Re: [Wikimedia-l] Renewal of the Recognition to Wikisource Community User Group
Yes! Thank you Carlos and all the AffCom for the renewal. It's a good moment for Wikisource (as an international project), and we are already preparing a survey for the whole community, to get feedbacks and opinions for future projects. We are trying really hard to coordinate and build a committed, international community. Also, we are setting up and international conference in Austria, this fall. We hope that our efforts will be enough to build a strong and working collaboration with Chapters and the Wikimedia Foundation: unfortunately, Wikisource projects are really in need of serious development (especially in terms of software). The fun part is that cheap, low-hanging fruits are still to be achieved. My favourite example is that the Wikisource Proofreading contest produces every year thousands of proofread and validated pages, in just one week, with little organization needed (and almost no budget). [3] If you are interested in anything Wikisource-related, please join the mailing list [1]. Here some stats about the global project [2]. Thanks again! Aubrey [1] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikisource-l [2] http://tools.wmflabs.org/phetools/statistics.php [3] Look at the spikes at the end of 2013 and 2014: http://tools.wmflabs.org/phetools/graphs/Wikisource_-_validated_pages_per_day.png On Sun, Jun 21, 2015 at 10:30 AM, James Alexander jalexan...@wikimedia.org wrote: On Jun 21, 2015, at 00:52, Carlos M. Colina ma...@wikimedia.org.ve wrote: Dear all, On behalf of the Affiliations Committee, I am honoured to announce the renewal of the recognition of Wikisource Community User Group as a Wikimedia User Group. They have been working hard this past year and it is the Affiliations Committee's opinion that they meet the criteria for having their user group status renewed indefinitely, starting the date of publication of the resolution. Congratulations!!! Congrats! I absolutely love wikisource both as a reader and (more and more) as an editor. I'm excited to see the user group continuing to move forward. Sent from my iPhone James Alexander Legal and Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation +1 415-839-6885 x6716 ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Thousands of images on Wikipedia and Commons in danger, action needed
Are WMF and the European affiliates allowed to lobby regarding this issue? If so, what are they doing? Thanks, Pine On Jun 21, 2015 6:03 AM, Romaine Wiki romaine.w...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, This concerns all the editors and readers in the European Union and those in other European countries as well (copying is possible). *Subject* Copyrights reform in Europe going in the wrong direction, damaging Wikipedia. *What is going on?* In the European Parliament currently a proposal (amendment) is submitted that will restrict Freedom of Panorama in Europe. This means: you will be no longer allowed to upload images from modern buildings and works of public art on Commons and not allowed to use those images on Wikipedia. Also if Freedom of Panorama is only allowed for Non Commercial purposes only, this is a problem for Wikipedia! *Some details*? It concerns the amendment AM421 proposed by Cavada and passed in the JURI committee. *When is the voting about the amendment?* Thursday 9th July But we have one chance only! *What can we do about this?* - Forward this e-mail to anyone who should know about this. - Talk to the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in your country. Especially the members of the EPP, SD and ALDE groups. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_European_Parliament,_2014%E2%80%9319 - Communicate this issue to users in your local community. - Publicise a press release about this, write about it on your website/blog, talk to the media how this can damage Wikipedia, etc. - Use social media: Twitter, Facebook, and so on... - Twitter about it and retweet them. Suggestions: https://twitter.com/Wikimedia_BE/status/611000943908384768 - https://twitter.com/Wikimedia_BE/status/610984311853064193 - https://twitter.com/dimi_z/status/610792189631811584 - Twitter also directly to the Members of the European Parliament directly and ask them if they want to turn Wikipedia into black. Also there will be a CentralNotice banner to inform our readers. The CentralNotice banner will lead to a landing page, which is at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_in_Europe_in_2015 More information will be on: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_in_Europe_in_2015/Learn_more A FAQ will be on: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_in_Europe_in_2015/FAQ (or combined with the Learn more page) *How can I help with the campaign?* Go to: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_Panorama_2015/Proposed_messages and help with getting the texts of the banner, landing page and Learn more page ready. 1. Banner: * What should the text be of the title? * What should the text be of the underline? 2. Landing page: * What information should be on the landing page? * What Twitter/Facebook/Google+ links do we place? 3. Learn more page: * What information should be mentioned on the *Learn more* page? * What actions would we recommend readers to take? * Anything else? If the banner, landing page and Learn more page are ready, they can be translated on Tuesday 23 June to the various European languages. Also local Wikipedia pages can be created for it. *Where is the coordination?* https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_Panorama_2015 To have an overview it would be handy if you sign up for your country/area. Collect here also your actions like press releases, tweets, Facebook posts, etc. Those can be useful to read and to see where some action is missing or needed. *You need more information?* Read the Signpost article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2015-06-17/Three_weeks_to_save_freedom_of_panorama_in_Europe *Other suggestions?* Let us know! Add suggestions at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_Panorama_2015 Thanks! Romaine ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] Thousands of images on Wikipedia and Commons in danger, action needed
