Dear Wikimedians,
In the past year we have witnessed some changes in the way we gather as a
movement. We have also heard from communities about the growing needs and
the desire for more in advance planning, flexibility and resources beyond
funding.
As a result, beginning in September 2024, *the Conference and Event Fund
program will introduce 3 updates and changes* regarding:
1.
A more predictable cadence of conferences to allow for pPredetermined
timeline and long term planning;
2.
The submission and planning process for Regional events, focusing on
community led decision making process for Regional gatherings;
3.
And a new Wikimedia Foundation structured support system and additional
offered areas of support.
== Predictable cadence and 3 years pre-approved funding plan ==
The Conference Fund program is now introducing a new funding pathway and
allowing regional event organizers to submit their conference proposals up
to 3 years in advance. We are now accepting submissions for the Fiscal
Years 2025-2026; 2026-2027; 2027-2028. If you are interested in only
applying for the coming year, please follow the standard timeline[1] and
submission process.
Interested communities do not necessarily need to have a venue selected,
contracts drafted or sponsors lined up. The Wikimedia Foundation staff are
here to help you!
If a Wikimedia affiliate, group or community in a region [2] is interested
in hosting the regional event, please express interest by submitting an
entry [3] and placing it under the category.
Please make sure to read carefully through the criteria and pay special
attention to the requirement for a public evidence of a community
agreement/alignment/decision on the hosting location/affiliate.
== Community-led decision mechanism ==
Continuing with our ambition to bring our regional communities closer to
the regional decision making process, we would like to work more on
enhancing regional connections and alignment, by asking that decisions on
hosting countries/affiliates will be made collaboratively within regional
communities. Starting September 2024, as part of the reviewing process, and
in order to be eligible to a 3 year in advance approval, we will ask that
as part of the proposal, you will submit a public evidence of a community
agreement/alignment/decision on the hosting location/affiliate. This can be
presented and facilitated as a public community discussion; a vote; a
‘bidding process’ ; a village pump discussion or steering committee/hub’s
decision, and can be conducted in any language. If you do not currently
have a regional hub, a steering committee or any other form of regional
leadership structure, and would like our help in facilitating such a
decision, please reach out to us.
== Structured WMF support system with additional offerings ==
We know that organizing a community led conference requires a lot of time,
effort and resources – far beyond funding. That is why we will start
incorporating a more holistic support system for organizers, by Wikimedia
Foundation’s regional and programmatic teams.
Some of the additional support offered to regional event organizers will
include Communication support; Travel arrangements; Partnership support
etc.
Please review the full update and details here.[4]
If you have any questions or need support in understanding the changes,
please reach out to us at conferencegrants(a)wikimedia.org
Chen Almog, on behalf of the Conference and Event Fund program team.
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference#Timeline
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Regions
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/Expressions_of_Interests_…
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/Updates/September_2024
--
Chen Almog (she/her) · חן אלמוג
Lead Program Officer, Global Programs
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Hi all,
The next Research Showcase will be live-streamed next Wednesday, September
18, at 9:30 AM PST / 16:30 UTC. Find your local time here
<https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1726677000>. The theme for this showcase is
*Curation of Wikimedia AI Datasets*.
You are welcome to watch via the YouTube stream:
https://youtube.com/live/USzLGJ5LLC8?feature=share. As usual, you can join
the conversation in the YouTube chat as soon as the showcase goes live.
This month's presentations:
Supporting Community-Driven Data Curation for AI Evaluation on Wikipedia
through WikibenchBy *Tzu-Sheng Kuo, Carnegie Mellon University*AI tools are
increasingly deployed in community contexts. However, datasets used to
evaluate AI are typically created by developers and annotators outside a
given community, which can yield misleading conclusions about AI
performance. How might we empower communities to drive the intentional
design and curation of evaluation datasets for AI that impacts them? We
investigate this question on Wikipedia, an online community with multiple
AI-based content moderation tools deployed. We introduce Wikibench, a
system that enables communities to collaboratively curate AI evaluation
datasets, while navigating ambiguities and differences in perspective
through discussion. A field study on Wikipedia shows that datasets curated
using Wikibench can effectively capture community consensus, disagreement,
and uncertainty. Furthermore, study participants used Wikibench to shape
the overall data curation process, including refining label definitions,
determining data inclusion criteria, and authoring data statements. Based
on our findings, we propose future directions for systems that support
community-driven data curation.WikiContradict: A Benchmark for Evaluating
LLMs on Real-World Knowledge Conflicts from WikipediaBy *Yufang Hou, IBM
Research Europe - Ireland*Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) has emerged
as a promising solution to mitigate the limitations of large language
models (LLMs), such as hallucinations and outdated information. However, it
remains unclear how LLMs handle knowledge conflicts arising from different
augmented retrieved passages, especially when these passages originate from
the same source and have equal trustworthiness. In this work, we conduct a
comprehensive evaluation of LLM-generated answers to questions that have
varying answers based on contradictory passages from Wikipedia, a dataset
widely regarded as a high-quality pre-training resource for most LLMs.
Specifically, we introduce WikiContradict, a benchmark consisting of 253
high-quality, human-annotated instances designed to assess LLM performance
when augmented with retrieved passages containing real-world knowledge
conflicts. We benchmark a diverse range of both closed and open-source LLMs
under different QA scenarios, including RAG with a single passage, and RAG
with 2 contradictory passages. Through rigorous human evaluations on a
subset of WikiContradict instances involving 5 LLMs and over 3,500
judgements, we shed light on the behaviour and limitations of these models.
