Re: [Wikimedia-l] Funding the endowment

[Yaroslav Blanter]

I am often critical of WMF, but I can only support this decision. The idea
of creating of an environment was widely discussed in the community,
including this mailing list, and had a widespread support. WMF merely
follows the community wish in this case, and it is great to know that a
donor agreed to match this amount.

Cheers
Yaroslav

On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 12:58 PM, Vi to  wrote:

> Caveat: I support a definitely more frugal WMF so also the endowment.
>
> Try to read it from a different perspective. Before donating *lots* of
> money donor wants to be sure WMF will be truly committed in pursuing the
> plan of an endowment. Putting the same amount of money is a prove, for
> donors, WMF truly wants to create an endowment.
>
> Vito
>
> 2017-08-19 10:33 GMT+02:00 Rogol Domedonfors :
>
> > I was surprised to read the record
> > https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Approval_
> > of_Endowment_funding_(Fiscal_Year_2016-2017)_and_matching_$
> > 5_million_gift_from_Peter_Baldwin_and_Lisbet_Rausing
> > of the decision to place $5M into the endowment.  After the anouncement
> by
> > Lisa Gruwell on this list
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-
> > December/085712.html
> > there was a discussion of what might be done with the funds raised, and a
> > number of suggestions were made for how these funds could be used to
> > directly support the work of the volunteers who contribute the content to
> > the projects, such as
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2017-
> January/085835.html
> > .
> >
> > It is disappointing that the Board has chosen not to fund support of this
> > kind.  What is more than disappointing, but positively disturbing is that
> > the decision was made in the light of an offer from a donor to match the
> > sum put into the endowment.  I suggest that this was not a fair offer,
> and
> > the Board's decision was the wrong one.  Effectively this donor has said
> to
> > the Board that they will pay the Foundation not to support the
> volunteers,
> > and the Board has agreed to follow their wishes.  If the donor believes
> so
> > strongly in the necessity to build up the mission by means of an
> Endowment,
> > why did they not simply gift the money directly into the endowment
> without
> > conditions?  Equally, if the donor believes so strongly that money should
> > not be spent supporting the volunteer community, then I challenge them to
> > say so explicitly in public and to defend their position.
> >
> > I call on the Board to explain to the community of volunteers precisely
> why
> > they have chosen not to offer that support to the community and to state
> > that they will not allow future decisions of this nature to be influenced
> > by the wishes of one donor, however generous.
> >
> > "Rogol"
> > ___
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/
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> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > 
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[Wikimedia-l] Today's eclipse and Wikimedia Commons

[Melody Kramer]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to let you know about some experimental outreach we have planned
for today's solar eclipse, which will be partially visible from parts of
the Americas, as well as spots in Asia, Africa, and Western Europe.

We put together a blog post
 [1] and infographic

[2]
to encourage photographers of the upcoming solar eclipse
 [3]  to
upload them to Commons. This request was placed on the Village Pump [4]
last week.

We're planning to publicize the blog post on our social media channels
today, and the only *specific* outreach we have planned is to encourage
people who post high-quality photos on those platforms to upload them to
Commons. We're deliberately limiting our push so we don't flood Commons
with poor-quality photos, and/or make life difficult for anyone.

Please feel free to use the infographic [2] to reach out to photographers,
and let us know if you have any comments or concerns with anything. We'd
love to work with you all on improvements as needed. This is definitely an
experiment, and your feedback will help us figure out if we'll want to
repeat it for other (perhaps more global) events. [5] We are also going to
collect some basic metrics and will send them out once we assess today's
experiment. Thank you!

Mel

[1] Featuring an interview with Wikimedia Commons user: Juliancolton, the
post details how to take eclipse photos and how to upload them to Commons
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/08/18/solar-eclipse/

[2] English:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:August_2017_solar_eclipse_-_upload_to_Commons_infographic.png
Spanish:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:August_2017_solar_eclipse_-_upload_to_Commons_infographic_-_es.png


[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_21,_2017

[4]
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump#Eclipse_photography

[5] If this works, we would love to help make templates or encourage
photographers to upload in the future. Please let us know what events might
work with this approach.