Hi all, This concerns all the editors and readers in the European Union and those in other European countries as well (copying is possible). *Subject* Copyrights reform in Europe going in the wrong direction, damaging Wikipedia. *What is going on?* In the European Parliament currently a proposal (amendment) is submitted that will restrict Freedom of Panorama in Europe. This means: you will be no longer allowed to upload images from modern buildings and works of public art on Commons and not allowed to use those images on Wikipedia. Also if Freedom of Panorama is only allowed for Non Commercial purposes only, this is a problem for Wikipedia! *Some details*? It concerns the amendment AM421 proposed by Cavada and passed in the JURI committee. *When is the voting about the amendment?* Thursday 9th July But we have one chance only! *What can we do about this?* - Forward this e-mail to anyone who should know about this. - Talk to the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in your country. Especially the members of the EPP, SD and ALDE groups. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_European_Parliament,_2014%E2%80%9319 - Communicate this issue to users in your local community. - Publicise a press release about this, write about it on your website/blog, talk to the media how this can damage Wikipedia, etc. - Use social media: Twitter, Facebook, and so on... - Twitter about it and retweet them. Suggestions: https://twitter.com/Wikimedia_BE/status/611000943908384768 - https://twitter.com/Wikimedia_BE/status/610984311853064193 - https://twitter.com/dimi_z/status/610792189631811584 - Twitter also directly to the Members of the European Parliament directly and ask them if they want to turn Wikipedia into black. Also there will be a CentralNotice banner to inform our readers. The CentralNotice banner will lead to a landing page, which is at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_in_Europe_in_2015 More information will be on: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_in_Europe_in_2015/Learn_more A FAQ will be on: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Panorama_in_Europe_in_2015/FAQ (or combined with the Learn more page) *How can I help with the campaign?* Go to: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_Panorama_2015/Proposed_messages and help with getting the texts of the banner, landing page and Learn more page ready. 1. Banner: * What should the text be of the title? * What should the text be of the underline? 2. Landing page: * What information should be on the landing page? * What Twitter/Facebook/Google+ links do we place? 3. Learn more page: * What information should be mentioned on the *Learn more* page? * What actions would we recommend readers to take? * Anything else? If the banner, landing page and Learn more page are ready, they can be translated on Tuesday 23 June to the various European languages. Also local Wikipedia pages can be created for it. *Where is the coordination?* https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_Panorama_2015 To have an overview it would be handy if you sign up for your country/area. Collect here also your actions like press releases, tweets, Facebook posts, etc. Those can be useful to read and to see where some action is missing or needed. *You need more information?* Read the Signpost article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2015-06-17/Three_weeks_to_save_freedom_of_panorama_in_Europe *Other suggestions?* Let us know! Add suggestions at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Freedom_of_Panorama_2015 Thanks! Romaine ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] Can Wikipedia Survive? op-ed
Hi. This op-ed by Andrew Lih appeared in today's New York Times. I'm sending it here in case anyone is interested in reading or discussing it. I enjoyed the piece; congrats to Mr. Lih on getting this published! MZMcBride http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/can-wikipedia-survive.html Can Wikipedia Survive? By Andrew Lih June 20, 2015 WASHINGTON — WIKIPEDIA has come a long way since it started in 2001. With around 70,000 volunteers editing in over 100 languages, it is by far the world’s most popular reference site. Its future is also uncertain. One of the biggest threats it faces is the rise of smartphones as the dominant personal computing device. A recent Pew Research Center report found that 39 of the top 50 news sites received more traffic from mobile devices than from desktop and laptop computers, sales of which have declined for years. This is a challenge for Wikipedia, which has always depended on contributors hunched over keyboards searching references, discussing changes and writing articles using a special markup code. Even before smartphones were widespread, studies consistently showed that these are daunting tasks for newcomers. “Not even our youngest and most computer-savvy participants accomplished these tasks with ease,” a 2009 user test concluded. The difficulty of bringing on new volunteers has resulted in seven straight years of declining editor participation. In 2005, during Wikipedia’s peak years, there were months when more than 60 editors were made administrator — a position with special privileges in editing the English-language edition. For the past