In the old days, Jimbo described "Verifiability" as the criteria for
inclusion in Wikipedia, and this was endorsed by the description of
"Notability".
Not any more. "Notability" has been redefined as equating
to: worthiness, "attracting attention", supported by secondary
sources, popularity, consensus, or perceived truth.
And articles that are not considered "note-worthy", or balderdash,
are now deleted, rather than described as such.
Is this what Jimbo wants?
Regards,
Ian Tresman
A link to this project was posted on the Semantic MediaWiki developers
mailing list.
In the project's own words: "The dbpedia.org project approaches both
problems by extracting structured information from Wikipedia and by
making this information available on the Semantic Web. dbpedia.org
allows you to ask sophisticated queries against Wikipedia and to link
other datasets on the Web to dbpedia data. "
The website has a demonstration of the kind of semantic information
that can be extracted from the main infobox on English Wikipedia's
Innsbruck article.
"The dbpedia dataset currently consists of around 25 million RDF
triples, which have been extracted from the English, German, French,
Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Swedish, Dutch and Japanese
version of Wikipedia."
An example of reuse of Wikipedia data in a very useful way.
--
Oldak Quill (oldakquill(a)gmail.com)
At 16:17 11/03/2007, you wrote:
>Hoi,
>I am sure that Jimbo does not want to be considered as the yardstick whereby
>everything is measured. Worthiness is this new word created by the American
>television guy and it means whatever you make it.
>
>There are many facts that are verifiable. that do not attract attention,
>with secondary sources providing a consensus that it is likely to be true
>that are absolutely not enough to merit a mention in Wikipedia (I drank
>coffee yesterday .. today's cup of coffee I drank alone so that one does not
>count). If you call this balderdash than you will agree with me that it is
>fine not to annotate every cup of coffee that has been drunk in pleasant
>company.
>
>If you do not agree, you may request a new project called Wikicoffee.
I'm sure that Jimbo had some basic criteria for Wikipedia, and while
I'm sure he doesn't care whether we use yardsticks are meter sticks,
he might care that we are measured in some form.
I agree that we shouldn't document every cup of coffee. But I would
like the opportunity, somewhere, to read a summary of someone's ideas.
Regards,
Ian Tresman
We have just launched http://planet.wikimedia.org/ , which is an
aggregator for all on-topic wiki-related weblog (blog) posts by
participants in Wikimedia projects. The planet can be found at:
http://planet.wikimedia.org/
To get added, please follow the instructions at:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Planet_Wikimedia
This is a kind of beta test, and right now, the planet is in the
English language; however, I have prepared a process for requesting
new languages to be set up here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Planet_Wikimedia/New_language
So please add your support if you wish to aggregate blog posts in
another language.
Again, this is for on-topic posts, not for diary entries. All feeds
must either point to a blog which is almost exclusively about wikis,
or filtered (WordPress, Blogger and other common blog engines all
support filtered feeds by categorizing your posts, e.g., adding the
"wiki" category to all posts which you want to be included in the
planet). If this makes you feel uncomfortable, you can (in addition or
in substitution) add your blog to http://wikiblogplanet.com/ , which
does not filter posts for on-topicness. WikiBlogPlanet is run
independently by Nick Jenkins.
I hope that this new tool will allow us to share useful and
interesting information, as well as opinions, more effectively across
project boundaries.
--
Peace & Love,
Erik
DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of
the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.
"An old, rigid civilization is reluctantly dying. Something new, open,
free and exciting is waking up." -- Ming the Mechanic
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14405629
Wikipedia to seek proof of credentials
Following revelations that a high-ranking member of Wikipedia's
bureaucracy used his cloak of anonymity to lie about being a professor
of religion, the free Internet encyclopedia plans to ask contributors
who claim such credentials to identify themselves.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in interviews by phone and instant
message Wednesday from Japan that contributors still would be able to
remain anonymous. But he said they should only be allowed to cite some
professional expertise in a subject if those credentials have been
verified.
"We always prefer to give a positive incentive rather than absolute
prohibition, so that people can contribute without a lot of hassle,"
Wales wrote.
Wales suggested such a plan two years ago, but the idea suddenly
gained currency after the recent discovery that a prolific Wikipedia
contributor who wrote under the pen name "Essjay" and claimed to be a
professor of theology turned out to be a 24-year-old college dropout,
Ryan Jordan.
Jordan's fraud came to light last week when The New Yorker published
an editor's note stating that a 2006 Wikipedia profile in the magazine
had erroneously described Essjay's purported academic resume. The New
Yorker said a Wikipedia higher-up had vouched for Essjay to the author
of the piece, Stacy Schiff, but that neither knew Essjay's real
identity.
