June 2022 - Wikimedia-l - lists.wikimedia.org

Happy #May17 #IDAHOT #IDAHOTBITQ
by Željko Blaće 18 May '24

18 May '24

What is May 17th? The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia was created in 2004 to draw the attention to the violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex people and all other people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, and sex characteristics. The date of May 17th was specifically chosen to commemorate the World Health Organization’s decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. https://may17.org One year ago in 2020 we started QueeringW in hope #1 Queering Wikipedia conference would be happening with a year of delay...now we hope it is in 2022! Meanwhile we are "Together, we Resist, Support, and Heal" <https://twitter.com/may17org> Happy #May17 #IDAHOT #IDAHOTBITQ for those who celebrate and would support https://www.instagram.com/QueeringW @may17org <https://twitter.com/may17org> #IDAHOT <https://twitter.com/hashtag/IDAHOT?src=hashtag_click> #IDAHOT2021 <https://twitter.com/hashtag/IDAHOT2021?src=hashtag_click> https://twitter.com/QueeringW

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A collaboration between three Wikimedia affiliates to advance the technical capacities of the movement around Wikidata
by Maria Heuschkel 18 Jul '23

18 Jul '23

Dear everyone, As presented at last year's WikidataCon <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_VxTlBNkyk>, Wikimedia Deutschland has set out to find new ways for collaboration around Wikidata software development to enhance the diversity of our movement, increase Wikibase’s scalability and robustness and breathe life into our movement principles of knowledge equity. With a grant from Arcadia <https://www.arcadiafund.org.uk/>, a charitable fund administered by Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, we will be able to implement such a collaboration in the next two years. Today, we are happy to share an exciting update on the progress of this project with all of you. After spending the last few months with conversations with the movement groups who were interested in joining such a partnership, we have now reached a point where we can spread the news about the future partners and projects that will shape this Wikidata software collaboration. Wikimedia Indonesia, the Igbo Wikimedians User Group and Wikimedia Deutschland will be joining forces to advance the technical capacities of the movement around Wikidata development and with this, make the software and tools more usable by cultures underrepresented in technology, people of the Global South and speakers of minority languages. Wikimedia Indonesia, a non-profit organization based in Jakarta, Indonesia and established in 2008, is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development & dissemination of knowledge in Indonesian and other languages spoken in Indonesia. Since then, Wikimedia Indonesia has supported the development of 14 Wikipedias in the languages spoken in Indonesia, 12 regional Wikimedian communities spread across the country, and two Wikimedia project-based communities. For this project, in collaboration with Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia Indonesia wants to build up a software team of their own in the course of the next 2 years. The tools will hopefully help under-resourced language communities contributing to the flourishing of their languages online through lexicographical data, and also involving the local language communities in contributing to lexemes in Wikidata. Igbo Wikimedians is a group of Wikimedians that are committed to working on various wiki projects related to Igbo language <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_language> and culture. The user group is organizing projects around community building in the Igbo community, content improvement for Wikipedia and its sister project and has established its own Wikidata hub in 2021. The Igbo Wikimedia User Group and their program of the Wiki Mentor Africa <https://m.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Wiki_Mentor_Africa> is aiming at building up technical capacity in African Wikimedia communities by mentoring African developers for Wikidata Tool Development. Wikimedia Deutschland will support the user group in the implementation of their project and mentoring program. Wikimedia Deutschland has been founded in 2004 as a member’s association and is located in Berlin, Germany. Wikimedia Deutschland support communities like the Wikipedia community, develop software for Wikimedia projects and the ecosystem of Free Knowledge, and wants to improve the political and legal framework for Wikipedia and for Free Knowledge in general. Specifically, Wikimedia Deutschland has been working on the development of Wikidata since 2012. Since then, an active and vibrant community of volunteer editors and programmers, re-users, data donors, affiliates and more has formed around Wikidata. Wikimedia Deutschland will be responsible for the administrative setup of those collaborations and the communication with Arcadia. We are also happy to share our experiences and knowledge about establishing software teams, software development in the Wikidata/Wikibase environment, the Wikidata community and providing support for emerging tech communities. If you want to find out more about the partnership, you can read up on this on our project page on Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Software_Collaboration_for_Wikidata>, where we will keep updating the community on the progress of this collaboration. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions please use the talk page there to get in contact with us. We are all excited to see those collaborations coming to life! With kind regards, Igbo Wikimedians User Group Wikimedia Indonesia Wikimedia Deutschland -- Maria Heuschkel Projektmanagerin Softwareentwicklung Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0 https://wikimedia.de Unsere Vision ist eine Welt, in der alle Menschen am Wissen der Menschheit teilhaben, es nutzen und mehren können. Helfen Sie uns dabei! https://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.

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Next steps: Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) and UCoC Enforcement Guidelines
by Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight 01 May '23

01 May '23

Hello, The Community Affairs Committee of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees would like to thank everyone who participated in the recently concluded community vote on the Enforcement Guidelines for the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Universal_Code_of_Conduc…> . The volunteer scrutinizing group has completed the review of the accuracy of the vote and has reported the total number of votes received as 2,283. Out of the 2,283 votes received, 1,338 (58.6%) community members voted for the enforcement guidelines, and a total of 945 (41.4%) community members voted against it. In addition, 658 participants left comments, with 77% of the comments written in English. We recognize and appreciate the passion and commitment that community members have demonstrated in creating a safe and welcoming culture. Wikimedia community culture stops hostile and toxic behavior, supports people targeted by such behavior, and encourages good faith people to be productive on the Wikimedia projects. Even at this incomplete stage, this is evident in the comments received. The Enforcement Guidelines did reach a threshold of support necessary for the Board to review. However, we encouraged voters, regardless of how they were voting, to provide feedback on the elements of the enforcement guidelines. We asked the voters to inform us what changes were needed and in case it was prudent to launch a further round of edits that would address community concerns. Foundation staff who have been reviewing comments have advised us of the emerging themes. As a result, as Community Affairs Committee, we have decided to ask the Foundation to reconvene the Drafting Committee. The Drafting Committee will undertake another community engagement to refine the enforcement guidelines based on the community feedback received from the recently concluded vote. For clarity, this feedback has been clustered into four sections as follows: 1. To identify the type, purpose, and applicability of the UCoC training; 2. To simplify the language for more accessible translation and comprehension by non-experts; 3. To explore the concept of affirmation, including its pros and cons; 4. To review the conflicting roles of privacy/victim protection and the right to be heard. Other issues may emerge during conversations, particularly as the draft Enforcement Guidelines evolve, but we see these as the primary areas of concern for voters. Therefore, we are asking staff to facilitate a review of these issues. Then, after the further engagement, the Foundation should re-run the community vote to evaluate the redrafted Enforcement Outline to see if the new document is ready for its official ratification. Further, we are aware of the concerns with note 3.1 in the Universal Code of Conduct Policy. Therefore, we are directing the Foundation to review this part of the Code to ensure that the Policy meets its intended purposes of supporting a safe and inclusive community without waiting for the planned review of the entire Policy at the end of the year. Again, we thank all who participated in the vote and discussion, thinking about these complex challenges and contributing to better approaches to working together well across the movement. Best, Rosie *Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight *(she/her) Acting Chair, Community Affairs Committee Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> Board of Trustees <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

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Open proxies and IP blocking
by Florence Devouard 24 Mar '23

24 Mar '23

Hello friends Short version : We need to find solutions to avoid so many africans being globally IP blocked due to our No Open Proxies policy. *https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking* Long version : I'd like to raise attention on an issue, which has been getting worse in the past couple of weeks/months. Increasing number of editors getting blocked due to the No Open Proxies policy [1] In particular africans. In February 2004, the decision was made to block open proxies on Meta and all other Wikimedia projects. According to theno open proxiespolicy : Publicly available proxies (including paid proxies) may be blocked for any period at any time. While this may affect legitimate users, they are not the intended targets and may freely use proxies until those are blocked [...] Non-static IP addresses or hosts that are otherwise not permanent proxies should typically be blocked for a shorter period of time, as it is likely the IP address will eventually be transferred or dynamically reassigned, or the open proxy closed. Once closed, the IP address should be unblocked. According to the policy page, « the Editors can be permitted to edit by way of an open proxy with the IP block exempt flag. This is granted on local projects by administrators and globally by stewards. » I repeat -----> ... legitimate users... may freely use proxies until those are blocked. the Editors can be permitted to edit by way of an open proxy with the IP block exempt flag <------ it is not illegal to edit using an open proxy Most editors though... have no idea whatsoever what an open proxy is. They do not understand well what to do when they are blocked. In the past few weeks, the number of African editors reporting being blocked due to open proxy has been VERY significantly increasing. New editors just as old timers. Unexperienced editors but also staff members, president of usergroups, organizers of edit-a-thons and various wikimedia initiatives. At home, but also during events organized with usergroup members or trainees, during edit-a-thons, photo uploads sessions etc. It is NOT the occasional highly unlikely situation. This has become a regular occurence. There are cases and complains every week. Not one complaint per week. Several complaints per week. *This is irritating. This is offending. This is stressful. This is disrupting activities organized in _good faith_ by _good people_, activities set-up with _our donors funds. _**And the disruption**is primarlly taking place in a geographical region supposingly to be nurtured (per our strategy for diversity, equity, inclusion blahblahblah). * The open proxy policy page suggests that, should a person be unfairly blocked, it is recommended * * to privately email stewards(_AT_)wikimedia.org. * * or alternatively, to post arequest (if able to edit, if the editor doesn't mind sharing their IP for global blocks or their reasons to desire privacy (for Tor usage)). * * the current message displayed to the blocked editor also suggest contacting User:Tks4Fish. This editor is involved in vandalism fighting and is probably the user blocking open proxies IPs the most. See log So... Option 1: contacting stewards : it seems that they are not answering. Or not quickly. Or requesting lengthy justifications before adding people to IP block exemption list. Option 2: posting a request for unblock on meta. For those who want to look at the process, I suggest looking at it [3] and think hard about how a new editor would feel. This is simply incredibly complicated Option 3 : user:TksFish answers... sometimes... As a consequence, most editors concerned with those global blocks... stay blocked several days. We do not know know why the situation has rapidly got worse recently. But it got worse. And the reports are spilling all over. We started collecting negative experiences on this page [4]. Please note that people who added their names here are not random newbies. They are known and respected members of our community, often leaders of activities and/or representant of their usergroups, who are confronted to this situation on a REGULAR basis. I do not know how this can be fixed. Should we slow down open proxy blocking ? Should we add a mecanism and process for an easier and quicker IP block exemption process post-blocking ? Should we improve a process for our editors to pre-emptively be added to this IP block exemption list ? Or what ? I do not know what's the strategy to fix that. But there is a problem. Who should that problem be addressed to ? Who has solutions ? Flo [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Log/Tks4Fish [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Steward_requests/Global_permissions#Request… *[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking*

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The Wikimedia Enterprise API project
by Liam Wyatt 11 Feb '23

11 Feb '23

Dear all, Over the last few months, a small team at the Wikimedia Foundation has been working on a project that has been discussed by many people in our movement for many years: building ‘enterprise grade’ services for the high-volume commercial reusers of Wikimedia content. I am pleased to say that in a remarkably short amount of time (considering the complexity of the issues: technical, strategic, legal, and financial) we now have something worthy of showing to the community, and we are asking for your feedback. Allow me to introduce you to the Wikimedia Enterprise API project – formerly codenamed “okapi”. While the general idea for Wikimedia Enterprise predates the current movement strategy process, its recommendations identify an enterprise API as one possible solution to both “Increase the sustainability of our movement” and “Improve User Experience.”[0] That is, to simultaneously create a new revenue stream to protect Wikimedia’s sustainability, and improve the quality and quantity of Wikimedia content available to our many readers who do not visit our websites directly (including more consistent attribution). Moreover, it does so in a way that is true to our movement’s culture: with open source software, financial transparency, non-exclusive contracts or content, no restrictions on existing services, and free access for Wikimedia volunteers who need it. The team believes we are on target to achieve those goals and so we have written a lot of documentation to get your feedback about our progress and where it could be further improved before the actual product is ‘launched’ in the next few months. We have been helped in this process over the last several months by approximately 100 individual volunteers (from many corners of the wikiverse) and representatives of affiliate organisations who have reviewed our plans and provided invaluable direction, pointing out weaknesses and opportunities, or areas lacking clarity and documentation in our drafts. Thank you to everyone who has shared your time and expertise to help prepare this new initiative. A essay describing the “why?” and the “how?” of this project is now on Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Essay Also now published on Meta are an extensive FAQ, operating principles, and technical documentation on MediaWiki.org. You can read these at [1] [2] and [3] respectively. Much of this documentation is already available in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. The Wikimedia Enterprise team is particularly interested in your feedback on how we have designed the checks and balances to this project - to ensure it is as successful as possible at achieving those two goals described above while staying true to the movement’s values and culture. For example: Is everything covered appropriately in the “Principles” list? Is the technical documentation on MediaWiki.org clear? Are the explanations in the “FAQ” about free-access for community, or project’s legal structure, or the financial transparency (etc.) sufficiently detailed? Meet the team and Ask Us Anything: The central place to provide written feedback about the project in general is on the talkpage of the documentation on Meta at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Enterprise On this Friday (March 19) we will be hosting two “Office hours” conversations where anyone can come and give feedback or ask questions: - 13:00 UTC via Zoom at https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/95580273732 - 22:00 UTC via Zoom at https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/92565175760 (note: this is Saturday in Asia/Oceania) Other “office hours” meetings can be arranged on-request on a technical platform of your choosing; and we will organise more calls in the future. We will also be attending the next SWAN meetings (on March 21) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network, and also the next of the Wikimedia Clinics https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Clinics Moreover, we would be very happy to accept any invitation to attend an existing group call that would like to discuss this topic (e.g. an affiliate’s members’ meeting). On behalf of the Wikimedia Enterprise team, Peace, Love & Metadata -- Liam Wyatt [Wittylama], Wikimedia Enterprise project community liaison. [0] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme… [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/FAQ [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Principles [3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise *Liam Wyatt [Wittylama]* WikiCite <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCite> Program Manager & Wikimedia Enterprise <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Okapi> Community Liaison Wikimedia Foundation

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Wikimedia Taiwan’s statement on the office actions of the Wikimedia Foundation on Chinese Wikipedia
by ffaarr＠wikimedia.tw 26 Dec '22

