Re: [Wikimedia-l] If you are passionate about world hunger, sustainability and global issues please read this
Wouldn't this fall within the scope of [[WP:Outlines]] already, and therefore doesn't need its sister project? Future developments of Wikidata will make it even easier for such articles on Wikipedia to be updated. On 17 June 2013 19:56, Alex Peek alexpe...@gmail.com wrote: Homepage: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Economic_Map The goal of this project is to improve public understanding economic data and serve public administration. It's time that we create a standardized model that everyone can understand and relate to. Given the challenges that our world faces today, our civilization must realize the economic reality that we live in. Global warming, world hunger, education and unemployment are all economic issues that require a new perspective. The voting public must be provided the materials to properly allocate resources. We can end world hunger with foreign aid. We can create a modern day renaissance by building schools around the world. We should put more public money RD into renewable energies and create a cheaper alternative. The world must understand wake up to the reality. This format can be repeated for all 196 countries, every locality and city. There can also be a standardized format for every company (model does not exist yet). Countries ranked by 2011 GDP 1. United States: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mcnabber091/Economy_of_the_United_States 2. China: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mcnabber091/Economy_of_China 3. Japan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mcnabber091/Economy_of_Japan 4. Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mcnabber091/Economy_of_Germany 5. France: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mcnabber091/Economy_of_France 6. Brazil: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mcnabber091/Economy_of_Brazil 7. United Kingdom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mcnabber091/Economy_of_the_United_Kingdom 8. Italy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mcnabber091/Economic_summary_of_Italy 9. India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mcnabber091/Economic_summary_of_India 10. Russia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mcnabber091/Economic_summary_of_Russia ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] SOPA related bill in Taiwan
So will there be a Wikipedia blackout? PS. June 4 is the perfect date for such protests :) On 3 June 2013 23:42, Tilman Bayer tba...@wikimedia.org wrote: The EFF reports that this announcement by Taiwanese Wikimedians does appear to have had an effect: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/taiwanese-users-thwart-government-plans-introduce-internet-blacklist-law Taiwanese users were going to stage an Internet black out on Tuesday June 4th. Several websites, including Wikipedia Taiwan and Mozilla Taiwan pledged to go dark in order to raise awareness. ... After several news outlets reported that the new initiative was akin to mainland China’s “Great Firewall,” the Taiwanese intellectual property office made an effort to reject the comparison ... In the face of these criticisms and the planned blackout, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office abandoned this severe copyright law. On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 6:43 AM, Ted Chien hsiangtai.ch...@gmail.com wrote: My dear colleagues, Recently on May 21 the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office has announced that they will amend the Copyright Act to demand local ISPs to block illegal contents on foreign websites, just like the SOPA bill in USA last year. For more information, you can read the following news reports: Focus Taiwan: http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aall/201305210035.aspx ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com/cn/taiwans-copyright-act-amendment-proposal-comes-under-fire-715943/ Now there are many Taiwan netizens protesting the bill: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/05/26/netizens-fear-copyright-amendment-will-bring-web-filter-system-to-taiwan/ But today we just see an news that TIPO just ignored these protests and insist that this bill will not harm the net freedom and rights of general users: http://newtalk.tw/news/2013/05/28/36854.html (it's in Chinese, you may use Google translate to read the news.) Indeed we should protect the copyright, but to ask ISPs to block websites is too over-reaction. We Wikimedia Taiwan is now against the bill and has just released an Chinese announcement on our official website to explain why we against the bill and ask the government to stop the act: http://bit.ly/ZbvTX0 We also started an discussion on zh.wp to ask the community if we could put the announcement as an global site notice, we even think about blackout zh.wp for 24 hours (the date is still in discussion): http://goo.gl/fXi8g This is because according to Alexa.com (http://Alexa.com), Wikipedia is now the top 10 website in Taiwan. To blackout Wikipedia in Taiwan should get the attention of TIPO and has some effects. My questions are: * Could we ask for blackout Wikipedia (not just zh.wp) ONLY for Taiwan IP? (Some users from China hope this blackout will not effect them) * If we could not blackout Wikipedia only for Taiwan IP, could we ask to blackout zh.wp? (from what we have discussed on zh.wp, the Chinese community has agreed on such blackout, but the date is still on discussion) * If we could implement such blackout, how soon it can be done? * What suggestions from you that we should do as an local Chapter? Thanks and Regards, Ted Chien Chairman Wikimedia Taiwan -- Blog: htttp://htchien.tw (http://htchien.tw/) Facebook: http://facebook.com/htchien Twitter: http://twitter.com/htchien LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/htchien ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list 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 ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [Wikimania-l] Proposed prohibition of local uploads and deletion of non-free-licence working documents of Wikimedia events
Following this discussion up, I've proposed an exemption doctrine policy for Meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Exemption_doctrine_policy On 29 May 2013 17:24, Nathan nawr...@gmail.com wrote: Crossed to Wikimedia-l, see Deryck's e-mail below. On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 11:53 AM, Deryck Chan deryckc...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Wikimania community, There are currently two discussions on Meta which will have a fundamental impact on the technical logistics of all future Wikimania bids. As many of you would know, working documents of Wikimania bids, such as letters of support and venue information, are conventionally uploaded to Meta locally because they don't come with a Commons-compatible free licence. However, currently there's no explicit exemption doctrine policy on Meta, so two discussions are ongoing, with the aim of deleting all Wikimania-related non-free files which have been uploaded in the past years[1], and to ban future uploads of non-free media to Meta including Wikimedia events' working documents[2]. [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Requests_for_deletion#All_files_in_Category:Unfree_Wikimania_bid_media_files [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Babel#Restrict_or_abolish_local_file_uploading_to_Meta-Wiki Since this would mean future Wikimania bids may not include copies of third-party working documents on Meta, these proposals will change the logistics of Wikimania bids completely. I therefore urge all of you to scrutinise the proposed changes and comment as appropriate. Deryck WM2013 local team PS. To those of you who also run chapters: the proposed changes will mean that chapter financial statements may not be uploaded to / will be deleted from WMF-hosted wikis since they're have an implicit no-derivative requirement. ___ Wikimania-l mailing list wikimani...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l ___ Wikimania-l mailing list wikimani...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikivoyage logo
MZM, This time misses the point of risk management - it's all probabilistic rather than deterministic. It is totally reasonable for WMF to have judged that the differences between the two logos are large enough that a trademark claim is sufficiently *unlikely* to happen. But outliers do occur and in this case WTO chose (against perceived odds) to make a claim. And it's totally reasonable, too, for the WMF to now judge that the risks of going to court about this logo isn't worth fighting. Saying that WMF must've made a mistake last time because they allowed the logo in the first place but then gave in on the trademark claim simply misses the point. Deryck (Putting his engineer hat on. Ironically engineers typically fight against, not defend, lawyers when they invoke arguments from statistical science.) On 1 Jun 2013 15:22, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: Craig Franklin wrote: I'm sure that the legal team has done their homework on this and would not have made this recommendation unless they felt that the WTO had a credible argument. Asking the Foundation to play chicken with the lawyers of a major international organisation over a trademark claim on a relatively new and easily replaced logo of ours does not offer a very good risk/reward ratio in my view. You mean has done their homework on this this time, right? The General Counsel position is one of the oldest in the Wikimedia Foundation and the Legal and Community Advocacy team certainly existed before the previous Wikivoyage logo contest. If this were an issue, you'd think someone would've said something six months ago. And, of course, there's no shortage of trademark, patent, or copyright trolls in the world. I've seen both logos and while they're obviously similar, I'm sure there are a great number of lawyers who could make a number of arguments as to why there's no real issue here. Anyone can send a cease and desist letter, right? Presenting a logo selection procedure from a black box and then trying to pressure the community to accept it as global policy within ten days doesn't seem appropriate to me. Ten days is being very generous, as the draft procedure is only fully translated into two languages at the moment and we're fast approaching June 2. There are also at least a few Wikivoyagers who are concerned that the active participants of Wikivoyage weren't properly enfranchised during the last logo contest. That is, there's a concern that the people most involved with Wikivoyage will get drowned out by the much larger Wikimedia community in any contest of this nature. This needs further thought, deliberation, and discussion; however this is being rushed by an apparently hard deadline from the Wikimedia legal team to change the Wikivoyage logo no later than July 31. This isn't a great situation to be in. I would think some of these issues would be of concern to you. This isn't about asking anyone to play chicken. It's about ensuring that communities are free to choose their own identity. MZMcBride ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Approval of Wikimedians of Nepal user group