In addition to contributing thousands of articles to the sprawling Web
encyclopedia, Jordan had recently been promoted to arbitrator, a
position for trusted members of the community. Arbitrators can
overrule an edit made by another volunteer or block people who abuse
the site.
Jordan also was hired in January by Wikia Inc., a for-profit venture
run by Wales. He has since been dismissed.
Jordan has not returned an e-mail seeking comment from The Associated
Press. But in a note on his Wikipedia "user page" before it was
officially "retired," he apologized for any harm he caused Wikipedia.
"It was, quite honestly, my impression that it was well known that I
was not who I claimed to be, and that in the absence of any
confirmation, no respectible (sic) publication would print it," he
wrote.
Wikipedia is full of anonymous contributors like Essjay, whose user
page also once proclaimed: "My Wikipedia motto is `Lux et Veritas'
(Light and Truth) and I believe more individuals should contribute
with an intention to bring light to the community and truth to the
encyclopedia."
The anonymity of the site is a frequent cause of mischief - from
juvenile vandalism of entries to the infamous case involving
journalist John Seigenthaler Sr., who was incorrectly described as a
suspect in the Kennedy assassinations. And that has raised concerns
about the credibility of the site.
But anonymity is also considered one of the main forces behind
Wikipedia's astonishing growth, to nearly 1.7 million articles in
English and millions more in dozens of other languages. Wales has said
he is an "anti-credentialist" - because anonymity puts a reader's
attention on the substance of what people have written rather than who
they are.
Wales said Wednesday that belief is unchanged. But, he said, if people
want to claim expertise on Wikipedia, they ought to be prompted to
prove it. If they don't want to give their real names, they shouldn't
be allowed to tout credentials. Had that policy been in place, Wales
said, Jordan probably would not have gotten away with claiming a Ph.D.
in religion.
"It's always inappropriate to try to win an argument by flashing your
credentials," Wales said, "and even more so if those credentials are
inaccurate."
--
FN M: 0091 9822122436 P: +91-832-240-9490 (after 1300IST please)
http://fn.goa-india.orghttp://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com
What bloggers are saying about Goa: http://planet.goa-india.org/
Hi, I am Rocky7.
Admins of unblock-en-l have not delivered mails of unblock-en-l since May
4, 2007.
Admins of unblock-en-l have not allowed me to enter unblock-en-l Archives.
Q1. Why have admins of unblock-en-l blocked me with no explanation?
Q2. Why do you cling to closed unfair trial?
Q3. Why do you stick to Chinese or Korean facism trial?
Re: unblock-en-l identification?
(Reply to Prodego)
You(at least Luna and Prodego) have been stalking, indeed, and
I don't think you(all admins) would be subjected to
non-admins' stalking.
How can we(non-admins) do stalking?
We can't know even your IP addresses, unless you email
me(us) personally.
On Sun, 4 Mar 2007, Prodego <prodego(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>Errr, what? I don't think the idea of anonymity will go away soon,
>a large majority of admins, myself included, would be subjected
>to stalking, which has actually happened to quite a few people.
>
>Prodego
He's a lying scoundrel...?!
>On 3/4/07, Rocky7 <FreudianJungianP(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>Now admins' real identifications are needed to be revealed.
>>Stop such a nasty intrigue, or all admins would not be
>>trusted because of your timidness and wickedness.
>>
_________________________________________________________________
ウィルス対策ソフト ただ今、2,000円キャッシュバックキャンペーン中！
http://onecare.live.jp
As our crew ventures deeper into India with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and his ongoing to quest to spread information about free digital knowledge, they encounter an ancient (but rapidly modernizing) culture in a beautiful setting-- only to come face to face with one of the oldest forms of social collaborative networking: a coordinated monkey attack!
Check out the latest production podcast from Varanasi, India here: www.wikidocumentary.org
Thanks!
-WikiDoc
_____________________________
Change address / Leave mailing list: http://ymlp.com/u.php?Ferrisito+wikipedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Hosting by YourMailingListProvider
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=156753
Reaching the next billion
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales seems focused on taking his online 'free
to edit encyclopedia' to everyone, as the world talks about his plans
to take on Google
S SHYAMALA
Posted online: Monday, March 05, 2007 at 2301 hours IST
He rewrote the rules of encyclopedia business. And online search
engines seem to be the next on target. But Wikipedia founder Jimmy
Wales seems occupied with taking his 'free to edit' encyclopedia to
everyone in the world. He is headed to Japan after mingling with
Indian bloggers and wiki professionals at an unconference (where crowd
participates in the discussion instead of just the speaker talking,
just like his Wikipedia). "We have to think of how to take it to every
corner of the world," he says.
