Hello everyone,
This is just a quick reminder that the 5th Cape Town meetup
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Cape_Town#5th_Cape_Town_Meet…>will
be happening from 11am this Sunday (4th May) at Truth Coffee on 36
Buitenkant Street. We have got lots to talk about and there is free coffee!
Hope to see you there.
Best,
Douglas (user:Discott).
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hello everyone,
Below is an email from Wikimedia UK that I want to share with you all.
---
Hello fellow Wikimedians,
As you may be aware, Wikimedia UK is hosting a Train the Trainers workshop
just before Wikimania for international Wikimedia affiliates
representatives. The targeted attendees are someone that's coming to London
for this year Wikimania, from a chapter or thematic organisation that is
either already offering or planning to offer Wikimedia training in their
respective countries. It will be a chance to see our course in action and
experience what our volunteers go for. The aim is to filter down the
messages and to take any lessons back home especially if you may offer your
own Training the Trainers for your own volunteers.
More information and registration is at <
https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?id=68&reset=1>.
Wikimedia UK will pay for the training, the venue, and lunch and
refreshments during the two day. Wikimedia UK will unfortunately be
unlikely to be able to support accommodation. The course will be held in
English. There are 12 places available on the course. The deadline to apply
for a place is Sunday 15 June 23:59 BST, after which confirmation of places
will be given.
Hope to see many of you in London in August,
Katie
--
Katie Chan
Volunteer Support Organiser
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 20 7065 0990
+44 (0) 7885 980 534
Wikimedia UK is a Charitable Company registered in England and Wales.
Registered Company No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513.
Registered Office: 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street,
London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom.
Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The
Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate
Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.
I would love to be part of the movement. Because we a free country,
and I should justify the free knowledge for all. A knowledge with no
use is meaningless!
On 4/24/14, wikimediaza-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org
<wikimediaza-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Send WikimediaZA mailing list submissions to
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> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Position Available for Wikipedian in Residence (Theresa Hume)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 16:03:08 +0200
> From: "Theresa Hume" <humetheresa(a)gmail.com>
> To: <wikimediaza(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: [Wikimedia ZA] Position Available for Wikipedian in Residence
> Message-ID: <03d201cf5fc5$edbd83d0$c9388b70$(a)gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Dear Member,
>
>
>
> Want to become part of the global movement to bring about a world in which
> every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge?
>
>
>
> Then apply for the first South African Wikipedian in Residence.
>
>
>
> Closing date for applications is Friday, 25 April 2014.
>
>
>
> Wiki Regards
>
>
>
>
>
> email signature
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Dear Member,
Want to become part of the global movement to bring about a world in which
every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge?
Then apply for the first South African Wikipedian in Residence.
Closing date for applications is Friday, 25 April 2014.
Wiki Regards
email signature
Hello everyone,
I just wanted to let you all know that the bid to host Wikimania in 2015
has gone to Mexico
City<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015_bids/Mexico_City>.
Although I am very sorry to hear that we were unsuccessful in our bid for
Cape Town to host the event we can seek comfort in knowing that we put
together a bid that has received a great deal of praise from everyone for
its high quality and high level of preparation. We had a great team working
on the bid and have done a good job of both building off of previous Cape
Town bids for the event and enhancing our potential for hosting a great
event for the day when we do get it.
I want to thank each and everyone of you for all the support you have given
us.
I have no doubt that Mexico City will host a fantastic and truly memorable
event and wish them all the very best for the event. They have a good team
and the award could not have happened to a nicer group of people.
I would like to extend my most sincere congratulations to the winning team.
I look forward to attending the event in Mexico City, a part of the world
I have heard so much about and always wanted to visit.
Thanks and best regards,
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
fyi
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Mark Vandenberg <jayvdb(a)gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 21, 2014 at 5:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Indonesia and Humanitarian Open
Street Map receive ALL VOICES GRANT
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
On Mon, Apr 21, 2014 at 5:48 AM, Anna Torres <anna(a)wikimedia.org.ar> wrote:
> Hi Isabella,
>
> Great news! Congratulations to all of you :)
> In Argentina we are planning to build up a fundraising strategy this year.
