Dear members of the Wikimedia community,
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, I write to
share the news that we have approved [1] the full slate of the FDC’s Round
1 2014-2015 recommendations [2] for the Annual Plan Grants. In this round,
11 Wikimedia organizations will be receiving a total of $3,817,956 in
grants. This leaves approximately $2 million for organizations likely to
apply for Annual Plan Grants in Round 2 of this year. [3]
One organization, Wikimedia CH, submitted an appeal to the Board regarding
their funding recommendation. [4] We carefully reviewed this appeal,
including their proposal, the inputs into the FDC’s proposal review
process, and the notes from the deliberation on the chapter's proposal. We
appreciate the effort that its Board and staff put into creating the
proposal and the appeal. Ultimately, however, we decided not to override
the recommendation of the FDC.
We’re conscious and appreciative of the fact that WMCH is investing a lot
in Kiwix — a valuable offline project for access to Wikipedia and one that
we know is being used in innovative ways. This project indeed required us
to evaluate the financial sustainability of all technical projects, which
is currently not explicitly guaranteed by unrestricted grants; we will
review our grant strategy to see how we can accommodate these needs. We
have asked the WMF staff to provide a recommendation on how to adapt the
grant program to help ensure continued funding of certain projects when
they are considered high-priority to our movement goals and needs. Subject
to our review, such a process may be appropriate in the future for projects
like Wikidata and Kiwix.
We congratulate all eleven organizations on their grants, and we look
forward to seeing what the year ahead will bring. We know that the
volunteers, staff, and boards of these organizations are working hard to
advance the goals of the movement. We thank them for their work in doing
so.
We continue to optimize the Annual Plan Grant/FDC process and anticipate
further improvements to the APG grant program in 2015 based on our ongoing
impact analyses of grants as well as input and feedback from the
communities.
Sincerely,
Frieda and Bishakha, on behalf of the WMF Board of Trustees
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Board_decisions/2014-2015_round1
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/FDC_portal/FDC_recommendations/2…
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals
[4]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Appeals_to_the_Board_on_the_reco…
On December 19 I obtained the first Italian judgment about the
application of Creative Commons licenses. I obtained it not as an
attorney but as an author of technical books who had a bad experience
with a famous Italian publishing company called Franco Angeli
Edizioni. The book in issue is "Apriti standard! Interoperabilità e
formati aperti per l'innovazione tecnologica", later published by
Ledizioni and itself available under a CC by-sa license.
The verdict, which came after a four years trial, is not properly
about intellectual property issues; actually it has been a
precontractual liability case, ruled by an ordinary civil court and
not by the IP specialized court. However it provides an interesting
view of the level of awareness that mainstream publishers have of
these licenses.
Read more at: http://aliprandi.blogspot.it/2014/12/first-italian-judgment-creative-common…
Thanks for sharing and commenting.
Bye, Simone
--
Simone Aliprandi - http://www.aliprandi.org | http://www.array.eu
Dear community:
Below you will find the report of activities of October and November 2014
done by the volunteers of Wikimedia Mexico. Please don't hesitate to get in
touch with us if you require extra information about this activities or
only to make some suggestions.
The report is also available on Spanish and English in our wiki:
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Octubre_2014/ (October/Spanish)
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Octubre_2014/en
(October/English)
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Noviembre_2014/ (November/Spanish)
https://mx.wikimedia.org/wiki/Informes/Noviembre_2014/en
(November/English)
Happy holidays! See you next year. Greetings from the Wikimedia Mexico
community.
On behalf our chapter.
Carmen Alcázar (User:Wotancito)
WMMX Secretary.
==Journal October==
;October 3 to 5
* Carmen Alcázar and Iván Martínez participated in the First Meeting of
Digital Activists of Indigenous Languages, organized by Global Voices of
Rising Voices, Surco, A.C., and the Research Library "Juan de Córdova".
;October 4
* Wikipedia edition workshop at Capilla del Arte, in the city of Puebla,
state of Puebla, offered by Pepe Flores.
;October 14
*Participation in the seminar France-Mexico "Learning communities and
digital resources", organized by Digital Communities for Learning in Higher
Education (Codaes), the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), and the
Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la
Recherche, France Université Numérique.
;October 16
*Participation in ''"Diálogos para una #CiudadAbierta"'' (Talk towards an
#OpenCity) in Mexico City
;October 17
*Meeting with Ricardo Trujillo Vega, Communications Sub-Director at the
National Museum of Art (MUNAL) about GLAM projects.
