Re: [WikiEducator] Aquatic insect images
2010/12/8 Wayne Mackintosh mackintosh.wa...@gmail.com: I strongly support the hosting of the images on the Wikimedia commons -- in this way they will be accessible to a wider audience including WikiEducator. :-) The feature that Wayne describes is called InstantCommons; it's enabled on WikiEducator and can be used by any MediaWiki installation: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Sites_using_InstantCommons This makes reusing images really easy. If you do know wikis that should be using it, please let their site maintainers know; it's easy to set up. Declan, I look forward to seeing these images. If you let me know, I'll make sure to tweet about it as well to get the word out. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com
[WikiEducator] Re: [WE-tech] Lead Software Engineer for OERF and WikiEducator
2009/10/26 Wayne Mackintosh mackintosh.wa...@gmail.com: The OER Foundation is proud to announce the appointment of Jim Tittsler as Lead Software Engineer. Wonderful news! Congratulations, Jim! :-) -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Brief scheduled downtime next Tuesday
There'll be a maintenance operation in our hosting facility on Wednesday September 15 from 00:00-06:00 CEST, which is expected to affect our server for only 15 minutes downtime, but may also cause some general network slowness in that time window. I'll be checking the site and the tech list for unexpected issues. Erik --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Congratulations to WikiMedia Foundation on Licensing Changes
Thank you, Wayne, for your personal note as well. It's a very big deal for us and we're quite excited about it finally happening. Hopefully we'll be able to issue guidelines soon for importing content from projects like WikiEducator into Wikimedia, and the opposite direction will become possible once we switch (by June 15 at the latest). :-) -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Fwd: Stanton Foundation $890K Usability Grant
I think this should be of interest to the WikEd community. :-) The end goal here is not WYSIWYG yet, just simplification of some of the more complex things in wiki syntax -- but it's definitely a step on the way. -- Forwarded message -- From: Erik Moeller [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2008/12/3 Subject: Stanton Foundation $890K Usability Grant To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED], Wikimedia developers [EMAIL PROTECTED] As per Michael's earlier e-mail: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Wikipedia_to_become_more_user-friendly_for_new_volunteer_writers We're very grateful to the Stanton Foundation for this important investment in Wikipedia's user-friendliness. We're aware of the UNICEF research as well and we'll survey the existing improvements as part of this project. A few points beyond the press release: '''When will this project begin, and when will it finish?''' The project will begin in January 2009. It will wrap up April 2010. '''What is its overall scope?''' The project scope will include the following: * user testing designed to identify the most common barriers to entry for first-time writers, and * a series of improvements to the MediaWiki interface, including improvements to issues identified through user testing and a focus on hiding complex elements of the user interface from people who don't use them. (Specifically, we'll focus on complex syntax like templates, references, tables, etc.) '''What does the Wikimedia Foundation consider to be wrong with the editing interface right now?''' When it was first developed, MediaWiki was considered reasonably user-friendly. At that time, software wasn't as flexible and user-focused as it is today. It's logical that by today's standards, MediaWiki may not seem to be as streamlined or user-friendly as other software. We have never systematically examined the editing interface to examine what kinds of challenges new contributors face, but we do know of certain common problems. For example, many people have difficulty creating new articles, uploading images, and editing templates, footnotes, and tables. We hope to make improvements in those areas. '''Who are the new contributors you are hoping to attract?''' We are hoping to attract new contributors who are just as smart and knowledgeable as the people who have always written for Wikipedia and its sister projects, but who -to date- have been unable or reluctant to participate because of the barriers posed by the interface. There are countless individuals who read Wikipedia and would be great writers/editors, but are daunted by complex wiki syntax. They may not even realize that they can edit Wikipedia. They are the people we are targeting with this project. '''What is the nature of the interface improvements that will be made in this project?''' In phase 1 (until late summer 2009), we will focus on reducing or eliminating common, simple barriers to entry. A possible example would be, making the edit button more visible. These will be identified through systematic user testing, but also by surveying existing research. In phase 2 (until early 2010), we will shift our attention to identifying complex pieces of wiki code (the formatting