[Foundation-l] Year: 2009 Week: 41-42 Number: 120

Sat Oct 24 01:25:52 UTC 2009

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                                     .org

Year: 2009    Week: 41-42    Number: 120

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

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=== Technical news ===

[Wikimedia data sets] - Wikimedia XML data sets have been released on  
Amazon Public Data Sets.  This should help Wikimedians who do analysis  
on project data.
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/wikimedia-xml-data-sets-released-on-amazon-public-data-sets/

[Media Features Gadget] - there is a "New Media Features" gadget on  
Commons.  When it is enabled, you can test out the new media  
developments from the Kaltura sponsorship.
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/new-media-features-gadget/
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/07/23/kaltura-sponsors-michael-dale-open-source-video-developer/

[Click Tracking Deployed] - click tracking has been deployed for the  
edit toolbar.  This collects information about which buttons are  
clicked on the toolbar during editing for the Usability Initiative.
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/click-tracking-on-edit-toolbar-deployed/

[Babaco: Now ready] - preview of the second set of usability features,  
Babaco, is now available through user preferences.  Be sure to try out  
the new tools.
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/babaco-is-ready-for-tasting/

[Book creator updated] - the new version of the Book creator interface  
has been deployed within the Wikimedia projects.  The extension is now  
a lot more intuitive and useful.
http://blog.pediapress.com/2009/10/create-books-easily-new-version-of-book.html

[WP Mobile Update] - Hampton Catlin, the Wikipedia Mobile developer,  
posted a blog entry detailing the updates done to the Mobile interface  
this month.
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/october-mobile-update/

[en.wp: FlaggedRevs update] - two people, William Pietri and Howie  
Fung, have been signed on as contractors to help with the deployment  
of Flagged Revisions on the English Wikipedia.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2009-October/104938.html

=== Request for help ===

[Perspectives from other projects] - the Wikipedia Signpost is calling  
for editors active in one or more non-English Wikipedias to write  
accounts comparing governance, process and policy, and editing culture  
across languages. The key questions are: how is it different working  
on another Wikipedia?; and what could English Wikipedia learn from  
that project?and vice versa?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-10-12/From_the_editor

=== Foundation ===

[Bookshelf Project: Manager Announced] - Frank Schulenburg (Head of  
Public Outreach) announced that Wikimedia's Bookshelf Project will be  
led by Marlita Kahn.  The Bookshelf project aims to develop a slate of  
basic educational materials -- print, online and video -- to attract  
new authors and editors to Wikipedia.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-October/055518.html

[Office hours] - the log of the Office Hours with Mike Godwin, the  
Foundation's General Counsel, has been published.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-October/055517.html
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours/Office_hours_2009-10-09

[Job openings] - two job openings are now open:  Chief Development  
Officer (a fundraising-related position) and Code Maintenance Engineer  
(a technical position).
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Chief_Development_Officer
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Code_Maintenance_Engineer

[Wikimedia Report Card] - Erik Zachte has published the first  
Wikimedia "report card" that aims to help everyone get a quick  
overview of trends in the Wikimedia projects.
http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/10/the-wikimedia-report-card/
http://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/RC_2009_08_detailed.html

[Multimedia Usability: Product Manager] - Guillaume Paumier  
("guillom") has been announced as the Project Manager for the Ford  
Multimedia Project.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-October/055659.html

[Report to the Board August 2009] - Sue Gardner, the Executive  
Director, has published her Report to the Board for October 2009.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2009-October/055639.html

[OpenMoko Launches WikiReader] - OpenMoko, a company that previously  
created an open source smartphone, has just launched The WikiReader, a  
dedicated reader device with an offline copy of the entire English  
Wikipedia (without images) stored on a small chip.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/10/13/openmoko-launches-wikireader/
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.openmoko.community/51135/focus=104640

=== Community ===

[Nobel Prize] - when announcing the recipients of its Nobel Prize, the  
Nobel Prize committee used free photos from Wikimedia Commons to  
depict two of the prize winners.
http://bit.ly/2BWN4Q

[German ArbCom dissolves] - the German Wikipedia has dissolved its  
Arbitration Committee.  On projects that have them, the Arbitration  
Committee (or "ArbCom") is the final step in on-site dispute resolution.
http://bit.ly/3hg64n

[Wikinews: new Main Page and skin] - in addition to selecting "Vector"  
(the Usability skin) as its default skin, Wikinews has also created a  
new Main Page design.  There are even "copy us" and "social  
networking" links on the page, like other news sources.
http://bawolff.blogspot.com/2009/10/wikinews-gets-new-main-page.html
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikizine/feedback#English_Wikinews_-_New_Main_Page
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19865

[Academy: Telugu wiki] - on October 6, the first Telugu Wikimedia  
Academy was held in Chirala, India.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaindia-l/2009-October/000209.html

[Wiktionary lookup gadget] - A new gadget is being developed on  
English Wikinews and slowly being spread to other wikis.  The gadget  
looks up the wiktionary definition for the language of the wiki you  
are reading, but what it returns is the definition in your  
user-preferences language.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/WN:WiktLookup

[Bing search] - Bing.com, the Microsoft search engine, is offering  
"Bing Reference", a way to search "enhanced Wikipedia articles".  The  
Wikipedia Signpost has a detailed story on this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-10-12/Bing_search

[WikiTrust demo now live] - demos of WikiTrust are now up on some  
Wikipedias.  WikiTrust is a Firefox add-on that changes the color of  
the text based on how reliable or unreliable it seems to be.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikiquality-l/2009-October/000560.html

=== Media ===

[Encyclopedias + China] - CNN published a very good article about the  
situation in China with regards to Wikipedia and other encyclopedia  
sites.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/14/wiki.china/

[Meet Jimmy Wales] - the newspaper of Yale, a prestigious university  
in the United States, recently interviewed Jimmy Wales (founder of  
Wikipedia).
http://www.yaledailynews.com/scene/interview/2009/10/09/meet-jimmy-wales-founder-wikipedia/

[Real fight becomes Wikipedia War] - a rivalry fight on a college  
campus turned into a big edit war on the English Wikipedia.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2009/10/10/war-over-bladderball-extends-wikipedia/

[Wikipedia + Olympics Committee?] - Wikipedia seems to be at the  
center of a recent copyright battle between a photographer and the  
International Olympics Committee.
http://ragesoss.com/blog/2009/10/09/wikipedia-and-olympics-committee-heading-for-collision/

=== Did you know... ===
...about the proposal for global sysops on Meta-wiki?
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_sysop

=== Quote ===

"I really have no idea what most of those languages are, but I?m also  
super happy to support them." - Hampton Catlin, Mobile Wikipedia  
developer, after reporting the localization status of the Mobile  
Wikipedia site.

//////////////////////////////////////////
Editor(s): Casey, Alex
Corrector(s):
Thanks to: Frank, Cary, Daniel, Philippe, Rodrigo, Liam, Infodisiac,  
Signpost, Tomasz, Sage, Michael Dale, Nimish, Bawolff, ShakataGaNai,  
ErikZ, Naoko, Arjun, Brianmc, Sage, Phoebe, Hampton, Sue, Jay, Luca,  
Erik, Greg
Contact: reply or http://report.wikizine.org
Website: http://www.wikizine.org
//////////////////////////////////////////

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