Hello,
In response to some community comments on the proposed amendment to the
Terms of Use on undisclosed paid edits, the WMF's LCA team has suggested
two optional changes to the scope of the amendment. The aim is to address
concerns regarding reactions against editors who are suspected of violating
the disclosure requirements, and protecting good-faith contributors (such
as professors, students, and Wikipedians in Residence). These options are
not mutually exclusive - both of them, either, or neither could be adopted,
depending on your input.
These new options are available in English, Spanish, French, German,
Italian, and other languages.
Please review these options on the Terms of Use amendment page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_use/Paid_contributions_amendment#O…
And please share comments or feedback in this discussion page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Terms_of_use/Paid_contributions_amendm…
Many thanks for everyone's participation in the ongoing discussion on the
Terms of Use amendment.
Best,
Stephen Laporte
--
Stephen LaPorte
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
*For legal reasons, I may only serve as an attorney for the Wikimedia
Foundation. This means I may not give legal advice to or serve as a lawyer
for community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal
capacity.*
Dear Wikimedians,
Here is the monthly report of Wikimedia Argentina for February 2014.
You can read the full report (in Spanish and English) here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Argentina/Reportes/2014-02
Also, the full reports of past months are available at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Argentina/Reportes
1. New Executive Director
2. New publication: Gender issues in Wikipedia
3. New scanner at our office
4. Open letter from Wikimedia Argentina on the URAA issue
== New Executive Director ==
After a selection process that was held during the first two weeks of
February, with several outstanding applicants, the board and staff of
Wikimedia Argentina hired Anna Torres Adell to be our new Executive
Director since March 1st, 2014.
Anna holds a BA in Political Sciences by the Pompeu Fabra University. She
has two postgraduate diplomas from FLACSO: one on International
Cooperation, Administration and Monitoring of Public Policy; and another
diploma in Local Development and Social Economics. She lived and worked in
Guatemala and Mexico, and she set residence in Argentina a couple years
ago. Before joining our organization, she worked as a coordinator of PROEM
Foundation, an institution that dedicates its efforts to work training and
enhancing new businesses.
At Wikimedia Argentina we are very happy with the applications received, as
well as hiring Anna, who was very welcomed within our community. We believe
her professional profile will allow us to take our organization up great
roads.
== New publication: Gender issues in Wikipedia ==
After a couple months of work, we have published the document «Gender
issues in the digital world. Wikipedia and other communities» (only
available in Spanish), that brings together a selection of presentations
held at WikiGénero. This congress was held on May 26, 2012, in Buenos Aires.
The meeting seek to debate the possible reasons of low women engagement in
the free encyclopedia, as well as reduced content of important women in the
history of Mankind. The presentations and discussions touched on these
topics, but also went further: subjects such as communication of science
and gender representation (in its wide spectrum) were also addressed.
With this publication, we hope to take back some of the valuable
discussions that took place back then, and put it at anyone's service, with
an aim to continue the discussion around these issues. Through these
actions we seek to improve Wikipedia's content ad expand its community with
new collaborators.
The document is available at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_cuesti%C3%B3n_de_g%C3%A9nero_en_el_…
== New scanner at our office ==
We now have available, at Wikimedia Argentina's headquarters, a DIY scanner
to digitalize books. The equipment is similar to those taken on loan by
several Argentine cultural institutions during 2013 that have made possible
to upload more than 100 books to Wikimedia Commons.
Among the benefits of this scanner are the preservation and care of old
books: the manual functioning prevents any binding from being hurt. In the
weeks to come, we will enable a schedule for our community to book the
scanner and use it for free culture promotion purposes.
== Open letter from Wikimedia Argentina on the URAA issue ==
The board of directors of our organization wrote a letter to give an
official answer on behalf of the chapter, regarding the multiple conflicts
originated by the application of URAA by the Wikimedia Commons community.