Congratulations Ganesh and the Nepal team! Are there plans to move on and transition to an incorporated Wikimedia chapter? Deryck On 30 May 2013 17:32, Bence Damokos bdamo...@gmail.com wrote: Dear all, I am happy to inform you that the Affiliations Committee has approved the recognition of a Wikimedia User Group today: Wikimedians of Nepal. Please join me in welcoming this new group into the fold of Wikimedia entities, and let's celebrate their success and hard work as Wikipedia turns eleven in Nepal! == Wikimedians of Nepal == Wikimedians of Nepal http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Nepal is a group of enthusiastic Nepali Wikimedians working towards developing and promoting Wikimedia projects in Nepal. They've been actively working to help expand the community, launch projects in more languages of Nepal and promote and support the existing ones. The group is working towards chapterhood, and have a good chance of attaining that status this year. Granting them user group recognition allows the movement to express its appreciation for their hard work even while they are working on the bureaucratic aspects of meeting the requirements of chapterhood. The timing is fortuitous in that the group is going to mark the 11th anniversary of Wikipedia in a Nepali language on 3 June, next Monday. Ganesh, the group's interim president has been invited to this year's Milan conference, where he gave a comprehensive overview of the group's history, its projects (including a successful 'wikiwomen programme) and its ambitions. The slides are at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/WMNepal_WMC_2013.pdf The Affiliations Committee's recognition http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Wikimedians_of_Nepal_-_May_2013 is valid until 28 May 2014, or until they are recognized as a chapter. == Wikimedia User Groups == Wikimedia User Groups are one of the three new types of affiliations created last year to empower volunteers wanting to conduct offline work and provide them recognition from the Wikimedia movement. User group status is meant to be an easy form of affiliation, where the main requirements are an agreed goal, plans for offline work, at least three people participating and a public wiki page with all the relevant information). Under the movement roles recommendations http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_affiliation_models/User_Groups , user groups are to be recognized in a quick and easy process directly by the Affiliations Committee, for a fixed, renewable time-period and they are to enjoy limited trademark use and simplified access to grants. Best regards, Bence Damokos Chair, Affiliatons Committee ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Thoughts on Admin Rights on WMF Wiki (and other things)
On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 10:58 AM, Bence Damokos bdamo...@gmail.com wrote: Personally I think this line of the conversation (people resigning/fired) is taking the situation a bit too far. At the least not having volunteers administer the WMF's wiki is just punishment already. It seems that the WMF is unlikely to change its policy, so the best they can do to heal the hurt caused by their action is to apologise (and perhaps explain their reasons), which they have done. If they had restored the admin rights, that would have healed some part of the hurt but not all of it, and the affected volunteers would still have the option to punish the WMF by not caring about their wiki (i.e. the same situation the WMF has chosen for itself). Apart from this tit-for-tat satisfaction and giving enough time to heal and restore the trusts and relationships, I do not think that further debating this decision would lead to any good results. I have the feeling that we will not get more satisfactory answers as the line of questioning going on creates a situation where the WMF can only defend themselves - I am sure they have shared their best arguments that can be published and the harder they are pushed the more likely they are going to scramble to make up further reasons (instead of either changing the decision or admitting that they had no better reasons) a situation that is unlikely to improve the situation in the way the questioners hope.[1] I would recommend for those personally hurt by the WMF's decision to accept the WMF's apology, stay in the movement but if they feel any satisfaction in it, mete out the punishment of not caring about the WMF's wiki, and move on. The people working at the WMF are multidimensional persons, one mistake does not define them and I am sure the existing relationships will be healed through other channels of interaction and working together. For those of us who were not hurt (this time), I think it would be helpful if we moved the discussions towards more constructive areas: for example, helping come up with some guidelines on community-WMF interactions, including suggestions on best timing of news and the appropriate level and venue of consultations before major decisions, and making sure this kind of training is provided to WMF employees. Best regards, Bence [1] It is just an intuition, but I fear that this property of some questions (their pre-coded response) can be lowering the quality of some of the other community review discussions (FDC, GAC, AffCom) that rely on the QA format. Yes. Because ten years ago the community set WMF's agenda. But nowadays WMF staff sets the community's agenda and presents them as a done deal. Hurtful examples from the last year or two are now springing into my mind like a fountain. Deryck ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Some interesting thing about our friend User:Shujenchang
Addis: 从我来看，事情大概已经解决了，没必要小题大做。家丑不出外扬。在一个这么公开的环境里面谈论中文维基百科的小事，实在不适合。 翘仔 On 18 May 2013 19:30, AddisWang addiswan...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Everyone There may be no reason for me to post a Blocking Notification to the mail list, but this thing will absolutely let you feel shocked which I think it's necessary to reveal what kind of people working with us, and even making important decision. User:Shujenchang, as know as User:ZH979433, who announced to quit the Chinese Wikipedia after local CheckUsers were elected. But coincidentally, the person who was strongly against the the ZHWP has local CheckUser, was checked and blocked for his disgusting and abominable behavior. User:Shujenchang stole his ex-boyfriend's Wikipedia account and vandalize Wikipedia because of the broken relationship. By considering his announcement that forever quit ZHWP, User:BenMQ only blocked him in one month to warning. People will lose control in sometimes, it might be too unfriendly if presuming his moral quality only by this. When we thought User: Shujenchang will leave ZHWP and things turn to good, another crazy thing happened. User:Shujenchang post personal attacks on his ex-boyfriend by using the account of User:Ltdccba when Ltdccba went to the restroom and left his laptop. By using others' trust, User:Shujenchang framed the person who took him as friend. Was checked twice, I finally understand why User:Shujenchang tried to stop the election of local CheckUser. His account was blocked right now by User:BenMQ. But this friend still try to do something on Wikimedia. Please be aware of this thing, who knows who is next EX or next Ltdccba. The first Blocking Notification: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Shujenchang#Blocking_Notification_on_ZHWP Meta User Page: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Shujenchang Voting Members of the Wikimania 2014 Jury: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014_jury Blocking information on zhwp: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:%E5%B0%81%E7%A6%81%E7%94%A8%E6%88%B7/ZH979433 User:Ltdccba's explanation: https://zh.wikipedia.org/?oldid=26580664#.E8.AF.B7.E4.B8.8D.E8.A6.81.E4.BB.BF.E7.85.A7IP.E7.94.A8.E6.88.B7.E7.AD.BE.E5.90.8D Sorry if disturbing! Best Wishes! Addis Wang ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board candidates page: please set as a subject of translation
Hello. Meta now supports automatic conversion between different regional variants of standard Chinese. Can someone disable translation to zh-hans, zh-hant, zh-hk, and zh-tw? Otherwise we'll end up with 4 redundant translations. On 14 May 2013 17:38, Benjamin Chen bencmqw...@gmail.com wrote: Hi guys, Before I saw the reply, I went ahead and tagged the page for translation, including Francis's statement. I have learnt and realised that it wasn't the best idea to translate that part just yet. Thanks Thehelpfulone, I've reverted that section. Sorry. The other parts of the two new statements are ready for translation. Regards, Benjamin Chen / [[User:Bencmq]] On 15 May, 2013, at 12:26 AM, Thehelpfulone thehelpfulonew...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Takashi, Thanks for the reminder. I saw that Francis had his statement trimmed by Philippe in his capacity as a Board Election Committee member because it was over the character limit so decided not to mark it for translation until he had the opportunity to rewrite it, so as to not waste the valuable time of translators. I also waited to mark Jeromy's candidacy for translation as he was making a couple of changes the other day but just confirmed with him that he has finished making tweaks to his statement. If the election committee don't get round to it, I'll mark Jeromy's statement for translation later today but will follow up with Francis before making his statement for translation - I don't think it's fair for translators to translate a statement that could be considerably tweaked (and would need re-translating). --- Thehelpfulone https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone On 14 May 2013, at 16:05, Takashi OTA supertakot+foundatio...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, Could anybody (maybe admin on meta) set recent changes of the board candidates page as a subject to translation, so that we can translate candidacies of Francis and Jeromy-Yu with the translation tool? http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/Board_elections/2013/Candidates --Takashi ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] AffComs $40,000 Hong Kong junket
In such resolutions, one always budget for the maximum plausible cost and then underspend. It is rather unhelpful to look at the budgeted amount and shout at it as if it's the actual amount spent. PS. Jealous? Run for the forthcoming elections. Winners of those elections also get to travel to Hong Kong for Wikimania 2013, expenses paid for by WMF. I look forward to seeing you in Hong Kong :) On 13 May 2013 20:30, Russavia russavia.wikipe...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, It recently came to my attention by way of this blog by Odder (http://twkozlowski.net/how-40k-dollars-turned-to-petty-cash/) that the AffCom approved a $40,000 budget to send 9 of their members to HKG in August (the 10th member lives in HKG). The issue was raised at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Affiliations_Committee#.2440.2C000_Hong_Kong_junket.3F (I see the words transparent being used there a lot). The budget request resolution was then published a http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Budget_request_for_2013_annual_meeting_%E2%80%93_April_2013 - discussion has carried on at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Budget_request_for_2013_annual_meeting_%E2%80%93_April_2013 What we are seeing is that there is a lot evasive answers, with questions not really being answered. After asking about accommodation, it's been advised that AffCom is basically budgeting approximately US$12,600 towards accommodation (based upon NINE single rooms for 7 nights at a cost of $200 per night). This, I feel, is an outrageous amount of money to be spending. There is no reason that twin rooms can not be used (i.e. 2 per room); or less luxurious accommodation can be booked. I understand that the guys on AffCom might feel like they are being singled out here, but given that they are members of the community, first and foremost, they should be open to such criticism on their spending. It's unfortunate that none of the 9 feel it necessary to comment there, given all the talk of transparency. Perhaps some gentle nudges from others in the community (especially those involved with Chapter wikipolitics) could get this particular committee to understand that although WMF is flush with cash, this is simply not on. I'll leave other issues which have been raised to others. Odder's latest blog at http://twkozlowski.net/saving-by-spending-according-to-affcom/ might be of interest. Cheers, Russavia ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Go away, community (from WMF wiki at least)
