FYI.
Please reset your passwords.
Sent from the touchscreen equivalent of a Nokia 1100, pardon the sender.
--
Srikanth Ramakrishnan,
Treasurer.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Erik Moeller" <erik(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Oct 3, 2013 11:27 AM
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Notification about Wikimedia user account security
issue
To: "Wikimedia Mailing List" <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc:
See also:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/October_2013_private_data_security_issue
On October 1, 2013, we learned about an implementation error that made
private user information (specifically, user email addresses, password
hashes, session tokens, and last login timestamp) for approximately
37,000 Wikimedia project users accessible to volunteers with access to
the Wikimedia "LabsDB" infrastructure.
LabsDB, launched in May 2013, is designed to give volunteers the
ability to write tools and generate reports that make use of data from
our databases in real-time. This supports bottom-up innovation by the
Wikimedia community. As part of this process, private data is
automatically redacted before volunteers are given access to the data.
Unfortunately, for some of Wikimedia’s wikis[1], the database triggers
used to redact private data failed to take effect due to a schema
incompatibility, and LabsDB users had access to private user data for
some user accounts in these specific wiki databases. As of October 1,
228 users have access to LabsDB, and the window of availability of
this data was May 29, 2013 to October 1, 2013.
This issue was discovered and reported by a trusted volunteer, and
access to the data in question was revoked within 15 minutes of the
report. We have no evidence to suggest that the private data in
question was exported in bulk or used for malicious purposes, but we
cannot definitively exclude the possibility. As a precautionary
measure, we have invalidated all affected user sessions, and are
requiring affected users to change their password on their next login.
We have also sent an email notification to affected users with a
confirmed email address.
We regret this mistake. LabsDB is still a new part of our
infrastructure, and we will fully audit the redaction process, so as
to minimize any risk of a future mistake of this nature.
Sincerely,
Erik Moeller
Vice President of Engineering & Product Development
Contact information
Should you have any questions, please contact us via email to:
accountsecurity(a)wikimedia.org
You can also reach the Wikimedia Foundation at:
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
149 New Montgomery Street
Floor 6
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States
Phone: +1-415-839-6885
Fax: +1-415-882-0495
[1] List of affected databases: aswikisource bewikisource dewikivoyage
elwikivoyage enwikivoyage eswikivoyage frwikivoyage guwikisource
hewikivoyage itwikivoyage kowikiversity lezwiki loginwiki minwiki
nlwikivoyage plwikivoyage ptwikivoyage rowikivoyage ruwikivoyage
sawikiquote slwikiversity svwikivoyage testwikidatawiki tyvwiki
ukwikivoyage vecwiktionary votewiki wikidatawiki wikimania2013wiki
wikimania2014wiki
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
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Goa University Partners CIS India To Build Konkani Wikipedia
http://www.medianama.com/2013/09/223-goa-university-partners-cis-india-to-b…
The Goa university has entered into a three year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) for building the Konkani Wikipedia, reports navhindtimes.
As part of this partnership, Goa University will be uploading the four volumes of Konkani encyclopedia and the Konkani wikipedia is expected to be available in six months. It appears that the partnership with CIS India includes processes such as scanning, digitization, and creating articles as per requirement of Wikipedia. CIS India has also called out for volunteers for a period of three months to help them digitizing the Konkani encyclopedia.
This is quite notable since most of the development in digitizing documents in Indian language did not include Konkani language, which is spoken in western coast of India. Besides, since the university will upload the Konkani encyclopedia on Wikipedia, it will allow users to search through texts. Most of the digitization projects just scan the books and upload the pages in image format, which makes it difficult to search or perform any kind of data related query.
Last year in May, Wikipedians were digitizing Indian language, out-of-copyright texts online, trying to address the comparative paucity of Indic language texts online. Wikisource is a repository of documents and archived material that serves as a reference source for Wikipedia, and a means of improving access to information sources. Of the 64 languages Wikisource is available in, 8 are Indian: Tamil (stats), Malayalam (stats),Telugu (stats), Kannada (stats), Sanskrit (stats), Marathi (stats), Bengali (stats) and Gujarati (stats). Note that most of these Indian language Wikipedia’s receive active contribution from CIS India under its CIS-A2K program.
Wikipedia had recorded 43.5 million pageviews in Indian language wikis, as of October 2011. In June 2013, the Hindi language Wikipedia had received monthly pageviews of 7.8 million, Tamil language Wikipedia had received 5.2 million pageviews, among others. So there’s clearly a demand to access information in local languages.
That said, while more languages are being added to the list, it should be seen that the articles in these languages do not contain just one or two sentences. According to an analysis by Shijualex.in, many articles posted under Indian language Wikipedia were under 2kb, indicating that it contained only couple of sentences.
