[Foundation-l] No default codec for video and audio in HTML5
http://lists.whatwg.org/htdig.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org/2009-June/020620.html Unfortunately OGG Theora didn't make it as the default codec for the HTML5 video element in the spec. Until one of the two major formats (Theora and H264) is clearly the major format the HTML5 spec will not specify a default codec for the video element. -- Hay ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
[Foundation-l] Job Opening at WMF - Project Manager
The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a term-limited (one year) full-time Project Manager for its new Bookshelf Project (text below). Feel free to share. Link to WMF jobs: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Project_Manager_Bookshelf Job Title: Project Manager Employment Duration: August 2009 to September 2010. Reports to: Head of Public Outreach About the “Bookshelf Project” In 2009–2010, the Wikimedia Foundation will be developing a slate of basic educational materials –print, online and video– to attract new authors and editors to Wikipedia. The collective set of these resources is internally being called “The Bookshelf.” As a collaborative project, Wikipedia's success is based on the steady contributions of a global volunteer community of active contributors. The more people share their knowledge with others, the better and more diverse Wikipedia's content gets. We believe that raising and broadening participation is one of the keys to improve Wikipedia's overall quality and to eliminate cultural perspective gaps. Currently, there are limited resources to attract new contributors and to teach them how to get involved. Most of them lack consistency and are often out of date. There are therefore still many basic educational resources that need to be developed. These materials will teach people about Wikipedia and how to edit Wikipedia; provide teachers with lesson plans (to use Wikipedia in the classroom); provide volunteers and local Wikimedia chapters with training resources to do their own outreach; and to enable people to be skillful and responsible creators and producers of encyclopedic content. Job Summary The Project Manager is responsible for successfully executing the Bookshelf project: for ensuring high quality outputs are developed on time and inside the project budget. The Project Manager will need a prior demonstrated experience in managing a complex print and media project, excellent communications skills, and a passion for doing high-quality work. Part of this job will include actively moderating volunteer and external expert discussions to help them be focused and productive. Responsibilities * Create and get sign-off for the project plan, including review-and-refine cycles * Recruit and manage the dedicated project team and identify suitable outside contractors for video production * Plan and execute internal project communication (encompassing the project team, senior management, other departments, external expert groups, outside contractors and community stakeholders) * Keep the project on track: on time and on budget * Ensure all deliverables are of appropriate quality level, and success measures are met or exceeded Required Qualifications * 5+ years of project management experience * Ability to work in a highly collaborative, consensus-oriented, highly-diverse environment * Ability to work effectively within Wikimedia's values and mission. Must be emotionally committed to free knowledge and willing to attune oneself to the larger Wikimedia community's norms and expectations * Passion for doing high-quality work * Ability to work effectively with graphic designers, writers, and outside contractors to ensure deadlines are met * Experience prioritizing and creating accountability towards critical milestones and deadlines * Ability to assess and report project status, and escalating risks to senior management * Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability to interpret and translate information to teams and individuals and to report effectively to senior management Preferred Qualifications * Experience in education * Experience with non-profit * Prior demonstrated experience working in print and media production * Experience working with translations and/or international clientele Salary The salary is in the range of $74,000 to $85,000, commensurate with experience. Generous benefits are included. About the Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a US-registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible non-profit charity dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, one of the world's 10 most visited websites, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikinews and the Wikimedia Commons media repository. The organization has received numerous honors for its work, among them the Webby Award, the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica, the Japan Advertisers Association's Web Creation Award and the World Technology Award in Communications Technology. The Wikimedia Foundation was created in 2003 to manage the operation of Wikipedia and its
[Foundation-l] EN Wikizine - Year: 2009 Week: 27 Number: 110