language used to write Wikipedia articles) and making them less visible to first-time contributors and/or helping them achieve the respective functionality (such as adding tables) more easily. '''When can we expect to see the first changes to the Wikipedia interface?''' We hope to demonstrate a first series of improvements by mid-2009, with production deployment following shortly thereafter. '''How can the Wikimedia volunteer community be involved in this project?''' The project will be open and participatory throughout. Every major report will be publicly shared, and all code will be developed through our existing, public version control system. Volunteer developers and testers will be encouraged to contribute throughout the process. '''Are the positions created for this project just temporary?''' We will allocate at least two existing, budgeted developer positions to this project, and additional hires will be employed for the duration of the grant. '''Why don't these funds count towards your overall fundraising goals?''' The majority of the funding for this project will go towards costs not included in our 2008-09 budget. While we anticipate that the project will offset some of our operating costs, we also want to retain flexibility to reallocate funding inside the project budget as required. '''Are you going to localize these changes in all the languages of Wikipedia and the other projects?''' All code will be ready for internationalization. '''Are you going to be looking at the entire editing/contribution process or just the software?''' This project focuses on technical solutions, but the user testing will aim to capture problems experienced throughout the editing process. -- Erik Möller
[WikiEducator] GFDL 1.3 released
Hello all, the Free Software Foundation has today released the version 1.3 of the GNU Free Documentation License, the licensed used by Wikipedia. This version of the GFDL allows GFDL-wikis to switch to CC-BY-SA - see section 11, relicensing: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html Wikimedia hasn't decided to switch yet, but we plan to hold a community referendum on the issue very soon. If we do switch, I'll let you know - it would enable two-way legal compatibility with WikiEducator and similar educational resources. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] WikEd code updated
I've updated WikiEducator in all languages to the latest MediaWiki and LiquidThreads code. Please report anything odd, i.e. things that used to work that now seem to be broken. I didn't touch the PDF or Kaltura code, but both seem to still work. A couple of notable changes: * I've enabled support for embedding media from Wikimedia Commons. Any file from commons.wikimedia.org should be embeddable as if it was uploaded directly to wikieducator.org. See the example photo in my sandbox: http://wikieducator.org/User:Eloquence/Sandbox - this photograph is loaded straight from Commons, but it's properly thumbnailed, and if you click the photo, it'll show you all the metadata from Commons. * Some annoying LiquidThreads discussion bugs should be fixed. Notably, headers are back, and LQT should properly display the full thread, rather than just the starting comment, when showing you new messages. Comments in LQT should now also be summarized in a more readable format in the Recent Changes list - feedback welcome. E-mail support is in the works. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Planned downtime: Sunday, 4PM PST
I'd like to run a code update on Sunday, around 4PM PST, to the latest version of MediaWiki. There are a few reasons for that: * Generally keeping in sync with MediaWiki security updates. * The latest version of MW has a feature to embed media from Wikimedia Commons as if they were locally updated. * It will allow us to update our extensions, including the ever-beloved LQT. (The latest LQT fixes include a fix for the issue with highlighting only the first comment in new message notifications, and restore the header page, which was inadvertently removed when the sort feature was introduced.) I may run into some issues when doing so, so it could bring us down for 2 hours max. If things turn out to be too hairy, I will downgrade again. Is this downtime day time acceptable? My schedule isn't very flexible these days so weekends work best for me. Thanks, Erik --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: another text on OER, but not an OER!!
FYI, the definition should now be updated as per the discussion we've had here and on the wiki: http://freedomdefined.org/Definition HTH, Erik --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: another text on OER, but not an OER!!
The wording today was introduced here: http://freedomdefined.org/index.php?title=Definition/Unstablediff=2254oldid=2251 It's definitely more radical than it needs to be, and I'd be comfortable with toning it down a bit - Leigh, why don't you start this discussion on the freedomdefined.org site and see whether we can come up with a compromise? I think the preamble should focus on articulating what's right about free cultural works, as opposed to criticizing what's wrong with non-free works. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: another text on OER, but not an OER!!