-- 
Melody Kramer 
Senior Audience Development Manager
Read a random featured article from Wikipedia!


mkra...@wikimedia.org
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Funding the endowment

[Rogol Domedonfors]

I'm know that the WMF has determined that it should have some form of
endowment,  The question is -- as is usual in question of this sort -- one
of balance: in this case, balance between current spending for the benefit
of the projects today, and accumulating capital for the benefit of the
projects tomorrow.  I am asking the Board to say why they decided to strike
that balance where they did -- given the obvious need for that support
right now -- and whether it is appropriate for large donors to apparently
influence that decision.

Reinhard

On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 3:02 PM, Yaroslav Blanter  wrote:

> I am often critical of WMF, but I can only support this decision. The idea
> of creating of an environment was widely discussed in the community,
> including this mailing list, and had a widespread support. WMF merely
> follows the community wish in this case, and it is great to know that a
> donor agreed to match this amount.
>
> Cheers
> Yaroslav
>
> On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 12:58 PM, Vi to  wrote:
>
> > Caveat: I support a definitely more frugal WMF so also the endowment.
> >
> > Try to read it from a different perspective. Before donating *lots* of
> > money donor wants to be sure WMF will be truly committed in pursuing the
> > plan of an endowment. Putting the same amount of money is a prove, for
> > donors, WMF truly wants to create an endowment.
> >
> > Vito
> >
> > 2017-08-19 10:33 GMT+02:00 Rogol Domedonfors :
> >
> > > I was surprised to read the record
> > > https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Approval_
> > > of_Endowment_funding_(Fiscal_Year_2016-2017)_and_matching_$
> > > 5_million_gift_from_Peter_Baldwin_and_Lisbet_Rausing
> > > of the decision to place $5M into the endowment.  After the anouncement
> > by
> > > Lisa Gruwell on this list
> > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-
> > > December/085712.html
> > > there was a discussion of what might be done with the funds raised,
> and a
> > > number of suggestions were made for how these funds could be used to
> > > directly support the work of the volunteers who contribute the content
> to
> > > the projects, such as
> > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2017-
> > January/085835.html
> > > .
> > >
> > > It is disappointing that the Board has chosen not to fund support of
> this
> > > kind.  What is more than disappointing, but positively disturbing is
> that
> > > the decision was made in the light of an offer from a donor to match
> the
> > > sum put into the endowment.  I suggest that this was not a fair offer,
> > and
> > > the Board's decision was the wrong one.  Effectively this donor has
> said
> > to
> > > the Board that they will pay the Foundation not to support the
> > volunteers,
> > > and the Board has agreed to follow their wishes.  If the donor believes
> > so
> > > strongly in the necessity to build up the mission by means of an
> > Endowment,
> > > why did they not simply gift the money directly into the endowment
> > without
> > > conditions?  Equally, if the donor believes so strongly that money
> should
> > > not be spent supporting the volunteer community, then I challenge them
> to
> > > say so explicitly in public and to defend their position.
> > >
> > > I call on the Board to explain to the community of volunteers precisely
> > why
> > > they have chosen not to offer that support to the community and to
> state
> > > that they will not allow future decisions of this nature to be
> influenced
> > > by the wishes of one donor, however generous.
> > >
> > > "Rogol"
> > > ___
> > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> > > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> > > wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > > 
> > ___
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> > wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > 
> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Windows 10 lockscreen images

[Rogol Domedonfors]

Perhaps a randomly chosen image every time the user logs in?

Rudigerd

On Sun, Aug 20, 2017 at 12:18 PM, Dariusz Jemielniak 
wrote:

> it does not hurt to ask - Microsoft does some CSR, after all, and using
> beautiful images under an open license is in their interest, too anyway. I
> would not be overly optimistic though.
>
> dj
>
> On Sun, Aug 20, 2017 at 12:07 PM, Tomasz Ganicz 
> wrote:
>
> > In some geographies this feature is used as an advertising tool - I guess
> > promoting of Commons via this feature could be quite costly.
> >
> > 2017-08-20 1:08 GMT+02:00 Andy Mabbett :
> >
> > > Those of you running Windows 10 will be familiar with the
> > > regularly-changing "lockscreen" images showing things like beautiful
> > > scenery and scenes from nature:
> > >
> > > https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/find-windows-spotlight-lock-
> > > screen-images-windows-10/
> > >
> > > The last one I just saw was labelled "copyright [photographer name]
> > > and Shutterstock"
> > >
> > > Is there someone at WMF, with contacts at Microsoft, who could
> > > persuade them to use some featured images from Commons, with a small
> > > piece of text explaining that people may upload their own images?
> > >
> > > That would seem to be a simple way to do a massive piece of outreach,
> > > to a new audience.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Andy Mabbett
> > > @pigsonthewing
> > > http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
> > >
> > > ___
> > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> > > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> > > wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > > 
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz
> > http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek
> > http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/
> > ___
> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
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> > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > 
>
>
>
>
> --
> __
>
>  prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak
> kierownik katedry MINDS (Management in Networked and Digital Societies)
> Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego
> http://NeRDS.kozminski.edu.pl  
>
> associate faculty w Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society,
> Harvard University
>
> Wyszła pierwsza na świecie etnografia Wikipedii "Common Knowledge? An
> Ethnography of Wikipedia" (2014, Stanford University
> Press) mojego autorstwa (Dorothy Lee Award 2015, Nagroda
> Naukowa Prezesa PAN 2016)  http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=24010
> ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Windows 10 lockscreen images

[Michael Maggs]

Rogol

Why the randomly-chosen names beginning with R?

Michael


Rogol Domedonfors wrote:

Perhaps a randomly chosen image every time the user logs in?

Rudigerd

On Sun, Aug 20, 2017 at 12:18 PM, Dariusz Jemielniak
wrote:


it does not hurt to ask - Microsoft does some CSR, after all, and using
beautiful images under an open license is in their interest, too anyway. I
would not be overly optimistic though.

dj

On Sun, Aug 20, 2017 at 12:07 PM, Tomasz Ganicz
wrote:


In some geographies this feature is used as an advertising tool - I guess
promoting of Commons via this feature could be quite costly.

2017-08-20 1:08 GMT+02:00 Andy Mabbett:


Those of you running Windows 10 will be familiar with the
regularly-changing "lockscreen" images showing things like beautiful
scenery and scenes from nature:

 https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/find-windows-spotlight-lock-
screen-images-windows-10/

The last one I just saw was labelled "copyright [photographer name]
and Shutterstock"

Is there someone at WMF, with contacts at Microsoft, who could
persuade them to use some featured images from Commons, with a small
piece of text explaining that people may upload their own images?

That would seem to be a simple way to do a massive piece of outreach,
to a new audience.

--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

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--
Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz
http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek
http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/
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--
__

  prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak
kierownik katedry MINDS (Management in Networked and Digital Societies)
Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego
http://NeRDS.kozminski.edu.pl

associate faculty w Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society,
Harvard University

Wyszła pierwsza na świecie etnografia Wikipedii "Common Knowledge? An
Ethnography of Wikipedia" (2014, Stanford University
Press) mojego autorstwa (Dorothy Lee Award 2015, Nagroda
Naukowa Prezesa PAN 2016)  http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=24010
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Funding the endowment

[James Heilman]

My personal position is it is critical to have a stable organization before
growing. The WMF has achieved greater stability over the last 1.5 years so
I think further growth is becoming again a good idea.

James

On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 7:48 PM, Rogol Domedonfors 
wrote:

> I'm know that the WMF has determined that it should have some form of
> endowment,  The question is -- as is usual in question of this sort -- one
> of balance: in this case, balance between current spending for the benefit
> of the projects today, and accumulating capital for the benefit of the
> projects tomorrow.  I am asking the Board to say why they decided to strike
> that balance where they did -- given the obvious need for that support
> right now -- and whether it is appropriate for large donors to apparently
> influence that decision.
>
> Reinhard
>
> On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 3:02 PM, Yaroslav Blanter 
> wrote:
>
> > I am often critical of WMF, but I can only support this decision. The
> idea
> > of creating of an environment was widely discussed in the community,
> > including this mailing list, and had a widespread support. WMF merely
> > follows the community wish in this case, and it is great to know that a
> > donor agreed to match this amount.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Yaroslav
> >
> > On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 12:58 PM, Vi to  wrote:
> >
> > > Caveat: I support a definitely more frugal WMF so also the endowment.
> > >
> > > Try to read it from a different perspective. Before donating *lots* of
> > > money donor wants to be sure WMF will be truly committed in pursuing
> the
> > > plan of an endowment. Putting the same amount of money is a prove, for
> > > donors, WMF truly wants to create an endowment.
> > >
> > > Vito
> > >
> > > 2017-08-19 10:33 GMT+02:00 Rogol Domedonfors :
> > >
> > > > I was surprised to read the record
> > > > https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Approval_
> > > > of_Endowment_funding_(Fiscal_Year_2016-2017)_and_matching_$
> > > > 5_million_gift_from_Peter_Baldwin_and_Lisbet_Rausing
> > > > of the decision to place $5M into the endowment.  After the
> anouncement
> > > by
> > > > Lisa Gruwell on this list
> > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-
> > > > December/085712.html
> > > > there was a discussion of what might be done with the funds raised,
> > and a
> > > > number of suggestions were made for how these funds could be used to
> > > > directly support the work of the volunteers who contribute the
> content
> > to
> > > > the projects, such as
> > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2017-
> > > January/085835.html
> > > > .
> > > >
> > > > It is disappointing that the Board has chosen not to fund support of
> > this
> > > > kind.  What is more than disappointing, but positively disturbing is
> > that
> > > > the decision was made in the light of an offer from a donor to match
> > the
> > > > sum put into the endowment.  I suggest that this was not a fair
> offer,
> > > and
> > > > the Board's decision was the wrong one.  Effectively this donor has
> > said
> > > to
> > > > the Board that they will pay the Foundation not to support the
> > > volunteers,
> > > > and the Board has agreed to follow their wishes.  If the donor
> believes
> > > so
> > > > strongly in the necessity to build up the mission by means of an
> > > Endowment,
> > > > why did they not simply gift the money directly into the endowment
> > > without
> > > > conditions?  Equally, if the donor believes so strongly that money
> > should
> > > > not be spent supporting the volunteer community, then I challenge
> them
> > to
> > > > say so explicitly in public and to defend their position.
> > > >
> > > > I call on the Board to explain to the community of volunteers
> precisely
> > > why
> > > > they have chosen not to offer that support to the community and to
> > state
> > > > that they will not allow future decisions of this nature to be
> > influenced
> > > > by the wishes of one donor, however generous.
> > > >
> > > > "Rogol"
> > > > ___
> > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> > > > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/
> > > > wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/
> mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > > > 
> > > ___
> > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/
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> > > 
> > >
> > ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Funding the endowment

[Strainu]

Both stability and growth come at a cost - is that cost acceptable?
The way I understand it from the mid-year fundrasing report in
January, the $5M were on top of the fundraising target, basically
gathered by exposing our readers to more banners than needed. My
opinion is that's a very high price to pay and that there should be
more stringent rules regarding continuing fundraisers after their
target has been reached (which in turn will probably require even
better planning, including for the Endowment).

As to whether some donor influenced the Board's decision, that
statement looks really far-fetched based on available information. It
sounds more like an opportunity that either appeared or was created
after the $5M target had been set.