*Talk about Wikipedia to undergraduate studies at the Police Academy (Calz.
Desierto de los Leones, Mexico City) by Gustavo Sandoval Kingwergs.
*Carmen Alcázar meeting with Mariel García and Indira Cornelio from
SocialTic towards the organization of a Feminism Edit-a-thon:
#EditatónFeminista
;October 20
*Virtual meeting with Salvador de Jesús Sánchez García, Promotion
Coordinator at the Ciudad Juárez Museum of Art, aboutGLAM projects.
;October 23
*Participation in the 21st National Week of Science and Technology at the
Milpa Alta Technogoly Institute. Topic of the talk was "Wikipedia and its
roots in freedom", by Iván Martínez.
*Talk in the Art University (Unarte) in the city of Puebla
;October 24
*Meeting with representatives of the Digital Humanities Network, for
consulting in Wikimania 2015's content and programme
;October 25
* Monthly Wikipedia editing workshop, by Christian Cariño, Fernanda López
and Omar Sandoval.
*Workshop at Capilla de Arte in Puebla, by Pepe Flores
;October 27
* Moebius 909 radio show: From "Dying of laughter" to Tom Waits
;October 29
* Meeting with Micaela Chávez Villa, Director and Staff of the Daniel Cosío
Villegas Library, part of El Colegio de México (Colmex) about GLAM projects.
;October 30
* Talks in the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, within the
#EditatónAgs (Aguascalientes Edit-a-thon): "Wikipedia and its roots in
freedom" by Iván Martínez and "Wikimedia Commons and free licenses" by
Carmen Alcázar
;October 31
*Editatón Aguascalientes at the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes.
==Journal November==
;November 3
*Moebius 90.9 radio show: "From Lenin to pan de muerto (bread of the dead)".
;November 4
*Presentation of GLAM projects to Nelson Carro, head of the Department of
Film Programming at Cineteca Nacional.
*Meeting with SocialTic, Ímpetu, A.C. (impetumexico.org) and others to work
at the Projects:Gender gap reduction project in Wikipedia.
;November 6
*Participation of Iván Martínez in the meeting held at Fonoteca Nacional:
"From copyright to copyleft. Intellectual property of files".
;November 11
*Carmen Alcázar offered workshops about Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons to
four groups at Hebrew College Maguen David.
*Followup meeting with Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco.
*Presentation of GLAM projects to Lidia Camacho, director of the Fonoteca
Nacional [Mexico's National Audio Library].
;November 12
*Conference offered by Iván Martínez: "El impacto de la Reforma en
Telecomunicaciones [The effects of the telecommunications reform]",
Technological Institute of Ciudad Madero.
*Conference offered by Carmen Alcázar: "Proyectos Wikimedia y Licencias
Creative Commons [Wikimedia Projects and Creative Commons Licenses]",
Technological Institute of Ciudad Madero.
;November 13
*Conference offered by Iván Martínez: "Lo libre de la Enciclopedia Libre o
de cómo Wikipedia llegó a convertirse en la referencia en Internet [What is
free in the Free Encyclopedia or how did Wikipedia became the reference in
Internet]", Technological Institute of Ciudad Madero.
*Basic Wikipedia edition workshop offered by Carmen Alcázar, Technological
Institute of Ciudad Madero.
;November 14
*Followup meeting with Lidia Camacho, director of the Fonoteca Nacional
[Mexico's National Audio Library], attended by [[User:Wotancito|Carmen
Alcázar]], [[User:Correogsk|Gustavo Sandoval Kingwergs]],
[[User:ProtoplasmaKid|Iván Martínez]] and [[User:Alanlzd|Alan Lazalde]].
;November 15
*Edit-a-thon about the Middle East in Puebla.
;November 17
*Moebius 90.9 radio show: "From mariachi to summer of love."
;November 21-23
*Participation of [[User:Wotancito|Carmen Alcázar]] and
[[User:ProtoplasmaKid|Iván Martínez]] at Iberoconf 2014 in Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
;November 24
*Moebius 90.9 radio show: "From La Castañeda hospital to Pink Floyd."
;November 28
*Wiki workshop at the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature (UNAM).
;November 29
*Monthly Wikipedia workshop at Telmex Hub offered by Paulina Sánchez and
Andrés Cruz y Corro.
;November 30
*Participation of Gustavo Sandoval Kingwergs in the XVIII International
Congress of Translation and Interpretarion San Jerónimo [Saint Jerome] 2014
("Translation in evolution"; Organización Mexicana de Traductores, A.C.