26 Dec '22

On behalf of Wikimedia Taiwan, we would like to say that this is long overdue. For more than half a decade, good faith volunteers from Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland, and Taiwan have raised concerns about dangerous members of that organization, including in the Signpost(1) (repeatedly(2)). It is not the kind of threat that communities or even larger ones, like our wiki, can deal with entirely on their own. We have been having very exhausting years. Now there is some hope. But we have a lot of work ahead of us as a volunteer community, and we call upon the Foundation to meet its commitment of support as we do. We need to rebuild an inclusive wiki that welcomes everyone from all places who wants to contribute to Chinese language Wikipedia in good faith. Many people have felt very unsafe for years, so restoring a shared sense of comfort will likely take a long time. Doing this work is very important to get back to focusing on knowledge and Wikipedia’s five pillars that should unite our community. Yuan Chang, Chairman of Wikimedia Taiwan (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2019-10-31/In_fo… (2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2021-07-25/Speci… 中文版本: 在此僅代表台灣維基媒體協會聲明，這個行動是遲來的努力。多年來，香港、中國大陸和台灣的用戶一再呼籲對該組織中的危險成員與行為的關切，包括但不僅止於之前於Signpost報導(1) (另一則報導(2))中所提及。這不是社群，或甚至整個中文維基，可以自行處理的威脅。這些年我們心力交瘁。現在的處置，讓我們覺得終於有了一些希望。但作為志願者組織，我們仍有很多工作要做，並希望基金會能大力支持。我們需要重建一個具有包容性的維基百科，歡迎來自所有地區，願意真誠貢獻中文知識的參與者。這幾年來，許多參與者感到不安，要恢復原本平和的氛圍，需要相當長時間的努力。這個工作非常重要，有助於我們把心力集中在知識，以及團結我們社群的維基百科的五大支柱上。台灣維基媒體協會理事長張遠 (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2019-10-31/In_fo… (2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2021-07-25/Speci… Original Link of the statement: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Taiwan/Declaration/Wikimedia_Taiw…

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Luis Bitencourt-Emilio Joins Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
by Nataliia Tymkiv 13 Dec '22

13 Dec '22

Dear All, Please join me in welcoming Luis Bitencourt-Emilio to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Luis was unanimously appointed to a 3-year term and replaces a board-selected Trustee, Lisa Lewin, whose term ended in November 2021 [1]. Currently based in São Paulo, Luis is the Chief Technology Officer at Loft, a technology startup in the real-estate industry. He brings product and technology experience from a globally diverse career that has spanned large technology companies including Microsoft, online networking sites like Reddit, and a series of entrepreneurial technology ventures focused in the USA and Latin America. Luis has led product and technology teams across Latin America, the United States, Europe and Asia. He is passionately involved in building and promoting the entrepreneurial ecosystem for Latin American-based startups. Luis has more than two decades of experience across product development, software engineering, and data science. At Microsoft, he led engineering teams shipping multiple Microsoft Office products. At Reddit, he led the Knowledge Group, an engineering team that owned critical functions such as data, machine learning, abuse detection and search. He was deeply involved in Reddit’s growth stage and worked closely with Reddit’s communities in that evolution. Luis also co-founded a fintech startup to help millennials manage and automate their finances. His career has also been shaped by a visible commitment to recruiting diverse leaders. At Reddit, Luis was a key member of the recruitment efforts that achieved equal representation of women engineering directors. Luis says his proudest achievement at Microsoft was building their Brazilian talent pipeline by working closely with local universities to place thousands of engineering candidates at Microsoft, as well as his involvement in expanding global recruitment to markets including Ukraine, Poland, Great Britain, the EU and Mexico. Luis was educated in Brazil and the United States, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with Honors from the University of Maryland. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is also a proud father and dog lover. I would like to thank the Governance Committee, chaired by Dariusz Jemielniak, for this nomination process as well as volunteers in our Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities who also met with Luis or shared their experiences. You can find an official announcement here [2]. PS. You can help translate or find translations of this message on Meta-Wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Janu… [1] Lisa Lewin served from January 2019 till November 2021: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Lisa_Lewin%E2%80%… [2] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/12/luis-bitencourt-emilio-joins-wikimedi… Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees *NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!*

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Episode 5 Inspiring Open Podcast episode is out
by Florence Devouard 07 Oct '22

07 Oct '22

Hello The Wiki Loves Women team launched a podcast a few weeks ago. We have released 5 episodes so far, with a frequency of two episodes per month. All episodes are available on the usual podcast platforms, or may be accessed on Wiki Loves Women website with additional notes about each episode. https://podcast.wikiloveswomen.org The latest episode features Angela Lungati, current CEO of Ushaidi. If you are interested to receive a brief message on your talk each time a new episode is published, please drop your name here : https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Women/Podcast#Subscribe Anthere ------------------ About Inspiring Open Inspiring Open is a podcast series about women from Wiki Loves Women that celebrates the inspirational women whose careers and personal ethics intersect with the Open movement. Each episode features a dynamic woman from Africa who has pushed the boundaries of what it means to build communities and succeed as a collective. As a podcast series, it is available at anytime, anywhere to amplify the motivational stories of each guest, as spoken in their own voice. Listen to their personal journeys in conversation with host Betty Kankam-Boadu. Join Inspiring Open as we raise the global visibility and profiles of women who are redefining and reclaiming the Open sector. Be inspired • Be challenged • Be bold!

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[Foundation-l] Improving search in Wikipedia through quality and concept discovery
by Brian J Mingus 10 Sep '22

10 Sep '22

This paper (first reference) is the result of a class project I was part of almost two years ago for CSCI 5417 Information Retrieval Systems. It builds on a class project I did in CSCI 5832 Natural Language Processing and which I presented at Wikimania '07. The project was very late as we didn't send the final paper in until the day before new years. This technical report was never really announced that I recall so I thought it would be interesting to look briefly at the results. The goal of this paper was to break articles down into surface features and latent features and then use those to study the rating system being used, predict article quality and rank results in a search engine. We used the [[random forests]] classifier which allowed us to analyze the contribution of each feature to performance by looking directly at the weights that were assigned. While the surface analysis was performed on the whole english wikipedia, the latent analysis was performed on the simple english wikipedia (it is more expensive to compute). = Surface features = * Readability measures are the single best predictor of quality that I have found, as defined by the Wikipedia Editorial Team (WET). The [[Automated Readability Index]], [[Gunning Fog Index]] and [[Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level]] were the strongest predictors, followed by length of article html, number of paragraphs, [[Flesh Reading Ease]], [[Smog Grading]], number of internal links, [[Laesbarhedsindex Readability Formula]], number of words and number of references. Weakly predictive were number of to be's, number of sentences, [[Coleman-Liau Index]], number of templates, PageRank, number of external links, number of relative links. Not predictive (overall - see the end of section 2 for the per-rating score breakdown): Number of h2 or h3's, number of conjunctions, number of images*, average word length, number of h4's, number of prepositions, number of pronouns, number of interlanguage links, average syllables per word, number of nominalizations, article age (based on page id), proportion of questions, average sentence length. :* Number of images was actually by far the single strongest predictor of any class, but only for Featured articles. Because it was so good at picking out featured articles and somewhat good at picking out A and G articles the classifier was confused in so many cases that the overall contribution of this feature to classification performance is zero. :* Number of external links is strongly predictive of Featured articles. :* The B class is highly distinctive. It has a strong "signature," with high predictive value assigned to many features. The Featured class is also very distinctive. F, B and S (Stop/Stub) contain the most information. :* A is the least distinct class, not being very different from F or G. = Latent features = The algorithm used for latent analysis, which is an analysis of the occurence of words in every document with respect to the link structure of the encyclopedia ("concepts"), is [[Latent Dirichlet Allocation]]. This part of the analysis was done by CS PhD student Praful Mangalath. An example of what can be done with the result of this analysis is that you provide a word (a search query) such as "hippie". You can then look at the weight of every article for the word hippie. You can pick the article with the largest weight, and then look at its link network. You can pick out the articles that this article links to and/or which link to this article that are also weighted strongly for the word hippie, while also contributing maximally to this articles "hippieness". We tried this query in our system (LDA), Google (site:en.wikipedia.org hippie), and the Simple English Wikipedia's Lucene search engine. The breakdown of articles occuring in the top ten search results for this word for those engines is: * LDA only: [[Acid rock]], [[Aldeburgh Festival]], [[Anne Murray]], [[Carl Radle]], [[Harry Nilsson]], [[Jack Kerouac]], [[Phil Spector]], [[Plastic Ono Band]], [[Rock and Roll]], [[Salvador Allende]], [[Smothers brothers]], [[Stanley Kubrick]]. * Google only: [[Glam Rock]], [[South Park]]. * Simple only: [[African Americans]], [[Charles Manson]], [[Counterculture]], [[Drug use]], [[Flower Power]], [[Nuclear weapons]], [[Phish]], [[Sexual liberation]], [[Summer of Love]] * LDA & Google & Simple: [[Hippie]], [[Human Be-in]], [[Students for a democratic society]], [[Woodstock festival]] * LDA & Google: [[Psychedelic Pop]] * Google & Simple: [[Lysergic acid diethylamide]], [[Summer of Love]] ( See the paper for the articles produced for the keywords philosophy and economics ) = Discussion / Conclusion = * The results of the latent analysis are totally up to your perception. But what is interesting is that the LDA features predict the WET ratings of quality just as well as the surface level features. Both feature sets (surface and latent) both pull out all almost of the information that the rating system bears. * The rating system devised by the WET is not distinctive. You can best tell the difference between, grouped together, Featured, A and Good articles vs B articles. Featured, A and Good articles are also quite distinctive (Figure 1). Note that in this study we didn't look at Start's and Stubs, but in earlier paper we did. :* This is interesting when compared to this recent entry on the YouTube blog. "Five Stars Dominate Ratings" http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/09/five-stars-dominate-ratings.html… I think a sane, well researched (with actual subjects) rating system is well within the purview of the Usability Initiative. Helping people find and create good content is what Wikipedia is all about. Having a solid rating system allows you to reorganized the user interface, the Wikipedia namespace, and the main namespace around good content and bad content as needed. If you don't have a solid, information bearing rating system you don't know what good content really is (really bad content is easy to spot). :* My Wikimania talk was all about gathering data from people about articles and using that to train machines to automatically pick out good content. You ask people questions along dimensions that make sense to people, and give the machine access to other surface features (such as a statistical measure of readability, or length) and latent features (such as can be derived from document word occurence and encyclopedia link structure). I referenced page 262 of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to give an example of the kind of qualitative features I would ask people. It really depends on what features end up bearing information, to be tested in "the lab". Each word is an example dimension of quality: We have "*unity, vividness, authority, economy, sensitivity, clarity, emphasis, flow, suspense, brilliance, precision, proportion, depth and so on.*" You then use surface and latent features to predict these values for all articles. You can also say, when a person rates this article as high on the x scale, they also mean that it has has this much of these surface and these latent features. = References = - DeHoust, C., Mangalath, P., Mingus., B. (2008). *Improving search in Wikipedia through quality and concept discovery*. Technical Report. PDF<http://grey.colorado.edu/mediawiki/sites/mingus/images/6/68/DeHoustMangalat…> - Rassbach, L., Mingus., B, Blackford, T. (2007). *Exploring the feasibility of automatically rating online article quality*. Technical Report. PDF<http://grey.colorado.edu/mediawiki/sites/mingus/images/d/d3/RassbachPincock…>

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[Foundation-l] Fwd: 18.1831, All: Call for Participation: Wikipedia Volunteers
by GerardM 09 Aug '22

09 Aug '22

Hoi, I have asked and received permission to forward to you all this most excellent bit of news. The linguist list, is a most excellent resource for people interested in the field of linguistics. As I mentioned some time ago they have had a funding drive and in that funding drive they asked for a certain amount of money in a given amount of days and they would then have a project on Wikipedia to learn what needs doing to get better coverage for the field of linguistics. What you will read in this mail that the total community of linguists are asked to cooperate. I am really thrilled as it will also get us more linguists interested in what we do. My hope is that a fraction will be interested in the languages that they care for and help it become more relevant. As a member of the "language prevention committee", I love to get more knowledgeable people involved in our smaller projects. If it means that we get more requests for more projects we will really feel embarrassed with all the new projects we will have to approve because of the quality of the Incubator content and the quality of the linguistic arguments why we should approve yet another language :) NB Is this not a really clever way of raising money; give us this much in this time frame and we will then do this as a bonus... Thanks, GerardM ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: LINGUIST Network <linguist(a)linguistlist.org> Date: Jun 18, 2007 6:53 PM Subject: 18.1831, All: Call for Participation: Wikipedia Volunteers To: LINGUIST(a)listserv.linguistlist.org LINGUIST List: Vol-18-1831. Mon Jun 18 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875. Subject: 18.1831, All: Call for Participation: Wikipedia Volunteers Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar(a)linguistlist.org> Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry(a)linguistlist.org> Reviews: Laura Welcher, Rosetta Project <reviews(a)linguistlist.org> Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/ The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, and donations from subscribers and publishers. Editor for this issue: Ann Sawyer <sawyer(a)linguistlist.org> ================================================================ To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html ===========================Directory============================== 1) Date: 18-Jun-2007 From: Hannah Morales < hannah(a)linguistlist.org > Subject: Wikipedia Volunteers -------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:49:35 From: Hannah Morales < hannah(a)linguistlist.org > Subject: Wikipedia Volunteers Dear subscribers, As you may recall, one of our Fund Drive 2007 campaigns was called the "Wikipedia Update Vote." We asked our viewers to consider earmarking their donations to organize an update project on linguistics entries in the English-language Wikipedia. You can find more background information on this at: http://linguistlist.org/donation/fund-drive2007/wikipedia/index.cfm. The speed with which we met our goal, thanks to the interest and generosity of our readers, was a sure sign that the linguistics community was enthusiastic about the idea. Now that summer is upon us, and some of you may have a bit more leisure time, we are hoping that you will be able to help us get started on the Wikipedia project. The LINGUIST List's role in this project is a purely organizational one. We will: *Help, with your input, to identify major gaps in the Wikipedia materials or pages that need improvement; *Compile a list of linguistics pages that Wikipedia editors have identified as "in need of attention from an expert on the subject" or " does not cite any references or sources," etc; *Send out periodical calls for volunteer contributors on specific topics or articles; *Provide simple instructions on how to upload your entries into Wikipedia; *Keep track of our project Wikipedians; *Keep track of revisions and new entries; *Work with Wikimedia Foundation to publicize the linguistics community's efforts. We hope you are as enthusiastic about this effort as we are. Just to help us all get started looking at Wikipedia more critically, and to easily identify an area needing improvement, we suggest that you take a look at the List of Linguists page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguists. M Many people are not listed there; others need to have more facts and information added. If you would like to participate in this exciting update effort, please respond by sending an email to LINGUIST Editor Hannah Morales at hannah(a)linguistlist.org, suggesting what your role might be or which linguistics entries you feel should be updated or added. Some linguists who saw our campaign on the Internet have already written us with specific suggestions, which we will share with you soon. This update project will take major time and effort on all our parts. The end result will be a much richer internet resource of information on the breadth and depth of the field of linguistics. Our efforts should also stimulate prospective students to consider studying linguistics and to educate a wider public on what we do. Please consider participating. Sincerely, Hannah Morales Editor, Wikipedia Update Project Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable ----------------------------------------------------------- LINGUIST List: Vol-18-1831