For instance, when provided with two passages containing contradictory
facts, all models struggle to generate answers that accurately reflect the
conflicting nature of the context, especially for implicit conflicts
requiring reasoning. Since human evaluation is costly, we also introduce an
automated model that estimates LLM performance using a strong open-source
language model, achieving an F-score of 0.8. Using this automated metric,
we evaluate more than 1,500 answers from seven LLMs across all
WikiContradict instances. To facilitate future work, we release
WikiContradict on: this https URL <https://ibm.biz/wikicontradict>.
Best,Kinneret
--
Kinneret Gordon
Lead Research Community Officer
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear Wikimedians,
Over the past four years, we have witnessed a remarkable transformation in
the WikiForHumanRights campaign
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights>, driven by the
dedicated efforts of regional coordinators, affiliates, local organizers,
editors, and the entire Wikimedia movement.
This collective impact has reshaped and elevated the campaign in profound
ways. As we look to the future, we are inviting the movement to engage in
regional conversations that explore opportunities to shape their leadership
and participation in the campaign.
Are you a regional coordinator, affiliate, local organizer, editor, or
Wikimedia volunteer in Africa who contributes to the WikiForHumanRights
campaign, either directly or indirectly?
We invite you to register and join the Africa regional conversation.
*Date: Wed 25th Sept 2024*
*Time: 15:00 UTC *
*Via: Zoom*
*Register: *
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:Campaigns/Future_of_WikiForHumanRight…
Please help spread the word!
Best regards,
On behalf of WikiForHumanRights Team
*Find link to graphic: *
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Future_of_WikiForHumanRights_Africa…
*——French——*
Cher-e-s Wikimédien-e-s,
Au cours des 4 dernières années, nous avons assisté à une transformation
remarquable de la campagne WikiForHumanRights,
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights> grâce aux efforts
dévoués des coordinateurs régionaux, des affiliés, des organisateurs
locaux, des éditeurs et de l'ensemble du mouvement Wikimedia.
Cet impact collectif a permis de remodeler et d'élever la campagne en
profondeur. Alors que nous nous tournons vers l'avenir, nous invitons le
mouvement à s'engager dans des conversations régionales qui explorent les
possibilités de façonner leur leadership et leur participation à la
campagne.
Êtes-vous un affilié, un organisateur local, un éditeur ou un volontaire
Wikimedia en Afrique qui contribue à la campagne W4HR, directement ou
indirectement ?
Nous vous invitons à vous inscrire et à rejoindre la conversation régionale
africaine.
*Date : Mercredi 25 septembre 2024*
*Heure : 15:00 UTC *
*Via: Zoom*
*Lien d’inscription : https://w.wiki/BDRV <https://w.wiki/BDRV>*
Merci de faire passer le message !
Dear all,
I am pleased to share with you the annual Activity Report of the WikiClassics User Group for the year 2023-2024. You can access it via this link https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiClassics_User_Group/Reports/2023
The report has also been shared on our social media today.
Best wishes,Alessandro
Hi,
A reminder that the voting period for this year's Board of Trustees
election will close in just over 30 hours. If you have not voted yet,
make sure to have your say
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:SecurePoll/vote/400>.
Thank you to everyone who has already participated in the 2024 Wikimedia
Foundation Board of Trustees election
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2024>!
Voting will close on September 17th at 23:59 UTC.
The official data, including the preliminary results
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_ele…>,
is scheduled to be announced in October, after the scrutineers have
completed their work. The official announcement of the new trustees will
happen later, once the selected candidates have been approved (all
selected candidates are subject to a background and media check and are
not eligible to be seated until they pass the checks) and appointed by
the Board.
Data produced during the election will be published
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_ele…>
when the results are announced.
Regards,
Katie
On behalf of the Elections Committee and Board Selection Working Group
--
Katie Chan
Any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of any organisation the author is associated with or employed by.
Experience is a good school but the fees are high.
- Heinrich Heine
Dear all,
This is a friendly reminder that the nominations for the WikiWomen Task
Force are open until 15th September 2024. If you are passionate about
advancing gender equity in the Wikimedia movement or know someone who would
be a great fit, we encourage you to submit your nomination before the
deadline.
The WikiWomen Task Force will play a critical role in shaping strategies
and initiatives that support women and gender-diverse individuals within
the Wikimedia community. This is a unique opportunity to contribute
directly to the global efforts for equity and inclusion.
Important Links:
-
Learn more about the WikiWomen Task Force: WikiWomen Task Force Overview
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Women*_Task_Force>
-
Submit your nomination: WikiWomen Task Force Nominations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Women*_Task_Force/Nominations>
-
Join the conversation and stay updated: WikiWomen Collective Telegram
Group <https://t.me/+QqjDgjNb7ONkNmE9>
Please note that the staff and volunteers irrespective of their association
with any Wikimedia entity can apply, but the work on the Task force is
truly volunteer!
We encourage you to take part in this important initiative and help ensure
that the task force is diverse, well-represented, and impactful. If you
have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to
reach out.
Best regards,
Nitesh
WikiWomen Support Team
Hi Folks,
If interested learning or get engaged in the discussion about Wikimedia
Hubs (plans, formation, challenges and benefits), I suggest you come to our
Hubs telegram channel.
We have resource persons from CEE, Wikimedia Europe, ESEAP, LAC and many
others! Please come and we share ideas!
The invite link for Wikimedia Hubs group is https://t.me/+cwcxAJg6yrBjOGRk
You can also know more about it on meta-wiki at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hubs/Ongoing
Kind regards,
Butch Bustria