[Mexican Organization of Translators]-Guadalajara International Book Fair):
"Wikipedia y traducción: el izquierdo de autor y una nueva forma de trabajo
[Wikipedia and translation: copyleft and a new way of working]".
This press release is also available online here:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Winners_Announced_in_Wo…
Winners Announced in World’s Largest Photo Contest: Wiki Loves Monuments
*International jury selects top 10 photos from more than 321,000 worldwide.
Over the four past years, more than 1.1 million images have been submitted
to the contest.*
The international jury for Wiki Loves Monuments 2014
<http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org/> announced today the 10 winning
photographs from the world’s largest photo contest, which ran from
September 1 - 30 this year. More than 9,000 photographers uploaded over
321,000 freely-licensed photographs of historic buildings, monuments and
cultural heritage sites in 41 countries to Wikimedia Commons
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page> for use on Wikipedia and
other free knowledge projects.
This year, the grand-prize winning photograph is an image of the Holy
Mountains Monastery <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Mountains_Lavra>, a
complex of architectural monuments of national significance in Sviatohirsk,
Ukraine, taken by Konstantin Brizhnichenko
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Brizhnichenko>. The first written
mention of the monastery was in 1526. In 1624, the monastery was officially
recognized as the Sviatohirsk Uspensky Monastery. Before World War I, the
monastery was inhabited by approximately 600 monks. During the 1930s, it
was destroyed by the Soviets, along with other numerous religious sites
throughout the Soviet Union. Today, the monastery community consists of
more than 100 people, a number that increases each year.
(Photo link:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Svjatogorsk,_Lavra_3.jpg)
The winner will receive flight and accommodations in Mexico to attend
Wikimania, the international conference of the Wikimedia movement, to be
held in July 2015 in Mexico City.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Wiki Loves Monuments is
the world’s largest public photo competition. In it, people are asked to
take pictures of monuments from participating countries and to upload them
to Wikimedia Commons, enabling the photos to be used to illustrate
Wikipedia in articles about these monuments and other subjects.
“With over one million free images of heritage sites across the world, Wiki
Loves Monuments is one of the world’s most important history projects
today,” says Deror Lin, the international coordinator of the competition.
“Year after year, volunteers document hundreds of thousands of heritage
sites across the world and upload the images to the internet under a free
license for the benefit of the current andnext generations. These people
display the splendor of creativity and culture in their countries.”
The competition is organized in 41 participating countries, each focusing
on their national monuments and with their own national prizes. This year,
every participating country submitted 10 nominations to the international
jury who chose the winning pictures for the competition. A number of
countries participated in the competition for the first time, including:
Albania, Kosovo, Iraq, Ireland, Lebanon, Macedonia, Pakistan and the
Palestinian Authority.
The contest was first organized in 2010 in the Netherlands and resulted in
more than 12,500 pictures of Dutch monuments. Over the past four years more
than 1.1 million images have been submitted to the contest.
*2014 Wiki Loves Monuments Winners:*
-
1st Place - the Holy Mountains Monastery, Sviatohirsk, Ukraine by
Konstantin Brizhnichenko -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Svjatogorsk,_Lavra_3.jpg
-
2nd Place - Gare du Nord in Paris, France, by MrsEllacott (his image
ranked 7thin the French national competition) -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gare_du_Nord_December_2013.jpg
-
3rd Place - Jøvik and Great Cormorants near Ullsfjorden, Troms, Tromsø,
Norway by Siri Uldal (7th place in Norway’s national competition) -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jøvik_handelssted_04.jpg
-
4th Place - Alte Sennalpe Batzen (literally: Old Dairy Mountain Pasture
Batzen) at Bregenzer Forest in Schröcken, Vorarlberg, Austria by Böhringer
Friedrich (9th Place in the Austrian national competition) -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alte_Batzenalpe_2014_Interior_06.jpg
-
5th Place - Montfort Castle at Sunrise, Israel, by Eran Feldman (1st
Place in the Israeli national competition) -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:מבצר_מונפורט_בזריחה.JPG
-
6th Place - St Michael’s Mount, Marazion, Cornwall, UK by Fuzzypiggy
(1st Place in the UK competition) -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Michael's_Mount_II5302_x_2982.jpg
-
7th Place - Tower Bridge at Dawn, UK by Fuzzypiggy (3rd Place in the UK
competition) -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tower_Bridge_at_Dawn.jpg
-
8th Place - Victorian Valves at Victoria Baths, Manchester, UK by:
RevDave (8th Place in the UK competition) -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victorian_Valves.jpg
-
9th Place - Interior of the Romea Theatre, Murcia, Spain by: Pedro J
Pacheco - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teatro_Romea_Interior.jpg