Thanks
Nitika
Konkani writers resolve to form all-India forum at JKS conference
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=192381
Mangalore, Oct 1: Jagotik Konknni Songhotton (JKS) organized an All-India Konkani Writers’ Conference on Sunday, September 29 at Kalaangann.
As many as 78 Konkani writers from Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and various regions of Karnataka, attended the conference.
The conference was organized with the intention of bringing together writers of all the five scripts of Konkani and also to probe the possibilities of forming an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum.
Roy Castelino, treasurer, JKS, welcomed the gathering. The secretary general of JKS, Eric Ozario, explained the purpose of the conference and the need for forming an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum. Tomazinho Cardozo, ex-speaker of the Goa Assembly and president, JKS, spoke about the injustices done to writers in the Roman script.
Dr Pratap Naik, Konkani activist, spoke of the progress in the writ petition filed in the Goa bench of the Mumbai high court, seeking rectification of the Official Language Act of Goa, to include the Roman script.
Valerian D’Souza, Marcel D’souza and Eric Ozario explained the progress in the writ petition filed in the high court of Karnataka against the Sahitya Akademi, seeking equal treatment to all scripts of Konkani.
Nitika Tandon, programme manager, The Centre for Internet & Society, spoke about Konkani Wikipedia and the need for the participation of the Roman and the Kannada script writers.
The conference resolved to form an All-India Konkani Writers’ Forum, which would protect the interest of Konkani literature and Konkani writers of all scripts. An ad-hoc committee was formed to discuss and decide upon the immediate steps to be taken towards the formation of the Forum.
A book compiling short stories written by Kevin D’Mello, Karkala, titled ‘Chondda ani Gorbh’, was also released on the occasion.
Victor Mathias conducted the proceedings of the conference.
Thanks
Nitika
Goa University to make available online Konkani Wikipedia, within 6 months
http://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/goa-university-to-make-available-online-…
Thick heaps of the four volumes of Konkani language ‘vishwakosh’ or encyclopedia , till now available only in hard copy, will now attain a modern access. The four volumes of encyclopaedia work, initially started by prominent Goan writer and academician late Manoharrai Sardessaiat of Goa University, will now be accessed in digitized format, alongside forming a base for a Konkani Wikipedia.
As mentioned by officials, the Konkani Wikipedia is to be ready to access within upcoming six months. With this, Goa University has turned out to be the first varsity in the nation to enter into a creative commons licence that will permit copyrighted produced data by an Indian university accessible to internet users and open to modification (wiki), making Goa University a victory of sorts of free information.
The university has signed a three-year MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge Programme. This centre represents Wikipedia in India, and now also the Konkani Wikipedia project.
After Google, Facebook and Yahoo, Wikipedia is the fourth most used asset on the internet which operates as an internet based encyclopaedia. Over Wikipedia, any of the users can upload new information and can also update or amend an existing topic. The Konkani Wikipedia is also planned to offer similar privileges to its users. GU's Konkani department and the centre will manage the development from the university campus.
"The Konkani vishwakosh covers all realms of knowledge like any other encyclopedia. The Konkani Wikipedia will act as a digitized repository of knowledge for future generations and Konkani speakers across the world. I look forward to the pleasure of going to the internet and clicking away to access a Konkani Wikipedia," GU vice-chancellor Satish Shetye said.
Shetye told, GU is delighted to relate with Wikipedia, which has become a global trend breaking the monopoly of publishers and transforming the way of sharing of knowledge into a democratic process.
GU registrar Vijayendra Kamat mentions, "At present, it takes time for a page with information in a regional language to download because they are usually found in the form of scanned pages, which are accessible as images and not text. The Konkani Wikipedia will make the text accessible as is the case of any English text on the internet”,
The Konkani vishwakosh, containing four large volumes of total of 3,632 pages,
is a work of period of 14 years. It was edited by late Manoharrai Sardessai followed by the editor Tanaji Halarnkar. For the compilation process, GU Staff members, Ranjan Naik, Kalpana Naik, Kanchan Mordekar, Surekha Naik, Mukesh Thali and Shailendra Mehta contributed to it.
Konkani vishwakosh or encyclopedia covers, concisely presented world information with special weight given on information on Goa, Konkani, Goan culture, folklore, history, geography etc. The Wikipedia is offered in 20 Indian languages that includes Telugu, Assamese, Marathi, but not in language Konkani so far.
Interested Students, Professors or anyone else could contribute to this Konkani Encyclopaedia project by enrolling online at bit.ly/konkanivishwakosh, before 05 October 2013.
Thanks
Nitika