I've rebooted the discussion and invited some of the contributors to the definition to participate: http://freedomdefined.org/Talk:Definition#Preamble_for_1.1 -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] LQT updates
David has done some initial work on LQT, and I've updated the WikiEducator codebase. 1) This should fix the issue with user talk notifications to yourself. 2) There's now a Mark all as read button (currently to the right, I've asked David to move it to the left) for cleaning out all new message notifications. 3) Deleted threads are now fully hidden by default; sysops can choose to view them if they want to. More changes are upcoming. Please let me know if you encounter any issues. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Should we turn off LQT
2008/8/18 Peter [EMAIL PROTECTED]: I have just again been frustrated by LQT to the point where I think it makes WE unusable as a collaborative tool. Even though I have my options set to be emailed when there are discussions I am involved I never receive emails from LQT. The same would be true with regular talk pages -- you would get e-mails only on messages left on your user talk pages, and for pages in your watchlist. So, unless you explicitly mark any talk page you edit to be watched, you would get no e-mails for discussions you have participated in. And if you did mark them to be watched, you would get an e-mail for any change in any thread, including those you did not participate in. Again, these deficiencies are inherent in the ways talk pages are structured (or rather, unstructured). I am getting the impression that traditional wiki talk pages are somehow held up to be a panacea which they are not. That is, after all, the reason LQT was created in the first place. I can guarantee you that discussions from mailing lists will not move to talk pages -- we've had both mailing lists and talk pages in Wikimedia for years, and they are separate universes. The only way to unify these two universes is to build technical bridges between them. Again, LQT is the critical technical precondition to allow such interfaces to be constructed. David McCabe is resuming work on LQT this week. Working out the kinks with notification is among his first priorities. I have argued before, and continue to argue, for a period of time in which we improve the system based on user feedback, and _then_ a period of evaluation in which we consider the options for WE. Turning off the system now is disruptive, and makes it in fact harder to address the concerns and objections that have been voiced. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] LQT 2.0
Hi all, a couple of weeks ago, David McCabe, the original developer of LiquidThreads, contacted me and indicated that he would be available for long-term development work on LiquidThreads. LQT is of strategic interest to the Wikimedia Foundation: having a user-friendly discussion system - not necessarily to replace talk pages, but at least to have in place in highly public-facing areas such as the WMF website - could really help us. So, we're willing to sponsor development work on LQT on a going-forward basis, with 10 hours a week of David's time. We need to figure out where to prioritize development work, and it would be good to hear from the WikiEducator community what the major gotchas are. Some I can think of: * Deletion is not ideal because it leaves admin-visible stubs, and perhaps commenters should be able to delete their own comments. * Talk page notification can get cluttery and annoying when there's lots of new comments. * Quoting in replies could be made more intuitive. * Recent changes log display could be improved. Are there other things which should obviously be fixed, or improved? Are there fundamental challenges that you see with the LQT approach? To recap, the main benefits of a system like LQT as opposed to the traditional wiki talk page are: * In a wiki talk page, to properly position and indent a comment, you have to manually move the cursor to the right spot and add the indentation syntax before you start typing. In LQT, you just hit reply where you want to respond, and the system does everything else automatically. New users often don't understand how to place comments correctly, which means that it can be confusing to understand a thread. * In a wiki talk page, you always have to sign your comments - in LQT, the system signs your comments for you. New users often don't know how to sign and thereby leave comments whose origin cannot be immediately identified. * Because a wiki talk page is unstructured, raw text, there's