[Wikimedia-l] EU Policy Monitoring Report for November

[Dimitar Parvanov Dimitrov]

Sorry for cross-posting on Wikimedia-l, but last month there was a problem
with getting the message out over Advocacy Advisors. I also believe that
this month is particularly relevant.


EU Policy November Report

a.k.a.

Keep it short, stupid!

Groetjes uit Brussel! [1]

As the days are getting shorter in the Northern Hemisphere and so will be
this report. That is due to popular request and not lack of humongous
amounts of information. We can always take a topic further and go deeper,
just give me a hint.

Dimi

tl;dr

Copyright reform dialogue,PSI guidelines and study on the “contribution of
public domain works and open licensing to the European economy” likely to
come.


ToC

1. New Copyright Reform Consultation Announced

2. Public Sector Information Hearing in Luxembourg

3. Study on Public Domain and Open Licensing by EC

4. Trademark Directive and Encyclopedias

-
-

#copyright #reform #l4e

1. The Tragic End of Licenses 4 Europe and New Hope for Copyright Reform

Why is this relevant?

It is the lead-up to the now confirmed future consultation on a wider
copyright reform.

What happened?

The final plenary of Licenses for Europe (European Commission stakeholder
dialogue on copyright topics)  took place in Brussels [2] without
delivering any palpable, legislative results or even proposals. It was
complemented by an event at the European Parliament concentrating on the
aspect of text and data mining. [3] Me and Mathias Schindler (WMDE)
participated at both events. In the latter, Mathias presented opportunities
how Wikimedia projects can be used in text mining applications. At both
events we also supported the point of view, that mining is essentially
reading using sophisticated tools and that a general debate on copyright is
necessary, instead of coming up with new licensing requirements for yet
another range of cases. A last remark from the EP event: It was the first
time I have ever heard a conservative EPP politician (Zalewski, PL) calling
for shortening copyright terms and decriminalising file sharing.

What comes next?

According to Commissioner Barnier, the European Commission will “very soon
launch a public consultation on copyright”. [4] Licenses 4 Europe was
supposed to be the industry's chance to solve the problems on its own. This
has clearly not happened, so that even Barnier had to admit that “a
legislative proposal is very well possible [*fr. bien possible*] because
markets cannot resolve all problems. I am not satisfied with the results
and with the current situation.”. My personal guess is that we will see an
announcement in December and a start of actual stakeholder consultation
somewhere in March 2014. The actual proposal will have to be finalised by
the new Commission at the end of 2014. One could only guess about the
scope, but people from within the Commission have told us that “big
discussions” are going on inside the institutions with “major upsets” on
the table.

-
-

#PSI

2. Public Sector Information Hearing in Luxembourg

Why is this relevant?

The 2013 amendments to the PSI Directive [5] need to be implemented. As
many member states and institutions are having a hard time understanding
the subject matter, the Commission wants to release best practice
guidelines.

What happened?

Again me and Mathias Schindler (WMDE) participated in the hearing.
Beforehand we had coordinated our position with the Open Knowledge
Foundation, Creative Commons, LAPSI [6] and several other like-minded
groups. Our general talking points were as follows:



   -

   No NC restrictions (we also gave out our relevant brochure [7])


   -

   Free of charge access (since charging for it would be prohibitive and
   result in lack of income anyway)
   -

   Use of “standard” licenses (e.g. cc0 or cc-by) instead of creating new
   ones (see [8])


What comes next?

The Commission will have another discussion round with member states’
national representatives and then move on to writing said guidelines.

-
-

#IPObservatory #OHIM #IPvalue #PDvalue

3. IP Observatory Open to Commissioning Study on Importance of PD&Free
Licenses

Why is this relevant?

The EC has created an Observatory of Intellectual Property Rights
Infringements (run by OHIM) that is meant to serve as a place where
narratives regarding intellectual property are shaped.

What happened?