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Global Conversations on Regional and Thematic Hubs on June 24, 25 and 26
by Cornelius Kibelka 15 Jul '22

15 Jul '22

Hello everyone, thanks for being patient with us. As announced previously, WMF's Movement Strategy and Governance team will host a *global conversations event on regional and thematic hubs <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hubs> on June 24, 25 and 26 (Meta page <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hubs/Global_Conversations_June_24-26,_2022>)* After a revision of the program, the event will focus on the discussion around the proposed *Minimum Criteria for Hub Pilots* <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hubs/Minimum_Criteria_for_Pilots>*.* It is intended to be a space to gather feedback on the criteria and build consensus among participants to develop and fine-tune the draft, while taking into account concerns and disagreements shared by participants before and at the event. To enable more participants to participate and share their opinion, the event consists of three sessions of 120 min each, organized across different time zones (on June 24, 25 and 26 a session each). We will provide *interpretation *for Arabic (June 24+25), Spanish (June 24+25), French (June 24+25), Russian (June 24), and Portuguese (June 25) Registration for the event is now open, it closes on June 23. Please find all details on our event page. <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hubs/Global_Conversations_June_24-26,_2022> If you can’t wait until the event to discuss the hub matters, join the discussion on meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hubs>, on Telegram with Movement Strategy <https://t.me/+U-4hhVPaxKGHseva> or Hubs specific <https://t.me/+cwcxAJg6yrBjOGRk> groups or *the very newly available **MS Forum <https://forum.movement-strategy.org/c/ensure-equity-in-decision-making/hubs…>.* Best regards, Cornelius -- Cornelius Kibelka (he/him) Event Coordinator Movement Strategy + Governance 2030.wikimedia.org <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> *Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment. Donate. <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>* <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

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14 July Conversation with the Trustees
by Shani Evenstein 14 Jul '22

14 Jul '22

Hello everyone, On behalf of the Community Affairs Committee, I am happy to invite you to our next Conversation with the Trustees on 14 July at 18:00 UTC <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Community_Affairs_Comm…> (find your local time <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1657821621>). You are all welcome to talk with the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees directly about our work guiding the Wikimedia Foundation. The call will be held on Zoom with a live YouTube stream <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYg9sJ4Ml3M>. Because we want these calls to be interactive, we encourage you to join us directly on Zoom. Request the Zoom link by emailing askcac(a)wikimedia.org. We will be providing live interpretation into Spanish and Portuguese. If you would like to request another language, email askcac(a)wikimedia.org. We will add the agenda to the event Meta page and send it here in the coming weeks. For now, please save the date and register for the Zoom room. Hope you see you all there, Shani. Shani Evenstein Sigalov <https://wikimediafoundation.org/profile/shani-evenstein-sigalov/> Vice Chair, Board of Trustees Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

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Goodbye and see you around
by Biyanto Rebin 04 Jul '22

04 Jul '22

Dear all, Tomorrow is my last day working at Wikimedia Indonesia. Goodbye is a thing that we should celebrate. I am very grateful to have a wonderful chance to collaborate with my local community, local organisation, and international community also various chapters and affiliates. I will continue my volunteering activity while enjoying my next journey as a master student in Digital Humanities in Uppsala University, Sweden. In the last 3 months, I have been doing collaboration work with Rachmat Wahidi, our new Chair of the Board of Executive with his new teams. I am sure WMID will achieve more in the future under his leadership with a more diverse team, lots of local communities, strong grass root movement and continuous support from the local community members, and our presence in the ESEAP community makes us one of the biggest communities in the region. You can always contact me via my personal email (biyanto.iyan(a)gmail.com). From one of the sunniest cities in the Southern Hemisphere, Jakarta. Best, Biyanto

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Fwd: [Wikimedia Education] 🎉Join us for the next EduWiki Live with Dr. Javiera Atenas on June 30th 14:00 UTC
by Sailesh Patnaik 04 Jul '22

04 Jul '22

Dear Wikimedians and colleagues, Join us today (in about two hours) for EduWiki Live with Dr Javiera Atenas at 14:00 UTC. We will be live streaming on YouTube and Facebook Live, and you can share your questions and comments there. Youtube: https://youtu.be/sKV6N2-Tc7A Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaEducationTeam ^ EduWiki Live is a virtual event that aims to serve as a bridge between the EduWiki community and the Education sector. Let me know if you have any questions. Best! Sailesh ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Nichole Saad <nsaad(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Mon, Jun 20, 2022 at 11:31 PM Subject: [Wikimedia Education] 🎉Join us for the next EduWiki Live with Dr. Javiera Atenas on June 30th 14:00 UTC To: Wikimedia Education <education(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Dear EduWiki Community, I'm excited to invite you to the next EduWiki live event on* June 30th from 14:00-15:00 UTC*. Add it to your calendar! < https://calendar.google.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=M3Q2cTh2Z2FqM3Y2Nm9… >Join the Education Team and EWOC volunteers, Sandeep and Brahim, as we have a conversation with Dr. Javiera Atenas about open pedagogies and open data in Higher Education. *YouTube and Facebook Live links will follow soon! * Javiera Atenas is an Information Scientist with a PhD in Education and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in UK (Advance HE). She is a senior lecturer in learning and teaching enhancement at the University of Suffolk, and education lead of the Latin American initiative for open data. Her research is focused in two main areas: the development of critical data literacy in HE grounded on the concept of ethics as a method and also, in promoting the adoption of elements of data agency, ethics and privacy in open education and digital education policies for the HE sector. She is a co-founder of the Open Education Policy Lab, a member of the UNESCO OER dynamic coalition and of the implementation working group at Open Data Charter, a member of the European Open Education Policy Forum and board of the Open Education Working Group, Open Knowledge International. Also, she is a member of the committee for recognition and enhancement of teaching skills for the Italian National Evaluation Agency for Universities (ANVUR). We look forward to seeing you there! -- *Nichole Saad* Wikimedia Foundation | Senior Manager for Education nsaad(a)wikimedia.org user: NSaad (WMF) _______________________________________________ Education mailing list -- education(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to education-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org -- Sailesh Patnaik (He/Him/His) Program Officer, Education Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

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Re: Small joy of the day: Txikipedia
by WereSpielChequers 02 Jul '22

02 Jul '22

Hi, I'm curious as to what level of reading skill you are writing this for and also what level of understanding/adulthood. I see these as two different issues and both are likely to vary sharply especially between different countries with very different education systems. A childrens' encyclopaedia written for nine year olds would surely be very different than one written for thirteen year olds. And content that parents of fourteen year olds thought was age inappropriate in Alabama might be thought appropriate or even bowdlerised by parents of ten year olds in London. In other words, are you sure that one single childrens' encyclopaedia is the answer to either the problem of reading age or age appropriate content? Where I think that Wikipedia could and should change re this is in our use of jargon. To my mind a "general interest" english language encyclopaedia should be written in plain English. I suspect other language versions have similar issues. Perhaps if we focussed more on this we would make it easier for those who wish to create childrens' versions. Regards WSC On Thu, 23 Jun 2022 at 13:03, <wikimedia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote: > Send Wikimedia-l mailing list submissions to > wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikimedia-l.lists.wikimedia.org/ > > You can reach the person managing the list at > wikimedia-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Wikimedia-l digest..." > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Small joyy: Txikipedia of the da(Neurodivergent Netizen) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2022 17:13:33 -0700 > From: Neurodivergent Netizen <idoh.idreamofhorses(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Re: Small joy of the day: Txikipedia > To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Message-ID: <8C62ADA1-09EE-46FF-B27D-389B6BB3E54C(a)gmail.com> > Content-Type: multipart/alternative; > boundary="Apple-Mail=_9EEB7F4B-E2E5-42FB-AED5-C7C07107CEF2" > > >> That wouldn't be a wise choice that WMF host such a wiki if it brings > the risk of being legaly attacked on that ground, even for bad reasons and > unsuccessfully, whereas it never happened to Vikidia in 15 years (and very > few kind of bad buzz like "look what they teach to the children"). > > And of course, any WMF-affiliated wiki would be more at-risk simply > because of the association with the more well-known Wikipedia. > > > The document is not really public yet. :-) > > I think I can wait until it’s public and proofread. :-) > > From, > I dream of horses > She/her > > > > > > > On Jun 22, 2022, at 1:45 PM, Ziko van Dijk <zvandijk(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Hello, > > At the moment I am working on a document that extensively explains how > > we work on the Klexikon. If someone is interested, please send me a > > private message. The document is not really public yet. :-) > > Kind regards > > Ziko > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Klexikon > > > > Am Mi., 22. Juni 2022 um 19:27 Uhr schrieb Mathias Damour > > <mathias.damour(a)gmx.fr>: > >> > >> Hi, > >> > >> De: "Neurodivergent Netizen" <idoh.idreamofhorses(a)gmail.com> > >> I think a particular hurdle for a standalone WMF-affiliated kidipedia > project is the COPPA, and other similar laws both in the US and elsewhere > that could potentially increase civil liability. Another hurdle is that > America is very aware, perhaps overly aware, of the potential safety risks > when children are involved in websites. Then you add in the fact that kids > are likely to continue editing Wikipedia instead of Kidipedia, and it’s not > worth the extra effort. This effort would include hiring/reassigning staff > so you can have a team of people for just Kidipedia, along with the > background checks and identity verification needed. None of that are > obstacles that aren’t in the way of kids editing the existing projects. > >> > >> I predict a WMF-affiliated kidipedia would largely be abandoned quite > quickly. > >> > >> You are probably right. I would say COPPA may not be the biggest > hurdle, yet the british "UK Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006" is > another one, and moreover the fact that "America is very aware, perhaps > overly aware, of the potential safety risks when children are involved in > websites" (and I would also say that "America" weight more the right of > parents to control what is taught to their children and less the right of > the children to inform themselves - the latter being upheld by the > Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the US didn't ratificate - > compared to other countries). > >> We reviewed it on https://en.vikidia.org/wiki/Vikidia:Legal_matters > >> > >> That wouldn't be a wise choice that WMF host such a wiki if it brings > the risk of being legaly attacked on that ground, even for bad reasons and > unsuccessfully, whereas it never happened to Vikidia in 15 years (and very > few kind of bad buzz like "look what they teach to the children"). > >> > >> You tell about "hiring/reassigning staff so you can have a team of > people for just Kidipedia", well, that's quite exactly the point I adressed > on this blog post : > >> Vikidia, l’anti-professionnalisation > >> https://www.wikimedia.fr/vikidia-lanti-professionnalisation/ > >> ...to tell that the vision of children needing to be only alongside > their closed family and professionals workers - and that it should be the > same if a wiki for children is set (that we would need professionnal > educators either to write the articles, to design the project or to manage > the community or all that together) - did cause much delay to the wiki > encyclopedias for children, and how we do otherwise on Vikidia. > >> > >> Reminder, the Wikikids project was developped on this page and subpages > : > >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikikids > >> > >> Envoyé: mercredi 22 juin 2022 à 12:37 > >> De: "Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga" <galder158(a)hotmail.com> > >> À: "Wikimedia Mailing List" <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > >> Objet: [Wikimedia-l] Re: Small joy of the day: Txikipedia > >> From our experience, is just the opposite: Wikipedia is not asking any > extra step nor age confirmation, and legally you can have an account even > if you are underage. Children are consulting Wikipedia without limits, and > they can find adult content easily. We don't have any advice about that, > nor filters at Commons, where you can find even porn using words that were > not intended for that. The place is open, and we have massive visits from > children, so providing them a better place, thought for them (as our > strategic direction says) is better that not providing at all. > >> > >> I can only agree! > >> > >> > >> Mathias Damour > >> [[User:Astirmays]] > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, > guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > >> Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org… > >> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org… > > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org > >

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The new Signpost is out
by Andreas Kolbe 28 Jun '22

28 Jun '22

Hi all, It is the end of June and a new Signpost issue has been published: - News and notes: WMF inks new rules on government-ordered takedowns, blasts Russian feds' censor demands, spends big bucks <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/News_…> - In the media: Editor given three-year sentence, big RfA makes news, Guy Standing takes it sitting down <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/In_th…> - Special report: "Wikipedia's independence" or "Wikimedia's pile of dosh"? <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Speci…> - Discussion report: MoS rules on CCP name mulled, XRV axe plea nulled, mass drafting bid pulled <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Discu…> - Opinion: Picture of the Day – how Adam plans to ru(i)n it <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Opini…> - Featured content: Articles on Scots' clash, Yank's tux, Austrian's action flick deemed brilliant prose <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Featu…> - Essay: RfA trend line haruspicy: fact or fancy? <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Essay> - Recent research: Wikipedia versus academia (again), tables' "immortality" probed <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Recen…> - Serendipity: Was she really a Swiss lesbian automobile racer? <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Seren…> - News from the WMF: Wikimedia Enterprise signs first deals <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/News_…> - Traffic report: Top view counts for shows, movies, and celeb lawsuit that keeps on giving <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Traff…> - Gallery: Celebration of summer, winter <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Galle…> - Humour: Shortcuts, screwballers, Simon & Garfunkel <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Humour> * *Read this Signpost in full <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost>* * Single-page <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Single/2022-06-26> *

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Invitation to Wikimedia Research Office Hours July 5, 2022
by Emily Lescak 28 Jun '22

28 Jun '22

Hi all, Join the Research Team at the Wikimedia Foundation [1] for their monthly Office hours Tuesday, 2022-07-05. Find your local time here <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1657036800>. 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 are welcome to add questions / items to the etherpad in advance, or when you arrive at the session. Even if you are unable to attend the session, you can leave a question that we can address asynchronously. If you do not have a specific agenda item, you are welcome to hang out and enjoy the conversation. More detailed information (e.g., about how to attend) can be found here [4]. Through these office hours, we aim to make ourselves available to answer research related questions that you as Wikimedia volunteer editors, organizers, affiliates, staff, and researchers face in your projects and initiatives. Here are some example cases we hope to be able to support you with: - 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, Emily, on behalf of the WMF Research Team [1] https://research.wikimedia.org [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 -- Emily Lescak (she / her) Senior Research Community Officer The Wikimedia Foundation