Strainu


2017-08-21 23:49 GMT+03:00 James Heilman :
> My personal position is it is critical to have a stable organization before
> growing. The WMF has achieved greater stability over the last 1.5 years so
> I think further growth is becoming again a good idea.
>
> James
>
> On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 7:48 PM, Rogol Domedonfors 
> wrote:
>
>> I'm know that the WMF has determined that it should have some form of
>> endowment,  The question is -- as is usual in question of this sort -- one
>> of balance: in this case, balance between current spending for the benefit
>> of the projects today, and accumulating capital for the benefit of the
>> projects tomorrow.  I am asking the Board to say why they decided to strike
>> that balance where they did -- given the obvious need for that support
>> right now -- and whether it is appropriate for large donors to apparently
>> influence that decision.
>>
>> Reinhard
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 3:02 PM, Yaroslav Blanter 
>> wrote:
>>
>> > I am often critical of WMF, but I can only support this decision. The
>> idea
>> > of creating of an environment was widely discussed in the community,
>> > including this mailing list, and had a widespread support. WMF merely
>> > follows the community wish in this case, and it is great to know that a
>> > donor agreed to match this amount.
>> >
>> > Cheers
>> > Yaroslav
>> >
>> > On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 12:58 PM, Vi to  wrote:
>> >
>> > > Caveat: I support a definitely more frugal WMF so also the endowment.
>> > >
>> > > Try to read it from a different perspective. Before donating *lots* of
>> > > money donor wants to be sure WMF will be truly committed in pursuing
>> the
>> > > plan of an endowment. Putting the same amount of money is a prove, for
>> > > donors, WMF truly wants to create an endowment.
>> > >
>> > > Vito
>> > >
>> > > 2017-08-19 10:33 GMT+02:00 Rogol Domedonfors :
>> > >
>> > > > I was surprised to read the record
>> > > > https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Approval_
>> > > > of_Endowment_funding_(Fiscal_Year_2016-2017)_and_matching_$
>> > > > 5_million_gift_from_Peter_Baldwin_and_Lisbet_Rausing
>> > > > of the decision to place $5M into the endowment.  After the
>> anouncement
>> > > by
>> > > > Lisa Gruwell on this list
>> > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-
>> > > > December/085712.html
>> > > > there was a discussion of what might be done with the funds raised,
>> > and a
>> > > > number of suggestions were made for how these funds could be used to
>> > > > directly support the work of the volunteers who contribute the
>> content
>> > to
>> > > > the projects, such as
>> > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2017-
>> > > January/085835.html
>> > > > .
>> > > >
>> > > > It is disappointing that the Board has chosen not to fund support of
>> > this
>> > > > kind.  What is more than disappointing, but positively disturbing is
>> > that
>> > > > the decision was made in the light of an offer from a donor to match
>> > the
>> > > > sum put into the endowment.  I suggest that this was not a fair
>> offer,
>> > > and
>> > > > the Board's decision was the wrong one.  Effectively this donor has
>> > said
>> > > to
>> > > > the Board that they will pay the Foundation not to support the
>> > > volunteers,
>> > > > and the Board has agreed to follow their wishes.  If the donor
>> believes
>> > > so
>> > > > strongly in the necessity to build up the mission by means of an
>> > > Endowment,
>> > > > why did they not simply gift the money directly into the endowment
>> > > without
>> > > > conditions?  Equally, if the donor believes so strongly that money
>> > should
>> > > > not be spent supporting the volunteer community, then I challenge
>> them
>> > to
>> > > > say so explicitly in public and to defend their position.
>> > > >
>> > > > I call on the Board to explain to the community of volunteers
>> precisely
>> > > why
>> > > > they have chosen not to offer that support to the community and to
>> > state
>> > > > that they will not allow future decisions of this nature to be
>> > influenced
>> > > > by the wishes of one donor, however generous.
>> > > >
>> > > > "Rogol"
>> > > > ___
>> > >

[Wikimedia-l] Research Showcase Wednesday, August 23, 2017 at 11:30 AM (PST) 18:30 UTC

[Sarah R]

Hi Everyone,

The next Research Showcase will be live-streamed this Wednesday, August 23,
2017 at 11:30 AM (PST) 18:30 UTC.

YouTube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa0Ztv2iF4w

As usual, you can join the conversation on IRC at #wikimedia-research. And,
you can watch our past research showcases here
.

This month's presentation:

Sneha Narayan (Northwestern University)

*The Wikipedia Adventure: Field Evaluation of an Interactive Tutorial for
New Users*

Integrating new users into a community with complex norms presents a
challenge for peer production projects like Wikipedia. We present The
Wikipedia Adventure (TWA): an interactive tutorial that offers a structured
and gamified introduction to Wikipedia. In addition to describing the
design of the system, we present two empirical evaluations. First, we
report on a survey of users, who responded very positively to the tutorial.
Second, we report results from a large-scale invitation-based field
experiment that tests whether using TWA increased newcomers' subsequent
contributions to Wikipedia. We find no effect of either using the tutorial
or of being invited to do so over a period of 180 days. We conclude that
TWA produces a positive socialization experience for those who choose to
use it, but that it does not alter patterns of newcomer activity. We
reflect on the implications of these mixed results for the evaluation of
similar social computing systems.