Me and Nikolas Becker attended the plenary last month (see last monitoring
report for further details [9]). As we felt that the commissioned reports
are biased towards underlining the how crucial intellectual property is to
the European economy, we asked for a study on the contribution of the
public domain and open licensing to the European economy. As we followed up
this request and also had like-minded organisations ask for a similar step,
we have now received an official answer that the OHIM will try to include
such research in their 2014 working programme. [

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Quarterly reviews of high priority WMF initiatives

[Tilman Bayer]

Minutes and slides from the quarterly review of the Foundation's
Grantmaking and Program Evaluation teams are now available at

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews/Grantmaking_and_Program_Evaluation/October_2013

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 6:49 PM, Erik Moeller  wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> to increase accountability and create more opportunities for course
> corrections and resourcing adjustments as necessary, Sue's asked me
> and Howie Fung to set up a quarterly project evaluation process,
> starting with our highest priority initiatives. These are, according
> to Sue's narrowing focus recommendations which were approved by the
> Board [1]:
>
> - Visual Editor
> - Mobile (mobile contributions + Wikipedia Zero)
> - Editor Engagement (also known as the E2 and E3 teams)
> - Funds Dissemination Committe and expanded grant-making capacity
>
> I'm proposing the following initial schedule:
>
> January:
> - Editor Engagement Experiments
>
> February:
> - Visual Editor
> - Mobile (Contribs + Zero)
>
> March:
> - Editor Engagement Features (Echo, Flow projects)
> - Funds Dissemination Committee
>
> We’ll try doing this on the same day or adjacent to the monthly
> metrics meetings [2], since the team(s) will give a presentation on
> their recent progress, which will help set some context that would
> otherwise need to be covered in the quarterly review itself. This will
> also create open opportunities for feedback and questions.
>
> My goal is to do this in a manner where even though the quarterly
> review meetings themselves are internal, the outcomes are captured as
> meeting minutes and shared publicly, which is why I'm starting this
> discussion on a public list as well. I've created a wiki page here
> which we can use to discuss the concept further:
>
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings/Quarterly_reviews
>
> The internal review will, at minimum, include:
>
> Sue Gardner
> myself
> Howie Fung
> Team members and relevant director(s)
> Designated minute-taker
>
> So for example, for Visual Editor, the review team would be the Visual
> Editor / Parsoid teams, Sue, me, Howie, Terry, and a minute-taker.
>
> I imagine the structure of the review roughly as follows, with a
> duration of about 2 1/2 hours divided into 25-30 minute blocks:
>
> - Brief team intro and recap of team's activities through the quarter,
> compared with goals
> - Drill into goals and targets: Did we achieve what we said we would?
> - Review of challenges, blockers and successes
> - Discussion of proposed changes (e.g. resourcing, targets) and other
> action items
> - Buffer time, debriefing
>
> Once again, the primary purpose of these reviews is to create improved
> structures for internal accountability, escalation points in cases
> where serious changes are necessary, and transparency to the world.
>
> In addition to these priority initiatives, my recommendation would be
> to conduct quarterly reviews for any activity that requires more than
> a set amount of resources (people/dollars). These additional reviews
> may however be conducted in a more lightweight manner and internally
> to the departments. We’re slowly getting into that habit in
> engineering.
>
> As we pilot this process, the format of the high priority reviews can
> help inform and support reviews across the organization.
>
> Feedback and questions are appreciated.
>
> All best,
> Erik
>
> [1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Vote:Narrowing_Focus
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metrics_and_activities_meetings
> --
> Erik Möller
> VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
> ___
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> Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l



-- 
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB

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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraiser Launch Today

[Nathan]

Hi Megan, quick question - when the campaign goal is hit, will the
fundraising campaign return to the low profile version you now run
year-round? Or will the banners stay up until a specific ending date?
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[Wikimedia-l] Fundraiser Launch Today

[Megan Hernandez]

Hi all,

The fundraising team is kicking off our year-end campaign in the US, UK,
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand at midnight UTC on December 3, 2013.  SF
staff - banners are going up in a few minutes.

Check out our latest banner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/?banner=B13_1202_clr_blgs_enYY&reset=1

Quick reminder: We have been running banners at a low-level since the start
of the fiscal year in July. In that time, we have continuously tested new
banners to find improvements that will allow us to reduce the number of
banners people see each year. This is our first year experimenting with
year-round fundraising. We've already raised over $13 million USD -- which
is roughly equal to about how much we raised after our first full week of
the 2012 fundraising campaign. During this year-end campaign, banners will
be displayed to 100% of readers.