Given the foundation's recent tsunami of centralisation I'm not surprised by this at all. The message is clear - the community doesn't belong here. Go back to meta. I'll be interested to see how long the WMF wiki will last before they hit their first massive technical problem happens and they need to call in a volunteer to fix it. Deryck On 11 May 2013 12:15, K. Peachey p858sn...@gmail.com wrote: This is the email that got sent out to everyone, --- Dear XXX, Thank you for your work with the Foundation wiki. At this time, we are formalizing a new requirement, which is that administrator access is given only to staff and board. I am having administrator access to accounts that are neither staff or board be disabled, effective immediately. Sincerely, Gayle -- Gayle Karen K. Young Chief Talent and Culture Officer Wikimedia Foundation 415.310.8416 www.wikimediafoundation.org --- Gayle's response (which was the first time she has edited the wiki in ~5 months[2]) seems lacking[1] in general and the subsequent responses about knowing what these people do on the wiki Another interesting fact is that Mz got desysoped first, When you would expect it to be done in alphabetically order. We've been discussing this for awhile, and the thought is that it's ultimately the Foundation's web presence, not the community's web presence. A useful parallel to consider might be how userrights are given to staffers on the community wikis; they're distributed as and when they're needed for a specific task. Um, Rights for staff on wikis are given out like candy?, although not as much thee days but it still happens. Also, How is the foundation wiki not apart of the community? Has the position of the legal department changed? or the boards? just randomly changing without any imput or discussions seems utlimately strange. since it is actually their wiki (just like everything else that falls under the foundation) [1]. https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?diff=91857oldid=91855#Users_stripped_of_rights.3F [2]. https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AContributionstarget=Gyoung [3]. https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:Log/rights ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone
On 30 April 2013 09:48, Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.org wrote: Yes I read your reply, but you keep stating we want, that is not that same as together with the grant giver we agreed… I cannot overstate the importance of the difference between the two… People don't instantly agree on everything. There is always something the WMF grants team can disagree with anyone, if they so choose to. I'm referring to the sequence of events here (grant report accepted, then eligibility announced, then suddenly disqualification happened because the settlement of remaining funds hasn't been agreed to), not the nature. We all agree that the leftover grant funds eventually need to be settled by an agreement between WMF and WMHK. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone
On 30 April 2013 10:22, Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.org wrote: Hey Florence On Apr 30, 2013, at 1:12 AM, Florence Devouard anthe...@yahoo.com wrote: Le 4/30/13 12:04 AM, Nathan a écrit : It's not logical to assume that because the WMF has funds it should in some way equitably distribute those funds around the world. What happens to the idea according to which the funds belong to the Wikimedia mouvement rather than to Wikimedia Foundation ? Please note that you are disagreeing with Nathan, not with others (like me and as far as I know the entire board) who have supported the idea of the FDC because it is a great way to ensure that the funds are distributed amongst the movement in the interest of the movement. The funds are those of the movement, and although we might disagree on how the funds are divided we agree on that. I am happy to see that the FDC as a body (and the community review process as a important addition) ensures much more transparent processes. Supporting chapter operations, and funding offices and staff in dozens of countries, is not the chief object of the money raised from donors. We need to get away from the belief that chapters are unquestionably the best use of movement resources. There is a place for outreach, publicity, and targeted educational programs. But the WMF is best situated to supplement the efforts begun by volunteers, in the same way the WMF itself was created and has grown. I would object to the idea that WMF is best situated to supplement efforts started by volunteers and that statement parts from the decision made some months ago to deflate WMF role. But we may agree to disagree on this. I would agree with you here. I think that the WMF is in a good position to help certain initiatives and that in several cases there are better alternatives. This is why I am so excited about chapters helping chapters and all affiliations being able to join the wikimedia conference in Milan this year. It is that kind of exchange of experience which is perfect for all involved, and lets remember that what works for some might not work for others. Additionnaly... I must add that when WMF was precisely at the current stage of most chapters (with no staff and no office), it was run in a rather creative fashion that would make everyone cough today in comparison to the requirements and obligations made mandatory to chapters. Uh. You may have a slightly more ideal view of the past :) True, but just because things used to be bad is no reason that they should be bad now if we can prevent it (I was there with you, and we are both happy that we outgrew that phase with a minimal of damage and a LOT of luck in finding the right ED) the scale of the organisation now makes it impossible to tolerate that kind of creativity when not absolutely necessary. It would be a poor use of movement funds indeed if the WMF decided to pour money into infant chapters with minimal development and fuzzy strategic goals. That's a recipe for, at an absolute minimum, good-faith mismanagement and waste of scarce donor resources. Avoiding this path was a very wise decision by the trustees, and I only hope they remain resolute despite criticism and Sue's impending departure. I mostly hope that they stay consistant with their own past decisions (=we were sold the fact that the money collected belong to the mouvement, not to the entity collecting it. If so, decisions of allocations should not become WMF ones). Agreed, which is why I think the FDC's advice is so important and I hope to never have to question it (although the board does have to have a final say in these matters as a matter of governance) In any cases... I know not if WM HK should have been funded or not. What I know is that the mouvement need happy and rested and humanly treated volunteers to stay healthy. True, but volunteers also have to ensure not to force themselves into positions of make or break and thereby put themselves at risk. We keep talking about editors decrease. Maybe in the future, we'll talk about irl volunteers (as in chapter members) decrease as well. I think we should, and I think that some of that discussion took place in Milan. As we know there are different kind of volunteers who organise affiliates (because the problem is not limited to chapters) and it takes different ways to keep motivated. These are important topics to discuss and keep track of. But lets not fall into the trap of blaming the big bureaucratic body of the WMF for all the problems we have. Volunteers burn out because of lots of reasons and we should all take care to fix those problems that are within our reach to control, and try to reduce the risk of burnout for all those involved (and again: meeting each other physically and exchanging experiences is a really good way of recharging)... In the past years, we have seen
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone
On 29 April 2013 12:32, Craig Franklin cfrank...@halonetwork.net wrote: I'd like to come back to this - if the entity was told they were eligible (which certainly looks to be the case from the public documents), when was it discovered they were not? When the FDC recommendations were published. (see my reply to THO) Obviously, putting together an FDC application is a tremendous amount of work for a chapter, and if the effort was futile from the start, then the time that Deryck and WMHK put into this could have been better spent on useful programme work instead. Or, ironically, putting together a reallocation grant. Here's another hen-and-egg problem for you all. We saw little value in settling the remaining funds from the 2010-11 grants because the FDC results will change everything anyway. Ironically the WMF and FDC became convinced that this is a valid reason to retrospectively disqualify us. Cheers, Craig Franklin On 29 April 2013 17:25, Thehelpfulone thehelpfulonew...@gmail.com wrote: On 29 Apr 2013, at 07:52, Tilman Bayer tba...@wikimedia.org wrote: I'm not familiar with the case, but reading that page, it seems that https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:WM_HK/Education_Toolkits_For_Liberal_Studies/Report#Remaining_funds might also have played a role for the FDC's recommendation? Indeed, yet it looks like there has been no (public) follow up by the paid WMF grants staff for over a month. In addition, https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/Wikimedia_Hong_KongshowsWMHK to still be an eligible entity. Winifred/Asaf, please can you clarify whether WMHK is still an eligible entity and what follow up was done after that message a month ago? --- Thehelpfulone https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Re: Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone
We have replied multiple times that we want the remaining funds from the 2010-11 grants to be considered in conjunction with the FDC proposal. (ie. the FDC proposal is the reallocation request.) This is because it is logistically impractical for us to return any funds to WMF before the end of Wikimania. Winifred informed us of the out of compliance well after the grant report was accepted and the FDC eligibility of WMHK was announced. *There was no indication whatsoever that this late notice of out of compliance may lead to retrospective disqualification.* Deryck (cc. Patricio and Jan-Bart as the official contacts for FDC complaints. Yes, I'm accusing WMF grants staff of foul play with the FDC rules.) On 29 April 2013 12:50, Thehelpfulone thehelpfulonew...@gmail.com wrote: Deryck please could you confirm what happened with regards to the unused funds - did WMHK request a reallocation? Sent from my iPhone --- Thehelpfulone https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone On 29 Apr 2013, at 12:43, Deryck Chan deryckc...@wikimedia.hk wrote: -- Forwarded message -- From: Deryck Chan deryckc...@gmail.com Date: 29 Apr 2013 12:42 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone To: cfrank...@halonetwork.net Cc: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org See the footnotes on the FDC decision page. Both WMHK and WMCZ were declared eligible at the time of submission, but the WMF subsequently found new faults during the review period which they chose to use as convenient excuses to disqualify these 2 chapters. On 29 Apr 2013 12:33, Craig Franklin cfrank...@halonetwork.net wrote: I'd like to come back to this - if the entity was told they were eligible (which certainly looks to be the case from the public documents), when was it discovered they were not? Obviously, putting together an FDC application is a tremendous amount of work for a chapter, and if the effort was futile from the start, then the time that Deryck and WMHK put into this could have been better spent on useful programme work instead. Cheers, Craig Franklin On 29 April 2013 17:25, Thehelpfulone thehelpfulonew...@gmail.com wrote: On 29 Apr 2013, at 07:52, Tilman Bayer tba...@wikimedia.org wrote: I'm not familiar with the case, but reading that page, it seems that https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:WM_HK/Education_Toolkits_For_Liberal_Studies/Report#Remaining_funds might also have played a role for the FDC's recommendation? Indeed, yet it looks like there has been no (public) follow up by the paid WMF grants staff for over a month. In addition, https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FDC_portal/Proposals/2012-2013_round2/Wikimedia_Hong_KongshowsWMHKto still be an eligible entity. Winifred/Asaf, please can you clarify whether WMHK is still an eligible entity and what follow up was done after that message a month ago? --- Thehelpfulone https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] Resignation announcement, and a parting remark to everyone
