[Wikimedia-l] Year: 2012 Week: 53 Number: 133
EN Wikizine
info-en at wikizine.org
Sat Dec 29 20:16:47 UTC 2012
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.org
Year: 2012 Week: 53 Number: 133
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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
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=== Technical news ===
[Wikidata] - the new sister-project Wikidata is growing fast. By year's
end the will get up to 2 million records. In the works is now the
interwiki language information, later on infoboxes and lists will follow.
At present the data of Wikidata is not yet used on any of the projects.
The plans are to switch over the Hungarian language Wikipedia over to
Wikidata for the use of there interwiki language links on January 14th
2013.
What will that actually mean in practice? - When this function is enabled
on a wiki the interwiki language links will be augmented with sitelinks
injected in the Wikipedia article. It is unclear what happen in the
future for sitelinks in non-wikipedia articles. At least if there are
sitelinks available at Wikidata about that topic. The current local
language links must be removed otherwise they will override the Wikidata
sitelinks. You will be able to edit these sitelinks on the local wiki with
JavaScript. Changes made on the Wikidata sitelinks that effect a local
Wikipedia will propagate to them, and also show up in the recent changes
of that wiki. If for some reason a local wiki does not want that the
injected interwiki language links show up on a specific page the parser
function {{noexternallanglinks}} can be used. When this function is active
the net result is that the interwiki links will show up as usual if set,
but the maintenance of sitelinks in the Wikipedia-projects will go away.
http://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Introduction -- overview of Wikidata
[Visual Editor (Alpha!)] – The wikisoftware that the projects are using –
MediaWiki – has come far from the basic wiki it started with. But when you
click on the "edit" button is still looks very the same, at least on not
to complicated pages. Since very long there is talk about getting on the
Wiki a so called WYSIWYG editor, like MS Word. Maybe not a function for
everybody but it could get the less technical minded people on the wiki.
At he English language Wikipedia – and only there – an early version of a
Visual Editor that does that can be switched on in the users preferences.
If you go to your "Preferences" screen and click into the “Editing"
section, it will have an option labeled "Enable Visual Editor". Please be
careful, it is still buggy and you are not allowed to use it on the
sandbox page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor
[Mobile WP] – the version of the website for use on phones is getting more
functionality. As a logged in user you can edit pages if you enable the
"beta" options. And if you enable the "Here be dragons mode" you can
upload an image if you use a "webkit browser" like Google Chrome.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit
[Translate] – Translation of MediaWiki and documentation, policies,
newsletters and any sort of page on our multilingual wikis is powered and
made easy for thousands of translators by the Translate extension, born on
translatewiki.net. A translation memory feature was recently enabled on
all Wikimedia wikis after a long work. The translation interface is now
being rebuilt to meet translators' needs: test it and give feedback!
http://laxstrom.name/blag/2012/09/07/translation-memory-all-wikimedia-wikis/
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Translation_UX
http://translatewiki.net
=== Offer ===
[Wikizine.org] – this domain name is available to be used for a new
project. If you have an idea for what this domain name can be useful for
contact [[user:Walter]]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Walter
=== Proposals ===
[Wikimania 2013] – The – already – 9th Wikimania will be in Hong Kong next
year. It will be from 7 to 11 August 2013. The call for participation is
open now! So, if you an idea for doing some sort of presentation at
Wikimania then it is now the time to enter you proposal.
http://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions
=== Policy ===
[Uploads] It is proposed to start a new RfC to approve a new Local uploads
policy. Local uploads need a big policy and template infrastructure; most
wikis don't and can't have it, and at least a hundred wikis are currently
breaking the WMF licensing policy. Additionally, only Commons has the
UploadWizard. It's proposed to make uploads more effective and legal by
switching them to Commons-only by default, so that only the wikis which
have an EDP will keep or get local uploads.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Local_uploads_policy
=== Foundation ===
[WikiVoyage] – "the free, worldwide travel guide that anyone can edit."
will be joining the Wikimedia Foundation family officially on Wikipedia
Day, January 15th 2013. The have there origin at Wikitravel.org, also a
project with the same mission. The German language Wikitravel split off in
2006 and became Wikivoyage. The Wikimedia Foundation Wikivoyage will be
the "fork" Wikivoyage in German and Italian and the content and most of
the userbase of Wikitravel's remaining language editions. This results in
the following languages that are supported in the new WMF-project;
English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Russian and Swedish. The
interwiki link to link to Wikivoyage is "voy:". Example; the link for the
page about "Bolivia" on the Dutch language Wikivoyage is
[[voy:nl:Bolivia]]
http://www.wikivoyage.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikivoyage
[WMF annual audit 2011-2012] – The annual audit of the Wikimedia
Foundation, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012 and the corresponding
FAQ have been posted on the financial reports page of the Wikimedia
Foundation web site. The report shows that from a financial POV it goes
very well with the WMF. Cash increased from $12 million to $21.8 million.
