Initially I had much the same misgivings about the NEH grant as others have
voiced on this mailing list.
On reflection though, I think I see a glimmering of a possible way to have our
grant and enchance our incentives for individual contributors too. This however
would require some (possibly controversial) decisive action from the board.
What I would envision is a deliberate self-limitation of amount of grant money
applied for from any single source. The *ideal* heuristic (albeit probably much
too complex for reality) IMHO would be for a change in the by-laws whereby the
Wikimedia Foundation will only solicit grants _from_ _any_ _single_ _source_ for
no more than one third of "lifetime" accrued individual donations to the
foundation, plus one fifth of the aggregate of other grants previously confirmed
during the preceding equivalent period.
This would guarantee that individual donations would remain in the driving seat,
and even provide a "multiplier effect" whereby somebody who gives 5 dollars by
paypal will know that not only is he contributing that fiver, but she is
permanently enhancing the foundations wherewithal to finance itself.
Metaphorically this would be like using grants as stilts rather than
prosthetics; remove them, and we can still walk.
Beyond this concept, I would add that one thing not yet commented upon is the
possibility of grants exposing us to Robert Mappelthorpe/NEA type of political
football. Even though becoming a topic on the McLaughlin group and equivalents
would guarantee publicity, it is prudent and strategically to our advantage to
be able to actually believably be able to offer to return any grant money if our
articles on Felching, Rimming etc. are taken up by Limbaugh and co.
So maybe one way forward would be to apply for a very modest grant from the NEH
with a skeleton (minimum required) application form, establishing that we are
interested in the grant, and may apply for a larger one in the future, with more
comprehensive plans indicated. That way, if we do not get it, we will not have
fallen on our collective faces, but we do not give the impression that we
spurn the NEH either, nor lack future ambition.
----
jussi-ville heiskanen
David, it's great to hear you are happy to do this. As far as I know,
the only copyrights assigned to the Foundation so far are those of
Jimbo and certain edits by Bomis staff. The Foundation doesn't
currently have any policies on the handling of its copyrights. I don't
know how binding making an informal assignment on the mailing list
would be; perhaps a lawyer could advise whether you need to physically
sign something.
In terms of benefits, for the Foundation, owning the copyright would
be easier than having a licence, as it means it is free to do what it
likes with the logo, rather than having any restrictions that might
cause problems later on. I'm not sure what the benefits to you are
though, other than not having to worry about writing a licence, and
not having the Foundation bothering you in years to come about whether
they can use the logo for some purpose not originally mentioned in the
licence.
Angela
(just my thoughts, not on behalf of Wikimedia)
> --- David Friedland <david(a)nohat.net> wrote on wikipedia-l
> > Before I left on my unannounced wikivacation, Jimbo
> > e-mailed me about
> > the copyright logo. He seemed to be under the
> > impression that I had
> > assigned my rights to the logo to the Wikimedia
> > foundation, but I don't
> > believe that I had.
> >
> > I am happy to assign my copyrights over the logo to
> > the Wikimedia
> > Foundation. However, I am unsure how to do that in a
> > binding way.
> > Furthermore, I don't believe that the Foundation
> > actually owns any
> > copyrights yet and I have some questions about how
> > this will be handled.
> > Has anyone else assigned their copyrights to the
> > Foundation? Are there
> > policies about how the foundation is going to handle
> > the copyrights it
> > holds? What benefit would there be to my assigning
> > the copyright to the
> > foundation rather than just licensing it at no cost
> > for various purposes?
> >
> > As I said, I am happy to assign the copyrights to
> > the foundation, but I
> > want to be sure of what I am doing before I jump in
> > and do it, because
> > there are no "take-backs" in the world of copyright.
> >
> > - David Friedland
Not only does this page contain false accusations; not only does it represent an abuse of Tim Starling's administrative powers; but, it can be used to find out the passwords of various users. It should be deleted and Tim Starling and should be demoted.
Hello.
I write to you because I think it would be important to make another translation of Wikipedia. I would like to make a translation in Chadian. Of course, it's not a widespread language but we are many to speak it. This idea went to me when I was showing to my friend the encyclopedia. He said that it would be very useful to have a Chadian encyclopedia. Everybody was enthusiastic about this idea. That's why I am asking if we can translate the encyclopedia. Of course, the Chadian-speakers will be great to see an encyclopedia of their own language. It will help people to acquire knowledge about the language and to practice it. I write to you because I am following the steps written at this link (http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_start_a_new_wikipedia).
Chadian is very small language spoken everywhere in the world : North America and Europe mainly. It's a non-recognized language and it is using the Cyrillic alphabet which is rare. Chadian is as important as Esperanto, Volapük or any other languages on Earth. On that, I wish that you will give to us the opportunity to have our own encyclopedia... It will be a very big step for our language. Thank you, waiting your answer, Bobby.
Hello again :)
I read all your messages and the only ones who found the answer was Philip
and Ralesk. In English, the language has the same name of the Arabic
dialect spoken in Chad. In French, our language is called «chadien» and the
Arabic dialect «tchadien»... In English, it has a confusing
name. In "Chadian", the language name is written "Шадиєн". It's a created
language. It has appeared two years ago but since then, it's
more widespread everyday (I think, there's no statistics).
So, there's absolutely no link between the Arabic dialect and the Chadian
conlang. By the way, I know that there's a site (in construction)
who will be about Chadian. I don't know if there's people with Chadian for
mother tongue... Anyway, there's not a lot of translations in
this language. That's why I ask to all of you if it would be a nice idea to
have an encyclopedia in this language. There's a translation in
Latin but nobody has Latin for mother tongue :) It's nice anyway.
I don't know if it is more specific now ? I know, it wasn't very explicative
the first time ;) Bobby.