Dear trusty Wikimedians, The FDC decisions are out on Sunday. Despite my desperate attempts to assist WMHK's board to keep up with deadlines and comply with seemingly endless requests from WMF grantmaking and FDC support staff, we received an overwhelmingly negative assessment which resulted in a complete rejection of our FDC proposal. At this point, I believe it's an appropriate time for me to announce my resignation and retirement from all my official Wikimedia roles - as Administrative Assistant and WCA Council Member of WMHK. I will carry out my remaining duties as a member of Wikimania 2013 local team. My experience with the FDC process, and the outcome of it, has convinced me that my continued involvement will simply be a waste of my own time, and of little benefit to WMHK and the Wikimedia movement as a whole. My experience with the FDC process has confirmed my ultimate scepticism about the WMF's direction of development. WMF has become so conservative with its strategies and so led into mainstream charity bureaucracy that it is no longer tending to the needs of the wider Wikimedia movement. My experience with the FDC process has shown me that WMF is expecting fully professional deliverables which require full-time professional staff to deliver, from organisations run by volunteers who are running Wikimedia chapters not because they're charity experts, but because they love Wikimedia. My experience with the FDC process has demonstrated to me that WMF is totally willing to perpetuate the hen-and-egg problem of the lack of staff manpower and watch promising initiatives dwindle into oblivion. WMHK isn't even a new chapter. We've been incorporated and recognised by WMF since 2007. Our hen-and-egg problem isn't new either. We've been vocal about the fact that our volunteer force is exhausted, and can't do any better without funding for paid staff and an office since 2010. Our request for office funding was rejected. The year after, our request to become a payment-processing chapter was rejected. The year after, we've got Wikimania (perhaps because WMF fortunately doesn't have too much to do with the bidding process), which gave us hope that we might finally be helped to professionalise. But it came to nothing - this very week our FDC request was rejected. And the reason? Every time the response from WMF was, effectively, we aren't good enough therefore we won't get help to do any better. We don't have professional staff to help us comply with the endless and ever-changing professional reporting criteria, therefore we can't be trusted to hire the staff to do precisely that. My dear friends and trusty Wikimedians, do you now understand the irony and the frustration? Wikimedia didn't start off as a traditional charity. It is precisely because of how revolutionary our mission and culture are, that we as a movement have reached where we are today. A few movement entities, particularly the WMF, managed to expand and take on the skin of a much more traditional charity. But most of us are still youthful Wikimedia enthusiasts who are well-versed with Wikimedia culture, but not with charity governance. Imposing a professional standard upon a movement entity as a prerequisite of giving it help to professionalise, is like judging toddlers by their full marathon times. Is this what we want Wikimedia to become? To turn from a revolutionary idea to a charity so conservative that it would rather perpetuate a chicken-and-egg problem than support long-awaited growth? I threw in days and days of effort in the last few years, often at the peril of my degree studies, with the wishful thinking that one day the help will come to let WMHK and all the other small but well-established chapters professionalise. I was wrong. With the FDC process hammering the final nail into my scepticism about where WMF and the movement is heading, I figured that with a degree in environmental engineering from Cambridge my life will be much better spent helping other worthy causes than wasting days on Wikimedia administration work only to have them go unappreciated time and time again. But I feel that it is necessary for me to leave a parting message to my fellow Wikimedians, a stern warning about where I see our movement heading. I feel that we're losing our character and losing our appreciation for volunteers, in particular the limitations of volunteer effort. I leave you all with a final thought from Dan Pallotta: charitable efforts will never grow if we continue to be so adverse about overheads and staffing. http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html With Wiki-Love, Deryck PS. I wish there was an appropriate private mailing list for me to send this to. Unfortunately, most of the important WMF stakeholders aren't subscribed to internal-l, and most veteran chapters folks know what I want to say already. I just hope that trolls wouldn't blow this out of proportion. Or perhaps I do
Re: [Wikimedia-l] New design for the list info page?
You mean, there is a cabal-l? How I wish I was invited! ;-) On 17 April 2013 21:30, Thehelpfulone thehelpfulonew...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, Last week I noticed a nice design for the list info page of the WLM-US mailing list that I tweaked for this mailing list: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/cabal-l What do you think? Mentally replace all instance of cabal-l with wikimedia-l and compare to https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l. Unfortunately Mailman only seems to allow this change to be made for the English version of the page, so if you try to view the page in another language, you'll still get the standard list info page. Any objections to changing it? -- Thehelpfulone https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] xkcd collecting donations for WMF?
As a side note, the first panel of the comic also openly calls its readers to edit war over certain articles. On 1 April 2013 20:22, Manuel Schneider manuel.schnei...@wikimedia.chwrote: Did you see this April's Fool Day comic on xkcd, with an interactivly growing dog: The dog gains a pound for every $10 donated to the Wikimedia Foundation via this link. http://xkcd.org/ Is this real? How can it tell how much has been donated to WMF through this comic? I see that there is a special campaign reference in the donation link but how can it fetch the amount? Has there been any cooperation / negotiation between Randall Munroe and the WMF beforehand? /Manuel -- Wikimedia CH - Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens Lausanne, +41 (21) 34066-22 - www.wikimedia.ch ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Adopt a page
Because we've decided that [[WP:Ownership of articles]] is wrong, and wronger if there's financial sponsorship involved. On 29 March 2013 22:36, Strainu strain...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, I've just seen an OTRS ticket asking why isn't Wikipedia giving its pages for adoption (like when you adopt a page and your name ends up on its cage or something like that). I've moved the ticket to the donations queue, but I was wondering if this has ever been discussed/considered before. Thanks, Strainu ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation's non-disclosure agreement
On Mar 7, 2013 8:11 AM, Keegan Peterzell keegan.w...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 5:22 PM, Katie Chan k...@ktchan.info wrote: On 06/03/2013 23:00, MZMcBride wrote: Out of curiosity, if you sign an NDA as a volunteer, what is the disclosure period, then? Is it indefinite? Disclosure period? If you mean how long the party is bound by the agreement, then it'll depends on the exact agreement. For things like personally identifiable information, it will be forever which is kinda the point of having the NDA in the first place. KTC My NDA, signed 7 November 2011, is for three years. I found the copy. Same for mine, except for personally identifying information, which is forever. James Salsman: There are no terms about disparaging information or anything like that. Save it for another thread, please. -- ~Keegan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Foundation's non-disclosure agreement
As far as I know, NDAs are primarily for protecting people's privacy. I signed a WMF NDA because I'll be reviewing Wikimania scholarships, and I'll see the real names and nationalities etc of many Wikimedia volunteers who attend Wikimania but still try to keep their RL identity separate from their Wikimedia usernames. On Mar 6, 2013 4:43 PM, Sarah Stierch sarah.stie...@gmail.com wrote: Just a quick note - while I was a fellow, I don't remember signing a NDA. I think people who did surveys had to (researchers, staff members, whatever) depending on the type of information they'd be gathering from people. Or, of course, the type of database you'd be given access too (i.e. it makes sense that maybe someone from analytics or grantmaking depending on the role would have to sign an NDA versus someone from the education program). Most organizations don't walk around releasing their NDA's. In fact, I don't know a single organization that would engage people to do so. And even though WMF is WMF, I don't think it's bad for it to hold onto some professional practices like that. It's common practice, in the States, for non and for profits to do. I always thought it was funny that NDA's existed at WMF just because of the openness, but, at the same time, it's industry standard and doesn't phase me. People should be glad WMF has one. -Sarah On 3/5/13 11:34 PM, K. Peachey wrote: On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 5:11 PM, MZMcBride z...@mzmcbride.com wrote: ... As far as I know the relevant issue is that anyone who has access to private personal information of users needs to sign an agreement that they will not share that information. This definition doesn't seem to include CheckUsers, oversighters, OTRS volunteers and OTRS administrators, wiki administrators, and many others, so I'm not sure it's accurate. (OTRS Wise) That may be a historical thing and queue dependant, I know the gentlemen from OTRS (Martin?) had to sign one before he could start work on updating the foundation's install __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l -- *Sarah Stierch* */Museumist and open culture advocate/* Visit sarahstierch.com http://sarahstierch.com __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimania 2013 scholarship now accepting application
No, because you haven't described what you're bringing :) On the other hand, a detailed, grammatically correct description of stroopwafels will almost certainly gain full marks for the English ability criterion. (And perhaps a bonus for interest in Wikimania if you make a good case) On 18 February 2013 09:52, Lodewijk lodew...@effeietsanders.org wrote: oh... so replying with I will bring my own food wasn't such a good idea after all? ;-) 2013/2/18 Liam Wyatt liamwy...@gmail.com On Monday, 18 February 2013, Abbas Mahmood wrote: From: liamwy...@gmail.com javascript:; Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:47:06 + To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org javascript:; Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimania 2013 scholarship now accepting application Hong Kong is an international gourmet paradise. Please use less than 200 words to describe your favourite dish of food. Is this an English-language test? Or, is this to help determine the best catering options? Or something else? +1 to what Liam asked. I honestly don't understand the premise of that question in the scholarship application form. Abbas. Upon further questioning I was informed that: This question is referring to the selection criteria #4 Fluency of English language. So... Apparently this is where you are expected to write something that convinces people you have a firm grasp of English. Unfortunately, this is a written test, not an oral test - because an oral test might be quite useful. I know many people from my own country and other English-native-speaking countries that are officially literate but when asked to speak in a formal setting (or even semi-formal situation like Wikimania) are incapable of clear enunciation, diction, grammar, intonation, accent and speed. Certainly, they can be understood by *other* native English speakers but they have no concept of how difficult it is for non-native speakers to understand them. Perhaps a mandatory class for native speakers before the conference entitled: Speak English, like, more good 'n stuff for all y'all. Mmm'kay? -- wittylama.com Peace, love metadata ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Outcome of Wikimedia board discussion on the Chapters Association