** ____ _ __ _ / / /\ \ (_) | _(_)___(_)_ __ ___ \ \/ \/ / | |/ / |_ / | '_ \ / _ \ \ /\ /| | | |/ /| | | | | __/ \/ \/ |_|_|\_\_/___|_|_| |_|\___| .org Year: 2009 Week: 27 Number: 110 ** An independent internal news bulletin for the members of the Wikimedia community // === Technical news === [Michael Jackson Kills WP] - Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died this week and nearly took Wikipedia down with him (as well as many other websites). Wikimedia sites were unresponsive for a whole due to the large number of page hits. The Michael Jackson article got nearly 6 *million* hits on June 26, more than the Main Page. In the evening of the 2th July (UTC) WikipediaCo was virtually down because of power outage of the European servers. The remaining servers choked on the additional traffic routed to them. http://stats.grok.se/en/200906/Michael_Jackson -- page hit statistics http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/current-events/ -- techblog explanation of issues http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/News_of_Michael_Jackson's_death_overloads_Internet_sites_and_sparks_hoaxes -- wikinews article http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/07/power-outage-in-wikimedias-european-servers/ -- wiki down [Usability] - the Usability team has released its first set of usability improvement (the acai release) for testing. As of press time, the new vector skin has been made available on all wikis for users who select it from their preferences, please help test the new features! http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/first-usability-release-is-coming-up-soon/ -- blog post http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Releases#Acai -- acai release description [Usability BIS] - one aspect is already live by default; the new design of the search results. Just use the internal search and see. http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Designs#Search_Results === Request for help === [Fundraising 2009] - the Wikimedia Foundation is preparing for its next fundraiser and would like feedback from the community on some of the pages it has developed so far. In addition to the creation of a new survey that they would like comments on, the Foundation is also trying to enhance the visibility of the donate button. The new buttons will be placed on the skin and will be viewable on every page. There are also several design proposals that need community input! http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/25/would-you-press-this-button/ -- blog post about it http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Donation_buttons_upgrade -- buttons http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2009/Survey -- survey === Foundation === [Licensing] - The licensing update changes have now been rolled out to all languages and projects, with the new license being featured in the footer and new interface items to translate for your wiki. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/30/licensing-update-rolled-out-in-all-wikimedia-wikis/ -- blog post http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/translators-l/2009-June/000959.html -- translation steps http://tinyurl.com/LU-interface-trans -- betawiki trans interface [Board election] - Once again an election for the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation is coming up. It is for 3 seats this time. But before there can be elections there must be someone to vote for. Submissions of candidacy are open between 6th and 20th July. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2009 [New grant: Commons] - the Wikimedia Foundation was just awarded a US$300,000 grant that will research problems with and design new tools/fix current tools for uploading files to the global Wikimedia image repository, the Wikimedia Commons. http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/07/02/ford-foundation-awards-300k-grant-for-wikimedia-commons/ -- blog post http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikimedia_Ford_Foundation_Grant_July_2009 -- press release http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/File:WMF_Ford_Multimedia_Participation_Project.pdf -- full grant proposal [Job: Bookshelf] - as a further development from the Scribus operator volunteer position noted in Wikizine a few months ago, a new job opening has been posted for project manager of the Bookshelf project. The Bookshelf project strives to develop a slate of basic educational materials (print, online and video) to attract new authors and editors to Wikipedia. http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Project_Manager_Bookshelf -- job opening http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Public_outreach/Get_involved -- volunteer position, scribus operator === Community === [David Rohde] - it turns out that Wikipedia, along with tons of other media outlets, kept the kidnapping of journalist David Rohde out of its article on him. This has caused a few
Re: [Foundation-l] No default codec for video and audio in HTML5
2009/7/3 Brian brian.min...@colorado.edu: H264 already plays in, IIRC, 98% of browsers through flash. Flash isn't generally available out of the box, though, is it? ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] No default codec for video and audio in HTML5
On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 1:18 AM, Thomas Daltonthomas.dal...@gmail.com wrote: Flash isn't generally available out of the box, though, is it? In theory, no. In practice, yes. Adobe claims around 99% of all web users to have Flash installed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_flash#Installed_user_base -- Hay ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] No default codec for video and audio in HTML5
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 5:20 PM, Hay (Husky) hus...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 1:18 AM, Thomas Daltonthomas.dal...@gmail.com wrote: Flash isn't generally available out of the box, though, is it? In theory, no. In practice, yes. Adobe claims around 99% of all web users to have Flash installed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_flash#Installed_user_base -- Hay I think you have to have Flash 9 to get H264. It's a shame they couldn't get all vendors to agree to ship both ogg and h264 codecs. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Attribution on small interactive devices and systems
