[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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Corrector(s): MarkW
Thanks to: Too many to name.
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