Hi everyone. I have seen some of the reactions to the narratives generated by Chat GPT. There is an obvious question (to me at least) as to whether a Wikipedia chat bot would be a legitimate UI for some users. To that end, I would have hoped that it would have been developed by the WMF but the Foundation has historically massively underinvested in AI. That said, and assuming that GPT Open source licensing is compatible with the movement norms, should the WMF include that UI in the product?
My other question is around the corpus that Open AI is using to train the bot. It is creating very fluid narratives that are massively false in many cases. Are they training on Wikipedia? Something else?
And to my earlier question, if GPT were to be trained on Wikipedia exclusively would that help abate the false narratives?
This is a significant matter for the community and seeing us step to it would be very encouraging.
Best regards,
Victoria Coleman
Hello everyone,
Free Knowledge Africa is organising a contest; The 2023 Afrosport Writing
Contest!
Afrosport is an African games and sports writing contest on Wikipedia.
There is a huge content gap on the internet/Wikipedia as regards contents
on African Sports in English and other Languages.
This contest aims to bridge the content gap on Wikipedia by writing
articles about the historical and contemporary African Sports Scene
focusing on the English Wikipedia and 6 African languages; Wikipedia
(Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Dagbani, Swahili and Kinyarwanda.)
If you're interested in promoting sports in your local community, writing
about the favourite games and sports you grew up playing, translating sport
related articles on wikipedia to your local languages, or anything related
to the Sports scene in your country, join us on this exciting venture!
Come join us on the 15th of February in The Afrosport Writing Contest.
There are amazing prizes to be won and also there will be training sessions.
Register here <https://bit.ly/Afrosport2023>
Visit the project page on Meta
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Afrosports_Contest_2023>
to know more about the contest.
Remember, If we don’t write stories about Africa, who will?
Best regards,
Hopeabby
Associate, Free Knowledge Africa (FKA)
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
This message is being translated into other languages on Meta-wiki.
العربية • español • 中文 • deutsch • français • português•
You can help with more languages.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chief_Executive_Office…>
Hi everyone - This month marked my official one-year anniversary as CEO of
the Wikimedia Foundation. Based on some feedback from this list, I have
tried to send a regular update every few months (see January
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chi…>,
April
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chi…>,
June
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Boa…>,
September
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chi…>).
I wanted to send another one today to reflect on my first year, and share
upcoming work we have planned at the Foundation.
Some of you may recall that I prepared for joining Wikimedia with a
two-month listening tour
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chi…>
that led me to talk to a few hundred volunteers and Foundation staff across
55 countries. This shaped the five puzzles
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chi…>
and three priorities
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Chi…>
that I shared with you when I started. These puzzles continue to guide what
I believe are the biggest questions we must answer collectively, especially
the question of, "what does the world need from us now?"
I also completed the three priorities I outlined last January: (1)
reimagining the Foundation's annual plan
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Ann…>
to be more firmly anchored in our movement's strategic direction; (2)
recruiting a capable Chief Product & Technology Officer
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2022/06/13/wikimedia-foundation-welcom…>
for the Wikimedia Foundation; and (3) starting to refresh the
Foundation's organizational
values <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Values> to
guide our ways of working with each other, and with all of you.
English Fundraising Campaign
As 2022 came to a close, a Request for Comment (RfC) launched on English
Wikipedia
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)/Archive_19…>
to propose changes to the messaging of year-end fundraising banners. The
Wikimedia Foundation accepted the guidance provided by the RfC, and
established a co-creation page
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fundraising/2022_banners> to seek
volunteer input on banner messaging from community members. Throughout the
fundraising campaign, the Foundation team posted regular updates to this
co-creation page. In brief, over 450+ banners were tested during this
year's campaign, and $24.7M of revenue was raised compared to the original
$30M goal (a shortfall of $5.3 million). During the first few days, the new
banners resulted in about 70% less revenue than on the corresponding days
in the prior year. Additional information on the campaign results are
posted here
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fundraising/2022_banners#January_Co…>.
The fundraising team will continue to work with all language communities on
banner messaging in the year ahead, and we look forward to building on what
we learned in this campaign.
The RfC raised a much wider range of issues than just fundraising
banners. While
anticipated revenue shortfalls made this a difficult period for the
Foundation, I believe we tried to hear these broader concerns, many of
which are shared across communities beyond English Wikipedia.