The board decided to address the conflict in a more active way when several
Argentinean collaborators of Commons received massive notifications that
their images were soon to be erased, based on URAA regulations. Among the
different exchanges that stem from this conflict, the Wikimedia Foundation
also expressed its position in a statement suggesting to stop massive
deletions of images. We hope to see an end to this discussion soon, not
without finding a solution that mirrors the prevailing rights on every
jurisdiction.
---------------------------
Kind regards,
*Osmar Valdebenito G.*
Director Ejecutivo
A. C. Wikimedia Argentina
Hi everyone,
You'll find the Wiki Education Foundation's first monthly report (covering February 2014) on Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_Education_Foundation_-_Monthly…
Highlights of this month:
* Frank Schulenburg hired as Executive Director,
* first results of instructors survey available,
* contract with TriNet HR services signed.
If you have any questions or comments, please drop us a line on this report's talk page. For recent updates see our Twitter feed at @WikiEducation.
Regards,
Frank Schulenburg
Hi all!
the new bulletin from Wikimedia Italia (#71) is available. This time we
wrote about the new President of WMIT, the initiatives for Women's Day,
EAGLE project, our internal mailing list, the forthcoming Members' Meeting,
and future appointments.
As usual, a link has been added to meta, at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Italia…;
more-or-less raw text of the bulletin follows below.
ciao, .mau.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
== Thank You, Ms President! ==
[[Utente:Aubrey|Andrea Zanni]] is the new President of Wikimedia Italia.
[[Utente:Frieda|Frieda Brioschi]] resigned for work reasons, after many
years at the helm of the association: she leaves a group that she helped to
grow a lot, both in ambition and in the projects implemented in these
years.
Andrea Zanni will lead the association at a time of expansion, in which it
is very busy on several fronts in the dissemination of free culture. At his
side there is always the [[Direttivo|Board]], in whose ranks enters
[[Utente:Franciaio|Francesco Tarantini]], already committed to spreading
the culture of Wikipedia in occupational groups.
The news does not end there: Wikimedia Italia is looking for an Executive
Director who manages the increasing complexity of the activities of the
association. At the moment the nominations collected during the months of
January and February (the offer for the position was closed some weeks ago)
are waiting to be screened in the board, responsible for selecting the new
member of staff.
'''''The sincerest thanks to Frieda Brioschi from all the Board and the
staff of Wikimedia Italia, for her dedication, passion and skill with which
she chaired the association over the years, and a big good luck and the
best wishes for his future work to Andrea Zanni !'''''
== We want you! ==
An appeal to all Wikimedians: our association is sending a postcard to
members and donors, with the information about [
http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Cinque_per_mille how to allocate 5x1000 of
taxes] to Wikimedia Italia. There are '''over twelve thousand postcards'''
to be labeled and stamp: the material is all at our Secretariat, Via Ardigò
24 in Monza and we are looking for volunteers who can help us get the job
over as quickly as possible. The initiative is very important, because the
proceeds of 5x1000 represent a great support to our business! Contact us by
writing to [mailto:segreteria@wikimedia.it segreteria(a)wikimedia.it] or by
calling 039/5962256.
== Wikipedia celebrates too the Women's Day (by Susanna Giaccai) ==
As part of the activities aimed at increasing the number of Wikipedia
editors, we want to point out a specific intervention to invite women to
contribute to Wikipedia, writing entries relating to their worldview. On
the occasion of Women's Day in Florence [[Utente:Giaccai|Susanna Giaccai]
(librarian), [[Utente:Sailko|Sailko (Wikipedian)]] and [
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utente:Manuelarosi Manuelarosi] organize two
meetings for the collective preparation of voices on the basis of a list
proposed [
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:GLAM/Biblioteche/Progetti/8_marzo14on
the relevant page].
This page is an outline of the work to which they all the people are
invited to collaborate, if they are interested in increasing the number of
entries in Wikipedia about the point of view of women in the world.
The appointment is in Florence on the 8th and March 10th at [
http://www.lemurate.comune.fi.it/lemurate/suc/ Le Murate SUC] (Piazza delle
Murate). The first workshop will focus on the theme of women and will be
held from 14.30 to 19.30, while the second will be an introductory lesson
and will be held Monday, March 10, from 9:00 to 13:00 . For full details
please refer to the [
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progetto:GLAM/Biblioteche/Progetti/formazione…
page].