no way to sort comments, or to do anything with an individual comment in an automated fashion. In LQT, threads can be sorted, each comment has an individual edit history, threads can be more systematically watched, etc. I also want to caution that LQT is built exactly for the kinds of users who _don't_ participate in discussions about its merits: it's meant to help newbies to participate in discussions without getting lost in wiki syntax. Does it achieve that goal, and if not, why not? It would be interesting to hear more about the perceived disadvantages, and to try to work towards fixing them, now that we have developer resources available to do so. So, any feedback would be welcome! All best, Erik -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: deleting stuff on LQT talk pages
A couple quick notes - 1) Deletion in LQT can be done by sysops, in the same way as deletion of content pages. An LQT comment can essentially be seen as a page. I think that's a reasonable way to handle it, unless you want to go into more complex UIs for thread-level versioning and thread-level reversion (there's a basic UI and backend for thread-level history, which is pretty impressive - I'm not aware of any other discussion system that has thread-level versioning). 2) There are lots of workflow improvements and small fixes that LQT would benefit from. The problem right now is that the extension is essentially orphaned; David has moved on to other projects COL cannot fund continued development, as I understand it. Wikimedia is interested in the extension as well - if you can help identify a suitable contractor to do further work on it, as well as make a list of open issues that you've experienced in your production use of the software, we can probably find funding for it. 3) If we do server-side fixes, they will be overwritten or cause conflicts in future upgrades. So please, please, make every effort to commit server-side fixes back to the development version. If any of you need committer access to Wikimedia's version control system (where LQT lives), send a note to commitaccess at wikimedia dot org and CC me. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] 5,000 visits/day
Another growth milestone for WikiEducator :-) http://wikieducator.org/stats/ -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Tectonic Shift Phase 2 / Tech
On 2/9/08, mackiwg [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I really like the idea of a dedicated technical track as well, and it would really be great if we could bring together some of the future WE server admin team together with the MW gurus @ WMF. Thinking hard here ... I could probably get some funding together to cover travel and accommodation of the WE related team -- my limitation, as a Commonwealth agency is that I would need to host the technical track in a Commonwealth country. Preferably a location where I can optimise travel costs. Let's look at where people are. From our side, we'd probably want: - Brion Vibber, myself: San Francisco - Tim Starling: Sydney It would probably also make sense to fly in 1-2 people from PediaPress if possible (Germany). Who from the WikEd techie folks? COL head office in Vancouver is naturally available -- but not sure if this is the optimal environment for a hackathon. Hackers aren't picky - if that's what works best in terms of getting funding, we'll take it. :-) Cheers, Erik -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Fwd: Open issues in wiki-to-print functionality
On 2/6/08, mackiwg [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That said -- none of this would have been possible without your vision and foresight. 2008 is going to be an amazing year. What about a 2nd Tectonic Shift Think Tank? Wayne, a second tectonic shift think tank sounds like a great idea, if we can find funding for it. My preference would be something that's either a little more explicitly technical, or that has clearly separate tracks. The input from users and educators is essential, but we also need some dedicated facetime to talk about xhtml interchange formats, parser issues, metadata standards -- and maybe even get some code written. :-) It might also be an opportunity to bring together some of the future wikied server admin team members, and to have them mingle with WMF folks. If we target 10 - 15 people, our office should provide enough space. We're not huge, but we should be able to hook up additional folks remotely. Let's look at our funding options - any suggestions from the list? -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: MediaWiki API?