FYI, this book has been getting attention lately, so you may want to
take a look:
The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How
Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations
by James Surowiecki
To Wikipedians, this merely reinforces what we've all know and have
experienced firsthand. But it is interesting that the theme of the
"power of many" is being picked up by the mainstream and it may prove
a useful reference for folks who just "don't get wiki." It's a more
general book than Rheingold's "Smart Mobs," which could be dismissed
as too technocentric and focusing on mobile devices
Instead, Surowiecki's "Wise crowds" are described as having (1)
diversity of opinion; (2) independence of members from one another;
(3) decentralization; and (4) a good method for aggregating opinions.
(four points quoted from Amazon.com's review).
I'm sure Wikipedians will find these concepts quite familiar.
--
Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado)
andrew.lih(a)gmail.com
Id like to thank you, as members of the Wikimedia Board, as members of the mediation committee, and as concerned citizens -- for being so rude as to not even bother to respond to this issue. It is obvious that you feel I can be banned by anyone, for any reason; regardless of Jimbo Wales request that I be treated according to the rules of the website. Thank you for not caring, it means a lot to me.
----- Original Message -----
From: C A S [name omitted for privacy reasons]<mailto:a[name omitted for privacy reasons](a)msn.com>
To: Anthere<mailto:anthere9@yahoo.com>
Cc: wikipedia-l(a)wikipedia.org<mailto:wikipedia-l@wikipedia.org> ; wikipedia-en(a)wikipedia.org<mailto:wikipedia-en@wikipedia.org> ; Edmund.W.Poor(a)abc.com<mailto:Edmund.W.Poor@abc.com> ; chris_mahan(a)yahoo.com<mailto:chris_mahan@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2004 1:27 PM
Subject: Hephaestos must be desysoped
Since no effort was made to address my previous ban, in which Guanaco banned me because he felt that I was User:Yuna (despite having no evidence to support his claim) -- now, I have been banned again, for an even less reasonable reason. Such is the slippery slope, no? Hephaestos has now banned me. without giving any reason, except that I have "admitted to trolling" -- whatever that could mean. The ban is for 30 days.
| From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?M=E4lki=E4_Matti_PAKK?="
<Matti.Malkia(a)pakk.poliisi.fi>
| Date: 5 Jul 2004 16:55:00 +0300
| Subject: CFP: Encyclopedia of Digital Government
****************************************************************
Please feel free to distribute this call for articles to colleagues
you think could be interested in contributing to this project.
********************************************************
Call for Articles
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DIGITAL GOVERNMENT
http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/ISI/EnDigG/
********************************************************
Public administration, public governance and=20public sector
organizations all over the world face a major challenge.
The application of new knowledge and new digital
technologies are transforming the ways in which public
administrations are organized, governed and how they work
to serve their citizens and interact with various
stakeholders.
The Encyclopedia of Digital Government will be an important
new publication documenting the current trends and
developments, challenges, and future prospects of digital
government or e-government at different institutional
levels and in different parts of the world. It will
provide a broad basis for understanding the issues,
technologies, theories, applications, opportunities,
and challenges faced by public administrations and public
organizations today in their quest for better, more
effective, and more citizen-oriented government.
The Encyclopedia of Digital Government=20(in one or two
volumes) will feature short articles (1,500-3,500+ words)
authored by leading experts offering in-depth descriptions
of key issues, terms and concepts related to different areas
in digital government. In addition, the encyclopedia will
provide a compendium of terms, definitions and explanations
of concepts, models, and acronyms.
This important new publication will circulate worldwide
among academic and professional institutions and will be
instrumental in providing researchers, scholars, students
and professionals access to the latest knowledge on digital
government.
Invited Submissions:
To ensure that this publication has the most current
and relevant information possible, we are asking experts,
practitioners and scholars well known for their particular
area of research, to contribute short articles on
suggested topics (see the web site at
http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/ISI/EnDigG/) or other related
topics in their area of interest.
Individuals interested should submit an email to either
of the editors listing name, affiliation and background
information plus one or more topics on which a short article
could be contributed. A brief description of the suggested
article is appreciated. We encourage potential contributors
to consider also topics not included in our list of topics,
especially if the topic is related to the area of their
special expertise. If any of the proposals is closely
related to a previously published article, we ask
contributors to include the reference in the message.
Proposals will be accepted based on pertinence criteria
and topic balancing needs. First selections will be made
between 15th and 20th July 2004 and announced soon after.
After that new proposals will be processed once a=20month.
Upon acceptance of the proposal, contributors will have
two to three months to prepare their article including
7-10=20related terms and their appropriate definitions.
Guidelines for preparing your contributions, a suggested
list of topics and a sample article can be found at
http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/ISI/EnDigG/
All contributions will undergo a peer-review process
upon receipt. The book will be published by Idea Group Inc.
(http://www.idea-group.com/) and is tentatively scheduled
for publication in late 2005.
Inquiries and Submissions should be forwarded to:
Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko
Department of Local Government Studies,
FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Finland
Email: Ari-Veikko.Anttiroiko(a)uta.fi; Tel.: +358-3-215 7009
or
Matti M=E4lki=E4
The Police College of Finland, P.O. Box 13,
FIN-02151 Espoo, Finland
Email: Matti.Malkia(a)pakk.poliisi.fi; Fax: +358-9-8388 3500
Further details and updates to the CFP can be found at:
http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/ISI/EnDigG
**********************************************************
Since no effort was made to address my previous ban, in which Guanaco banned me because he felt that I was User:Yuna (despite having no evidence to support his claim) -- now, I have been banned again, for an even less reasonable reason. Such is the slippery slope, no? Hephaestos has now banned me. without giving any reason, except that I have "admitted to trolling" -- whatever that could mean. The ban is for 30 days.