM PST/17:30 UTC. The theme is: Beyond English Wikipedia.
YouTube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRaCa-v8nfQ
As usual, you can join the conversation on IRC at #wikimedia-research. You
can also watch our past research showcases here:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase
The Showcase will feature the following talks:
Comparing Language Communities - Characterizing Collaboration in the
English, French and Spanish Language Editions of WikipediaBy *Taryn Bipat
<https://tarynbipat.me/> (Microsoft, formerly University of Washington)*Is
Wikipedia a standardized platform with a common model of collaboration or
is it a set of 312 active language editions with distinct collaborative
models? In the last 20 years, researchers have extensively analyzed the
complexities of group work that enable the creation of quality articles in
the English Wikipedia, but most of our intellectual assumptions about
collaborative practices on Wikipedia remain solely based on an Anglocentric
perspective. This research extends the current Anglocentric body of
literature in human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer-supported
cooperative work (CSCW) through three studies that mutually help build an
understanding of collaboration models in the English (EN), French (FR), and
Spanish (ES) editions of Wikipedia. In the first study, I replicated a
model by Viégas et al. (2007) based on editors' behaviors in the English
Wikipedia. This model was used as a lens to examine collaborative activity
in EN, FR, and ES. In the second study, I leveraged a collaboration model
by Kriplean et al. (2007) that suggested editors used “power plays” – how
groups of editors claim control over article content through the discourse
of Wikipedia policy – in their talk page debates to justify their edits
made on articles. In the third study, I interviewed editors from each
language edition to build a typology of collaborative behavior and further
understand the editor's perceptions of power and authority on Wikipedia.
Understanding Wikipedia Practices Through Hindi, Urdu, and English Takes on
an Evolving Regional ConflictBy *Jacob Thebault-Spieker
<https://jacob.thebault-spieker.com/> (Information School, University of
Wisconsin – Madison)*Wikipedia is the product of thousands of editors
working collaboratively to provide free and up-to-date encyclopedic
information to the project’s users. This article asks to what degree
Wikipedia articles in three languages — Hindi, Urdu, and English — achieve
Wikipedia’s mission of making neutrally-presented, reliable information on
a polarizing, controversial topic available to people around the globe. We
chose the topic of the recent revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution
of India, which, along with other recent events in and concerning the
region of Jammu and Kashmir, has drawn attention to related articles on
Wikipedia. This work focuses on the English Wikipedia, being the preeminent
language edition of the project, as well as the Hindi and Urdu editions.
Hindi and Urdu are the two standardized varieties of Hindustani, a lingua
franca of Jammu and Kashmir. We analyzed page view and revision data for
three Wikipedia articles to gauge popularity of the pages in our corpus,
and responsiveness of editors to breaking news events and problematic
edits. Additionally, we interviewed editors from all three language
editions to learn about differences in editing processes and motivations,
and we compared the text of the articles across languages as they appeared
shortly after the revocation of Article 370. Across languages, we saw
discrepancies in article tone, organization, and the information presented,
as well as differences in how editors collaborate and communicate with one
another. Nevertheless, in Hindi and Urdu, as well as English, editors
predominantly try to adhere to the principle of neutral point of view
(NPOV), and for the most part, the editors quash attempts by other editors
to push political agendas.Best regards,
Emily
--
Emily Lescak (she / her)
Senior Research Community Officer
The Wikimedia Foundation