Andrew Su (Scripps Research Institute)

*The Gene Wiki: Using Wikipedia and Wikidata to organize biomedical
knowledge*

The Gene Wiki project began in 2007 with the goal of creating a
collaboratively-written, community-reviewed, and continuously-updated
review article for every human gene within Wikipedia.  In 2013, shortly
after the creation of the Wikidata project, the project expanded to include
the organization and integration of structured biomedical data.  This talk
will focus on our current and future work, including efforts to encourage
contributions from biomedical domain experts, to build custom applications
that use Wikidata as the back-end knowledge base, and to promote
CC0-licensing among biomedical knowledge resources.  Comments, feedback and
contributions are welcome at https://github.com/SuLab/genewikicentral and
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/WD:MB.

Kindly,

Sarah R. Rodlund
Senior Project Coordinator-Product & Technology, Wikimedia Foundation
srodl...@wikimedia.org
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[Wikimedia-l] Affiliation Committe candidates - participation required

[Lucas Teles]

Hi.

This message is only to advertise the ongoing candidacies for the new
affiliation committee members.

Everyone is invited to participate with questions and to support or not any
candidate in this page:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee/Candidates/June_2017

I am posting here as I haven't seen any message related and the requests
could have a better community engagement IMO. I hope it is not duplicated.

Regards,

Teles




-- 
Steward for Wikimedia projects. Administrator at Portuguese Wikipedia and
Wikimedia Commons.
Sent from mobile. Please, excuse my brevity.

+55 (71) 99707 6409
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Canmore database and claims of copyright on public domain works

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
This exchange of views is limited to the views being in a narrow way
connected to what is originally posted. When a diametrically opposed view
is expressed it is easily confused with subject high jacking. Arguably this
thread has gone of the rails already and in direct reply no to your point,
it is not a free exchange of views.
Thanks,
  GerardM

On 20 August 2017 at 08:35, Rogol Domedonfors  wrote:

> Peter
>
> ... and people who disagree post comments to that effect in a free, fair
> and frank exchange of views.  So all is well.
>
> Reynard
>
> On Sun, Aug 20, 2017 at 5:18 AM, Peter Southwood <
> peter.southw...@telkomsa.net> wrote:
>
> > Funny thing,
> > That is what I would have said of Fae as well
> > Cheers,
> > Peter
> >
> > -Original Message-
> > From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On
> > Behalf Of Rogol Domedonfors
> > Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2017 11:07 PM
> > To: Wikimedia Mailing List
> > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Canmore database and claims of copyright on
> > public domain works
> >
> > Peter,
> > Thanks for the compliment.  I just call them as I see them.
> > Richard
> >
> > On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 9:42 PM, Peter Southwood <
> > peter.southw...@telkomsa.net> wrote:
> >
> > > Rogol,
> > > Not everyone is blessed with your easy-going tolerance and automatic
> > > assumption of good faith.
> > > Cheers,
> > > Peter
> > >
> > > -Original Message-
> > > From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On
> > > Behalf Of Rogol Domedonfors
> > > Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2017 10:16 PM
> > > To: Wikimedia Mailing List
> > > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Canmore database and claims of copyright on
> > > public domain works
> > >
> > > Fae,
> > >
> > > You seem rather too quick to leap to the conclusion that anyone who
> > > disagrees with you on intellectual property has an imperfect
> > > understanding or is consciously committing "copyfraud".  Have you made
> > > any attempts whatsoever to engage with the organisation in question to
> > > find what their position is and consider whether it might have some
> > > merits?  Have you considered that if you were to approach them in a
> > > less aggressive fashion, they might be happy to work with you or others
> > to release their collection?
> > >
> > > Alternatively, if you are absolutely confident that your understanding
> > > of the law is correct and theirs is not, then you are at no risk of
> > > being successfully prosecuted, so what is your problem?
> > >
> > > "Rogol"
> > >
> > > On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 4:31 PM, Fæ  wrote:
> > >
> > > > The Canmore database, https://canmore.org.uk, describes itself as
> > > > the "online catalogue of the National Record of the Historic
> > Environment.
> > > > It holds detailed information and archive images for more than
> > > > 300,000 places in Scotland." Canmore is part of Historic Environment
> > > > Scotland (HES).
> > > >
> > > > I'm aware that Wikimedia UK has helped to fund several projects in
> > > > Scotland, so there is a network of contacts that could help take a
> > > > look at the problematic claims of copyright. Perhaps someone can
> > > > offer to take action to help Historic Environment Scotland reach a
> > > > better understanding of copyright and avoid basic copyfraud errors?
> > > >
> > > > In theory this could be a marvelous reference resource for open
> > > > knowledge about the history of Scotland, but the online catalogue
> > > > seems more like a retail outlet geared to maximise the cash to be
> > > > made from selling archive images, many of which are obviously public
> > > > domain. There are two basic problems:
> > > > * The online archive is limited to 800px width images, with website
> > > > users directed to buy higher resolutions which are claimed to be a
> > > > minimum of 3,000 pixels wide.
> > > > * Regardless of age, source or photographer all images are claimed
> > > > as copyright with the conditions including "No permission is given
> > > > for any commercial use, distribution or reproduction in these terms.
> > > > Please use the BUY option for these purposes and separate licences
> > > > will be provided."
> > > >
> > > > I would be delighted to release some of the public domain
> > > > collections from Canmore at high resolution to Wikimedia Commons,
> > > > but at the moment it's all locked down. In fact were I to try to
> > > > release the disappointingly small 800px versions of public domain
> > > > images, even using the "required" attribution to RCAHMS (which no
> > > > longer exists), I would be at personal risk of prosecution by HES
> > > > based on the site terms and conditions. See examples 1 and 2.
> > > >
> > > > Examples:
> > > > 1. Photograph of Hanover Street taken in 1870 by an unknown
> > > > photographer, making it likely to have been public domain from 1898.
> > > > https://canmore.org.uk/collection/466213
> > > > 2. Over 950 photographs taken by Francis M Christal, who died in

