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
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
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:
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> 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
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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."
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