> Is there somewhere we can take a look to the project?
While the WMID team puts online their project documentation, I can
provide a bit of background which will be useful to other chapters.
The very short version, without buzzwords, is we will be creating OSM
mapping data and Wikipedia articles of Kalimantan, training local
groups and producing a training kit so they can continue to do it
after the project funding finishes. Their will be project evaluation
reports so that other regions and countries can assess whether they
will be able to reproduce the outcomes of the project.
The Making All Voices Count website isnt very informative about the
program at the moment, as they have replaced most of the information
about the program with details about the projects being funded. More
information might be buried in their blog entries from last year.
The first call for proposals for the innovations grant program needed
to have impact in one of eight countries: Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya,
Liberia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
http://www.makingallvoicescount.org/news/first-call-proposals/
Based on the history of the funding body, and entities backing the
funding body, it was obvious that any innovation in the area of
citizen participation in open government was the broad theme. It is
always difficult knowing precisely what is going to succeed in a first
round for a new grant program. Now that they have selected a group of
proposals to fund, it is easier to see what types of projects will be
successful in the next rounds.
http://www.makingallvoicescount.org/news/28-cutting-edge-projects-to-boost-…
The next round (it should be opening soon) will be for Bangladesh,
Mozambique, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
One of the requirements is that there is a local organisation as part
of the grant proposal. The local organisation doesnt need to be a
well established organisation with lots of capacity. The bulk of the
work can be done by a foreign partner, but they want to see a formal
partnership exists between the two (i.e. a signed agreement as an
appendix). It is a great opportunity for a bigger chapter to help a
smaller chapter attract external funding and complete a project which
will have real impact in their country. Or for a chapter to partner
with another organisation in their country.
Wikimedia is known to be good at crowd sourcing and citizen
engagement. Those skillsets needs to be wrapped into a project
concept that will have measurable impact in the real world (i.e.
outside of the wikiverse), and then sold so that funders can see that
using wikis is an innovative component *with* a key strength being
that using wikis ensure that others can continue to build the project
after the funding runs out.
Some of the other requirements for the application:
* focus providing a voice to minorities (esp. people with disabilities)
* 500 word executive summary
* A detailed budget
* complete resumes of four key people in the project
* biographies of the participating organisations
The three Asian countries for round two (Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the
Philippines) are the 'easiest', all having very active local wikimedia
groups that are well connected to the International community.
Mozambique is a challenge. ;-)
Portuguese Wikipedia has a few contributors living in Mozambique. As
well as the 'Wikipedians in <country>' category
(https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8645200), more wikimedia people can be
found using searches like
https://www.google.com/search?q=site:wikipedia.org+intitle:user+Mozambiquehttps://www.google.com/search?q=site:wikipedia.org+intitle:Usu%C3%A1rio+Mo%…
As example, one of the Portuguese speaking chapters could partner with
an advocacy group in Mozambique to write Wikinews stories on
Portuguese Wikinews about a topic which usually isnt covered well in
traditional media. e.g. Interviews with people with disabilities,
from people in villages through to their first two Paralympians?
(https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1442458)
Or Wikimedia South Africa may be able to partner with a group in
Mozambique to help build Tsonga/Xitsonga Wikipedia, which currently
has less than 300 articles after many years, and was even proposed for
closure. There are other languages of Mozambique that do not have a
Wikipedia yet. Would a $40,000 funded project be sufficient to
build/regenerate a new Wikipedia language community?
Or work with a relevant peak body/Quango/NGO to put one of their
existing books on Wikibook, translate it to minority languages and
distribute it. e.g. Marie Stopes International
Distributing Wikipedia via Kiwix may also meet open government
development goals, if the content is of sufficient quality, (or
$40,000 can make it high quality content), but that depends a lot on
what are effective distribution methods for a target audience.