year, it has sometimes struggled to promote even one per month. The pool of potential Wikipedia editors could dry up as the number of mobile users keeps growing; it’s simply too hard to manipulate complex code on a tiny screen. The nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which oversees Wikipedia’s operations but is not directly involved in content, is investigating solutions. Some ideas include touch-screen tools that would let Wikipedia editors sift through information and share content from their phones. What has not suffered is fund-raising. The foundation, based in San Francisco, has a budget of roughly $60 million. How to fairly distribute resources has long been a topic of debate. How much should go to regional chapters and affiliates, or to groups devoted to non-English languages? How much should stay in the foundation to develop software, create mobile apps and maintain infrastructure? These tensions run through the community. Last year the foundation took the unprecedented step of forcing the installation of new software on the German-language Wikipedia. The German editors had shown their independent streak by resisting an earlier update to the site’s user interface. Against the wishes of veteran editors, the foundation installed a new way to view multimedia content and then set up an Orwellian-sounding “superprotect” feature to block obstinate administrators from changing it back. The latest clash had repercussions in the election this year for seats to the Wikimedia Foundation’s board of trustees — the most influential positions that volunteers can hold. The election — a record 5,000 voters turned out, nearly three times the number from the previous election — was a rebuke to the status quo; all three incumbents up for re-election were defeated, replaced by critics of the superprotect measures. Two other members will leave the 10-member board at the end of this year. Meanwhile, the foundation’s new executive director, Lila Tretikov, has been hiring developers from the world of open-source technology, and their lack of experience with Wikipedia content has concerned some veterans. Could the pressure from mobile, and the internal tensions, tear Wikipedia apart? A world without it seems unimaginable, but consider the fate of other online communities. Founded in 1985, at the dawn of the Internet, the Well, the self-proclaimed “birthplace of the online community movement,” hosted an influential cast of dot-com luminaries on its electronic bulletin board discussion forums. By 1995, it was in steep decline, and today it is a shell of its former self. Blogging, celebrated a decade ago as pioneering an exciting new form of personal writing, has decreased significantly in the social-media age. These are existential challenges, but they can still be addressed. There is no other significant alternative to Wikipedia, and good will toward the project — a remarkable feat of altruism — could hardly be higher. If the foundation needed more donations, it could surely raise them. The real challenges for Wikipedia are to resolve the governance disputes — the tensions among foundation employees, longtime editors trying to protect their prerogatives, and new volunteers trying to break in — and to design a mobile-oriented editing environment. One board member, María Sefidari, warned that “some communities have become so
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Thousands of images on Wikipedia and Commons in danger, action needed
On Sun, Jun 21, 2015 at 8:47 AM, Pine W wiki.p...@gmail.com wrote: Are WMF and the European affiliates allowed to lobby regarding this issue? The WMF could lobby or support lobbying on such an issue. It is eligible to spend up to $1M per year tax-free on lobbying. But I don't believe it has directly engaged in anything of the sort, since the SOPA action. Sam ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] Renewal of the Recognition to Wikisource Community User Group
Dear all, On behalf of the Affiliations Committee, I am honoured to announce the renewal of the recognition of Wikisource Community User Group as a Wikimedia User Group. They have been working hard this past year and it is the Affiliations Committee's opinion that they meet the criteria for having their user group status renewed indefinitely, starting the date of publication of the resolution. Congratulations!!! 1: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Resolutions/Renewals/Wikisource_Community_User_Group_-_June_2015 -- *Jülüjain wane mmakat* ein kapülain tü alijunakalirua jee wayuukanairua junain ekerolaa alümüin supüshuwayale etijaanaka. Ayatashi waya junain. Carlos M. Colina Socio, A.C. Wikimedia Venezuela | RIF J-40129321-2 | www.wikimedia.org.ve http://wikimedia.org.ve Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Affiliations Committee Phone: +972-52-4869915 Twitter: @maor_x ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Renewal of the Recognition to Wikisource Community User Group
On Jun 21, 2015, at 00:52, Carlos M. Colina ma...@wikimedia.org.ve wrote: Dear all, On behalf of the Affiliations Committee, I am honoured to announce the renewal of the recognition of Wikisource Community User Group as a Wikimedia User Group. They have been working hard this past year and it is the Affiliations Committee's opinion that they meet the criteria for having their user group status renewed indefinitely, starting the date of publication of the resolution. Congratulations!!! Congrats! I absolutely love wikisource both as a reader and (more and more) as an editor. I'm excited to see the user group continuing to move forward. Sent from my iPhone James Alexander Legal and Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation +1 415-839-6885 x6716 ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
