Agree that citations are needed. Cheers, Peter
-----Original Message----- From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Risker Sent: Thursday, March 2, 2017 7:51 AM To: Wikimedia Mailing List Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] More politics: "WMF Annual Report"
Okay, so I'll say what Sam said, except in stronger language, and with some additional emphasis.
This is a very obviously liberally biased document -- and I say that as someone who lives in a country so liberal that it makes Californians look like they're still back in the early 1960s. Maybe it takes an outsider to see this.
If you're going to try to play the "facts" game, you have to have your facts bang on - and you have to admit that there is more than one side to the story. This "report" reads as though the authors chose their favourite advocacy positions and then twisted and turned and did some more contortions to make it look as though it had something to do with the Wikimedia family of projects. (Seriously. Refugees and global warming don't have anything to do with the WMF.) It is so biased that most of those "fact" pages would have to be massively rewritten in order to meet the neutrality expectations of just about every Wikipedia regardless of the language.
And that is my biggest concern. It is not neutral by any stretch of the imagination. And if the WMF can't write neutrally about these topics in its annual report, there is no reason for the average reader to think that Wikipedia and other projects will be written neutrally, fairly, based on references, and including the significant other opinions. This document is a weapon that can be used against Wikimedia projects by any tinpot dictator or other suppressive government because it "proves" that WMF projects are biased. It gives ammunition to the very movements that create "alternative facts" - it sure doesn't help when the WMF is coming up with a few of its own.
That does a huge disservice to the hundreds of thousands of editors who have worked for years to create accurate, neutral, well-referenced educational material and information. It doesn't do any good to those editors contributing from countries where participation in an international web-based information project is already viewed with a jaundiced eye. And for those editors who don't adhere to the political advocacy positions being put forward in this "annual report", or simply believe that the WMF should not be producing political advocacy documents, it may well cause them to reflect whether or not they want to keep contributing.
I really hope that Craig is wrong, that this can be pulled back and edited properly, preferably by a bunch of actual Wikipedia editors who know how to write neutrally on controversial topics. I've volunteered in the Wikimedia movement for more than a decade at least in part because it was not a political advocacy organization, so I find this annual report to be very disturbing.
Risker/Anne
On 1 March 2017 at 23:23, Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
Dear reporters,
I really like the streamlined layout, the background video and the non-linear presentation online. Lovely work; you are wonderful.
If the photo remains, I recommend changing this caption to use either "travel ban" or "entry ban"; both phrases are used in the Wikipedia article.
Yes.
The one starkly political message in the Report is the choice of a protest photo from the US for the story about travel. On the nose, but reasonably on topic (with a corrected caption).
In general, I like the spirit and content of this report. A lead-in to the facts putting them in context would be nice; the implied context is "Facts Matter!" However I feel this claim and the report could be even more powerful if it were presented with another half-step of remove. The most unparalleled success of Wikipedia is not that it summarizes topics like "scientific consensus on global warming" — that, one can find elsewhere. It is that you can find thorough coverage of *all* aspects of such important and difficult topics: fledgling + disputed theories, major controversies and factions, and both begrudgingly + enthusiastically accepted conclusions.
My one concern: The highlighted fact about travel is wrong. As far as I can tell it's closer to 1 in 20 people. "International tourism arrivals" passed 1.2B this year, but the average tourist "arrives in another country" 3+ times per year.[1][2] If the publishers find a way to retract this 3+ mote of misinfo, I will be duly awed :)
Wikilove, SJ
[1] http://www2.unwto.org/press-release/2017-01-17/sustained- growth-international-tourism-despite-challenges http://stats.areppim.com/glossaire/ita_def.htm https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/global/visa-everywhere/ documents/visa-global-travel-and-tourism-study-infographic.pdf
[2] A quick round of community review (say, of any reputed facts!) and even citations might not hurt, for statements of fact that are going out to a large audience. You have access to plentiful world-class fact checkers, you don't have to limit yourself to those in the office. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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