Re: [Wikimedia-l] New feature: LoginNotify

[James Heilman]

Once again great stuff from the community tech team. Many thanks :-)

James

On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 2:46 AM, Gnangarra  wrote:

> thats a great outcome, thanks to those that have made this happen
>
> On 19 August 2017 at 07:19, Todd Allen  wrote:
>
> > Great to see this, thanks!
> >
> > Todd
> >
> > On Aug 18, 2017 5:15 PM, "Danny Horn"  wrote:
> >
> > > Hi everyone,
> > >
> > > The Community Tech team has released a new security feature this week:
> > > LoginNotify, which gives you a notification when someone tries and
> fails
> > to
> > > log in to your account. This project was wish #7 on the 2016 Community
> > > Wishlist Survey [1].
> > >
> > > Here’s how it works:
> > >
> > > If someone tries and fails to log in to your account from a device or
> an
> > IP
> > > address that hasn’t logged into your account recently, then you’ll get
> an
> > > on-wiki notification at the first attempt. For a familiar device or IP
> > > address, you’ll get an on-wiki notification after 5 failed logins. This
> > is
> > > on by default, but you can turn it off in your preferences; you can
> also
> > > turn on email notifications.
> > >
> > > It’s also possible to turn on email notifications when there’s a
> > successful
> > > login from a new device or IP address. This is turned off by default,
> but
> > > it might be useful for admins or other functionaries who are concerned
> > that
> > > their user rights could be misused. This means that you’ll get a
> > > notification every time you log in from a new device or IP address.
> > >
> > > We want to take this opportunity to thank Brian Wolff for all his work
> in
> > > writing the underlying extension for this feature.
> > >
> > > There’s more information on the feature on the Community Tech project
> > page
> > > on Meta, and please feel free to post questions on the talk page:
> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Tech/LoginNotify
> > >
> > > PS: If you’re wondering what happened to the Syntax Highlighting beta
> > > feature that we deployed a couple weeks ago and then had to roll back:
> > > it’ll be back soon!
> > >
> > > [1]: 2016 Community Wishlist Survey:
> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2016_Community_Wishlist_Survey/Results
> > > ___
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> > > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > > 
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> > 
> >
>
>
>
> --
> GN.
> President Wikimedia Australia
> WMAU: http://www.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/User:Gnangarra
> Photo Gallery: http://gnangarra.redbubble.com
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>



-- 
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian

The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
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