[Announce-l] Wikizine - number: 69

Tue May 1 22:42:14 UTC 2007

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                                     .org

Year: 2007  Week: 18  Number: 69

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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community

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=== Technical news ===

[Login] - Passwords that are the same as the user name can no longer  
be used. Affected accounts can reset their password by e-mail to  
something more secure. If you do not have an email address provided in  
your account you have no access any more. The only hope to keep your  
account is to go to #wikimedia-tech and convince a developer that you  
are who you say you are. In general providing an email address for  
your account, and the same for all accounts, is a good idea.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/29945
http://www.spammotel.com -- if you do not trust Wikimedia with your  
email address
http://www.spamgourmet.com

[Special] - New special page [[Special:Fewestrevisions]] . It lists  
.... yes ....pages that have very few revisions, other versions.  
Because it also includes redirects its usefulness is limited. The  
results are cached.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Fewestrevisions

=== Request for help ===

[Wikimania2007] - Call for Participation deadline extended until May 15.
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_Participation

[ENDS] - WMF Chair Anthere is asking for comments about a draft  
governance model for Wikimedia Foundation Board Policy.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/16587
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy_governance_manual

=== Policy ===

[Who Are You?] - The WMF approved a resolution making it required that
people who have access to confidential information identify themselves
to the Wikimedia Foundation. This seems only to apply to access to
information that falls under the Wikimedia Privacy policy. This does not
seem to include the private mailing lists and wikis.

People who do need to identify themselves and prove that they are at
least 18 years old (or older if the legal age is higher in your country) are:
# All stewards
# All holders of the "checkuser" and "oversight" rights
# All OTRS volunteers
# And all developers with access to any electronic records which
contains non-public information

Sysop and bureaucrats are excluded from this. All users who fall under
this category need to comply with this resolution or their user rights
can be revoked. In the resolution 60 days are given to comply but it is not
clear from what date you need to count.

Board member Kat Walsh writes in a posting to Foundation-l:
"Those affected by this resolution should contact Cary Bass, WMF  
volunteer coordinator, at <cbass AT wikimedia DOT org>.  We will also  
attempt to contact everyone individually who will need to do this;  
however, please spread this message to those in your communities."
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Access_to_nonpublic_data
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_policy
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/16598

[Closed] - A proposal has been made for a procedure to close wikis.  
This is for wikis who are de facto dead.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Closure_of_WMF_projects
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/30011

=== Foundation ===

[Mission] - The WMF approved a new "Mission and Vision statement". The  
Vision statement is "Imagine a world in which every single human being  
can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment."  
The mission statement is a bit too long to include it. See on Meta and  
Wiktionary to translate it.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Mission_and_Vision_statement
http://en.wiktionary.org/

[Scholarship] - To come to Wikimania 2007 are still available for  
people coming from Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States  
(parts of the ex-USSR)
http://wm07schols.wikimedia.org/apply.php

[Sponsor] - The WMF is looking for sponsors for Wikimania 2007. This  
is for large sponsors who can donate tens of thousands of dollars.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/0/0b/Wikimania_sponsorship.pdf

[wiki] - The WMF advisory board has now its own wiki. It is a public wiki.
http://advisory.wikimedia.org  -- nothing to see there
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Advisory_Board

=== Community ===

[Wild Sysop] - On EN Wikipedia an sysop has deleted several pages  
including the Main Page and blocked some users and unblocked himself  
after being blocked because of local policy violations. After being  
de-sysopped the user was blocked again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2007-04-23/Robdurbar

=== Media ===

[Virginia Tech] - The article of the EN Wikipedia about the shooting  
at the university in Virginia, USA was for a few days the most popular  
page of the EN Wikipedia and is praised by traditional media as a very  
good source for information about this event.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2007-04-23/Virginia_Tech
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/23/america/wiki.php -- The Latest  
on Virginia Tech, From Wikipedia

[Citizendium] -  One Month Later
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/citizendium_one.php

=== Stats ===

[fur.wp] - Friulian Wikipedia reaches 2000 articles with  
[[w:fur:Laurenzi]] (the chimical element). Friulian is a language  
spoken mainly in northern Italy.
http://fur.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurenzi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friulian_language

[SuperStats] - Dynamic and recent statistics of all Wikipedias. A must  
see for stats lovers.
http://s23.org/wikistats/wikipedias_html.php

[Study] - More than a third of American adult internet users (36%) consult
Wikipedia, according to a new nationwide survey by the Pew Internet &  
American Life Project. And on a
typical day in the winter of 2007, 8% of online Americans consulted Wikipedia.
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Wikipedia07.pdf --  Sorry about the pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2007-04-30/Statistical_profiles

=== Other news ===

[Correction] -  In Wikizine 67 it was reported that 0.5 CD of the  
English-language Wikipedia is produced by the Wikimedia Foundation and  
LinterWeb. This is not correct. The CD was not produced by the  
Wikimedia Foundation, it has been produced by Linterweb.
http://www.wikipediaondvd.com/

=== Weird shit ===

According to various observers there are many parallels between  
communist ideology and practices, and the economic and political  
system in The Smurfs ....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smurfs_and_communism

=== Quote ===

"The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In  
theory, it can never work." -- Unknown attribution

=== Editorial ===

In Wikizine 68, the English and German edition and in a posting to  
Foundation-l I have asked for assistance with Wikizine. The response  
was less than pathetic. It was non existent.

So it looks like I will remain the only one working on Wikizine. I  
have decided to give Wikimedia related things and Wikizine in  
particular a lower priority in my life. Wikizine will continue but in  
a even more erratic publication frequently then now. Also you can  
expect reduced editions who are more basic between normal editions.  
This depending of I feel like giving priority in going to the park or  
so or sitting in front of the computer.

Walter Vermeir, the editor

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