On 5 February 2013 15:30, Ilario Valdelli valde...@gmail.com wrote: On 05.02.2013 16:18, Dariusz Jemielniak wrote: there's nothing to pick up so far. The FDC has not held any meetings since (obviously), and it generally operates within the mandate given by the Board (which makes all decisions, FDC is only making recommendations). I Strange world that of Wikimedia where everyone makes recommendations to someone and for something. Sorry, is it possible to identify in this strange world the key decision makers? Ilario Sue. [/me shuts up and hides] ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Blog: Virtual Learning Environment
There is also some work being conducted to investigate ways of writing a modification to Moodle to allow HTML to be imported from wiki pages to directly, providing a transclusion function. This sentence looks somewhat awkward... On 11 January 2013 15:41, Stevie Benton stevie.ben...@wikimedia.org.ukwrote: Hello everyone, I hope you're having an enjoyable Friday. I wanted to drop you a line to let you know about a blog that Wikimedia UK published today at http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/01/virtual-learning-environment-making-good-progress/ It's about our Virtual Learning Environment, providing an update on how the work is progressing and detailing some next steps. I hope you find it interested and do let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. Thanks and regards, Stevie -- Stevie Benton Communications Organiser Wikimedia UK+44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173 @StevieBenton Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.* ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] proposed urgent Board of Trustees resolution without a meeting
Wait, fundraising is finishing early this year? Last time I heard anything, the storytelling team is still desperately scrambling new appeals to try out within this fundraiser. Correct me if I'm misinformed. Deryck On Dec 24, 2012 6:00 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com wrote: On Dec 24, 2012 6:42 AM, Liam Wyatt liamwy...@gmail.com wrote: Whereas I'm confused. I think it is James that is confused... ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikipedia-l] Sort it
Too often what happens is: I try to help a newbie by email; but before they make much progress another admin comes and blocks them for the damage they've already caused. Obviously the newbie gives up. Suggested technical improvement: create notices like editnotice on the block screen saying Admin xyz is mentoring this newbie - please consult him before you bite. On Oct 26, 2012 1:03 PM, Magnus Manske magnusman...@googlemail.com wrote: As a biologist, I'd say it's the I need to figure this out mentality, which leads to frustration if the system (which you had believed you figured out!) apparently turns against you. My advice here is: That should not happen, but there is so much more to do on Wikipedia; let this specific issue rest, for month or years or forever, and contribute something else. The issue will get sorted, with or without you, eventually. Magnus On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 12:56 PM, Charles Andrès charles.and...@wikimedia.ch wrote: Amir is right, without judging this specific case, the pattern describe here is a problem. Especially the massive revert attitude , it's really a challenge for retaining new specialist editor. Charles ___ Charles ANDRES, Chairman Wikimedia CH – Association for the advancement of free knowledge – www.wikimedia.ch Skype: charles.andres.wmch IRC://irc.freenode.net/wikimedia-ch Le 26 oct. 2012 à 13:43, Amir E. Aharoni amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il a écrit : Shortened, and grossly over-simplified: A biologist wrote some things about biology and they were not challenged. Then he wrote some things about dinosaurs, and they were reverted. If I understood correctly, the reason for the reverts was that it appeared to be original research (WP:NOR). And now the biologist is pissed off, possibly for a good reason, and wants his previous contributions removed, too. This is a story that repeats itself quite often, with surprisingly similar details: an expert does some acceptable things, then doing some things that turn out to rouse controversy, then wanting to retire with a storm. I'm not implying that the expert is bad, absolutely not; I'm just noting a pattern. Whatever the details of the story are, it's not good and it may justify discussion. But as a meta-comment, it should be done on wikien-l or on wikimedia-l, and not on this list, which is called wikipedia-l, but is not active in practice. -- Amir 2012/10/26 Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com TL;DR (Too long; didn't read.) Please provide a summary that makes clear what point you are trying to make... On 26 October 2012 11:55, John Jackson strangetrut...@gmail.com wrote: Greetings – I hope this is a good place to send a weighty message to Wikipedia. You’ll want to read all through. I am a scientist who has always liked the Wikipedia idea, and I like your implementation. Lately I’ve started making contributions. Although I’m a cognitive scientist who taught biological psychology at degree level for several years and have done AI research since the ‘80’s, I’ve diverted for a decade or more to resolve a set of major evolutionary puzzles. Fairly peripheral but within the overall project was an investigation of bird breathing, and I decided to piece together the research into it, and deliver it properly to the public. Trust me, the finer details were obscure. On the way I discovered why penguins’ lungs don’t collapse even at 500m when whales’ lungs collapse by 100m; I found out what the neopulmo did (though not why) and why penguins don’t have it, and I changed our understanding of flow within it; I also resolved the old chestnut of whether birds had counter-current exchange in their lungs. That is, completely discovered, not just for myself. By careful editing and addition including the long overdue diagram the subject needed, I converted the two Wikipedia pages dealing with bird breathing from an incomplete mire to a place of revelation (though the German version needs starting afresh, and Duncker agrees). But it was an honour do so. More central to my overall project was cladogenesis, the heart of palaeontology and just the thing that I, as an MSc in info. sys. engineering would be expected to get into. I’ve written my own clad. software, invented and implemented my own heuristic version, proved the theorem in graph theory that resolves an issue in checking evolutionary trees by time and rooting them, and highlighted a serious statistical fallacy invalidating another major current of work in the time-checking of trees. In these activities I was almost entirely alone as regards other workers in the overall field, since that field, dinobird palaeontology, is notorious for its abuse of the lack of scientific and indeed academic constraint that all historical disciplines are
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikivoyage project launch/migration update
On 17 October 2012 09:16, Amir E. Aharoni amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.ilwrote: 2012/10/17 Strainu strain...@gmail.com: 2012/10/17 Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijs...@gmail.com: This has been discussed in the language committee. In the committee we all agreed that the existing languages for Wikivoyage should start without any interference of us and that new languages should start through the normal process because from now they are just like any other new project in a language. But how about languages already existing in Wikitravel? They already have the content, if not the community. As Gerard said, the existing languages for Wikivoyage should start without any interference. Amir, I think Strainu is referring to languages that exist on Wikitravel but not Wikivoyage. Deryck ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia-blog] [Wikimedia Announcements] Joint statement from Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK
On 28 September 2012 22:39, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com wrote: On Sep 28, 2012 9:45 PM, Nathan nawr...@gmail.com wrote: Wow. I honestly didn't think the conflict of interest issue was this serious. The conflict wasn't that bad, but the very poor handling of it casts serious doubts on how well Wikimedia UK leadership understands its responsibilities and its ability to carry them out. I suspect that is why the wmf has insisted on this. I respectfully disagree. As I see it, the crux of the problem comes not from the WMUK leadership's handling of the situation, but the continuous hounding by outsiders against the Wikimedians involved in the conflict, which from my point of view made it largely impossible for the WMUK board to navigate through the conflict unscathed. Perhaps that means I do agree there's doubt on how much ability WMUK's leadership can deal with the conflict; but I simply don't see how it could've been better handled given the situation WMUK was in. Over the last two years WMF has become increasingly conservative over how payment-processing should work, so much as to cause constant decry from the local chapters, though it still comes as a surprise that WMF is retracting payment-processing from WMUK. I can but guess that WMF is now becoming so overly conservative that they would rather stop supporting local groups altogether than risk the local groups bringing WMF into any trouble, a move which I understand but am very disappointed to see. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Naming for the Travel Guide project
Tom, Thanks for making this offer. The worst that could happen to a Wikimedia competition is, indeed, one that requires money to join. Deryck On Sep 27, 2012 2:15 PM, Thomas Morton morton.tho...@googlemail.com wrote: If anyone has a good idea for a name, but lacks to funds or means to pick it up (and the WMF declines to do so), feel free to get in touch. I am happy to handle the purchase and later transfer (if it wins!) for you :) Hopefully that removes that hurdle :D Tom On 27 September 2012 13:48, Philippe Beaudette phili...@wikimedia.org wrote: Hi Lodewijk, Currently the process is that the suggested name must be owned by the WMF or a volunteer who is willing to transfer it free of charge. Any exceptions would have to be worked out with Kelly and Erik. Thanks, pb ___ Philippe Beaudette Director, Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 415-839-6885, x 6643 phili...@wikimedia.org On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 4:05 AM, Lodewijk lodew...@effeietsanders.org wrote: Thanks Philippe, just as clarification: do I understand correctly that people can only suggest names that are either owned by the WMF or they are willing to invest money to buy the domains for at least the .org and possibly some more? Or would the WMF also be willing to buy/reimburse the domains that would likely be serious candidates? This wasn't entirely clear from the page to me. Best, Lodewijk 2012/9/27 Samuel Klein meta...@gmail.com Thanks for keeping this rolling, Philippe. It's great to see the names turned up already. SJ On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 4:24 AM, Philippe Beaudette phili...@wikimedia.orgwrote: Hi all, The straw poll [1] for the name of the new travel guide project has closed. While there's been strong support for the name Wikivoyage, there have also been strong arguments expressing the desire for a more open-ended process and no overall consensus to go forward without it. The Wikimedia Foundation therefore would like to invite participation in an open process, which is described at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Travel_Guide/Naming_Process , and begins immediately with the submission of suggested names (please note the submission process). Thank you for your participation. Thanks, pb [1] - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Travel_Guide/Naming_straw_poll/en ___ Philippe Beaudette Director, Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 415-839-6885, x 6643 phili...@wikimedia.org ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l -- Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Re: FUDChilling EffectsFiltersOutlawing