-
10 Place - View of the Interior of St. Peter's Church, Teruel, Spain.
by: Diego Delso -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iglesia_de_San_Pedro,_Teruel,_Españ…
*For more information: *
*Itzik Edri, Spokesperson for the international jury - +972-54-5878078
<%2B972-54-5878078>, itzik(a)wikimedia.org.il <itzik(a)wikimedia.org.il>*
This announcement is also available online here:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/12/17/wikipedias-first-ever-annual-video-re…
Wikipedia: #Edit2014 is available online here:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Edit_2014.webm and
http://youtu.be/ci0Pihl2zXY
*Wikipedia’s first-ever annual video reflects contributions from people
around the world*
Today, the Wikimedia Foundation released its first ever year in review
video, chronicling the celebration, pain, fear, resilience, and discovery
that came to characterize 2014. More than anything, it celebrates those who
come to Wikipedia to learn and understand the complexity of our world, and
those who edit and contribute information so that others might do the same.
In watching the video, you embark on a journey through the world and
Wikipedia, revisiting what you read and edited this year. From the FIFA
World Cup to the Indian general elections, and the Ice Bucket Challenge to
Ebola in West Africa, we follow threads of discovery through Wikipedia’s
vast constellation of knowledge, finding opportunities to contribute along
the way. We venture from Sochi to outer space in less than three minutes.
Wikipedia is among the most popular sites in the world, but the Wikimedia
Foundation (WMF) is a small non-profit. The video was put together on a
shoestring budget, and in less than two months, through the generous
collaboration and contributions of Wikimedians and Wikipedia supporters.
The Wikimedia Foundation’s storyteller and video producer, Victor Grigas
said, “We had to get creative to make this happen, we couldn’t just throw
money at it. This video was made with everyday tools: a computer, an
internet connection, lots of deep, patient thinking, research and
collaboration, and the free content that ordinary people uploaded to
Wikipedia.”
Every piece of imagery and video we use was uploaded by you. Wikimedia’s
commitment to open access and free information meant we could only use
freely licensed photos and videos when producing this video. While the
Foundation may have edited the video, contributions came from users around
the world.
You will see many amazing freely licensed images in the video — beautiful
photographs of monuments, recordings of major world events from citizen
journalists. At the same time, you will also see some grainy and dated
images — such as those used to illustrate West Africa’s struggle with the
deadly Ebola outbreak. The images used to illustrate that segment date back
to 1976, from an outbreak in Zaire. Although other, more recent freely
licensed images are available, most addressed things such as proper use of
personal protective equipment or laboratory facilities, rather than the
immediate impact on human lives.
With hundreds of millions of people relying on Wikipedia to learn and
understand more about the world around them, the instance of Ebola
highlights the immense need for freely licensed images of important world
events. We encourage people everywhere to freely license and share images
and photographs of the notable people, places, or historic events — and in
doing so, help make the sum of all knowledge available to everyone. You can
upload your pictures Wikimedia Commons (Wikipedia’s central media
repository) under a free license.
While Ebola’s treatment in this video underscores the continuing need for
people to contribute freely licensed images, it is also an inspiring true
story about collaboration. As the Ebola outbreak raged, devastating the
lives of people in numerous countries, Wikimedians looked for ways to
contribute. Together with Translators Without Borders and the medical
professionals at the WikiProject Med Foundation, volunteers translated the
article on Ebola into more than fifty languages, including numerous African
languages. In October, The New York Times reported that Wikipedia had
emerged as a trusted internet source for Ebola information.
Wikipedia reflects the world around us. With each new event, it changes and
grows, accommodating our human triumphs and losses. It is the largest
collaborative knowledge project in human history, and it is made possible
by even the tiniest of contributions from people around the world. Join us
in rediscovering 2014, and consider contributing to Wikipedia’s boundless
knowledge.
Together, we edit our common history.
Katherine Maher
Chief Communications Officer
Wikimedia Foundation
--
Juliet Barbara
Senior Communications Manager I Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street I San Francisco, CA 94105
jbarbara(a)wikimedia.org I +1 (512) 750-5677