--
John Vandenberg
_______________________________________________
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Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
Hello everyone,
I just want to let you all know that our chapter affiliates in the United
Kingdom, Wikimedia UK <https://wikimedia.org.uk>, is willing and fully open
to editors in South Africa applying for project grants to assist in editing
Wikipedia or contributing to other Wikimedia projects.
Although, to the best of my knowledge, no-one from South Africa has applied
for a project grant from them yet there is always a first time. So if you
need a small grant to assist in your Wiki related editing then please feel
free to apply.
You can find out more on Wikimedia UK's website
here<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Grants>
.
Best regards,
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Some interesting discussion here for those of you who are interested
in copyrights and Wikimedia.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Maggs <Michael(a)maggs.name>
Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 7:44 PM
Subject: [Chapters] New Commons RFC on changing the Precautionary
principle to tackle the URAA problem
To: UK Wikimedia mailing list <wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>,
Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>,
commons-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, chapters(a)wikimedia.ch
I have made a proposal to relax the scope of the Commons so-called
Precautionary principle to allow the site to host more of the locally
public domain files that are being deleted because of the US URAA law,
and also to keep more photos that have freedom of panorama in their
home country but which might (or might not) be copyright-protected in
the US.
This proposal comes out of an extremely long and complicated argument
about copyright, which you don't necessarily need to get into, but it
is an attempt to allow Commons to host more media files while at the
same time ensuring that the site remains fully legal under US law. We
can legally take a much more nuanced position than 'Definitely Free'
or 'Definitely Unfree', which is pretty much what we do at present.
Some editors have suggested ignoring US law, which the WMF simply
cannot allow to happen, and this is an attempt to allow us to keep
more non-US Public Domain material while still remaining on the right
side of US law.
Put simply, do you agree that Commons should aim to host more files
that are public domain in their home country even if they *might*
still be copyright-protected in the US?
Please contribute here:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Review_of_Precautionary_principle
Michael
_______________________________________________
Chapters mailing list
Chapters(a)wikimedia.ch
https://intern.wikimedia.ch/lists/listinfo/chapters
--
David Richfield
[[:en:User:Slashme]]
+49 176 72663368
Hi all,
I'm forwarding this for those of you who are concerned about online security.
Kind regards,
David
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ENWP Pine <deyntestiss(a)hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 6:21 AM
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] OpenSSL vulnerability
To: "mediawiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org"
<mediawiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, "wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org"
<wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
I'm cross-posting this email from Wikitech-l from Greg Grossmeier. I
think wide distribution is appropriate especially for contributors who
may use vulnerable off-wiki communication tools with their Wikimedia
password or for Wikimedia activity.
--
Yesterday a widespread issue in OpenSSL was disclosed that would allow
attackers to gain access to privileged information on any site running a
vulnerable version of that software. Unfortunately, all Wikimedia
Foundation hosted wikis are potentially affected.
We have no evidence of any actual compromise to our systems or our users
information, but as a precautionary measure we are resetting all user
session tokens. In other words, we will be forcing all logged in users
to re-login (ie: we are logging everyone out).
All logged in users send a secret session token with each request to the
site and if a nefarious person were able to intercept that token they
could impersonate other users. Resetting the tokens for all users will
have the benefit of making all users reconnect to our servers using the
updated and fixed version of the OpenSSL software, thus removing this
potential attack.
As an extra precaution, we recommend all users change their passwords as
well.
Again, there has been no evidence that Wikimedia Foundation users were
targeted by this attack, but we want all of our users to be as safe as
possible.
Thank you for your understanding and patience,
Greg Grossmeier
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list
Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
<mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
--
David Richfield
[[:en:User:Slashme]]
+49 176 72663368
A warm welcome to all our fellow Wikipedians,
It's been 3 months since our last communication so we just want to touch
base with you, and tell you what we have been up to.