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SWAN (Strategic Wikimedia Network) July 2022 Virtual Meeting
by Butch Bustria 27 Jun '22

27 Jun '22

My Fellow Wikimedians, Our next SWAN meeting will be on *3 July* at similar times. 03:00 UTC – 2022-06-05 (Asia-Pacific friendly time) https://iw.toolforge.org/zonestamp/1656817200 18:00 UTC – 2022-06-05 (Europe-Africa-Americas friendly time) https://iw.toolforge.org/zonestamp/1656871200 You may add your names in the list. This virtual meeting is open to all living species that understand Wikimedia! You may share this to other Wikimedians! Meeting link and agenda is also on the page below. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network Here are our etherpad notes: - https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/SWAN_2022_07_meeting_1 - https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/SWAN_2022_07_meeting_2 Kind regards, Butch

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WIKIMOVE Ep#3: UNLOCKing innovation - now available on Spotify, Soundcloud, Stitcher & more
by Eva Martin 24 Jun '22

24 Jun '22

Dear all, We are excited to be dropping the 3rd episode of WIKIMOVE <https://www.wikimedia.de/wikimove-site/>, our podcast on everything Wikimedia Movement Strategy. In this episode we talk about innovation and explore the opportunities created by the UNLOCK accelerator within our movement and beyond. Good news! Our podcast is now available with RSS Feed on Acast <https://shows.acast.com/wikimove/episodes>, Spotify, <https://open.spotify.com/show/7olhgddgj7KpWGOzSkPOQJ?si=8907893eb0cd402f&nd…> Soundcloud, <https://soundcloud.com/user-536754242?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&…> Stitcher <https://www.stitcher.com/show/wikimove> and Castbox <https://castbox.fm/channel/WIKIMOVE-id4979039?country=de>. More podcast platforms will follow. The video version of our show is also available on Youtube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTlskaMYR-M> with english subtitles. What’s in this episode? We are looking back at years of complaints about how Wikimedia technology is outdated and exclusive. Non-encyclopedic forms of knowledge are still impossible or hard to insert into our existing formats. The last big innovation from our movement is Wikidata, which is now almost ten years old. Movement Strategy calls on us to innovate our technical and social systems so that new and marginalized communities can join and share their knowledge. We talk about the UNLOCK accelerator program, how it is being implemented in collaboration with WMS and WMDE this year, and explore how the movement can become more of an innovation ecosystem. Our guests are… Kannika Thaimai, Program lead of the UNLOCK accelerator at Wikimedia Deutschland Ivana Madžarević, Program and Community Support Manager at Wikimedia Serbia Please visit our meta page <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WIKIMOVE> to react to the episode and subscribe to our newsletter to get notified of each new release. We wish you all a summer break and will be back in August with our next episode! Cheers, Nicole, Nikki & Eva -- Eva Martin Project Assistant Movement Strategy and Global Relations Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin Phone: +49 30 219 158 26-0 https://wikimedia.de Keep up to date! Current news and exciting stories about Wikimedia, Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in our newsletter (in German): https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/ 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.

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March Wikimedia Foundation Board Meeting Outcomes and June 23 agenda items
by Nataliia Tymkiv 24 Jun '22

24 Jun '22

Dear all, I have not been writing to the list for a while, so please bear with me: this will be a long one. == March Board Meeting == The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees met in New York City over March 22-24. This was the first time the Board met in person since 2020 because of the pandemic, and the first time many of us had ever met in person. It is good to know that with the lifting of all Covid-19 related travel restrictions with Foundation Grant funding we are going to have more offline community events now. So, the Board’s official meeting was on March 23. During this session, the Board approved the December 8, 2021 meeting minutes [1], the updated Community Affairs Committee charter [2] to align with the other Board Committee charters, and approved the updated Conflict of Interest Policy [3]. The Board also approved a temporary reassignment of Esra’a Al Shafei’s roles as Board Vice Chair and Product and Technology Committee Chair, and a permanent reassigning of Esra’a’s positions as Elections Committee Liaison and a member of the Board Selection Task Force [4]. Occasionally, Trustees need to step away from Board work to focus on professional or other concerns. The Board feels it is important to accommodate these requests when possible. Esra’a Al Shafei had requested a brief sabbatical and returned to her full responsibilities on June 1, 2022. It also helped to shift responsibilities a bit, and give more visibility and experience to trustees who joined recently, which is overall good for planning roles succession on the board. The Board also discussed governance issues and checked its progress against the 2019 governance review [5]. We have made progress on some of the items in the governance review, and we also discussed areas where we can continue to improve, such as Board operational processes and communication about Board activities. The Board also met with Maryana and other Foundation staff to review the Foundation’s Values and Guiding Principles, as part of Maryana’s priorities to elucidate values for the Wikimedia Foundation. Conversations about this are ongoing, and you might expect to hear more on this by the end of the year. This was also an opportunity for the Board Committees to meet in person, as their meetings are usually happening online. In order to make communication about outcomes of the board meeting clearer, we have decided to have separate committees reporting to the movement about their spheres of responsibility. For example, Dariusz, as the chair of the Governance Committee, has already sent a letter on 2022 Trustee Selection and renewal of my appointment to the Board of Trustees [6]. The Board of Trustees has formally concluded [7] the work of the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) with gratitude and appreciation for all of the dedication of its members over the years. More on the Diff from Shani as the chair of the Community Affairs Committee (CAC) [8]. I want to thank the Foundation’s Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) team, especially Ben Vershbow and Fiona Romeo, for their work on planning a Learning Day visit to New Museum with some of our largest GLAM partners in New York City, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Rhizome, on March 22. During this meeting, the Trustees learned more about GLAM work done by volunteers and challenges they face. We also met with several community leaders, including Eliza Myrie and Jina Valentine (Black Lunch Table), Kira Wisniewski (Art + Feminism), Sherry Antoine (AfroCROWD), and Andrew Lih. Thank you to all the participants - you made our first Learning Day visit a success; it was a nice way to kick off the Board meeting. I also want to use this opportunity to thank Victoria, Rosie, and Lorenzo, for fully engaging with their new transitioning roles and responsibilities. == June 23 Board meeting == The Board’s next meeting will be online today, on June 23, and the main topic on the agenda will be the Annual Plan [9]. Also there would be discussion on working capital reserve policy, and updates about the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC). Two Movement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC) members will join the meeting as visitors [10]. After the meeting itself the Board will have a Q&A session with the Foundation staff. The outcomes of this meeting will be shared to the list in the coming weeks. The Board plans to meet again in September in Berlin in conjunction with the Wikimedia Summit. I hope to see some of you there as well. [1] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Minutes_December_8,_2022 [2] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Affairs_Committee_Charter [3] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_interest_policy [4] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Adjusting_Board_Roles,_Mar… [5] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Board_Veritas_Governance_Recomme… [6] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:2022_Trustee_Selection, https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Renewing_Nataliia_Tymkiv%E… [7] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Dissolving_the_Funds_Disse… [8] https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/06/23/thanking-the-members-of-the-funds-dis… [9] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_Plan/2022-2023/… [10] https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Inviting_visitors_to_a_Boa… <https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Inviting_visitors_to_a_Boa…> Best regards, antanana / Nataliia Tymkiv Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees *NOTICE: You may have received this message outside of your normal working hours/days, as I usually can work more as a volunteer during weekend. You should not feel obligated to answer it during your days off. Thank you in advance!*

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Small joy of the day: Txikipedia
by Samuel Klein 23 Jun '22

23 Jun '22

Reminded today of how beautifully this kids encyclopedia has worked out: Txikipedia:Azala <https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Txikipedia:Azala> (main page), Txikipedia:Gengis_Khan <https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Txikipedia:Gengis_Khan> More languages should try that. a) simple skin hack, b) loving and lovely idea, c) more compelling to me than the standalone kidipedia projects :) Anyway, thanks for improving my weekend, Txikipedians. SJ (posting to wm-l since wp-l is gone now...)

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Invitation to episode 14 of WikiAfrica Hour
by Ceslause Ogbonnaya 22 Jun '22

22 Jun '22

Dear all, This is to invite you to the episode 14 of WikiAfrica Hour, titled *WikiGovernance "On Board"*, where we'll be discussing with the 2022 WMF Board of Trustees election candidates from Africa, in the persons of Tobechukwu Precious Friday, Gilbert Ndihokubwayo, Abderamane Abakar Brahim, Egbe Eugene Agbor and Joris Quarshie. Come learn more about their motivations and aspirations for the WMF Board if elected. Date: 24th June 2022 Time: 4pm UTC Details: w.wiki/3E6L <https://w.wiki/3E6L?fbclid=IwAR2XbkfsgTUhwZ-KwSB-IA8wkWvARTjgJz_efBsFrADI5x…> Regards, Ceslause Ogbonnaya *WikiAfrica Hour Host*

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Re: what do we do with all this opportunity?
by Tim Moody 21 Jun '22

21 Jun '22

The question of support goes beyond financial. As the volunteer who wrote and deployed the mirror of Our World in Data used by WikiProjectMed and deployed the VideoWiki application, I have to say that, unfortunately, I have not found WMF technical staff very supportive. This is all the more surprising given that there is a Developer Advocacy team that is 'tasked with supporting the technical communities who use Wikimedia web APIs and software projects to spread and improve free knowledge' and 'to actively recruit and mentor new technical contributors', but who seem to perceive their role as protecting the organization from those very volunteers. I often encounter an attitude that says that we are incompetent noobs that must be managed by staff, and any error or lack of familiarity with WMF internal systems can be met with derision and sarcasm. There is no doubt that WMF applications and infrastructure are an extremely valuable resource, but it would be nice if volunteers could be similarly regarded. I have spent much of the last 10 years working on projects that further WMF goals and core values. I would prefer to do so in a collegial or even collaborative way. The staff who manage WMF systems and infrastructure are smart, competent, and well organized, but they are not very generous. They seem to regard the rest of us as barbarians at the gate. I have hesitated to write this, but I think it needs to be said. Tim Moody

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Wikimedia Foundation Inc. design staff
by MZMcBride 21 Jun '22

21 Jun '22

Hello. I happened to look at <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Design> earlier today and I noticed that the Wikimedia Foundation Inc. design team is about 24 people these days. I found this very surprising, as that's quite a few people. And it's even more perplexing if you have visited Wikimedia wikis previously, as they're somewhat infamously not known for cutting-edge design. The vast majority of the content is very simple headings, body text, and sometimes thumbnails, all wrapped within a site skin that very infrequently changes. If we assume that each design person's salary is $70,000/year USD, which I think is a very conservative estimate, that's about $1,680,000 of donor money spent per year on just design team salaries. Again, the actual figure is probably much higher. When $1.68M of donor money is spent each year, what are we getting in return? Concretely and specifically, what is the return on this very large amount of money being spent every year? I see the various titles listed such as design researcher and user experience designer, but I can't wrap my head around what all of this money is being spent on, having personally used Wikimedia sites and services for more than 15 years. MZMcBride

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Invitation to Wikimania 2022 - Open Space call
by Antoni Mtavangu 21 Jun '22

21 Jun '22

Dear Wikimedians, I am writing to let you know that the Wikimania COT 2022 has organized a second Wikimania Open Space call that will happen on the coming *Friday 24th June 2022* from *(6:00-7:30)pm UTC*. This is an opportunity for everyone to come with questions related to Programming and Wikimania in general. For more information please visit the Wikimania 2022 Help Desk Page <https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help_desk>. On behalf of Wikimania 2022 COT <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/02/24/announcing-the-wikimania-2022-core-or…> , Antoni Mtavangu (He/Him) Wikimania 2022 COT member <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/02/24/announcing-the-wikimania-2022-core-or…> Cofounder-Wikimedia Tanzania <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Tanzania>

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Writing LGBTIQ+ biographies in Wikipedia: tips and strategies to overcome barriers - a skillshare meeting!
by Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska 20 Jun '22

20 Jun '22

Dear Wikimedians, Volunteer Supporters Network would like to invite you to another skillsharing meeting. This time it will be an event around writing LGBTIQ+ biographies in Wikipedia. The event will happen at *June 28th at 4 PM UTC on Zoom.* During the training conducted by Vic Sfriso from Wikimedia Argentina you will: - learn tips and strategies to overcome barriers in writing LGBTIQ+ biographies in Wikipedia - know more about a guide from Wikimedia Argentina focused on LGBTIQ+ biographies, which is currently being translated into English You can learn more about the event and register here (registration is required to get the link do meeting) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_Supporters_Network/VSN_Training:_… The event is a part of a series of open skill-share events organized by the Volunteer Supporters Network - you can check other upcoming events here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_Supporters_Network/Meetings As always - we are looking forward to seeing you all! -- Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska

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Form 990 clarification request (for the attention of WMF accounts staff)
by Andreas Kolbe 20 Jun '22

20 Jun '22

Dear WMF accounts staff, Could you kindly clarify whether the "Salaries, other compensation, employee benefits" figure in Part I, line 15 of the Form 990 relates solely to the 291 employees indicated in Part I, line 5, or whether it also includes salaries, compensation and benefits for the 82 contractors listed in Part V, line 1a of the Form 990. Thank you. Andreas

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Wikimedia Deutschland looking for a partner affiliate to organize the WikidataCon 2023
by Léa Lacroix 20 Jun '22

20 Jun '22

------- TL;DR ------- Wikimedia Deutschland is looking for a partner organization to jointly design and run the WikidataCon 2023. This organization should be recognized legally in their country, be located in the Global South, have previous experience with running events and have a Wikidata-enthusiastic community. If your organization is interested, please reach out directly to Léa Lacroix before July 31st. ---------------------------- Dear Wikimedians, As you may know, the last edition of the WikidataCon in 2021 <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikidataCon_2021> was organized jointly by Wikimedia Deutschland and Wiki Movimento Brasil. The result of these intense 10 months of collaboration was an incredibly successful online event with about 500 participants, more than 40% of which joined from the Global South. This partnership not only created an innovative event, hosting multiple conversations about the future of Wikidata and reimagining it from the margins, but also gave us the opportunity to examine our priorities and points of views, to learn from each other’s experiences and to share skills. You can find a summary of what we learned, tried and achieved in our common documentation <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiProject_remote_event_participation/Docu…> . We’re starting to work on the concept and planning of a new WikidataCon event for 2023, and so we’re very eager to form a new partnership with a new organization in the Wikimedia movement. Together we would design and organize the event and bring new perspectives to this important gathering for the international Wikidata community. We have defined baseline criteria to help select our future partner, based on our vision of WikidataCon: - In order to broaden our perspectives and decenter from the existing majority of Wikidata editors, we are looking for an organization located in the Global South; - Those involved in co-organizing the conference should show a lot of enthusiasm for Wikidata and have an existing connection to local communities involved in Wikidata-related activities; - We are looking for a group of people with prior experience in organizing events who are keen to experiment with new formats and design the future of Wikimedia events together; - For administrative reasons, we can only partner up with a group legally recognized as an organization in their country that is able to sign contracts, issue invoices and receive funds from Germany. This call for proposals will remain open until July 31st. If your organization would like to apply, you need only to send me a private email so we can start a conversation about your ideas and how this partnership would work. The selection of a partner will take place in August/September 2022. After a public announcement, the collaboration between Wikimedia Deutschland and this organization would run from October 2022 to November 2023. The event itself would take place in a format to be later decided among the organizers (online, onsite or hybrid) in October 2023. Feel free to share this email with anyone who might be interested or on any relevant channels. I remain available for any questions, and I’m very excited to engage in discussions with the many organizations of Wikidata enthusiasts in the movement! Best regards, -- Léa Lacroix Community Engagement Coordinator Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 10963 Berlin www.wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.