Minimum attribution of «Terms of Use» from Wikimdia Foundations site would be http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/; That is 96 chars, with spaces, of 140 bytes available in a SMS. For some languages the attribution will take more than one message. Ooops... John John at Darkstar wrote: It seems like the attribution scheme chosen does not support small interactive devices and systems very Well. Are there anyone who have given this any thoughts? The problem is basically as the chunk of information shrinks the attribution scheme will be more and more of a problem. With the current scheme the paper leaflet -problem are solved, still what do we do for cell phones and similar devices? The same problem also arise for solutions where excerpts from articles are used as tooltips in maps. I guess there are a lot of other examples. I would like a fourth point in the text that says something like attribution after good practice for devices and systems where the previous isn't possible. The current text reads: Attribution: To re-distribute a text page in any form, provide credit to the authors either by including a) a hyperlink (where possible) or URL to the page or pages you are re-using, b) a hyperlink (where possible) or URL to an alternative, stable online copy which is freely accessible, which conforms with the license, and which provides credit to the authors in a manner equivalent to the credit given on this website, or c) a list of all authors. John ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Attribution on small interactive devices and systems
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 5:32 PM, John at Darkstar vac...@jeb.no wrote: Minimum attribution of «Terms of Use» from Wikimdia Foundations site would be http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/; That is 96 chars, with spaces, of 140 bytes available in a SMS. For some languages the attribution will take more than one message. Ooops... John You just need to provide a url to the article. Type wikipedia.org/articleinto your address bar and wait 5 seconds. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Attribution on small interactive devices and systems
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 5:35 PM, Brian brian.min...@colorado.edu wrote: On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 5:32 PM, John at Darkstar vac...@jeb.no wrote: Minimum attribution of «Terms of Use» from Wikimdia Foundations site would be http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/; That is 96 chars, with spaces, of 140 bytes available in a SMS. For some languages the attribution will take more than one message. Ooops... John You just need to provide a url to the article. Type wikipedia.org/articleinto your address bar and wait 5 seconds. I actually was not aware that the terms now ask you to link not only to the article, but to the license as well. That is a burden. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Attribution on small interactive devices and systems
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 4:38 PM, Brianbrian.min...@colorado.edu wrote: I actually was not aware that the terms now ask you to link not only to the article, but to the license as well. That is a burden. Linking to the license (or providing it's actual text) is an explicit requirement of CC-BY-SA. -Robert Rohde ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] No default codec for video and audio in HTML5
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 7:22 PM, Brianbrian.min...@colorado.edu wrote: It's a shame they couldn't get all vendors to agree to ship both ogg and h264 codecs. No, it's not. H.264 is patented and you need to pay licensing fees to use it. It's not an open standard and should not be used on the web if it's at all avoidable. It's possible Mozilla couldn't even legally ship it, at least if they continue to distribute under the GPL. (Maybe if they distributed only as LGPL/MPL they could avoid any issues by making the H.264 part BSD-licensed or something.) ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] No default codec for video and audio in HTML5
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 6:10 PM, Aryeh Gregor simetrical+wikil...@gmail.comsimetrical%2bwikil...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 7:22 PM, Brianbrian.min...@colorado.edu wrote: It's a shame they couldn't get all vendors to agree to ship both ogg and h264 codecs. No, it's not. H.264 is patented and you need to pay licensing fees to use it. It's not an open standard and should not be used on the web if it's at all avoidable. It's possible Mozilla couldn't even legally ship it, at least if they continue to distribute under the GPL. (Maybe if they distributed only as LGPL/MPL they could avoid any issues by making the H.264 part BSD-licensed or something.) A compromise is a win-win. In the absence of a compromise its a lose-lose. Except that H264 wins since almost all of us already support it. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] No default codec for video and audio in HTML5
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 8:14 PM, Brianbrian.min...@colorado.edu wrote: A compromise is a win-win. Compromising is not a good idea per se. It's only a good idea if it advances your goals more than refusing to compromises. Some compromises are bad and should not be accepted. If you put enough importance on open standards, a fragmented web where authors need to provide both H.264 and Theora to get optimal functionality is *better* than one where everyone can just provide H.264 and ignores Theora. In the first case, Theora will improve and become well-known, and maybe stand a chance of eventually winning the format war. In the second, Theora has lost, permanently. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Fwd: How do you fully consult the community consensus?
-- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 16:09:00 +0100 From: Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Fwd: How do you fully consult the community consensus? To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Message-ID: a4359dff0907020809g4cb248h2095752d36c6d...@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 2009/7/2 Brian brian.min...@colorado.edu: As the projects have grown and as they have become more centrally managed in a top down fashion it has become increasingly difficult for ideas to percolate from the bottom up. I'm curious. In your perspective who is doing the central management that makes it difficult for ideas to percolate up? WMF, Jimmy, Board, select administrators/highly involved community members? In your opinion, is there an infrastructure barrier or a personalities one? jriggs ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] No default codec for video and audio in HTML5
2009/7/3 Brian brian.min...@colorado.edu: A compromise is a win-win. In the absence of a compromise its a lose-lose. Except that H264 wins since almost all of us already support it. Relying on something rendered radioactive by the software patents attached to it is not a win. It would be lovely if H.264 wasn't, legally speaking, toxic waste. However, it is. - d. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Fwd: How do you fully consult the community consensus?
Sorry, where I said AbuseFilter I meant to say FlaggedRevisions. I'm not sure on how AbuseFilter came to be agreed on. On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 7:15 PM, Brian brian.min...@colorado.edu wrote: On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 6:59 PM, Jennifer Riggs jri...@wikimedia.orgwrote: I'm curious. In your perspective who is doing the central management that makes it difficult for ideas to percolate up? WMF, Jimmy, Board, select administrators/highly involved community members? In your opinion, is there an infrastructure barrier or a personalities one? jriggs It's an infrastructure, policy and outreach issue. I assume that every single person has the very best for the projects in mind and is doing it for the right reasons. That said, I see the definition of community being interpreted very narrowly. I liked what I saw with AbuseFilter but that was a singular case. Filtering edits is almost on the same level as showing advertisements. In these rare cases any change you try to make will quickly make its way through the community because many people will be outraged. There are a lot of other situations that don't propagate as well, not because they aren't very important, but because people just don't know about them. I really like the ParserFunctions example. Enabled with hardly any discussion and now used 500,000 times on the English Wikipedia. It had a major effect on Wikipedia that made it much harder to use. And now we are stuck in a programming mindset and we all assume that we all agreed to come here. It just isn't the case. You won't be able to find where that agreement happened. ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] Fwd: How do you fully consult the community consensus?
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 6:15 PM, Brianbrian.min...@colorado.edu wrote:
snip
I really like the ParserFunctions example. Enabled with hardly any
discussion and now used 500,000 times on the English Wikipedia. It had a
major effect on Wikipedia that made it much harder to use. And now we are
stuck in a programming mindset and we all assume that we all agreed to come
here. It just isn't the case. You won't be able to find where that agreement
happened.
The initial parser functions were a replacement for {{qif}} and kin.
The enwiki community had already adopted a significant degree of
programming in template space. But they did so in a half-assed way
that was bad for server load and template management, so bad in fact
that their approach was provoking arguments between the community and
the developers (see the enwiki history of WT:AUM circa 2006, for
example). The initial parser functions where created to answer that
demand in the community in a way that wouldn't cause the servers to
explode.
Hence the demand for programmatic templates came from the community
initially, the developers simply responded to that in a way that was
necessary to keep things working. (For the record, I'm referring to
the earliest history of ParserFunctions. I'm not sure about the
history of #expr and some of the later bits.)
-Robert Rohde
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Re: [Foundation-l] Fwd: How do you fully consult the community consensus?
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 8:06 PM, Robert Rohde raro...@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 6:15 PM, Brianbrian.min...@colorado.edu wrote:
snip
I really like the ParserFunctions example. Enabled with hardly any
discussion and now used 500,000 times on the English Wikipedia. It had a
major effect on Wikipedia that made it much harder to use. And now we are
stuck in a programming mindset and we all assume that we all agreed to
come
here. It just isn't the case. You won't be able to find where that
agreement
happened.
The initial parser functions were a replacement for {{qif}} and kin.
The enwiki community had already adopted a significant degree of
programming in template space.
The developer that abused templates so that qif could be written does not
constitute a consensus. The conversations regarding programming on Wikipedia
were extremely limited given their impact.
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Re: [Foundation-l] Fwd: How do you fully consult the community consensus?
On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 10:06 PM, Robert Rohderaro...@gmail.com wrote: (For the record, I'm referring to the earliest history of ParserFunctions. I'm not sure about the history of #expr and some of the later bits.) #expr was present since the first commit (r13505). ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
Re: [Foundation-l] No default codec for video and audio in HTML5
Purely out of ignorance, why do we like ogg, but not H264? Or is it not that we don't /like/ it, but rather we simply don't support it as a format for whatever reason? Thanks, -Mike ___ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