*What does 2014 have in store?*
The first months of 2014 have been packed with mostly project focussed
activities. As part of our ongoing commitment to increase awareness of the
South African Chapter and Wikipedia as a whole, we have been busy putting
together many projects that will do just that.
Here is a quick glance of these upcoming projects:
*Joburgpedia 2014*
The first phase of Joburgpedia was received very well, and we are pleased
to announce that we have received funding to implement the second phase of
the project, which will kick off in April.
This year will see the appointment of the first South African Wikipedians
in Residence at Johannesburg Heritage Foundation and Museum Africa!
*Collaboration with Constitutional Court*
WMZA is very excited about a collaboration with the Constitutional Court.
Training sessions will take place with various participants which will see
contributions to Wikipedia in terms of documentation and information
relevant to the Concourt.
*Wiki Meetups*
Wiki Meetups are an opportunity for Wikipedians and anyone else interested
in getting more involved in Wikipedia and other Wikis, as well as open
collaboration projects, to meet and talk about issues of shared interest.
We will keep you posted of upcoming events. The 5th Cape Town Wiki Meetup
will take place on Sunday, 4 May at 11:00 at Truth
Coffee<http://www.truthcoffee.com/>,
36 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town. More information about the meet up can be
found here<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Cape_Town#5th_Cape_Town_Meet…>.
Everyone is welcome to attend.
*Wikimania 2015*
We are very excited about our bid for Wikimania
2015<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2015_bids/Cape_Town>.
We expect the bid committee to make its final decision in April!
*Wiki Indaba*
The first ever gathering of African Wikipedians for
Africa<http://wikiindaba.net/index.php?title=Main_Page>will be held in
Johannesburg in June. Scholarship
applications <http://wikiindaba.net/index.php?title=Main_Page/Attendance>can
be made online. This conference is the first step towards the
establishment of African co-operative structures and organs made up of
Wikimedia Chapters, Wikimedians and mission aligned thematic
organisations.
*Wiki Loves Monuments & Others*
September is Heritage month and the kick-off of Wiki Loves Monuments
2014. We look forward to increased participation and number of submissions
this year.
WMZA is also investigating the feasibility of a Wiki Loves Wildlife
competition and, in collaboration with other Chapters, a Wiki Loves Earth
competition.
We are also proud to announce our new partner, Western Cape Heritage, who
have come on board to promote participation from the Western Cape. We look
forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with this new
partner.
*Chapters Conference - Germany, April 2014*
Douglas Scott, Theresa Hume and David Richfield will be representing WMZA
at the Chapters Conference in Germany during the first weekend of April.
*GLAM*
As a pilot project for the GLAM initiative, we have approached the
National Archives in Pretoria to discuss a possible collaboration which
will see the digitisation of their libraries onto Wikipedia.
*WikiXhosa*
Unfortunately despite numerous attempts, Wikimedia ZA has not had much
success with activating Xhosa language Wikipedia. As such, activation
activities have - for the foreseeable future - been put on hold to free up
more time and resources to focus on other projects. If you, or anyone you
know is interested in promoting Wikipedia Xhosa language, or any other
African language Wikipedia, then please let us know.
*WikiZero*
Have you heard about the Sinenjongo High School success story? They
launched a campaign to get cell phone providers to provide South Africa
with free access to Wikipedia <http://wikimedia.org.za/wiki/Main_Page> for
research purposes. MTN has heard their call and started providing free
access to all its subscribers. We are very excited about what this means
for the learners of Sinenjongo and will be meeting them at the end of April
to discuss the way forward.
So that's it from us for now. Remember to like our Facebook pages so that
you can get up to date information!
Happy Editing!
*The Wikimedia ZA Team*
*Dumisani Ndubane, Maarten Deneckere, David Richfield, Douglas Scott, Bobby
Shabangu, Isla Haddow-Flood and Theresa Hume*