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Re: what do we do with all this opportunity?
by WereSpielChequers 20 Jun '22

20 Jun '22

Hi SJ, Re " Even as the world moves on to new frontiers and companies race to enclose derivatives of our work." Not an easy task when work is licenced Share Alike and By Attribution. But yes it is a real threat, and should be one that both the WMF and the volunteer community can agree to combat. For the WMF unattributed reuse reduces clickthroughs and thereby potential donations. For some volunteers not being credited for the work you contribute reduces motivation, for others it increases the difficulty of avoiding circular referencing. Especially when Wikipedia winds up citing as a source an article copied from a page on Wikipedia that has itself been deleted. Attribution and share alike are at times a pain to comply with, and I fear that there are those in the movement who see this feature as a bug, and that this contributed to the use of CC0 on Wikidata. But the opportunity is still there. The WMF could employ some legal staff, or fund a legal charity, that would strongly encourage reusers to respect the CC-BY-SA licence. This would protect the work people have done from being used to derive works that are neither attributed nor shared alike. It would protect WMF revenue, maintain volunteer motivation and make it difficult to "enclose derivatives of our work. Employing a few dozen legals and paralegals in a country such as India could make a real difference to this, and at least partially address the issues others have raised about the lack of WMF spending in developing countries. WSC > > > Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2022 17:48:12 -0400 > From: Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Re: what do we do with all this opportunity? > To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Message-ID: > <CAAtU9WL5yFXyArg5qpRr1wtwXQSq=010mhZa4YJ4+Shhy4HZ= > Q(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: multipart/alternative; > boundary="000000000000b566b205e1bfd4c3" > > We face the paradox <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredkin%27s_paradox> of > choice <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overchoice>, the lull of peace, and > the fog of distributed bureaucracy. > ~ With great possibility comes disfocus. (and a few things with focus!) > ~ With no clear challenge or adversary, we've become comfortable fussing > over small changes... Even as the world moves on to new frontiers and > companies race to enclose derivatives of our work. This peace is coming to > an end. > ~ Our central overhead costs are quite high. So high^ that it seems to > baffle everyone involved, each believing the bureaucracy must be caused by > some other part of the system, outside of their or their org's control. > > Our projects are already a global standard for multimodal collaboration at > scale, we should embrace that and rise to meet it. Building some of the > world's best free, mulitilingual, accessible tools for is within our remit, > experience, and budget. > [Discourse raised a *total *of $20M over its lifetime. we could support + > spin out free-knowledge free-software layers like that every year.] > > Let's practice working together, focusing on a few things each year that > can change not only our projects but the world, honoring existing work and > aggressively shedding anything we are doing that others are alreay doing > almost as well. > > SJ > > *^* Up to 10-to-1 in some areas, plus delays of years inserted into > otherwise continuous processes. This ratio can slip into the negative if > one includes opportunity cost, or funded work that displaces or drives out > comparable voluntary work; or that demands thousands of hours of input for > little result. > 🌍🌏🌎🌑 > > On Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 8:45 AM Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga < > galder158(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > > > Or, maybe, just making Wikimedia a non-obsolete environment. I'm sure the > > money can go to that effort. > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* Felipe Schenone <schenonef(a)gmail.com> > > *Sent:* Friday, June 17, 2022 12:51 PM > > *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > > *Subject:* [Wikimedia-l] Re: Wikimedia Foundation Inc. design staff > > > > I agree with the diagnosis, but maybe not with the solution. If Wikimedia > > is getting "overfunding" and doesn't quite know what to so with it, > there's > > probably plenty of good things to do. We could start a community process > to > > decide it, because as you say, reducing funding efforts or saving > > indefinitely for the future isn't likely to happen or even desirable, > > considering the alternatives. > > > > Here are some ideas: > > > > * Investing in clean energy sources for Wikimedia servers. > > * Funding of external developers and libraries on which MediaWiki > depends. > > * Funding of open knowledge projects beyond Wikimedia, to not stray too > > far the original intentions of donors and volunteers. > > * Funding of other non-knowledge altruistic projects (like buying land > for > > a natural reserve). I'm sure the funding team could rethink and > generalize > > the campaign to justify this use for future donations. > > > > On Fri, Jun 17, 2022, 4:47 AM <tim.herb(a)gmx.de> wrote: > > > > The question of you is important. The Wikimedia Foundation hired a lot of > > people in the last years and I do not see so big change in the output. It > > is a question that is from my point of view relevant for different areas > at > > the Wikimedia Foundation. I dont support a too big focus on efficiency > that > > needs a lot of metrics to measure and to create these metrics needs then > a > > lot of staff. What is needed and what not is not easy to measure. With > > increasing available resources the staff will probably increase. This is > an > > usual behaviour of humans that they try to use resources if available and > > do not only allocate them for the future or say no and try to reduce the > > needed resources if not neccessary. From my point of view the Wikimedia > > Foundation should reduce the Fundraising acitivities and try to reduce in > > the next years the yearly expenses or pay at least attention that they do > > not increase further. The salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are > > currently from my point of view in relation to Germany based NGOs high. I > > think interesting documents to get an overview about the work of the > > Wikimedia Foundation are the quaterly tuning sessions. > > > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_Foundation_tuning_ses… > > > > Hogü-456 > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > Public archives at > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org… > > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > Public archives at > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org… > > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org >

2 1

Selena Deckelmann joins as Chief Product & Technology Officer
by Maryana Iskander 17 Jun '22

17 Jun '22

Hi all, When I started in January, I shared with you that one of my top priorities <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chief_Executive_Office…> coming to the Wikimedia Foundation was to actively step in and support the Foundation’s product and technology teams while we recruited executive leadership of these mission critical functions with a new Chief Product and Technology Officer. I am delighted to introduce you to Selena Deckelmann, who will be joining the Wikimedia Foundation on August 1. She is based in Portland, Oregon in the United States. Selena is currently the Senior Vice President at Mozilla, where she has been for the last nine years. She leads the Firefox organization of more than 400 people responsible for all Firefox product and technology functions including desktop, mobile, web platform, and browser services. I have gotten to know Selena over several months and also learned from people who have worked with her over many years. She is known for successfully driving change by getting stakeholders aligned around what’s needed, and being seen as a trusted partner. Selena has built strong credibility over many years with colleagues and also with a broader developer community. She is described as a leader who can make the tough decisions, develop skills, grow diverse contributors, and inspire teams. She also has a great laugh and looks for joy in her work! As context for the recruitment process: given the critical need to get this right, we used two firms with global search expertise who specialized in product/technology executive leadership roles. This meant double the work, but allowed us to more quickly build a large, globally diverse pool of over 500 candidates. Once we identified a smaller number of finalists, they participated in real-life case studies of some of our current challenges and met with Wikimedia stakeholders over the course of many months. As you all know, we have a highly unique and sometimes difficult environment with a multifaceted mission, complex structure, and often competing stakeholders. This is going to be a challenge for anyone, especially given the steep learning curve at Wikimedia (which I can confirm from my own experience!). I hope you will sign up to help me successfully onboard Selena as she gets started! Selena will share her own message with you shortly, and she can be reached directly at sdeckelmann(a)wikimedia.org. Maryana Maryana Iskander Wikimedia Foundation CEO *** https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2022/06/13/wikimedia-foundation-welcom… Wikimedia Foundation welcomes Selena Deckelmann as Chief Product and Technology Officer 13 June 2022, San Francisco — The Wikimedia Foundation today announced the appointment of Selena Deckelmann as Chief Product and Technology Officer. Selena is currently serving as Senior Vice President of Mozilla, where she was responsible for Firefox. She will officially join on August 1, 2022. Selena will lead the product and technology teams at the Wikimedia Foundation. These teams support the technology infrastructure and innovation that powers Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, one of the most visited websites in the world with more than 16 billion pageviews per month. They also enable more than 300,000 global volunteers to edit Wikimedia projects each month. “Selena has a proven track record of delivering results by enabling individuals and teams to tackle unique and often complex challenges,” said Maryana Iskander, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation. “She has dedicated her career to open source technologies for empowerment and inclusion.” At Mozilla, where she has been for nearly a decade, Selena currently leads the Firefox organization of more than 400 people responsible for all Firefox product and technology functions including desktop, mobile, web platform, and browser services. She oversaw some of the company’s most significant achievements including performance projects like Quantum Flow, architectural changes like Project Fission, key features like Enhanced Tracking Protection and Total Cookie Protection, and services such as Firefox Monitor. In her nine years at Mozilla, Selena held various other roles including Vice President for Firefox Desktop, Senior Director for Web Platform Engineering and Gecko Runtime, and Senior Manager for Gecko Security Engineering. Selena also brings experience from her previous roles as co-founder of Prime Radiant, a software as a service business that explored how to improve business processes at scale with checklist automation software, and as Consulting Director of Development for The Ada Initiative, an organization that was dedicated to increasing the participation of women in open source and technology communities. She was a major contributor to PostgreSQL, one of the largest free and open source databases in the world. “Open collaboration produces better solutions for the world, and technology is a critical enabler of making this true,” said Selena. “I look forward to contributing to Wikimedia’s inspiring free knowledge mission.” As Chief Product and Technology Officer, Selena will work with Wikimedia Foundation staff, technical contributors, volunteer developers, researchers, and communities to support Wikimedia’s 2030 Movement Strategy <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017/Direction> to advance free and open access to knowledge. The majority of the Foundation is focused on product and technology development in service of our mission.

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[Small wiki toolkits] Upcoming bots & scripts workshop on Thursday, June 30th, 16:00 UTC
by Srishti Sethi 17 Jun '22

17 Jun '22

Hello everyone, The fifth workshop on the topic of "Hosting bots and scripts on Toolforge" is coming up - it will take place on Thursday, June 30th at 16:00 UTC. You can find more details on the workshop and a link to join here: < https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_wiki_toolkits/Workshops#How_to_host_a…> [1]. This workshop will introduce participants to Toolforge, how to create a developer account, access it via ssh, create and run bots and scripts, etc. You can add your discussion ideas in the etherpad doc linked from the workshops page. To participate in this workshop, you would need basic familiarity with using command-line tools and technical knowledge of bots. We look forward to your participation! Best, Srishti On behalf of the SWT Workshops Organization team [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Small_wiki_toolkits/Workshops#How_to_host_a… *Srishti Sethi* Senior Developer Advocate Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

1 0

WikiJournal
by Mikael Häggström 16 Jun '22

16 Jun '22

Dear all, The 2021 activity and financial reports of WikiJournal User Group is now available. Thank you, Mikael Haggstrom

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Join the new Movement Strategy Forum community review
by Quim Gil 16 Jun '22

16 Jun '22

Hello everyone, This is an invitation to all Movement Strategy participants and Wikimedians in general to try out a new platform for truly multilingual collaboration: Movement Strategy Forum - https://forum.movement-strategy.org/ We have started a community review <https://forum.movement-strategy.org/t/movement-strategy-forum-community-rev…> period of two months. If the community feedback is positive, the Forum will launch in August 2022 before Wikimania. If not, we will follow the feedback received, changing the proposal or closing it. We opened the Forum on May 24 with targeted outreach, hoping that the new site features would work. 😅 A week later, the Wikimedia login has been used by +200 users, the automatic translation is allowing speakers of different languages to discuss together, and we are ready to welcome more reviewers, testers, and other curious minds. We have just released the first weekly report <https://forum.movement-strategy.org/t/forum-weekly-report/387>. Looking forward to reading your first impressions in the next one! -- Quim Gil (he/him) Director of Movement Strategy & Governance @ Wikimedia Foundation https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Qgil-WMF

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Call for submissions for Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2022
by Kiril Simeonovski 15 Jun '22

15 Jun '22

Dear all, The call for submissions <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Meeting_2022/Submissions> for the Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2022, which will take place in Ohrid from 14-16 October, is now open. This year's conference will be labelled with the slogan "Bringing Back Together!" to highlight the fact that we will meet in person after the conference took place online in the previous two years. Session proposals can be submitted in six different types with standardised durations. The authors of the submissions have freedom to identify the topic(s) covered with their proposals, and the conference themes will be determined after marrying up the indicated topics of the accepted submissions. There is no limit on the number of session proposals submitted by an individual, a group or a community, and we are looking forward to receiving submissions pertaining to diverse topics from every community within the CEE region. We also welcome, and have reserved limited space for, submissions from people outside this region. The call for submissions closes on 31 July at 23:59 (CEST). Best regards, Kiril

1 0

Developer Portal is launched! Discover Wikimedia’s technical areas and how to contribute
by Birgit Müller 15 Jun '22