One concern was about the very rapid budget growth of the Foundation, which
has stabilized in the last year. Given the revenue gap from this year's
English campaign, we are reviewing and lowering our expenditure for the
current year. And I anticipate we will have a reduced budget and certainly
slower growth next year. We will have more information by April on future
financial projections.
I communicated previously that I have started frank conversations with the
Board of Trustees and Foundation staff about what roles the Foundation
should grow (like support for technology) and what activities we should
hand over to others or stop altogether. Looking ahead, the size of our
budget should be driven by what the Foundation should be doing and can
actually do well. The 2030 movement strategy provided guidance (and
motivated much of our historic growth), but was short on specifics. I await
the Movement Charter
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Charter> to
provide further clarity, but believe the Foundation may need to make some
decisions sooner.
A second concern was about the Foundation's responsiveness to editors and
other technical contributors. We collectively have to respond to decades of
growing technical debt, poor processes for maintaining software, and
staying relevant in a world where technology keeps going faster. There is
no quick fix to most of our technical challenges.
That said, our Chief Product and Technology Officer Selena Deckelmann
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SDeckelmann-WMF>, who comes with
experience supporting online communities and collaborating with technical
contributors, has made meaningful progress in her first six months. She has
shared the following update:
"We've made progress on PageTriage issues raised by New Page Patrollers in
an open letter. In the last 120 days, 141 patches have been reviewed
through collaboration between the Foundation and the community. There have
also been several meetings between community members and staff to talk
about the future of PageTriage and the newcomer experience, and there is
now work planned in Q4
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Page_Curation/2023_Moderator_Tools_…>
to update the extension. We continue to engage with Commons
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Product_and_technical_support_fo…>
as we are making critically needed software upgrades to community
prioritized tools. The Foundation's Wishathon
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Tech#December_20,_2022:_Wishathon…>
(leading up to the community wishlist kickoff for 2023) involved about 40
staff contributing time over a week in December to deliver 71 patches and 4
wishes granted. We are working with communities to make Vector 2022 the
default skin, after 3 years of development work, feedback and continued
iteration with wiki communities."
In March, Selena will be ready to host forums to share what she thinks are
needed improvements to the Foundation's processes, including technical
support and collaborative product development. Beginning next week, the
Foundation’s product and technology teams will start posting their planned
objectives to solicit input and guidance from contributors.
And, finally, comments were made in the RfC about the unclear role of Tides
in managing the Knowledge Equity Fund
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Knowledge_Equity_Fund>.
Over the next few months, we will be moving the remainder of the Equity
Fund from Tides back into the Foundation. Relatedly, the Wikimedia Endowment
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Endowment>
has received its 501(c)(3) status from the US Internal Revenue Service. We
are in the process of setting up its financial systems and transitioning
the Endowment's funds out of Tides as well.
Looking Ahead
In my 9-month update, I shared that my top three priorities will remain
strategy, leadership and culture.
On strategy, the Board of Trustees will meet this March in New York to
consider a few topics that require taking a multi-year view:
(1) Wikimedia's financial model and future projections for revenue streams
in online fundraising (which we anticipate will not continue to grow at the
same rate), the next phase of the Wikimedia Endowment, and the lessons we
have learned so far from Wikimedia Enterprise
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Enterprise>'s
first year in operation.
(2) Re-centering the Foundation's responsibility in supporting the
technology needs of the Wikimedia movement by understanding the needs of
our contributor communities, as well as emerging topics like machine
learning/artificial intelligence and innovations for new audiences.
(3) Beginning more focused conversations to establish frameworks and
principles for understanding the Foundation's core roles and
responsibilities. This is intended to help to provide inputs into the
movement charter deliberations and broader movement strategy conversations.
Members of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee>
and Wikimedia
Endowment Trustees
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Endowment#Wikimedia_Endowment_Adv…>
will join in the March discussions, and we will share a report with you
after the meeting.
This strategic planning will happen concurrently to our annual planning
cycle. Annual planning is being led this year by the needs of our Product &
Technology departments. This will be the first time since about 2015 that
these two departments will undertake joint planning. Our intent is to
repeat the two-way planning processes we experimented with last year,
both on-wiki
and off-wiki
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Ann…>
. Finally, we intend to provide more granular information about the
Foundation's staffing, team structures, and specific budgets as an outcome
of these planning efforts.
