WikimediaZA January 2012

wikimediaza@lists.wikimedia.org

5 participants
5 discussions

Adopt a user
by David Richfield 02 Feb '12

02 Feb '12

We should all know about this and promote it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Adopt-a-user/Adoptee%27s_Area/Adopte…

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isiXhosa Wikipedia workshop in Cape Town: a heads up on an informal preliminary workshop
by Douglas Scott 02 Feb '12

02 Feb '12

Hello everyone, Since I have gotten such an overwhelmingly positive response from Xhosa language practitioners on introducing them to Xhosa Wikipedia an informal preliminary workshop for six people at the University of the Western Cape has been organised by the African language department there. It would be great to have some local Wikipedian volunteers to help introduce them to editing Wikipedia. Below are the details. If you are interested in joining us then please to let me know in advance. Tuesday, 31/01/2012, at 13h00. University of the Western Cape, The Xhosa Department, New Arts Building, Room D132. Thanks, Discott. -- Douglas Ian Scott 司道格 Skype: douglas0scott UK mobile number: +44 (0)755 452 5277 Chinese mobile number: +86 1 364 330 7351 South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727

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isiXhosa Wikipedia workshop in Cape Town: looking for volunteers and/or feedback
by Douglas Scott 25 Jan '12

25 Jan '12

Hello everyone, Its been an issue for some time now that the African language Wikipedia's are not doing as well as the vast majority of other Wikipedia's. Xhosa Wikipedia, the language of more then seven million South Africans, has only 125 articles <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias>, making it the 272nd largest wiki. About half the size of Inuktitut<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuktitut_language> Wikipedia. I contacted the head of the African languages department at the University of Cape Town and had a meeting with him yesterday to discuss it. It seems like it went very well and I have already been contacted by 9 Xhosa language specialists in the Western and Eastern Cape who are very interested in attending a workshop to learn more about editing Wikipedia. I would like to know if anyone would be interested in helping me host any workshops in Cape Town the near future? It would be nice to have another Wikipedian around to help coach people during the workshop. Since this is still very early days yet we have not set a date yet for the workshop but I would like it to take place within the next month or so, or even sooner then that. I would also be interested in getting your feedback on the idea. Right now the objective is just to train a few Xhosa language Wikipedians and make it known to them how free and easy it is to edit Wikipedia and contribute. As well as to expand Xhosa language Wikipedia by translating articles from well written English Wikipedia articles. So far all the people that have contacted me are either academics that specialise in Xhosa studies at the Universities here in Cape Town or are from government. Best, -- Douglas Ian Scott 司道格 Skype: douglas0scott UK mobile number: +44 (0)755 452 5277 Chinese mobile number: +86 1 364 330 7351 South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727

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Fwd: [Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA
by David Richfield 17 Jan '12

17 Jan '12

Oh wow!!! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jay Walsh <jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org> Date: Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 9:00 AM Subject: [Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA To: wikimediaannounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Please also see the related blog post, http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-so… The release is posted here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_to_go_… *English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA * San Francisco -- January 16, 2012 -- On January 18, 2012, in an unprecedented decision, the Wikipedia community has chosen to blackout the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States. Wikipedia administrators confirmed this decision Monday afternoon (PST) in a public statement ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action#Summary_and_c… ): Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a "blackout" of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support. “Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. "This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world." We urge Wikipedia readers to make your voices heard. If you live in the United States, find your elected representative in Washington ( https://www.eff.org/sopacall). If you live outside the United States, contact your State Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs or similar branch of government. Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and want the internet to remain open and free. *About the Wikimedia Foundation *http://wikimediafoundation.org http://blog.wikimedia.org The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 474 million unique visitors per month, making them the fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, November 2011). Available in 282 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 20 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants. *Media Contact: * Jay Walsh Head of Communications Wikimedia Foundation Tel. +1 415 839 6885 x 6609 jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately directed to Foundation-L, the public mailing list about the Wikimedia Foundation and its projects. For more information about Foundation-L: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l _______________________________________________ WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list WikimediaAnnounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l -- David Richfield e^(πi)+1=0

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SOPA initiative
by Lourie Pieterse 15 Jan '12

15 Jan '12

Hello everyone In short the Wikimedia community is currently deciding how to act regarding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and wants your input. For those of you who do not know about the SOPA initiative, please take a look at the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative page, and then make your voice thick at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action. Kind regards Lourie

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WikimediaZA January 2012