Should now work at: http://wikieducator.org/api.php On 1/14/08, Jim Tittsler [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Is the MediaWiki API http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API available on WikiEducator? I tried http://wikieducator.org/w/api.php (and query.php) and a few variants without success. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Please set me straight on user talk/discussion pages
On 1/28/08, Brent [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Anyone know if there is a sourceforge or some kind of development space for LQT? LQT is maintained through Wikimedia's version control system: http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/LiquidThreads/ To check out the code, follow instructions at: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Subversion If you need SVN committer access, drop me a line. I've recently added support for sorting threads. The fairly prominent summary boxes are a bit annoying, and should be easy to get rid of. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: An alternative hosting path
On 1/11/08, Randy Fisher [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This may be a stupid question, but where does the remote backup occur - is it off-site from where the server is located? Yep, it's to a server in a different data-center. Dumps can be downloaded through the web by anyone with a password (they contain the user data), so Wayne can let other people do copying as needed :-) -- Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Something wrong with RSS
I've updated the extension, but you'll have to explain the problem / steps to reproduce in a little more detail if it persists, preferably with a small demo page. Erik On 12/23/07, Leigh Blackall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, Something is not right with Wikied's RSS outputs. When I lift the feed and redisplay it in a reader or on another website, the level 2 titles on the Wikied page being read turns into the first link in the paragrach of text in the level. For example: http://tekotago.blogspot.com/2007/12/testing-feed2js-with-wikieds-travel-and.html -- -- Leigh Blackall +64(0)21736539 skype - leigh_blackall SL - Leroy Goalpost http://learnonline.wordpress.com -- Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Kaltura re-enabled
Kaltura video editing should work again now. Let me know if there are any issues with this or other extensions. :-) -- Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Kaltura Collaborative Video Editing Extension Enabled
On 1/11/08, Leigh Blackall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: like a red rag to a bull, but I better check what you actually mean by that Eric? It sounds like accept what you are given, is that what you mean? Mh-hm. No, but we've had the discussion. In the absence of formal decision-making processes, informal decisions should prevail, rather than constantly being revisited. I would hate to see you slip into the role of the perpetual antagonist, a common destructive archetype in participatory communities, and I'm mildly concerned that your iconoclastic nature lends itself to it. You have a lot more to contribute than that. :-) I'll see what I can do about the RSS issue later today. -- Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Some possible instability tonight
I'll do some debugging on - RSS - Kaltura code - LQT later tonight, probably around 23:00 UTC - this might lead to some temporary brokenness. Let me know if you absolutely need me to postpone it, but it might be a while until I have time to hack on it again. -- Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: An alternative hosting path
On 1/11/08, Leigh Blackall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes, option 2, and a sandbox wiki (development wiki was suggested at the Think Tank) would help to keep me a little quieter... OK .. I'll try to set things up so we can start delegating access to the server. Wayne, could you send me an initial list of folks who can be given access, and distinguish between * folks who are extremely technically versatile and can be trusted with super-user (root) access; * folks who should be able to run routine updates, given proper documentation. I'll be in touch separately regarding the contract details for the hosting. If we're lucky we won't run into any disastrous downtime before we've set up the more reliable phase 2 hosting *knock on wood* :-). We do have daily remote backups, but if the current server dies, it would take us at least a few days to get back up -- hence focusing energy first on higher availability, before thinking about things like sandbox wikis, would make sense to me. -- Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] An alternative hosting path
The alternative to hosting with some external company or org would be to gradually build up our own community-driven hosting. The steps would roughly be: 1) Interested and capable volunteers or part-timers are given access to the WikiEducator servers. They can then also install update extensions, etc. 2) We rent an additional server, and the aforementioned group will help setting up a high availability solution. At this point we could have COL paying for the servers directly, as opposed to going through me. This is similar to the path Wikipedia took in its early days. Due to my new role at WMF (Deputy Director) I won't be able to help as much as I would like to, so this might work. The only question: Do we have enough technically capable people who can help with the setup? -- Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Kaltura Collaborative Video Editing Extension Enabled
On 1/10/08, Leigh Blackall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It was clashing with Liquid Threads right? Given the enthusiasm for Kaltura and the underenthusiasm for LT, perhaps we could have Kaltura back on, and LT off? Mhh, part of working together as a team is lining up with decisions that have been made. I really hope WikEd won't develop a culture of constant second-guessing - I've seen more than enough of that in Wikipedia. :-) BTW, some of the issues we've seen with LQT (such as in titles not working) are general MW/Apache issues, not specific to LQT. -- Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Kaltura Collaborative Video Editing Extension Enabled