-- Forwarded message -- From: Deryck Chan deryckc...@gmail.com Date: Sep 25, 2012 11:59 PM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] FUDChilling EffectsFiltersOutlawing To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org This is old news. This is what we've been protesting against all throughout the SOPA/ACTA related actions. Yes it is alarming, but we've been aware of them for years. On Sep 25, 2012 9:22 PM, ENWP Pine deyntest...@hotmail.com wrote: Some of what that article describes is absurd and would run counter to principles that I think Europe generally supports. I think most of us would agree that the internet can be used for dangerous and fraudulent purposes and that governments have a role in protecting the public from genuine danger and fraud, but those efforts need to be done in a reasonable and balanced way that respects important liberty principles that underpin governments that are of the people, by the people, for the people. I hope that WMF Legal takes a look at this article and evaluates how much of it is truthful. Hopefully that article is more rumor than truth. Pine - Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 10:52:30 +0300 From: Jussi-Ville Heiskanen cimonav...@gmail.com To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**orgwikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimedia-l] FUDChilling EffectsFiltersOutlawing AnonymityUnrestricted Surveillance of the Nets 'Alive and Well in the European Union'!!! Message-ID: CAJ9-**EKJNS9T7tCdFBe4aOYEHQfPuQpYaoO**AiWVVRYYEnV5ZmoA@mail.gmail.**comcaj9-ekjns9t7tcdfbe4aoyehqfpuqpyaooaiwvvryyenv5z...@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 http://www.edri.org/cleanIT I challenge any knowledgeable and clueful person to peruse that above link and not reel back in horror and incredulity... Can somebody either confirm that people in WMF are aware of the above Charlie Foxtrot; or failing that, bump it up to people who are qualified and empowered to consider how WMF should approach the situation. Would be nice to hear that the above report is inaccurate, unwarrantedly alarmist, or that the proposals will come to nothing in any case, but... -- -- Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]] __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Seeks Declaratory Relief in response to Legal Threats from Internet Brands
One possibility lies within their terms of use: If you're not interested in our goals, or if you agree with our goals but refuse to collaborate, compromise, reach consensushttp://wikitravel.org/en/Wikitravel:Consensusor make concessions with other Wikitravellers, we ask that you not use this Web service. If you continue to use the service against our wishes, we reserve the right to use whatever means available -- technical or legal -- to prevent you from disrupting our work together. The goals page (http://wikitravel.org/en/Wikitravel:Goals_and_non-goals) does imply the goal of making Wikitravel the travel guide, not just a travel guide. It is therefore possible to make a case against the fork-enthusiasts, and James in particular because he spent more time on Wikitravel preparing the fork than actually improving Wikitravel, that they're violating the Wikitravel terms of use in some fringe way, which is a form of breach of contract. I'm glad that WMF has decided to file a counter-suit and help James and Ryan defend their cases. Deryck On 12 September 2012 10:13, FT2 ft2.w...@gmail.com wrote: The more interesting legal line: 1) Does IB believe there is a legal basis that members of the public (in the absence of contractual obligation) cannot consider where they and their fellow hobbyists want to engage in a hobbyisyt activity, be it drinking beer, discussing philosophy, playing cards, or writing online information? 2) Does IB believe it is tortious to discuss or offer a service to members of the public, or for a member of the public to suggest to other potentially interested members of the public, that a different venue or provider of services might please them more than their present one? 3) Is IB aware of any litigation based upon that very novel theory? For example, - In the commercial world, does case law suggest it is tortious for Apple to either target PC users, or suggest PC users might prefer a Mac, or a store to state they price compare and are cheaper than another store, or a conference centre to state it has facilities better suited than a competitor for the needs of an inquirer and their peers? - In the social world does case law suggest it is tortious for a member of a tennis-playing peer group to suggest that in light of changed rules at the current venue a different venue might be better, or to propose to explore moving the tennis club to play at that venue? - Can you sue users of your bar (absent a contract) to force them to continue using your bar if you hear them planning to shoot pool elsewhere? This would be very odd, and novel. In short, IB's problem is it conceived WT's content, and the community writing WT, and the WT site/brand, as its possessions, but the first two are not. FT2 On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 8:45 AM, Ray Saintonge sainto...@telus.net wrote: On 09/11/12 4:29 AM, Thomas Morton wrote: No comment on whether they *can* prove this as I haven't seen the email in question, or the other evidence. But on the face of it there may be some case to answer. A response from the defendants may clear up the matter. Seeing as the intent is to replace IB's as the host of the main travel site wiki then I think IB is justified in defending their position if they believe they have been unfairly undermined. I do disapprove of doing it via lawsuits though (they could e.g. just import WT...). I heartily congratulate the two volunteers for being sued. Going through the courts with this will certainly be welcome because of the legal points that will be clarified. It will be interesting to see how they will show that someone has tortuously caused injury. (Para 1). Also from Para 1, how can a person violate a contract without being a party to it? Relief point 2(a) is interesting. In some cases a reference to Travelwiki may be necessary to fulfill the requirements of the CC-BY licence. Ray __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Seeks Declaratory Relief in response to Legal Threats from Internet Brands
On 12 September 2012 12:27, Thomas Morton morton.tho...@googlemail.comwrote: [...] fortunately courts do not rely on metaphors :) Tom Oh they do. That's precisely what case law is. Inaccurate metaphors are the reason that courts worldwide have a ridiculous view on what constitutes a copyright violation. Deryck ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia Travel Guide: Board statement
Just write Imported from Wikitravel and list the names of all page authors by scrubbing the Wikitravel page. Attribution given, problem solved! (okay, not the import practicality bit) On 7 September 2012 21:14, Nathan nawr...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 4:11 PM, emijrp emi...@gmail.com wrote: When we use 1911 Britannica texts, we only attribute to the encyclopedia, not its authors, so we can put This text comes from Wikitravel. Anyway, if we are going to use Wikitravel texts, writing a script to scrape just the usernames from histories is trivial http://wikitravel.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=Kaprunaction=history That's not really accurate, and not how Wikimedia projects expect to be credited either. Wikipedia or Wikitravel are not the authors of any project content (other than, for Wikitravel, that written by employees in the course of their employment). ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Seeks Declaratory Relief in response to Legal Threats from Internet Brands
In contrast to Tom's opinion, I believe that WMF has done the right thing - write the blog post in a way so as to create the biggest PR impact within the limits of factual accuracy; and link to the PDF and discussions for the sake of transparency. On 6 September 2012 15:12, Thomas Morton morton.tho...@googlemail.comwrote: Nonsense; the blog post is the PR release. So, yes, unfortunately I assert bad faith - hiding it in the brief is basically standard misdirection, in my experience. And for a movement dedicated (supposedly) to transparency it is very sad to see. Tom On 6 September 2012 15:03, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote: On 6 September 2012 14:53, Thomas Morton morton.tho...@googlemail.com wrote: Everyone (including in the recent board statement) seems to be avoiding mention that this new travel site has come about due to Wiki Travel admins having an interest in moving away from IB, or that it will be seeded with Wiki Travel content. It seems intellectually dishonest to leave this out of public statements. It doesn't materially affect the issue - but it could well be seen as underhand by the cynical mind (i.e. if someone as suspicious as me, approaching this for the first time, later found out this fact it would certainly be an aha moment). It certainly explicitly says just that all over the PDF. Did you read it, before asserting bad faith? The blog post is somewhat wordy, but it does correctly note The Wikimedia movement stands in the balance. I really don't think they're soft-pedaling this. - d. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia redefined -- typography and UX and such
Keyhole solution: The MediaWiki API and Wikipedia copyright and trademark licences allow Wikipedia Redefined to implement their ideas already. It will, of course, be marketed as an alternative browsing and editing device like AWB currently is. If there's enough uptake, it's never too late for WMF to buy them up :) On 5 September 2012 22:11, Andreas Kolbe jayen...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670648/a-promising-wikipedia-overhaul-designed-to-squash-info-overload#1 A follow-up article on the redesign. Excerpt: ---o0o--- So, will we all be able to enjoy this clear and concise online experience anytime soon? Kazlauskas put the odds at a discouraging, and definitive, “zero chance,” even though the response has been positive. “So far the reaction of people at Wikipedia--creators, not users, mind you--is they are not ready for anything radical,” he says (and the whole endeavor reminds me a bit of Wired’s similar attempt to updating Craigslist http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/17-09/ff_craigslist_makeover for a feature package a few years ago). Despite the unlikelihood of implementation, the team still sees an opportunity to leverage what they’ve done for an audience who would no doubt welcome the opportunity to tool around with the slick style. “We are already working on app which will use new interface to read Wikipedia,” Kazlauskas explains. “We’ll see how that goes and if anyone’s interested.” What say you, knowledge-seekers? ---o0o--- Personally, I would welcome third-party offers of alternative skins. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] conversations between WMF and non-English projects
