***************************************
__ __ _ _ _ _
/ / /\ \ (_) | _(_)___(_)_ __ ___
\ \/ \/ / | |/ / |_ / | '_ \ / _ \
\ /\ /| | <| |/ /| | | | | __/
\/ \/ |_|_|\_\_/___|_|_| |_|\___|
Year: 2005 Week:46 Special edition
***************************************
An internal news bulletin for the
members of the Wikimedia community.
///////////////////////////////////////
== Announcement of Wikizine ==
I am pleased to announce the creation of Wikizine. A new internal news
bulletin for the members of the Wikimedia community.
Wikizine is an weekly publication that will list the news of the Wikimedia
projects of the previous week. It will not be like Quatro that has full
articles. That is not the concept. The ideal Wikizine is short. Every news
listing contains of an one line summary and an url to some place where you
can find more information.
To subscribe go to;
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/announce-l
== Why ==
I, [[w:nl:gebruiker:Walter]], have found for many years that Wikipedia,
now Wikimedia, has a very serious internall communication problem. There
is to much information and it is highly fragmented between many wiki
pages, mailing lists and other places. Even if you try to read everything
you do not know all wikimedia news.
I have done proposals in the past to attempt to counter this problem but
nothing came from that. Also other attempts like "going-ons" and "Quatro"
do not seem to be a great success.
So I have decided to try to do it myself. Wikizine is an attempt in that
direction. Of it will be an success will be depend for an large part of
the readers and the feedback. I will try to discover all the news that
there is about Wikimedia and report the most relevant news of in Wikizine.
But I will fail to discover all the news. Wikizine needs to receive
reports of things that are going on somewhere in a strange, far away wiki.
Especially from the projects and languages from who you never hear.
== Who should read Wikizine? ==
Everybody who likes to do so may read it off course. But the target
audience is definitely; stewards, ambassadors, bureaucrats and sysops,
members of the board of one of the wikimedia foundations.
It is for the people who are doing the Wiki-management. The focus will be
on the technical aspect. News about changes in the way the wikisotware
works, new functions. Things that are broken. Other Wikimedia news will
also be included but the focus is technical news that has an impact for
the users and readers of the wiki.
The idea and hope is that some of those readers will report back
interesting news from there project and translate/communicate the news in
Wikizine to there own community.
Wikizine is distributed by the mailinglist Announce-l. This list is only
for the postings of Wikizine, not for discussion. So it is very low
traffic. Normally once a week.
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/announce-l
Please inform your local community about Wikizine and report news to
Wikizine.
wikizine(a)wikipedia.be
///////////////////////////////////////
Editor: [[w:nl:gebruiker:Walter]]
///////////////////////////////////////
Disclaimer: this message is not an
official publication of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Wikizine makes no guarantee of validity.
On 11/11/05, Jean-Baptiste Soufron <jbsoufron(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Giving out press credentials has nothing to do with trademark law,
> copyright or policy. Most countries regulate the right for organization
> to act as press organizations. For example, the french status of press
> journalists is regulated by a law of 1935, and its conditions are very
> strict.
Yes, I was going to say something along those lines, but I wanted to
find more information about other countries and their specific
legislations. I failed to find any relevant information concerning the
issuing of press credentials in North America for one. Maybe someone
could help out here? Michel Neige perhaps? Others for other countries?
Or is France a stand alone in that situation?
> First, I don't think that wikinews would like to engage its liability by
> issuing false press credentials when they don't have the right to do so.
>
> Second, I don't think that wikinews would like to enrage journalist
> unions that control the issuing of these credentials.
>
> If you want to issue press credentials there are strict steps to follow,
> and they have nothing to do with trademark law or whatever : they depend
> on national press legislations. Press organizations have special
> privileges related to press, but they also have special obligations to
> fulfill, and special liabilities !
>
> As of today, Wikinews is not such a press organization and cannot
> benefit of their privileges !
No, but maybe it could could become one? However, that would probably
require a completely different way of doing it, which would probably
entail the Wikinews community and the Foundation to engage in the
proper recognition process. And where? In the US? Worldwide? There are
millions of questions tied to such a process.
> I can provide more help on this if you are interested.
>
> The French law related to this is pretty much a good example of what is
> needed :
>
> http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/texteconsolide/PCEAA.htm
> http://mapage.noos.fr/odalage/monde/statut.html
>
> for policy-related and historical explanations of the status of
> journalists.
Just to point out, the French law for example explicitely mentions
that to hold "carte de presse", you must derive at least 50% of your
income from writing for the press. Which would make it very hard for
fr wikinewsies to ever have one, I suppose... Hopefully other
legislations are not as compelling.
Delphine
--
~notafish
They're calling themselves Wikinews journalists, which is what they
are. It's no different from anyone who has edited Wikipedia calling
themselves a Wikipedian or a Wikipedia editor, which many people do.
Surely it would be only be a violation of the trademarks if it were
being done by people who were not writing at Wikinews?
The community are the ones who approve people - who else would do it?
It certainly wouldn't be feasible for the Board to credential people,
with whom they are not familiar, and especially who are editing in
languages other than English or French. It's up to the organisations
choosing whether or not to accept these "press credentials" to find
out what they mean - and they will see that, like Wikipedia, this is
something that comes from within the community, not something handed
down from some higher authority.
I see this as a means of formally recognising trust within the
community, not so different from administrator access. Should the
Board also be approving who is allowed to give themselves the official
title of "Wikipedia Administrator" or "Wikimedia Steward"? Obviously
not, so why would Wikinewsies need any approval beyond that from their
own community?
I think the Wikinews mailing list would be a more appropriate place to
continue this so as to get input from the people who have created the
accreditation systems.
Angela
On 11/6/05, Daniel Mayer <maveric149(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> Who gave the Wikinews community persmission to give out press credentials to
> its users? This is a major abuse of the Wikinews trademark and could put the
> foundation in legal jeopardy or at least subject it to bad press if one of the
> credentialed users abuse the Wikinews name to gain access they should not be
> granted.
>
> http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Credential_verification
>
> Nobody on that list has the right to use the Wikinews or Wikimedia trademarks
> in a way that would suggest any official status to the passes. Thus those names
> and logos can not be used on the passes without either Foundation or a local
> chapter approval and oversight.
>
> Either the foundation should officially get involved with handing out
> credentials, or the nonsense going on at Wikinews should stop.