On leadership, we have welcomed new Trustees
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/12/12/the-wikimedia-foundation-welcomes-two…>
to the Board following the last community-and-affiliate election. I also
made a few senior staff appointments: Lisa Gruwell was named Deputy to the
CEO alongside her responsibilities as Chief Advancement Officer; Anusha
Alikhan became the head of communications at the Wikimedia Foundation;
Nadee Gunasena was appointed Chief of Staff; and as of this week, Stephen
LaPorte formally begins as the next General Counsel.
I believe that values and culture will matter the most for any real reset
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)/Archive_19…>
to occur in how the Wikimedia Foundation relates to communities, and
vice-versa. This is especially true when trust has to be built and
maintained; and when any kind of change has to be catalyzed and sustained.
The Board and Foundation tried to model this in how we heard and responded
to the request for changes in fundraising banners. And we will continue to
spend more time reflecting on what the world and our global communities
need from us now.
I think we are heading more in the right direction and continue to welcome
your feedback either on my talk page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/User_talk:MIskander-WMF>
or at miskander(a)wikimedia.org.
Maryana
Maryana Iskander
Wikimedia Foundation CEO
Dear all,
I hope to find you in a great mood! I wish you all a happy and successful
coming year!
It is my pleasure to share with you the Annual work report of the Wikimedia
Community of the Republic of Srpska. You can see what we did in 2022 on the
following link:
- Wikimedia Community of the Republic of Srpska:
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_user_groups/Reports/Wikimedians_o…>Annual
report 2022
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_user_groups/Reports/Wikimedians_o…>
.
All your comments and suggestions are welcome!
Best Regards,
Bojana Podgorica
Wikimedia Community
of the Republic of Srpska
*„**Замислите свијет у коме **свака особа на планети има **слободан приступ
цјелокупном људском знању.* *То је *
*оно на чему ми радимо.“*
Forwarding this as important and missing on this list also.
(thank you Levon!)
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Levon Azizian <levonazizian(a)gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 1:43 PM
Subject: [Wikimania-l] Re: Confirming being re-subscribed
To: Wikimania general list (open subscription) <
wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Dear all,
Kindly note:
1) this mailing list has hundreds subscribers;
2) the mailing list is not a chat/messenger, it is should consist only the
important information, so no one will miss it;
3) overcrowding the mailing list with non-mandatory personal short
replies/requests is not polite, as you should remember that hundreds of
people will read it.
If you have any requests/questions, please address them privately to the
single recipient of your request/question, not hundreds of people that have
to read it.
If you would like to thank someone from the mailing list, please do so
privately, avoiding hundreds of people reading it.
Finally, I would like to apologize for sending this essential email that
everyone has to read, but I hope at least this one will stop the continuing
requests/questions/replies on private matters.
Thank you for understanding, and have a nice day.
Best regards,
Levon
Dear Wikimedians,
WikiLearn -- the online learning system created by the Community
Development team at the Wikimedia Foundation -- has come out of beta
testing and is now ready for general use.
It also has a major new feature: course content translation.
Read all about it:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiLearn/Out_of_beta
(and consider helping to translate the news if you can.)
Stay tuned for news about the governance conversation for the WikiLearn
platform, coming up in February.
A.
Asaf Bartov (he/him/his)
Lead Program Officer, Community Development Communities
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org
Hi Christophe,
This thread has circled around the main question of will any decisions
around the endowment be transparent. The answer is yes.
The question of transparency has also become conflated with the mechanism
of how the money is held. The answer here is that we are working to
transition endowment funds out of Tides to the separate 501(c)(3) entity
that is already registered
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/10/26/governance-updates-for-the-wikimedia-…>
and the transition process will soon be underway.
Finally, to answer some questions that came up directly:
Is the Endowment an independent 501(c)(3) entity? Yes.
Is the money currently managed by Tides? Yes.
Will the money transition out of Tides to the new 501(c)(3)? Yes.
You can also find a similar reply that we gave earlier, on meta
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Endowment#Is_the_money_still…>
.
Regards,
Caitlin Virtue
Senior Director of Development
Wikimedia Foundation