Hire someone from the local Wikipedia community to do it. This can be integrated into the proposed language community and cultural translation WMF fellow's job description. MediaWiki feature decisions are gruesome chores. In small language project communities the active editors typically don't involve themselves with feature decisions until the feature is rolled out and breaks an entire Wikipedia with one commit. (eg. https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30392 ) By hiring the local editor you can make sure they can be bothered to involve themselves in feature decisions, and informing their local communities about it. Deryck On 30 July 2012 16:11, Oliver Keyes oke...@wikimedia.org wrote: As a very general point; working out how to include non-enlang editors in features decisions is right at the top of my list of wicked problems to handle. If anyone has any ideas, please shoot me an email :) On 30 July 2012 14:07, Béria Lima berial...@gmail.com wrote: John, when those meetings happened, what they said was we want to meet people from Brasil and when asked who they wanted to meet, the answer was anyone, doesn't matter how long you contribute or how much, we only want to talk with the Brazilian community,so no, none of those meetings were calls for top editors. They were called meetups, they were advertised that way, and they were treated that way. And I can aso say no WMF people contact any Portuguese editor in regarding to that (let's not say they travel there, but Skype and e-mail also exist, and weren't used) _ *Béria Lima* *Imagine um mundo onde é dada a qualquer pessoa a possibilidade de ter livre acesso ao somatório de todo o conhecimento humano. Ajude-nos a construir esse sonho. http://wikimedia.pt/Donativos* On 29 July 2012 19:33, John Vandenberg jay...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 5:09 AM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com wrote: On 29 July 2012 22:57, Nathan nawr...@gmail.com wrote: Can your masters degree in mathematics point out where in Wikimedia's statement it said all or implied anything other than having met some of Portuguese Wikipedia's top contributors? Not sure what the big deal is. The word all actually appeared in my email that Steven was replying to. He claimed that a majority of Portuguese Wikipedians being from Brazil contradicted my statement that not all (top) Portuguese Wikipedians are from Brazil. That was a straw man argument, due to all and majority not meaning the same thing. confirming.. there are residents of Portugal in http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaPT.htm#wikipedians but the 'majority' do appear to be Brazilian. I cant easily see if those top contributors attended the meetups at https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/03/22/brazil-meetups-march/ -- John Vandenberg ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l -- Oliver Keyes Community Liaison, Product Development Wikimedia Foundation ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Board appointments July 2012
See http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Talk:Resolution:Personal_image_hiding_feature Votes were initially cast on 11 July with Phoebe and Arne still on the board. Then Jimmy changed his vote on 16 July. On 25 July 2012 14:50, Béria Lima berial...@gmail.com wrote: If they got confirmed at July 11, (from the resolution: *This written Resolution will be effective as of July 11, 2012*) why are Phoebe and Arne voting in all other resolutions passed at the day?? And why they vote on this one: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Personal_Image_Hiding_Featurefrom July *16*? _ *Béria Lima* *Imagine um mundo onde é dada a qualquer pessoa a possibilidade de ter livre acesso ao somatório de todo o conhecimento humano. Ajude-nos a construir esse sonho. http://wikimedia.pt/Donativos* On 25 July 2012 03:12, Bishakha Datta bishakhada...@gmail.com wrote: Greetings, all. And apologies. This resolution approving the Wikimedia Chapters' selections to the Board of Trustees was unanimously approved, in-person, on July 11, 2012. It took much longer to publish than it should have due to a procedural issue. It has finally been published at: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Board_appointments_July_2012 Best Bishakha ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Apparently, Wikipedia is ugly
I think the clear moral of this story is that, as accommodating and reader-friendly you can be, you just can't make everyone happy. We should listen to all opinions and suggestions, but expect to decide most of the time that the suggestions are simply dumb or unhelpful. On 25 July 2012 16:22, Michel Vuijlsteke wikipe...@zog.org wrote: On 25 July 2012 15:57, Kim Bruning k...@bruning.xs4all.nl wrote: That's default web behaviour. If you want narrower columns, just make the browser window narrower. * If your answer is Some people don't know how to use a browser... well... ARGH Most people never resize their browser windows. If your answer is Most people are stupid and don't *deserve* a better reading experience… well, sum, yeah. There's that. * Else If your answer is Lets make it narrower for everyone (including us WIMPs who *do* know how to use Windows Icons Menus and Pointers) whether they want to or not. I KL YOU It's not about making it narrower. It's about making it *better*. Analogy: Let's reduce the amount of words in the lede Let's make the lede better. * Else If your answer is better DTPishlayout control in CSS, including some sane way to do proper columnated text: YES YES, 1000 TIMES YES! Column layout on scrolling web pages doesn't make a lot of sense. Some additional DTP-ish layout control in CSS would be nice, sure, but that's not the point. * Else If other: Ok, go ahead, I'm listening? :-) Well, see points raised earlier. Making Wikipedia easier to read and use is not just mollycoddling lazy users who should know better. Michel ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Apparently, Wikipedia is ugly
On 17 July 2012 00:46, Andreas Kolbe jayen...@gmail.com wrote: I honestly don't understand why it is taking so many years to develop a WYSIWYG editor, for example, or a new Commons search function. Honestly, people, if you want to create paid jobs, don't inflate the chapter structure, but employ and pay a few programmers and designers. On 25 July 2012 16:41, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote: I don't understand it, so it must be simple. This often turns out not to be the case. I realised both that it was an incredibly difficult problem, and that WMF is really serious about getting on with it, when they decided to hire James F. to take charge of the project. Deryck ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Geolocalization improvement proposal
On Jul 23, 2012 2:59 PM, Deryck Chan deryckc...@gmail.com wrote: On Jul 23, 2012 11:48 AM, aude aude.w...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 12:32 PM, Cristian Consonni kikkocrist...@gmail.com wrote: 2012/7/18 Cristian Consonni kikkocrist...@gmail.com: I know that the feature may be perceived as invasive so I would like that as many people as possible share their opinion on this and I hope that we can anyway start a discussion that will lead to an improved geolocalization system, whichever we found appropriate. I am sorry to insist on this issue but having received almost no answers in the past week I fear that I was not clear in my request. But I indeed have some questions, so I restate them here: * Using browser localization capabilities may be perceived as invasive. Would you like to use browser localization tool in Wikipedia? (yes/no, why?) Yes, I think it's invasive and Wikipedians can be quite sensitive about privacy. (even if it's all in the browser, with JavaScript, etc.) It may not be the case everywhere, but the IP based geolocation is good enough for purposes of geonotices. Doesn't work well enough in the UK for our purposes - there are threads and threads of debate on wikimediauk-l if you want to delve into that. The US is the exception, not the rule, in that lat-lon geolocation actually works to a useful accuracy. Deryck Right now, we pretty much opt everyone into the geonotices, though each can be dismissed or people can turn them off with css / js. I think people would freak out about the more precise geolocation and more would opt out. (e.g. whatever happened with Twitter's geolocation? as far as I see, people don't use it much) * Do you think the trade-off between bothering user asking to send position information and potential benefits (more accurately localized messages) is worth? Not worth it. Not enough benefit over the current approach. * Are you happy with the current system ? Yes. Obviously the UI for the geonotice tool can use improvement, and would be nice to see more geolocation functionality in CentralNotice. * Do you think a deeper study of the issue (i.e. a new survey, conducted on a broader sample and in a more scientifically precise way) would be useful or would help you make a more informed decision? No. Cheers, Katie * Have you any further proposal for the use of the system? Thank you, please also use the discussion page of http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Geonotice#Open_questions_.28feedback_welcome.29 for comments. Thank you, Cristian ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l -- Board member, Wikimedia District of Columbia http://wikimediadc.org @wikimediadc / @wikimania2012 ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Request for comment on global bans
Short answer as I understand it: Global blocks are the technical feature and refer to the accounts, the IPs and the software capability; global bans are the policy and refer to the people who are unwelcome. On 6 July 2012 10:44, ENWP Pine deyntest...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi Steven, Could you explain the distinctions between https://meta.wikimedia.org/** wiki/Global_locks https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_locks, https://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Global_blockshttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_blocks, and https://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Global_banshttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_bans? These look to me like they have some redundancy and some areas where they diverge. A chart which compares these three side-by-side would be helpful. Also, if Global Bans are decided by an RFC on Meta, that gives me pause. I can envision sockpuppets and meatpuppets attempting to sabotage the process and giving Meta checkusers more work to do, potentially much more work, especially if WP:DUCK behaviors need to be evaluated on multiple projects in multiple languages and/or coordination is needed with checkusers from projects in other languages. I'm a bit more supportive of the process at https://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Global_lockshttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_lockswhich seems to involve Stewards making the decision to take a global action based on multiple local projects taking local actions, rather than because there was a global community RFC at Meta. I agree with AFBorchert's comment at the RFC, Meta is working great for non-controversial project coordination, requests to stewards etc. But Meta is in no way prepared to serve as a battleground for a large-scale global ban discussion which would tend to revive previous debates at other projects. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm thinking that global locks and global blocks would be the best two of the three options to deal with a user who is problematic enough to be unwelcome on all wikis. Thanks, Pine __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] OFFICE actions and WMF image tagging