On 1/9/08, Brent [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: not really a bug, but will bug some people ... it asks you to agree that any media you upload be CC-NC-SA ... Ugh- we'll fix that ASAP. -- Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Kaltura temporarily disabled
I've taken out the Kaltura extension for now as it broke elements of LiquidThreads, and generally still needs some polishing. Hopefully we'll be able to plug it back in in the next few days. Let me know if you need it super-critically for any kind of demo purpose. While it's disabled, links into the Kaltura namespace will be broken. -- Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Kaltura Collaborative Video Editing Extension Enabled
Per discussion with Wayne, I've turned on the Kaltura extension, which makes it possible to remix edit rich media, including video, in a wiki-like fashion. The feature can be accessed through the Collaborative video link in the sidebar. Please report any obvious bugs; a more detailed page will be put on the wiki with further information. :-) Best, Erik --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] LiquidThreads x-mas wishes
All - David has one week of development left in his Wikia contract on LiquidThreads. If there are any specific (small) wishes that you have, now is the last chance to make them :-) Since David won't have time for more MediaWiki development work, this may also be a good time to think about the future of the project. For example, since many of you are connected to universities with CS departments, could we make an outreach effort to get CS students to work on it (and other MediaWiki plugins that are useful for educators)? Best, Erik Möller --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] LQT tweaks
David has made some further changes to LiquidThreads: * Links between threads summaries should now be more consistently present; * The header links should be clearer more separated; * Summary links will also be associated with the threads they summarize in the RecentChanges list. Let me know if there are any issues :-) Best, Erik --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Print templates for new collection feature
All, the new PDF collection feature that we're currently testing on WikiEducator.org (see notice on top of pages) allows us to define print-specific versions of templates. For example, if there is a Template:Outcomes, the feature will look for Template:Outcomes_print and, if it exists, use that instead for the PDF generation. Once again, the pattern is Template:Some_name = Template:Some_name_print (case-sensitive). Creating the _print template is all that needs to be done. This will be necessary to fix problems with the HTML in some of the templates. (I'll also ask the developers to make the code ignore HTML which it cannot render.) It could obviously also be useful for other purposes. Best, Erik --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Fwd: Wikis Go Printable: Wikimedia/PediaPress/COL/OSI partnership
FYI :-) http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikis_Go_Printable -- Forwarded message -- From: Erik Moeller [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Dec 13, 2007 9:49 PM Subject: Wikis Go Printable: Wikimedia/PediaPress/COL/OSI partnership To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED], Wikimedia textbook discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] FYI - please forward :-) WIKIS GO PRINTABLE New open source technology will bring content from Wikipedia, WikiEducator, and other wikis to the world of paper. DECEMBER 13, 2007 - ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA: The Wikimedia Foundation today announced a partnership that will make it possible to obtain high quality print and word processor copies of articles from Wikipedia and other wiki educational resources. The development of the underlying open source software is supported by the Open Society Institute (www.soros.org) and the Commonwealth of Learning (www.col.org), and led by PediaPress.com, a start-up company based in Germany. This technology is of key strategic importance to the cause of free education world-wide, said Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. It will make it possible to use and remix wiki content for a variety of purposes, both in the developing and the developed world, in areas with connectivity and without. Deployment of the technology will happen in three stages. The first stage, launched today, is a public beta test running on WikiEducator.org of functionality for remixing collections of wiki pages and downloading them in the PDF format. WikiEducator is a project hosted by the Commonwealth of Learning and uses the same wiki technology as Wikipedia. These tools have the potential to transform and improve the way we author and share distance education materials, textbooks and other learning resources -- I'm thrilled that the WikiEducator will be the first online community to implement them, said Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D., an education specialist for the Commonwealth of Learning and founder of the WikiEducator project. The second stage, planned for early 2008, will be the deployment of the technology on the projects hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, including Wikipedia. At this point, users will also be given the option to order printed copies of wiki content directly from PediaPress.com. The integration into Wikipedia will be a milestone for print-on-demand technology. Users will literally be empowered to print their own encyclopedias, according to Heiko Hees, product manager at PediaPress.com. The third stage, planned for mid-2008, will be the addition of the OpenDocument format for word processors to the list of export