Investment in technology has gone up by $2.6 million and net assets
increased by $10.7 million. Expenses for the fiscal year increased from
$17.9 million to $29.3 million. The total assets of the WMF are now over
$ 37 million.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reports
[Chapters comm. vacancy] – The "Affiliations Committee" – formerly known
as Chapters Committee – is searching for 6 new members. Deadline for
candidacies is January 12th. Inform yourself very well in advance; there
is actual work involved with it.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Call_for_Candidates_2013
[Fundraiser] – The last fundraiser – already the 9th – was once again a
great success. The Wikimedia Foundation received 25 million US-dollar in
donations from 1,2 million individuals. 25 million dollar is exactly the
goal the WMF did set at the start of the campaign. This campaign did only
run on the flagship wiki, the English language Wikipedia. The other
languages and projects will get a fund drive presented on there wiki in
April 2013.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/27/wikimedia-foundation-raises-25-million-in-record-time-during-2012-fundraiser/
[WMF annual plan 2012-2013] – is published. It is fairly extensive and
summarizing it in 3 sentences does not does it justice. Anyhow; focus will
be in getting more people to edit and to keep the current editors. This by
making it more easy for potential editors to do it, like the VisalEditor.
The WMF also will continue to push to get access to Wikpedia by means of
mobile data networks in developing country's free of charge. That is the
"Wikipedia Zero" program.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Financial_reports
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero
=== Community ===
[Commons contest] – Commons will start again with there yearly "Picture
of the Year" contest, the 7th edition. Round one will start the day
after Wikipedia Day.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2012/Introduction
[Wikipedia almost 12-years old] – Currently we are in the middle of the
Christmas & new-year holidays. But once again the most important holiday
of the calender is coming up; Wikipedia Day. On January 15th 2012
Wikipedia turned eleven years old. So it comes at no surprise that
Wikipedia will now turn twelve. And do not forget, at January 25th there
is also of course "Magnus Manske Day". Wikipedia day is the day the first
Wikipedia – the English one – started. Magnus Manske Day celebrates the
launch of the Phase II wikisoftware; a Wikipedia specific wiki, a very
early version of MediaWiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Magnus_Manske_Day
[Project proposal] – Wikifocus; "to describe everything related to Wiki
technology (wikis and their members, wiki softwares and their
capabilities)." The proposal to add this project to the WMF family is open
for discussion at Meta. Interesting about this is that there is already a
small active Russian group of 20 users running a Russian independent
Wikifocus wiki. Communication between these Russian speakers and English
language users at Meta seems to be problematic.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiFocus -- join in and maybe help out
with the Babel problems
http://wikifocus.org/ -- active wiki in Russian
[Wikizine] – At the end of 2005 a news newsletter was started. The
intention with it was to inform the community of all the projects across
all languages about what was going on. To break the language barriers. For
this a network of volunteers across the projects and languages was
envisioned to make of Wikizine an information exchange hub. The years up
to 2008 where the most successful years of Wikizine. There was a weekly
publication rate and frequently extra editions. Wikizine existed also in
German, Spanish and Indonesian.
But it could not truly deliver the universal projects news as was
intended. Wikizine was not able to attract and maintain the necessary
people to make that happen. Due to the staff shortage quality could not be
guaranteed. And from 2009 on also not the publication rate. It became more
monthly then weekly. The other language editions where closed. The
publication of Wikizine became an exception. Since 2010 Wikizine is
virtually a dead newsletter. In August-September 2011 it suddenly came
back to life under the direction of a new editor-in-chief with many
different Wikizine versions. The new editor disappeared and so also the
revival.
And Wikizine continued in zombie mode until now. Wikizine 133, this
edition, will be the final Wikizine. Thank you. [[User:Walter|Walter]]
http://wikizine.blogspot.com -- Notice; new location for the blog, the
domain name "wikizine.org" will not longer be supported
[Wiktionary] – is one of these projects of our WMF family that gets less
space in the sun then others, the dictionary project. But it is more then
a dictionary. It is a community building the absolute, the final
dictionary. Offering translations from all languages to all languages is
only a small part of its mission. There are around 150 active Wiktionary
languages editions but the contain words in many more languages.
Wiktionary has at least some words in 1029 different languages out of the
over 6900 that exist.
And Wiktionary has just celebrated its 10th anniversary as a project on
December 12th. The full report and scope of the celebrations can be found
at the link below. Media coverage of these celebrations could not be
found unfortunately.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Wiktionary_Day
[Wiktionary logos] – 56 Wiktionaries who never had one got a localised
logo enabled, thanks to the work by Casey Brown, Odder and many
translators. More work is coming for dozens of Wikipedias and other
projects without a localised logo; everyone can help.