== First international event for EAGLE ==
[[File:Eagle.JPG|210px|thumb|left| Workshop in Ljubljana, by Anita Rocco
[CC-BY-SA 3.0]]]
As promised, we continue the excursus on the projects of Wikimedia Italia:
today is the turn of [http://www.eagle-network.eu/ EAGLE] (Europeana
network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy). EAGLE is a best-practice
network, co-funded by the European Commission, and part of the family of [
http://www.europeana.eu/ Europeana]. The project aims to collect and
catalog in a single database of over a million and a half of digital
objects related to inscriptions from the greek-roman world, accompanied by
essential information and a selection of translations into several European
languages.
On 19 and 20 February a [
http://www.eagle-network.eu/about/events/first-eagle-international-event-20…]
was held in Ljubljana, at the National Museum of Slovenia,
entitled "Current Practices and New Directions in Digital Epigraphy". The
purpose of the meeting was to provide an overview of the possibilities of
digitization of epigraphic material and allow the audience to do a little
practice. The meeting was attended by about 60 people from all over the
world! With the help of experienced Wikipedians [
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pietromarialiuzzo Pietro Liuzzo]
and [http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utente:Sannita Luca Martinelli],
participants included thirty translations on [
http://www.eagle-network.eu/wiki/index.php/Main_Page EAGLE Wikibase] and
added links and categories to approximately fifty images on [
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Estatua_de_C._Licinus_Silo.jpgWikim…
Commons]. The workshop has been particularly successful on the
web too; to stay up to date on future initiatives you may follow on Twitter
the account of the project
[https://twitter.com/Eagle_Project@Eagle_Project], the hashtag
#EAGLEEuropeana and the [
https://www.facebook.com/EAGLEuropeana facebook page].
The next major event of the EAGLE project will be in September 2014 in
Paris, with an [http://www.eagle-network.eu/about/events/eagle2014/international
conference]. We invite you to participate in the [
http://www.eagle-network.eu/about/events/eagle2014/call-for-participation/c…
for participations] that will close in the next few months (pay
attention to the dates).
== Subscribe to Wikimedia Italia mailing list!==
Perhaps not everyone knows that the newsletter is not the only way to
follow the activities of Wikimedia Italia! Members have the possibility to
subscribe to the mailing list '''associazione(a)wikimedia.it''', which is the
center of the life of the association. The daily e-mail traffic is
medium-high (the average is about nine e-mail per day), but it's worth it
it you want to be an active member of the association. To be included among
the recipients, just make a request by writing an email to [mailto:
segreteria(a)wikimedia.it segreteria(a)wikimedia.it]. If you are not yet a
member, subscribe by filling out the
[http://wiki.wikimedia.it/iscrizione/membership form] and paying the
annual dues. Those who do will soon get a
taste of real membership life on April 5, at the next Members' meeting. See
you there!
== Appointments ==
* March 7, Florence: Another initiative for women. The Advancing Women
Artists Foundation, with the collaboration of Syracuse University in
Florence and the American General Consulate in Florence, organizes the
event [http://www.advancingwomenartists.org/news.php "Female Artists and
Wikipedia"], edit-a-thon to create Wikipedia entries that highlight the
achievements of female artists, both contemporary and from the past. Where?
At Syracuse University in Florence (Piazza Savonarola, 15), from 14.00 to
17.00.
* March 10, Asti: press conference of presentation of the project
http://www.we-land.com/wikipedia-va-a-scuola/ Wikipedia goes to school @
Asti]. Meeting is at 16, in the hall of the library of the University of
Asti Astiss (piazzale de Andrè) with the presence of the chief of the
provincial education authority Alessandro Militerno and Stefano Caneva,
vice president of weLand.