formats. Imagine that you want to use a set of wiki articles in the classroom. By supporting the OpenDocument format, we will make it easy for educators to customize and remix content before printing and distributing it from any desktop computer, Sue Gardner explained. This work is funded through a US$40,000 grant by the Open Society Institute. The technology developed through this cooperation will be available under an open source license, free for anyone to use for any purpose. It ties into the MediaWiki platform, the open source technology that runs Wikipedia. As a result, thousands of wiki platforms around the world will have the option of providing the same services to their users. CONTACTS For more information, please contact Sandra Ordonez at (727) 231-0101, or email her at: sordonez AT wikimedia DOT org ABOUT THE WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. It operates some of the largest collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, one of the world's 10 most-visited websites. The Foundation was created in 2003 by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. ABOUT THE COMMONWEALTH OF LEARNING COL is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. ABOUT THE OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE The Open Society Institute (OSI), a private operating and grantmaking foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to support the rule of law, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSI works to build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as combating corruption and rights abuses. ABOUT PEDIAPRESS PediaPress is a startup creating technology and services that make it easy to derive printed books from wiki content. The company is located in Mainz, Germany and has entered a long term partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation
[WikiEducator] LiquidThreads updated
I've been bold and installed the latest version of LQT on WikiEducator. As a side benefit, we're also running the latest version of MediaWiki now, and LiquidThreads is now available in all language editions of WikEd. New features in this version of LQT include: * Red/blue links indicate talk page existence (pages with a header/link to old archives will show as blue) * Table of contents on talk pages with more than three sections * Summary workflow improved * Easier access to thread-level controls from talk pages There's a bunch of other changes as well; let me know if anything confounds you :-) This was a major LQT update; future updates should be easier and, consequently, more frequent (though David's paid work on LQT will end on December 25 -- hopefully the open source community will demonstrate a continued interest in it!). Happy testing, Erik --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: LiquidThreads updated
On 12/4/07, Brent [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Erik... Can you point me to where the source code for LQT is being kept? It's in Wikimedia's version control repository: http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/LiquidThreads/ See http://mediawiki.org/wiki/Subversion for check-out instructions. Best, Erik --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Great news about Wikimedia Foundation licensing?
On 12/2/07, Steve Foerster [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does this mean that we'll soon be able to use material from Wikipedia and other Mekimedia Foundation sites here on WikiEducator? Or is it still just happening Real Soon Now? It's a lot closer to reality now, because * the FSF has already pledged to modify the GNU Free Documentation License in accordance with our wishes; * Wikimedia Foundation now has officially asked them to do so. There is still the remaining hurdle of a community vote of some kind throughout our projects, but this will hopefully be concluded within the next couple of months. Best, Erik --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: Liquid Threads ... a couple of months on: thoughts?
On Nov 24, 2007 11:30 PM, Leigh Blackall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just this morning, a colleague emailed me saying that he tried to start a discussion on the Time Management page, but it wouldn't post so he was sending the text to me and a few others to discuss the issue off the page!! I tried to see what the problem was, it is true, the discussion page will not proceed once SAVE is clicked. I cannot reproduce this problem. Can you explain the steps to reproduce? Thanks, Erik --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Flaky network
There appears to be some network flakiness in our hosting center tonight; I find WikEd to be on again, off again. If it keeps up, I'll give them a call to see what's up. -- Toward Peace, Love Progress: Erik DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[WikiEducator] Re: liquid threads?
This is not a bug - the /Archive link in the header is simply the archive of the old talk page (pre-LiquidThreads). On 10/11/07, mackiwg [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Leigh - It's nearing my bedtime here in Vancouver and need to log off pretty soon. I see the problem and have reported it here: http://www.wikieducator.org/Thread:Problem/bug_report_in_WikiEducator%27s_main_list_%281%29 Looks like a bug - thanks for the report. Wayne On Oct 10, 9:50 pm, Leigh Blackall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Is liquid threads working? I just now looked at the discussion page for Facilitating Online:http://wikieducator.org/Talk:Facilitating_Online And the links to the archive are inconsistant. One link says there is no archive, and the other says there is. If you click the one that shows the talk archive, you lose the link to the original article (red link). Sorry if I'm behind in an update on this. -- -- Leigh Blackall +64(0)21736539 skype - leigh_blackallhttp://learnonline.wordpress.com -- Toward Peace, Love Progress: Erik DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups WikiEducator group. To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