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/translators-l/2012-December/002193.html
=== Media ===
[Jimmy Wales & Kazahkstan] – In August the WMF awarded by means of Jimmy
Wales the first ever "Global Wikipedian of the Year" award to Rauan
Kenzhekhanuly, a Wikipedian from Kazakhstan who founded a non-profit
organization WikiBilim. With help of this organization the Kazakh
Wikipedia grew from 7000 articles to 70,000 in 3 months time. (currently
the are over 200,000 articles). Concerns are now raised that this
Wikipedia of year is actually a government puppet of the dictatorial
government of Kazakhstan. This because of the previous functions in the
government service, especially in the propaganda department. And because
the WikiBilim organization is funded with the money of state oil.
Jimmy Wales responded with; "The Wikimedia Foundation has zero
collaboration with the government of Kazakhstan. Wikibilim is a totally
independent organization. And it is absolutely wrong to say that I am
"helping the Kazakh regime whitewash its image." I am a firm and strong
critic. At the same time, I'm excited by the work of volunteers, and I
believe—very strongly—that an open and independent Wikipedia will be the
death knell for tyranny in places like Kazakhstan."
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/07/05/class-assignment-inspired-wikipedian-of-the-year-to-grow-kazakh-wikipedia/
-- “Wikipedian of the Year”
http://www.dailydot.com/politics/wikipedia-kazakhstan-dictatorship/ --
WikiBilm, the WP of the year and the Kazakh dictatorship
http://tinyurl.com/cm5pdwm --- talk page of Jimmy Wales about this , it
contains an extensive responds of Jimmy about this
[Why did you donate] – the question is raised "Are People Who Donate to
Wikipedia Just Better People in General?"
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/wikipedia-donors-better-people.html
[Wikitube] – no, there is not (yet) a project Wikitube. But the WMF does
have an account at Youtube. You can find some video's about how to edit.
And also videos of users who explain what Wikipedia mean form them in
there live. Those are interesting to watch because it gives a face behind
the recent changes.
http://www.youtube.com/user/WikimediaFoundation
=== Stats ===
* Wikimedia Commons has reached 15,000,000 files, 73 days after reaching
14,000,000.
* The Low German/Low Saxon Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles.
* The Turkish Wikipedia has reached 200,000 articles
* The Tamil Wikipedia has reached 50,000 articles.
* The Romanian Wikibooks has reached 500 book modules.
[Wikiquote books and booklovers] - The Italian Wikiquote continues its
expansion on the main booklovers social network of Italy: its group on
aNobii has 1300+ members (one of the biggest groups). ISBNs of quoted
books were extracted from it, en, fr.quote and experimentally added. The
Italian has about 4500 ISBNs and 10 thousands books identified in total,
English and French about 2500 ISBNs. Italian seems to quote all the books
that English does, plus many more; a third of fr.quote's books are quoted
also on en and it.
http://www.anobii.com/groups/0105f4f6d9a205e8a9/ -- IT Wikiquote at a
social network for booklovers
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikiquote-l/2012-December/000146.html
=== Other news ===
[New Gopher server] – At this new Gopher-hole you can find a list of
Wikipedia articles created last month/week/day with most users
contributing to article within the same period. Updated hourly.
gopher://gopher.conus.info/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/overbiteff/ -- add support
for Gopher to FireFox
[WMF shop] – since a while there is WMF webshop. You can buy a T-shirt and
other clothing, stickers and pins and quality bags. Shipment is from the
US but the are offering a flat fee of $10 for the shipping costs to all
destinations. Nevertheless if you only wanted to buy a key-chain it gets
very expensive. When a local wikimeet is coming up you could do a group
order and divide the costs that way.
http://shop.wikimedia.org/
=== Did you know ... ===
... that the edits of experts make an article harder to read?
"The reason is clear, they say: articles on difficult topics are written
by experts who sacrifice readability for accuracy – and that is compounded
as other experts weigh in with further accuracy-obsessed edits that remove
“simplifications, generalisations or intuitive explanations” that might
have served to aid readability."
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/12/study-the-expert-editors-of-wikipedia-make-it-harder-to-read/
=== Quote ===
"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish"
-- Last message of the dolphins to the people of Earth before leaving it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_and_Thanks_for_All_the_Fish
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Editor(s): Walter, Nemo
Corrector(s):
Thanks to: Amgine, Jeblad, hoo
Sources-Attributions:Jeblad,Lydia Pintscher
Support:
Website: http://wikizine.blogspot.com
Gopher: is down and probably will not come back
Contact: [[meta:user:Walter]]
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//// Happy new-year, good fortune and health in MMXIII ///
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