15 Jun '22

Hi All, We are happy to announce the launch of the Wikimedia Developer Portal <https://developer.wikimedia.org/> - a centralized entry point for finding technical documentation and community resources across Wikimedia’s key technical areas. The Developer Portal project <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal> is part of a broader initiative to improve the discoverability and overall quality of key technical documentation. Work on this project began in July 2020 and included research and feedback rounds <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal/History>, designing a content strategy <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal/Content_…> and user journeys <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal?tableofc…> to help people navigate and achieve their tasks, technical implementation <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal/Implemen…> of the portal, developing a documentation review process <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation/Review_template>, and updating key documents. Wikimedia’s technical documentation spans a wide range of technologies, is distributed (and often duplicated) across mediawiki <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki>, wikitech <https://wikitech.wikimedia.org>, code repositories or other places, might or might not be up-to-date, and serves multiple audiences. This complex landscape can make it hard to find the information you need. The goal of the Developer Portal is to make it easier for developers and other technical contributors to: - Find the key documentation they need for common developer tasks. - Discover available tools and technologies. - Learn how to get started in Wikimedia technical areas. At its core, the Developer Portal is a navigation tool. It is an index of categorized links to key sources of technical information. These sources are hosted primarily on wikis—the portal itself contains no actual documentation. A major part of this project includes reviewing and updating the documents linked from the Developer Portal - the actual documentation (examples: Localisation <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Localisation>, Communication <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Communication>, Cloud Services introduction <https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Cloud_Services_introduction>). This work will continue over the next year while also investigating how to improve and scale the process. The Developer Portal is a project by the Developer Advocacy team within the Technical Engagement group at the Wikimedia Foundation and has been developed by a project team of technical writers, engineers, and developer advocates (Alex <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:APaskulin_(WMF)>, Andre <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:AKlapper_(WMF)>, Bryan <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:BDavis_(WMF)>, Sarah R <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SRodlund_(WMF)>, Tricia <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:TBurmeister_(WMF)>). The long term goal is to step-by-step move towards a future where Wikimedia’s technical documentation is discoverable, accurate, standardized, and continuously updated. Yes, this is big :-) — and yes, it will take a while. Hope you join us in realizing this collective effort of making it easier for people to contribute to the code and technical spaces. Thank you <3 This project would not have been possible without the support, knowledge, ideas and feedback of many! A huge thanks to: - the members of WMF and WMDE engineering teams who participated in exploratory interviews early in the process, - everyone who provided feedback at Hackathon 2021 & 2022, via private messages, on the Project page <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal/Content_…> or gave input or help on Phabricator tasks <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/4941/query/all/> - Developers and community members who participated in multiple rounds of user testing <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal/History#…> - the Design Strategy team <https://design.wikimedia.org/strategy/index.html> at the Foundation for helping us with designing a research study and recruiting a diverse group of users to test the final version of the site - people who helped with key doc improvements and content reviews: Haley <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:HLepp_(WMF)>, Kamil <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:KBach-WMF>, Komla <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SSapaty_(WMF)>, Nick <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Quiddity_(WMF)>, Srishti <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SSethi_(WMF)> - translators and translatewiki.net community, especially Abijeet <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:APatro_(WMF)>, Niklas <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nlaxstrom-WMF>, and Verdy_p <https://translatewiki.net/wiki/User:Verdy_p> - People who helped us with steps towards production and deployment: Alexandros <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:AKosiaris_(WMF)>, Andrew <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:AndrewBogott_(WMF)>, Brian <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:BKing_(WMF)>, Ryan <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:RKemper_(WMF)>, Valentin <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:VGuti%C3%A9rrez_(WMF)> We hope that this new resource will be fun to explore and ultimately be useful for your work. If you are interested in learning more about the thinking behind the user journey design for the Developer Portal, please see the blog post on Diff <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/06/15/illuminating-pathways-to-technical-do…>. For more information about the technical implementation and design principles, please see the corresponding post on the techblog <https://techblog.wikimedia.org/2022/06/15/new-discovery-tool-for-technical-…>. All key information is also available on the project page <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal> of the Developer Portal. Feedback, ideas and questions are more than welcome on the talk page of the project <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Developer_Advocacy/Developer_Portal>. Let's keep discussions in one place. :-) Birgit & the Developer Portal project team -- Birgit Müller (she/her) Director of Technical Engagement Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

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Important updates about the submitted Wikimania program proposals
by Antoni Mtavangu 15 Jun '22

15 Jun '22

Hello Wikimedians! I hope this email finds you well. I am writing on behalf of the Wikimania 2022 COT to let you know that; 1. There is a little extra time extension window given *(up to Tuesday 14th June 2022 mid-night in all timezones)* for all people with open program submissions to finalize their proposal. 2. If you submitted a Program proposal already, you will receive a confirmation email today that will indicate the status of your Program proposal and the respective next step to be taken. 3. Once the Program proposals are received, they will be published publicly on the Wikimania Wiki page. For more info you can visit the <https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships>Wikimania 2022 Scholarships Diff post <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/05/09/wikimania-2022-grants-and-program-sub…> . Thank you and we are looking forward to meeting you all in the Wikimania 2022 Festival! On behalf of Wikimania 2022 COT <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/02/24/announcing-the-wikimania-2022-core-or…> , Antoni Mtavangu (He/Him) Wikimania 2022 COT member <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/02/24/announcing-the-wikimania-2022-core-or…> Cofounder-Wikimedia Tanzania <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Tanzania> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

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[Wikimedia Announcements] This Month in GLAM: May 2022
by The 'This Month in GLAM' team 13 Jun '22

13 Jun '22

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Re: Wikimedia-l Digest, Vol 514, Issue 1
by WereSpielChequers 13 Jun '22

13 Jun '22

Hi Yaroslav, Meta already exists, it is included in Single User login and cross wiki notifications. It uses the same software as the talkpages on our various projects on Wikipedia, Commons, WikiVoyage etc. The cross wiki notifications in particular mean that everyone active in Wikipedia, Commons or any other wiki in the movement could be pinged about a discussion there. It is available for use by anyone who wants a dialogue with the volunteer community, or who wants cross wiki discussion. So I was going to describe it as dormant rather than dead. Then I looked at recent changes, and the last 50 edits went back less than an hour, that's very quiet compared to The English Language version of Wikipedia, but way less dead than quite a few of the movement's thousand wikis. WSC On Mon, 13 Jun 2022 at 11:05, <wikimedia-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote: > Send Wikimedia-l mailing list submissions to > wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikimedia-l.lists.wikimedia.org/ > > You can reach the person managing the list at > wikimedia-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Wikimedia-l digest..." > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Join the new Movement Strategy Forum community review > (F. Xavier Dengra i Grau) > 2. Re: Join the new Movement Strategy Forum community review > (Yaroslav Blanter) > > > > > Message: 2 > Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2022 12:04:42 +0200 > From: Yaroslav Blanter <ymbalt(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Re: Join the new Movement Strategy Forum > community review > To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Message-ID: > <CAM-kgDNj-XWCLgKmhWjphKGnYEkEZY7zEVdjumK= > FA2QO5gK6Q(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: multipart/alternative; > boundary="0000000000005fa9f405e1516b9a" > > Dear All, > > I thought I would just let it go, but I do not think the discussion > currently runs in a good direction. > > I do not think it is useful to advocate that Meta is a good discussion > platform. It is not. It is dead. At best, there are some announcements > posted there, and there is a small group of people who monitor and comment > on them. If there is something really outrageous going on, such as the > recent rebranding attempt, users can be mobilized from the projects to > leave their opinion. This is done by the project users who care, it is done > inside the projects or using some extra-Wikimedia means, and it can only > happen occasionally. If this does not happen, Meta discussions attract at > best a dozen commenters, some of whom are just negative towards everything. > > We tried to do something about this for at least 15 years (I myself was > around and have been an active Meta user since 2007-2008). Things are not > getting better, they are getting worse. > > It might be a matter of funding, may be a radically new interface could be > build on Meta to replace the existing one. But I am afraid this is more a > matter of attitude. Discussions were happening on IRC, then most of them > migrated to Facebook , then to Discord or Telegram, but nobody ever > considered discussing things on Meta. > > Obviously there are a lot of boundary conditions, I fully buy the argument > that discussion should happen in the space owned by the WMF (though a lot > of discussions are happening right now on spaces not owned by the WMF, and > partially just because they are not owned by the WMF), licensed > appropriately etc. But saying we should go to Meta to discuss there and > shooting off all attempts of doing something else is a dead end. > > (I must say I did not even log in to the Movement Stategy Forum and I am > not registered there, I am not prepared to endorse or criticize it, and I > do not have any specific suggestions for improvement. I did participate in > Space when it was up, and I recognize all the problems which were there, > though). > > Best > Yaroslav > > On Mon, Jun 13, 2022 at 11:09 AM F. Xavier Dengra i Grau via Wikimedia-l < > wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote: > > > Bon dia a tothom/Hi everyone, > > > > It's really difficult not to agree with Galder here. Happy to still read > > these persistent colleagues with key arguments. > > > > The same people that committed the big mistakes and failure with > Wikimedia > > Space (that should have never existed and that even combined discussions > > with Facebook groups as a "revolution" of communication) is now trying to > > tell us that they "learnt from those mistakes" and that they have full > > commitment in finishing this new forum. I still look back at this graph > > of 2019 > > < > https://diff.wikimedia.org/2019/06/25/introducing-wikimedia-space-a-platfor… > > > > and wonder how things can rapidly age that badly and with worse > leadership. > > > > Imho this is quite informative of the lack of sustained chain of command > > (not community-need driven anymore). And the worst part of it, this is > > coming from the same people that is parallelly trying to blame those > > volunteers who strongly disagree with very legit discourses on the > constant > > externalization of features and the lack of renewed wiki tech. I've read > so > > far too many fallacies ("this platform must be good because we are 67 > staff > > people behind", etc) instead of a critical recognition that our default, > > wiki one is obsolete and must be urgently supported with staff and > > resources. > > > > There is no way to justify new forums in other interfaces rather than the > > aim or the apathy of the WMF to disengage actively involved wikipedians > in > > favor of more empty infrastructures (that benefits the institution rather > > the direct interaction within the knowledge projects). Truly sad, > > especially when some of us feel obliged to explain this to kind donors > that > > truly believe that their 5$ are going to fund Wikipedia's servers and > > functionalities as they are mostly told in the funding banners. > > > > Xavier Dengra > > ------- Original Message ------- > > El dilluns, 13 de juny 2022 a les 10:19 AM, Matej Grochal < > > matej.grochal(a)wikimedia.sk> va escriure: > > > > Dear all > > > > I quite agree with Galder here. We should focus on making our own spaces > > more inclusive and easier to use rather than jumping to various external > > providers for this and that. Let's not forget that existing volunteers > and > > staff also have to learn to use the new platform. The other issue is the > > continued splitting of content and esp. volunteers have to find extra > time > > to check those other platforms to stay in touch with the movement. > > > > Be well and healthy > > > > Matej > > > > On Sunday, June 12, 2022, Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga < > galder158(a)hotmail.com> > > wrote: > > > >> Ceill, > >> I am a big fan of having 'one front door' for people that are trying to > >> find answers to questions. Having the front door in another building, > with > >> another technology, and once they are in we say them that our building > is > >> the other one, the one that is falling down (but don't visit the > basement, > >> please, is full of money) is the worst of the strategies. > >> > >> Best, > >> Galder > >> ------------------------------ > >> *From:* Ciell Wikipedia <ciell.wikipedia(a)gmail.com> > >> *Sent:* Sunday, June 12, 2022 6:03 PM > >> *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > >> *Subject:* [Wikimedia-l] Re: Join the new Movement Strategy Forum > >> community review > >> Hi, > >> > >> First: I am a big fan of having 'one front door' for people that are > >> trying to find answers to questions they do not know where to ask (last > >> year's movement communications insights on this > >> < > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_communications_insights/Report/Fro… > >). > >> I think a forum, actively moderated by people helping and pointing > users to > >> the right places, would be a huge improvement for community questions > and > >> input. Especially the one-click translation service is imho a big plus > in > >> service in comparison to Meta. > >> > >> It does however worry me that when I joined the forum last weekend to > >> take a peek, I stumbled on a thread with a very specific question about > >> Commons and giving permission via VRT. The thread had multiple replies, > but > >> no one had a real substantial answer. Well, replies were along the > lines of > >> 'No, there is no template for this' and 'This should be discussed on > >> Commons'. While the answers were somewhat correct, they were obviously > not > >> helpful for the person asking this specific question and, as far as I > could > >> tell, none of the respondents were a member of our VRT teams. So this > user > >> was effectively not helped by posting the question on the forum. > >> Even more so, because the question on the forum was not noticed by VRT > >> agents (most of us working on the permissions queues and Commons will > have > >> the /Noticeboard on Commons on our watch list and can be pinged if > country > >> or language specific knowledge or advise is needed for a question), and > >> secondly it will be more difficult for the people working from our end > that > >> will have to follow up if the person does decide to bring the question > to > >> Commons or VRT after all. > >> > >> Besides that, with my MCDC hat on, I hope after this trial period we'll > >> get to see the data on how many people interacted about the Movement > >> Strategy that we have not heard from in the previous 5 years through > any of > >> the other platforms that are in use to gather feedback. Already trying > to > >> watch several channels with Strategy discussions, I count on the MSG > team > >> to bring back these numbers and a summary of what is being discussed on > the > >> forum back to Meta. Even in a virtual world there is a limit on how many > >> channels a Wikimedian can watch. > >> > >> > >> *NB: I see Sj's response crossed mine while I was writing, but let my > >> example underline the issue of 'no unified notifications' and a possible > >> problem with 'coherent archiving'. * > >> > >> *Please also be aware G-translate does not know all languages we have > >> projects in, some of which are however supported by Yandex that is an > >> option to choose for the Wikipedia article translation tool already. * > >> > >> Best, > >> Ciell > >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > > Public archives at > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org… > > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org >

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Wikimedia Project Proposal / Knowledge Base
by Cuneyt Tyler 12 Jun '22

12 Jun '22

Hi, I proposed a new Wikimedia project. Check out here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/KnowledgeBase Regards. Cuneyt Tyler

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Open Call for Wikimania Volunteers
by Antoni Mtavangu 12 Jun '22

12 Jun '22

Hello dear Wikimedians! We would like to let you know that The Wikimania 2022 Core Organizing Team wants to work with you in making the Wikimania 2022 Conference inclusive as possible. The roles we would like you to support us during Wikimania includes Trust and Safety, Session Q&A Facilitators, Tent Managers, Help Desk, Newcomer Host, and Newcomer Desk. In all those tasks, no prior experience is necessary as we will provide training for all volunteers. We kindly ask those who are interested to join us at the Wikimania Festival (August 11-14) in either of the roles mentioned to sign up here <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/06/03/open-call-for-wikimania-volunteers/> to support one of the roles mentioned above. We look forward to celebrating with you at this year’s Wikimania Festival! On behalf of Wikimania 2022 COT <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/02/24/announcing-the-wikimania-2022-core-or…> , Antoni Mtavangu (He/Him) Wikimania 2022 COT member <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/02/24/announcing-the-wikimania-2022-core-or…> Cofounder-Wikimedia Tanzania <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Tanzania> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> "By 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge, and anyone who shares our vision will be able to join us."

