[Foundation-l] Year: 2009 Week: 34-35 Number: 116
Az1568
alex at wikizine.org
Sat Aug 29 08:09:44 UTC 2009
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.org
Year: 2009 Week: 34-35 Number: 116
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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
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=== Technical news ===
[Tech Update] - Brion posted an update on the status of a few
projects, before shipping off to Wikimania.
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/weekly-wiki-tech-update-pre-wikimania-edition/
[Commons: ImageAnnotator] - Wikimedia Commons added a new gadget: an
Image Annotator, where users can place comments *onto* images (like
flickr).
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Gadget-ImageAnnotator
[Bugs] - Trevor Parscal, of the Usability Project, gave an update on
the Usability Beta by saying that more than 40,000 users have now
participated in the process.
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/squashing-the-bugs/
[iPhone app released] - the Wikimedia Foundation released its own
official iPhone/iPod application for Wikipedia, in addition to the
regular mobile interface.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/wikipedia_lauches_official_iphone_app_-_but_its_no.php
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_iPhone_app
http://m.wikipedia.org/
[SmartWikiSearch] - Smart Wiki Search, a "concept similarity" search,
tries to make your Wikipedia search experience better by finding other
Wikipedia pages that discuss the same or similar concepts to the one
you searched for.
http://www.smartwikisearch.com/
=== Request for help ===
[Wikipedia Signpost RfC] - the Wikipedia Signpost, the English
Wikipedia's newspaper, is looking for comments about what is their
mission, purpose and where they should go from here. Feedback is
appreciated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Wikipedia_Signpost/About#Where_does_the_Signpost_go_from_here.3F
[Multimedia Usability Meeting] - we previously reported on the
upcoming Multimedia Usability Project by Wikimedia France, suggestions
and feedback are being requested on Meta-Wiki. There is also a
planning event to take place in October 2009.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_Usability_Project_Meeting_October_2009
[Report to the Board] - Sue Gardner, the Executive Director of the
Wikimedia Foundation, published her report to the board for May 2009.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-August/054008.html
[New "labs" sites] - two new "labs" sites have been created to test
out the flagged revisions and reader feedback extensions. In general,
"Wikimedia Labs" is the name given to sites created to test out new
extensions before they are used on Wikimedia wikis.
http://flaggedrevs.labs.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://readerfeedback.labs.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
[Hewlett Foundation grant] - the Wikimedia Foundation received a
US$500,000 grant towards operational support from Hewlett Foundation.
The grant's purpose is to allow the Foundation expand its work
bringing free educational content to everyone on the planet.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Hewlett_Foundation_grant_August_2009
[Omidyar Network Grant] - the Omidyar Network gave a grant of up to $2
million over two years to the Wikimedia Foundation. The grant will
support Wikimedia's key goals: to bring free educational content to
every person on the planet, to engage and empower more people to
author that content and to continually increase the quality and
breadth of the information provided through Wikimedia?s projects.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Omidyar_Network_Grant_August_2009
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Omidyar_Network_Grant_August_2009QA
[New board members/officers] - at Wikimania, the Board of Trustees
officially accepted the results of the election, welcoming Samuel
Klein (Sj) and thanking Domas for his service. Kat Walsh has also
taken the position of executive secretary. In addition to these
community-selected board members, an "expertise" seat was filled with
Matt Halprin.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-August/054318.html
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/user:Mhalprin -- biography of Matt
[Wikimania 2009] - Wikimania 2009, the international Wikimedia
conference, ended this week in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Even if you
were not there, you can enjoy it too with twitter, flickr photos, and
presentation videos.
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23wikimania+OR+%23wikimania2009 --
twitter for #wikimania2009 or #wikimania
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/wikimania2009/ -- flickr
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimania_2009_presentations --
videos of the presentation
[WikiExpedition 2009] - a summary (in English) of the recent Polish
Wikimedian's "WikiExpedition" was published.
http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiekspedycja/Summary
[mediawiki/ IRC cloaks now available] - the Group Contacts are now
offering "mediawiki/" IRC cloaks for developers.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-August/054120.html -
mailing list post
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Cloaks -- IRC cloak explanation
[GLAM-WIKI Recommendations] - now that the GLAM-WIKI conference is
over, Liam Wyatt (the conference coordinator) has compiled a list of
recommendations to "GLAM", to Wikimedia, and to the government. This
list is based on the discussions and findings at the conference.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM-WIKI_Recommendations
[Wikimedia UK blog/twitter] - Wikimedia UK, the British chapter, has
started a blog and twitter account.