On 3 July 2012 19:08, Nathan nawr...@gmail.com wrote: I love it when people send e-mails to the public list, and purposefully refrain from actually discussing the actual events at issue. You have to read 3/4ths of the e-mail to get an idea that it's about someone being blocked, but you still don't know why, when, or by whom. That's precisely the crux of the problem: office actions often aren't properly explained and documented. No one who wasn't involved in the original office action decision really knows why, when, or by whose authority was the office action taken out. Following the yellow brick road, however, leads you to discover that this is about a global ban of user Beta_M, performed by the WMF as an office action seemingly in March of this year. Phillipe, Maggie Dennis, Jimbo and Sue have all weighed in on the issue, saying that they are unable to disclose specifics for this case but that the decision was made by Sue in consultation with the WMF general counsel. So, can you say what it is about this that made you bring it up now, in July? On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 1:52 PM, Theo10011 de10...@gmail.com wrote: Hi I would like to bring up an issue with office actions that was brought up elsewhere. There has been an issue on commons with User:Saibo tagging images from WMF staff. He disagreed with a particular office action taken by WMF staff. He gives an explanation with relevant diffs here[1]. The issue is rather complicated, and the specifics of it seem to be in secret. And that is mostly the problem here. He asked for an explanation is several places, but so far, the response from Philippe, and the rest of the staff has been that office actions are not explained - that is the crux of the entire offered explanation. Office actions have historically been used to blank or delete pages, the current listed policy on Meta and commons[3][4] make no mention of Global bans or blocking a user locally, or even globally. I have not known for office actions to extend to users and global bans, the last I know was a discussion going on with Steven on Meta about this. This might be its first usage. The proposed policy[5] and open RfC[6], have not concluded yet. The RfC received comments just today. Is that proposed policy already being used on commons? Office actions, have been limited to blanking pages, though sometimes contentious, they have been exercised with caution. It is a different ball-game when it goes from just blanking a page, to instantly blocking a user globally, and giving no explanation to community members who have known that user for years. if it is stretched to banning a 2 year old user with no explanation beyond, OFFICE ACTION it is going to do more than just raise eyebrows. I understand the specifics of the issue here, but banning users with absolutely no explanation can not be this widely accepted. Regards Theo [1]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Saibo/WMF [2] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Philippe_(WMF)#Why_did_you_block_a_user_without_a_reason.3F [3]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Office_actions [4]http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Office_actions [5]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_bans [6]http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Request_for_comment/Global_bans ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Language links and double language links on the Wikipedias
One major problem with double language links I've encountered before was that they confuse interwiki bots and therefore break things. Several articles on the Cantonese Wikipedia (zh-yue.wp) pertaining to local political and cultural issues in the Cantonese-speaking world have __NOBOT__ on them simply because they have topic splits that are significantly different from other Wikipedias, and bot interwiki manipulation need to be prevented to maintain topic correspondence between languages. In short: double language links are a possible idea, but only if we can upgrade the interwiki bots first. On 25 June 2012 11:29, Denny Vrandečić denny.vrande...@wikimedia.de wrote: Hi all, I ran some analysis last week, to get some numbers out of the Wikipedia language links. One type of reports that were generated was the list of all articles in the main namespaces of the Wikipedias that link to more than one article in another language edition of Wikipedia (so called double language links). There are not that many of them (about 19,000 in total), split by language, all available here: http://simia.net/languagelinks/ Double language links are not errors per se, but they contain a few nuisances * they lead to two links in the language links list that just look the same (you have to hover over them to see that they link to different languages), which is not really optimal from the user experience side * they are not saved in the langlinks table and thus are ignored in certain reports and also in the respective export I am not sure how to reach out to the respective Wikipedia communities, or if I should at all. Should I post to their respective version of the village pump? Remembering from the time I was active on the Croatian Wikipedia, I would have appreciated that list to check the entries. I reckoned the wikipedia-l list would be the right place, but that list looks rather dead. Cheers, Denny -- Project director Wikidata Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Obentrautstr. 72 | 10963 Berlin Tel. +49-30-219 158 26-0 | http://wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update on IPv6
On a separate note about IPv6: I just saw the first IPv6 anon entry appearing on my watchlist. It's exciting! Deryck On 13 June 2012 13:43, Anthony wikim...@inbox.org wrote: On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 6:39 PM, Kim Bruning k...@bruning.xs4all.nl wrote: I noticed that my current IPv6 address appears to be assigned dynamically by XS4ALL. I can probably get static if I choose it. But the dynamic assignment option does alleviate some people's privacy concerns, right? One particular concern, which isn't really much different from IPv4. And in something like 90% of browser configurations, you're already giving out a semi-static unique string with every request anyway. (see https://panopticlick.eff.org/) The bigger concern for WMF is the possibility for increased privacy. ps. We all know that everyone needs to switch to IPv6 eventually. Unless IPv7 or IPv8 comes out first. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] TomTom does a Britannica
I was skeptical with parent-like satnavs when they were first introduced back then; I still am skeptical today. What's inadequate about Read map*, pay attention to the road, use brain? Deryck *I'm a big fan of using the automatic route-planning features of map systems like Google Maps or even TomTom to help me plan routes. It's just that the assumption that a machine is correct about the real world is simply wrong. On 29 May 2012 12:32, Richard Symonds richard.symo...@wikimedia.org.uk wrote: Ha, makes for a good read. Thanks for sharing, David! Richard Symonds Wikimedia UK 0207 065 0992 Disclaimer viewable at http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia:Email_disclaimer Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk On 29 May 2012 12:28, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote: TomTom press release: http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/licensing/newsletter/201205/didyouknow/ OpenStreetMap volunteer response: http://www.systemed.net/blog/index.php?post=23 Flags TomTom quote-mining. - d. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] No internet censorship in Hong Kong
Not a problem. Many east and south-east Asian countries' citizens enjoy visa-free access to Hong Kong ( http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HK_Visa_Policy.png ). Visa-on-demand for business or leisure travel is also available for residents of most major cities in mainland China and all of Guangdong province (the province surrounding Hong Kong). Application needs to be done prior to travel, but rejections of such visa is unheard of in the last few years. I have relatives from Guangzhou who visit Hong Kong regularly on these visas and they've never had a problem :) That said, more complex procedures are needed for people from rural areas of mainland China to visit Hong Kong. With our working partnerships in the Meeting and Exhibition Office in the government, we endeavour to ensure that every registered attendee of Wikimania 2013 gets the visa assistance they need. There are special visa for residents of Taiwan to visit Hong Kong. Other than a few extraordinary cases involving high-profile controversial politicians, rejection of such visa is also unheard of. Deryck On 11 May 2012 22:53, Katie Chan k...@ktchan.info wrote: On 11/05/2012 21:16, Kim Bruning wrote: Right. My concern about Israel was that almost no one from the surrounding area would be able to visit. (This turned out to be accurate, but it was too late to fix). Will many people from surrounding countries be able to visit .hk without problems? If so, that should be ok then. That and I'm looking forward to visiting a place with sane border customs practices for a change ;-) While pretty much every countries from Europe, NS America Australasia are visa free according to the bid page, a lot of Asian and Middle Eastern countries would require visa. Even those places from where visa would be required, they should be okay I believe. Ironically, the only exception to that is if the person is from mainland China (PRC). KTC -- Experience is a good school but the fees are high. - Heinrich Heine __**_ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.**org Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-lhttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] No internet censorship in Hong Kong
Dear all, It has come to the attention of the Wikimania 2013 Hong Kong organizing team that there may be confusion over the situation of internet censorship in China and whether it affects Hong Kong. [1] We would like to clarify that, although Hong Kong has been nominally part of the People's Republic of China since 1997, the city-state of Hong Kong retains complete independence over civilian affairs. This, of course, means that internet regulation in Hong Kong is completely separate from that of Mainland China, and therefore internet censorship in Mainland China (the Great Firewall of China, [2]) does not apply to Hong Kong. We would like to reassure all Wikimedians, especially those considering to attend Wikimania 2013, that *Wikipedia has never been censored in Hong Kong*. Visitors to Hong Kong will enjoy, among other things such as exuberant local cuisine and efficient public transport, uncensored internet connection and unhindered access to Wikimedia projects. We hope to see you all at Wikimania 2012 in Washington DC and Wikimania 2013 in Hong Kong. With best wishes, Deryck Chan Global engagement coordinator Wikimania 2013 organizing team / Wikimedia Hong Kong [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-05-07/News_and_notes [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall (cross-posted to wikimania-l, internal-l and wikimedia-l) ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] No internet censorship in Hong Kong
Todd, I'm afraid you've mistaken. Hong Kong is fiscally independent from the rest of China, and not a single cent of the Hong Kong government's income is passed on to the PRC government in Beijing. Deryck On 10 May 2012 22:27, Todd Allen toddmal...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 2:39 PM, Deryck Chan deryckc...@wikimedia.hk wrote: Dear all, It has come to the attention of the Wikimania 2013 Hong Kong organizing team that there may be confusion over the situation of internet censorship in China and whether it affects Hong Kong. [1] We would like to clarify that, although Hong Kong has been nominally part of the People's Republic of China since 1997, the city-state of Hong Kong retains complete independence over civilian affairs. This, of course, means that internet regulation in Hong Kong is completely separate from that of Mainland China, and therefore internet censorship in Mainland China (the Great Firewall of China, [2]) does not apply to Hong Kong. We would like to reassure all Wikimedians, especially those considering to attend Wikimania 2013, that *Wikipedia has never been censored in Hong Kong*. Visitors to Hong Kong will enjoy, among other things such as exuberant local cuisine and efficient public transport, uncensored internet connection and unhindered access to Wikimedia projects. We hope to see you all at Wikimania 2012 in Washington DC and Wikimania 2013 in Hong Kong. With best wishes, Deryck Chan Global engagement coordinator Wikimania 2013 organizing team / Wikimedia Hong Kong [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-05-07/News_and_notes [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall (cross-posted to wikimania-l, internal-l and wikimedia-l) ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l It is still disgraceful that WMF, an organization supposedly devoted to free information, is implicitly supporting a regime that routinely and as a matter of policy refuses free information flow to its citizens. Hong Kong in particular may not do that, but Hong Kong is part of China, and China does. China will receive money from this event. Perhaps Google and the like are concerned only with profit and will do business in China regardless of ethical considerations, but WMF is a nonprofit dedicated to the exact opposite of China's policies, and should refuse to provide any monetary support for China until and unless China removes all censorship from its population. The fact that it has failed to do so, and is indeed implicitly supporting China, has me strongly reconsidering both my editorial and monetary support. -- Freedom is the right to say that 2+2=4. From this all else follows. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