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Free Licenses Outreach Materials – Wikimedia Ukraine needs advice
by Павло Костін 11 Jun '22

11 Jun '22

Hello all, My name is Pavlo Kostin, I am an advocacy manager of Wikimedia Ukraine, responsible for freedom of panorama advocacy efforts. Due to the start of the full-fledged invasion of the Russian Federation, we had to suspend our advocacy efforts regarding freedom of panorama in Ukraine. As you can imagine, a copyright reform is not the main focus of legislators now, as there are more urgent issues related to the ongoing war. Wikimedia Ukraine is currently working on making more systemic outreach efforts to get the content distributed online by Ukrainian state institutions, museums and cultural institutions published under free licenses. We are sure that such efforts were done by others in the Movement before, so we wanted to check if any of them are available to be used as inspiration, or maybe only a translation is needed. We would be grateful if you can share any materials used for facilitating the transfer of the above-listed institutions and partner organizations to free licenses. Among such materials, there might be the instructions outlining steps these institutions should undertake to switch to a relevant license; infographics and presentations for representatives of these institutions to explain the benefits of free licensing for them; explanatory notes etc. We would be glad for any piece of information or advice shared so that we can use it in our advocacy efforts. If you want to contact me privately, reach out to pavlo.kostin(a)wikimedia.org.ua Thank you! Best regards, Pavlo Kostin Advocacy Manager Wikimedia Ukraine

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Wikimedia Research Showcase June 15
by Emily Lescak 09 Jun '22

09 Jun '22

Hi all, The next Research Showcase, *Wikipedia's Languages*, will be live-streamed Wednesday, June 15, at 4:00 AM PST/11:00 AM UTC. View your local time here <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1655290800>. YouTube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZQM1dtn3g0 You are welcome to ask questions via YouTube chat or on IRC at #wikimedia-research. This month's presentations: Quantifying knowledge synchronisation in the 21st centuryBy *Jisung Yoon (Pohang University of Science and Technology)*Humans acquire and accumulate knowledge through language usage and eagerly exchange their knowledge for advancement. Although geographical barriers had previously limited communication, the emergence of information technology has opened new avenues for knowledge exchange. However, it is unclear which communication pathway is dominant in the 21st century. Here, we explore the dominant path of knowledge diffusion in the 21st century using Wikipedia, the largest communal dataset. We evaluate the similarity of shared knowledge between population groups, distinguished based on their language usage. When population groups are more engaged with each other, their knowledge structure is more similar, where engagement is indicated by socio-economic connections, such as cultural, linguistic, and historical features. Moreover, geographical proximity is no longer a critical requirement for knowledge dissemination. Furthermore, we integrate our data into a mechanistic model to better understand the underlying mechanism and suggest that the knowledge "Silk Road" of the 21st century is based online. The Language Geography of WikipediaBy *Martin Dittus*Every language is a system of being, doing, knowing, and imagining. With over 7,000 active languages in the world, how many languages are fully represented online? To answer this question, digital non-profit Whose Knowledge? initiated the first ever report on the State of the Internet's Languages. As part of this report, Martin Dittus and Mark Graham have investigated the languages of Wikipedia. Wikipedia began with a single English-language edition more than two decades ago, and now offers more than 300 language editions, which places it at the forefront of digital language support. However, this does not mean that speakers of these languages get access to the same content: Wikipedia’s language editions vary widely in scale. We further find that this inequality is also reflected in Wikipedia’s geographic coverage: not all places are captured in every language. Wikipedia's coverage often follows the global distribution of speakers of the respective language. Yet even when we account for the distribution of language populations, certain language communities are much more strongly represented on Wikipedia than others. As a consequence, we find that for many countries in Africa, Central and South America, and South Asia, most of the content about those countries is in a foreign language, often a European-colonial language. In other words, in many of these places, people may need to be able to speak a second (possibly foreign) language in order to access Wikipedia information about their own places. Why do we see these differences? And what can be done to improve things? You can also watch our past research showcases here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase Emily, on behalf of the Research team -- Emily Lescak (she / her) Senior Research Community Officer The Wikimedia Foundation

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Deadline Extension for Wikimania 2022 Program Submissions
by Antoni Mtavangu 09 Jun '22

09 Jun '22

Hi Wikimedians, We hope you are all doing well! This is to let you all know that the time for Wikimania 2022 Program Submissions <https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program> have been extended for 2 days to 12th June 2022. Therefore we encourage all who want to submit their program proposals to use this little remaining time. For more info kindly read the Wikimania 2022 program submissions Diff post <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/05/09/wikimania-2022-grants-and-program-sub…> . On behalf of Wikimania 2022 COT <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/02/24/announcing-the-wikimania-2022-core-or…> , Antoni Mtavangu (He/Him) Wikimania 2022 COT member <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/02/24/announcing-the-wikimania-2022-core-or…> Cofounder-Wikimedia Tanzania <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Tanzania> Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> "By 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge, and anyone who shares our vision will be able to join us."

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[Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Deutschland's Annual Report 2021
by Nicole Ebber 08 Jun '22

08 Jun '22

Hi everyone, I am delighted to share Wikimedia Deutschland’s annual report 2021.[1] In 21 articles we look back on a year marked by the pandemic and present what we have done to set knowledge free. The report features our work and the people behind topics like knowledge equity, digital policy, WikidataCon, planting trees, Movement Strategy, and of course the celebrations around Wikipedia 20. Take a look! Nicole [1] https://www.wikimedia.de/2021/en/homepage/ -- Nicole Ebber Director Movement Strategy and Global Relations Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin Phone: +49 30 577 11 62-0 https://wikimedia.de Keep up to date! Current news and exciting stories about Wikimedia, Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in our newsletter (in German): https://www.wikimedia.de/newsletter/ 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. _______________________________________________ Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list -- wikimediaannounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wikimediaannounce-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org

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Invitation to Public Policy & Global Advocacy office hours, late June
by fputz＠wikimedia.org 07 Jun '22

07 Jun '22

Hi all, The Global Advocacy team is launching our monthly conversation hours. We have two calls to accommodate timezones, one on June 29 and another on July 1. Find your local time and details on how to join the Zoom call on our MetaWiki page [1]. The agenda is split between a dedicated theme for the month and whatever items you wish to cover. This month we will share some of our work on disinformation. There is no set agenda for the second half of the call - feel free to add your item to the list of topics in the etherpad [2]. These forums are an opportunity for us to answer questions about our work or about your initiatives, and to connect, share, and learn from each other. Come and talk to us! Ask us anything, or tell us anything, related to public policy and advocacy initiatives for free knowledge online. For example: * You want to learn more about our team and our current initiatives * You would like to share a policy development or advocacy campaign idea and would like to get feedback or support * You have questions about a specific WMF policy priority or development Hope to see you there! Ziski, on behalf of the Global Advocacy Team ______ [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Public_policy/Conversation_hours_and_Events… [2] https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Agenda_%26_Notes%2C_Global_Advocacy_Conver…

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Celtic Knot Conference: registration and program
by Léa Lacroix 07 Jun '22

07 Jun '22

Hello all, On behalf of the Celtic Knot Conference <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2022> organization team, I’m happy to share some exciting news about the online event, taking place in less than one month! ☘ You can now register for the online conference The registration form <https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/celtic-knot-conference-2022-tickets-33712523…> is now available and will remain open until and during the conference, taking place online on July 1-2. Attendance is free of charge and doesn’t include the satellite events <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2022/Satellite_events> that may be organized by individuals or groups before or after the main program. Please note that registration is necessary to attend most of the sessions of the conference, especially the 4 workshops that we offer during the event. For each workshop, you have two options: - Sign up as an active participant: you will be able to enable your microphone and camera, share your screen, interact directly with the speakers, and your participation will appear in the livestream for all participants (limited spots available) ; - Join as a watcher: your sound and image don’t appear on the recording, and you can interact with others via the chat. ☘ A first glimpse of the program On the program page <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2022/Online_program>, you can now see what the structure of the online event will look like: a light program with one track and a lot of time to take breaks and watch the asynchronous content of the conference. We selected a few important topics out of the requests expressed in the community survey, and we are currently working with experienced community leaders to offer four workshops that will allow participants to upgrade their skills and help their project grow: - Community growth - Organize or join an editing campaign - Databox, the simple Wikidata-powered infobox - Translate Wikidata properties in your languages If you’re interested in one or several of these workshops, don’t forget to register <https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/celtic-knot-conference-2022-tickets-33712523…> ! As previously communicated, the collaborative part of the program takes the shape of the “News from the Language Communities” session, where various groups will present what they have been working on over the past year. More information about these presentations will be added on the program page in the next few weeks. ☘ Connect with participants When you fill in the registration form, no data will be shared publicly ; if you want to let other people know that you will attend the event, feel free to add your name on the participants list <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2022/Knot_together#L…> . To start connecting with other attendees ahead of the conference, you can also join our social channels <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2022/Knot_together#S…> . We’re looking forward to seeing you soon at the Celtic Knot! If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact me, Daria Cybulska or Richard Nevell. For the organizing team, -- Léa Lacroix Community Engagement Coordinator Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 10963 Berlin www.wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.

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Save the date: Conversation hour with Maggie Dennis on Community Resilience & Sustainability on June 2
by Cornelius Kibelka 07 Jun '22

07 Jun '22

Hi all, Sending out a save the date: On *June 2 at 17:00 UTC* (check your local time <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1648134035>), the Community Resilience & Sustainability <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resilience_and_Sustainability> team at the Wikimedia Foundation is hosting a new conversation hour with its Vice President Maggie Dennis <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Mdennis_(WMF)>. Topics within the scope of this call include Movement Strategy coordination, Trust and Safety (and the Universal Code of Conduct), Community Development, and Human Rights. The conversation hour will take place on Zoom and will be live-streamed on Youtube (link to be shared soon). Send us your questions in advance or join the call to talk with Maggie. More details on Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours/Office_hours_2022-03-24>. Cheers Cornelius -- Cornelius Kibelka (he/him) Event Coordinator Movement Strategy + Governance 2030.wikimedia.org <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> *Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment. Donate. <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>* <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>

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Re: [Wikitech-l] Re: Congratulations to accepted candidates for Google Summer of Code 2022 & Outreachy Round 24
by Seyram Komla Sapaty 05 Jun '22

05 Jun '22

Congrats, everyone On Sat, 4 Jun 2022, 13:33 Ayan Sarkar, <ayansarkar1810(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > I am Ayan Sarkar, a B.Tech undergrad from West Bengal, India. I am > delighted to be a part of the Wikimedia Foundation for GSoC'22. As part of > GSoC, I'll be working on Wikimedia Commons App. My primary focus would be > to improve the custom image selector by making it easier for contributors > to choose images for upload and reducing the chance of uploading the > undesirable images to the Commons. For more information about the project, > please consider reading my post mentioned below. > *Post Link* - > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#GSoC%2722%3A_Improv… > > Huge thanks to my mentors, all the Wikimedia Commons members and > collaborators, and all the members of the Wikimedia Foundation for their > continuous guidance and support. > > Till now, it's been a great learning experience with Wikimedia Foundation, > looking forward to a really productive summer. > > Thanks > Ayan Sarkar > > On Wed, May 25, 2022 at 11:10 PM Vasanth Gopa <gopavasanth1999(a)gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Hello Folks, >> >> Please join me in welcoming Wikimedia's accepted candidates for Google >> Summer of Code 2022 and Outreachy Round 24! >> >> *Google Summer of Code 2022* >> >> 1. Nivas Ramisetty, India, Campaigns Retention Metrics Dashboard >> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T304826> >> Mentors: KCVelaga, Jayprakash12345. >> >> 2. Ayan Sarkar, India, Improve the picture selector of the Commons >> Android app >> <https://github.com/commons-app/apps-android-commons/issues/4764> >> Mentors: Syced, Aditya. >> >> 3. Lalit Suthar, India, Extending the WikidataComplete plugin for >> enabling data donations, recommendations, and gamification >> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T301613> >> Mentors: Gabinguo <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Gabinguo> >> , Aleksandr Perevalov <https://github.com/Perevalov> >> >> 4. Ankit Gupta, India, Edit Request Wizard >> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T300454> >> Mentors: Enterprisey >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Enterprisey>, SD0001 >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:SD0001>. >> >> 5. Shashwat Khanna <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Shashwat312>, >> India, Modernize JavaScript build process and dependencies for Wiki >> Education Dashboard <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T301731>, >> Mentors: Sage (Wiki Ed) >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sage_(Wiki_Ed)> . >> >> 6. Lennard Hofmann >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:LennardHofmann>, Germany, Rewrite >> the Wikidata Infobox on Commons in Lua >> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T302098>, >> Mentors: Mike Peel >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Mike_Peel>. >> >> 7. Amal Paul, India, Command-line interface for Canasta >> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T301893>, >> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T279998> >> Mentors: Jeffrey Wang >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:MyWikis-JeffreyWang>, Yaron Koren >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Yaron_Koren> >> >> *Outreachy Round 24* >> >> 1. Vaidehi Atpadkar, Add support for tracking specific namespaces >> to Programs & Events Dashboard >> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T301732> >> Mentors: Sage Ross. >> >> 2. Nazia Tasnim, Build Python library to work with html-dumps >> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T302237> >> Mentors: Martin Gerlach, Isaac Johnson. >> >> 3. Feliciss, What's in a name? Automatically identifying first and >> last author names for Wikicite and Wikidata >> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T300207> >> Mentors: Mike Peel >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Mike_Peel>, Pigsonthewing >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Pigsonthewing>. >> >> 4. Luis Roberto, What's in a name? Automatically identifying first >> and last author names for Wikicite and Wikidata >> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T300207> >> Mentors: Mike Peel >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Mike_Peel>, Pigsonthewing >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Pigsonthewing>. >> >> We would like to encourage accepted candidates to introduce themselves on >> this thread, share with us where they are coming from and give a brief >> overview of the project they will be working on. >> >> We’re so proud of the contributions they have made so far to our >> community, >> and we look forward to having a wonderful time working with them over the >> summer! Also, a huge shout-out to the project mentors for their enthusiasm >> and commitment! >> >> Thank you to Srishti, Jay Prakash >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Jayprakash12345> and Aisha Khatun >> <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Aisha_Khatun> for coordinating this >> round along with me! >> >> [1] Google Summer of Code 2022: >> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code/2022 >> [2] Outreachy Round 24: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreachy/Round_24 >> >> Regards, >> >> Gopa Vasanth <https://gopavasanth.me> >> Twitter <https://twitter.com/gopavasanth1999> | LinkedIn >> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/gopa-vasanth/> | GitHub >> <https://github.com/gopavasanth> | Gerrit >> <https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/q/gopavasanth> >> >> “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” >> >> _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list -- wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wikitech-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/