*A few key facts:*

   - Amount raised in testing prior to the year-end campaign: Roughly $13.5
   million USD
   - Campaign goal: $20 million USD
   - Banners will run to 100% of English readers in the US, UK, Canada,
   Australia, and New Zealand
   - Previous donors will receive a reminder to donate email during the
   month of December
   - Mobile banners will be displayed in the US
   - We will run campaigns in other countries and languages in 2014

If you spot any errors, please let us know on the meta talk
page.
Feel free to ask questions there as well.

More background info on meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2013

Thanks for your help!

Megan

-- 

Megan Hernandez

Director of Online Fundraising
Wikimedia Foundation
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[Wikimedia-l] The Wikinewsie Group News Edition 6, December 2, 2013

[Laura Hale]

Hi,

This is just a notification that the latest edition of The Wikinewsie Group
News newsletter can be found at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikinewsie_Group/Newsletter/6 .

Highlights:

The Wikinewsie Group News Edition 6, December 2, 2013

If you know anyone interested in Wikinews, journalism on Wikimedia projects
or The Wikinewsie Group, please encourage them to subscribe to the
newsletter by adding their name to the
list
.
The Group

   - Aff-comm recommended to the Wikimedia Foundation Board that The
   Wikinewsie Group be recognised as a thematic organization in early November.
   
[1]

Education

   - Wikinews Education
Program
blog
   post was published on Wikimedia's official blog.
   - Discussions were had on IRC and Skype about the possibility of
   installing the education extension on Ukrainian, Czech and Korean Wikinews.
   While these could be used to potentially re-invigorate the local
   communities and provide a cohort of new contributors, the limited
   contributor base at the moment makes it difficult to implement. Greater
   partnerships would need to be done with chapters to provide people to
   assist local projects in running any education initiative.
   - What is news?
 handout
   was created to supplement existing training materials as this is an area
   where new contributors sometimes have issues on English Wikinews.
   - Documenting your original sport
reporting
was
   created to supplement Wikinews Original Sport
Reporting.
   Assistance is requested in translating these documents into Spanish and
   Ukrainian.

Outreach

   - LauraHale attended Wikimedia CEE Meeting
2013 in
   Slovakia representing The Wikinewsie Group. She had conversations with
   people from several chapters about the potential to do things with TWG
   including the Polish, Estonian, Serbian, Czech and Ukrainian chapters.

Original reporting projects

   - The paperwork was submitted at the end of the month to send five
   Wikinews reporters to the Sochi Paralympic Games.
   - Attempts were made to secure media accreditation for the Commonwealth
   Games. The application was unsuccessful.


Sincerely,
Laura Hale
-- 
twitter: purplepopple
blog: ozziesport.com
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[Wikimedia-l] VE Office Hours today & tomorrow

[Maggie Dennis]

Hi.

I just wanted to remind everyone that starting today we are again having office
hours for VisualEditor. The first will be held on Monday, 2 December, at
1900 UTC and the second on 3 December at 0100. (See
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Office_hours for time conversion links.)

Logs will be posted on meta after each office hour completes. You'll find
them and logs for older office hours on the topic at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:VisualEditor_office_hours_logs

Hope to see you there. :)

Maggie

-- 
Maggie Dennis
Senior Community Advocate
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Increase in page views for the last 3 months

[Brad Jorsch (Anomie)]

On Sat, Nov 30, 2013 at 6:20 PM, Christian Aistleitner
 wrote:
> . No other requests to Special:MWOAuth/ , Special:OAuth/ . Should we
> already see traffic to those endpoints?

Not a whole lot, yet, and it may never really get to be *that* many.
On the other hand, maybe it will. It certainly shouldn't ever get
anywhere near the level of Special:CentralAutoLogin.

The /initiate you saw should have been followed by a call to
/authorize and then likely a call to /token, but of course those could
have missed the sampling. We've also got /verified, /identify, and
/grants in there.

Of all these, /authorize, /verified, and /grants are the only ones
that could remotely be considered a real pageview. You can see
/authorize by going to
https://tools.wmflabs.org/oauth-hello-world/enduser.php and clicking
the "Make an edit" button, /verified at
https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Special:OAuth/verified&oauth_verifier=1234&oauth_token=5678,
and /grants at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:OAuth/grants.

-- 
Brad Jorsch (Anomie)
Software Engineer
Wikimedia Foundation

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