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2009/08/welcome/
http://twitter.com/wikimediauk
[WMES: Planning Reboot] - Wikimedia España, the planned Spanish
chapter, has had a planning reboot. Join the mailing list if you're
interestd in creating a Spanish chapter.
http://lists.wikimedia.org.ar/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-es
[WMSE: Image donation] - Wikimedia Sweden has helped Regionarkivet
(the municipal archive of the Gothenburg area in Sweden) upload some
of its most prized images to the Wikimedia Comons.
http://se.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pressmeddelande_2009-08-19/en
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Regionarkivet
[Chapcom membership update] - the Chapters committee (those charged
with coordinating the chapters, especially with getting new chapters
started) welcomes two new members. Milos Rancic and Lodewijk Gelauff
replace the seats of Carlos Barcenilla and Michael Bimmler, who
recently resigned.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_committee
[Wikinews ArbCom] - Blood Red Sandman, Brian, Brian McNeil, Cirt,
Cspurrier, and Tempodivalse were elected to the Arbitration Committee
on the English Wikinews.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Arbitration_Committee/2009_elections
[Wikimedia Belgium Meeting] - Wikimedia Belgium, the proposed Belgian
chapter, had a coordination meeting on August 28. The English and
French minutes are available.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediabe-l/2009-August/000006.html
=== Awards ===
[UK Wikipedia Loves Art - prizes] - Wikimedia UK's Wikipedia Loves Art
project finally announced its winners.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediauk-l/2009-August/004565.html --
mailing list post
http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2009/08/wikipedia-loves-art-prizes/ --
WMUK blog post
=== Media ===
[Generate PDFs from Wikipedia] - Lifehacker.com covered the ability to
creates PDFs and Multi-Article Books using PediaPress, something that
happened a while ago.
http://lifehacker.com/5339852/generate-pdfs-and-multi+article-books-from-wikipedia
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/02/20/wiki-to-print-feature-activated-in-six-more-wikipedia-languages/ -- original WMF blog
post
[Tale of another Mangalore on Wikipedia] - some commentary on a local
Wikipedia Academy in Mangalore, India.
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article7437.ece
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article6940.ece
[Health Care and Wikipedia] - Columbia Journalism Review compliment's
the English Wikipedia's coverage of the American "health care debates".
http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/health_care_and_wikipedia.php
[Wikimania 2009] - a pre-Wikimania article about Wikimania 2009 and
the Wikimania idea.
http://www.en.argentina.ar/_en/science-and-education/C954-wikimania-2009-in-argentina.php
[Wikinews: The unsung news source] - Wikinews got a favorable blog
post that includes a Q&A and explanation of the project.
http://perspective.cfezra.com/?p=105
[AP tries to rival WP?] - apparently the Associated Press is going to
try to rival Wikipedia in the search results. The AP will hold back
some content from member websites and hope that Google will rate it
higher due to the increased number of links to that page.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/08/how-the-associated-press-will-try-to-rival-wikipedia-in-search-results/
[Wikiversity media coverage] - Wikiversity is in the news again, with
a whole article devoted to it. According to the article,
"Wikiversity" is to be a university for every Internet user. Some
professors are smitten with it - others are skeptical.
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/magazin/wissen/Wikiversity;art304,2876731 (de)
[Inkblot Poster] - remember the controversy on the English Wikipedia
because there were copies of the Rorschach inkblot tests in the
article? Well, according to the New York Times, te doctor who helped
publish the 10 inkblots is being investigated by his local doctors?
organization after it received complaints that his actions were
unprofessional.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/business/24inkblot.html
=== Stats ===
[enwp: 3m] - the English Wikipedia has reached 3,000,000 articles with
the creation of "Beate Eriksen", a Norwegian actress.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/17/3000000/
[cswikt] - the Czech Wiktionary has reached 10,000 entries.
http://cs.wiktionary.org/
=== Other news ===
[Growing Wikipedias] - Hausa Wikipedia, one of the African-language
Wikipedias, was previously in danger of being closed but now it's
growing very quickly. This comes at an interesting time, there have
been recent foundation-l discussions about the process for closing
projects.
http://hausaonline.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/hausa-wikipedia-is-growing/ --
Hausa Wikipedia
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/wiki/foundation/175836 --
mailing list thread
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_closing_projects --
current project closing process
[Wikipedia Diver] - a new Firefox add-on gives you a visual history of
everywhere you've been on Wikipedia, and organizes it down to the day,
order, and session in which you visited the sites, making it easy to
revisit old entries.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-10315483-248.html
[Enterprise Wikis] - a blog post gives 8 more reasons to use a wiki
for you internal corporate site.
http://www.ikiw.org/2009/08/21/8-things-you-can-do-with-an-enterprise-wiki/
[Citizendium founder ready to leave] - Larry Sanger, the founder of
Citizendium (another encyclopedia created to rival Wikipedia) and one
of the first contributors to Wikipedia, is ready to leave his project
and move on.
http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2009/08/citizendium-founder-ready-to-jump-ship/
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Editor(s): Casey, Alex
Corrector(s): MarkW
Thanks to: Too many to name.
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