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Fact-checking Raju Narisetti in the Indian Express
by Andreas Kolbe 04 Jun '22

04 Jun '22

Dear all, Last weekend, an interview with Raju Narisetti, titled "Wikipedia is building trust with transparency", was published in the Indian Express, one of the major daily newspapers in India. For your convenience, here is an archive link for the article: https://archive.ph/RaCwX The Indian Express link is: https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/raju-nari… The article quotes Raju as saying (my emphases), ---- “*More than 75% of the money we raise globally* goes to two things. One is to *give money back to the volunteer community* so they can launch a new language. Two is about *half of it goes to the infrastructure.* You need to have databases and put it on the cloud and make sure it’s reliable,” he said. Although a lot of the money is raised in the more developed Western markets, *most of it is actually flowing into the global south,* where the growth will come in languages and users. ---- This diverged sharply from my understanding of WMF finances. So I looked at the records to try to fact-check these statements. I found the Foundation raised $163 million in the 2020/2021 financial year.[1] But it actually only spent $112 million of it (69%).[1] If the WMF kept 31% of its revenue to itself, it obviously can't have spent "more than 75%" (i.e. over $120M) of the money it raised on anything. This is a trivial point. But I was even more astonished by the other statement in the article, that most of the money raised "is actually flowing into the global south". Raju was talking to an Indian audience. This article was timed to coincide with the start of the Indian fundraiser – Indians are currently faced with fundraising banners on Wikipedia as well as emails soliciting repeat donations.[2] So I appreciate it is a good soundbite that might motivate Indian citizens to reach for their purses and wallets. After all, few people in India feel it is their job to send financial aid to the US, right? But is this soundbite really true? To fact-check that claim, I looked at the official figures in the latest (2020) WMF Form 990 tax return detailing WMF spending outside the US. According to the Form 990 section "General Information on Activities Outside the United States", spending on activities outside the US amounted to a total of $20,076,181 in 2020.[3] This means well over 80% of WMF expenditure was in the US. The Form 990 also provides a breakdown by global regions, detailing the precise amounts the WMF spent in each region. Again, I found this paints a very different picture to what the Indian public has been told in the Indian Express. First I added up all the amounts (Program Services, p. 29, and Grantmaking, pp. 30–31) that were spent in Europe and North America (excluding the US). I arrived at a total of $14.8M – which means that 73.5% of the total spending on non-US activities was in these regions of the affluent north. This left only $5.3M, or about 3% of total WMF revenue in 2020/2021, for the entire rest of the world, which also includes countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, which are not usually included in the Global South. The actual money flowing into the Global South is thus even less than 3% – hardly "most" of the money raised. Raju mentioned the volunteers. I thought, let's leave Program Services expenses (which presumably would include servers and caching centres abroad) out of the equation and look at Grantmaking alone (pages 30 and 31 of the Form 990). The Grantmaking total for activities outside the US given in the Form 990 is $3,475,062. Almost exactly $1.2M (35%) of that went to Europe and North America (excluding the US). So total grantmaking in the entire rest of the world outside Europe and North America was $2.3M, or 1.4% of the money the WMF raised in 2020/2021. Again 1.4% is not "most of the money raised", by any stretch of the imagination. And the Global South only accounts for a part of that 1.4%. Lastly, as Raju was speaking to the Indian public, I wanted to find out how much money the WMF actually spent on grantmaking in India. The Form 990 only gives grantmaking totals for "South Asia" – which along with India includes other major countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. These totals are $75,198 (grants and other assistance to 22 individuals, certainly not rank-and-file Wikipedians, given the average amount) and $3,339 (grants to organisations). This yields a total of $78,537 for all of South Asia. I make that 0.048% of the WMF's 2020/2021 revenue. Only a part of that may have been spent in India. Please verify these figures for yourselves; I have provided the sources below. If I have made a mistake somewhere, please tell me. It occurred to me that perhaps some grantmaking figures in 2020 were particularly low because of the Covid pandemic, which began in the spring of that year. But Covid was a global pandemic affecting countries around the world. So all countries would have been affected equally. And Covid was not as serious in India in 2020 as it was in 2021. I also know the WMF increased its grantmaking budget for the current year. But even if grants to South Asia were to increase a hundredfold compared to 2020, they would still represent only 5% of WMF revenue. Such is the gap between what is said in the Indian Express and the reality on the ground. Allow me to make an appeal to your conscience. The Wikipedia idea is to provide neutral and accurate information to the public. I would say that Wikimedians – especially Indian Wikimedians – who believe in that idea have a job to do here, because based on the above, what the Indian public has been told in the Indian Express simply does not match the reality. Look at it like a Wikipedia article. If you found an article making claims so wildly at variance with published facts, would you let them stand? Or would you at least start a discussion on the talk page, to try and find out why there is such an apparent discrepancy? Let's have that discussion now, here and on social media. Best, Andreas [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/1/1e/Wikimedia_Foundation… – see also https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundraising/ [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Fundraising#Indian_email_texts [3] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/e/e4/Wikimedia_Foundation…

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Invitation to Wikimedia Research Office Hours June 7, 2022
by Emily Lescak 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

Hi all, Join the Research Team at the Wikimedia Foundation [1] for their monthly Office hours Tuesday, 2022-06-07. Find your local time here <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1654642800>. 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 are welcome to add questions / items to the etherpad in advance, or when you arrive at the session. Even if you are unable to attend the session, you can leave a question that we can address asynchronously. If you do not have a specific agenda item, you are welcome to hang out and enjoy the conversation. More detailed information (e.g., about how to attend) can be found here [4]. Through these office hours, we aim to make ourselves available to answer research related questions that you as Wikimedia volunteer editors, organizers, affiliates, staff, and researchers face in your projects and initiatives. Here are some example cases we hope to be able to support you with: - 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, Emily, on behalf of the WMF Research Team [1] https://research.wikimedia.org [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 -- Emily Lescak (she / her) Senior Research Community Officer The Wikimedia Foundation

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The first month of Wiki Loves Earth 2022! 💛🌍 Q&A announcement
by Iryna Yehiazarova 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

Dear all, *The first month of the Wiki Loves Earth international photo contest devoted to nature heritage, May, has passed!* Let's look at the results: * 12 countries had their local contest this month, * more than 17 thousand photos were uploaded during this period, * and 2 more months are ahead! Today 13 more countries/regions have started their local competitions, check them out in the list <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2022/Participat…>. Are you interested in joining WLE by organising your local contest? There is still time to run it in June or July. Do you have any questions about this process? *The international Wiki Loves Earth team will answer your questions and tell you all the details you want to know about WLE during our online Q&A tomorrow!* ⏱️ When: June 2nd at 15 pm (UTC), the event will last about 1 hour. 💻 Meeting link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81125659103?pwd=YlpLdlV3ZzZ5dUZFQmtxR0pQNTdEdz09 Meeting ID: 811 2565 9103 Passcode: wle22 We are also very pleased to share that we now have* lists of protected areas for 192 countries *which allows more countries to take part in Wiki Loves Earth! The lists are collated by the United Nations Environment Programme through their Protected Planet project. Our collegues from Wikimedia Sweden have provided a table with lists of sites for each country and instructions on how to download them here <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2022/Lists>. If you have any questions or suggestions for the international team, please contact us at wle-team(a)wikimedia.org.ua. Best wishes, Iryna Yehiazarova Project Manager for International Wiki Loves Earth 2022 our website <https://wikilovesearth.org/> | page on Wikimedia Commons <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2022> Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/interwle> Instagram <https://www.instagram.com/wikilovesearth/> Twitter <https://twitter.com/WikiLovesEarth>

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A thought on community global bans, inspired by a WMF office action
by Maggie Dennis 02 Jun '22

02 Jun '22

Hello all, My name is Maggie Dennis, and I am the Vice President of the Community Resilience and Sustainability group at the Wikimedia Foundation. Among the teams I oversee is the Trust & Safety <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety> unit. This team ensures that our projects are compliant with applicable law and also explores ways of keeping the Wikimedia community safe and works to minimize exposure to harm for volunteer and reader communities. I’m reaching out today to discuss a potential gap in volunteer community policy that my teams observed while evaluating and acting on a Trust & Safety investigation. We wanted to bring this up in case volunteer community members would like to consider if this is indeed a concern that you wish to address. Before getting to that, let me give you a little context on the case. As many of you know, we are not usually able to talk about office actions <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Office_actions> due to legal limitations. However, I am able to speak a little more to this situation since the majority of the information around this case is already public. Today, the Foundation issued four global bans and three conduct warnings following an investigation into the activities of individuals found to be linked to the “WikiZédia” network. Based on our investigation, we concluded that this network attempted to use Wikimedia platforms for a targeted disinformation campaign engineered to influence the outcome of a national election. The banned users’ actions, which took place over an eight-month period until their community-backed blocks in February 2022, violated several of our Terms of Use, which resulted in the Foundation’s office action. Many of our projects have excellent policies and systems in place to handle such situations. Certainly French Wikipedia was on top of this. We greatly admire and appreciate the leadership of community members in identifying and confronting this situation locally. Wikimedians who work directly with content are often the first to see evidence of such campaigns, and there are many volunteers with much experience in identifying problem behaviours and stopping them. By the time Trust & Safety was asked to investigate by some of those volunteers, much of the work on the local level had already been done. However, one of the questions Trust & Safety asks itself in any case investigation (disinformation or behavioral) is whether appropriate community options exist that meet the needs of the movement and community members across it. In this case, we wondered if the current community processes support cases where individuals are behaving in ways that suggest they will never be good faith contributors on any project. To go more into depth on what I mean: It is not uncommon for users who create problems on one project to move to another, and for some communities it is even regarded as a potential path to rehabilitation. Community applied global bans are, under the existing policy <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_bans>, “exclusively applied where multiple independent communities have previously elected to ban a user for a pattern of abuse.” (emphasis in original) If an individual is here as part of a concerted group effort to undermine our very mission, should it be easier for community members to assess global banning before they carry that behavior from one project to another? Foundation policies do permit banning individuals for behavior on one project and sometimes require it, especially where Terms of Use violations are egregious and threats of or acts of violence are involved. This is a gap where we can step in. Our goal is to support communities where we are needed and where we can. However, we wanted to call out the question of whether community global bans should be allowed in cases where the behavior is severe but limited to one project, in case volunteer community members thought it worth discussing the existing community ban policy. Especially in cases of disinformation , these are not always the kinds of situations governed by our Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC), which speaks to the way users treat each other but not the content. If there is a desire for the Foundation to support a conversation about making such a change to community global ban policy, I hope we would be able to do so in the near future, as our Trust & Safety Policy team is dedicated to supporting the evolution of community policy as well as Foundation policy. However, I’m not suggesting that the Foundation needs to be involved at all. Trust & Safety Policy is a small team, currently very busy with the UCoC, and if they are not needed, there is no reason that this conversation can’t happen spontaneously. We will support if needed, but really just wanted to bring this question up for your consideration. In this case, again, we do want to thank the French Wikipedia contributors who protected their communities and our collective readers by identifying and addressing the issue first as well as bringing the matter to us. We encourage those who feel unsafe on Wikimedia projects to use local community processes or, absent such, to contact the Wikimedia Foundation for assistance. The Foundation and the community will work, together or in parallel, to enhance the safety of all users whenever necessary with whatever means we can. To contact the Trust & Safety team about a safety issue, you can write to ca(a)wikimedia.org. To contact the Trust & Safety Disinformation team about a specific disinformation issue, you can write to drt(a)wikimedia.org. Best regards, Maggie -- Maggie Dennis She/her/hers Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

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Wikimania 2022 Scholarships Applications Reminder
by Antoni Mtavangu 01 Jun '22

01 Jun '22

Hi Wikimedians! I hope you are doing well. I am writing to kindly remind you all that the *Wikimania 2022 scholarship application is closing* on* Friday, *3rd June 2022. Therefore we encourage all who want to apply to go for it within this little remaining time. For more info you can visit the Wikimania 2022 Scholarships page <https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships>, or you may want to visit/re-visit the Wikimania 2022 Scholarships Diff post <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/05/09/wikimania-2022-grants-and-program-sub…> . Thank you and we can’t wait to meet you all soon! On behalf of Wikimania 2022 COT <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/02/24/announcing-the-wikimania-2022-core-or…> , Antoni Mtavangu *"By 2030, Wikimedia will become the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge, and anyone who shares our vision will be able to join us." *

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[Reminder] Your Hackathon feedback is wanted (until May 29th)
by Andre Klapper 01 Jun '22

01 Jun '22

Hi, this is a friendly reminder that we would love to hear from you about your experience at last weekend's Hackathon. Please fill in the survey until Sunday, May 29th and help us improve. See the links below. Thanks a lot in advance! andre -------- Quoted Message -------- From: Haley Lepp Date: Sun, 22 May 2022 11:13:39 -0700 On behalf of the 2022 Wikimedia Hackathon Committee, we would like to thank you for coming to the Wikimedia Hackathon! Please consider giving us feedback on the Hackathon and your suggestions for improvement. There are two ways to give feedback: 1. Fill out the Wikimedia Hackathon Survey <https://wikimedia.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cGbCKj4xyP0H3wi>. For more information on privacy and data-handling, see the survey privacy statement <https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_Post-Event_Survey… >. The survey will remain open until May 29, 2022. 2. If you would like to share feedback but do not wish to take the Qualtrics survey, you can leave feedback on the Etherpad <https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2022_Feedback >. Finally, check out the badges <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2022/How_to#Joining_a_se… > the committee made. You can put them on your userpages to show your participation. Thank you again for joining us! It was so much fun to meet everyone and hack together. See you at the Wikimania Hackathon in August! Haley, on behalf of the 2022 Wikimedia Hackathon Team -- Andre Klapper (he/him) | Bugwrangler / Developer Advocate https://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper/ _______________________________________________ Wikitech-ambassadors mailing list -- wikitech-ambassadors(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wikitech-ambassadors-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org

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