India and Indian languages, for instance, are already getting a bigger
foothold on wikipedia, which ranks among the ten most visited sites
globally. You could find detailed information in a small, relatively
unknown town of India, thanks to the software created by IT
professional, Ganesh Krishnamurthy for about 5,000 Indian towns and
cities. "This wikibot is one of the examples of users making efficient
use of the basic tool and platform to create their own wikis, says
Jimmy.
And expanding Wikipedia to the next billion people is on top of his
mind, even as he continues to refuse advertisements. "Every time we
turn down an advertisement offer, we remind ourselves that this money
could have gone into taking the access to developing countries. This
is one of the things I challenge people sitting in a wealthy country
with a broadband connection, he recently confirmed in a podcast from
Chennai.
"We have to be clear that we are turning ads down for a good reason.
And that's a stand for now. Project of a free wikipedia is a long-term
project and that 's a decision we take every year; every month," he
clarifies. Many in the industry believe that textlinks in Wikipedia
could fetch a fortune. His not-for-profit online encyclopedia gets
seven billion page views each month in more than five million multiple
language entries.
Here to attend India's first Wikicamp unconference, he also
kick-started an open book on the subject. "The most special feature is
that this book will be authored collaboratively by people worldwide.
These are people who have helped organise or attended unconferences
around the world. It will be written openly on a wiki," informs
Wikicamp organiser, Kiruba Shankar. Within days of the launch, 59
people from eight different cities have joined in.
Doesn't uncontrolled access to articles lead to vandalism and
self-promotion? Jimmy agrees but says such acts are duly corrected by
other users. Plagiarised copies can be easily found out because the
style of writing, which is unlike the encyclopedia style, betrays the
article, he adds.
Moreover, users take pride in publishing their own work rather than
copying material, Jimmy says.
Apart from the encyclopedia, Jimmy has also spearheaded a for-profit
organisation called Wikia, which is a repository of journals,
magazines, opinions and a library. The team is also working on
creating an open-source search engine to be called Wikiasearch, Jimmy
says.
Though there are a few proprietary players in the search space, they
lack innovations in the search methodologies, he says.
With open source, users will be able to create their own search
engines from the basic tool, he adds. Wikipedia communities can also
be involved to flag the best articles that will be given top priority
while returning search results, he says.
--
FN M: 0091 9822122436 P: +91-832-240-9490 (after 1300IST please)
http://fn.goa-india.orghttp://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com
What bloggers are saying about Goa: http://planet.goa-india.org/
A very nice recent example of what our top notch artists can do with Inkscape:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Eye-diagram.svg
How do we reach out to more people with skills like this?
--
Peace & Love,
Erik
DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of
the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.
"An old, rigid civilization is reluctantly dying. Something new, open,
free and exciting is waking up." -- Ming the Mechanic
2007/2/2, Berto 'd Sera <albertoserra(a)ukr.net>:
> BTW, how many editions did even bother translating those damn pillars??
> How
> many non-english wikipedians EVEN JUST KNOW that they exist?
Should all Wikipedias translate the pillars? Why? Would it necessarily work,
if they did?
Most of the projects probably have lots to learn from enwiki, since it is
the oldest project and with all its flaws still somehow works despite its
size. Most projects have at one stage or another imported policy pages and
similar from enwiki, or from another wiki that took it from enwiki. Today
however, whatever rules that should be imposed on all projects should come
from the WMF, not English Wikipedia.
The five pillars [1] is, to my knowledge, a compilation of basic policy
created on English Wikipedia. There are other enwiki policy compilations as
well, but it seems the pillars is the one most commonly referred to. I once
a board member ,what policy a Wikipedia has to follow, and got the answer
that probably these are only three: that the content should be free (GFDL),
encyclopaedic and neutral. You can compare the pillars with for instance the
foundation issues page at meta [2] which, interestingly, mentions the "wiki
process" - a badly defined concept that may or may not be identical to the
basic consensus based process of a wiki [3] and that is not mentioned in the
Pillars.
The project that I have been most active at has a compilation of "basic
principles" [4] very similar to the pillars with one exception. This wiki
never imported or reinvented "Ignore all rules", which is the fifth of the
enwiki pillars. I don't think there is anything that tries to make them, or
tells them they should, import that concept from English Wikipedia. I
personally believe they might gain from doing so, but that is another issue
- and a process of much larger scope, and much more painful, than simply
translating a page. Personally I believe the concensus process a.k.a. wiki
process is equally important as Ignore all rules, and deserves a central
place in whatever policy compilation you have. Others might disagree, of
course.
/habj
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars
[2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Foundation_issues
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Consensus
[4] http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Grundprinciperna