* March 13 to 14, Milan: Wikimedia Italy will be present at the [
http://www.convegnostelline.it/relatori1.php?IdUnivoco=69 Convegno delle
Stelline]. Thursday, March 13, volunteers of the association will give
information about Wikipedia and Wikimedia Italia to librarians. Friday,
March 14, Pierfranco Minsenti, digital librarian, will participate with a
presentation entitled ''Wikipedia as a collaborative work environment for a
cross-community of libraries''. The aim is to define the impact on
librarians of their collaboration to Wikipedia.
* April 5, Florence: add to your agenda the date for the '''Members'
Meeting of Wikimedia Italia'''. The event is open to everyone, who will be
able to look at an important part of the activities of the association. The
meeting will be held at [http://florence.impacthub.net/about-us/faq/ The
Hub], in Florence; soon all the details and the day's program will be
released. We remind all members that they must be in good standing with the
fees for 2014 to be able to vote: if you are not sure you have renewed, ask
for an update on the status of your registration by sending an email to
[mailto:segreteria@wikimedia.it segreteria(a)wikimedia.it].
In case anyone on WikimediaAnnounce-l missed the news:
http://wikimediaukraine.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/in-memoriam-of-ihor-kosten…https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/02/24/wikipedia-ihor-kostenko-dies/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2014-02-26/Speci…
Memorials are being left on Ihor's talk page:
https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D0%B1%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%80%D0…
James Alexander posted this quote on Wikimedia-l:
"Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say, it is you who must say this.
We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning. We were young, they say. We have died; remember us."
--Archibald MacLeish
User:Wnt has proposed that we
create an annual award in Ihor's name. "...If the editor
desired, he could accept the award at a WMF event in a public way, but
the news of the selection could always be released first on February 20,
so that reporters covering these stories would always take a moment to
explain who Ihor Kostenko was and what the day means. And just maybe,
by educating more people before a conflict comes to a head, some day
one of these award winners will have stayed some future sniper's hand
and saved some other Ihor, even if we will never know it." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales/Archive_158#Death_of_a_…
I hope that we can honor Ihor in a way that takes no sides with regard to geopolitics while memorializing Ihor's life and promoting values which are important to the Wikimedia movement.
RIP Ihor.
Pine
The Wikimedia chapters and thematic organizations are seeking to appoint
two candidates to sit on the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees for
two years, starting in summer 2014.
The two new members of the board will help to decide the future direction
of the world's leading non-profit website. Wikimedia projects are
constructed by hundreds of thousands of volunteers worldwide, supported by
a growing number of staff and an international network of affiliate
organizations. Board membership is unpaid.
The chapters and thematic organizations wish to appoint two excellent board
members and believe this can best be achieved by selecting from a large
number of varied and skilled candidates. Therefore, the chapters and
thematic organizations call for nominations by everyone who believes they
or someone they know would be suitable. This call for candidates should be
distributed as widely as possible through such forums as mailing lists,
village pumps, and blogs.
The successful candidates will be committed to the Wikimedia mission and
willing and able to engage constructively with the stakeholders of the
movement, including the volunteers and the affiliate organizations that
provide it with essential support. The successful candidates will have:
* the ability to provide expertise to the board in its goal of implementing
a coherent vision on how the projects' communities, the foundation, the
chapters, the thematic organizations, the user groups, and other affiliated
groups work together;
* sensitivity to complex issues surrounding the multiplicity of languages,
cultures, and jurisdictions served by the foundation's projects;
* knowledge and understanding of the governance of international non-profit
organizations, balancing autonomy and subsidiarity;
* the ability to think strategically and to work both as part of a team and
independently;
* a good standard of written and oral English (fluency in additional
languages would be well regarded);
* sufficient time to devote to the role of board member, and the ability
and willingness to travel.
Increasing the geographical diversity of current board membership would be
an advantage.
The selection process is set out at:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats
Nominations must be submitted no later than 31 March (24:00 UTC) using the
form on the following Meta page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2014/Nominat…
The facilitators of the ASBS election,
James Hare
Chris Keating
Lorenzo Losa